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The Keys to Trusting Your Gut
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In this video, I interview Gary Vaynerchuk about his family roots and how his upbringing contributed to his current success. Vaynerchuk, often known as Gary Vee, is a prominent entrepreneur, author, speaker, and internet personality.
He’s best known for his work in digital marketing and social media, leading his own company VaynerMedia, a digital agency focused on social media-first approaches. He first gained prominence by revolutionizing his family's wine business through innovative online marketing, which included creating one of the first e-commerce platforms for alcohol and hosting a daily webcast called "Wine Library TV."
His efforts dramatically increased the business's annual revenue from $3 million to $60 million. Vaynerchuk has also authored several books, including "Crush It! Why NOW Is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion" and "Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World," which provide insights into leveraging social media to build personal brands and businesses.
He is also involved in venture capital, having invested in companies like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Uber early on. Through his personal brand and his company, he’s become a leading influencer among marketing professionals and entrepreneurs.
Family, Faith and Health
Vaynerchuk was born in Babruysk, Belarus, which was part of the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991. His family emigrated to the United States when he was 3 years old. His father opened a liquor store and Gary, even as a young boy, would help out, because that’s how families in Belarus work. They work together.
Eastern Europeans also tend to have deep spiritual family values, which is relatively rare in the U.S. these days. I heard him on a few other podcasts and was intrigued by the fact that he was so tuned into the spiritual aspect of reality.
I'm not as interested in WHAT he does, as HOW he does it. Where does the passion come from? I’m also intrigued by how the love of one’s parents can contribute to a person’s success in life. Are the two connected? I believe so.
Natural Healing — Your Body Knows What to Do
Eastern Europeans also tend to be far savvier about natural health than many Americans. Vaynerchuk recounts the story of how his great grandmother would wake him and his sister up when she came to visit and make them go outside and walk on the grass in their bare feet. Today, this is known as “grounding” or “earthing.”
“I'm very affected by my upbringing,” he says. “It’s my framework. I was also taught to never go to the doctor, ever, for my whole life. And also, no foreign chemicals. If I take two Advil right now, I'm unconscious.
Whether it's the foods, or the things you put into your body, or how you interact with nature. I also remember my family being weird — or so I thought as a kid in the 80s in America.
We'd go to Sandy Hook, the beach, and my family would immediately run in and grab sand from the bottom of the ocean and scrub their faces with it. The other thing, literally anytime I wasn't feeling well, for the first 15 years of my life, my mom or my grandma would say ‘Drink some tea and go to sleep ...’
If you asked 18-year-old me in 1993, ‘Talk about medicine,’ my initial answers would be ‘ginger, cinnamon, mint, red beets.’ When I used to have a chest cold, my mom would put vodka on a rack and heat it up and put it on my chest. Not Vicks VapoRub. Just real ancient, historical ways of doing stuff ...
I just remembered something I haven't thought about 30 years. I used to think of my body like a superhero. If the superhero character got their thumb cut off, the thumb would just grow back in. I literally grew up thinking that if I did nothing, that it would fix itself.
Three weeks ago, I jammed my thumb playing basketball very badly. My friends were like, ‘Let's put some ice on it.’ It swelled up. I didn't do it.
A week later, my trainer said, ‘You know, it's interesting that you didn't do the ice thing, because I've been reading a lot about how the body naturally does it. It swells up to protect you. It's a natural cast.’ It was just interesting the way he was talking about it. And he said, ‘Some people are now debating that you're actually better off not icing it.’”
Healthy Body, Healthy Mind
Indeed, your body is designed to stay healthy. It’s not designed to get diseased. That only happens because you’re not providing the foundational elements required for self-healing. If you have a healthy metabolism, you will not have chronic pain anywhere, and energy to spare.
Metabolically healthy people also tend to be perpetually curious. You must have enough energy to be curious, and most people don’t have enough energy because they’re metabolically poisoned. Like Vaynerchuk suggests, optimism is another feature commonly found among healthy people.
“I believe my optimistic point of view on everything has an incredible impact on my life,” Vaynerchuk says. “So, it goes both ways. I grew up in my dad's liquor store, and so, I got into very bad habits and really hurt my back. My QL.
But I would say soft tissue and fascial work has given me a new lease on life. I've always felt healthy. But I definitely had aches and pains and mobility issues until I got serious about that seven, 10 years ago.”
Foundational Basics Pay Off
The challenge most of us have is that our work doesn't in any way, shape, or form resemble the work of our ancestors, whose work forced them to move about all day long. We don't do that. Most people are stuck behind a desk most of the day. There are serious consequences of this, including aches and pains.
I'm in the process of developing something called 22nd Century yoga, which is a form of mobility medicine where you engage in daily movements that will help you stay limber. Also, as noted by Vaynerchuk, when you violate your own inner wisdom, your body will communicate your mistake to you, frequently in the form of pain, discomfort or fatigue.
For example, most people realize that they feel better after spending time outdoors in a natural setting. Just being in the sun has tremendous healing benefits, not only because it prompts vitamin D production but also because the near-infrared rays in sunlight nourish your body in other ways.
Sunlight interacts with light receptor proteins called chromophores in your body. When light hits the chromophores, they activate a variety of biological processes, including mitochondrial chelating systems in the cells, nitric oxide release and ATP production, all of which, together, promote DNA repair and cellular regeneration. Most of the Eastern European patients that I treated instinctively knew that the sun is a source of nutrition and were outside regularly.
The same thing goes for getting dirty, which helps strengthen your immune system. “I still have a very good relationship with germs,” Vaynerchuk says. “It’s incredible to me how infrequent I struggle with any kind of cold.” Today, we know that as the hygiene hypothesis, which suggests that if you're overly hygienic and too assiduous about cleaning with antiseptics, your immune system becomes weaker.
Finding Balance
In the interview, we also talk about the role of media and how it’s being used for propaganda, including health propaganda.
“One of the great things that happened to me was I was born in the Soviet Union, but I grew up in America. So, propaganda was something I thought about all the time. Like when Reagan was president, I could sense that he was doing a good PR job. At 10, I understood.
I was also very entrepreneurial, and very quickly, in my early 20s, I'm like ‘Everything is business.’ We now talk about Big Food, Big Pharma. It was very, very intuitive to me in my 20s. And so, I've lived my adult life taking everything with a grain of salt.
I feel like that's becoming a more modern conversation as people are trying to figure out east-west, historical versus modern. And you know, I do think people overcorrect the other way.
I've got personal [friends] who so have demonized modern medicine that they are no longer with us, because they didn't do some things that they should have that probably could have helped them. So, I think a lot about finding the middle.”
As mentioned, while not a health expert, Vaynerchuk’s perspective on health tends to be intuitively spot-on, thanks to his upbringing. Ultimately, you’d want to trust your body to figure it out. It is not that you abandon rationality and data — you certainly need to take that into consideration — but to blindly trust experts other than your body is a foolish choice in my opinion.
On Marketing Well
Next, our conversation transitions into areas that Vaynerchuk is most known for, namely marketing and entrepreneurship. He comments:
“I think what I've done well is communicate to people about incredible truths [that] in marketing ... have been fruitful. I think people are getting a lot more alternative knowledge from the way the internet works and things of that nature. But I think I'm incredibly practical.
It's funny, I think about business and marketing the way that you and I are discussing health right now. If you're worried about your body, why on earth would you not listen to your body? I find something very interesting about the medical industry, which is they like to fight each other on who's right.
And I see it in marketing. I tell a lot of marketing ideological professors or pontificators who also write books like I do — ‘Wait a minute, if you're so good at marketing, why doesn't your book sell?’ I grew up learning marketing by trying to help my father's liquor store do more business, because that's what you do for your family business.
And so, since I was 6 years old, I've been obsessed with attention. Let me explain what I mean. What I find amazing about what you and I are doing right now is we couldn't do this 40 years ago. Humans that have passion or expertise for things couldn't get into the world. We needed to have a gatekeeper say that we’ll interview you or will give you three minutes on this show.
But no one had platforms. And so, I've been focused on attention my whole life. And now, every platform allows for attention. That is a remarkable change in the world. So, for example, I believe that what I was doing at 6, which was paying attention to what the cars that were driving by my lemonade stand would most likely look at to see that my lemonade was 25 cents.
From that day on to today, I spend all of my time trying to understand where consumer attention is. What are they paying attention to? What do they look at? Which platforms? Is it direct mail? Is it Google? Is it YouTube? Is it TikTok? And so, my great passion is understanding where attention is and then communicating in practical, optimistic terms what we are talking about.”
Three Keys to Marketing Success
In the early 2000s, Vaynerchuk broke out with a wine show on YouTube called Wine Library TV. He cites three reasons for the success of that show.
“One, I was deeply knowledgeable and passionate about wine at that point, and I spoke about wine in a way that no one had ever spoken about it before. Wine was put on a very elitist pedestal. And as you probably know, through your life, people are intimidated by wine, right? ...
So, I wanted to make it less intimidating. I spoke about it in very casual terms, and I would compare it to things that people knew. Instead of talking about a wine tasting like ‘an esoteric cassis from the south of France,’ I would say, ‘You know that grape Jolly Rancher you loved as a kid?’ I made it relatable.
And finally, I used a new medium. I was able to use YouTube when it first came out when nobody really knew how big it was going to be to reach a lot more people than, let's say, The New York Times’ dining section.
I believe the framework that I started for wine is what I do now. I have a marketing company called VaynerMedia that works with the biggest companies in the world to do their marketing and social and traditional channels. But I feel passionate for the people that are listening that are entrepreneurial.
I just wrote a new book called ‘Day Trading Attention,’ which is really my thesis. I couldn't explain to everyone here how great of an opportunity everybody has to reach an audience for the first time, really, in the history of distribution, [in a way that’s] immediate and creative.
For the first 15 years, it was email marketing. You would have to amass a lot of followers, and then you would post and a percentage of them would see it. We now live in a new era where it's really profound.
Every individual piece of content on LinkedIn, on YouTube, on Instagram, has the potential to reach a very broad audience based on the quality of the piece of content, not on how many followers you have.
This is a level of meritocracy of information and entertainment that we have never seen in the history of the world. And I could not recommend more for people to get very serious about organic social media, meaning you just post — you don't even have to run media ads on it — for you and your platform.”
The Hidden Connection Between Your Gut and Your Intuition
Vaynerchuk continues:
“I turned on Netflix the other night and saw a documentary about gut health trending in the top 10. I was happy to see that. I'm personally fascinated by intuition and the fact that — I believe — the gut is your primary brain, and your brain is second.”
He’s, again, spot-on. Your gut is the primary way that you obtain health, and I would say 97% to 98% of the public do not have good gut health. It correlates really strongly with metabolic flexibility, the ability to optimally generate cellular energy. They're intimately related, and if you don't have good gut health, you can't connect to your gut, which is sort of a euphemistic way of saying you can't connect to your energy or your intuition.
AI Will Revolutionize Information Sharing yet Again
Of course, we now stand at the precipice of yet another revolution, in terms of information gathering and sharing. In the last several years, we’ve seen the rise of tremendous censorship, especially pertaining to natural or alternative health, which is in direct competition with Big Pharma.
For a time, after being deplatformed everywhere, I feared the knowledge I and many others have and share would eventually be lost forever. Now, I realize that’s not the case.
Artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT is rapidly overtaking traditional search engines, and there’s a tremendous opportunity in that. Just about anyone can create their own AI chatbots trained on the material YOU want it to know, and at present, there doesn’t appear to be a way to put that genie back in the box.
More Information
To learn more, you can pick up any one of his books, listen to his podcast, or follow him on Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube or TikTok.
In addition to "Crush It! Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion," "Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World" and “Day Trading Attention: How to Actually Build Brand and Sales in the New Social Media World,” he’s also coming out with a children’s book called “Meet Me in the Middle.” It’s a story about a patient pig and an eager eagle.
“Patience is [among] my top five favorite traits in a human being,” he says. However ... a lot of people, when they hear me talking about patience, think that I'm talking about non-action, or that I'm talking about laziness. And I keep telling people, there's a reason that there are separate words. Laziness and patience are not the same ...
I created V Friends, it's my Sesame Street-meets-Pokémon, to help kids and parents finally find the middle, because everything can be great and balanced, and most things aren't, really, where they’re at.”
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Important Legal Wins by the Informed Consent Action Network
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In the video above, Del Bigtree, founder of “The Highwire” and the Informed Consent Action Network (icandecide.org), shares some of the recent lawsuits ICAN has won against the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I couldn't do the work that I do without Aaron Siri, the lawyer I teamed up with back at the very end of 2016, just as I was starting my nonprofit,” Bigtree says.
“He's just been so dynamic. I would say he’s probably the most successful lawyer working with our nonprofit ICAN in the medical freedom space, especially in this space of bringing awareness to vaccines.
We've won lawsuits against the NIH, CDC, Health and Human Services — all the medical regulatory agencies. We knew we would be moving into a new dimension when we took an offensive position; when we stopped defending ourselves against the bills and the laws that were coming at us, and started writing bills that benefit us.”
A Win in Mississippi
For example, in 2023, ICAN won back the religious exemption from vaccinations in Mississippi that had been gone since 1979. It was the first state in the union to lose the ability to opt out. In 2023, Mississippians regained that choice.
“It was California that really got me into this fight,” Bigtree says. “I was living in California when they passed SB 277 and joined Mississippi and West Virginia ... As you know, the end of the first rule of the Nuremberg Code, which is the voluntary consent of the patient, is actually critical.
That transformed medicine as we know it. In the modern world, the Nuremberg Code was to make sure that the patient always maintained control so that we never found ourselves being experimented upon. So to watch these states, to watch President Biden mandate vaccines on people, and say you can't go to work without a vaccination, is really terrifying.
It’s erasing probably the most important step in modern medicine, which is ensuring that the patient is always in control of their destiny. And so that was really critical to us. Winning that exemption back in Mississippi took years. It was actually quite fascinating. COVID delivered the way forward on that actually.
COVID woke so many people up. Just the fact that only somewhere around 10% of the people that are eligible for the booster shots are getting them ... means 90% have left the CDC's recommendations. That's a huge, huge shift in consciousness in this country.
And of course you had at least 30% that never got the vaccine at all [despite] one of the most incredible onslaughts of propaganda. The Biden administration said publicly they spent $10 billion on advertising and using sitcoms and shows to brainwash us to get the vaccine. I mean, changes in political systems have usually happened with less than 30% of the driving force of the nation.”
COVID also forced courts to take a stand on religious rights. As explained by Bigtree, we saw churches being shut down while big box stores, liquor stores and even strip clubs were allowed to remain open. Court cases ensued, in which the courts concluded that wherever there is a secular right, there must also be a religious right.
ICAN mirrored that argument in its Mississippi case and pointed to the medical exemption. If people have the right to opt out of a vaccine program for medical reasons (which is a secular reason), then people must also have the right to opt out for religious reasons.
“Where there's a secular reason, our constitution says there must be religious protection too,” Bigtree says, and that’s how they won that case. “Without COVID, I'm not sure that precedence would have been there,” he adds. This is also one of the reasons why Bigtree does not buy into the idea that COVID went exactly as the globalists intended and they got us where they want us.
“I don't believe that's true. I think we caught them by surprise. And I think they made some serious mistakes and allowed openings in the legal system by which we can take advantage and really start to shift some of this authoritarian pressure around medical decisions.”
In a project called “Free the Five,” ICAN is now working to regain the religious exemption to vaccination in Connecticut, New York, California, West Virginia and Maine as well. Another overarching theme of ICAN’s work is to eliminate any and all medical mandates in the U.S.
Other Important Wins
ICAN has also won cases against the U.S. Air Force and Army on behalf of soldiers who were being kicked out for refusing the COVID shot. They also won a big case against airlines that were mandating mask wearing. So, several precedences have now been set, which will make it all the more difficult for government to replicate what they did during the COVID pandemic.
“We have won these cases, showing that those were illegal actions by our government,” Bigtree says. “In fact, we showed that the Biden mandate [for businesses with more than 100 employees] was illegal ... So it is going to be much harder for them to do this again ...
Recognize that you live in a nation where you're endowed your rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness by God, not by the government. This is something that we really got to get focused on, because I think people, and maybe the education system, have really shifted the truth on us where we think that the government somehow gives us our rights. They don't.”
ICAN also spent a fortune suing the FDA to release the data from the trials of the Moderna and Pfizer COVID shots, as well as the CDC, which was refusing to release its V-Safe data. All of that is now coming out thanks to Siri’s dogged efforts, and the data are devastating.
Why Causation Cannot Be Proven
What people need to understand is that the system has been rigged in such a way that you cannot prove causation. ICAN has proven, in court, that none of the childhood vaccines ever used a true placebo group, which means you cannot establish causation.
“People don't get this. When someone says ‘I feel like my child's asthma is caused by the vaccine,’ they'll always say, ‘Well, that's correlation, not causation.’ What people don't know is the only way to establish causation, the only moment that can happen, is during that placebo-based trial.
When they don't do that, it doesn't matter if 100 people die immediately after getting the vaccine, they will state ‘correlation not causation’ because you don't have a control group to point against. It could be obvious, but they're allowed that language.
And so they are avoiding doing the studies so that they never have to tell you that. But all that being said, we were promised that the FDA, CDC would be very transparent [about the COVID shots]. They knew they were rushing them to market without any long-term trials.
Now you and I both know they’ve never done a long-term trial on any of the vaccines, but this is the first time anyone in the world really became aware of that because it was happening right before their eyes. And they promised, ‘Oh, we're going to be transparent.’
But as soon as we started to say, OK, we would like to see all the trial data that the FDA used to approve the EUA [emergency use authorization], they suddenly said they needed 75 years to collect all of that data and hand it over. So we fought them in court, and we ultimately won ...
So, now we can hand all of that data to independent scientists around the world to start seeing what happened inside of these trials. There's lots of great work coming from that showing that death rates were much higher in the vaccine group than they ever led on.”
What the V-Safe Data Shows
ICAN also won its case against the CDC, which was ordered to release its V-Safe data. V-Safe was a cellphone app that people who got the COVID shot could use to record side effects. As noted by Bigtree, “that’s the closest you're ever going to get to a cohort study, because we know exactly how many people were in the group.”
The problem with the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) and other post marketing surveillance systems is that while you can see how many injuries and deaths there are, you do not know how many got the shot, so you don’t know what the rate of injury or death is. With the V-Safe data, we can make those calculations.
A little over 10 million people signed onto the V-Safe app and, of those, about 700,000 or 7% reported seeking medical care after their shot. So, now we know that 7% of the population that received the COVID shot required medical care.
Approximately 30% also reported being unable to perform daily functions, which is rather staggering. As noted by Bigtree, that makes the COVID shot one of the most tragic and dangerous vaccines ever made. But the reality is actually even worse than that.
“The CDC had played a trick on everybody,” Bigtree says. “We saw through FOIA that the working group that was working on the V-safe app knew that what they should really be looking at were the ‘adverse events of special interest’ — myocarditis, anaphylaxis, Bell's palsy, strokes and blood clots.
Those were on the list, but they ended up not putting any of those questions on this app, which shows you they were trying to avoid [finding out the truth about the rate of those side effects]. Instead, they included an open box text field, that if it didn't fit into your check-the-box space, just write in what happened to you. There are over 7 million open box text fields.
That means people had injuries going beyond what they were being asked about. We did not [gain access to] that [data]. We got all the open-check-box fields, but Aaron Siri has gone a step further.
He stayed in court for a year and just won the case that the CDC is going to have to hand over all 7 million open text fields. We think that's where we're going to see people were going to the hospital with chest pains and strokes and heart attacks.
I believe we may be about to see the smoking gun. So, that's a really, really big win. And I think it may be the revelation needed to put an end to this entire conversation on whether the COVID shots are safe.”
Is There Graphene in the Shots, and Do Viruses Exist?
Since their release, a number of theories have emerged about the COVID shots and their mechanisms of harm. For example, many believe, and claim to have evidence, that there is graphene in the shots that can act as a 5G antenna. I doubt this, and Bigtree agrees.
“One of the things we did was put it under a microscope,” he says. “We had over 100 vials that we put through electron spectrometry [with pathologist Ryan Cole], and all I can say is, out of the more than 100 doses ... there was no graphene oxide to be found.”
I also do not believe claims that there are no viruses, and neither does Bigtree. He comments:
“I have always said I'm open to a conversation. I offered a couple of the leading voices in that sort of terrain theory, there is no virus space, the opportunity to come on my show. I haven't even said this on the show, and I'm probably getting in trouble by saying this, but they came to me and said, we will only come on your show to disprove germ theory. We are not there to prove a theory of our own.
And I don't think people recognize that that's where this is at. They speak with such authority, as though we've got evidence of terrain theory and exosomes ... But the truth is, is they know there's not enough science to prove that. I am a skeptic and I will look at anything. I'm open to having my mind changed. But you have to have evidence ...
But the point I want to make is that even if they can show that there's some other delivery system, it’s not my hill. It's not what I'm guided by God to be a part of. I'm winning the argument using their germ theory. Using germ theory, their vaccines are falling apart. I'm beating them.
It's like we're in the Super Bowl and millions of people are watching worldwide. I'm playing by their rules and winning. If I'm going to switch to some other theory, like ‘there are no germs,’ then I have to move everybody to a different stadium. It’s a whole new universe.
I’ve then got a whole new set of rules and have to start all over again. And frankly, we don't have time for that. We are in a dangerous, precarious moment where we're about to lose all control over our bodies, our sovereignty in so many levels.”
Is Viral Shedding Real?
So, what about viral shedding? Can an unjabbed person actually get sick from close contact with a jabbed individual? Here, the answer appears to be yes.1 Bigtree comments:
“I just had Dr. Pierre Kory on my show, who speaks very clearly about this. You have these studies where the parents got vaccinated, the children didn't get the vaccine, and the children have the vaccinal antibodies. So they had the spike protein, but not the carrier, not the rest of the virus ...
There's a question about what is actually happening there, but clearly, there's a transfer of some kind from the vaccine.
And when we look at all the anecdotal evidence — when it comes to women's health and their periods changing when they're around people that are vaccinated — I just think at a certain point, a logical, the stronger reality, the hypothesis is we are seeing a marked change in humans that haven't received the vaccine when they're around large groups of people that have.
So I think it's clear that there's shedding going on, though I'd like to see more science and evidence looking into that. But that's where I am. And I'm concerned about it. I'm concerned about, how do I clear man-made spike protein and whatever this Franken virus is, out of my system? One of the things I started doing is I have a consistent intermittent fasting program now because I'm trying to create cell die off.”
Intermittent fasting may indeed be helpful in, if you’re sick or generally unhealthy, but I doubt it’ll be beneficial if you’re healthy. One of the things that improves mitochondrial function is lowering endotoxin. If your gut microbiome is healthy, fiber-rich foods like whole fruits will feed probiotics (beneficial bacteria) in your gut. But if your microbiome is unhealthy, then the extra fiber will make endotoxin-producing bacteria proliferate instead.
I also do not recommend extended fasting. Even intermittent fasting (fasting for eight to 16 hours a day) can be problematic if you have impaired liver function, because the liver is the primary storehouse of glucose in the form of a polymer called glycogen.
Normally, you have enough glycogen to last a day, but if you have liver disease like nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which at least a third of the population has, then your ability to store that glycogen is diminished and you are unable to supply that sugar to your blood. Without sugar, you go into a hypoglycemic coma and eventually die.
While your brain can thrive on ketones, it really needs glucose. The way your body reconciles this is that when your sugar goes too low, you release stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. So, when you’re on a low carb diet or do extended fasting, you end up releasing lots of stress hormones that, over time, destroy your body. So, you need healthy carbohydrates.
The healthiest carbs are ripe fruit. If you have an impaired microbiome, then you can have fruit juice without pulp, because, again, the fiber can trigger endotoxin release when you don’t have enough probiotics to keep the bad bacteria in check.
As for how to protect yourself against viral shedding, I believe nebulized hydrogen peroxide can be very helpful. If you do it at the very first sign of a respiratory infection, you only have to do it once and you typically won’t get sick. You can learn more about this strategy here.
More Information
If you’re looking for a reliable news source, you can’t go wrong with Del Bigtree’s show, ”The Highwire,” which can be found on thehighwire.com, Rumble and your favorite podcast provider, including Amazon podcasts, Rephonic, Podbean and more.
To stay abreast of ICAN’s legal updates, sign up for their newsletter at icandecide.org. There you can also find all the COVID jab data that have been released so far, including lot and dose data used to identify “hot lots” for the Pfizer, Moderna and J&J shots, and the V-Safe data.
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Holistic Pediatrician on How to Safeguard Your Kids' Health and Future
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From Dr. Joseph Mercola
Since COVID-19 first entered the scene, exchange of ideas has basically been outlawed. By sharing my views and those from various experts throughout the pandemic on COVID treatments and the experimental COVID jabs, I became a main target of the White House, the political establishment and the global cabal.
Propaganda and pervasive censorship have been deployed to seize control over every part of your life, including your health, finances and food supply. The major media are key players and have been instrumental in creating and fueling fear.
I am republishing this article in its original form so that you can see how the progression unfolded.
Originally published: November 19, 2023
In this interview, Dr. Lawrence (Larry) Palevsky, a practicing pediatrician, discusses the impact that mainstream propaganda narratives have on our children, and why it's so important to get your children out of the public education system. He also reviews some of the foundational strategies for staying healthy, and how to treat those dreaded childhood fevers.
Palevsky has been one of the medical experts speaking out against the COVID shots, but he was a pro-choice, vaccine safety advocate long before COVID. Clearly, the COVID jab is the most dangerous "vaccine" in history, but all vaccines are fundamentally flawed and come with risks.
Palevsky, who graduated from the NYU School of Medicine in 1987, initially became concerned about vaccines in 1991, when the New York State Department of Health started to mandate hepatitis B vaccine for all infants.
"I had no comments about vaccines per se at that time," he says, "but it just raised the red flag to me. Why are we giving a vaccine to a population that has never suffered from hepatitis B infections and where we can give the mother hepatitis B vaccine, or give the kid a hepatitis B vaccine if the mother was surface antigen positive?
So, this raised an alarm for me ... We had never had a vaccine for an illness that didn't affect the population we were injecting ... [Then], in 1998, in the outpatient department of the hospital, a mother came to me and said, 'Dr. Larry, did you know that there's mercury in vaccines?'
I heard that information and I said, 'Alright, what else [don't I know]?' And the 'what else' created the last 25 years of finding information that I would never have been taught in medical school or residency that directly opposed the narrative.
