The original Paleo diet included eating people. Neanderthals didn't fade into extinction, we ate them.
Tag: Health
Tofu, Anybody?
Soy, soy, soy..... I am, I am, I am.... unless I grew up in a land planted everywhere with soy. Then I might have been born with birth defects from the poisons used in the cultivation of that plant. See Argentina's Bad Seeds The country's soya industry is booming, but what is the impact on Argentinians and their land?
The discussion about Fracking and the oily truth- gasoline, natural gas, and oil production are toxic to people’s health
Fracking has become a big topic of discussion and controversy right this moment, as giant corporations work with whore-like politicians right here in Colorado, to ensure that OIL OIL OIL production will continue nonstop to produce all those consumer items that make some Fat Cats super rich off the rest of us. But what are the costs when the inevitable contamination of the environment occurs? Riki Ott lets us know just what has occurred post BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. See her Unfinished Business: The Unspoken Link Between Dispersants and Sick Children in the Gulf of Mexico ...Also, read about the Colorado woman pictured at the head of this commentary- Science Lags as Health Problems Emerge Near Gas Fields
Who has got their boot on Rawesome Foods and the CA organic movement?
It's tempting to urge organic growers to push ahead with sustainable health communities, agents of the corporate food distopia be damned, but here's what happened to Rawesome Foods: raided by Feds, food stocks destroyed, arrests and prohibitive fines. How do you combat a police state prohibiting all breaches of Big Agra's strangle-hold on world health? Natural News has an idea, publicize the names of the Federal Agents persecuting the raw dairy evangelists. Friends and loved ones might be able to talk some sense into them. Remember, in principle these health regulators are the good guys. So whose office has got their boot on the California organic food movement? Scarlett Treviso, Terrence Powell, Kelly Sakir, Siobhan Delancey, Michelle LeCavalier, & FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg. Here's how to contact them, this is your local farmer's time of need. Unless they're an appointee from an industry lobby group, a professional who pursues a career in public health is more than likely interested in the public's health. It's up to you to bring them up to nutritional speed. Scarlett Treviso, Senior Special Investigator, (mastermind of first raid on Rawesome Foods, heavily involved in intimidation tactics against raw dairy farmers across California) California Dept. of Food and Agriculture, Milk and Dairy Food Safety division. Office phone: 949-716-8913, Email: streviso@cdfa.ca.gov Terrance Powell, Bureau Director, Specialized Surveillance & Enforcement Bureau of Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. 5050 Commerce Drive, Baldwin Park, CA 91706, Phone: (626) 430-5150, Fax: (626) 851-3758. Email: tpowell@ph.lacounty.gov Kelly Sakir, assistant District Attorney of Los Angeles County. Phone: 213-582-3394. Supervisor: Steve Cooley. Phone: 213-974-3512. Public Information Officer: Sandi Gibbons. Phone: 213-974-3525 Siobhan DeLancey FDA Press Officer, participated in the investigation of Rawesome, covers Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Phone: 301-796-4668. Email: siobhan.delancey@fda.hhs.gov Michelle LeCavalier, Environmental Health Specialist III at the Department Of Health Services: 1501 Capitol Avenue, Suite 6001, Sacramento, CA 95814-5005. Supervisor: Jesus Urrutia, Chief EHS, 6851 Lennox Ave. # 310, Van Nuys, CA 91405. Phone: (818) 902-4470 Angelo J. Bellomo, Director of Environmental Health for the County of Los Angeles, 5050 Commerce Drive, Baldwin Park, CA 91706. Phone: (626) 430-5100. Fax: (626) 813-3000. Hotline: (888) 700-9995. Email: abellomo@ph.lacounty.gov Margaret Hamburg, FDA Commissioner. Phone: 301-796-5000. Main FDA number: 888-463-6332. Email address #1: margaretahamburg@aol.com. Email address #2: Margaret.Hamburg@fda.hhs.gov
Need 15 reasons to eat organic food?
