Why are we attracted to big egos?

26. March 2008 by HealingMindN.

Because we believe big egos and success go hand in hand - at least, this is the western paradigm.

There’s an ego attached to everyone including every authority figure. Each of those authority figures has a much bigger ego than anyone around him; this includes medical doctors.

Medical doctors can have egos that are beyond any professional wrestler. Pro wrestlers don’t hire gunmen to enforce their dogma on innocent people. Yet, this is the way it is, now; medical doctors have such huge egos because of their status that they have children taken away and parents arrested if we don’t agree with the medical dogma.

Please read the article, “Why Doctors are Idiots: 150 Years of Disastrous Advice on Children’s Health,” to see how those huge egos have done more harm than good to the American Republic. Read it carefully. 150 years later, those egos haven’t changed because the religion preached in medical schools HAS; that religion is now being taught by multi-national pharmaceutical companies, the richest corporations - and the biggest egos on the planet.

Huge egos are capable of spreading poison like wild fire, but remember: The American Republic has been trained to believe that big egos and success go hand in hand. The American Republic believes in that sensational sales pitch. This is how poison is spread.

Please visit Poison Spectrum if you believe that a loved one is suffering the slings and arrows of conventional medicine.

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Bioenergetic Pathogenesis perturbation of gene expression

24. March 2008 by HealingMindN.

Perturbation of gene expression of the chromatin remodeling pathway in premature newborns at risk for bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Background

One-third to one-half of all infants born before the 28th week of gestation develop bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Inflammatory regulators appear to be involved in the pathogenesis of BPD, possibly beginning in fetal life. To evaluate the feasibility of using expression profiling in umbilical cord tissue to discover molecular signatures for developmental staging and for determining risk of BPD, we conducted a cross-sectional study of infants born at less than 28 weeks of gestation (n = 54). Sections of umbilical cord were obtained at birth from 20 infants who later developed BPD and from 34 of their peers who did not develop BPD.

Results

Umbilical cord expression profiles at birth exhibited systematic differences in bioenergetic pathways with respect to gestational age. Infants who subsequently developed BPD had distinct signatures involving chromatin remodeling and histone acetylation pathways, which have previously been implicated in several adult onset lung diseases. These findings are consistent with prior work on inflammatory processes and bioenergetics in prematurity.

Conclusion

This study of gene expression of the newborn umbilical cord implicates the chromatin remodeling pathways in those premature infants who subsequently develop BPD. Larger sample sizes will be required to generate prognostic markers from umbilical cord profiles.

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American Food Safety Quiz

24. March 2008 by HealingMindN.

Drug-laced corn flakes for breakfast? Fried chicken made from poultry raised on penicillin for dinner? Do we really know what we’re eating? Has the way America produces food gotten out of control?

Biotech companies are planting fields of corn, rice, and other food crops genetically engineered to grow drugs, hormones, plastics, and chemicals. Antibiotics are being fed to food animals that are not sick. These practices can have devastating consequences for our health, environment, and economy.

How much do you know about the foods that line your kitchen shelves? Click here to take our short quiz.

It will take strong government oversight and active citizen participation to keep our food safe. It will take the expertise, experience, and leadership of the Union of Concerned Scientists. And it will take the help of people like you.

UCS is spearheading the charge to:

• Increase public awareness about practices that threaten our health and the safety of our food;

• Ban the genetic engineering of food crops grown outdoors for the production of pharmaceutical and industrial chemicals;

• Pass legislation prohibiting the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics in animal agriculture;

• Promote practical, modern, ways of producing food that maximize productivity and produce healthier animals and meat—all without damaging our soil, our water, and our air; and

• Fight for your right to know what’s in the foods you’re eating by improving food labeling laws.

You can help our efforts by taking our short quiz and testing your own food knowledge. Then help us raise awareness about these issues by passing the quiz along to your friends and family. Together, we can really know what we’re eating—and be confident that it’s safe for us, our families, and for our planet.

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Do You Like “Green” Eggs?