It didn't oppose the science, it just opposed the narrative. And what I realized was, I was finding science while I was being opposed by consensus, and consensus is not science. And so, by 1998 to 2000, I found that the risks far outweighed the benefits and, by 2002, I decided that I would never offer vaccines again in my practice ...
I could not in good conscience offer [patients] something that I had no knowledge about scientifically, and a lot of concern about scientifically, because there was no safety about it. There were no real studies done. The ingredients were unknown and filthy at best. And there were no good studies to demonstrate safety or effectiveness."
The COVID Shot Debacle
While many doctors have lost their medical licenses for refusing to give vaccines, especially in the COVID era, Palevsky's livelihood was never threatened in that way, probably because he doesn't have hospital privileges, doesn't use electronic medical records, doesn't sell vaccines and rarely writes prescriptions.
So, there's little in terms of track record of what he's doing clinically, other than what his patients might have to say. He's also not selling any kind of alternative to vaccination. And, since he hadn't offered childhood vaccinations for two decades, nothing changed when the COVID jab came out.
"There were pediatricians around the country who called me out," Palevsky says, "who are now probably eating crow because the evidence back then, when they called me out, was obvious, and the evidence now is even more obvious that this is a bioweapon, a murder weapon and not a shot that's meant for health."
Obviously, I couldn't agree more. It's a bioweapon, and it seems to be particularly pernicious to the young who have no clinical need for it. Children's risk of dying from COVID is negligible, and that was clear from the start. The primary reason for jabbing children was to protect the elderly, which is completely unethical. Hence, children can only receive harm from the jab, and we're seeing that in spades. Palevsky comments:
"I think the most heinous thing is that ... the whole system has been gaslighting the obvious observations and experiences of most of the physicians and parents in the world who have woken up.
The first things we started to see were menstrual cycle changes, especially in women who had stopped menstruating. The most horrible thing we started to see was infertility, stillbirths, miscarriages. And then we started to see babies born with birth defects, babies born with strokes, with blood clots, with developmental delays.
We saw young kids with myocarditis, inflammation of the heart, pericarditis, inflammation around the heart. You saw kids who were dropping dead. You saw kids who were having neurological problems in addition to stroke. You saw seizures. You're even seeing Parkinsonian-type symptoms in young adults. And again, the sudden death was amazing.
Heart attacks. And what's most amazing is that the medical profession in advance started to prepare the public for heart attacks and strokes in kids. They started to approve medications ahead of time so that people were prepared to know that pharmaceutical medicine was available should your child have a heart attack.
So these things were normalized into the pediatric population and pediatricians were just accepting that neonatal ICUs could have stroke victims all the time. The other interesting thing was that in OB suites, we're starting to see fewer and fewer kids being born, which was another sign of infertility. Nonetheless, all of it is being accepted as normal."
COVID Jabs Opened Pandora's Box
According to experts, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) appears to be primarily related to immunizations. After the release of the COVID jabs, we suddenly started seeing adults dropping dead for no apparent reason, a phenomenon dubbed sudden adult death syndrome (SADS).
Still, even though most of the SADS cases are happening among those who got the COVID jab, it hasn't been causally linked. Curiously, between 2020 and 2023, SIDS rates actually dropped from historical norms, and Palevsky believes this is because many parents weren't taking their children in for their routine primary care visits due to lockdowns and fear of going out in general.
One silver lining of all this is that as people have become aware of the radical dangers of the COVID shots, they've also started questioning conventional vaccines, and many parents who didn't get their children vaccinated during the pandemic are not taking them in to catch up on their routine shots now. As noted by Palevsky:
"Once people who were never concerned about childhood immunizations started to realize that there was a concern about the COVID jab, it opened up a Pandora's box. They not only started questioning the COVID jab, they started questioning all jabs.
And so, this COVID scenario has actually backfired for the American Academy of Pediatrics and standard Western medical care, because parents are more concerned [about vaccines] than ever. And I have seen an uptick in the number of patients who never questioned vaccines coming into my office because the COVID jab became a concern."
The Public School System Is Destroying Our Children
Vaccinations aren't the only thing forced upon our children that is doing them more harm than good. The public education system also poses a massive threat to our kids.
The obvious conclusion for anyone who has investigated these issues is that you cannot put your children into the public school system because the indoctrination and brainwashing is so pervasive, and spans from kindergarten to high school and beyond. They're quite literally destroying the brains of our children. Palevsky comments:
"The current educational system completely ignores everything we know about child development and brain development. Completely ignores it.
We know that the most distinguishing thing about humans compared to other mammals is the function of our frontal brain, our frontal cortex and prefrontal cortex, which allow us to think and reason, analyze, understand, focus, pay attention, be aware, have consciousness.
When babies are born, that part of the brain is not developed. It's dormant. The question then becomes, how does that front of the brain develop? If you look at true child development, you see that development of the forebrain develops from the back of the brain forward.
So, you initiate a voluntary movement, you have an experience, you do it over and over and over again. Through those experiences you come to an understanding. You come to reason, you come to think, and then you have ownership of your knowledge.
So, the hindbrain does an action. The midbrain has an experience, over and over and over again. And the forebrain comes to what I call a forebrain conclusion, and then you have knowledge.
The entire educational system, the media, medical school, residency, everything that we see in today's world that delivers information says, no, the brain develops from the outside in. We're going to teach you, we're going to tell you, we're going to give to you, and you're going to now know. And unfortunately, that has become the norm.
So, what you see is all these self-appointed experts who have all of this great knowledge but have no ownership of it because it's not theirs. They never researched it. They never studied it. They never experienced it. They never thought it through. They never critically evaluated it. They never did trial and error. They just said, 'If you said it ... it's true.'
And so, in our schools — and that includes law schools and medical schools and graduate schools, social work school, psychology school — you don't have to think. They just download it into your forebrain and cut off the rest of your brain's function."
Public Education Was Always About Control
Children are also taught NOT to question. That's the quickest way to get into trouble. So, they basically cannot afford to think differently than what they're told. By not allowing proper brain development to occur, the school system has created, and continues to create, figurative automatons, human robots, whose ability to think critically has been severely impaired.
The government and media are further exacerbating the situation with fear propaganda. As just one example, many children, teens, and even young adults nowadays believe that life on earth will cease to exist within their lifetime — and that it's their fault simply for living!
They believe we must eliminate efficient energy production, farming, food production and mechanically suck carbon out of the air in order to survive, when the complete opposite is true. All those things will kill huge swaths of humanity and lower our standard of living to pre-industrial times. We're talking about living conditions that few modern era people would survive due to sheer lack of know-how.
"We've actually watched the front brain deteriorate in function, and that's partly due to creating fear, which cuts off the blood flow to the front brain," Palevsky says.
"Addiction also cuts off the blood flow to the front brain. Video game addiction cuts off blood flow to the front of the brain. Devices, all these apps, all the social media cuts off blood flow to the front of the brain and creates ongoing primitive brain function. So, we have designed a society that doesn't allow for education ...
I'm afraid for the next generation and the next generation after that, because they have no skills anymore to really work through a problem, to figure it out because they've been kept from having life experiences.
The challenge that I don't think the American public is aware of is, if we go back into the history of public education, we will see that the purpose of public education, at its darkest roots, is to make people sheep, to keep them from critical thinking, to keep them in mass-thinking and to control the population.
That's a hard pill for a lot of people to swallow, but all you have to do is go into the research of public education and you'll see that was always the design."
How to Combat the Programming
So, how can you counter all this brainwashing? Here are Palevsky's suggestions:
1. Turn off your TV and radically limit the amount of time you allow your children to watch TV. Also, be selective in what you allow them to watch.
2. Stop reading mainstream news and look for reliable alternative sources that aren't regurgitating the official narrative.
3. If you do keep your children in the public or private school system, have conversations with your children at home.
Ask them, "What'd you learn today? What do you think about what you learned today? How did it make you feel? Did you have an opposing view? Were you able to express an opposing view? What happened if you did? Did the teacher allow it or did the teacher not allow it?" Cultivate an opportunity at home for your child to go through a process of critical thinking.
4. Consider homeschooling. There are many options available for parents these days, including co-op classes, online curriculums, nature schools and more.
"If you are really disgusted with the public school or private school education, then you are in good hands because the number of parents who are homeschooling their children in this country has exponentially gone up," Palevsky says.
"Not only do kids do better when they're homeschooled, but their attention spans are better. It also frees the child up to be creative, to have imagination, to learn through doing, to learn through life experience, to learn how to do things that the schools are not teaching you anymore.
These kids do function better, and they do have better grades and they do have good social skills. They're just not being bombarded with a propaganda machine."
Live in Sync With Nature to Avoid Seasonal Colds and Flus
Getting back to vaccinations, in 2023 they started pushing not only the seasonal influenza vaccine and an updated COVID shot, but also a brand-new RSV vaccine. Do you really need any of these? Palevsky believes there are far better ways to stay healthy during the winter season.
"Most people are not aware that the flu is not caused by a viral illness," he says. "I'm not saying there are no viruses. What I'm saying is that we're looking at the wrong cause for the illness. The virus isn't the cause of the illness. The virus is a bystander ...
The reason you get sick in the fall, winter, and early spring is because we live out of season. We live out of schedule of the season. We eat improperly out of season. We don't sleep enough, we don't rest enough, we don't eat the warm foods; instead we're eating cold foods and summer foods.
We don't take our vitamin D and K2, we don't eat soups and our broths, we don't slow down. Anytime we live out of sync of nature, we are causing stress to our body. Farmers used to go to bed at sunset and wake up at sunrise. But when the day gets darker earlier, and we're up six, eight hours past when the sun goes down — that's stress.
And one thing that the body has to do, because it can't keep stress, is to get rid of it. If you accumulate enough of it, you're going to get sick. We think the reason we get sick is because there's some magical virus going around. Well, that's not true.
The reason you get sick is because you're stressed, you're living out of [sync with] nature, you're not eating right, you're not sleeping right, you're not resting right, you're not dressing right, you're overdoing it when your body should be quieter and you're creating too much stress.
We're eating lots of refined sugar, seed oils, hydrogenated oils — these are toxins and are all stressors. And so we have to get sick because the body is made to heal. Too much stress, it's got to come out. And that's what an illness is.
So in conclusion, it makes no sense to get these shots because the illness is not caused by a microorganism. It's caused by out of sync with nature, out of sync with food."
The Benefits of Fever
Colds and flus typically generate a fever, but fever can also develop in the absence of a viral or bacterial infection, and using medication to bring the fever down often does more harm than good. A fever is your body's way of killing off invading pathogens and clearing out inflammatory toxins, so by lowering your fever, you're prolonging the problem. Palevsky explains:
"The very chemicals that cause a fever are the same chemicals that are present all the time to maintain our body temperature at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. So, to think that at 98.6 [degrees] F. we don't have those chemicals is incorrect. The same chemicals that give us 98.6 give us 102.
But at 102, they're working in larger numbers to burn out and get rid of the waste. The fallacy is that if you have fever, you must have an infection, and that's incorrect. There are three reasons to have fever. One, infection. Two, inflammation, which is probably the major reason to develop fever, and three, neoplasm or malignancy.
When a child has [a fever of] 103 or 104, it's actually a good thing because it slows the body down. It stops you from putting more stress into the body.
My mentors back in the 1980s, who'd been practicing in New York since the 1940s, would say that after their children resolved their fever illnesses, they would almost always have a developmental growth spurt.
Because the purpose of the fever — which is almost always inflammation and not necessarily infection — is to clean out the body, to prune the body, to cleanse the body ... giving over-the-counter medicines for fever, giving the antibiotics for something that's not an infection, and giving the shots actually creates much bigger illnesses in your kids.
I don't recommend aspirin in my practice. I also don't recommend acetaminophen in my practice.
To me, acetaminophen is probably close to, if not the largest poison you can put in your body because it depletes your body of the very chemical that you need in the moment when you're sick, and that's glutathione. You need that glutathione if you're sick. So giving acetaminophen ... lowers your ability to stay well."
Treating Fever From a Clinical Perspective
So, in conclusion, most fevers do not need to be treated or brought down. The warning signs you want to look out for, regardless of the exact temperature of the fever, is their general demeanor. Palevsky explains:
"In 1993, when I was thinking about leaving the ER and going into private practice, I said to a colleague of mine, whose practice I was looking at, 'What do you do for all these kids who are 3 months to 3 years, who have a fever and no source for the fever?
Do you do blood work and urine?' He said, 'Larry, if I did blood work and urine in every one of those kids, I'd lose patients in my practice ... Think about it. If you have a kid who's got a fever of 104 and is sitting up and looking at you and is able to converse, keep the head up, hydrate, and a kid who has a fever of 100.4, who can't lift their head up, who's lethargic and isn't speaking, which kid would you worry about?'
That was a great teaching for me because it reminded me of clinical practice. Clinical practice says, evaluate the child for being alert, awake, arousable, interactive, able to walk, talk, drink, pee, poop. What's the skin color? What's the respiratory rate? And so I don't worry about the number as much as I want to see what the kid looks like."
That said, if your child is younger than 3 months old, contact your pediatrician if he or she develops a fever. If a child between the ages of 3 months and 2 years has a fever above 102.5 degrees F. and there's no obvious source, a common concern is bacteremia (bacterial infection), which can be diagnosed with a blood or urine test.
How to Treat a Fever
Palevsky prefers the old-fashioned mercury thermometers, as they're the most accurate, and recommends taking your child's temperature rectally, if possible. A digital thermometer that can be used rectally is also good. He does not recommend head or ear thermometers, as they're less accurate.
"The most important thing when a child has a fever is to 'pull the plug,' meaning keep stimulation to a minimum. So, turn the lights down, quiet the environment, lie down with the child. If there's anything that I've seen work over the years, is a parent lying with the child. It's amazing what healing that can do.
Warm bath — not a cold bath — a warm bath, because what a warm bath does is it makes the body sweat, and when the body sweats the temperature of the body can slowly go down because the evaporation of the sweat causes the body to cool. That doesn't mean you can't put a cool cloth on the forehead.
Naturopaths have taught me a wonderful remedy where you take old cotton socks that are wet and put them on the feet, and you put warm, dry wool socks over it and put the kid to bed. Get the kid under the covers and sweat it out. Let the kid sleep. Just make sure that the kid is arousable. Make sure the kid is hydrated. Don't feed the kid food.
One of the major things that parents complain about when a child has a fever is that they won't eat. My response to that is, 'Good!' Just make sure the child stays hydrated. Water, tea, broth, more water, more tea, more broth. These are situations where I don't recommend juices. I don't recommend anything cold and I don't recommend anything raw.
The child needs warmth. You don't want to stress the digestive system at all because it has to be quieted. In that situation, you want the rest of the immune system to be working to clean out whatever needs to be cleaned out."
You can also help your child do a neti pot to rinse out their sinuses with saline. Children as young as 5 can easily do this. Be sure to use saline and not plain tap water, as plain water will irritate the sinuses. The salt in the saline is also viricidal and will kill any viruses lodged in the sinuses.
Take Control of Your Child's Health and Future
In closing, Palevsky says:
"We are in a time of tremendous censorship, and what I would say to parents who are looking for information, if something is being censored, I would hope that would raise your alarm that it's being suppressed for a reason, which means that you would want to know what is being suppressed and why.
Because in a true republic and in a society of freedom, why wouldn't you have the opportunity to look at opposing views and come to a conclusion on your own? And so I would ask you to continue to question, continue to look for answers ...
I have heard experts say that parents are not smart enough to understand the science of vaccines, or the science of nutrition, or the science of pediatric development or education. Just hearing that should make for an alarm because you are smart enough. You've proven that you're smart enough and it's your kid.
So, understand that we are in a time where I strongly recommend that you take back your power to actually raise your kid, to educate your kid, to feed your kid properly, to understand what goes into your child and what shouldn't go into your child. To make those decisions as a family and not allow the state or some outside resource take over your child's body and your child's mind."
To learn more about Palevsky and his pediatric practice, check out his website, DrPalevsky.com. You can also follow him on Instagram, Telegram, MeWe and Rumble, where he cohosts a show called "Critically Thinking with Dr. T & Dr. P," together with Dr. Sherri Tenpenny.
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Beyond Impossible — The Truth Behind the Fake Meat Industry
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A 2024 systematic review1 of the literature confirmed what multiple studies have shown — the higher your intake of ultraprocessed food, the higher your risk of adverse health outcomes.
The analysis, which included 45 unique pooled analyses and 9,888,373 participants, found direct associations between 32 health parameters and exposure to ultraprocessed food, including metabolic dysfunction, cancer, mental, respiratory, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal issues, as well as all-cause mortality.
Depression and anxiety disorders were also highly correlated with ultraprocessed food consumption. Previous studies have also linked ultraprocessed foods to cognitive decline2 and obesity.3
Considering the well-established effects of ultraprocessed foods, it’s only a matter of time before the truth comes out about the health effects of lab-grown and cultured meats, which are the epitome of ultraprocessed food.
The Truth About the Fake Meat Industry
The documentary above, “Beyond Impossible — The Truth Behind the Fake Meat Industry” by Gravitas Documentaries, exposes the corruption and lies of the fake meat industry. As noted in the film, the fake meat industry is an outgrowth of the vegan trend, which eschews any food derived from animals. However, perhaps there’s more to it than that. As noted by Gravitas:4
“What do Harvard University, internet vegans and the World Economic Forum [WEF] all have in common? A religious desire for the world to go vegan. But why? Is it an effort to stop global warming? Is it an earnest attempt at making everyone healthier? Is it a desperate plea to end animal cruelty?
The answers may surprise you. ‘Beyond Impossible’ reveals an uncomfortable truth about a world where peoples good intentions are being taken advantage of by everyone from vegan doctors to global elites hellbent on instituting planetary policies that remove all personal choices from the kitchen and beyond ...
Joined by experts that include doctors, journalists and even former vegans, [health expert, director and co-producer] Vinnie Tortorich maintains that while we still have the power of free will, it's only a matter of time before it's too late.”
Fake Meats Contain Novel Proteins and the Worst Fat Possible
As explained in the film, it’s exceedingly difficult to get all the nutrients you need from a vegan diet, and while you could theoretically supplement yourself out of short-term trouble, you’d need to take a high-quality vitamin B12, iron, calcium, vitamin D, omega-3 and extra protein supplements, at bare minimum, to avoid some of the most common nutritional deficiencies associated with a meat-free diet.
However, as stressed by science journalist Nina Teicholz in the film, “many people cannot absorb B vitamins and minerals in their supplemental forms.” Additionally, plant proteins aren’t equivalent to meat-based protein. They’re not even equivalent to whole plant foods. As noted by Tortorich:
“Here’s the crazy part of all these fake meats. They’re not really made from vegetables. They’re made from monocultured crops … They’re made from starches, fake proteins and seed oils.”
“Plant-based” meat alternatives don’t contain the same amino acids, and they’re not as digestible as meat protein, so meeting your protein requirements for muscle maintenance and everything else could be a challenge.
Instead, fake meats contain novel proteins that no one fully understands yet. For example, the ingredient in Impossible Burger’s meat that makes it taste like meat is genetically engineered soy leghemoglobin, for which there are no long-term health studies. The process to make it also creates at least 45 other proteins as byproducts, which are also consumed and have never been evaluated.
Fake Meats Loaded With Bad Fats
Fake meats also typically contain the absolute worst type of fats possible, namely polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) that are high in linoleic acid (LA), and/or monounsaturated fats (MUFAs) high in oleic acid.
For example, a half-pound serving of organic grass fed beef will provide less than half a gram of linoleic acid (500 mg). Compare this to a serving of an Impossible Burger or Beyond Meat burger, which have 10 to 20 times the amount of linoleic acid.5 So fake meat can only add to the catastrophic metabolic deterioration of your health caused by other processed and ultraprocessed foods.
Some fake meats will incorporate “healthier” oils like olive oil, but that still doesn’t solve the problem, as MUFAs are nearly as bad as seed oils. When consumed in excess, MUFAs like oleic acid will increase insulin resistance, promote fat storage, and decrease your metabolic rate.
I recently interviewed Brad Marshall on reductive stress, and he has done a magnificent job in highlighting the problems with oleic acid and how it increases the risk of obesity and metabolic dysfunction. That interview will be out shortly.
Further exploration into the relationship between olive oil and obesity reveals complex dynamics. Despite high local olive oil consumption, studies suggest that its impact on body mass index (BMI) is negligible.
This challenges the notion that olive oil directly contributes to obesity. However, this narrative took a defensive turn when researchers, rather controversially, attributed obesity rates in Mediterranean regions to lifestyle factors like physical inactivity rather than dietary habits. This perspective was tested in experiments where dietary olive oil was shown to induce insulin resistance in mice, suggesting a potential metabolic concern.
In-depth studies have used animal models to isolate the effects of oleic acid, aiming to control variables present in olive oil like polyphenols and saturated fats. Results indicated that pure oleic acid led to even greater insulin resistance in mice, highlighting concerns over its metabolic impacts when isolated from other components typically found in olive oil.
This points to the complexity of olive oil's health impacts, suggesting that beneficial outcomes might be more attributable to its polyphenol content rather than the oil itself.
The discourse expanded with studies focusing on how MUFAs influence fat metabolism and storage, particularly through mechanisms involving the desaturase enzymes, which convert saturated fats into MUFAs. These enzymes, upregulated by dietary MUFAs, play a significant role in lipogenesis, the process of converting carbohydrates into fatty acids.
This biological pathway is crucial as it highlights how dietary fats influence lipid profiles and underscores the nuanced interplay between different types of dietary fats and metabolic health.
Side Note About High-Fat, Low-Carb Diets
On a side note, in the film, Tortorich presents the ideal diet as being one that is nearly devoid of carbs, sugars and grains. While I would have agreed with him on that as recently as a year or two ago, I’ve since come to understand that this is a serious mistake, as you absolutely need carbs for optimal metabolism, mitochondrial function, and energy production.
He doesn’t dwell on that in the film, so I won’t go into further detail on this here either. To learn more, see “A Surprising Reason Why You May Need More Carbs in Your Diet.” To his credit, Tortorich correctly stresses the benefits of saturated animal fats, eggs and whole-fat dairy, and the importance of avoiding seed oils and processed foods.
Fake Meat Provides No Collagen
While not discussed in this documentary, one-third of your protein also needs to be collagen, and there’s no plant-based alternative for that. Collagen is the most common and abundant of your body’s proteins, accounting for about 30% of the total protein in your body. One of its primary purposes is to provide structural scaffolding to allow tissues to stretch and flex while maintaining tissue integrity.
Collagen is found in your skin, connective tissues like tendons, ligaments, cartilage and fascia, your bones, organs, blood vessels, musculoskeletal system, hair and nails.
Collagen is also crucial for bone health and recovery from soft tissue injuries, and can help improve sleep, reduce joint pain, improve gut health, glucose tolerance and blood pressure, reduce cardiovascular damage, lower your risk of osteoporosis, and lower inflammation and oxidative damage.
The primary amino acids in collagen — glycine, proline and hydroxyproline — make up the matrix of connective tissue. Beef contains very little of these amino acids, so eating only muscle meat will not provide enough amino acids to allow you to build strong connective tissue and maintain bone strength. A vegan diet will put you at even greater risk, as the amount of these amino acids is even lower in plant foods than red meat.
Dairy Fat May Be Essential
Another animal-based food that cannot be replicated by vegan alternatives is full-fat, raw dairy. According to recent research,6 the odd-chain saturated fats pentadecanoic acid (C15:0) and heptadecanoic acid (C17:0) found in whole-fat dairy are likely some of the most important fats in the human diet, and C15:0 may be essential, although it’s not currently recognized as such.
As noted in the 2020 scientific report, “Efficacy of Dietary Odd-Chain Saturated Fatty Acid Pentadecanoic Acid Parallels Broad Associated Health Benefits in Humans: Could It Be Essential?”:7
“Dietary odd-chain saturated fatty acids (OCFAs) are present in trace levels in dairy fat and some fish and plants. Higher circulating concentrations of OCFAs, pentadecanoic acid (C15:0) and heptadecanoic acid (C17:0), are associated with lower risks of cardiometabolic diseases, and higher dietary intake of OCFAs is associated with lower mortality.
Population-wide circulating OCFA levels, however, have been declining over recent years. Here, we show C15:0 as an active dietary fatty acid that attenuates inflammation, anemia, dyslipidemia, and fibrosis in vivo, potentially by binding to key metabolic regulators and repairing mitochondrial function.
This is the first demonstration of C15:0’s direct role in attenuating multiple comorbidities using relevant physiological mechanisms at established circulating concentrations.
Pairing our findings with evidence that (1) C15:0 is not readily made endogenously, (2) lower C15:0 dietary intake and blood concentrations are associated with higher mortality and a poorer physiological state, and (3) C15:0 has demonstrated activities and efficacy that parallel associated health benefits in humans, we propose C15:0 as a potential essential fatty acid.”
Meat Alternatives Will Likely Undermine Public Health
But getting back to the issue of fake meat, it’s important to realize that it’s the very definition of ultraprocessed food. As noted by Michael Hansen, Ph.D., a senior staff scientist at Consumer Reports, meat alternatives are all just junk food and GMOs on steroids.8 For a more in-depth review of what goes into lab-grown meats and the novel health hazards they present, see “Why Synthetic Food is Very Dangerous.”
Nothing good can come from transitioning away from real animal foods to manmade alternatives. As noted in the film, the complete nutritional profile of meat simply cannot be artificially replicated, and research9 has warned that removing real meat and dairy from the human diet would result in significant harm to health. As reported by Nutrition Insight in mid-April 2023:10
“The researchers explain that meat offers a source of high-quality protein and nutrients that are not always easily obtained with meat-free diets and are often suboptimal or deficient in global populations.
‘Animal-sourced foods are superior to plant-sourced foods at simultaneously supplying several bioavailable micronutrients and high-quality macronutrients critical for growth and cognitive development,’ notes co-author Dr. Adegbola Adesogan, director of the University of Florida’s Global Food Systems Institute. Dietary recommendations to eliminate animal-source foods from diets ignore their importance ...”
Indeed, as noted in this paper,11 human anatomy, digestion and metabolism indicates that humans are not only compatible with but also reliant upon relatively substantial meat intake, and disconnecting the entire population from our evolutionary dietary patterns raises rather than lowers the risk for nutrient deficiencies and chronic diseases. As noted by the authors:12
“As a food matrix, meat is more than the sum of its individual nutrients.”
Research detailed in “Red Meat Is Not a Health Risk” has demonstrated that unprocessed red meat poses a very low-risk for adverse health effects, if any. On the other hand, plant-based meats have been shown to inhibit mineral absorption in humans,13 so nutrient deficiencies are entirely predictable.