Organic foods are higher in nutrients, free of neurotoxins, growth-supportive, not pesticide factories, not water-polluters, ecologically sustainable, economically sustainable, better tasting, not gas-ripened, safer for farm workers, conducive to wildlife, less likely to be cancer-causing, free of antibiotics and hormones, tried & tested, and supportive of biodiversity. Read on, from Care2 make a difference: 15 Reasons to Eat Organic Food 1. In study after study, research from independent organizations consistently shows organic food is higher in nutrients than traditional foods. Research shows that organic produce is higher in vitamin C, antioxidants, and the minerals calcium, iron, chromium, and magnesium. 2. They’re free of neurotoxins–toxins that are damaging to brain and nerve cells. A commonly-used class of pesticides called organophosphates was originally developed as a toxic nerve agent during World War I. When there was no longer a need for them in warfare, industry adapted them to kill pests on foods. Many pesticides are still considered neurotoxins. 3. They’re supportive of growing children’s brains and bodies. Children’s growing brains and bodies are far more susceptible to toxins than adults. Choosing organic helps feed their bodies without the exposure to pesticides and genetically-modified organisms, both of which have a relatively short history of use (and therefore safety). 4. They are real food, not pesticide factories. Eighteen percent of all genetically-modified seeds (and therefore foods that grow from them) are engineered to produce their own pesticides. Research shows that these seeds may continue producing pesticides inside your body once you’ve eaten the food grown from them! Foods that are actually pesticide factories…no thanks. 5. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that pesticides pollute the primary drinking source for half the American population. Organic farming is the best solution to the problem. Buying organic helps reduce pollution in our drinking water. 6. Organic food is earth-supportive (when big business keeps their hands out of it). Organic food production has been around for thousands of years and is the sustainable choice for the future. Compare that to modern agricultural practices that are destructive of the environment through widespread use of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, and fertilizers and have resulted in drastic environmental damage in many parts of the world. 7. Organic food choices grown on small-scale organic farms help ensure independent family farmers can create a livelihood. Consider it the domestic version of fair trade. 8. Most organic food simply tastes better than the pesticide-grown counterparts. 9. Organic food is not exposed to gas-ripening like some non-organic fruits and vegetables (like bananas). 10. Organic farms are safer for farm workers. Research at the Harvard School of Public Health found a 70 percent increase in Parkinson’s disease among people exposed to pesticides. Choosing organic foods means that more people will be able to work on farms without incurring the higher potential health risk of Parkinson’s or other illnesses. 11. Organic food supports wildlife habitats. Even with commonly used amounts of pesticides, wildlife is being harmed by exposure to pesticides. 12. Eating organic may reduce your cancer risk. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers 60% of herbicides, 90% of
Is there an energy drink that’s safe or nutritious or worth drinking? A look at Lost, Bawls, Bing, Reed’s and Pimpjuice
Short answer, not really. But we're feeling left out of the excitement, even if it's addled. Reed's Natural Energy Elixir is probably the most interesting (sparkling filtered water, cane sugar, pineapple juice, honey, fresh ginger root, lemon juice, lime juice, green tea leaf, ginseng, goji, acai, camu camu, jiaogulan & L-theanine) but won't deliver the jitters to suit energy drink junkies. It's sort of like Herbal-X was to Ecstasy. Colorado local Petey's Bing is a "natural" concoction with bing cherries, ginkgo biloba, ginseng, acai & flax seed extract (plus caffeine, taurine & guarana for the obligatory heart palpitations), but cuts its cane sugar with Sucralose to reduce the calories, so until they consider natural stevia, shelve Bing with Tab/Fresca. Pimpjuice has acai juice, grape extract, green tea extract, pomegranate juice, pear juice & yerba mate to supplement the usual suspect stimulants. The legendary Bawls ties with ...Lost for best taste in popular polls. But doesn't "Lost Energy" say it all? Our serotonin-leaking masses are being pitched caffeinated supplements to make up for what's gone missing from their dead processed food.
Border wars of the drug cartels, ours
So, on Telemundo the "Border War" rhetoric took some serious hits which I cheerlessly predict the Minutemen, Tea Party and other klan groups are going to spend a lot of time, corporate money and hot air trying to patch. La Migra admitted that they are losing the border, contrary to what the Republican puppet Partido Accion Nacional predicted when they sold the Socialist economy of Mexico, and the future of the people to Anglo-American Cartels. Two decades of capitalist "reform" have left the land and water poisoned, a lab-created mutant corn displacing the native strains which have existed thousands of years before the English existed as an organized society, the price of food, fuel, medical care have skyrocketed.... They WERE subsidized by the Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) national oil company. "Oh NO!!" scream the "Free" marketeers... "Socialism must fail, partly because we spent so much other People's Money and Military Power (composed of Other People's Sons) pressuring it to fail!! So now, those fleeing the newly created Capitalist Wasteland to feed their families are forced into a system of Immigration Control led and mandated by Racist hate groups. Who also happen to be funded by the same foaming at the mouth capitalists who ruined their homeland. And who feed their hate filled minions on the rage of people whose lives Here were torn down by the "Capital Cartel," who sell the most dangerous and lethal drugs know to man, and the worst of the all is Greed. The delusion that through faithful, arduous and low-wage servitude to the Cartel, and investing those wages back, they, too, might aspire to wealth. They sold the same line of shit to the Mexicans. In the two decades of NAFTA privatization, Poverty has grown, hugely, in both the U.S. and Mexico. So has "illegal" immigration, and the poisonous hatred of murderous Terrorist groups like the Minutemen. Thus to the next area of the web of Right-Wingnut Lies. Drug Cartels. Here we have a people whose subsistence Crops, corn for instance, have been displaced by plantations owned by the corporate partners Accomplices of British Petroleum, Exxon-Mobile, Monsanto... Mutant corn with genetic material from squid spliced in, to feed the chemically altered cattle, hogs and chickens, which make up the unhealthy American McDiet. To make "High Fructose Corn Syrup" which doesn't chemically match the equally lethal processed cane sugar, but Provides the human body the signal to store calories as fat. And the signals to make more insulin, which is chemically geared through the two million years of normal diet to carbohydrates such as in honey. The people of Mexico eat corn. No, no, I mean they EAT corn. And all the indigenous peoples from Canada to Tierra del Fuego having their dietary staples being displaced by the U.S. led McFake-food corporate McDiet. Poisoning other nations to enable poisoning us. John the Baptist's diet of locust and honey was much healthier than ours. So they run to other crops, local favorites like hemp and coca, introduced crops like opium. What they can grow in the land not
CSU Drake coal plant situated in heart of Colorado Springs, for heart disease
Europe is closing the last of its coal-fired power plants, while America rebrands coal as clean. And Colorado Springs literally embraces its pollution-spewing Martin Drake Coal Plant. You can burn fossil fuels to warm the globe from anywhere, but for a coal plant's particulate contaminants to directly deal death, chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, and pneumonia, it's even more effective to sidle up close. How's this for cozy? Downtown practically wraps its lips around CPU's toxic stacks, you don't even need rolling papers. Makes no difference which way the wind's blowing.
