Make Mincemeat of Cancer Cells With This Breakthrough Spice

By Dr. Mercola

The conventional cancer therapies currently available are surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy; aka the "cut, poison, burn" model. Chemotherapy is typically the main regimen for most cancers.

However, many tumors develop resistance to these harsh drugs, known as chemoresistance, which can complicate matters, to say the least. Chemoresistance also leads to other complications.

Hence researchers are looking for effective chemosensitizers that can help overcome such resistance. This strategy basically uses one drug to enhance the activity of another, by modulating the mechanisms that cause the resistance.

A number of natural products and compounds have been shown to act as effective chemosensitizers. Two of the most promising are resveratrol and curcumin, which I'll address here. Last year, several interesting studies were published on these two products, pertaining to their value in the treatment of cancer.

Smoked Cannabis Reduces Some Symptoms Of Multiple Sclerosis

A clinical study of 30 adult patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has shown that smoked cannabis may be an effective treatment for spasticity – a common and disabling symptom of this neurological disease.

The placebo-controlled trial also resulted in reduced perception of pain, although participants also reported short-term, adverse cognitive effects and increased fatigue. The study will be published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on May 14.

An unrolled marijuana cigarette
Credit: Wikipedia

Principal investigator Jody Corey-Bloom, MD, PhD, professor of neurosciences and director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center at UC San Diego, and colleagues randomly assigned participants to either the intervention group (which smoked cannabis once daily for three days) or the control group (which smoked identical placebo cigarettes, also once a day for three days). After an 11-day interval, the participants crossed over to the other group.

The Key Vitamin to use with Vitamin D to Help Reduce Osteoporosis by 25 Percent

By Dr. Mercola

You may be aware that vitamin D and calcium are a powerful duo for bone health, including the prevention of osteoporosis. One of the undisputed benefits of vitamin D is that it helps you ABSORB calcium – this link has been known for many decades.

But there is also evidence that vitamin K, and specifically vitamin K2, is another key player in your bone health, and may be just as crucial in helping you prevent bone fractures as you age.

Methylcobalamin: A Potential Breakthrough in Neurological Disease

ProHealth.com
by Source: Health Watch
February 1, 1999

Japanese scientists have identified a form of vitamin B12 that protects against neurological disease and aging by a unique mechanism that differs from current therapies. Some of the disorders that may be preventable or treatable with this natural vitamin therapy, called methylcobalamin, include chronic fatigue syndrome, Parkinson's disease, peripheral neuropathies, Alzheimer's disease, muscular dystrophy and neurological aging. Americans have immediate access to this unique and new form of vitamin B12, and, unlike prescription drugs, it costs very little and is free of side effects.

vitamin B12 is a general label for a group of essential biological compounds knows as cobalamins. The cobalamins are structurally related to hemoglobin in the blood, and a deficiency of vitamin B12 can cause anemia. The primary concern of conventional doctors is to maintain adequate cobalamin status to protect against anemia.

PIP breast implants: 'serious lessons must be learned'

The implants were manufactured by the French company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP)

A government review into the PIP breast implant scandal has found that serious lessons must be learned.

The review was led by the Health Minister Lord Howe and examined the role of the Department of Health and the UK regulator the MHRA.
It says that although the MHRA followed scientific and clinical advice, it should "review and further develop its communications capability."
It must "obtain evidence from a wider and more detailed set of sources..."

Leonardo da Vinci and the Missing Female Reproductive System

Stephanie Pappas
LiveScience
Tue, 08 May 2012

Leonardo da Vinci's sketches of a fetus in the womb, made between 1510 and 1513.

Leonardo da Vinci's 500-year-old illustrations of human anatomy are uncannily accurate with just one major exception: the female reproductive system.

Stomach cancer and bacterial infection

CBC News Posted: May 7, 2012 3:01 PM ET Last Updated: May 7, 2012 2:54 PM ET

Helicobacter pylori bacteria lurk in the stomachs of about two-thirds of the world's population.

Infection does not cause illness in most infected people, but it is a major risk factor for peptic ulcer disease. It's also responsible for most ulcers of the stomach and upper small intestine, the U.S. National Cancer Institute said.


Dr. Paul Moayyedi calls stomach cancer screening a missed opportunity. (CBC)

Gastric cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the world. It killed about 738,000 people in 2008, according to the World Health Organization's global cancer database.