Fake Meat Industry Is Part of the Controlled Destruction of Our Food Supply
The fake meat industry is also a major part of the controlled destruction of our food supply. Animal farming is being regulated into oblivion in order to be replaced by insect farms (so-called micro livestock), gene-edited food, lab-grown meat and synthetic animal-free dairy products — all in the name of solving hunger, protecting the environment and reversing climate change.
For years, the WEF has promoted the idea that lab-grown animal foods and genetically engineered crops are the only way to feed the world and save the planet. Industrial agriculture uses 75% of available farmland yet produces just 30% of food consumed globally. This shocking statistic is part of the narrative for why we need a new and more sustainable food system.
What’s left out of the conversation, however, is that small biodiverse farms use just 25% of land yet provide 70% of our diet,14 so eliminating traditional farming is hardly the solution to global hunger.
What’s more, studies have repeatedly shown that regenerative and biodynamic farming practices effectively LOWER demand on valuable resources like water, don’t require synthetic fertilizers and produce greater yields than GMO monocultures. It also rebuilds rather than destroys soil, supports animal welfare and promotes biodiversity of plants and wildlife.
When animals are raised according to regenerative agriculture, a complete ecosystem is created, one that is both healing for the land and productive for the farmers who keep it. Eating meat is not synonymous with harming the environment: It's industrial farming practices that inflict the damage.
If the goal was to safeguard the environment, combat climate change and optimize food production and human nutrition, then transitioning to biodynamic farming methods would be the obvious solution. Instead, it’s made out to be the enemy of the planet and mankind.
Regenerative Farming Has a Negative Carbon Footprint
Impossible Foods directly attacked regenerative ranching in its 2019 Impact Report,15 claiming grass fed cattle ranching generates higher amounts of greenhouse gas emissions than cows raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).
But according to a third-party lifecycle analysis16 (LCA) performed by the very same company that conducted Impossible Burger's LCA, the carbon footprint of beef from White Oak Pastures (a regenerative farm) is actually 111% lower than conventional CAFO beef, as the "system effectively captures soil carbon, offsetting a majority of the emissions related to beef production."
All things considered, including enteric emissions, manure emissions, soil carbon capture, vegetation carbon, miscellaneous farm activities, slaughter and transport, the total net carbon emissions from the beef production on White Oak Pastures was found to be a negative 3.5 kilos (kg) of carbon emissions per kilo of fresh meat, making this integrated, holistic system six times more carbon efficient than the average CAFO production model.
Meanwhile, Impossible Foods' soy-based fake meat is still a carbon emitter. While grass fed beef has a net carbon sink of 3.5 kg per kg of fresh meat, conventional soybeans produce 2 kg of carbon emissions for each kg of food, and pea protein (which Beyond Burger uses for its meat substitute) produces 4 kg of carbon for every kg of food.17
So, how can fake meat be considered more environmentally sound than regenerative farming? In addition to still being a carbon emitter, GMO soy does nothing to regenerate and build soils, nothing to protect our insect and wildlife population, nothing to increase plant diversity and nothing to improve human health of consumers.
On the contrary, corn and soy, both conventional and GMO, are rapidly eliminating grasslands and prairies across the U.S. as they’re converted into monocrop farm fields, and this may be one of the worst environmental impacts of all, as prairies help retain water and sequesters carbon in the soil.
Cell-Based Meat Substitutes Aren’t Environmentally Friendly Either
Cell-based meats also fail the test as far as protecting the environment is concerned. According to an Environmental Science and Technology study published in 2015, lab-grown meat where the meat is cultured from stem cells actually requires more energy than conventional agriculture. As explained in the study's abstract:18
"Cultured, or in vitro, meat consists of edible biomass grown from animal stem cells in a factory, or carnery. In the coming decades, in vitro biomass cultivation could enable the production of meat without the need to raise livestock.
Using an anticipatory life cycle analysis framework, the study described herein examines the environmental implications of this emerging technology and compares the results with published impacts of beef, pork, poultry, and another speculative analysis of cultured biomass.
While uncertainty ranges are large, the findings suggest that in vitro biomass cultivation could require smaller quantities of agricultural inputs and land than livestock; however, those benefits could come at the expense of more intensive energy use as biological functions such as digestion and nutrient circulation are replaced by industrial equivalents.
From this perspective, large-scale cultivation of in vitro meat and other bioengineered products could represent a new phase of industrialization with inherently complex and challenging trade-offs."
Culling Cows to Meet Climate Change Goals
As illustrated in the film, cows now stand accused of being one of the primary sources of methane emissions, another greenhouse gas said to drive climate change. So, to meet climate change goals, countries around the world are implementing new emission targets for farmers that will require drastic reductions in herd size.
Yet there’s ample evidence showing that properly raised and grazed livestock have a tremendously beneficial impact on ecological health and local climate.19 Erratic climate is in large part caused by desertification (when fertile land dries up and turns to desert), which is what current conventional agricultural practices encourage.
This situation can only be effectively reversed by dramatically increasing the number of grazing livestock. In essence, it’s not an excess of livestock that are causing the problem, but that we have far too few, and the livestock we do have, we’ve not managed properly.
The graphic below, which compares the carbon recycling of cows and fossil fuel emissions, is also instructive. The methane cows burp up eventually breaks down into carbon dioxide and water, both of which are taken up by plants. The carbon is then put back into the soil through the roots of the plants. This is the natural cycle, which benefits all life. Yet none of this ever makes it into the climate conversation.
It’s All Part of a Plan
It’s easy to assume that decision makers are simply inept, but that’s letting them off the hook. There’s a cohesive plan behind such seemingly ignorant decisions such as forcing farms to shut down by putting radical restrictions on nitrogen fertilizers or methane emissions from cow farts and paying farmers not to farm even in the face of looming food shortages.
They’re forcing farmers and ranchers out of business because they want them out of business. In their place, they can then introduce their fake meat solution, which will recreate the global control of the food supply that Monsanto and others achieved through patented GMO seed development.
Once living animals are eliminated and replaced with patented alternatives derived from plants, yeast, bacteria, fungi or insects, private companies will effectively control the food supply in its entirety, and those who own the patents will control the people. Ultraprocessed food already make up 58% of the average American’s diet,20 so the globalists have every reason to believe they can get it to 100%.
Synthetic Food Will Never Be Healthier Than the Real McCoy
There are several key take-homes from all of this. First, synthetic food will never be healthier than the real food it’s trying to imitate. Second, a meat-free diet is inadvisable for most people as plant proteins are not identical to animal-based proteins.
Plant proteins also cannot replace your need for collagen. Nor can plant-based fats replace the likely essential fats found in whole dairy. As mentioned, the fat added in the making of many meat alternatives is cheap seed oils, which are a primary driver of chronic diseases as these fats destroy mitochondrial function.
Third, the fanatic push for fake meat has strong geopolitical underpinnings rooted in population control and the implementation of a one world government. The technocratic globalists funding the fake meat industry for their own gain are simply piggy backing on the vegan ideology, which tends to be more fanatical than other dietary trends.
Ultimately, if you want to be healthy, you need to eat real food. You cannot correct the health problems caused by ultraprocessed food with even more ultraprocessed food, which is what all meat alternatives are. And, if we want to be free, and if we want food safety and food security, we must focus our efforts on building a decentralized system that connects communities with farmers who grow real food in sustainable ways and distribute that food locally.
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Security Expert Gavin de Becker Describes the Gift of Fear
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Gavin de Becker is one of the leading security resource experts in the world. His private security firm, Gavin de Becker and Associates, protects about 70 well-known U.S. families and individuals, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who are at risk of assassination or other violence but don’t have Secret Service coverage. However, he also engages in public education to help protect the general population:
"In my public education work, I write books, and that's to take the strategies that are used to protect senators, congressmen, presidents, governors, and make them available on an accessible level to regular people. The reason being that a public figure in America is attacked about once every five years, but a woman is killed by a husband or boyfriend about once every five hours.
And so, I wanted to take what I had learned and say, ‘Well, what are the ways that there this crossover so that regular people who are subject to victimization and targeting can be safer?’"
In our interview, we discuss the importance of paying attention to your instincts, how to decipher between the two types of fear as well as how fear is used as an instrument of control, including in the context of COVID-19, the pandemic and COVID jabs.
What Triggered the 40% Rise in Deaths Among Young, Healthy Americans?
De Becker wrote the afterword to Ed Dowd’s book, "Cause Unknown," which discusses the unexplained 40% spike in deaths that occurred among young athletes and other healthy Americans during the third and fourth quarters of 2021. A new edition, covering 2023 deaths, is also coming out.
Media largely blamed the deaths — which they’re now referring to as sudden adult death syndrome, or SADS — on COVID-19, delayed diagnosis, suicide and other factors. But de Becker explains:1
"Could it possibly be that a new vaccine product, mass vaccinated by compulsion on the population, could have anything to do with it? If you had 100 kids die, one of the questions you would ask is, what do they have in common? Did they all attend that same event where the air conditioning had a virus in it? Did they all take the same street drug, for example?
Well, in this case, we know that the overwhelming majority of young athletes were vaccinated [for COVID-19] and typically two or three vaccinations. And you can't exclude that one possible cause when we know for an absolute fact that the mRNA vaccines do cause myocarditis and pericarditis, it's acknowledged by the CDC.
... Interestingly, [CDC] just did release something for FOIA, a ... 140-page report on myocarditis and pericarditis associated with the [COVID-19] vaccines. Every single page redacted, every single page ... Why does the CDC ever have secrets? That's supposed to be the organization that keeps us informed."
De Becker describes "Cause Unknown" as a book to give to someone you love who needs to be awakened.
"That book is a book you can hand somebody you love who you've been unable to reach, and it's just possible that they might choose not to vaccinate their 14-year-old kid or they might take a different attitude and not take all nine of these injections that are currently recommended by the CDC," he says. "We are on injection number 10, will be the next one, currently recommended by the CDC for children."2
The Importance of Listening to Your Intuition
De Becker is the author of "The Gift of Fear," which came out in 1998 and became a No. 1 national bestseller. It’s still the No. 1 bestseller in the world on violence to this day. The book empowers you to embrace your gut instincts or inner wisdom — your intuition. De Becker says:
"The word intuition ... the root of it ... means to guard and protect. And that's what it does for us. It is the sense, we could say the sixth sense, that keeps us safe, sort of our nuclear defense system. And, indeed, the gut has lots of neurons — more than a dog has in fact.
And there's a form of thought, if you will, or connection to the universe that when we just know something without knowing why, when we don't use logic, we just say, go back to the house, call the house, move away from this person, get out of this underground parking lot, don't call this person back, don't date this person, don't stay late with this manager of this restaurant when he asks you, whatever it may be.
Sometimes, the overwhelming majority of times, people are not sinister toward us and don't mean us harm, but sometimes they do. And when you get that signal from intuition, it is very, very important to listen to it. And I say that intuition is always correct in at least two ways. One, it's always about something. And number two, it always has your best interest at heart.
Now, it might be that the information that you deduce from an intuitive feeling of hesitation or fear or curiosity, maybe your interpretation will be wrong, but the fact that you listen and give it a hearing is very important."
Understanding the Two Types of Fear
There are two distinct types of fear, according to de Becker — true fear and unwarranted fear. True fear is the instinctual response to an immediate threat, characterized by the physiological reactions that prepare your body to either confront or flee from danger.
This type of fear is an intuitive signal that warns you of genuine danger and helps preserve your safety. "What I call true fear is the automatic immediate reaction of the body," de Becker says. "Something is wrong here. I see a snake or a tiger, right away I have a physical reaction. And that fear should always be listened to."3
Unwarranted fear, on the other hand, encompasses fears that are not directly linked to immediate threats. These can include anxieties and worries about potential future events that may never occur, often leading to unnecessary stress and precautionary behaviors that do not enhance personal safety.
Unwarranted fear can be influenced by societal factors, past experiences and individual perceptions of risk that may not accurately reflect actual danger. De Becker argues that understanding the distinction between these two types of fear is crucial for recognizing when fear is a helpful guide and when it is a hindrance to living a fulfilled life. He explains:4
"The unwarranted fear, like the fear of I'm boarding a plane and I think, ‘Oh, this plane's going to crash, don't get on it.’ If that's based on a news story I saw two weeks ago about a plane crash in Brazil, that's going to be unwarranted fear in the category of anxiety.
But if it's based on seeing the two pilots stumble out of the bar drunk at the airport, that's something I might want to listen to. So, you at least ask yourself the question, what's this about?
Many of us have had that feeling about don't get on this airplane, for example. And sometimes, it's hard to act upon, and sometimes it will be unnecessary or misinterpreted. But if you ask yourself if it's based on memory or imagination, that is not true fear. If it's based on something in your environment, something you see or smell or hear or feel, that is often true fear and should be listened to.
... Fear does have a gift for us and no animal in nature, even the strongest lion that's suddenly afraid, will say, ‘Oh, it's probably nothing.’ But we do that. A woman will be standing at an elevator in a building late at night, an office building and the elevator doors open up and there's a man in there who causes her fear. We don't know why only a human being will get into a steel soundproof chamber with someone who causes them fear.
An animal won't do it. And so, we override, we prosecute our own intuitive feelings. And my life is full, and yours too, of people who said, I knew it, but I still did such and such. I knew I shouldn't have, but I still hired that person or I knew I had a feeling about that environment and I stayed in it."
Fear as an Instrument of Control
Fear isn’t only a tool you can harness to keep yourself out of harm’s way. In the interview, we also discussed how fear is used to control and manipulate populations.
"All governments and all leaders have used fear as an instrument of control. And all governments also benefit from division in their countries," de Becker says. "And the reason that they benefit from division in their countries is ... you want people to be energized in their focus on each other and not on those in power."5
De Becker describes some recent historical events that have used fear to gradually take a way freedom and liberty, from Y2K, when it was said all technology would stop functioning when it turned to the year 2000, to COVID-19:6
"After 9/11, every big office building suddenly implemented security procedures where you had to show ID to get into the building. Now, we have to remember, you didn't need ID to fly an airplane into the building. The security response was absolutely unequal to what had actually happened. Airplanes have been flown into buildings.
That's one kind of thing, intruders trying to get in your building and documenting everybody and passes. And we became a national security state over fear of terrorism.
Then you have killer bees was another thing that was posted on the public. And terrorism is an interesting thing because you start with an enemy like a country. It's a real country, there it is, it's Russia, it's China. Then you go to communists. Communists are the problem. Then you go to communism is the problem.
Now, you're getting down to a very fine, almost talcum powder, and then you go to terrorists are the problem. Then you go to terrorism, which is an idea, is the problem. And finally, we have landed on the smallest possible particle, the virion, the virus. Virus is the problem."
In early March 2020, de Becker did a report for clients on the actual risks of COVID and quickly learned the odds of dying from COVID were remote for healthy people. Still, fear was used to implement order and control.
"This was a war by governments on citizens. And it completely shifted the power ... such that you could accomplish with words getting billions of people to stay in their homes, getting everybody in America to not go to work. Hundreds of thousands of businesses closed forever," de Becker says. "... And what happens when you're afraid is that you'll take any train that's leaving the station even if it's not going where you want to go. And that's what America did." He adds:7
"The reality is that very, very few people were in danger and it should not have been used to lock down societies and close schools and these things that were tremendously damaging to young people and ultimately to all people. So this was a power move. It will always be something, terrorism, communism, terrorists, Russia. It will always be something."
Two Strategies to Avoid Fear and Stay Safe
Even if you’re living in a society where fear is being used to manipulate the common narrative and impose control, you can opt out of the madness. One strategy to do so, de Becker says, is to not watch television news, including local news channels, which he says are nothing more than "40 hours a week of original content designed to get your attention with fear."
Instead, he recommends seeking out your own information, particularly in the form of reading, which gives you knowledge without accompanying alarming images. De Becker explains:8
"Reading allows you to decide what happens to your body. Whereas seeing something alarming does not allow you to decide what happens to your body. The body does not understand media. Meaning when I see a terrible thing on the news ... I have no way of knowing whether it's close or far away. I have no way of knowing whether it's true or not true. And I have no way of knowing whether it's dated or recent.
But in all cases, just like a movie, it will cause alarm. You'll recoil from it. When you read something, even something alarming, you can decide how it is brought into your system and how you deal with it. So, I really encourage people to seek their own information when they're curious and not allow television producers to decide what's important in your life and much of what's on the news."
The second strategy de Becker recommends is embracing the principle of subsidiarity, which suggests matters be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority. In essence, it’s a framework for decentralization that supports the empowerment of small, local units. By living as local as possible, de Becker suggests, we can all embrace autonomy and bow out of the fear around us:9
"Another great gift that's available to us is to work on subsidiarity. Subsidiarity is a word I only learned in the last couple of years, but that is government at the most local level possible and living at the most local level possible. And somebody I read the other day, he called it the great nearby instead of the great beyond.
... I don't live in a global relationship. I live in with the people in my life, the people in my community, the people I know, and the people I choose ... it's fine to think globally, but remember that every time there's a global crisis that only lends itself to a global solution, that is power telling you what to do, because you can't do anything about the global crisis or the global solution.
These are used to control conduct. And so, living as locally as we can is a very wonderful antidote for the fear that is being sprayed at us out of a fire hose 24 hours a day."
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Vitamin D3 Versus D2
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Editor's Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published July 17, 2017.
It's something I've been encouraging for several years now — making sure you're getting adequate levels of vitamin D, not only because it's a crucial nutrient, but because so many people are deficient and don't realize it.
But a study has emerged dispelling the idea many scientists and health care providers have had for many years, the upshot being that there is a vast difference between vitamin D2, which is plant-based (notably from mushrooms), and vitamin D3, which is derived from animal products.
The two do not, as some have believed, have a similar nutritional value. Health authorities are calling for official recommendations for vitamin D intake to be changed in accordance with this information, which is not actually new, as we've related this important distinction for some time. The "groundbreaking" study from the University of Surrey was conducted to determine, between vitamins D2 and D3, which was more effective in raising levels in the body.
The trial was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) — "the largest U.K. public funder of nonmedical bioscience" — and the Diet and Health Research Industry Club (DRINC). Susan Lanham-New, principal investigator of the trial, called the results a "very exciting discovery which will revolutionize how the health and retail sector views vitamin D," EurekAlert! reported.1
She added, "Vitamin D deficiency is a serious matter, but this will help people make a more informed choice about what they can eat or drink to raise their levels through their diet." Serious is right: One study shows that more than 40% of the American population is deficient in vitamin D,2 and some experts say the problem is serious enough to call it a pandemic.3
Vitamin D2 and D3: Not Interchangeable
Vitamin D is produced by your body after exposure to the sun, and because winter is the period during which sunshine is least available, vitamin D levels are typically at their lowest during this time.
The 335 South Asian and white European women who participated in the study over two winters were divided into five groups and given either juice containing vitamin D2 or D3, a biscuit with the same or a placebo. At the conclusion of the study, researchers found vitamin D3 to be twice as effective in raising levels in the body in comparison to D2. EurekAlert! reported:4
"Vitamin D levels in women who received vitamin D3 via juice or a biscuit increased by 75 percent and 74 percent respectively compared to those who were given D2 through the same methods. Those given D2 saw an increase of 33 percent and 34 percent over the course of the 12-week intervention.
The research also found that nutrient levels of both vitamin D2 and D3 rose as a result of both food and acidic beverages such as juice, which were found to be equally as effective. Those who received the placebo experienced a 25 percent reduction in the vitamin over the same period."
What's interesting, as mentioned, is that the information from this study is not new news. A similar study published in 2011 is one of several instances where vitamin D3 has been shown to have a much greater significance for your health compared to D2. One study5 shows D3 to:
- Convert to its active form 500% faster
- Be 87% better at raising and maintaining vitamin D levels
- Produce two to three times greater storage of the vitamin than D2
Recommendations for Vitamin D Outdated and Unsafe
Here's where it gets problematic: Several governments around the world, including the U.S. National Institutes of Health, assert there's no difference between vitamins D2 and D3 and that interchanging the two makes no difference whatsoever in your body's levels.
However, information from Public Health England reveals that more than 1 in 5 people in the U.K. have low levels of vitamin D, so the intake they recommend is 10 micrograms per day, all year long, for everyone beginning at age 4.
EurekAlert! notes that daily intake of vitamin D3 — but not vitamin D2 — will allow the population to avoid such health problems as rickets, osteoporosis and a higher risk of developing heart disease, all associated with individuals with insufficient levels of vitamin D in their bodies.
What the scientists found influences public health but also retail markets in that many have added vitamin D2 to their products because they were led to believe it was just as viable in the body to increase people's "D" levels as taking D3. Lead study author and dietitian Laura Tripkovic explained:6
"The importance of vitamin D in our bodies is not to be underestimated, but living in the U.K. it is very difficult to get sufficient levels of it from its natural source, the sun, so we know it has to be supplemented through our diet. However, our findings show that vitamin D3 is twice as effective as D2 in raising vitamin D levels in the body, which turns current thinking about the two types of vitamin D on its head."
Tripkovic explained that people who eat vitamin D3-rich foods or take supplements are two times more likely to raise their vitamin D profile than when consuming the equivalent in vitamin D2 foods such as mushrooms, D2-fortified bread or taking D2 supplements.
Downsides of Low Vitamin D Versus Benefits of Optimal Levels
Vitamin D is involved in the biology of all cells in your body, including your immune cells. A large number of studies have shown raising your vitamin D level can significantly reduce your risk of cancer and many other chronic diseases. So, what happens when someone isn't getting the amount of vitamin D that they should? Daily Mail7 notes that lack of vitamin D:
- Can cause your bones to become thin, brittle or misshapen
- Is linked to an increased risk of multiple sclerosis
- Is linked to a growing prevalence for children to develop rickets, shown in many cases to cause malformed and/or broken bones
- Appears to play a role in insulin resistance, high blood pressure and immune function, related to heart disease and cancer
People who are obese, older than age 65 and/or housebound may have lower levels of vitamin D due to their diets, little sun exposure and other factors, and among dark-skinned individuals in the U.S, only 3% among thousands have enough vitamin D.8 Beyond cancer prevention, a Swiss study9 from 2013 lists several of the more dramatic benefits of getting the right amount of vitamin D:
- The development, function and maintenance of healthy bones and regulation of calcium homeostasis throughout life
- The basis for the prevention and management of osteoporosis, a disease producing brittle bones that are prone to fractures
- The regulation of neuromuscular function, reducing the risk of falls, a major cause of bone fractures
- Possibly a central component of musculoskeletal health through vitamin D's beneficial effects on muscle function and bone stability
- May show favorable effects in many organs and play a significant role in the maintenance of general health
The Significance of Getting Adequate Sunlight
Another reason vitamin D levels are so important is that hepatic mitochondria and their associated microsomal enzymes metabolize vitamin D, whatever the source, Pharmacy Times noted, adding:10
"When patients consume too much vitamin D2 or vitamin D3, this process is completely unregulated and patients' vitamin D levels will rise proportionally to their intake. On the other hand, cutaneous synthesis from sun exposure allows patients levels to reach a preset point, and after that, additional sun exposure will not increase vitamin D levels."
This means the best way to make sure you're getting enough vitamin D is to get regular sensible exposure to direct sunlight on your body each day. Depending on your locale, in the winter when the sun hides behind clouds and temperatures are often so chilly you're forced to wear long sleeves and galoshes, this may be difficult if not impossible, however.
Alternatively, adding vitamin D3 supplements to your regimen can help you achieve optimal vitamin D levels. The foods you eat can also make a difference in helping to make or break your health (if not your bones). The best foods for increasing your vitamin D intake via your diet are animal-based and quite limited:
- Raw milk
- Eggs, particularly the yolk from organic, pastured eggs
- Wild-caught Alaskan salmon and other healthy fish such as mackerel and sardines, preferably from cold waters, and not farmed
Get Your Vitamin D Levels Tested
If you decide your vitamin D3 should be taken in supplement form, it's your serum level, or how much D3 your blood contains, that determines how much you should take until your levels are optimized to between 60 and 80 nanograms per milliliter, or ng/ml.
Studies done by Grassroots Health11 recommend an upper limit of about 8,000 IUs (the International Unit by which fat-soluble vitamins are measured) daily of vitamin D3. Children need a minimum of 2,000 IUs per day;12 however, getting your blood tested is the only way to know for sure whether your vitamin D levels are within the optimal range and, consequently, how much oral vitamin D3 you may need. Also be sure the vitamin D you take is correctly balanced with vitamin K2.
An Atlanta-based Emory University School of Medicine study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology outlined vitamin D's association with cardiovascular disease prevention.13
The upshot is that levels below 20 ng/ml are simply not enough to maintain bone health, let alone provide the other disease-prevention benefits that vitamin D has to offer. As mentioned, I recommend you achieve 60 to 80 ng/ml of vitamin D in your blood.
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The Great Osteoporosis Scam
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The years I have spent studying the medical industry have made me appreciate how often economic principles can allow one to understand its complex and contradictory behavior.
For example, I believe many of the inconsistencies in medical ethics (e.g., “mothers have an absolute right to abort their children” and “mothers cannot refuse to vaccinate their children because it endangers their child’s life”) can be explained by simply acknowledging that whatever makes money is deemed “ethical.”
Sales Funnels
The sales funnel concept is crucial to understanding the modern medical industry. This method involves initially targeting a broad audience and then gradually narrowing down to more expensive products or services for the captured customers. There are typically two overlapping sales funnels in medicine:
The first funnel involves prescribing innocuous drugs to many people and then selling increasingly expensive pharmaceuticals to treat complications. For example, this often occurs with medications given to girls, leading to harmful consequences.
Note: Sources for the above graph can be found in this article about the dangers of SSRI antidepressants.1
The second funnel involves framing preventative medicine as screening individuals for potential health risks and then using these results to justify selling medical services like drug prescriptions. As these screenings become normalized, the industry expands the range of services offered, often leading to overdiagnosis and overtreatment. For instance, guidelines for "safe" blood pressure and cholesterol levels have been continuously lowered,2 hence putting more people on medications.
Note: The folly of this approach is highlighted by a trial that found removing on average 2.8 non-essential drugs from the elderly at one facility caused their 1-year death rate to go from 45% to 21%.3
DEXA Scams
One common way mass screenings are conducted is by giving many patients X-rays and then funneling those with abnormal imaging into being treated. For example, women over 50 get mammograms every two years to detect breast cancer early. However, studies show these screenings often lack overall benefit because fast-growing cancers are usually not caught early, while false positives are common and frequently lead to harmful treatments.