The story of toxic cosmetic stuff
The Story of Stuff's Annie Leonard takes on the chemical spill in our bathrooms. The unregulated poisons in our beauty products. Clean it up at Safe Cosmetics.
The consumer goods Killer App -KILLED
Finally a real KILLER APP. A free iPhone application called the Good Guide lets you scan the barcodes of (eventually) every consumer good to learn immediately its goodness rating on a scale of 0-10. No more Consumer Report printouts, mental notes or improvisational evaluation. The Good Guide score is the synthesis of three criteria, the ratings for which are also shown: health, environment and social. How healthy is this item? How environmentally friendly? And how socially-responsible is the producer? Notably missing is a ranking for price, sidestepping the inescapable real world cost vs. benefit compromise. UPDATE: FALSE HOPE ALARM. So far the products itemized by the GoodGuide are the General Mills variety, all of them rank highly. There's a sugared cinnamon cereal that gets a 10 for health. Hoho. According to an article in Grist, GoodGuide emerged from a project called TAO IT, created by Dara O'Rourke, associate professor at UC Berkeley's Department of Environmental Science, Management and Policy. Goodguide's aim sounds like a watchdog function better administrated by a regulatory agency. I can already see industry lobbyists setting up offices to influence the GoodGuide analysts. A lot will depend on the transparency of the GoodGuide benchmarks and the objective distance they can keep from market interests. For example, the PR budget of one conglomerate alone could create a faux ratings mechanism to usurp GoogGuide as consumers-aid du jour. A recent processed food industry Smart Choices badge comes to mind. The GoodGuide evaluation policies do give a good impression. GoodGuide aggregates and analyzes data on both product and company performance. We employ a range of scientific methods – health hazard assessment, environmental impact assessment, and social impact assessment – to identify major impacts to human health, the environment, and society. Each of these categories is then further analyzed within specific issue areas, such as climate change policies, labor concerns, and product toxicity. Currently, GoodGuide's database has over 600 base criteria by which we evaluate products and companies. Health Performance As an example, for health performance, GoodGuide's system takes into account both the impacts of a company's operations on its workers and local communities, and the impacts of using a specific product on your health. Our team has gathered data on important health hazards such as: • Cancer risks • Reproductive health hazards • Mutagenicity • Endocrine disruption • Respiratory hazards • Skin and eye irritation Our research currently uses a simplified health hazard assessment process that allows us to rate thousands of products along standard criteria. It should be noted that while these ratings are not risk assessments of products or chemicals, they do highlight potential hazards associated with the use of these products. Environmental Performance For environmental performance, GoodGuide is aggregating data on the life-cycle impacts of products, from manufacturing to transportation to use to final disposal. For companies, impact categories include: • Environmental emissions and their impacts on air, water, land, and climate • Natural resource impacts • Environmental management programs GoodGuide uses these categories to generate overall environmental performance ratings for companies. Social Performance For social issues, GoodGuide aggregates data on the social impacts companies have on their employees: • Compensation • Labor and human rights practices • Diversity policies • Working conditions In addition
Simplifying the Omnivore’s Dilemma
The author of The Omnivore's Dilemma put together a list of eating rules for the New York Times. From 2,500 submissions made by his readers, Michael Pollan gleaned 20. If I lob cheap laughs off the top, like "Don't eat egg salad from a vending machine" and other home-spun wisdoms which help NYT editors trivialize critiques of consumerism, I'm left with eight tips to spark constructive rethinking of our eating patterns. For starters: 1. If you are not hungry enough to eat an apple, then you’re not hungry. 2. You may not leave the table until you finish your fruit. 3. You don’t get fat on food you pray over. 4. Breakfast you should eat alone. Lunch you should share with a friend. Dinner, give to your enemy. 5. Never eat something that is pretending to be something else. 6. Don’t eat anything you aren’t willing to kill yourself. 7. Don’t yuck someone’s yum. 8. Eat until you are seven-tenths full and save the other three-tenths for hunger.
the food revolution starts here. only the healthy will survive.