In Canada, stomach cancer kills about 1,800 people a year. The victims die so rapidly that no large survivor group lobbies for testing.

"I think it's a missed opportunity because the benefits in cancer, in Canada, aren't as dramatic as they might be for something like colon cancer, and maybe politically it's not so exciting. But still every opportunity to save lives is a good one," said Dr. Paul Moayyedi, a gastroenterologist at McMaster University in Hamilton.

It's cheap to test for H. pylori with a blood tests and the infection can be treated early with antibiotics, said Moyyedi, who advocates for screening based in part on its benefits for stomach bleeding and pain.

About one in 20 visits to a family doctor are for stomach problems, he noted.

"This would be the first screening program that could potentially pay for itself and yet no one in the world is yet doing it."

This CBC News article originally posted HERE

Health And Disease Begin In The Gut

by Dr. Rivkah Roth

There is no Health without a Healthy Duodenum and Intestines

How well our digestion works directly determines how well our body and brain function. The old adage "we are what we eat" appears to hold true.

Eye Color May Indicate Risk For Serious Skin Conditions

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Eye color may be an indicator of whether a person is high-risk for certain serious skin conditions. A study, led by the University of Colorado School of Medicine, shows people with blue eyes are less likely to have vitiligo. It then follows, according to scientists, that people with brown eyes may be less likely to have melanoma. Vitiligo is an autoimmune skin disease in which pigment loss results in irregular white patches of skin and hair. Melanoma is the most dangerous kind of skin cancer.

 Credit: Wikipedia

Study finds IVF link to birth defects

Heather Kennett,From: Sunday Herald Sun,May 06, 2012 12:00AM

THE risk of major birth defects in babies conceived using commonly available fertility treatments is nearly double compared with those conceived naturally, a world-first study by Australian researchers has found.

Groundbreaking Adelaide University research has shown that the risk for couples using IVF is 7.2 per cent, compared with a 5.8 per cent risk for babies conceived naturally.
But when sperm is injected into an egg - a procedure called intracytoplasmic sperm injection used to overcome male infertility - there is a 9.9 per cent risk of birth defects.
And yet it found that freezing embryos substantially reduced the risk of birth defects, including cerebral palsy and heart and muscle conditions, particularly for the sperm injection treatment.
Another major finding in the study, to be published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, was the discovery of a tripling of the risk in women using a widely available low-cost fertility treatment - the steroid clomiphene citrate - to stimulate ovulation at home, without the supervision of a clinic.
The research linked a census of more than 6100 assisted conception births to South Australia's registry of 308,974 births and 18,000 recorded birth defects between 1986 and 2002.
It also compared the risk of birth defects across all infertility treatments with pregnancies in women with no record of infertility, making it the most comprehensive of its kind in the world.
The findings come as the use of assisted reproductive technology in Australia doubled over the five years to 2009, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Lead researcher Associate Professor Michael Davies said, though the majority of births resulting from assisted conception were free of birth defects, the study aimed to examine the differences in risks between available treatment and allow couples to make more informed decisions.
"For IVF (7.2 per cent), we were able to largely discount the apparent increased risk that is there in the crude data and we can explain that excess of risk purely in terms of patient characteristics such as maternal age and being overweight."
Melbourne IVF medical director Dr Lyndon Hale said the jury was still out on whether birth defects were caused by the actual IVF technology or there were inherent problems in the infertile population.
"The study didn't control for the fertile-versus-infertile population, so infertile people may somehow have more of these problems as opposed to the treatment causing the problems," Dr Hale said.
"The findings will make couples more worried, but it's part of our consent process that we advise them of all the risks."
- with Brigid O'Connell
Originally published HERE
Detailed article can be found HERE

Further reading :

Higher Risk of Birth Defects from Assisted Reproduction, Study Suggests - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120505130923.htm

'Birth defect link' to IVF injections - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9248899/Birth-defect-link-to-IVF-injections.html

Link Between ICSI Fertility Procedure, Birth Defects Discovered - http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1112529032/link-between-icsi-fertility-procedure-birth-defects-discovered/

Fertility injections linked to birth defects - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9247766/Fertility-injections-linked-to-birth-defects.html

Picture Emerging on Genetic Risks of IVF - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/health/17ivf.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Child health problems linked to IVF - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-180379/Child-health-problems-linked-IVF.html

Study links fertility treatment, birth defect risk - http://www.mercurynews.com/health/ci_20557826/study-links-fertility-treatment-birth-defect-risk?source=rss

Only 20% to 30% of SA Nurses are Qualified

Health budget havoc Malpractice suits expose Gauteng to crippling compensation claims http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article677188.ece/Health-budget-havoc
Sep 26, 2010 11:22 PM | By SALLY EVANS

The Gauteng Department of Health faces the possibility that it will have to pay R2-billion in compensation, a quarter of it for medical malpractice claims.