Note: Many medical specialists depend upon repeatedly performing the same billable service (e.g., vaccinating a child, performing a female pelvic exam, or reading a mammogram).
Another common universal screening practice for women is dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans, which measure bone density as an indicator of bone strength. The results are compared to the average bone density of a 30-year-old, producing a T-score. Medical students learn that a T-score of 0 to -1 is normal, -1 to -2.5 indicates osteopenia, and -2.5 or worse signifies osteoporosis, prompting urgent treatment.
However, considering natural age-related bone density loss, most individuals will have lower bone density than a 30-year-old. Thus, the current approach to managing osteoporosis acknowledges inevitable bone loss with age and focuses on prevention, as regaining bone density later in life is challenging.
How reliable are DEXA scans? Results vary significantly based on machine, operator, and measured bones, with studies showing a 5% - 6% difference4 in bone density. This variation can alter T-scores by 0.2 - 0.4, leading to misdiagnoses of osteoporosis.
Is repeated scanning necessary? A study of 4124 older women5 found no additional useful information gained from repeating DEXA scans over 8 years. Yet, guidelines recommend scans every 1-2 years, with Medicare covering one every 2 years, despite costs ranging from $150 to $300 per scan.
Do DEXA scans accurately predict fracture risk? While generally predictive, studies show discrepancies between scan results6 and observed bone strength under a microscope. Additionally, scans often underestimate strength loss in deliberately weakened bones.
Note: I recently learned from Dr. Mercola that a faster and more accurate method of diagnosing bone strength (which does not expose patients to ionizing radiation) is beginning to be used in Europe.7 REMS technology works by sending ultrasound waves8 into the bone and then analyzing the spectrum created to assess the health of the bones.
As this presentation shows, it accurately predicts bone density, and additionally, predicts bone strength. In short, this may be a dramatically superior approach to Dexa scans, but it faces stiff resistance in the United States because of how heavily invested many already are in performing Dexa scans. For those interested, more information can be found at EchoLight’s website.9
Note: This comment was affirmed in an NPR article.10
Bisphosphonates
Once osteoporosis is diagnosed, the initial treatment often involves starting a bisphosphonate, which may continue for 3-5 years depending on the administration method. A variety of factors influence the development of bone.
Two of the most important ones are the cells that build bone up (osteoblasts) and the cells that break bone down (osteoclasts). Bisphosphonates, (e.g., Fosamax or Actonel), concentrate in bones and inhibit osteoclasts,11 leading to increased bone density by shifting the balance towards bone building. However, this approach faces two major issues:
• Bisphosphonates are associated with numerous side effects,12 such as stomach irritation, severe muscle and bone pain, flu-like symptoms, osteonecrosis of the jaw,13 unusual hip fractures, atrial fibrillation, hypocalcemia, fatigue, and kidney problems. Remarkably, the American Dental Association even cautioned its members14 to avoid working on patients who are taking bisphosphonates.
• Bisphosphonates disrupt the body's natural bone-building process, resulting in the preservation of "old bone" rather than promoting healthy bone formation.
Note: In addition to the bisphosphonates, there are other problematic osteoporosis drugs which also target the osteoclasts.
Bone Remodeling
One of the key adaptive processes in the body is its response to stresses and loads placed upon it. An often-overlooked marvel of the body is its continual reshaping of bones to bear loads optimally. While we seldom think about this process, its significance becomes apparent in certain scenarios. Consider space travel: astronauts, deprived of gravity's weight signals, experience rapid bone loss,15 posing serious fracture risks upon returning to Earth.
In this bone-building ballet, osteoclasts play a crucial yet underappreciated role. They sculpt bones to withstand gravity's demands, but when blocked by drugs like bisphosphonates, bones become denser yet more brittle and less flexible.
This underscores a common issue in medicine: focusing on treating numbers (e.g., lowering cholesterol) assuming it equates to health improvement. Studies often assess benefits through value changes (e.g., vaccine-induced antibodies), overlooking actual patient outcomes (e.g., in Pfizer's COVID vaccine studies,16 antibody production didn't correlate with decreased deaths).
In short, I would posit that while bisphosphonates may be effective at improving a DEXA score, they aren’t necessarily good at improving bone health.
What Causes Osteoporosis?
Bone metabolism is intricately linked to various key body processes, making it challenging to pinpoint the primary determinants of bone health. However, several factors stand out:
Mobility — Sedentary lifestyles contribute to osteoporosis, highlighting the importance of weight-bearing activities in bone health.17 Walking is particularly beneficial and if done regularly throughout life dramatically improves bone health. |
Hormones — In a previous article, I discussed the severe dangers of drugs like Lupron which work by disabling the body’s production of sex hormones. One of the most common side effects observed from them is a significant weakening of the bones. In turn, hormonal loss accompanying aging also weakens the bones. |
Inflammation — Chronic inflammatory conditions increase the risk of osteoporosis by activating bone-dismantling processes.18 |
Amino acids — Since one of the most essential components of bone health is the elasticity collagen imparts to them (as this allows bone to bend and yield to outside forces rather than shattering) collagen health is critically important for bone health. In modern society, we are often deficient in those amino acids because of widespread stomach acid deficiency19 (which impairs our ability to metabolize protein into amino acids) and us predominantly consuming softer cuts of meat which lack the collagen building amino acids found in tougher parts of meat (e.g., gristle). Note: Colleagues such as Dr. Mercola have found consuming 30g - 40g of collagen each day sourced from beef knee joints is an optimal amino acid repletion protocol and in a short period of time significantly improves bone health (along with often improving a variety of related factors such as one's height and one's metabolic health). |
Minerals — Dietary intake of minerals such as boron and manganese20 is crucial for bone strength, and deficiencies can impair bone health. Factors like stomach acid deficiency21 and soil depletion contribute to mineral deficiencies. Note: The widespread deficiency of manganese in the population is in part due to it being chelated from the soil by glyphosate (Roundup).22 Manganese serves an essential role in building collagen, so when it is deficient, it frequently creates systemic ligamentous laxity,23 and in turn hypermobile patients such as those with EDS (who tend to be highly sensitive and susceptible to pharmaceutical injuries) notice a significant improvement in their ligamentous strength after a few months of appropriately dose manganese.24 |
Water fluoridation — While fluoride increases bone density, it may compromise bone health and function. Some studies link fluoride to osteomalacia and increased fracture risk.25 |
Pharmaceutical drugs — Medications like glucocorticoid steroids26 (e.g., prednisone) and opioids can weaken bones27 and increase fracture risk. Note: Glucocorticoid induced bone loss is so severe it’s actually one of the few approved indications for bisphosphonate treatment.28 |
Environmental toxins — Exposure to toxins like organophosphates, bisphenol A, nicotine, and heavy metals inhibits bone formation and contributes to osteoporosis.29 |
Parathyroid adenomas — These tumors cause excessive secretion of parathyroid hormone, leading to calcium depletion from bones, bone loss, and a range of symptoms. Surprisingly, despite being a well-known condition, parathyroid adenomas are frequently missed. Identifying persistently elevated blood calcium levels can serve as a key indicator, prompting further investigation into a parathyroid adenomas. |
Note: Chinese Medicine has connected the age-related loss of the kidney’s vitality to bone loss for thousands of years. Many attribute this to the kidneys crucial role in regulating vitamin D and the blood levels of the minerals bone is composed of (e.g., calcium).
I suspect their regulation of the physiologic zeta potential (the decline of which is a key cause of aging) is also key. That is because zeta potential30 governs the tendency for blood to flow freely or clump together, and the hard exterior bone blood vessels must pass through makes them more susceptible to their blood supply becoming interrupted (e.g., from the bone moving out of place).
Conclusion
It's fascinating to realize that bone is far more than just a structural component; it's a living tissue with its own dynamic behavior. When I've had the opportunity to handle bone directly, such as during orthopedic surgeries, it's evident how different it is from the lifeless bones we typically encounter. Unfortunately, this experience is rare, leading many to see bone as inert and unchanging.
The points I've discussed in this article are founded on the importance of recognizing bone's vitality and understanding how our interactions with it shape our health and longevity. Ancient medical traditions, like Chinese medicine, appreciated this aspect of bone health. They saw it as integral to overall well-being, acknowledging its interconnectedness with the body's systems.
By embracing this perspective, we can gain new insights into bone health and its significance for holistic healthcare. It's my hope that this article sheds light on the dynamic nature of bones and encourages a deeper understanding of their role in our health journey.
Author’s note: This is an abridged version of a longer article on the subject which discusses the above points in more detail and many others such as our other preferred approaches for improving bone health. That article and its additional references can be read here.
A Note From Dr. Mercola About the Author
A Midwestern Doctor (AMD) is a board-certified physician in the Midwest and a longtime reader of Mercola.com. I appreciate his exceptional insight on a wide range of topics and I'm grateful to share them. I also respect his desire to remain anonymous as he is still on the front lines treating patients. To find more of AMD's work, be sure to check out The Forgotten Side of Medicine on Substack.
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Experts Rip CDC for Redacting All 148 Pages of Information on Myocarditis After COVID Shots
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People who receive a COVID-19 shot are at increased risk of myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle,1 and pericarditis, which is inflammation of the outer lining of the heart. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states it’s "actively monitoring reports of myocarditis and pericarditis after COVID-19 vaccination"2 and investigating long-term effects.3
The public deserves to know the truth about just how often myocarditis, which can cause heart failure, abnormal heartbeat and sudden death, occurs after a COVID-19 injection. However, the CDC isn’t willing to share this critical data. In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the public health agency sent back a fully redacted document.
CDC Fully Redacts 148-Page Report on Post-Jab Myocarditis
The Epoch Times sent a FOIA request to the CDC, looking to investigate a 148-page report on myocarditis after COVID-19 injection. In response, the CDC sent a fully redacted copy, along with a second document that was "mostly redacted."4
In a tweet that included an image of the blank document, Epoch Times reporter Zachary Stieber wrote sarcastically, "Excited to dive into a new FOIA on the CDC’s long-term study of myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination."5 The Vigilant Fox added, "There’s obviously something very damning that they’re trying to hide."6
Others also expressed shock and dismay that the CDC, which bills itself as "the nation’s leading science-based, data-driven, service organization that protects the public’s health,"7 would be so blatantly deceptive. Independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. tweeted:8
"The level of arrogance and contempt for the public in releasing a 100% redacted document is staggering. The CDC is thumbing their nose at the Freedom of Information Act. Without transparency, there is no such thing as democracy. When I’m President, the CDC won’t get to decide what the public can see. Everything will be out in the open, and you won’t need a FOIA request to read any taxpayer-funded data."
It's not the first time a government agency has tried to keep the public in the dark regarding COVID-19 shots. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Pfizer attempted to hide the COVID-19 shot clinical trial data for 75 years, but the FDA was ordered by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas to release redacted versions of trial documents on a much faster schedule.
As part of the court order, 80,000 pages of documents related to the FDA’s approval of Pfizer’s COVID-19 shots were released on June 1, 2022.9 Among those documents were case report forms revealing that deaths and severe adverse events took place during Phase 3 trials, but, as reported by Children’s Health Defense, Pfizer had "a trend of classifying almost all adverse events — and in particular severe adverse events — as being ‘not related’ to the vaccine."10
120 FOIA Requests — Vaccine Data on 10 Million People Still Kept Secret
Lack of transparency is a common thread for all vaccines, not just COVID-19 injections. A U.S. Senate roundtable discussion, hosted by Sen. Ron Johnson, tackled the taboo topic — including why public health agencies have not studied the health outcomes of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children — and have refused to make data on the topic available to the public.11
"They do not publish the results [or] let any independent scientist in to look at that information," Brian Hooker, chief scientific officer for Children’s Health Defense, said. "They refuse to publish the results and they really know why. It’s because the bloated vaccination schedule is responsible and is, I would say, in part responsible for the epidemic of chronic disorders that we see in children in the U.S."12
Hooker testified that the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to "report to Congress on the state of vaccine safety in the U.S. every two years." However, he said HHS has "never submitted a vaccine safety report to Congress."13
Hooker also reported that health agencies have data on health outcomes for vaccinated and unvaccinated children, but they refuse to make it public. The data, which includes close to 30 years’ worth of information on more than 10 million people, is housed in a database called Vaccine Safety Datalink.
Despite Hooker making more than 120 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and going through "congressional representatives to get the Vaccine Safety Datalink itself," he says, "It is simply something that they will not do."14 He believes financial conflicts of interest are the reason why:15
"CDC buys and sells $5 billion worth of vaccines a year through the Vaccines for Children program. They also spend half a billion dollars a year … advertising and through public relationship campaigns for vaccinations in general, as compared to a woeful budget of $50 million that is being used for vaccine safety every year."
Hooker also wasn’t surprised when the CDC released the fully redacted document related to myocarditis and COVID-19 injections, describing it as "very typical of CDC as they have been lying and hiding since the Tuskegee experiment and before."16 He stated:17
"Their relationship with the truth is dubious at best and they are committed to hiding the very obvious connection between COVID-19 vaccines and myocarditis as they have from the beginning of the rollout of the vaccine.
The CDC knew of this connection as early as January 2021, just weeks after the release of the vaccine, and has never been forthcoming regarding it. It is criminal that they continue to defraud the American public."
Pfizer and CDC Knew COVID Shots Increased Myocarditis Risk but Withhold Data
Project Veritas also reported on leaked internal Pfizer documents, written by eight scientists in Pfizer’s Drug Safety Research & Development division. The papers revealed Pfizer was aware that people who receive a COVID-19 shot are at increased risk of myocarditis, and stated:18
"Onset was typically within several days after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination (from Pfizer or Moderna), and cases have occurred more often after the second dose than the first dose … Since April 2021, increased cases of myocarditis and pericarditis have been reported in the United States after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna), particularly in adolescents and young adults (CDC 2021).
The pattern of cases conform, as per the label, to a pattern of myocarditis cases occurring in majority of young males below 29 years of age within the first two weeks post-vaccination. The reasons for male predominance in myocarditis and pericarditis incidence post COVID-19 vaccination remain unknown."
While Pfizer said it wasn’t certain of the mechanism behind the increased myocarditis risk in males, possibilities identified included the following, according to Children’s Health Defense:19
Direct cardiotoxicity |
Acute/active viral infection |
Genetic predisposition and pre-existing conditions |
A prior history of myocarditis |
Immune-mediated mechanisms and vaccine-associated autoimmunity |
Molecular mimicry to the spike protein |
Sex-related effects |
Children’s Health Defense further reported that another set of CDC documents suggest data regarding post-jab myocarditis was withheld: "Heavily redacted CDC documents obtained by Children’s Health Defense (CHD) via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request indicate the agency provided an undercounted figure of post-COVID-19-vaccination myocarditis cases to Israel’s Ministry of Health in early 2021."20
What Does the Science Say on Myocarditis After COVID Shots?
The data on myocarditis may be particularly damning if the CDC felt the need to redact every word over 148 pages. As it stands, a number of studies have tried to quantify the damage, with varying estimates on just how common myocarditis is after a COVID-19 injection.
A real-world case-control study from Israel21 revealed that the Pfizer COVID-19 jab is associated with a threefold increased risk of myocarditis,22 leading to the condition at a rate of 1 to 5 events per 100,000 persons.23 Another study used data from the BC COVID-19 Cohort study, which included more than 10.2 million doses of mRNA COVID-19 shots given to people 12 and over.
Cases of myocarditis that occurred seven to 21 days after the shots and required hospitalization were examined. While seven myocarditis cases would be expected within seven days, the study found 99 cases among those who’d received the shots.
Within 21 days post-vaccination, 141 cases of myocarditis occurred. The expected rate was 20. This worked out to a myocarditis rate of 1.37 per 100,000 COVID-19 doses, compared with an expected rate of 0.39 per 100,000 people who did not get the shots.24 Rates of myocarditis after COVID-19 shots were highest among:25
- Males
- Those aged 18 to 29 years
- People who received a Moderna COVID-19 shot
- People who received two doses
The rate of myocarditis among males aged 18 to 29 who received Moderna’s COVID-19 shot was 22.9 per 100,000.26 Other research has suggested that heart muscle damage due to COVID-19 infection would have been greater without the availability of the shots.27 However, this claim was scrutinized because it only involved studies that involved patients hospitalized due to COVID-19.
By examining data from Germany and Switzerland on COVID-19 infections and the frequency of elevated troponin levels, a marker of heart damage, in both hospitalized and non-hospitalized individuals, it was found that the risk of heart muscle damage from COVID-19 shots may be higher than from natural COVID-19 infections among the general population.28
In fact, Children’s Health Defense reported, the study revealed that, "regardless of myocarditis severity, there were 71.7 times as many myocarditis cases among the vaccinated as among those hospitalized for COVID-19."29
The concerning research, coupled with the CDC’s blank document in response to a FOIA request, will only serve to further erode the public’s trust in government health agencies.
As cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough told Children’s Health Defense, "The CDC and public health agencies cannot wonder why the medical community and public at large has lost all trust in their honesty, integrity, and competency. Producing this document in response to a request is a disgrace."30
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Do You Know How to Store Potatoes?
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Editor's Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published April 8, 2017.
To most, it would seem as if storing certain veggies in a cool place, such as the garage, back porch or even the refrigerator, would be a good idea. It might keep them cooler and help them last longer, right?
Turns out, that's not how it works with potatoes. When potatoes get chilled, the starch in them turns to sugar and they become tough. They might look OK, but when they're cooked, they may emit harmful properties that they wouldn't have, otherwise. They can become not just slightly shrunken and wrinkly, but potentially toxic.
Here's what happens: When potatoes are chilled, an enzyme known as invertase breaks down the sucrose (aka sugar) they contain and turns it into fructose and glucose, also called dextrose, the main sugar manufactured by your body and your chief source of energy.1
These two sugars, fructose and glucose, combine with the amino acid asparagine in potatoes and form acrylamide when they're baked, fried or otherwise heated, according a study published in Risk Analysis.2
This doesn't happen with frozen potatoes, however, because sucrose doesn't get broken down by very low temperatures. An article from New Scientist explains:3
"Acrylamide is made by something called the Maillard reaction, which browns cooked foods and gives them their pleasing flavor. As sugars and amino acids react together, they produce thousands of different chemicals.
Particularly high levels of acrylamide are found in starchy foods, like potatoes and bread, when cooked at temperatures over 120 [degrees] C. The chemical can also be present in breakfast cereals, biscuits and coffee."
As a matter of fact, acrylamide forms when potatoes or other starchy foods are browned to the point of charring, or above 250 degrees F (120 degrees C).4 This can be true with baked, grilled, sautéed or roasted starchy veggies, as well as with grains and even coffee.
Acrylamide and How to Avoid It
In 2002, the world learned through the Swedish National Food Authority5 that acrylamide is no longer considered a potential genotoxic carcinogen linked to an increased risk of cancer, but a confirmed cause, something that many experts say they suspected all along.6
Further, acrylamide converts in your body to another compound known as glycamide, which studies show can bind to your DNA and cause mutations. Animal studies indicate that acrylamide does indeed cause several types of cancer.7
However, this may not translate consistently or clearly to humans, according to Emma Shields, formerly from Cancer Research UK, who adds that while it may be difficult to prove the cancer link in people, there's no guarantee it doesn't damage human DNA, as well. Lifestyle factors may weigh in on this effect, though, Shields said.8
"It's important to remember that there are many well-established factors like smoking, obesity and alcohol, which all have a big impact on the number of cancer cases in the U.K."
Acrylamide can be found in as much as 40% of the calories consumed by the average American, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says.9 It's also a given that most processed foods, because they've been subjected to high temperatures, contain acrylamide. Potato chips are a perfect example.
Eating mostly raw vegetables brings you the greatest health benefits, but when you do subject them and other foods to heat, do so at the lowest possible temperatures, cooking them just until done, and avoiding frying, baking or broiling whenever possible. In general, cook at a lower temperature whenever possible.
You can reduce acrylamide formation by soaking raw potatoes in water for 15 to 30 minutes before cooking. And while I don't normally recommend eating potatoes and other starchy foods such as rice and pasta, chilling them after they're cooked will turn a portion of them into digestive-resistant starch, which can be beneficial for your gut health. As an example, potato salad may be one of the healthier ways to eat potatoes.
The Acrylamide Cancer Link
Researchers at Maastricht University in the Netherlands conducted an extensive review of 62,573 women between the ages of 55 and 69. When the data was analyzed, the scientists determined that higher intakes of acrylamide were linked to a higher risk of endometrial and ovarian cancer, compared to lower intakes.10
George Alexeeff, Ph.D., former deputy director at the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment for California, said his office definitely believes acrylamide is a chemical people should be concerned about, and that if something causes cancer in animals, it would most likely cause cancer in humans, too. According to an interview at Los Angeles Times:11
"The Environmental Protection Agency considers acrylamide potentially so dangerous that it has fixed the safe level for human consumption at almost zero, with a maximum permissible level in drinking water of 0.5 parts per billion."
Additional studies also indicate that acrylamide in foods can cause cancer. One noted that receptor-positive breast cancer risk is elevated when this toxic compound has been ingested.12
Yams, Sweet Potatoes and Nutritional Attributes
You may already know that yams and sweet potatoes are two different vegetables, and that neither yams nor sweet potatoes are potatoes at all. The basic differences between yams and sweet potatoes are their shape, size and color, but even grocery stores and recipes often refer to them interchangeably.
Sweet potatoes belong to the Convolvulaceae or morning glory plant family and have two seed leaves, while yams have only one embryonic seed leaf. But they're both tubers. So, where did the confusion begin?
Sweet potatoes grown in the American south were called nyamis, the African term for "to eat." The shortened "yam" is still used today.13
Not as sweet, yams come in a bulky, more or less cylindrical shape, with a thin bark-like skin and dry, starchy flesh. They come from the Dioscoreae family of plants related to palms. Because they're native to Africa, and are also grown in Asia, they're not common in the U.S. other than in international markets.
Sweet potatoes are sweeter and more moist (although this can vary, too). They're also elongated with tapered ends and smooth skin in hues varying from beige to orange to purple, and they can grow to a whopping 5 feet in length. The outside skin can be red, purple or brown, and the flesh anywhere from white to yellow to red-orange.
Sweet potatoes, with their yellow-to-orange-hued flesh, contain two important antioxidant enzymes: copper/zinc superoxide dismutase and catalase. The dark flesh color also indicates the presence of beta-carotene, another important antioxidant, which is converted by your body to vitamin A to retinol to help protect your eyesight.
But the purple sweet potato variety contains more than three times the antioxidant power due to anthocyanins, also related to their pigmentation, which help fight several types of cancer, including stomach, colon, lung and breast.14 Nutrition Facts notes:15
"Most recently, sweet potato proteins were tried on colorectal cancer cells, one of our most common and deadly cancers.
Normally, we just surgically remove the colon, but that only works in the early stages since there are often 'micrometastases' outside the colon that can subsequently lead to cancer recurrence and death …
So, we've been searching for anti-metastatic agents. Not only does sweet potato protein slow down the growth of colon cancer cells, but it may also decrease cancer cell migration and invasion."
White Potatoes and Purple Potatoes
Both yams and sweet potatoes are noted as better for you than regular white potatoes, mostly due to the increased antioxidants and fiber content.
But just like white potatoes, they should be stored loosely (not in plastic) in a dark, dry spot at around 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit, but not cold and never refrigerated. Raw sweet potatoes don't freeze well.16
The flavor of any potato, whether it's white, purple or sweet, can be adversely affected when they've been stored in cold places.
One reason potatoes have such a reputation for being unhealthy for you is because so many of them are made into incredibly unhealthy, greasy fries. In fact, the average American eats around 29 pounds every year!17
In their unprocessed form, white potatoes provide nutrients such as vitamin C, copper, B vitamins, potassium, manganese, phosphorus and fiber, along with antioxidant phytonutrients. I'm not normally a fan of potatoes, especially if eaten in excess. But they do have some healthy attributes, especially if they're organic and you eat the peel. According to nutrition group the George Mateljan Foundation:18
"Potatoes also contain a variety of phytonutrients that have antioxidant activity. Among these important health-promoting compounds are carotenoids, flavonoids and caffeic acid, as well as unique tuber storage proteins, such as patatin, which exhibit activity against free radicals."
If you're healthy, eating white potatoes in moderation is OK, but there are healthier sources of many of the nutrients potatoes provide. Then there are purple potatoes from the Solonaceae (nightshade) family, also high in antioxidants, a fact that's hinted in both the skin and flesh color. For centuries, the purple in purple potatoes was used as a dye for textiles and even to color other food.
More Benefits of Eating Purple Potatoes
Eating purple potatoes has numerous health benefits. A 100-gram serving contains 1.54 grams of protein, 3.1 grams of fiber, 337 milligrams of potassium, 30 milligrams of calcium and numerous other vitamins and minerals.19 They're high in fiber and are also easy to digest; plus, they contain valuable electrolytes and help prevent low potassium.20 Additionally, they:
• May help lower and regulate your blood pressure, due to the effect they have on capillaries and blood vessels.21 The potassium content in them also helps in this regard, as higher intakes have been linked to lowered blood pressure.22
The research also revealed that purple potatoes lowered diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number on a blood pressure reading) by 4.3% and the systolic reading (the top number) blood pressure by 3.5%.
• May help reduce the risk of blood clots — Thrombosis is one of the leading causes of death throughout the world, but purple potato consumption can help, due in part to the chlorogenic acid, which may break down blood clots and prevent the enzymatic activity of procoagulant proteins and peptides.
One study showed that chlorogenic acid delayed blood clot development in mice, which suggests it could be used to treat blood clots and possibly prevent them.23
• Contain over-the-top levels of antioxidants and phytonutrients — These help fight disease by lowering inflammation, especially due to the anthocyanins and their ability to zap free radicals. Traditional medicine used these compounds to treat hypertension (high blood pressure) and liver dysfunction and help prevent eye diseases and infections.24
• Contain colon-cleansing fiber — You could say fiber is the ultimate cleansing system because it is what helps move food through your system and out of your body. This can prevent constipation and promote regularity, among other benefits. Potatoes, both white and purple, contain soluble and insoluble fiber, just like nuts, beans and other vegetables such as cauliflower and green beans.25
Fermenting Vegetables, Including Sweet and Purple Potatoes
There are lots of ways to prepare both sweet potatoes and purple potatoes. The important thing is to avoid using unhealthy oils and high temperatures in the preparation. That said, you can ferment these veggies as easily as any other to retain optimal vitamins and minerals, and give your body the beneficial microbes it needs. Fermenting vegetables also adds greatly to the amount of time they can be stored.