There is a spate of recent films spilling the beans about the corporate takeover of the global food economy. Many are available online or through Amazon and Netflix. Please watch some of these. Show your kids. Host a screening in your community. Donate a copy or two to the local library or public school system. Encourage teachers to show the films. Spread the word! Subvert the dominant food paradigm! Refuse to play along anymore! Food, Inc., the first enviro-food movie to be screened in major theaters across the country, has brought food consciousness in the United States to a new level. Fresh: The Movie is the perfect follow-up screening to Food, Inc. because it shows the flip side—positive change being created by farmers, students, thinkers, and business people in the U.S. today. French Fries to Go documents Telluride, Colorado's quest to run city buses on recycled fryer oil. Garden Cycles: Faces From the New Farm is the story of three women on a three-month bicycle-powered tour of urban gardens throughout the Northeast. Polycultures: Food Where We Live looks at communities in Northeast Ohio that are coming together to grow a more sustainable, just, and local food system. The Greening of Southie is about Boston's first LEED-certified residential green building and the way it affected a community. Eating Alaska is a documentary by a vegetarian filmmaker who moves to Alaska and marries a hunter. The film looks at the ethics behind food choices and how politics, society, religion, and taste all play a role. Sustainable Table: What's on Your Plate? traces West Coast food production from field to table. To Market to Market to Buy a Fat Pig tours outstanding farmers' markets from Baltimore to Hawaii. The Real Dirt of Farmer John looks at one man and his family farm. Farmer John and his story will have you reconsidering stereotypes about farmers. The Garden examines the largest community garden in the U.S., 14 acres of green in South Central Los Angeles, and the fight to keep it there. The World According to Monsanto looks at this behemoth of a multinational agricultural biotech corporation and their dominance of patents on genetically engineered seeds and pesticides. Seeds of Deception focuses on how genetically engineered food is making its way into our daily diets. Bad Seed: The Truth About Our Food looks at who is controlling the world's food supply and the consequences of genetically modified food on health. The Future of Food examines the complex web of market and political forces that affect what we eat and what we will eat in the future. Food Matters takes a look at the often overlooked connection between food and our nation's current state of health. With the health-care debate raging, watching this film feels extra-timely and important. King Corn investigates the staggering scale of the corn related food economy in the U.S. in an entertaining way. While you're at it check out Carey's two part quest to go corn free. Two Angry Moms shows two angry (and awesome) moms striving to improve school lunch with simple changes, like having fresh fruits
sweet lies of high fructose corn syrup
I'm sure you've seen the Sweet Surprise commercials. There are several to target different consumer groups, but all involve a person #1 expressing hesitation at the offer of a high fructose corn syrup-laden "treat" and a smug HFCS-pusher asking sneeringly, "Oh yeah? Well, what's so bad about HFCS?" In the ads, person #1 hems and haws and has trouble articulating a satisfactory reply. HFCS person pats person #1 on the head condescendingly and says, "I thought so. Don't worry, high fructose corn syrup is just like sugar. In moderation, it's part of a healthy diet." Person #1 quietly accepts the offered Frankenfood while DDB Chicago, the creator of the ads, and the Corn Refiners Association, creator of the poison, high five at their clever game, played to the grave detriment of the confused end-consumer. I'm going to enlist my fledgling filmmaker son to help me produce a commercial of my own. The script will look something like this: ---------- Corporate Shill Cornelia: High fructose corn syrup is just like sugar. In moderation, it's perfectly peachy for you. Vigilant Consumer Veronica: Oh, no, Cornelia. Fortunately for you, I have a PhD in molecular biology and can help you understand how terribly you've been duped. When an individual consumes sugar, the pancreas responds by increasing the production of insulin which enables the glucose in the bloodstream to be transported into cells and used as energy. The body also increases the production of leptin, a hormone that helps regulate the appetite and send a satiety signal to the body. This tells us that we've had enough to eat, a crucial component in the pursuit of "moderation." HFCS, in contrast, doesn't cause insulin or leptin production nor increased cellular energy. You see, every cell in the body can metabolize glucose, but HFCS is only processed in the liver, like fats and alcohol, where it's converted into triglycerides. The "energy" locked in HFCS stays largely inaccessible to the body, and most people know that elevated triglycerides -- which we commonly refer to as high cholesterol -- can lead to a whole host of health problems, including hardened arteries and heart attack. With HFCS, the moderation mechanism is never triggered; we never feel satisfied. Maybe this explains why 30% of American children are obese and sluggish, and why Lipitor, which is used to treat high cholesterol, is the best-selling drug in the country today. With approval by the American Academy of Pediatrics, doctors are now prescribing it to children as young as 8. Cornelia, I know this is a lot to digest and, believe me, I've only begun to scratch the surface. The dangerous way HFCS is made, the genetically-modifed corn and enzymes that are used in its production, the fatty deposits and liver cirrhosis that may result from its over-consumption, the criminal complicity of the FDA, even the tale of interference with free-market mechanisms that led to its prevalence in the food supply, are all feature-length films in themselves. Please, Cornelia, take my advice. Get educated about HFCS. Read labels. Protect yourself and
DMNS refutes allegations of data misuse