In the province's 2009-2010 annual report, "medico-legal claims" against the department were stated as R573-million, up from R447-million in the previous financial year.

Auditor-general Terence Nombembe raised concerns about the amount for which the department was successfully sued by victims of bad treatment and botched operations.

The biggest claim against the department was R1.5-billion in connection with the allegedly premature termination of contracts, two of which were with consultants.

The two contracts - with 3P Consultancy, valued at more than R200-million, and with the Bawoki Consortium, for a R1-billion computerised information system - were cancelled after a review by the new leadership of the department in April last year.

The Johannesburg High Court ordered the department to pay R10.4-million for services rendered by 3P Consultancy and to re-instate its contract with the company.

The department appealed and the matter is still before the court, according to the department's spokesman, Mandla Sidu.

Gauteng's MEC for health and social development, Qedani Mahlangu, said last year that her decision to cancel contracts signed by her predecessor, Brian Hlongwa, was "the right thing to do".

The DA's health spokesman in Gauteng, Jack Bloom, said the claims against the department were a concern.

He said the value of the contracts was not necessarily the amount for which the department would be liable if it lost in the high court. Hlongwa and 3P have consistently denied wrongdoing.

Adele van der Walt, a lawyer who specialises in medical malpractice claims, said increases in malpractice suits against doctors, nurses and hospitals could partly be ascribed to there being "more patients and fewer doctors".

The number of claims had increased in private and public healthcare, she said.

"Hospitals are understaffed and there are fewer qualified practitioners.

Only about 20% to 30% of nurses are qualified," she said.

The risk factors increased as the number of patients seeking medical attention increased, she said.

Taken together with the quality and availability of nursing staff, and of specialist doctors, it was a "challenge for medical services in South Africa".

The Sunday Times quoted the chief planner of the proposed national health insurance scheme, Olive Shisana, as saying that South Africa would recruit "thousands of doctors from other countries" to staff the scheme.

The scheme is intended to provide tax-funded cover to all citizens.

Bloom said it was not only claims and liabilities that were wreaking havoc with the department's budget: other provinces owed about R307-million to Gauteng. 

Some of the Greatest People the World had ever known

This is a list of people so great their work was beyond understanding

Most people on this list were so far advanced that they were opposed, ousted, rejected, belittled, discarded and science will always try to disprove their work or steer you away from them.

In the Middle Ages, the CHURCH oppressed & suppressed, they persecuted & prosecuted free & progressive thinkers, anyone that opposed them, anyone who's work they could not understand & anyone they perceived a threat. Since then, that OPPRESSIVE role has been taken over by organised SCIENCE. For the past 400 years SCIENCE HAS BEEN SUPPRESSING, PERSECUTING & PROSECUTING EXACTLY SUCH INTELLIGENT PROGRESSIVE INDIVIDUALS!

In my view Science is an insult to knowledge, it is backward and oppressive and it kept us in the dark ages until now.

Science only tries to investigate what others already know & that cannot be understood by scientists. High Incarnates like these greats were centuries ahead of their time, and they changed the World forever.

They proved my late brother's statement that "NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE, but some things are just highly unlikely."

The interesting thing about people like those mentioned here is that science would rather oppose them and try to disprove them, to conjure up disinformation to warrant their attempts to prove them wrong, than learn from them. It has always amazed me how puny science can be in that they would follow some misguided skeptic anti everything so-called scientist who understands nothing of this world, yet they oppose those that were so highly advanced and whom we could and should learn from. It is irrational to say the least. They're still on the train of evolution, searching for the origins of humans on Earth, while the answers have been laid out before them so many times over and over and over by so many people and so many sources.

What is the sense of possessing so much data and zero knowledge. We are studying more and more of the same and discovering nothing of applicable value. Instead of utilising what had been given to us we are allowing science to oppress us, just because they are unable to understand anything they had not read, and that was not written by some professor with a good memory.