Mixing sweet potatoes or purple potatoes with other veggies such as cabbage, beets and celery, helps create an excellent base, as well as flavor. Herbs and spices, such as basil and rosemary, add a deeper flavor profile. Fermenting your own veggies is simple and enjoyable, and you'll know exactly what's in them. If you'd like to give fermented sweet potatoes a try, a tasty fermented veggie recipe follows:
Ingredients
- 2 medium-sized heads of cabbage
- 3 1/4 pounds of carrots
- 1/3 of a red bell pepper
- 1 medium-sized sweet potato
- 1/2 bunch of golden beats
- Half of a Granny Smith apple
- 1 bunch of parsley
- 1/2 bunch of cilantro
- 4 inches of ginger root, grates
- 1 head of garlic, grated
- Starter culture, such as Kinetic Culture
- Himalayan salt or celery juice
Procedure
- Chop or shred your veggies.
- Add 1 1/2 Tbsp. of Himalayan salt to a quart of filtered or distilled water (an equal amount of celery juice can be used in place of the salt/water mixture) and one pre-measured packet of Kinetic Culture for every quart of veggies.
- Pack the veggies into a wide-mouth canning jar, pressing down to eliminate air pockets.
- Top with a cabbage leaf, tucked down over the top to make sure the veggies are completely immersed.
- Cap loosely (don't tighten down too hard) to allow gases to be released, then keep the jar in a warm place at 68 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit for 24 to 96 hours.
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Maine Attorney General Sues Monsanto Over PCB Contamination
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Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are chemical compounds that were produced by the biotech company Monsanto and were used in a wide range of products due to their capacity to withstand high temperatures and pressure. However, they were banned in 1979 after their carcinogenic potential and toxicity were revealed — although, apparently, Monsanto has known about their toxicity for decades.
Now, the biotech giant (now under Bayer) is being sued once again, this time by Aaron Frey, the attorney general of Maine. "I am taking action to demand that Monsanto pay for the harm it knowingly caused our state," he said.1
Monsanto Accused of ‘Decades-Long Campaign of Misinformation and Deception’
On April 11, 2024, Frey filed a 47-page complaint2 in Cumberland County Superior Court, accusing Monsanto of selling PCBs despite being aware of their dangers to human health, wildlife and the environment. According to an article published on Maine Wire:3
"The complaint alleges that Monsanto, despite ‘early knowledge of the grave dangers associated with PCBs,’ ran a ‘decades-long campaign of misinformation and deception’ to increase their rate of manufacture and sale of PCBs in Maine and elsewhere.
‘From 1960 to the mid-1970s alone, Monsanto sold at least hundreds of thousands of pounds of commercial PCB mixtures to customers in Maine,’ the suit reads."
PCBs have caused extensive damage to the state’s resources, polluting over 400 river stream miles and over 1.9 million ocean acres, classifying them as "impaired" due to the presence of these chemicals.
The lawsuit claims that PCB-specific fish and shellfish consumption advisories have also been issued by the state because of contamination, and the public is advised to either avoid consuming fish or to severely limit the consumption of certain fish.
PCBs: One of Monsanto’s Most Toxic Legacies
PCBs are manmade chemicals consisting of hydrogen, carbon and chlorine atoms. They have no taste or smell and have a liquid structure that’s either oily or waxy. They were first produced in 19294 by the Swann Chemical Corporation.5 During that time, PCBs were sought-after chemicals because of their extreme resistance to high temperatures and pressure, making them valuable for use as fire retardants and insulators.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s website lists some of the uses of PCBs in industrial and commercial applications, such as:6
- Electrical and hydraulic equipment, as well as heat transfer applications
- Paints (as plasticizers), plastics and rubber products
- Carbonless copy paper
- Pigments and dyes
After Monsanto purchased and absorbed Swann Chemical in 1935, they continued to manufacture and commercialize PCBs (sold under the brand name Aroclor), licensing these chemicals to other companies as well. Up until its ban, overall global production of PCBs was estimated to be between 1 and 1.5 million tonnes.7 The Maine Wire reports:8
"Monsanto manufactured and sold PCBs from about 1935 to 1977, during that period accounting for 99 percent or more of all PCBs used or sold within the U.S., and used PCBs in a wide variety of products, including paints, caulks, inks, dyes, lubricants, plastics, and other applications."
Frey says that he has copies of Monsanto internal memos verifying his claims — that the company was aware of the risks of PCBs but chose to turn a blind eye for the sake of profit.
There Are Dozens of Lawsuits Concerning PCBs’ Dangers
Frey’s complaint adds to the growing list of lawsuits against Monsanto over their PCB products. In December 2023, the biotech giant was ordered to pay $857 million to students and parents from a Washington state school who claimed that the PCBs from fluorescent light fixtures triggered brain damage, autoimmune disorders and other health issues. In a CBS News article, Keri C. Hornbuckle, a professor and environmental engineer at the University of Iowa, said:9
"Although they were banned in 1979, they're still present in the environment. PCBs are called forever chemicals because they break down so slowly — PFAS compounds are also called that for the same reason."
In July 2023, 90 school districts in Vermont also sued Monsanto citing toxic PCB contamination of the indoor air in their educational buildings. According to an article from the Associated Press,10 students and school staff can be exposed to PCBs when they breathe in or inhale contaminated dust and vapors. Touching surfaces with their hands, then using them for eating or drinking can also lead them to ingest PCBs.
A year earlier, Vermont became the first state in the country to require older schools to test their indoor air for these chemicals. The lawsuit11 states that removing PCBs can be expensive, as it could require demolishing buildings and building new ones. This could potentially cost hundreds of millions (if not billions) of dollars.12
Monsanto Responds, Claims Allegations Are ‘Meritless’
The Maine Wire reports that Frey is also seeking damages for the injuries and contamination Monsanto’s toxic chemicals caused to the people and the environment. This will cover the costs needed for cleaning, monitoring and mitigating the state’s waterways that have been polluted by PCBs.13
In response to the Maine lawsuit, Monsanto issued a statement, claiming that they have "strong defenses and will vigorously defend against these claims."14 According to their press release:15
"We will respond to the complaint in greater detail in court at the appropriate time, however, we believe this case is meritless as Monsanto never manufactured or disposed of PCBs in the State of Maine, and any PCB-containing products that could be the source of any impairments in the state were manufactured and disposed by third parties …
Under applicable law, a manufacturer of component parts is not responsible for the downstream, third-party uses of a product that it lawfully introduced into the stream of commerce and over which it has had no control for nearly five decades …
Monsanto discontinued its production of PCBs nearly five decades ago, conducted hundreds of studies about their safety, and provided warnings to its customers based on the state-of-the science at the time."
PCBs Have Been Linked to Cancer and Other Health Concerns
Despite being banned for decades, PCBs are still pervasive in the environment, mainly because they "resist degradation, rather than breaking down over time."16 As a result, they are found all over the world — every one of us has been exposed to these toxic chemicals. The EPA website explains:17
"PCBs do not readily break down once in the environment. They can remain for long periods cycling between air, water and soil. PCBs can be carried long distances and have been found in snow and sea water in areas far from where they were released into the environment. As a consequence, they are found all over the world. In general, the lighter the form of PCB, the further it can be transported from the source of contamination.
PCBs can accumulate in the leaves and above-ground parts of plants and food crops. They are also taken up into the bodies of small organisms and fish. As a result, people who ingest fish may be exposed to PCBs that have bioaccumulated in the fish they are ingesting."
PCBs have been associated with various adverse effects and several studies18,19,20 have confirmed that they can put people at risk of cancer and other health concerns. A 2022 review21 published in the journal Toxics notes that they can target your nervous, endocrine (thyroid, thymus, pancreas and gonads), reproductive, cardiovascular and immune systems.22 The more they accumulate, the more dangerous they become.
In Utero Exposure to PCBs May Lead to Autism in Children
What’s alarming about PCBs is that they can even affect unborn children. According to a 2021 meta-analysis23 that looked at 12 previously published studies, being exposed to PCBs and pesticides during pregnancy can put your unborn child at a higher risk of autism. The researchers noted:24
"We evaluated the association between pesticide and PCB exposure during pregnancy and the risk of developing ASDs among different children according to available evidence from case-control and cohort epidemiological studies.
The results of the present study indicate the significance of the association between pesticide and PCB exposure during pregnancy and the risk of ASDs among children."
One Way to Reduce Your PCB Exposure: Choose Safe Seafood
Despite the ubiquitous nature of PCBs, the good news is that there are certain measures you can take to reduce your exposure. In Maine’s lawsuit,25 for example, they noted that residents have been warned of PCB contamination in fish and shellfish, allowing them to make the smart choice to avoid these contaminated products.
The fact is that most major waterways in the world are now contaminated with PCBs and other toxins like mercury, heavy metals, dioxins and other agricultural chemicals that wind up in the environment. However, certain marine fish species are at a lower risk of carrying these chemicals. Your best choices are small, cold-water, fatty fish, which are an ideal source of omega-3s with a low risk of contamination.
- Anchovies
- Sardines
- Mackerel
- Herring
- Wild-caught Alaskan salmon (certified)
There is a low risk of authentic wild-caught salmon accumulating high amounts of mercury and other toxins because of its short life cycle, which is only about three years. Additionally, bioaccumulation of toxins is also reduced since it doesn't feed on other, already contaminated, fish.
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Natural Therapies for Cystic Fibrosis
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Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a progressive and terminal genetic disease that causes an overproduction and buildup of thick, sticky mucus in the lungs and other organs that lead to chronic inflammation and, eventually, a deterioration of lung function.
The disease requires daily breathing treatment for up to five hours a day, and many CF patients end up spending a lot of time in the hospital due to respiratory distress and chronic infections. Pancreatic and gastrointestinal complications, including malabsorption of proteins and fats, and chronic liver disease are also common. The median survival age is about 35 years.1
A 2012 paper2 in the Journal of Pharmacy Practice reviewed several of the most commonly recommended nutritional supports for those with CF, including vitamins A, C and E, zinc, omega-3 docosahexaenoic (DHA), garlic, ginseng and curcumin.
According to this paper, 75% of CF patients routinely use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in addition to their regular treatment, so it’s important for health professionals to be familiar with these options.
More recently, a scientific review3 published in 2022 highlighted the role of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in the clinical management of CF. Removing all linoleic acid (LA) from your diet and optimizing your vitamin D level are two additional foundational recommendations that I will go over here.
Vitamins A, C and E and Zinc
Many CF patients have poor absorption of fat-soluble vitamins such as A and E, due to malabsorption of fats. For this reason, supplementation with these vitamins is often recommended. As a rule, patients are advised to consume between 120% and 150% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of nutrients to prevent premature death from malnutrition.4
The Journal of Pharmacy Practice paper5 cites research from 2001, which found that CF patients who received 1 milligram of beta-carotene per kilo of bodyweight per day (up to 50 mg per day) for three months, followed by a daily dose of 10 mg for another three months, experienced “a statistically significant decrease in the number of days of treatment with systemic antibiotics.”
Zinc supplementation at a dose of 30 mg per day has also been shown to reduce the average days of antibiotic use, and a pediatric study using an antioxidant-rich multivitamin supplement containing vitamins A, C, E and zinc and other micronutrients found “modest improvement” in lung function.
How to Select a Good Vitamin Supplement
Vitamin A (retinol) should not be confused with beta-carotene, which is pre-vitamin A that gets converted into vitamin A in your liver. To use beta-carotene, you need to have a well-functioning digestive tract and sufficient bile produced by your gallbladder. Specific enzymes are also needed to break down the carotene for the conversion into retinol to occur.
Most people have poor gut health, and this is particularly true for CF patients, which makes beta-carotene a poor alternative as a primary source of vitamin A. Retinol — preformed vitamin A — is found in animal products such as grass fed meat and poultry, liver, fish and raw organic dairy products like butter. This is the form of vitamin A your body can use, so make sure the vitamin A you buy specifies “retinol” or “retinoic acid,” and not just “vitamin A” or “beta-carotene.”
When it comes to vitamin C, you want to make sure it’s liposomal, as it will allow you to take higher dosages without causing loose stools. It’s also absorbed better.
While healthy people can typically get enough vitamin C from food such as red pepper, broccoli, kiwi, strawberries, citrus fruits, camu camu, rose hips or acerola cherries, if you’re ill, you need far more than what can be obtained from food (possibly except for acerola cherry, which contains 80 mg of vitamin C per cherry).
Selecting a natural supplement is particularly important when it comes to vitamin E. Studies have demonstrated that synthetic vitamin E has the opposite effect of natural vitamin E, such as increasing the risk of certain cancers rather than lowering it,6,7,8 for example. So, it’s important to make sure you’re getting a natural version.
What you’re looking for is “d alpha tocopherol.” Avoid all synthetic forms such as succinate, acetate and the racemic DL isomer. You want the pure D isomer, which is what your body can use. There are also other vitamin E isomers, and you want the complete spectrum of tocotrienols, specifically the beta, gamma, and delta types of vitamin E, in the effective D isomer.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D also plays a crucial role in the health and management of CF, offering several benefits backed by scientific research. A systematic review and meta-analysis9 published in January 2024 revealed that CF patients typically have significantly lower levels of vitamin D compared to healthy controls, both in childhood/adolescence and adulthood.
The prevalence of vitamin D levels considered insufficient (20–30 ng/mL) in CF patients was found to be 36% among pediatrics and adolescents and 63% among adults. Twenty-seven percent of pediatric/adolescent CF patients and 35% of adults had vitamin D levels of below 20 ng/mL, which is a severe deficiency state.
Ideally, you’d want a vitamin D level of at least 60 ng/mL year-round. To reach that level, I recommend daily walks with minimal clothing for 30 minutes before and after solar noon, for a total of one hour. During summertime, that would be right around 1 pm.
While oral vitamin D3 supplementation is an option if you cannot get enough sun exposure, you’ll miss out on many of the other health benefits that sun exposure provides. You also need to make sure you’re taking vitamin K2 and magnesium when using oral supplementation.
How Vitamin D Deficiency Impacts CF
Another study10 focused on the relationship between vitamin D levels and lung function in CF patients, specifically through the lung clearance index (LCI), a measure of lung function. The study found a strong negative correlation between vitamin D levels and LCI, indicating that lower vitamin D levels are associated with worse lung function.
It also noted that vitamin D deficiency could be particularly detrimental in patients with comorbidities such as cystic fibrosis-related diabetes (CFRD) and cystic fibrosis liver disease (CFLD).
Additionally, a pilot study11 published in 2019 investigated the immunomodulatory effects of vitamin D on pro-inflammatory cytokines in the airways of CF patients infected by Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
They found that supplementation with vitamin D led to a decrease in the levels of interleukins IL-17A and IL-23 in the exhaled breath condensate (EBC), indicating a reduction in inflammation.
These cytokines are known to play roles in the body's inflammatory response, suggesting that vitamin D supplementation can help modulate the immune response in CF patients, potentially mitigating lung damage caused by chronic infections.
These findings collectively underscore the importance of monitoring and managing vitamin D levels in CF patients, not only for bone health but also for its potential benefits in improving lung function, reducing inflammation, and enhancing the body's response to infections.
N-acetylcysteine (NAC)
NAC is a precursor to your body’s production of glutathione (GSH), also has an important role in the management of CF.12 As noted in the journal Pharmaceuticals:13
“[NAC] has been known for a long time as a powerful antioxidant and as an antidote for paracetamol overdose. However, other activities related to this molecule have been discovered over the years, making it a promising drug for diseases such as cystic fibrosis (CF).
Its antioxidant activity plays a key role in CF airway inflammation and redox imbalance. Furthermore, this molecule appears to play an important role in the prevention and eradication of biofilms resulting from CF airway infections, in particular that of Pseudomonas aeruginosa …
To do this, NAC can act alone, but it can also be used as an adjuvant molecule to known drugs (antibiotics/anti-inflammatories) to increase their activity.”
Here’s a quick overview of how NAC can be beneficial for CF patients, drawing on its various mechanisms:14
Fighting oxidative stress — There's a battle between damaging oxidative substances (ROS) and the body's antioxidants. NAC steps in as a reinforcement, helping to boost the body's antioxidant levels, especially glutathione (GSH). This helps to mitigate the damage caused by oxidative stress, which can worsen CF conditions. |
Reducing inflammation — CF lungs are often inflamed, partly due to overactive immune responses that attract too many neutrophils (a type of white blood cell) to the site. These neutrophils release substances that can damage lung tissue. NAC helps calm this overreaction, reducing inflammation by modulating the production of molecules like cytokines that drive the inflammatory process. |
Breaking down mucus — The thick mucus in CF can trap bacteria, creating biofilms that are hard to treat. NAC can break the sulfur bonds in the mucus, making it less sticky and easier to clear from the lungs. This action helps disrupt the biofilm structure, allowing antibiotics to reach and kill bacteria more effectively. |
Enhancing antibiotic effectiveness — The presence of biofilms and thick mucus in CF lungs can make bacteria resistant to antibiotics. NAC can make these bacteria more susceptible to antibiotics by breaking down the biofilms. It can also work synergistically with certain antibiotics, improving their ability to kill bacteria. |
Acting against bacteria directly — Even though NAC is not an antibiotic, it has properties that can directly inhibit the growth of bacteria and their ability to form biofilms. This adds an extra layer of defense against lung infections. |
Supporting healthy immune responses — By reducing the oxidative stress and helping to manage the inflammatory response, NAC can indirectly support the body's immune system, making it more effective at fighting off infections without causing additional damage to lung tissues. |
Improving cell function — On a cellular level, NAC might help correct some of the dysfunction caused by the CF mutation. It has been suggested that NAC can help with the maturation and function of CFTR proteins, which are faulty in CF, thereby helping to alleviate some of the symptoms. |
Omega-3
Omega-3 is also thought to be important for CF patients because deficiency has been linked to worsened pulmonary and GI symptoms, as well as CF progression. DHA, in particular, is important, as it has a beneficial impact on lung function. Previous research has concluded that doses up to 50 mg of DHA per kilo of bodyweight is safe for CF patients.15
When it comes to omega-3, I recommend trying to get most of it from omega-3-rich seafood, such as wild-caught Alaskan salmon, herring, sardines, mackerel and anchovies. If using a supplement, avoid synthetic fish oils and opt for krill oil instead.
Herbal Remedies
Herbal remedies recommended for CF include:16
- Garlic, which has antibacterial effects.
- Ginseng, which has antioxidant, antimicrobial and immune modulating effects. Aqueous extract of ginseng has been shown to be effective in inhibiting P aeruginosa, a bacteria often involved in chronic pulmonary infections, including antibiotic-resistant strains.
- Curcumin, which has antioxidant properties. Limited data also suggests it may increase CFTR-regulated channel activity in CF patients. CFTR is a protein that, when dysfunctional, results in the development of CF symptoms.
Eliminate Linoleic Acid From Your Diet
As important as supplementing certain nutrients might be, CF patients must also be vigilant about avoiding certain things. As explained in my in-depth review, “Linoleic Acid — The Most Destructive Ingredient in Your Diet,” linoleic acid (LA) — an omega-6 polyunsaturated fat (PUFA) — acts as a mitochondrial poison and the primary contributor to all chronic disease.
If you have CF, I strongly advise you to eliminate as much LA from your diet as humanly possible. While LA is found in most foods, by eliminating processed foods, condiments, seed oils for cooking, fast food and restaurant food, and conventionally raised pork, chicken and eggs, you can get your LA intake below 5% of daily calories, which is about what our ancestors used to get.
While there are no studies detailing direct harm caused by LA in CF, dysfunctional lipid metabolism, including LA metabolism, is a characteristic of CF. So, there appears to be a complex interaction with LA that could influence disease outcomes.
That said, considering excess LA is a primary driver of mitochondrial dysfunction, there’s every reason to believe that it will have a detrimental impact on CF. After all, health and disease prevention require you to have well-functioning mitochondria. It’s as foundational as you can get.
If you’re not sure how much you’re eating, enter your food intake into Cronometer — a free online nutrition tracker — and it will provide you with your total LA intake. Cronometer will tell you how much omega-6 you're getting from your food down to the 10th of a gram, and you can assume 90% of that is LA. Anything over 10 grams of LA is likely to cause problems.
Healthy fat replacements include tallow, butter or ghee, all of which are excellent for cooking. The table below provides a fairly comprehensive list of the most commonly consumed oils and their approximate LA content.
In general, the lowest LA-containing fats — butter and beef tallow — would be the fats of choice. These excellent cooking fats would not only be the lowest in LA, but will also provide the fat-soluble vitamins, A, D, and K2. Coconut oil is also very low in LA but doesn’t provide the important fat-soluble vitamins that tallow and butter contain.
Vitamin E Prevents Oxidation of LA
If you’ve been eating a high-PUFA diet for a long time, consider taking vitamin E regularly until you get your LA down to healthy levels. As noted earlier, CF patients need extra vitamin E anyway, and this is yet another reason to make sure you’re getting enough.
High LA levels increase a potentially dangerous process in your body called lipolysis — the liberation of fatty acids from your fat cells into your bloodstream where they are mobilized. This then increases the oxidation of LA, which is precisely what you want to avoid. Ideally, you want to keep LA in your fat cells until they metabolize it with peroxisomes. Vitamin E can help neutralize this damaging effect of LA.
Due to the high LA burden, few people can get enough vitamin E from their diet to suppress the oxidative destruction caused by LA unless they're supplementing with vitamin E.
The good news is that since the supplementation is short term, you're not going to need it the rest of your life. If you can keep your LA intake to below 5 grams a day for three years, it's likely you may not even need it at all, or at most, only a few times a month.
The Story of Claire Wineland
Claire Wineland, an inspirational speaker and YouTube sensation, was diagnosed with CF at birth. At age 13, she founded the Claire’s Place Foundation17 to help families with children who have CF. She died September 2, 2018, from a massive stroke following an otherwise successful lung transplant.
In 2016, Wineland appeared in an episode of “My Last Days,” a limited CW docuseries hosted by Justin Baldoni, featuring people living with terminal illness. September 2, 2019, YouTube Originals released the documentary “CLAIRE,” directed by Nicholas Reed (above).
While filled with chronic illness, Wineland’s life was a testament to how to live life well, with purpose and gratitude. It’s a potent reminder of how we need to live life to the fullest, even though we might die tomorrow. “I’ve always loved the idea of bringing life into places where people think life doesn’t really exist,” Wineland said.
Wineland’s mother said she was convinced her daughter came into the world with a mission to share the message of “what it’s like to be blessed with life.” I couldn’t agree more.
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Boil Your Unpeeled Carrots for Maximum Nutrition
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Editor's Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published June 19, 2017.
There are astonishing arrays of vegetables in the world of every shape and color, each representing an amazing commodity. It's incredible that you can put seeds in the ground, give them adequate sunlight and water, and in a matter of weeks or a few months, you have instant food, which your body needs to thrive.
Vegetables contain vitamins, minerals, nutrients and phytonutrients, such as antioxidants, sulforaphane, isothiocyanates, anthocyanins, carotenoids and a host of other beneficial compounds to provide energy, help your body fight disease, increase your immune function and perform a myriad of other tasks.
Carrots, one of the sweetest vegetables, are also one of the most popular plant-based foods. They're unique for several reasons, but perhaps one of their most important calling cards is beta-carotene, which can't be manufactured in your body, so it needs to come from your diet. In the days of the Romans and Greeks, carrots were believed to be an aphrodisiac, which may be why they purportedly were used more as a "medicine" than a food.
Here's another interesting theory: Daily Mail reports that the first carrots weren't the orange we're used to seeing today, but were developed to have an orange color as a political tribute to the Dutch House of Orange.1
Many of the earliest Dutch citizens were involved in agriculture, and many were known to grow carrots, but up to the late 1500s carrots were usually purple, green, white and even black. In the 17th century, when the Dutch Republic was formed, carrots with high amounts of orange-hued beta-carotene were cultivated, and they caught on.2
Nutrients in Carrots
If you've noticed that "carotene" sounds like "carrot," there's a reason. The word came from the Nobel prize-winning German scientist Richard Kuhn,3 who crystallized the carotene compound from carrot roots. Beta-carotene is just one of more than 600 carotenoids, responsible for the pigment in colorful foods like dark leafy greens, tomatoes, egg yolks, fruits and salmon (the most healthy option being wild-caught Alaskan salmon).
Carrots contain higher levels of beta-carotene than any other vegetable or fruit. The reason that's significant is because beta-carotene gives (some) carrots their distinctive orange color, but also converts in your body to vitamin A, which is very good for your vision. You may have heard your mother say eating your carrots would be good for your eyesight, and it happens to be true.
Numerous minerals "up" the health aspects of carrots, such as calcium, phosphorus and magnesium, to help build strong bones and a healthy nervous system.
Calcium is essential for healthy heart muscles; phosphorus is helpful for softening skin and strengthening teeth, hair and bones, while magnesium plays a role in absorbing nutrients, mental development and fat digestion. Carrot consumption is also good for body-beneficial potassium, vitamins C and B6, copper, thiamine and folate. Fiber is another benefit, which helps move food through your system for easier elimination and better health overall.
How to Extract the Most Nutrition From Your Carrots
Most people assume eating carrots raw is the way to get the most nutrition,4 but science reveals that's not always the case. It turns out that cooking carrots whole, skin intact, without chopping, slicing, grating, shredding or peeling them, is the best way to obtain the most nutrients when they're eaten (although you should scrub them first to remove surface dirt).
Once they're cooked, they can be chopped in the manner you desire. Just before serving, add a little coconut oil and grass fed butter for the highest nutrition.
Researchers also maintain that boiling carrots in their unchopped state makes them taste better.5 Nearly 100 volunteers took the taste test, and 80% of them came to that conclusion. Independent nutritionist Carrie Ruxton wondered if the same benefits might come from vegetables belonging to the carrot family with a similar size and texture, such as parsnips.
In 2013, Dr. Kirsten Brandt found in an animal study6 that when rats were fed carrots or isolated falcarinol, they were a third less likely to develop full-scale tumors than the others.
In 2016, Brandt and colleague Ahlam Rashed, from Newcastle University's School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, concluded from another study7 that carrots boiled before being cut contained 25% more falcarinol, and as a result, 25% more cancer-fighting capabilities, than those chopped beforehand. Daily Mail reported:8
"Cut carrots have a higher surface area in contact with the water, resulting in greater loss of nutrients compared with boiling them whole. The heat softens the cell walls in the vegetable, allowing vitamins and falcarinol to leach out. Dr. Brandt said: 'The great thing about this is it's a simple way for people to increase their uptake of a compound we know is good for you. All you need is a bigger saucepan.'"