NOTMYTRIBE received this response from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to our post: IS THE MUSEUM OF NATURE AND SCIENCE GATHERING PRIVATE DATA FOR HEALTH INSURERS? In the July 26 article I outlined concerns that medical data specialists could be harvesting checkup results conducted on visitors to the DMNS exhibit "Expedition Health." July 29, 2009 Dear Eric, As the Curator of Human Health at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and a member of the team that created the Expedition Health exhibition, I can say unequivocally that visitor information recorded in the exhibition is NEVER shared with insurers, and the “signs of subterfuge” you detail in your blog have no basis in fact. Privacy issues were a top consideration in the development of Expedition Health because the exhibition was deliberately designed to be highly personalized. Based on research and best practices in informal science education, we know that people learn human biology better when they’re learning about their own bodies, not the human body in general. The data that visitors provide when they sign-in to get their Peak Pass serves no other purpose but to customize Expedition Health for each person with the goal of creating a relevant, empowering, educational and memorable experience. While visiting Expedition Health, visitors can choose to participate in activities that record their resting heart rate, their target heart rate, their height and arm span, their stride length, speed and energy score. These activities are designed to provide data that is accurate, but this information is not intended to be used for any clinical or diagnostic purpose. The true reason for this data collection: through these measurements, visitors see that their bodies are constantly changing in ways they can see, measure and optimize though healthy lifestyle choices. Contrary to the claims made in your blog, we do not collect biometric data such as fingerprints,, voice patterns, retinal scan, etc., nor do we gather information about diet preferences, weight, body fat ratio, “stress test” results, vital statistics or present/past tobacco or sunscreen use. Visitors are challenged to build a healthy meal and see hypothetically what they might look like based on lifestyle choices such as wearing sub block. Information provided by visitors in Expedition Health—information that personalizes the experience and therefore enhances the educational experience—is stored in a secure database. This database does not interface with the Museum’s ticketing systems. A very limited number of staff members in the Museum have access to the visitor information that is gathered at the exhibit components. The data is kept so that visitors can look at their information and extend their learning experience at home by logging on to their own unique and secure web site. Visitors have two weeks to access their information online. Every two weeks, 98 percent of our visitors have their data purged from the database because they have not accessed it online after their visit to Expedition Health. The remaining two percent of visitors who elected to see
Is healthcare not a Human Right?
This is how Americans are going to get national health insurance, by demanding it. In Colorado Springs we're still passing around petitions to support President Obama's health insurance company stop-gaps. The Des Moines Catholic Workers find themselves charged with criminal trespass, for trying to confront Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield about their egregious profit-making at the expense of the public health. INSURANCE PROFITS MAKE US SICK. HEALTHCARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT Shouldn't healthcare be considered a human right? Men are not sick of their own volition, nor by acts of capricious fate. Mankind is being sickened by industrial society, from which the poisoners are reaping their profits without regard to the true costs of their toxic schemes.
Is the Museum of Nature and Science gathering health data for insurers?
DENVER- At the Denver Museum of Nature and Science the most popular exhibit this summer is called "Expedition Health" and features high-tech diagnostic kiosks where visitors can gauge the general state of their health. Judging by the long lines, you'd think these people haven't visited a doctor lately. I suspect that unless the medical insurance underwriters of the exhibit can be trusted, many of the DMNS-goers won't get to see a doctor again. My hypothesis-- that "Expedition Health" is surreptitiously collecting personal medical data on every visitor who comes through their doors, to add actionable factors to insurance customer files. If this is happening or not, it easily could. And the DMNS is not offering any assurance that it is not. Basically, everybody who goes through the Expedition Health exhibit is surrendering personal health data, which in the hands of insurers could be critical in their decision about whether or not to offer them medical coverage. Museum staff insist that the personal information is purged every night, although with a simple internet link this explanation is disproved. Staff explain that attendee magnetic cards are erased, perhaps innocently ignorant of where the information actually accrues as the public circulate from one kiosk to the next. At pharmacies you can measure your blood pressure without a personalized magnetic card. But at the DMNS health exhibit, sponsored by Met Life, Kaiser Permanente, et al, you have to tell the machines who you are before you can learn your heart rate, your vital statistics, results of a stress test, a measure of your "stride," digital imagery of your body at rest and in motion, scans of your fingers and palm, and a 3-D imaging of your face. A telling detail, to my mind, is that the DMNS offers no printed assurance that the health information of its attendees is not being harvested by data merchants. Is it? Do I have any proof? I will offer you the clues, and you can be the judge. I think there are enough signs of subterfuge to suspect that "Expedition Health" is not serving your health. Here's how it looks to the average exhibit visitor: the attendee is given a magnetic card to use at the electronic kiosks, at the culmination of which a "Peak Pass" card will be generated to reflect the user's health results. In the process the attendee learns about positive and negative factors which govern human health. Attendee are free to initiate the card with whatever fictitious ID data they wish, depending on how helpfully relevant they want their results to be. The impression of anonymity is bolstered by several insincerities. I will illuminate a few. A. The ruse of an aliased identity Part one, the ID. Before museum-goers can attend "Expedition Health," they must obtain an admission ticket marked with the time they can be scheduled to enter. This is done ostensibly to ease congestion through the exhibit hall. In purchasing their museum passes, or submitting their DMNS membership cards, the visitors are of course revealing their verifiable identities.