15. March 2008 by HealingMindN.

(Guidelines for purchasing “organic,” “cage-free,” “free range,” “all natural” eggs)
March 2008
Read this issue of Greentips online

Most of the eggs we consume do not come from hens roaming freely around a barnyard but from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), in which thousands of chickens may be kept inside a single henhouse, in cages stacked several rows high. The resulting layers of accumulated manure generate high levels of air pollutants such as ammonia that can affect the health of farm workers and local residents.

Various claims found on egg packaging imply that a particular supplier’s eggs are produced under more humane or environmentally safe conditions, but this may or may not be true. Here’s what you should know when you see such claims in the grocery store.

Labels Backed by Independent Certification

Only one label in the marketplace establishes government-backed standards that are verified by independent, accredited certifiers:

• Certified organic. Eggs that are certified organic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) were laid by hens raised according to stringent standards. For example, they must be fed with 100 percent organic feed that cannot contain animal by-products, and cannot be fed or treated with antibiotics. (Sick animals must be treated but then diverted from the organic food stream). Organic standards also require that hens have access to the outdoors, but do not currently guarantee that the chickens actually went outside.

General Claims

Egg producers are accountable to the USDA for the truth of claims on their labels, but the claims can be confusing and are not independently verified.

• Free-range and free-roam. Although these terms suggest that the laying hens spend their days outside, many chickens marketed this way only have the opportunity to go outdoors but do not actually do so.
  
• Cage-free. This claim generally means that chickens are uncaged inside henhouses. There is no requirement that they have access to the outdoors.
  
• Natural. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), this claim means only that products are minimally processed and contain no artificial ingredients. Most fresh animal products meet these criteria regardless of how they are produced. Some producers have used the term “natural” to refer to how their animals are raised, but the producers are the only ones accountable for the truth of such claims.
  
• Pasture-raised. Chickens cannot survive on a grass-based diet alone, but supplementing grain-based feed with pasture grazing reduces the air and water pollution associated with CAFOs and produces eggs with a higher level of certain fats that may be beneficial for human health. Though the USDA recently approved a government-backed label for grass-fed beef (which will appear in stores later this year), it has not established such a label for poultry, dairy, eggs, or other animal products.

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International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis

14. March 2008 by HealingMindN.

Bioenergetics is a way of understanding personality in terms of the body and its energetic processes. Bioenergetic Analysis is a form of therapy that combines work with the body and the mind to help people resolve their emotional problems and realize more of their potential for pleasure and joy in living. The International Institute for Bioenergetic Analysis (IIBA) is a membership organization with the responsibility of certifying Bioenergetic Analysis practitioners, providing continuing education for the profession, and advancing the Art and Science of Bioenergetic Analysis.

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Similar mtDNA coupling efficiencies for haplogroups H and T

10. March 2008 by HealingMindN.

Experimental assessment of bioenergetic differences caused by the common European mitochondrial DNA haplogroups H and T

Taku Amoa, Nagendra Yadavab, Richard Ohb, David G. Nichollsb and Martin D. Brand

Abstract

Studies of both survival after sepsis and sperm motility in human populations have shown significant associations with common European mitochondrial DNA haplogroups, and have led to proposals that mitochondria bearing haplogroup H have different bioenergetic capacities than those bearing haplogroup T. However, the validity of such associations assumes that there are no non-random influences of nuclear genes or other factors. Here, we removed the effect of any differences in nuclear genes by constructing transmitochondrial cybrids harbouring mitochondria with either haplogroup H or haplogroup T in cultured A549 human lung carcinoma cells with identical nuclear backgrounds. We compared the bioenergetic capacities and coupling efficiencies of mitochondria isolated from these cells, and of mitochondria retained within the cells, as a critical experimental test of the hypothesis that these haplogroups affect mitochondrial bioenergetics. We found that there were no functionally-important bioenergetic differences between mitochondria bearing these haplogroups, using either isolated mitochondria or mitochondria within cells.