Different Veggies Require Different Preparation Methods
Different preparation methods are used on different veggies to get the most nutrition. Rodale's Organic Life asserts:9
"Cooking vegetables helps to soften their tough fibrous exteriors and loosen up all the nutritional good stuff that lies inside. In fact, some vegetables, such as tomatoes, are actually more healthful if you eat them cooked, because the process of cooking them boosts their level of the potent antioxidant lycopene.
The only problem is, not all cooking methods are the same. Some boost nutrient content; some take it away. Some add unwanted fat, while others add the crucial amount for your body to absorb all the nutrients in vegetables."
Broccoli is best steamed for three or four minutes to release the maximum amount of its most beneficial nutrient — sulforaphane — in a process that eliminates epithiospecifier protein, which is heat-sensitive and destroys the sulfur. Steaming it briefly also retains the enzyme myrosinase, the agent that converts glucoraphanin to sulforaphane. Further, boiling your broccoli (or microwaving it) eliminates the desirable myrosinase.
Safe Cooking Options to Retain Nutrients
What are some other healthy ways to cook veggies? Griddles or frying pans are one way — if it's stainless steel, titanium, ceramic, glass or enamel. When you use nontoxic pots and pans, most vegetables not only retain the valuable, good-for-you compounds but also make it easy to observe in the process. Rodale's Organic Life10 lists several common methods of preparing veggies, starting with baking:11
"Baking, or roasting, is hit or miss. Based on the study results, bake your artichokes, asparagus, broccoli and peppers, all of which retained their antioxidant values, but not your carrots, Brussels sprouts, leeks, cauliflower, peas, zucchini, onions, beans, celery, beets and garlic, which all saw decreases in nutrient levels.
Where baking really shines is with green beans, eggplant, corn, Swiss chard and spinach, all of which saw their antioxidant levels increase after baking. Toss a handful of those veggies into your next casserole."
- Steaming — Some scientists say tossing veggies with a little oil, such as coconut oil, butter or ghee, used after the heating is finished, helps boost nutrient absorption.
- Sautéing — For some reason, studies don't seem to recommend sautéing, but it's interesting to note that this is the preferred method used by The George Mateljan Foundation, a not-for-profit dedicated to helping people cook and eat for optimal health. In fact, the site notes that it "produces a much richer flavor."12
- Boiling — It only makes sense that if you cover your veggies with water and boil them, many, if not most, of the nutrition will dissipate. Peas, cauliflower and zucchini, in particular, lose much of what they offer. If you must boil your vegetables, save the nutrient-rich water to use for soup or sauce. Carrots, as previously mentioned, are an exception to this rule.
- Frying — This cooking method is, not surprisingly, the one that fails the test in terms of retaining antioxidants and other nutritive advantages in cooked food. Frying is said to be responsible for food losing between 5% and 50% of each vegetable's nutrients.
Caveats (Like Carcinogens) to Circumvent When Cooking
Another important caveat: When you want to eat something healthy on one hand and nontoxic on the other, make sure your griddle, skillet, roaster, saucepan or any other tool you use for heating does not have a nonstick chemical coating. It's a toxin looking for a place to happen.
These nonstick options, used since the 1940s, may make cooking convenient, but the bits that peel off over time eventually get into your food and into your system, as well as release toxic fumes when heated to high temperatures. The American Cancer Society notes:13
"Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C8, is another man-made chemical (known as fluorotelomers) … (with) the potential to be a health concern because it can stay in the environment and in the human body for long periods of time. Studies have found that it is present worldwide at very low levels in just about everyone's blood."
Additionally, many food manufacturers recommend microwaving for convenience, even packaging foods in plastic bags or containers that can be popped into the microwave for "no muss and no fuss." But there are many problems and potential problems with microwave use: Vital nutrients might be lost, antibodies degraded, protein chemistry altered and white blood cells impaired due to thermic effects. Microwaving may also have detrimental effects on your heart.
The second problem is that many people use plastic in microwaves, which may cause the chemicals they contain to leach into your food. That's not all: There are two other things to pay attention to regarding the oils you use for cooking, as some have much higher smoke points than others. Coconut oil and butter are safe fats to use that are also very healthy for you.
The second thing to watch is the temperatures you use when you cook. Be aware that when the heat is too high, it can destroy nutrients and even create the formation of harmful (aka carcinogenic) substances. As in everything else, especially nowadays, it seems, when it comes to the foods you eat, researching as much as possible is only prudent.
Carrot Color Makes a Difference
As mentioned earlier, carrots once came in a rainbow of colors and weren't cultivated to be orange until much later. Adventurous gardeners and horticulturalists are getting into their roots, though, so to speak, and resurrecting carrot colors that are every bit as nutritious, just in different ways. You may have seen some of these colors at local farmers markets, if not in your neighborhood grocery store.
In the cultivation process, scientists have also been exploring ways to breed more nutrients into these many-colored carrots, while at the same time attempting to get consumers more interested.
There have been eye rolls, however, says Philipp Simon, plant geneticist in the horticulture department at the USDA's College of Agricultural & Life Sciences in the University of Wisconsin. He and his team have been looking to develop carrot varieties that are unusual in hue but still acceptable to people used to buying orange, while still tasting good and offering health benefits. Healthland,14 Time's food segment, lists the nutritional aspects different carrot hues offer:
- Red — Lycopene and beta-carotene pigment, linked to a lower risk of certain cancers, including prostate cancer
- Yellow — Xanthophylls and lutein are associated with cancer prevention and eye health
- Orange — Beta- and alpha-carotene pigment provides vitamin A
- White — Mild, with high fiber content
- Purple — Anthocyanin, beta- and alpha-carotenes may provide extra vitamin A for heart disease protection; have a sweeter and sometimes "peppery" flavor
Healthland adds:15
"Thanks to Simon's efforts, carrots today have about 75% more beta-carotene (a pigment used by the body to make vitamin A) than the carrots available 25 years ago. His team at the University of Wisconsin partners with USDA's Agricultural Research Service, which supports scientists working on ways to improve Americans' nutritional intake."
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More Evidence Showing Vitamin D Combats Cancer
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I strongly recommend getting sensible sun exposure each day, and one of the reasons why is because it helps naturally optimize your vitamin D levels. Low vitamin D levels are linked to an increased risk of cancers,1 while vitamin D can attach to the vitamin D receptor (VDR) in your cells, setting off a series of signals that may affect how they grow, develop and survive.2
In this way, vitamin D acts like a brake on the process of cell growth in many tissues of the body, helping to control the speed at which cells multiply. This is particularly important when it comes to cancer because one of the key features of this disease is cells growing out of control. Moreover, vitamin D has been observed in animal studies to help delay some age-related changes by activating another important pathway via the vitamin D receptor.
This pathway involves a molecule called Nrf2, which plays a crucial role in protecting your body from oxidative stress and DNA damage — two factors that are commonly linked to the development of cancer.3 Overall, evidence continues to accumulate showing that vitamin D is a strong ally to combat cancer.4
Vitamin D Reduces Cancer Mortality
Worldwide, cancer is the No. 2 cause of death, behind only cardiovascular disease.5 Meanwhile, the global prevalence of vitamin D deficiency (defined as a level of less than 20 ng/mL) and insufficiency (defined as a level of 20 to less than 30 ng/mL) is 40% to 100%.6 Although increasing vitamin D levels may help to reduce cancer deaths, health officials rarely recommend optimizing levels for this purpose.
For example, research has shown that once you reach a minimum serum vitamin D level of 40 ng/mL, your risk for cancer diminishes by 67%, compared to having a level of 20 ng/mL or less.7
A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis published in Ageing Research Reviews also found vitamin D3 supplementation reduced cancer mortality by 6%. This wasn’t considered statistically significant, but when only studies involving daily vitamin D intake were analyzed, cancer mortality dropped by a significant 12%.8 According to the researchers:9
“From a biological perspective, it is plausible that a sufficient vitamin D status has an impact on cancer prognosis: by binding to the vitamin D receptor (VDR), the active hormone 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2D) influences signaling pathways that regulate cell proliferation, differentiation, and cell survival, and thus acts as an anti-proliferative agent in many tissues and can slow the growth of malignant cells.”
Other research also supports vitamin D’s role in protecting against cancer death. In one study of 25,871 patients, vitamin D supplementation was found to reduce the risk for metastatic cancer and death by 17%. The risk was reduced by as much as 38% among those who also maintained a healthy weight.10,11
What’s particularly noteworthy is this study only gave participants 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily and didn’t measure their blood levels. Despite these research flaws, a significant benefit was still found. However, other research has found even more striking benefits, including a GrassrootsHealth analysis published in PLOS ONE.
It showed women with a vitamin D level at or above 60 ng/mL (150 nmol/L) had an 82% lower risk of breast cancer compared to those with levels below 20 ng/mL (50 nmol/L).12 Meanwhile, risks of lung cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, bladder cancer and lymphoma are higher in people with low vitamin D levels, while having higher levels is associated with a better prognosis in cases of breast and colorectal cancers.13
The Ageing Research Reviews study further revealed that daily vitamin D supplementation was particularly beneficial for people aged 70 and over, as well as those who took vitamin D daily and were later diagnosed with cancer. Study author Ben Schöttker, Ph.D., with the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, further explained:14
“This does imply that basically everyone aged 50 and older, including people who have never had cancer, might profit from vitamin D supplementation if they are vitamin D insufficient … Doctors cannot know who might develop cancer at a later time.”
Vitamin D Has Anticancer Effects Against Many Types of Cancer
A mini review on the impact of vitamin D on cancer, published in The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, pointed out that while vitamin D is widely recognized for its essential role in regulating the balance of minerals in the body, a deficiency has been linked to the onset and progression of various cancers.15 Vitamin D targets cancer in multiple ways, including:16
- Anticancer effects, which means it targets different stages of cancer development and progression, including the initiation, growth and spread of cancer cells.
- Antimetastatic effects, which refers to the ability to stop cancer cells from spreading from the original tumor site to other parts of the body. Since metastasis is often responsible for the fatal outcomes of cancers, preventing the spread can significantly improve survival rates.
- Anti-tumorigenic, meaning vitamin D helps prevent tumor formation or the growth of tumors. This can involve mechanisms like inducing cell death in cancer cells, blocking cell cycle progression, or inhibiting pathways that fuel tumor growth.
The review highlighted vitamin D’s role against the following cancers:17
Breast |
Prostate |
Bladder |
Colon |
Glioblastoma |
Melanoma |
Squamous cell carcinoma |
Ovarian |
Multiple myeloma |
Osteosarcoma |
Head and neck |
In terms of breast cancer, the leading cause of death for women globally, vitamin D deficiency is common among patients, and those who are deficient are more likely to have more aggressive and harder-to-treat subtypes of breast cancer, such as higher grade and estrogen receptor-negative tumors.
The study also highlighted the role of genetic differences in the VDR that could influence breast cancer risk. In particular, in certain populations like North Indian women from New Delhi, variations in the VDR gene were identified as potential risk factors.18
In prostate cancer — the most common cancer in men — low levels of vitamin D were linked to high levels of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in the prostate which is associated with the progression of prostate cancer.19 In addition, vitamin D may influence the activity of sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), which is known as a longevity protein. Optimizing your vitamin D levels may help boost your body’s natural cancer defenses, in part, via mechanisms involving SIRT1.20
Additional research suggests there may be considerable variation in how different individuals' genes respond to vitamin D supplementation, which might explain why not everyone benefits equally from extra vitamin D.
For best results, the scientists suggest vitamin D supplementation should be personalized and “advocate for options tailored to individual vitamin D needs, combined with a comprehensive intervention that favors prevention through a healthy environment and responsible health behaviors.”21
Why Sun Exposure Is the Best Source of Vitamin D
On a typical sunny day, your body may produce up to 25,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D,22 although many people aren’t in the sun enough to optimize their vitamin D levels. However, I strongly recommend getting your vitamin D from proper sun exposure, if possible, as it provides benefits beyond vitamin D optimization.
Higher levels of vitamin D may even serve as a marker for healthy sun exposure, which in turn may be responsible for many of the health benefits, which include reduced risk of cancer and increased longevity, attributed to vitamin D. Regular sun exposure, for instance, enhances production of melatonin — a potent anticancer agent.23
Near-infrared rays from the sun penetrate deep into your body and activate cytochrome c oxidase, which in turn stimulates the production of melatonin inside your mitochondria. Your mitochondria produce ATP, the energy currency of your body. A byproduct of this ATP production is reactive oxidative species (ROS), which are responsible for oxidative stress.
Excessive amounts of ROS will damage the mitochondria, contributing to suboptimal health, inflammation and chronic health conditions such as diabetes, obesity and thrombosis (blood clots). But melatonin essentially mops up ROS that damage your mitochondria. So, by getting plenty of sun exposure during the day, your mitochondria will be bathed in melatonin, thereby reducing oxidative stress.24,25
If you’re unable to get adequate sun exposure each day, vitamin D supplementation may be necessary. Keep in mind that 20 ng/mL, which is often used as the cutoff for vitamin D deficiency, has repeatedly been shown to be grossly insufficient for good health and disease prevention, which means the true prevalence of people without optimal levels of vitamin D is even greater.
The only way to determine how much sun exposure is enough and/or how much vitamin D3 you need to take is to measure your vitamin D level, ideally twice a year. Once you’ve confirmed your vitamin D levels via testing, adjust your sun exposure and/or vitamin D3 supplementation accordingly. Then, remember to retest in three to four months to make sure you’ve reached your target level.
The Optimal Vitamin D Level for Cancer Prevention
The optimal level for health and disease prevention, including cancer prevention, is between 60 ng/mL and 80 ng/mL (150-200 nmol/L), while the cutoff for sufficiency appears to be around 40 ng/mL. In Europe, the measurements you're looking for are 150 to 200 nmol/L and 100 nmol/L respectively.
It’s important to remember that calcium, vitamin D3, magnesium and vitamin K2 must be properly balanced for optimal overall health. Your best and safest bet is to simply eat more calcium-, magnesium- and vitamin K2-rich foods, along with sensible sun exposure.
However, if you find supplementation is necessary after a serum vitamin D test, also supplement with magnesium and vitamin K2 (MK-7) to ensure proper balance. You’ll also want to ensure you’re following an overall healthy lifestyle to reduce your cancer risk as much as possible. As researchers explained in Nutrients:26
“Vitamin D supplementation is not the magic pill that miraculously solves the cancer burden or that can replace a healthy lifestyle. It is necessary to foster a good environment and invigorate a healthy lifestyle, including a high-quality diet and physical activity. Both have been proven to confer health benefits in many diseases, including cancer, and are the best preventive measures available.”
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How One Woman’s Mission to ‘Rewild’ Urban Spaces Is Saving Native Bees
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There’s a small but growing movement in Boulder, Colorado, to "rewild" urban spaces by reintroducing native plants. Their goal is to provide wild pollinators with a natural habitat that allows them to thrive for many generations to come. Spearheading this mission is Andrea Montoya, whose advocacy program, Pollinator Advocates (PA),1 aims to reintroduce thousands of native plants to public spaces around Boulder.
In an article in Modern Farmer,2 Montoya says, "I am positive that [this led to] an empiric increase in the numbers of insects and hummingbirds in our neighborhoods. We are currently working with entomologists on setting up surveys across the city."
Turning an ‘Ecological Graveyard’ Into a Thriving Ecosystem
A gardening enthusiast, Montoya is no stranger to the field of health care, as she spent decades working as a physician’s assistant, providing support to patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases. Her life changed after her retirement in 2015, when she decided it was time for her to help heal "our Great Mother."
In 2018, while out on a walk with her grandson, Montoya came across a native bee house at the library, which triggered a deep fascination with these natural pollinators and prompted a research deep dive. She studied Ecological Sciences3 and even took courses at the University of Chicago, where she learned from local experts.
Montoya’s new insights opened her eyes to the reality that her own densely packed neighborhood — a concrete jungle of houses and buildings — was an "ecological graveyard." "The more I read about these native bees and plants and ecosystems, the more I realized that the reason why pollinators were so in decline is because they lost habitat," she said.
This realization sparked her community activism. In 2019, she began giving out native plants to her neighbors and then recruited volunteers to plant in small public spaces — creating what’s called "pocket parks." The process helped educate them about pollinators and their importance to a thriving ecosystem.
Montoya launched the Pollinator Advocates program in 2021. Drawing on her Polish and Mexican heritage, she harmoniously connects with people from diverse backgrounds. She has given in-depth training to nearly 50 community members. Together with these dedicated individuals, Pollinator Advocates was able to reintroduce thousands of native plants to yards and parks around the city.
Nearly Half of Our Bee Colonies Were Lost in 2023
It may seem like a small initiative. However, 35% of the world's crops (fruits, vegetables and legumes) and 75% of flowering plants rely on honeybees and other pollinators to reproduce. This type of program is one of the most crucial movements we should actively support.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 1 out of every 3 bites of food you eat come from pollinators4 — and likely more if you consume a whole food diet. So, the knowledge that we’re losing these insects and wildlife at an increasing rate should be a cause for alarm.
Wild honeybees, in particular, have suffered drastic population losses in the past decade. In fact, the loss of wild bees has caused farmers to rely on rented bees to help pollinate their crops. These rented bees are managed by commercial beekeepers who move their hives from one location to the next in trucks.5
Last year, a survey6 by the University of Maryland and Auburn University found that 48.2% of managed honeybee colonies were lost from April 2022 to April 2023, which is 9.2% higher than the previous year. This was nearly as high as the highest annual loss on record, which occurred between 2020 and 2021. According to an Associated Press article:7
"Honeybees are crucial to the food supply, pollinating more than 100 of the crops we eat, including nuts, vegetables, berries, citrus and melons. Scientists said a combination of parasites, pesticides, starvation and climate change keep causing large die-offs.
‘This is a very troubling loss number when we barely manage sufficient colonies to meet pollination demands in the U.S.,’ said former government bee scientist Jeff Pettis, president of the global beekeeper association Apimondia that wasn’t part of the study. ‘It also highlights the hard work that beekeepers must do to rebuild their colony numbers each year.’"
Millions of Human Deaths Are Linked to Loss of Pollinators
A 2022 study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives8 estimates that the loss of food production due to lack of pollinators led to 427,000 excess annual deaths, mostly from chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), around the world.
The researchers created a model that demonstrated the impact insufficient pollination had on global human health, and found that between 3% and 5% of fruit, vegetable and nut production is lost. This causes a loss of nutrition and an increase in associated diseases. They reported:9
"Our results underscore the importance of pollinators for human health and increase the urgency of implementing pollinator-friendly policies to halt and reverse the trends of pollinator declines.
Diverse research investigating the optimal policies to benefit pollination have shown remarkable consensus around a short list of highly effective strategies: increase flower abundance and diversity on farms, reduce pesticide use, and preserve or restore nearby natural habitat."
In an article published in Common Dreams,10 Amy van Saun, senior attorney for the Center for Food Safety, comments on this study, stressing that toxic chemical pesticides are the primary culprit to the declining bee population:
"Imagine a world with no apples, melons, squash, broccoli or almonds. Three quarters of the crops we consume rely on pollinators, and if we're going to save them from extinction, scientists agree — we must ban the pesticides largely responsible for their demise."
Neonics Are the Biggest Threat to Pollinators
Unfortunately, many Americans are unaware that a majority of soybean, corn, canola and sunflower seeds planted in the U.S. are precoated with neonicotinoid insecticides, or "neonics."11 As van Saun further elaborates in her commentary, these toxic chemicals are the most linked to pollinator decline. They are so deadly that a single corn kernel treated with them can carry enough poison to kill more than 80,000 honeybees.12
Neonics can also accumulate in the environment quickly, contaminating soil, surface water and groundwater, harming species that live in these ecosystems. And what’s worse, neonicotinoids do not help farmers at all.
According to a 2014 investigation13 conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, treating soybean seeds with neonicotinoids provides no significant financial or agricultural benefits for farmers. In an article posted on their site, Jay Feldman, executive director of the nonprofit org Beyond Pesticides, comments:14
"This report demonstrates, yet again, the need for EPA to ask the very important question of whether a chemical is truly necessary and efficacious before introducing it into the environment. And because treated seeds are mostly exempt from federal pesticide laws under the treated article provision, this oversight has allowed a dangerous chemical to be used largely unregulated, wreaking havoc on the nation’s pollinators."
‘It’s a Chance to Right a Wrong as Humans’
Going back to local initiatives to safeguard the future of bees and other pollinators, Montoya says she takes pride in their advocacy program, seeing that it’s now "bigger than she could have imagined." It’s not always smooth sailing, though, and they do encounter hurdles along the way. One of the most notable challenges is helping people overcome their fear of insects.15
"When going into communities to talk about pollinators, she starts with the less anxiety-inducing species: butterflies and hummingbirds. If the conversation is going well, she’ll pull up a picture of a native bee — from the millimeter-long Perdita minima to metallic green sweat bees or a lumbering bumble bee. Seeing these insects in less frightening ways can open people’s minds to the benefits and beauty of native pollinators."
If you’re in Boulder, consider joining the Pollinator Advocates Program; they’re accepting applicants until May 5, 2024.16 Individuals 18 years old and above can join, even those who are novices at gardening.
The program is sponsored by the city and participation is free. However, there is a time commitment on your part, so make sure you have the time before you join. The rewards are worth it, since you will contribute to improving your local community’s wild pollinator habitat.
Let’s Save the Bees — Three Ways You Can Help
Even people living outside Boulder can engage in small but impactful practices that help save the bees. Montoya recommends three strategies:17
- Stop using toxic chemical pesticides and turn to natural pest management options instead — The best pest management strategy is to create a native habitat, since there are more beneficial insects that can prey on and eliminate harmful ones.
- When adding plants to your garden or farm, plant regionally native plants that bloom across as much of the season as possible — "Plants that need the native soil don’t really need all the nutrients in a food garden bed," Montoya advises. Make sure to put 100 to 300 feet between your native plants and veggie beds to ensure they all thrive.
- Leave some patches of bare soil — Many native bee species nest in the ground. Don’t add mulch, thick cover crops or plastic covering to the soil.
Celebrate World Bee Day on May 20
In December 2017, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly declared May 20 as World Bee Day.18 This was initiated by the Slovenian Beekeepers' Association to raise awareness about the significant impact of bees and other pollinating insects and wildlife, most of which are threatened with extinction from manmade factors.
The date they chose also has significance, because it "coincides with the birthday of Anton Janša, who in the 18th century pioneered modern beekeeping techniques in his native Slovenia and praised the bees for their ability to work so hard, while needing so little attention." According to the UN website:19
"The goal is to strengthen measures aimed at protecting bees and other pollinators, which would significantly contribute to solving problems related to the global food supply and eliminate hunger in developing countries. We all depend on pollinators and it is, therefore, crucial to monitor their decline and halt the loss of biodiversity."
There are several more ways you can help protect our pollinators, not only on World Bee Day but every day. Here are some suggestions from Slovenia’s Ministry of Agriculture:20
Plant nectar-bearing flowers in your garden, yard or balcony to help feed the bees, and be sure to avoid using toxic pesticides and herbicides that might hurt pollinators. If you have a farm, large or small, be sure to incorporate flowers that support the wild bee population. The following video, made by Project Integrated Crop Pollination, demonstrates helpful planting practices. |
Buy honey and other hive products from local beekeepers to help keep them in business. |
Teach your children about the importance of bees and beekeepers. |
Set up a beehive. |
Preserve meadows and sow wildflowers in your garden, making sure the wildflower mix you choose contains flowers native to your area. Non-native plants do not contribute as much toward the care and feeding of local insects, as they are not able to adapt and feed on whatever is available. Hybridized plants also do not provide proper nourishment and can be likened to "junk food" for insects, as they do not provide much in terms of nourishment.21 |
Wait to cut meadow grass until the nectar-bearing plants have finished blooming, so as not to rob bees of crucial nourishment. |
If you’re using a nontoxic pest control product, make sure to spray it when there's little to no wind, and either early in the morning or late at night, when bees are not actively foraging. |
Blooming plants and trees that must be sprayed with pesticides should be mulched before spraying to avoid attracting bees. |
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You Really Don't Need to Drink Eight Glasses of Water Each Day
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Editor's Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published May 27, 2017.
The common mantra that you need to drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day to stay healthy and hydrated may be one of the biggest health myths out there. Most days I personally do not drink any water as I eat so much fruit. However, on the three days of week I sauna i typically drink a quart of water.
While drinking pure water as your primary beverage is undoubtedly one of the most important cornerstones of health, there's a misconception that you need to be chugging down water all day to stay well. In fact, a report from The National Academy of Sciences concluded that most Americans are not walking around dehydrated on a regular basis. They noted, "The vast majority of healthy people adequately meet their daily hydration needs by letting thirst be their guide."1
The report added that while 80% of Americans' total water intake comes from water and other beverages (including caffeinated beverages like coffee, which do "count" in your total fluid intake, contrary to popular belief), 20% comes from the food you eat.
Is There Scientific Basis for 8x8?
The recommendation to drink eight 8-ounce glasses (known as 8x8 for short) of water a day is often stated as scientific fact. But is it actually based on science? In a review published in the American Journal of Physiology, Dr. Heinz Valtin of Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, New Hampshire, set out to answer this question.
He was unable to find any published literature notating the origin of the rule, but potentially traced it back to an apparently offhand comment made by the late influential nutritionist Fredrick J. Stare, who was said to be an early champion of drinking at least six glasses of water a day. A book by Stare contains this (unreferenced) passage:2
"How much water each day? This is usually well regulated by various physiological mechanisms, but for the average adult, somewhere around 6 to 8 glasses per 24 hours and this can be in the form of coffee, tea, milk, soft drinks, beer, etc. Fruits and vegetables are also good sources of water."
The New York Times suggested, meanwhile, that the source of the 8x8 myth may have been a Food and Nutrition Board recommendation made in 1945, which suggested people should drink 2.5 liters of water a day, which amounts to more than 84 fluid ounces. But, the Times continued, "They ignored the sentence that followed closely behind. It read, 'Most of this quantity is contained in prepared foods.'"3
Many Myths Regarding Water Consumption Prevail
After a thorough review of the literature as well as discussions with experts, including nutritionists and colleagues, Valtin still could find no further basis for the water recommendation that's become a 21st-century mainstay. He wrote:4
"Thus I have found no scientific proof that we must 'drink at least eight glasses of water a day,' nor proof, it must be admitted, that drinking less does absolutely no harm.