Swine Flu alarm raised to nincompoop
There it is, health crisis confirmed. Today the WHO raised the pandemic alert level to five. Confirmed cases of Swine Flu H1N1 have now spread to ten countries and our health is in the hands of idiots. Conniving idiots. This morning President Obama announced the dreaded first US fatality, but declined to reveal specifics out of a concern for patient confidentiality. Through the day we learned that the US death wasn't exactly representative of an accelerated infection rate. In reality the Swine Flu victim was a Mexican 23-month-old who'd been brought to the US for treatment. However, when CDC director Dr. Richard Besser was interviewed for the evening news, the alarm theme turned once again on the virus's escalation with the death of the American child in Texas. Though so far the US victims have suffered only mild cases, the CDC concludes on 4/29/2009: "The more recent illnesses and the reported death suggest that a pattern of more severe illness associated with this virus may be emerging in the U.S." I find it loathsome that Right Wing Nuts are pointing the finger at Mexican immigrants, and I'm in favor of our hospitals attempting to help whoever they can. But I don't think it's fair to pretend that someone afflicted in Mexico, who comes to the US, should be counted as an example of the Swine Flu having spread within the US. Wasn't Barack Obama supposed to herald the expunging of at least the facade of duplicity from our policy makers? We do not want to close the US-Mexico border, we say, because it's already too late, implying concern for relations with Mexican nationals. But hasn't the border permanently closed to them already? It's fortified by Minutemen vigilantes in fact? No, leaving the border open has everything to do with the products which US corporations are now producing in Mexico, both agricultural and industrial. I have to admit I'm not surprised at the lies, there are innumerable reasons to obfuscate the truth, from protecting the pork industry, to boosting shareholder investment in pharmaceutical stock. But I didn't expect the charade to be so incompetent. Dr. Besser went on to repeat the instructions with which we are meant to arm ourselves against the pandemic. Are you comforted any by the "duck and cover" advice they have to offer? What to do in the even of a pandemic: 1) wash your hands often, 2) cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze, 3) stay home if you feel sick --I'll interrupt to point out the obvious, this is not advice for staying well, it's advice for not contaminating others with what you have-- and 4) stay away from sick people. Is that how the health experts make themselves useful? And what sick people might those be? The other farcical component to this Keystone Docs epidemic is what's passing for a description of the "flu." Black Plague victims didn't know what they were up against, and apparently neither do we. To my mind it would help immeasurably to know what exactly
Dr Sanjay Gupta the US Quack General?
CNN is leaking inside information that its own TV health care pundit Sanjay Gupta is being tapped for US Surgeon General. What do you suppose Barack Obama would have in mind, to chose a Big Pharma / medical industry / insurance interest / media shill to be the American people's health care ombudsman? Were you among those hoping that Candidate Obama was going to bring health care reform, instead of seeking out a second opinion to say we're all doing just fine? In 2003 Sanjay Gupta was an embed in Iraq for Chrissakes, reassuring American viewers that our boys were receiving celebrity care and that Hippocratic attentions were being paid to Iraqi wounded too. Did that turn out to be true? CNN embed Gupta was a propagandist! It requires what scruples to do that? Maybe Obama should pick Geraldo for FCC chair. How about Ollie North for Military Industry Czar? More recently Gupta was the chief critic of Michael Moore's health care documentary SICKO. Gupta led the corporate media charge to discredit Moore's scathing assessment of the corrupt US medical system. Ask yourself, pray tell with what arguments could Gupta raise to redeem today's pitiable state of affairs? No surprise, Pricko Gupta has also proven to be an outspoken advocate of Gardasil, the tragically flawed inoculation being foisted upon our nation's young girls. To call Dr. Sanjay Gupta a quack would do disservice to chiropractors. He's in a league with Republican Bill Frist. Take two bitter pills and call me an asshole in the morning. Maybe being a CNN talking head comes with having to shill for whoever are your advertisers. At CNN, that would be the pharmaceutical advertisers, the HMOs and the insurance companies. If Gupta indeed goes to Washington, will he feel the same obligation to represent his sponsors? It won't be a matter of changed allegiances, they are the same corporate interests who fund both major parties. This time 'round that would be the Dems, including Barack Obama. Anyone who had hope that Obama would bring change to America's health care system, say hello to the brick wall's new face. It's the same face.