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A Novel ADP-forming Succinyl-CoA Synthetase in Thermococcus kodakaraensis Structurally Related to the Archaeal Nucleoside Diphosphate-forming Acetyl-CoA Synthetases

2. March 2008 by HealingMindN.

Originally published In Press as doi:10.1074/jbc.M702694200 on July 19, 2007 J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 282, Issue 37, 26963-26970, September 14, 2007

Kenichi Shikata, Toshiaki Fukui, Haruyuki Atomi, and Tadayuki Imanaka¹

From the Department of Synthetic Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Katsura, Nishikyo-ku, Kyoto 615-8510, Japan

We have identified and characterized a structurally novel succinyl-CoA synthetase (SCS) from the hyperthermophilic Archaea Thermococcus kodakaraensis. The presence of an SCS completes the metabolic pathway from glutamate to succinate in Thermococcales, which had not been clarified because of the absence of classical SCS homologs on their genomes.

The SCS from T. kodakaraensis (SCS_Tk) is a heteromeric enzyme (₂₂) encoded by TK1880 (-subunit) and TK0943 (-subunit). Although both SCS_Tk and classical SCSs harbor the five domains present in enzymes of the acyl-CoA synthetase (nucleoside diphosphate-forming) superfamily, the domain order and distribution among subunits in SCS_Tk (-subunit, domains 1-2-5; -subunit, domains 3-4) are distinct from those of classical SCSs (-subunit, domains 1-2; -subunit, domains 3-4-5) and instead resemble the acetyl-CoA synthetases from Pyrococcus furiosus (ACSs I_Pf and II_Pf).

Comparison of the four Thermococcales genomes revealed that each strain harbors five - and two -subunit homologs. Sequence similarity suggests that the -subunit of SCS_Tk is also a component of the presumed ACS II from T. kodakaraensis (ACS II_Tk).

We coexpressed the /-genes of SCS_Tk (TK1880/TK0943) and of ACS II_Tk (TK0139/TK0943). ACS II_Tk recognizes a broad range of hydrophobic/aromatic acid compounds, as is the case with ACS II_Pf, whereas SCS_Tk displays a distinct and relatively strict substrate specificity for several acids, including succinate. This indicates that the -subunits are responsible for the distinct substrate specificities of SCS_Tk and ACS II_Tk.

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Received for publication, March 29, 2007 , and in revised form, July 19, 2007. ^* This work was supported by Grant-in-aid for Scientific Research 14103011 (to T. I.) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked “advertisement“ in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact. ¹ To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: 81-75-383-2777; Fax: 81-75-383-2778

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FAN Monthly | February 2008

1. March 2008 by HealingMindN.

http://www.FluorideAlert.Org

February 29, 2008

Fluoride… It was just over a year ago that the American Dental Association advised its members that parents not give fluoridated water to babies. Now, a panel of child health experts has issued a report warning of fluoride’s potential to damage a child’s developing brain. Despite these developments, a bottled water company continues to aggressively market fluoride-spiked water for infants, and Health Agencies continue their relentless push to fluoridate more water supplies. In case you missed it, these are some of the fluoride headlines that surfaced this month, which we summarize below. For more information, and how you can take some constructive action, please visit Fluoride Action Network’s (FAN) website at http://www.FluorideAlert.Org.

FAN’s Fluoride Headlines for February 2008

1) Fluoride: A Threat to the Brain

On February 20th, a distinguished panel of experts convened by the Institute of Children’s Environmental Health released a consensus statement summarizing “the latest science about environmental contaminants associated with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), intellectual disabilities and developmental delays.” Fluoride was one of the environmental contaminants reviewed by the scientists. According to the report:

“Excessive fluoride ingestion is known to lower thyroid hormone levels, which is particularly critical for women with subclinical hypothyroidism: decreased maternal thyroid levels adversely affect fetal neurodevelopment. In addition, a study in China reported decreased child IQ levels associated with fluoride in drinking water. The question is what level of exposure results in harmful effects to children. The primary concern is that multiple routes of exposure, from drinking water, food and dental care products, may result in a high enough cumulative exposure to fluoride to cause developmental effects… It is not clear that the benefits of adding fluoride to drinking water outweigh risks of neurodevelopment or other effects such as dental fluorosis.”

To read a press release discussing the review’s findings on fluoride, click here .
To read the full consensus statement, click here.