However, the published data available to date strongly suggest that, with the exception of some diseases and special circumstances, such as strenuous physical activity, long airplane flights, and climate, we probably are currently drinking enough and possibly even more than enough."
Interestingly enough, Valtin also put to rest some myths regarding water consumption, such as that waiting to drink until you're thirsty is too late, because by then you're already dehydrated. In reality, your body's physiologic thirst mechanism is triggered before you're dehydrated.
As Valtin said, this makes perfect sense: "[T]hirst is so sensitive, quick, and accurate that it is hard to imagine that evolutionary development left us with a chronic water deficit that has to be compensated by forcing fluid intake."5 Valtin even suggests the idea that dark urine means dehydration is a myth, noting that the depth of color in urine is inversely linked to urinary volume, which varies significantly from person to person.
While I believe checking your urine's color is a simple way to ensure you're drinking enough water (looking for a pale yellow color), Valtin notes that moderately yellow urine may be fine and should not necessarily be interpreted as "dark," although some people might take it that way. "Therefore," he states, "the warning that dark urine reflects dehydration is alarmist and false in most instances."6
Are We Becoming 'Waterlogged'?
Dr. Timothy Noakes is a professor of exercise science and sports medicine at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, who is perhaps best known for the book, "Waterlogged: The Serious Problem of Overhydration in Endurance Sports" — the best resource I know of for this topic.
It suggests that overhydrating will actually worsen athletic performance, not improve it. According to Noakes, the first drinking guidelines put out by The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) said that runners should "drink regularly during exercise," which is fair advice. But then an individual working for the U.S. military published a paper saying that U.S. soldiers should drink 64 ounces of water per hour in order to improve performance.
Though the paper was not based on concrete evidence, it was widely embraced by the military, and then filtered through to the American College of Sports Medicine's guidelines for runners. ACSM still recommends drinking "ahead of thirst," a move that Noakes says impairs exercise performance.
He uses the example of African hunters who were able to chase down an antelope for four to six hours in midday heat, without a source of fluids until after the hunt ended (when they would drink the animal's blood and intestinal water). While most runners drink only when thirsty, some (over 36%) instead drink more than their thirst dictates, often to a set schedule.7
This, in turn, not only may reduce their athletic performance but also put them at risk of exercise-associated hyponatremia (EAH). In hyponatremia, your cells, including those in your brain, swell with too much water, which can be fatal. There are also reports of asymptomatic hyponatremia, which can have consequences of its own. According to Valtin:8
"[D]ilution of the plasma as reflected in mild, largely asymptomatic hyponatremia is said to be common in general practice. Moreover, nonfatal hyponatremia has been reported in a variety of circumstances. In the majority of patients, hyponatremia reflects an excess of water in the body rather than a decrease in sodium.
Therefore, urging a high fluid intake on absolutely every person may well run the danger of inducing water intoxication and potentially serious sequelae, not only in the elderly but also in healthy young persons."
The Benefits of Drinking Enough Water
There are clearly disadvantages to not drinking enough water, as your body is made mostly of water. In fact, your body consists of about 42 liters (11 gallons) of water, which accounts for between 50% and 70% of your body weight. Your blood is 85% water, your muscles 80% water, your brain 75% water and even your bones are 25% water,9 which signals the importance this fluid plays in your health.
What happens if you don't drink enough? The No. 1 risk factor for kidney stones is not drinking enough water, for starters. There is also some research showing that high fluid intake is linked to a lower risk of certain types of cancer, such as bladder cancer and colorectal cancer.10
Even the risk of fatal coronary heart disease has been linked to water intake, with women who drank five or more glasses of water per day reducing their risk by 41% compared to women who drank less. Men, meanwhile, reduced their risk by 54%.11 Your body also needs water for blood circulation, metabolism, regulation of body temperature and waste removal.
If you are dehydrated, even mildly, your mood and cognitive function may suffer. In fact, according to a study published in the journal Physiology & Behavior, dehydrated drivers made twice the amount of errors during a two-hour drive compared to hydrated drivers.12 So the issue isn't that water isn't important for optimal functioning; it's that you may not need to chug water and carry a bottle with you wherever you go in order to stay adequately hydrated.
It's unclear how many Americans are truly dehydrated, but it's more common among the elderly and children. One study even suggested more than half of American children are dehydrated, while about one-quarter do not drink water on a daily basis.13 However, some have suggested that the value of the study used to denote dehydration may have been overly conservative — 800 mOsm (mean urine osmolality)/kg or higher, when 1,200 mOsm/kg may still be within the normal range.14
So How Much Water Do You Need?
Drinking eight 8-ounce glasses of pure water a day may not be likely to cause you harm; it's just that the evidence is lacking on whether that is the magic number for everyone, and most likely it appears that it is not. The reality is that some people may be dehydrated and would benefit from drinking more water each day, and from making water their primary source of fluids.
However, as the Times put it, "[A]s people in this country live longer than ever before, and have arguably freer access to beverages than at almost any time in human history, it's just not true that we're all dehydrated."15 Your water requirements vary depending on your age, activity level, climate and more. But you needn't get bogged down with trying to figure out the exact amount your body needs or tracking how many glasses you've consumed in a day.
There's no need for that because your body will let you know. Simply using thirst as a guide to how much water you need to drink is a simple way to help ensure your individual needs are met, day by day. As mentioned, you can also use the color of your urine as a guide. If it is a deep, dark yellow then you are likely not drinking enough water.
If your urine is scant or if you haven't urinated in many hours, that too is an indication that you're not drinking enough. Based on the results from a few different studies, a healthy person urinates on average about seven or eight times a day. Ultimately, however, listening to your body and letting your thirst be your guide is your best solution for getting the water your body needs each day.
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How Your Calcium-to-Phosphorus Impacts Your Health
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One of the biggest lessons along my health journey is that health is not found at the extremes, and that finding balance is not only more sustainable, but also more health-promoting.
This applies to exercise — balancing working out and providing your muscles with an effective stimulus to elicit change, with enough recovery, food, rest and relaxation. And to food choices, like macronutrients (for ex. balancing protein with enough carbs) and micronutrients (like mineral balance).
Today, I want to briefly touch on why we should consider balancing dietary calcium and phosphorus for optimal long-term health.
From my own experience, working with clients, and course students, many people have very imbalanced calcium to phosphorus ratios. Meaning, they consume very high levels of phosphorus, and low levels of calcium — which is not promoting optimal health.
Western Diets Are High in Phosphorus
It is very easy to get phosphorus in Western diets, as phosphorus is high in meat, grains, and beans. Plus, inorganic phosphorus is high in a lot of preservatives and packaged food (which has a 100% absorption rate1). And so many individuals eat packaged food daily!
“In many Western communities, phosphorus intake is high whereas calcium intake might be low ... These types of dietary habit may lead to the lower dietary Ca:P ratios that were recently observed in many countries.
Furthermore, recent evidence from Poland revealed that among 10% of young girls and boys, the dietary Ca:P ratio was lower than 0.25. These results support previous findings among young women in the USA.” ~ Kemi, V. and Lamberg-Allardt, C., 2006
This does “not” make meat and grains “bad” foods (I eat meat and sourdough bread). But we believe these phosphorus-rich foods should be balanced with sufficient dietary calcium. Ideally, the calcium to phosphorus ratio (Ca:P) is close to 1 or above (Ca:P >= 1).
And many people are consuming a Ca:P < 1, especially now that “dairy-free” is all the rage and is promoted as “healthy.”
On one extreme, the carnivore diet, which is an all meat diet, the Ca:P is very imbalanced, as meat is a phosphorus-rich food. On the other extreme, a grain-based diet, the Ca:P is again very imbalanced as grains are another phosphorus-rich food.
Then, searching through more of the “mainstream” (where dairy is “bad”), I searched “dairy-free meal plan” on DuckDuckGo and the first thing that came up was this “1,200 Dairy-Free” meal plan from a popular website, EatingWell. I have so many issues with this meal plan (such as — no one should be eating 1,200 calories).
But after inserting all the meal ingredients into Cronometer, I calculated a Ca:P = 0.3:1, and the total calcium content was just 600 mg! Most people are “not” consuming enough calcium, and have imbalanced Ca:P ratios.
Low Dietary Calcium Leaches Calcium From Your Bones
Calcium gets a lot of bad rep these days, and some fear eating too much of it due to the fear of calcification (a buildup of hardened calcium deposits in tissues that can interfere with function).
But dietary calcium is not the cause of calcification. Instead, low-dietary calcium can be one of the contributing factors. Calcium is so vital for proper function that the body tightly regulates the blood calcium concentration.
“Ca and P have opposite effects on serum PTH (S-PTH) concentration, as dietary P has been found to increase S-PTH concentrations by decreasing serum-ionised Ca concentration and by directly affecting PTH secretion ... while Ca administration has been demonstrated to decrease S-PTH ... continuous excessive PTH secretion increases bone turnover and releases Ca and P from bone.” ~ Kemi et al., 2009
With inadequate dietary calcium to satisfy the body's calcium needs, the parathyroid glands release parathyroid hormone (PTH) into the blood to bring calcium level back up to normal by increasing calcium absorption from our food and by dissolving calcium from the teeth and bones. When we don't consume enough dietarily, calcium gets mined from our skeleton.
Plus, when PTH is elevated from low-calcium intake, we are in a systemic, proinflammatory state that can accelerate the degenerative aging process.2
“It is extremely important to realize that calcium deposits in soft tissues become worse when the diet is low in calcium ... It is counterproductive to eat a calcium-deficient diet, since that leads to an increase in intracellular calcium at the expense of calcium from the bones.” ~ Dr. Ray Peat
While there is plenty of literature documenting the human health benefits of a dietary Ca:P >= 1,3 it is not discussed in mainstream or many “alternative” health communities. However, it is well-known, often discussed and well-documented that this Ca:P should remain balanced for other animals such as:
- Dogs4,5
- Cats6,7
- Dairy goats8
The “Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats”9 published textbook recommends a Ca:P ratio of 1.2:1. And the Merck Vet Manual recommends a 1.2-1.5:1 for dairy goats.10
My Personal Experience
I personally saw an improvement with oral health after reversing out of a carnivore diet (very high in phosphorus and usually low in calcium). I not only re-added carbs, but I also added in dairy over time to ensure a Ca:P > 1.
During carnivore (and “dairy-free” keto) days, I would frequently develop hard plaque (aka tartar or calculus) on the inside of my bottom row of teeth. And I would pluck this off my teeth, daily.
Looking back, this was a clear sign that my body was borrowing calcium from the skeleton to maintain calcium homeostasis since we didn't consume enough dietarily to balance all of that phosphorus. The calcium was “mined” and then released into my saliva. And guess where saliva pools in our mouths? Right on the back side of your front, bottom teeth.
With a balanced Ca:P intake, I no longer get that plaque buildup! These type of dietary changes won't necessarily be “felt” in the short-term. But they can have profound implications on long-term health. And please don't let this overwhelm you!
How to Normalize Your Ca:P Balance
There are very simple solutions to regaining Ca:P balance. Here are my top tips:
• Track a typical day of eating in a food tracking app such as Cronometer. The app will tell you your total phosphorus and calcium intake. Divide your total calcium intake by your total phosphorus intake to get your calcium to phosphorus ratio. Ideally this ratio is close to or slightly above 1.
• You may be eating too much meat! Not because of saturated fat. Not because of cholesterol. But meat is a phosphorus-rich food, and we believe it should be balanced with sufficient dietary calcium. So, it can be beneficial to swap some of your meat intake for some dairy to still ensure you eat enough protein while maintaining a balanced Ca:P.
It's not about avoiding foods that are higher in phosphorus. It's about including foods higher in calcium to make the overall ratio in balance.
• Currently can't tolerate dairy? There are other ways to boost your calcium intake! Other favorites include homemade eggshell powder, well-cooked collard greens, pearl powder, or bone meal powder from a trusted source.
I completely understand that keeping track of these type of nutrient ratios can get overwhelming. But if you are looking for additional information on the Ca:P ratio, calcium-rich foods, and how to make sure these minerals remain in balance, check out our course!
In the Nutrition section of our course, Rooted in Resilience, we include over 100 meal plan options, all of which contain balanced calcium to phosphorus ratios — making it easy to implement these important nutrition principles into your busy schedule. We also include an entire module on calcium, the Ca:P ratio, and tips to reintroducing dairy.
Of course, it's never one thing. Calcium is not the only nutrient that works to suppress the anti-metabolic parathyroid hormone (PTH). We also need adequate levels of magnesium and vitamin D (25-D) to keep the PTH levels in check. Plus, vitamin K2 to ensure calcium goes to the right places (like bones and teeth). It can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be complicated.
Eating real, whole foods, tuning into cravings, and providing adequate fuel is a pretty fool proof formula for regaining control of your health.
Transform Your Health — One Step at a Time
Ashley and her sister Sarah have put together a truly groundbreaking step-by-step course called “Rooted in Resilience.” They have compiled what clearly is the best application of Dr. Ray Peat’s work on Bioenergetic Medicine that I have ever seen.
It is so good that I am using the core of their program to teach the many Health Coaches that I am in the process of training for the new Mercola Health Clinics I am opening this fall. It took these women working nearly full-time on this project for a year to create it.
This has to be one of the absolute best values for health education I have ever seen. If you want to understand why you struggle with health problems and then have a clear program on how to reverse those challenges, then this is the course for you.
It is precisely the type of program I wish I would have had access to when I got out of medical school. I fumbled around for decades before I reached the conclusion they discuss in the course and share with you so you can restore your cellular energy production and recover your health.
Select and eat the right foods to heal your metabolism and improve glucose utilization |
Balance your hormones to help reduce anxiety, weight gain and sleep disturbances |
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About the Author
Ashley Armstrong is the cofounder of Angel Acres Egg Co., which specializes in low-PUFA (polyunsaturated fat) eggs that are shipped to all 50 states (join waitlist here), and Nourish Cooperative, which ships low-PUFA pork, beef, cheese, A2 dairy and traditional sourdough to all 50 states. Waitlists will reopen shortly.
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Food Additive in Pizza, Pancakes Linked to Lower Sperm Counts
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On March 7, 2024,1 Dr. Naomi Wolf sounded an alarm about a food additive that contains a known neurotoxin, and which has demonstrated the ability to cause reproductive damage in mammals after being ingested. She found the additive in a box of pancake mix in her pantry, which sent her down a trail investigating research data.
What she found was scientific evidence that has not been well publicized in the mainstream media, including an ingredient that's commonly found in commercially prepared food, including baked goods and processed cheeses. The ingredient is sodium aluminum phosphate, which the food industry claims to use as an emulsifying agent and stabilizer.
Innophos2 manufactures the product and the safety data sheet states "The product meets the definition of a hazardous substance or preparation." Under health hazards, it lists damage to the eyes and irritation to the skin and respiratory system. Those working around it must avoid breathing any dust and the product should be stored in a tightly closed container.
Wolf points out that this ingredient is found in many of the food products our children are eating, and the result of this exposure may have led to long-term oxidative stress, DNA damage and a negative impact on blood testosterone levels and sperm production.3
Food Additive May Trigger Oxidative Stress and DNA Damage
Wolf cited a peer-reviewed literature review paper,4 which summarized details including bioavailability and absorption time for the exposure route. As the author of the paper noted, controlled human studies using this known neurotoxin have not been done, so the literature review was limited to laboratory animal studies.
Additionally, the paper reviewed intended and unintended dietary aluminum exposure in the animals since there was considerable and variable aluminum content in animal diets, which creates uncertainty about how the mammals' reproductive system would function in the absence of aluminum.
He did find that in experimental studies, males experienced a more significant effect to aluminum at lower levels than did females. The author proposed an adverse outcome pathway that included "oxidative stress as the molecular initiating event and increased malondialdehyde, DNA and spermatozoal damage and decreased blood testosterone and sperm count as subsequent key events."5
Past studies have evaluated the bioavailability of aluminum from drinking water but until 2008,6 there was little evidence of aluminum bioavailability from consumption of sodium aluminum phosphate used as an emulsifying agent in food. Using an animal study, researchers found that both water and food contribute to the typical intake and the results suggested that aluminum intake from food contributed much more to systemic circulation than did drinking water.
According to Michigan State University, the European Food Safety Authority reviewed the safety of sodium aluminum phosphate in 2018 and determined it was "safe to consume in typical quantities."7 "The Panel concluded that … sodium aluminum phosphate, acidic (E 541) are of no safety concern in the current authorized uses and use levels."8
The European Food Safety Authority defined the typical quantity, authorized use level or maximum permissible level (MPL) as 400 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg) of sodium aluminum phosphate. While that might sound like a lot, a 2005 evaluation of selected foods9 found the level of sodium aluminum phosphate could range from 1 to 27,000 mg/kg. Frozen pizza had up to 14 mg/kg, single serving packets of non-dairy creamer had up to 600 mg/kg.
The researchers found acidic sodium aluminum phosphate present in many food products, including pancakes, waffles, baking soda and frozen products. Many contained significant quantities. With the number of foods containing this agent and the number consumed per day, many are exposed to far more than 400 mg/kg from multiple sources and, importantly, aluminum bioaccumulates in the body.10
Aluminum Associated With Multiple System Issues
As Wolf notes, there are no good peer-reviewed human studies since when animal studies show that feeding aluminum damages unborn children, placentas, testes, blood testosterone and sperm, it's unethical to conduct human trials. This conundrum protects the pharmaceutical industry since they can conclude there are insufficient human studies that demonstrate harm and support withdrawing the product from the market.
Wolf writes11 that the effects of aluminum have aligned with the observed decline of male morphology, including a square jaw, muscle mass and libido in males born after 2000. She suggests that exposure to aluminum may also help explain increasing rates of depression, weight gain and disinterest in sex among young men, which highly correlate with lower levels of testosterone that in turn is associated with exposure to aluminum.
For years I've warned that aluminum is a serious neurotoxic hazard likely involved in the rising rates of autism and Alzheimer's. A 2020 study12 in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease strongly linked aluminum exposure to Alzheimer's after examining the brain tissue of individuals diagnosed with familial Alzheimer's and who had a specific gene mutation that was known to increase levels of amyloid beta, leading to early onset and more aggressive disease.13
Aluminum levels were compared in the donor tissue against those without neurological disease diagnosis and the researchers found striking differences between the two groups. Donors with the genetic mutation had universally high aluminum content. All samples had some level of aluminum, but 42% of the samples from those with familial Alzheimer's had pathologically significant levels and the aluminum was primarily co-located with amyloid beta plaques.
As aluminum reaches the systemic circulation, it is distributed to target organs such as the nervous system, skeletal and hematopoietic system.14 Additionally, researchers have linked the bioaccumulation of aluminum to several cancers, including breast cancer and colorectal cancers,15 where it has been linked to a high rate of mutations.
Examination of colon cancer samples showed that aluminum-positive samples had a significant decrease in apoptosis and an increase in the expression of the anti-apoptotic molecule BCL-2.
Aluminum Bioaccumulates From Multiple Sources
Scientists recognize that aluminum can be spread by inhaling aerosols or particles, through the food supply and water supply, in medications, dialysis and infusions.16 Militaries from around the world also routinely disperse tiny bits of aluminum-coated fiberglass and plastic called "chaff" into the air column to shield aircraft and ships from enemy radar.17 Although this has been done for decades, there is no clear evidence that it's safe for humans or the environment.
The many exposure pathways increase the risk that toxic levels are possible, which induces a variety of effects within the body, including alterations of the immunological system, genotoxicity, inflammation, enzymatic dysfunction, metabolic derangement, necrosis and dysplasia.18 Conditions associated with high levels of aluminum include Crohn's disease, autism, osteomalacia, oligospermia, breast cancer, pancreatitis, Type 2 diabetes and infertility.
Exposure to aluminum may occur in a variety of ways, but I have warned that a significant source of aluminum exposure, and potentially one of the worst, is vaccines since injecting the product bypasses your body's natural filtering and detoxification systems.
And, since many of the vaccines that use aluminum as an adjuvant are given in childhood, the potential damage has decades to develop and present clinical symptoms. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,19 an adjuvant is added to vaccines to trigger a stronger immune response in an individual.
Christopher Exley, Ph.D., was the lead investigator in the study linking aluminum to Alzheimer’s disease. In an interview with SciTechDaily, Exley commented:20
"It shows that aluminum and amyloid-beta are intimately woven in neuropathology. Either way, the new research confirms my resolve that within the normal lifespan of humans, there would not be any AD if there were no aluminum in the brain tissue. No aluminum, no AD."
In her video,21 Wolf mentions that aluminum is in the mRNA shots. In speaking with The Defender, Exley praised her efforts to bring news of the toxic effects to a wider audience but said that aluminum was not used in the MRNA shots as an adjuvant.
While there is no current proof the mRNA shot for COVID contains aluminum,22 the European Medicines Agency has approved the use of other COVID vaccines using complete viruses and a dual adjuvant of aluminum hydroxide-CpG 1018. Shots against COVID-19 are also approved in other countries that contain aluminum adjuvants.
The list of approved vaccines that contain some form of aluminum totals more than 25, and includes those given to children, such as diphtheria, tetanus and acellular pertussis vaccine, hepatitis b and haemophilus influenzae type B. Other vaccines that use aluminum include tetanus, pneumococcus, meningococcal type B, hepatitis B and diphtheria and tetanus.
Wolf Labels Aluminum Chemical Warfare
Wolf likens the dropping levels of testosterone, lower sperm counts and changes in male morphology to chemical warfare on men saying, "... one thing that you really want to do to an enemy country before you invade them formally is deplete the men," adding that this war is targeting "our most vulnerable males, our preadolescent boys — in our school lunchrooms."
Aluminum is not the only chemical that's undermining male fertility. As I have reported before, phthalate syndrome is also responsible for mass sterility as researchers have recorded a drop in sperm counts by 59.3% from 1973 to 2011,23 likely in large part due to exposure to chemicals like plastic phthalates.
Shanna Swan, Ph.D. is a reproductive epidemiologist and professor of environmental medicine and public health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. Her book "Countdown" is based on a 2017 study she co-wrote, which found the most significant declines in sperm samples were in men living in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
Concentrations were below 40 million per milliliter, which is considered the cutoff at which a man will have trouble fertilizing an egg.24 She also found that as sperm count, testosterone and fertility were dropping, testicular cancer and miscarriage were rising, all at about 1% per year.25
Yet another environmental factor that may play a significant role in declining sperm counts is electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure and radiofrequency radiation from wireless technologies. Research26 has found that men who use their cell phones more than 20 times a day have significantly lower sperm concentrations and sperm counts than those who use them once a week or less.
This places men at a 30% increased risk of having sperm concentration below the reference value for fertility and a 21% increased risk for having total sperm counts below the fertile range.
Tips to Reduce Exposure to Aluminum, Plastic and EMF
Wolf ends her video with a simple plea, "Friends, read the boxes; clear out your cupboards; bake from scratch; and save the hormonal levels of our men."27 While it can be challenging to make changes, making one new small change every two weeks can lower the stress associated with change and can have a significant impact on your overall health within months.
Phthalates are chemicals included in plastics to make them more durable. There are several steps you can take to reduce your use and exposure to plastics and plasticizers, which I share in "Plastic Is Everywhere Now, Including Your Brain."
Finally, there are also steps you can take to reduce your exposure to EMF during the day and at night and general steps you can take in your home. As more people are working remotely, you begin to have greater control over your environment, including your exposure to EMF. Consider the steps I share in "EMFs Destroy Sperm Count."
Comments (16)
Should You Microwave Your Underwear?
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Editor's Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published July 26, 2017.
Washing your clothes may not be as harmless as you might imagine. Detergents deposit toxic chemicals in your washing machine, on your clothes and into the environment. However, on the opposite side, wearing clothing riddled with bacteria and soaked in sweat is not a healthy answer either.
Past studies have demonstrated microwave ovens may kill bacteria associated with the kitchen, often found on sponges and other cleaning utensils.1 However, microwaving foods doesn't appear to have the same effect. Not only does the process change the chemical structure of the food, but the microwave has a poor track record for killing bacteria that may be responsible for food poisoning.2
The ability of a microwave oven to kill yeast in your undergarments has been demonstrated through research. While the suggestion that microwaving recently laundered and still damp undergarments to sterilize against Candida albicans,3 the yeast often responsible for vaginal yeast infections, may be quick and easy,4 the consequences are not.
Your Underwear May Need To Be Sanitized After an Infection
Candida albicans, the yeast that causes vaginal yeast infections, is usually found living in your vaginal area in small numbers.5 However, given the right circumstances, these yeast may multiply quickly, increasing your risk of developing a vaginal infection, and the irritating and uncomfortable symptoms associated with it.
Yeast enjoys living in a warm, moist environment, so even just a few drops of urinary incontinence or continuing to wear underwear in which you had been sweating may be enough to trigger an infection or keep a current infection growing. Unfortunately, just washing your underwear in the washing machine, even with hot water, may not be enough to kill those pesky bacteria and yeast.
One of the risks is re-infecting yourself after a yeast infection, or acquiring a primary infection, from underwear laden with yeast and bacteria. The type of underwear you wear may also increase your risk, as yeast tends to flourish in non-cotton, tight or dirty clothing that trap in moisture.6 When you choose undergarments, it's important the crotch area is made from undyed cotton that wicks away moisture and not synthetic or silk-type material that traps moisture and may irritate sensitive skin.7
The U.S. Department of Energy recommends the heat on hot water heaters should be set at 120 degrees F.8 Philip Tierno, professor of microbiology and pathology at New York University School of Medicine, disagrees, saying water temperatures need to be at least 140 degrees F to kill bacteria and germs living on your clothing.9
While the water in your washing machine may not be hot enough to kill most bacteria, a study from the Journal of Hospital Infection evaluated the ability of home machines to kill Staphylococcus aureus and other gram-negative bacteria.10
The intention was to determine if home washing would prevent the inoculation of patients with dirty uniforms. What the researchers found was that the bacteria were not destroyed in the washing machine, but units of bacteria did reach acceptable levels if the uniforms were tumble dried or ironed, as the material became hot enough to kill the bacteria.
Underwear Options May Create More Problems
Several other choices you make about your undergarments may also increase your risk of chafing, irritated skin or even infection. If you have a tendency to get bacterial or yeast infections, you may find wearing a thong makes the situation worse. Thongs have a unique way of transporting E. coli from the anus to the vaginal area, cautions Dr. Donnica Moore, popular speaker, women's health advocate and founder of Sapphire Women's Health Group.11
Thong underwear may also be more irritating to sensitive skin as there is more contact with vaginal tissue. It doesn't mean you can't wear thongs — just that you must find the type that fits your body correctly. If it's uncomfortable, then find a different brand.