Red Bull is dangerous
RED BULL contains: caffeine, ginseng and guarana (all legal stimulants) sugars, artificial sweeteners, taurine (an amino acid said to lower blood pressure). RED BULL promises: increased energy, better concentration, sharper cognitive performance, greater endurance, higher metabolism, faster reaction time. RED BULL delivers: increased heart rate, heightened blood pressure, anxiety, jitters, hyperactivity, insomnia, hypoglycemia, dehydration. A single can of Red Bull or any other "energy drink" increases your risk of heart attack or stroke. The caffeine-jacked soda pop causes blood to become sticky which is a pre-cursor to cardiovascular problems. One hour after drinking Red Bull, the blood system becomes abnormal, functioning as it would in a patient with heart disease. This effect is seen even in young people. Take a look at Red Bull's website. The company has aligned itself -- through high-dollar sponsorships, which are nothing more than manipulative ad campaigns -- with the sporting crowd. It started with rodeo; the Red Bull logo is tailor-made for a swaggering cowboy. The company's tentacles have reached into the racing circuit, BMX cycling, extreme skiing, even soapbox derby. You'll find athlete superstars wearing the Red Bull logo in arenas and venues across the globe. It would be one thing if Red Bull was marketing its product to coke heads and junkies, providing them with a legal daytime buzz. But to suggest that athletes will benefit from the "energy" Red Bull offers is wildly irresponsible and evil. Unlike the electrolyte-balanced rehydration found in Gatorade, Red Bull is chock full of stimulants which cause rapid DE-hydration, making energy drinks exceptionally dangerous when used in rigorous physical activity. Loss of consciousness, kidney failure, and death are a few of the more troubling outcomes of serious dehydration. Even mild dehydration makes you feel like crap -- foggy, sluggish, headachy -- which doesn't enhance physical or mental performance in anyone. Threatening the health and well-being of rednecks and jocks the world over wasn't quite enough for these bastards. Red Bull expanded its reach into the late night crowd. Barfare like "Vodka Bulls" and "Jaeger Bombs" combine Red Bull's powerful stimulants with a heavy depressant which can lead to heart failure and other health crises. Norway, France, Denmark, and even Uruguay have banned sales of Red Bull completely. History has shown us that we can't expect responsible behavior from corporations. They have an apparent duty to shareholders to make money, unfettered by ethical considerations. That's why the Food and Drug Administration has been appointed our trusty watchdog. As soon as they've finished banning every natural supplement found in any organic health food store, I know they'll muster the energy to take on Red Bull. That day can't come soon enough. Many of us are tired of running on empty promises.
Work in a capitalist society does make people sick
In a previous commentary here at Not My Tribe ... I wrote that there was scientific evidence, as well as everyday common sense evidence, that work as defined and dished out by our upper crust bosses under capitalist society in America makes people sick. I was amazed that such a simple and easily verifiable observation provoked so little intelligent discussion by our esteemed readers! What gives? Personally, I have easily worked about a dozen made-dangerous-by- capitalism job types in my lifetime and feel fortunate that I have not been totally crippled by the experience. Apparently not all of us have had these work experiences though, and not having actually done any of the dangerous work in America might put rather rosy blinkers over the eyes of some few folk about the dangers of American capitalism as well as world capitalism as a whole? The experience of writing here on this blog about how work under capitalism eats away at workers, and then getting dissed off personally for having brought the subject up at all, I have found profoundly demoralizing. (what discussion began to occur about my previous commentary was quickly erased from this site//// I hope and trust that it does not happen again?). Why write about everyday life for me and others in this country, when one only gets disrespected and put down as being an idiot for doing so? There may very well be much better venues for political expression than this blog if this sort of thing was to become routine here on Not My Tribe? Back to the subject at hand though. Much work in the US, as in all other capitalist societies is undertaken with little concern for the physical safety, let alone emotional well being, of the workers doing the actual work. Farm workers are put out into fields with cancer causing chemicals all around, not given adequate water to drink under the hot sun, and then are harassed like they are some sort of human vermin by Immigration. Yes, work in a capitalist society does make people sick, and many farm workers get sick here in America. Only a totally hard and contemptuous person would actually call such observations about the dangerousness of work in capitalist America into any kind of real question, IMO. Farm work is only one single egregious example of the abuse of the American worker (YES, Migrant workers are from the Americas and should be considered American workers), and this abuse of us all who do the actual work goes on in each and every sector of our economy, and the damage to our health is extreme. This is a rather simple and obvious truth, and it should not need for multiple examples to be listed out to anybody, who has been living in US society and not born with a
What to do with that prick?
A US analysis of data has thrown a new loop into what to do with the world's pricks? I know that many women are especially interested in this question, especially America's nurses, who often debate this question amongst themselves for hours at a time. Shocking, but true.... but Circumcision HIV impact doubted!
The Business of Medicine
Does 'your' doctor care? Of course he doesn't! It's simply a business relationship and his 'care' is quantified by money. Don't look to a doctor for understanding Got more money? Then you will get more 'care', though not necessarily care. You won't get it from the nurses either. Being sick, old, or both is a lonely situation. Your paid 'care' givers rarely show genuine care in our dollar society. They are not allowed to really. Our affections are reduced down by the business community to a paycheck at best. If you want genuine care you'd do better to turn to a dog or cat rather than to an American doctor or nurse. Heck, American business even tried to monetarily quantify that real care as a brief trip to a Petco or Petmart will have you lectured about being 'responsible' to their 'companions' whose supplies they want to sell to you. But the dogs and cats don't buy it unlike the nurses and doctors who do. They're not into money and thus can actually deliver the real McCoy... CARE. The doctors and nurses will mainly deliver a business service to you, and badly at that.