We have had people that had come to this World to teach us, to guide us and to provide us with unlimited knowledge and insight and we discard them due to dogma, either some religious dogma or scientific dogma. Have you ever considered just how blinded people are thanks to science's misguided teachings on evolution? Due to this limited dogma's and paradigms in which the churches and science are stuck we are denied so much.

There is ZERO ZILCH NOTHING of value knowing ANYTHING that someone like Richard Dawkins had said or written, it adds NOTHING to anything or anyone. It is of the utmost importance that we study the work of the so-called dissidents, those greats that are ignored, ousted and denied by organised science. Those are the people that add to our knowledge.

"You know you were successful in life when the day you die people do NOT miss you." - Dr. Myles Munroe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myles_Munroe)

The above statement relates to the sharing of knowledge. If you had shared all your knowledge unselfishly and freely, if you had shared your love in abundance you would have fulfilled all the needs to those around you. If after your departure from this world people repeatedly say "I miss him/her, because I still wanted to get this or that info", "I wish he/she was here to explain this or that to me", "I always wanted to ask him about this or that", then you failed in this life, because you did not share all your knowledge.

If you had been successful you would have shared all your knowledge so freely and openly that nothing is missing, that we do not need to miss you, because of gaps in the info you left us, because you shared everything with us, THAT is being successful.

Knowledge is what builds the World, what develops and grows the World and any knowledge that we possess must be shared with mankind BEFORE we die so people would not miss us for a lack of that knowledge.

In this sense We need to weigh people on this list objectively. One of the most successful people was Nikola Tesla, because he wanted to share everything, to share his knowledge for a better world, to provide the world with free, clean energy. It was the work of organised science and greed that prevented us from having all that knowledge today. That knowledge, which he wanted to give to us openly and freely, was withheld and even destroyed by higher powers.

Nikola Tesla is one of the the greatest engineers to ever have walked the planet, but he was oppressed and suppressed. His work should be the basis of all science and engineering education and training. Each and every person on earth should know his name, should have been taught about him and his work. If his ORIGINAL work is shared and deliberately distributed, someone out there among us would synchronise with it and build on it.

Nikola tesla was successful because he wanted and was willing to share his knowledge and he cannot be accused of failure, because politics, commerce and science withheld it from us.

Probably the most successful person on the list in this respect is Samuel Hahnemann, because he shared all the knowledge he possessed successfully. There were things he himself did not understand at the time and which he obviously could not share, but if he did have the knowledge he would have. He also has something else in common with Nikola Tesla and that is that he wished to share it with the whole world. He wanted the whole world to have access to his discoveries and he wanted to improve the whole world with he. He was not in the least shelfish in his sharing of knowledge pertaining to Homeopathy and health. He gave the world the most successful, most advanced, safest, most gentle form of medicinal therapeutics and called it Homeopathy. He was fortunate in that his knowledge spread and was distributed faster than it could be suppressed. Ever attempt by organised science and big pharma to suppress Homeopathy had failed and it will continue to fail forever. The simple reason for this is that good will always triumph above evil. Long after the world economy had collapsed and big pharma had disappeared as a result, Homeopathy will live on. What organised science, the media and big pharma do not consider is that Homeopathy is a knowledge and knowledge can never disappear. Big pharma sells medicine and medicine is a business and when the economy collapses it will disappear, but knowledge will stand, it will remain. Homeopathy being knowledge can be shared freely, drugs cannot. Hahnemann brought knowledge to this world and shared that knowledge freely.

In my opinion Hahnemann is the most successful of all on my list and Tesla is his equal, because we miss Tesla only due to the damage caused by science and commerce. Science and commerce were successful in their attempts to destroy much of Tesla's work and it is lost forever and for that we cannot blame Tesla himself.

Nikola Tesla http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

Edward Leedskalnin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Leedskalnin

Samuel Hahnemann http://www.biocura.co.za/hom_in_per.html

Victor Shauberger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Shauberger

Thomas Henry Moray http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Henry_Moray

John Hutchison http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hutchison

Nicolae Vasilescu-Karpen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Vasilescu-Karpen

The Lord Jesus Christ http://www.ccel.org/bible/

Enoch http://www.marquette.edu/maqom/enochsecrets.html

Leonardo da Vinci http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci

Albert Einstein http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

Georges Lakhovsky http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lakhovsky

Rudolph Steiner http://www.rsarchive.org/#IDX04

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe

Immanuel Velikovsky http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Velikovsky

Being Educated according to Ed Leedskalnin

"You know we receive an education in the schools from books.  All those books that people became educated from twenty-five years ago, are wrong now, and those that are good now, will be wrong again twenty-five years from now.  So if they are wrong then, they are also wrong now, and the one who is educated from the wrong books is not educated, he is misled.  All books that are written are wrong, the one who is not educated cannot write a book and the one who is educated, is really not educated but he is misled and the one who is misled cannot write a book which is correct.