2) The Nursery Water Scandal: Company Continues to Market Fluoride for Babies

While prominent child health scientists are beginning to address fluoride’s risks to the brain, a bottled water company (Nursery Water) continues to aggressively market fluoridated water for infants under the age of 1. The company continues to market this product despite the fact that the American Dental Association - the nation’s most prominent promoter of fluoride - has advised that babies not receive fluoridated water. In February, the tireless Environmental Working Group (EWG) issued a complaint about Nursery Water’s actions to the Food & Drug Administration and Federal Trade Commission. According to EWG, Nursery Water is violating the law by contradicting FDA’s own ruling that bottled water companies can not make claims that fluoridated water benefits babies. As noted by Jane Houlihan, EWG’s Vice President for Research: “Nursery Water’s behavior is completely irresponsible. They are misleading parents, misrepresenting the facts, and placing profits above the health of babies.” To learn more, click here

3) “Poisoned Horses”: New Video Documents Fluoridation’s Effects on Horses

Dr. David Kennedy, from the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (IAOMT), has posted a new video on YouTube titled “Poisoned Horses.” Horses are much larger than canaries but in the case of fluoride toxicity they may prove to be an ideal canary for what fluoride might do to humans. Why? Because horses drink a huge amount of water each day. This video documents what happened to Cathy and Wayne Justus’ quarter horses after their community in Colorado began fluoridating its water. The horses developed severe dental fluorosis; arthritic pains typical of skeletal fluorosis; abnormalities of the hooves; dermatological reactions; behavioral changes; and colic. All of these symptoms and conditions have been investigated and confirmed by Dr. Lennart Krook of Cornell University. The video is a must see. To watch it, click here

4) UK Under Attack… Hawaii, Pennsylvania and Australia too

Unlike the United States, the vast majority of western Europe has rejected water fluoridation. For instance, whereas over 60% of Americans have tap water that is fluoridated, the respective figure in Europe is less than 3%. Nevertheless, health officials in England have recently announced a new plan to try and force more water supplies in England to start adding fluoride. A similar attempt recently in Scotland was overwhelming rejected, so let us hope for a similar result in England.

It’s not just England, however, that’s under siege. Here in the US, health officials have indicated a renewed desire to fluoridate Hawaii (even though Honolulu passed a resolution a few years ago banning water fluoridation). In addition, legislators in Pennsylvania and Nebraska are trying to mandate fluoridation in their respective states, and across the globe in Australia, the parliament in Queensland is trying to institute a massive expansion of fluoridation as well. Citizens in all areas are vigilantly fighting back - as demonstrated nicely in this letter from a Pennsylvania dentist and in this video of a demonstration in Australia. (You can help the activists in Pennsylvania by contacting ActionPA and you can help the activists in Australia by signing FAN’s Open Letter to the Ministers of Queensland.)

5) Don’t Swallow Your Toothpaste!

The Times in England writes: “Toothpaste causing bad teeth? It seems illogical, particularly since dentists so fervently urge us to use it. But many parents are unaware of the potential risks of letting children under 7 swallow fluoride toothpaste, especially in fluoridated areas, where they are already receiving a background dose of the chemical.” To learn more about why parents need to be vigilant about not letting their child swallow toothpaste, click here

6) And now for some GOOD NEWS..

In February, several communities rejected plans to fluoridate water, including Manilla, California, Ocean Springs, Mississippi and Welland, Ontario; and a councilwoman in Fairbanks, Alaska has put forth a resolution for Fairbanks to follow the lead of Alaska’s capital city (Juneau) and remove fluoride from its water. In addition, over 150 more health and medical professionals have added their name to FAN’s Professionals Statement to End Water Fluoridation - bringing the current total of signers to over 1,500. And thanks to the nearly 10,000 concerned citizens who have signed FAN’s Online Letter to Congress, Congressional representatives are becoming increasingly familiar with this Statement. The letter calls on Congress to follow the important recommendations of these professionals. To sign the letter to Congress, click here

Ok, so that’s some of the news from February! To read more headlines, check out the Latest News section on FAN’s website.

Here’s to a fluoride-free future! Together we can make it happen.

Paul Connett, PhD
Executive Director
Fluoride Action Network

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