Irradiate the liars at the FDA
Most of the food in the American diet is approved by the FDA for irradiation and chemotherapy treatments. Our fresh produce and meat are subjected to these invasive procedures 1) to kill microorganisms and other pathogens 2) to arrest or delay the ripening process 3) to act as a pesticide 4) to prevent spoilage or sprouting. Although they don't say it explicitly, irradiation also masks serious sanitation problems in both farming and meat processing and provides greater immunity to the food industry executives who can claim that their products were "clean" when they left the facility. The FDA has assured us over and over that the process of irradiation is completely safe. So safe, in fact, that consumers don't even need to know which foods are exposed to ionizing radiation. I think the FDA should define its terms. What do they mean by safe? Irradiation works by breaking down molecules and creating free radicals. Sure, the free radicals kill some bacteria, but they also damage vitamins and fragile enzymes. The free radicals can combine with existing chemicals in the food, like pesticides, to form new chemicals, called unique radiolytic products (URPs). Some of these URPs are known toxins like benzene and formaldehyde, and others are unique to the irradiated foods. Since they are unique, I guess we can assume they are safe. After the anthrax scare a few years back, the US Postal Service began irradiating our mail. Because there is no danger in irradiating anything, least of all the mail, they were surprised when postal employees began to experience headaches, nausea, eye irritation, lightheadedness, nose irritation, and chest or throat tightness when processing irradiated mail. The USPS hired an industrial hygiene consultant who found elevated levels of carbon monoxide, ozone, chlorine, and other volatile organic chemicals in the work area. The USPS called OSHA. Long and short of it, OSHA came in and did a bunch of tests. They found the same URPs that the consultant had identified, and quite a few more. But instead of addressing the dangers of mail irradiation, OSHA made the following recommendations: 1) "Air out" the mail before processing. 2) Monitor facilities for high concentrations of toxic chemicals/gases and, if found, try a change in handling methods or provide additional ventilation. 3) Keep a log to track health problems related to handling or being exposed to irradiated mail. Have the log reviewed periodically by an occupational medicine physician to look for trends or areas requiring further evaluation. (like maybe increased cancer rates or other pesky statistics) 4) Recommend that employees experiencing eye irritation use over-the-counter eye drops as often as necessary to relieve symptoms. Can you believe it? OSHA sold the postal employees down the river so they could keep the irradiation-is-perfectly-safe lie going. I'm sure they weren't given much leeway by the unscrupulous ignorant bastards at the FDA. Scientists have known for years that irradiation causes food to become vitamin deficient which leaves well-fed bodies starved for nutrition. Irradiation deactivates food enzymes which
Thank you Mr. President for all you do
Isn't it vaguely jarring when someone is asked publicly what would be their fondest wish, and they don't say "world peace?" I feel that way about athletes and celebrities in these times of great conflict. They could say Impeach Bush, Stop Torture, the Media Is Lying, or at the very least, the Emperor Has No Clothes! Instead they feed the media narrative fretting about their quest for a medal, about which we know already. Not to say the reporters aren't eager to run with whatever revelation they get. When Usain Bolt revealed that he fuels his running by eating "nuggets," the press was quick to announce the Fastest Man on Earth eats McDonalds. It's an easy conclusion. Where else are nuggets on a menu but the Mc variety? A convenient conclusion too, as McDonalds is a chief sponsor of the Olympics. They're running adds featuring ex-athletes, in athletic settings, pitching McPhood. Although no Olympic athlete could jeopard his/her health to a McDonalds meal depth-charge. Sports reporters know that too. Shame on them for perpetrating the McNuggets disinfo until Bolt's father could be reached for an explanation. Usain's "nuggets" are a concoction of yams, and no doubt something Jamaican that will soon be ruled out as doping. Reporters did interview an Olympic competitor who's eating plenty at the Beijing McD's. He's an archer, who has no need to move around. Probably his weight stabilizes his aim. Probably too he's got no aspirations for the Pentathlon. The convenient unofficial unsolicited McEndorser weighs 215 pounds. I've heard Olympic athletes are oblivious to real world concerns. Perhaps I can forgive them for not making political statements, even though they have the forum. They're forbidden, but as attention hounds, you'd think they'd notice that the athletes now most honored for the 1968 Mexico City Games were the ones who raised their fists. Instead the 2008 Beijing Olympics has this: heralded to be the best Beach Volleyball duo of all time (The TV announcer kept asking "Can I say it? Can I say this is the best beach volleyball team of all time?!" -even though this sport/spectacle pandering to the NASCAR fans has been part of the Olympics only THREE TIMES BEFORE), the winners had this statement to make, after clearing it with their interviewer. Said Kerri Walsh: "Can I say something? Thank you Mr. President, for your support. And thank you for all that you do!"
The for-profit medical system of the DRC
The US is not the only country with a for-profit, corporate run medical system. Most of the world unfortunately has this sort of system where life and death medical decisions are strictly made on the basis of the patient's ability to pay. Check out how capitalism in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) has helped produce a genocide of over 5,000,000 dead. Sure there is ongoing war there, but only 1% or so actually die directly due to wounds obtained in battle. The rest die through their capitalist for-profit medical structure of care delivery. It doesn't work to deliver much actual health. That's true in the DRC and also here in the USA. Congo's silent harvest of death This report discusses the real cause of death in this African country where poverty, war, and the capitalist system of health care team up to kill people.