The misleading began when our distant ancestors began to teach their descendants.  You know they knew nothing but they passed their knowledge of nothing to the coming generations and it went so innocently that nobody noticed it.  That is why we are not educated.

Now I will tell you what education is according to my reasoning.  An educated person is one whose senses are refined.  We are born as brutes, we remain and die as the same if we do not become polished.  But all senses do not take polish.  Some are to coarse to take it.  The main base of education is one's "self-respect".  Any one lacking self-respect cannot be educated.  The main bases of self-respect is the willingness to learn, to do only the things that are good and right, to believe only in the things that can be proved, to possess appreciation and self control.

Now, if you lack willingness to learn, you will remain as a brute and if you do things that are not good and right, you will be a low person, and if you believe in things that cannot be proved, any feeble  minded person can lead you, and if you lack appreciation, it takes away the incentive for good doing and if you lack self control you will never know the limit.

So all those lacking these characteristics in their makeup are not educated."

Ed Leedskalnin, 1936

PLEASE DO NOT make the MISTAKE of thinking someone like Ed Leedskalnin confused double-blind clinical trials with "proof", because double-blind clinical trials are not proof of anything, it is merely misleading the blind and deaf.

United States Shutting Down All Alternative Health Clinics At Home And Abroad

US making Way For Immunity Breakdown Medicine For Upcoming Viruses And Plagues

The U.S. Federal government which has had a hand in regulating alternative health practices abroad in Europe and other foreign jurisdictions has set to task a general witch hunt against alternative medicine in the United States. If you are an alternative medicine practitioner you need to spruce up your defenses now or face closure. Is it really possible that the Unites States government can actually reach out to foreign health clinics and have them shut down?

A distressed Chiropractic practitioner called me to his clinic in the U.K. to discuss how regulators in the United States had forced the hand of law makers in England to alter the way his treatment methods were being used on his patients. Rendering the therapy useless in original ability to treat and bring cure to numerous ailments.

I have been approached by political medical organizations in the UK for the last 5 years to sign petitions so alternative healing practices would be shut down in various forms as alternative medicine in the UK.  A precursor for such closures in the rest of Europe. If you think I am crying wolf or that the sky is falling you should look closer. Look past surface information and start asking questions while your clinics are still open. Ask the question; why is there a blanketing witch hunt against subtle energy associative health practices worldwide?

www.onlinewellnessnetwork.com/articles.asp?caid=8339

www.quackometer.net/blog/2009/06/chiropractors-told-to-take-down-their.html

www.gaia-health.com/articles251/000281-the-uk-refuses-to-drop-homeopathy.shtml

www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15673133,00.html

www.quackometer.net/blog/2012/01/why-is-homeopathy-successful.html

www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/jun/01/world-health-organisation-homeopathy-hiv

www.thenhf.com/page.php?id=295

©2012 Kevin Wilson PsyD PhD

Original article published at Before It's News

Ten Worst Chemicals In Cosmetics and Personal Care Products

The personal care industry goes largely unregulated

In 2011, there were well over 200 ingredients under the umbrella term “fragrance,” and manufacturers are not required to disclose any of the actual ingredients in their formulas.

The entire cosmetic industry is in a buyer beware state of alert, thanks to the latest additions to the melting pot of chemicals and pollutants in skin care, above and beyond the usual parabens. Consumers are warned by experts toput on the watch listany make-up which contains synthetic colouring ingredients, emulsifiers, leads, copolymer, triclosan, and “urea as a preservative.” Also contributing to the chemical compounds are phthalates, formaldehyde, and petroleum.

Without proper regulations, especially regarding testing howchemicals react to one another in combinations, it is scary how quickly the industry has become a problem for women and men alike. Some lipsticks are loaded with lead. If you think it doesn’t matter because it’s just on your skin, think again. Deodorants and shampoo must also be included in the equation. There are plenty of solutions to the problem, but where do you begin?


There are critical trade offs when it comes to using products for beauty and hygiene that contain chemicals. Skin cancer can have roots, and the removal of them can leave scars on your nose or even around your mouth. Consumers shouldn’t count on “all natural” labels and similar advertisements because current regulations on the use of those buzzwords are almost non-existent.

Read the full article HERE

Putting The Myth To Rest - There Is No Such Thing As Bad Cholesterol

By PreventDisease.com

Perhaps one of the biggest health myths propagated in western culture and certainly in the United States, is the correlation between elevatedcholesterol and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Unfortunately, despite dozens of studies, cholesterol has not been shown to actually cause CVD. To the contrary, cholesterol is vital to our survival, and trying to artificially lower it can have detrimental effects, particularly as we age.

Cholesterol seems to be one of those things that strikes fear into the hearts of many, so to speak. We have become obsessed with eating foods low in cholesterol and fat. Ask almost anyone, and they can tell you their cholesterol levels.

What is certain is that the 'little knowledge' that the media often imparts means many folks assume cholesterol is simply a 'bad' thing. Alternately, a good number of us may have heard the terms 'good' cholesterol and 'bad' cholesterol bandied about without knowing much about what this really means. In fact it is a fairly safe bet that if you asked anyone on the street for his or her instinctive response, if asked about cholesterol, they would probably say that we simply need to 'reduce it'.

The 'noddy-science' offered by marketing men to a generally scientifically-naive public has led many people to believe that we should replace certain food choices with specially developed products that can help 'reduce cholesterol'. Naturally this comes at a price and requires those who can afford it to pay maybe four or five times what a 'typical ordinary' product might cost. But is this apparent 'blanket need' to strive towards lowering our cholesterol justified? And, indeed, is it healthy?

For anyone who has had the official diagnosis of 'high cholesterol' in their bloodstream, they may even have embarked upon a program of medicinal intervention. In fact it is quite likely that they may have joined the legions of long-term pill-poppers who are already lining the pockets of the profit-oriented pharmaceutical giants.

But let's take a moment, now, to review some of the facts and fallacies about the much-maligned substance: cholesterol.

Cholesterol is needed to make hormones. Without it we would not produce estrogen, progesterone or testosterone. It is vital for the functioning of nerve synapses and provides the structural integrity for our cell membranes. Cholesterol is used by the skin to help prevent water evaporation and to make our skin waterproof. Vitamin D is synthesized from cholesterol. And bile, used for fat digestion, consists mostly of cholesterol. The liver produces about 90 percent of the cholesterol in our bodies; only 10 percent comes from diet. If we eat too much cholesterol, the liver decreases the output of cholesterol.

Cholesterol is a naturally occurring lipid. This means it is a type of fat or oil and it is in fact an essential component in creating and sustaining the membranes of the cells of all bodily tissues. So this alone means we need cholesterol to survive! Most of the cholesterol that is found in our bodies is actually naturally manufactured within our own cells. However there is also an additional contribution that we get from external 'nutritional' sources - the foods we consume. In a typical diet providing around 400mg of cholesterol per day from food sources, about half to two-thirds of this amount is actually absorbed through the process of digestion. The body will normally secrete about a gram (1000mg) of cholesterol per day into the bile via the ducts, and approximately three-fifths of this is then re-absorbed.

Where our tissues or organs are a particularly dense complex of cells, which have closely packed cell membranes, there will naturally be higher levels of cholesterol. The key organs that need, and contain, these higher amounts of cholesterol include the liver, the brain and the spinal cord - none of which would work well if we reduced cholesterol too much!

In effect cholesterol plays an essential role in the development and maintenance of healthy cell walls. It is also a critical factor in the synthesizing of steroid hormones, which are a key factor in our natural physical development. 

Being a lipid, cholesterol is fat-soluble, but it is not soluble in blood. However it needs to be transported around the body to the places where it can be utilized. This is why, in order to be moved around, it must become 'associated' with certain lipoproteins which feature a water-soluble (therefore 'blood transportable') coat of proteins. There are two key types of lipoproteins that transport cholesterol around the body: low-density and high-density variants. The essential cellular function of cholesterol requires that sufficient amounts are manufactured by specialized sub-systems (or organelles) within the body's cells called the endoplasmic reticulum. Alternatively, the cholesterol we need must be derived from our diet. During the process of 'digestion and assimilation' of foods, it is the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) that carries dietary cholesterol from the liver to various parts of the body.

When there is sufficient cholesterol for cellular needs, the other key transport mechanism in this amazing 'logistics system' - high-density lipoprotein (HDL) - can take cholesterol back to the liver from where any unnecessary excess can be processed for excretion.

The 'noddy-science' of the so-called 'functional food' manufacturers would have us believe that there is such a thing as 'bad' cholesterol and 'good' cholesterol. This is, in fact, totally untrue. The cholesterol itself, whether being transported by LDL or HDL, is exactly the same. Cholesterol is simply a necessary ingredient that is required to be regularly delivered around the body for the efficient healthy development, maintenance and functioning of our cells. The difference is in the 'transporters' (the lipoproteins HDL and LDL) and both types are essential for the human body's delivery logistics to work effectively.

Read the rest of this article HERE

Drug-resistant strains of TB out of control, warn experts

Mar 25 2012 07:21

The fight against new, antibiotic-resistant strains of tuberculosis has already been lost in some parts of the world, according to a senior World Health Organisation expert. Figures show a 5% rise in the number of new cases of the highly infectious disease in the UK.

Dr Paul Nunn, head of the WHO's global TB response team, is leading the efforts against multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB). Nunn said that, while TB is preventable and curable, a combination of bad management and misdiagnosis was leaving pharmaceutical companies struggling to keep up. Meanwhile, the disease kills millions every year.

"It occurs basically when the health system screws up," said Nunn. "Treating TB requires a carefully followed regime of medication over six months. In places where health services are fragmented or underfunded, or patients poor and health professionals ill-trained, that treatment can fall short, which can in turn lead to patients developing drug-resistant strains. It's been estimated that an undiagnosed TB-infected person can infect 10 others a year.

"There's a vicious circle, because when new drugs come out they are expensive, so there is no demand. Without the volume of demand, the cost will not come down. If we can't tackle this, we are going to finish up with a lot more people being diagnosed with multi-drug resistant strains. We've already lost the battle in places such as the former Soviet Union, and so we need a huge expansion of effort, especially in places like India and China." He added: "In some areas we have probably already lost the battle. Globally, it is still just 5% of the total number of TB cases, but with sloppy management of treatment we are moving towards an accelerating problem."

Tuberculosis is long thought to have lost out as donors preferred to fund HIV research and healthcare for children. "The absolute numbers were seen to be falling and TB seemed somehow to lose out and never had the profile of other health issues; it was the orphan child and just didn't get the same funding," said Nunn. But while there were few drugs on the horizon, new rapid diagnostic tests were a "wonderful" breakthrough.

It is 130 years since the German scientist Dr Robert Koch astounded the world by announcing that he had discovered the cause of tuberculosis, the TB bacillus. At the time TB was raging through Europe and the Americas, killing one in seven people. Today tuberculosis remains an epidemic in much of the world, causing the deaths of several million people each year, most of them in developing countries. The combination of HIV and TB has proved catastrophic. More than 350 000 people living with HIV died because of TB in 2010.

TB was once the biggest killer in Britain, but cases are now concentrated in London and among people not born in the UK. Provisional figures from the Health Protection Agency showed there were 9 042 new cases in 2011, compared with 8 587 in 2010. But Professor Ibrahim Abubakar, head of the TB section at the HPA, cautioned: "Despite the observed increase in TB cases in 2011, this provisional data should be interpreted with caution, because numbers are likely to change due to late notifications and de-notification of cases. It is therefore too early to determine whether this is a return to the upward trend of cases seen in the past two decades in the UK. TB continues to disproportionately affect those in hard to reach and vulnerable groups, particularly migrants, so it is crucial that we have specific strategies in place to address this."

The UK is also under pressure to restore funding to the Global Fund, first established to tackle what is often called the "big three" of HIV, malaria and TB. A $1.7-billion reduction in funding to tackle TB over the next five years will affect the treatment of 3.4-million TB patients and could reverse gains made in tackling the disease, says new evidence released by three charities.

Results UK, the International HIV/Aids Alliance and the Stop Aids Campaign say they no longer have the resources to continue expanding their work. They are urging the UK to back emergency action to replenish the Global Fund at the G20 meeting in Mexico in June. The fund provides more than four-fifths of all funding to fight TB.

Read more HERE

It seems Marijuana is becoming the next miracle drug that cures all known disease

It seems Marijuana is becoming like so many other alternative / complementary products that start out being marketed or suggested for the treatment of some condition and then eventually ends up being a miraculous cure-all for any condition from the common cold to cancer.

Another Reason Marijuana is Illegal: It Prevents The Spread of HIV

The overwhelming evidence of the curative powers of marijuana and cannabinoids leave little doubt that the pharmaceutical industry is behind marijuana prohibition laws. The amount of research now validating the truly remarkable nature of this healing plant is simply enormous. According to new findings published in the journal PLoS ONE, researchers have now have now discovered that marijuana-like chemicals trigger receptors on human immune cells that can directly inhibit a type of human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) found in late-stage AIDS.

The U.S. Patent 6630507 was specifically initiated when researchers found that cannabinoids had specific antioxidant properties making them useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia.

Read more HERE

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Sugar is toxic and addictive, says top sports scientist

LEAN and mean on his high-fat and low-carbohydrate diet, Professor Tim Noakes now says that sugar may cause more harm than tobacco.

And South Africa's top sports scientist has taken a swipe at the sugar industry as well as the medical profession.

He told the Sunday Times that diabetes in the US - where sugar can make up 25% of a person's daily calorie intake - will bankrupt the country's medical industry within 20 years.

"It has been calculated that the [adverse health] costs are three times the profits [of the sugar industry]. If you track back to the onset of diabetes, it tracks the rate of increased consumption and production of sugar ... I guess they cost the world more than tobacco costs."

According to reports available online, obesity has overtaken smoking as the number one cause of premature death in the US and Australia.

Noakes said the similarities between smoking and consuming sugar-based products include addiction and the denialism by the producers of negative health effects.

"The tobacco industry misled the whole world because they knew that nicotine was addictive. The carbohydrate [companies] know that refined carbohydrates are addictive. They know that it's toxic."

Sugar producer Tongaat Hulett Sugar did not reply to requests for comment, while Illovo Sugar referred queries to the South African Sugar Association (SASA).

SASA's nutrition manager and a registered dietician, Duduzile Mthuli, hit back at Noakes's claims by saying sugar was neither addictive nor toxic to the body.

She said a 2010 review by Swansea University concluded that there was no indication from human scientific studies that sucrose can be physically addictive.

Mthuli said the only way to gain weight is to eat more calories than you burn.

"Gram for gram, fat has more calories than sugar so it is easier to gain weight on a high-fat diet. A landmark scientific study conducted in Australia concluded that the rate of obesity is increasing, even though the consumption of sugar is decreasing."

But Noakes insisted that there will never be a drive to demonise sugar as there was against tobacco - as potential lobby groups had "sold out".

"The sugar industry funds most dietetic organisations globally so you won't find many dieticians speaking out against sugar."

This, he said, included the World Health Organisation. "They've said there's no evidence that sugar is toxic. They've said it's part of a balanced diet ... it's not. It's got no room at all in a balanced diet."

Noakes himself believes he has reversed his diabetes since starting his diet.

After feeling lethargic and hungry while he was eating carbohydrates, he says he is now energetic and seldom feels hungry.

Comrades marathon king Bruce Fordyce - who is on the same diet, although he's not as strict on carb intake as Noakes - said: "I'm running unbelievably well."

Noakes believes most people are ill-informed when it comes to diet, saying:

Fats do not make people fat, carbohydrates do;

Fats, including saturated fats, don't push cholesterol up - carbohydrates do;

Most so-called wholegrain cereals are merely carbohydrate shells and are not wholegrain because the nutrients have been stripped out to increase their shelf life; and,

Carbohydrates create hunger pangs, which cause people to eat more.

But Mthuli disagrees. She said that as a main source of energy, carbohydrates were an important part of a healthy diet and the only source of fuel for the brain.

"To eliminate carbohydrates from your diet will be detrimental to [your] health. In addition, low-carbohydrate diets are costly as they consist of high-protein foods such as meat and [are] impractical for the South African population to follow."

Noakes's book Challenging Beliefs has been relaunched with a new chapter on nutrition. He also wants to write a book on nutrition as well as update the chapter on nutrition in his iconic Lore of Running.

Noakes said the medical industry was also complicit in promoting sugar and talked of how he watched his father die slowly from diabetes after being put on a high-carb diet.

"They said this is the right treatment. But it's not because the cause of diabetes is a high-carbohydrate diet.

"Unfortunately the [medical] profession is an industry and it's driven by profits. The more insulin that's sold to diabetics, the more profit the pharmaceuticals can make. And if we tell them to cut their carb intake, we threaten the income of the industry."

Original Sunday Times report can be found here