However, going without underwear during the day is not a good idea as the seams of most pants ride up into the vaginal area, creating friction and irritation to the tissue. And, without cotton to absorb moisture, the skin may also become more irritated.
However, while going commando during the day is not a good idea, it's an excellent way of allowing your genital area to get air during the night.12 As long as you're comfortable, Moore recommends sleeping without underwear. The decisions you make about your undergarments boil down to your personal preferences and how easily your skin gets irritated or infected.
How Often Should You Wash Your Bedsheets?
Changing your underwear at least once a day and keeping them clean and dry reduces your potential for suffering from irritation or raw skin. But those little bits of material aren't the only place you could be exposed to bacteria and spores that affect your health. In warm weather you may sweat up to 26 gallons per year,13 making your bedsheets a veritable swamp of bacteria and phenomenal breeding ground for dust mites.
Dust mites are tiny creatures, measuring about 0.015 inches in length.14 They feed off your dead skin cells and thrive in a moist environment as they can't drink water but must absorb it through their body. Your bedsheets, mattress and pillows are the perfect environment for their growth.
You may spend up to one-third of your life in bed with these mites. Your sweat and dead skin cells also provide a bountiful culture medium for fungus and bacteria. This begs the question of how often those sheets should be washed.
Tierno recommends that to curtail this invisible advance of fungus, mites and bacteria, your sheets should be washed once a week.15 In one study evaluating the level of fungal contamination, researchers discovered up to 16 different species of fungus in each of the feather and synthetic pillows that were between 1.5 and 20 years old.16
The microbial soup in your bedsheets is a result of the bacteria living on your skin, and the fungi and bacteria resulting from your skin cells, vaginal and anal contributions, spit and sweat. Tierno believes the growth of these hitchhikers in your bed may become significant in as little as one week.17 While you may not normally suffer from allergies, exposure to these proteins may trigger an allergic response as you are almost forced to breathe in what's growing on your sheets.
Could Your Illness Have Come From Your Washing Machine?
Unfortunately, your laundry could be even dirtier after you've run it through your washing machine. Experts have found that your machine is likely teeming with bacteria that find their way onto your clothes and then onto you — and your underwear is the biggest culprit.
Charles Gerba, professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, has spent years researching the germs that grow and thrive in your washing machine. Gerba says your underwear is the major problem as they often carry fecal material into the washing machines. Fecal material may carry a number of different bacteria, including rotavirus, E. coli, salmonella and hepatitis A virus. Gerba says:18
"If you wash a load of just underwear, there will be about 100 million E. coli in the wash water, and they can be transmitted to the next load of laundry. There's about a tenth of a gram of poop in the average pair of underwear.”
This means if you aren't using water heated to at least 140 degrees F, you are likely grabbing these bacteria as you transfer the clothes from the wash to the dryer. Gerba recommends washing your hands after handling your wet clothes, especially children's clothing that tend to carry more bacteria.19 A study analyzing the microbiome of different household washing machines bore out Gerba's assertions.20
Analysis was performed on the incoming and outgoing water from the machines and from new cotton T-shirts washed with a regular load of laundry. The laundering process appeared to allow an exchange of microbes between the incoming and outgoing water, but the microbial variety present on the new T-shirt prior to washing was still present after the washing cycle.21
The researchers found the bacteria on the clothing when it enters the wash is distributed among the rest of the clothing during the wash.
Other research found clothing washed at lower temperatures resulted in clothing with the same number of bacteria as those washed in higher temperatures, as long as the clothing was dried for 30 minutes or ironed to kill the bacteria in the clothing. You may be able to reduce the bacterial load in your washing machine by routinely running it empty with a disinfectant.
However, Kelly Reynolds, germ researcher and associate professor of environmental health at the University of Arizona, cautions that unless someone in your home is sick, you may not have to be as concerned about the germs on your clothing22 as long as you practice safe hand-washing, tumble dry your clothes and routinely clean your machine.
Why Microwave Ovens Are Not Your Best Choice
Although research has demonstrated using a microwave oven to heat your undergarments after they've been washed, and while they are still damp, may help reduce the growth of Candida albicans, there are other considerations making your microwave oven a poor choice. In order to place your undergarments in the microwave oven, they must be made of cotton and not synthetic materials. Synthetic underwear may melt in the high heat you use to disinfect them.23
However, the real problem is from the microwave oven itself. Early models of microwave ovens may have leaked frequently during operation, but modern machines undergo more rigorous testing.
However, inadvertently slamming the door, opening the door frequently before the machine has stopped or otherwise misusing the door,24 may increase the amount of radiation that leaks from the machine. You can test if your machine is leaking radiation using a simple test with two cellphones.25
Just like your microwave oven, your cellphone uses radiation, but at a different frequency. However, your oven should close completely and not allow radiation to escape. Place one cellphone in the oven (do NOT turn the oven on!) and call the phone.
If you hear it ringing from inside the machine your oven either doesn't contain radiation until it reaches a specific frequency, or it has developed a leak. The FDA limits the amount of microwaves your oven may leak through the life of the appliance to 5 milliwatts per square centimeters approximately 2 inches from the appliance.
However, biologists have demonstrated damaging effects at 0.01 MICROwatts, which is half a million times lower than the FDA standard. Conventional scientists and manufacturers cling to the idea these microwaves emitted from your cellphones, Wi-Fi routers, microwave ovens and wireless digital equipment, such as tablets and wireless computers, are safe since they don't cause thermal damage.
Thermal Damage Is Not the Culprit
Evaluating over two dozen studies demonstrating how you may radically reduce biological damage done by microwave radiation using calcium channel blockers, Professor Emeritus Martin Pall discovered the mechanism of how low level, non-thermal microwave exposure triggers biological damage.26,27,28,29,30,31 The microwave radiation triggers changes to voltage gated calcium channels (VGCCs) embedded in cell membranes.
Pall's research demonstrates how microwave radiation causes massive biological damage, but not thermal damage. Based on the list of 123 studies and papers Pall compiled, the current established safety standards are off by a factor of nearly 7 million. Once VGCCs are activated, the ions stimulate the release of nitric oxide. This combines with superoxide to form peroxynitrate, and then forms hydroxyl free radicals.
These are the most destructive free radicals known to man that decimate mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, leading to mitochondrial dysfunction, the core of most chronic disease. The tissues in your body with the highest density of VGCCs are your brain and other nervous tissue, like the pacemaker in your heart and your testicles. This may explain why the rates of autism, Alzheimer's, arrhythmias, male infertility and depression are rising rapidly.
Microwave radiation doesn't have the energy to directly damage your DNA in the way ionizing radiation from X- or gamma rays do, but it may cause more DNA damage over time as a byproduct of the increased production of hydroxyl free radical creation.
Without taking steps to minimize your exposure, you may risk damage to your DNA and increase your potential risk to most chronic illnesses. This type of damage may also significantly impair your ability to respond to pathogenic infectious assaults, especially parasites.
Using your microwave oven may expose you to milliwatts per square centimeter of microwave energy. Although it may sound like a small number, it is easily hundreds of thousands to millions of times higher than the density shown to trigger biological damage in hundreds of studies.
This means each time you turn on your microwave oven, you may be exposing yourself to microwave radiation densities thousands of times higher than your cellphone. This is the primary reason I strongly advise removing the microwave oven from your home.
Break the Sick Laundry Cycle
There are several ways of reducing the potential you pass along bacteria or fungi from one piece of your clothing to the next without using dangerous toxins or opening yourself up to damage from microwave radiation.
• Tumble dry — Your dryer will kill bacteria and fungi on your clothing when dried for at least 30 minutes.
• Wash your hands — It's important to wash your hands after transferring wet clothes laden with bacteria from the washing machine to the dryer in order to reduce the transfer of that bacteria to your nose or mouth, which may increase your risk of infection.
• Wash your undergarments separately — Keep your clothing with the most bacteria away from the rest of your laundry, especially the towels you use on your dishes.
• Use an additive with your dirty laundry — Adding 2 cups of 10 particles per million (ppm) of colloidal silver to the rinse cycle will infuse your clothing with silver, a natural antibacterial.32
• Clean the machine — Clean your washing machine routinely to reduce the amount of bacteria waiting for your clothes in the machine. Consider cleaning the surface of the drum (where the clothes are washed) with white vinegar and baking soda. Next add an essential oil that has antibacterial properties,33 such as lemongrass, peppermint, eucalyptus, orange oils and palmarosa, to the machine and running it using hot water without a load of clothes.
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The Ins and Outs of Organic Food Labeling
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There are many benefits to buying and consuming organic foods. For some people, the primary reason is the inhumane treatment animals experience from the moment they are born to the minute they die. Cows, chickens, pigs, sheep and other animals can feel pain and experience strong emotions and yet they are treated as inanimate objects.
The unspeakable treatment these animals endure is one tactic used by globalists to push everyone, except maybe themselves, to eat bugs and lab-grown or 3-D-printed meat and other foodstuffs. But for most people, the principal reason for buying organic food is to avoid pesticides, antibiotics, hormones and genetically engineered ingredients.
According to a 2017 survey1 by Natural Grocers, over 90% of respondents said the main reason was to avoid pesticides and 70% said they did it to avoid genetically modified organisms (GMOs). While organically produced meat and produce are more nutritious, just 40% of Natural Grocers customers choose organic produce because they think it's more nutritious.
The USDA has a 2024 operating budget of $24.46 billion. Inside this bureaucratic mountain of red tape and oversight exists the Agricultural Marketing Service, which administers domestic and international opportunities for farmers and ranchers. And inside that arm is the National Organic Program (NOP) that "develops then enforces national standards for organically produced agricultural products sold within the United States."2
Despite rising consumer interest in purchasing organic products, the NOP’s operating budget to regulate the meat and produce organic market is $24 million, as compared to the $35 million allocated to the Packers and Stockyards program that regulates livestock, meat and poultry.
What Does ‘Organic’ Really Mean?
As Tenpenny notes, the organic labels on your meat and produce might not mean what you think they mean. According to information from the USDA, there are four USDA organic labels, and each has a different meaning.3
• 100% Organic — Food that qualifies as 100% organic must be made with 100% certified organic ingredients and may use the USDA organic seal or the 100% organic claim.
• Organic — The term organic identifies a product or ingredients that must be certified organic except where non-organic ingredients are allowed that are specified on the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances. These must constitute no more than 5% of the combined total ingredients. An organic certification means that 95% is certified organic.
• "Made with" organic ingredients — Products must have at least 70% of the product made with certified organic ingredients. The organic seal cannot be used, and the final product cannot be represented as organic.
• Specific organic ingredients — Multi-ingredient products that have less than 70% certified organic content cannot display the organic seal or use the word "organic." However, they can list certified organic ingredients on the ingredient list.
To obtain the organic seal, a farmer must have an organic systems plan that outlines how the farm operation satisfies the NOP requirements. This requires organic farmers to have a working knowledge of the multiple rules and regulations that encompass hundreds, if not over 1,000 pages. As Tenpenny notes,4 it can be an onerous task to keep track of the updates, including those that regulate where and how organic labels can be used.
How to Read Labels on Meat
The labeling process for meat products may be the most complex. The organic regulations prohibit labeling of any product that's been contaminated with residue of GMO or bioengineered ingredients, pesticides, hormones and antibiotics. Regulations do not allow for any residue level to be able to use the organic seal.
The USDA regulations say that inspectors look at every component of the farm operation to trace products from start to finish, including seed sources, soil, water systems, contamination and co-mingling risks.5 This includes what livestock are fed, but does not describe where they are fed.
Let’s talk chickens. To be designated organic, chickens must be raised organically no more than two days after they hatch. Their food must be certified grown organically without pesticides or synthetic fertilizers.6
This is what they're fed but not how they live. Designation as free-range or cage-free describes how they live but not whether they're organically raised. Tenpenny notes that free-range is a marketing term that just means the bird has unlimited access to food, water and some outdoor access for at least 51% of their life.
Cage-free means they can roam in a building or an enclosed area with unlimited access to food and fresh water in overcrowded conditions. However, the definition of outdoor space is not defined, and cage-free hens typically do not have access to being outside.
The designations in the beef industry may be just as deceptive.7 Grass fed describes what the animal eats, but pasture-fed tells you where they ate it. Organic beef means that the cow eats organic feed and is not given antibiotics or hormones. This means that "grass fed" or "pasture-fed" beef may not be eating organic feed. To make this more complicated, pasture-raised and grass fed designations do not include whether the animal received hormones or antibiotics.
In the beef industry, the pasture-raised designation means that the animal had access to being outside for at least 120 days during the year. However, the outdoor designation can include living in a field or being outside in a small pen.
The pork industry has slightly more stringent regulations for USDA-certified organic designation.8 Pigs must be raised organically beginning in the last third of the sow’s gestation, not have antibiotics and growth hormone stimulants and must be processed by a USDA-certified organic processing plant. Additionally, organic pigs must have access to direct sunlight, exercise areas, fresh air and shade.
They must have clean dry bedding, and bedding using crop residue must be from organic crops. Additionally, their diet must be produced organically without any animal by-products, hormones or antibiotics. However, pigs are allowed to receive vaccinations, and according to a 2021 paper,9 the vaccination program begins at three to six weeks of age and continues through adulthood.
What Makes Eggs Organic and Humane
As Tenpenny points out, labeling should be transparent, but the food industry has made it mostly about marketing.10 Labels you might find on eggs include organic, free-range, cage-free and vegetarian. As I’ve written before, conventionally raised eggs are not the most nutritional or ethical available, and since they are an important part of a healthy diet, it’s a good thing to buy quality eggs.
Conventionally raised birds are typically loaded with antibiotics and hormones and fed poor-quality feed. The hens live in spaces the size of a sheet of paper and the vast majority are confined in battery cages.11 These animals are likely the most intensively confined animals, unable to spread their wings or exhibit any typical behavior. This is what the labels on eggs mean:12
- Free-range — Free-range eggs do not need to be organic, since they don't need to be fed organic feed. The term free-range identifies chickens who have limited access to the outdoors.
- Organic — Eggs that are labeled organic must be free-range and must be raised on organic free of animal by-products but not necessarily bugs and worms, which is their natural diet. The birds must not receive hormones or antibiotics.
- Other labels — Eggs can also be labeled all-natural, antibiotic-free or vegetarian. There are no strict rules about these labels so it's up to the farmer to set the standards.
Organic eggs are typically the most expensive eggs at the grocery, but the added nutrition is worth it. The USDA-certified organic label means the eggs were sourced from farmers who follow strict standards.
Ashley Armstrong, cofounder of Angel Acres Egg Co., and I are working to overturn the conventional food system, starting with eggs. Angel Acres Egg Co. specializes in the production of low-PUFA (polyunsaturated fat) eggs. We discussed the importance of low-PUFA eggs in a recent interview, embedded below for your convenience.
They ship low-PUFA eggs to all 50 states — but there is currently a waiting list as she slowly increases the number of chickens within the network to fulfill the demand. More egg boxes will be available this spring, so join the waitlist for low PUFA egg boxes here.
Organic Dairy
If you're familiar with the problems associated with conventional pasteurized milk, you may have started buying organic milk instead. Some milk brands on the shelf boast being DHA enriched, which a Washington Post article notes13 is accomplished by adding DHA omega-3 oil produced by corn syrup-fed algae.
If you want to drink milk, consider switching to raw, grass fed milk if you can get it. RealMilk.com has a list of raw dairy farms in your area. The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund14 also provides a state-by-state review of raw milk laws.
Look for the AGA grass fed certification and search their website for AGA-approved producers that adhere to strict standards, including the cows being raised on a diet of 100% forage, never confined to a feedlot, never treated with antibiotics or hormones and born and raised on American family farms.
Organic Produce Can Be Coated in Apeel
Produce can only be labeled organic when it's been grown in soil that has not had any prohibited chemicals applied for three years before the first harvest. Pesticides also cannot be applied directly to organic produce, with the exception of Apeel.15 Apeel is a chemical that's been used on produce since 1996 to extend shelf life, but it also disrupts the human and animal gut microbiome.
The technology began with a $100,000 Grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.16 Other investors have included the Rockefeller Foundation,17 the World Bank Group and Anne Wojcicki, co-founder and CEO of the personal genomics company 23andMe.
Apeel Sciences founder, James Rogers, Ph.D., is an agenda contributor to the World Economic Forum (WEF)18 and a Young Global Leader. Among the articles he has written for the WEF is one in which he hailed COVID lockdowns as a model for future action on climate change.19 In other words, climate lockdowns.
I’m not the only one questioning the motives behind this product. "Is [Apeel] another Gates/WEF plot to destroy our health? Or a distraction from worse plots?" asked Alexis Baden-Mayer, political director at the Organic Consumers Association (OCA).20 Apeel appears to have slipped through some loophole at the USDA.
Here’s How to Break the Produce Label Code
So, how do you identify the fruits and vegetables you want to eat? Produce has a PLU label, which stands for price look-up. These are standardized codes used across the industry to manage the supply chain. There are more than 1,400 PLU codes assigned to a variety of produce, which you can use to help identify if the produce is organic or conventionally grown.
These codes are four or five digits long and any codes with more than five digits are not part of the standardized system. The next time you're at the grocery store, spend a minute or two looking at the food labels in the produce department to identify produce that's genetically modified, bioengineered or designated organic. Tenpenny lists the codes on produce you may want to consider:21
- A four-digit code starting with the number 3 or 4 (3000 or 4000 series) is used for conventionally grown produce. This means synthetic fertilizers, chemicals and/or pesticides might have been used during the growth of the produce.
- A five-digit code starting with the number 3 identifies fruits and vegetables that have been irradiated or electronically pasteurized.
- A five-digit code starting with the number 6 identifies pre-cut fruits and vegetables.
- A five-digit code starting with the number 8 is designated for fruits and vegetables that have been genetically modified or bioengineered.
- A five-digit code starting with the number 9 is designated for organic fruits and vegetables.
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Doctors Predict Epidemic of Prion Brain Diseases
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According to mounting data, one of the more serious side effects of the COVID mRNA jabs appears to be dementia, and worse yet, this previously untransmissible disease may now be “contagious,” transmissible by way of prions.
In my 2021 interview with Stephanie Seneff, Ph.D., she explained why she suspected the COVID shots may eventually result in an avalanche of neurological prion-based diseases such as Alzheimer’s. She also published a paper detailing those mechanisms in the May 10, 2021, issue of the International Journal of Vaccine Theory. As she explained in that paper:1
“A paper published by J. Bart Classen (2021) proposed that the spike protein in the mRNA vaccines could cause prion-like diseases, in part through its ability to bind to many known proteins and induce their misfolding into potential prions.
Idrees and Kumar (2021) have proposed that the spike protein’s S1 component is prone to act as a functional amyloid and form toxic aggregates ... and can ultimately lead to neurodegeneration.”
In summary, the take-home from Seneff’s paper is that the COVID shots, offered to hundreds of millions of people, are instruction sets for your body to make a toxic protein that will eventually wind up concentrated in your spleen, from where prion-like protein instructions will be sent out, leading to neurodegenerative diseases.
What Are Prions?
The term "prion" derives from "proteinaceous infectious particle." Prions are known to cause a variety of neurodegenerative diseases in animals and humans, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or "mad cow disease") in cattle, and chronic wasting disease in deer and elk.
These diseases are collectively referred to as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). They’re characterized by long incubation periods, brain damage, the formation of holes in the brain giving it a sponge-like appearance, and failure to induce an inflammatory response.
In short, prions are infectious agents composed entirely of a protein material that can fold in multiple, structurally distinct ways, at least one of which is transmissible to other prion proteins, leading to a disease that is similar to viral infections but without nucleic acids.
Unlike bacteria, viruses, and fungi, which contain nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) that instruct their replication, prions propagate by transmitting their misfolded protein state to normal variants of the same protein.
According to the prion disease model, the infectious properties of prions are due to the ability of the abnormal protein to convert the normal version of the protein into the misfolded form, thereby setting off a chain reaction that progressively damages the nervous system.
Prions are remarkably resistant to conventional methods of sterilization and can survive extreme conditions that would normally destroy nucleic acids or other pathogens, which is part of why prion diseases are so difficult to treat.
More Evidence mRNA Shots Can Trigger Dementia
Today, there’s even more evidence to support Seneff’s theory. In August 2022, tech entrepreneur Sid Belzberg wrote2 about prions.rip, a website he’d set up to collect data on the neurological side effects of the jabs. (This site is no longer live.)
Within a few months, the site had received about 15,000 hits and gathered 60 reports from people who got the jab and suffered neurological deficits shortly thereafter, including six cases of diagnosed CJD.
“Normally this disease affects 1 in a 1,000,000 people,” Belzberg wrote.3 “To get 6 cases you would need 6,000,000 hits to the site assuming everyone reports. The chances of getting 1 case in 15,000 hits is 1 in 66. To see 6 cases in 1 group of 15,000 is 1/66^6 or 1 in 82,000,000,000, or 20 times more likely to win a Powerball lottery! ...
To reiterate, CJD is an exceptionally rare disease that is now a known and established severe adverse reaction (SAE) from the DEATHVAX™. Injecting this slow kill bioweapon can cause ailments that are about as likely to develop in the real word as getting struck by lightning twice. The proof is now irrefutable.”
Frameshifting Can Result in Prion Production
In mid-December 2023, researchers reported4,5,6 that the replacing of uracil with synthetic methylpseudouridine in the COVID shots — a process known as codon optimization — can cause frameshifting, a glitch in the decoding, thereby triggering the production of off-target aberrant proteins.
The antibodies that develop as a result may, in turn, trigger off-target immune reactions. According to the authors, off-target cellular immune responses occur in 25% to 30% of people who have received the COVID shot. But that’s not all.
According to British neuroscientist Dr. Kevin McCairn, this frameshifting phenomenon has also been linked to harmful prion production — and that frame shifted prions, specifically, are infectious and can be transmitted from one person to another. As reported in the Journal of Theoretical Biology in 2013:7
“A quantitatively consistent explanation for the titres of infectivity found in a variety of prion-containing preparations is provided on the basis that the etiological agents of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy comprise a very small population fraction of prion protein (PrP) variants, which contain frameshifted elements in their N-terminal octapeptide-repeat regions ...
Frameshifting accounts quantitatively for the etiology of prion disease. One per million frameshifted prions may be enough to cause disease. The HIV TAR-like element in the PRNP mRNA is likely an effector of frameshifting.”
McCairn explained this mechanism in a February 19, 2023, interview with Health Alliance Australia (video above). In it, he noted:
“Mis-folded proteins caused by prions can impact every level organ and tissue system in the body ... [They] bioaccumulate and are resistant to degradation, thereby building up ...”
Prions may in fact be the primary molecule that is being “shed” by COVID jab recipients, and if those prions are due to frameshifting, that could be very bad news indeed, considering their implication in dementia.
Another doctor who believes we’ll be facing an “epidemic of prion disease” is Dr. David Cartland. In late February 2024, he posted8 13 scientific papers linking the COVID jabs, prion diseases and CJD, noting that was just a “small selection” of what’s available in the medical literature.
Prions Implicated in Long COVID as Well
According to genomics expert Kevin McKernan, Ph.D., prions are also involved in long COVID (or as McKernan calls it, “long vax”).9 In one 2024 study,10 96.7% of long COVID sufferers had received the jab. In an interview with the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), McKernan stated:11
“If you frameshift over the stop codons, you’re going to be making proteins that are spike-mito proteins. When I talk to a lot of the long vax patients I hear of all these things that remind me of my time in the mitochondrial disease sequencing space ...”
McKernan claims he tried to publish a paper on this in 2021 with Dr. Peter McCullough, but the editor of the journal “stepped in and torpedoed the paper.”12
World’s Largest Side Effect Analysis Has Been Published
In related news, the largest study13 to date on the side effects of the COVID jabs was published in the journal Vaccine in February 12, 2024, and it confirms what I and many other alternative news sources have been saying all along, namely that the mRNA jabs are the most dangerous medical products to ever hit the market.
The study — performed by the Global COVID Vaccine Safety (GCoVS) Project and funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Public Health Ontario and the Canadian Health Research Institute — evaluated the risk of "adverse events of special interest" (AESI) following COVID-19 “vaccination.”
Data from 10 sites in eight countries (Argentina, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, New Zealand and Scotland) were included, encompassing more than 99 million jabbed individuals.
Of the thousands of side effects Pfizer listed in its confidential report of post-authorization adverse events submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,14 the GCoVS focused on 13 AESIs that fall into three primary categories: Neurological, hematologic (blood-related) and cardiovascular conditions.
They calculated the AESI risk for each of the 13 AESIs based on the number of observed versus expected (OE) incidents occurring up to 42 days after injection. The “expected” number of side effects were based on vaccine adverse event data from 2015 to 2019. These rates were then compared to the adverse event rates observed in those who got one or more of the COVID jabs, either Pfizer's BNT162b2, Moderna's mRNA-1273, or AstraZeneca's ChAdOx1.
Largest Study to Date Confirms COVID Jab Dangers
The analysis15 revealed several concerning side effects, including increased risks of myocarditis, pericarditis, blood clots in the brain, and various neurological conditions. Here’s a quick summary of the findings:
• Myocarditis and pericarditis:
◦ Pfizer vaccine — OE ratios for myocarditis were 2.78 and 2.86 after the first and second shots, with the risk remaining doubled after the third and fourth shots.
◦ Moderna vaccine — OE ratios for myocarditis were 3.48 and 6.10 after the first and second shots. Doses 1 and 4 also showed OE ratios of 1.74 and 2.64 for pericarditis.
◦ AstraZeneca vaccine — OE ratio for pericarditis was 6.91 after the third shot.
• Blood clots in the brain (cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, CVST):
◦ An OE of 3.23 for CVST was observed after the first AstraZeneca shot.
◦ A significant increase in CVST risk was also noted after the second Pfizer dose.
• Neurological conditions:
◦ Guillain-Barré syndrome — An OE ratio of 2.49 was observed following the AstraZeneca jab.
◦ Transverse myelitis — Risk nearly doubled with the AstraZeneca shot.
◦ Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis — OE ratios of 3.78 (Moderna) and 2.23 (AstraZeneca) were noted.
These findings really underscore the potential for serious side effects from the COVID shots, including conditions that may lead to other consequences in the longer term, such as stroke, heart attack, paralysis and death.
Effectiveness and Safety Was Wildly Exaggerated in Trials
Considering those findings, it’s no surprise to find that effectiveness and safety were exaggerated in clinical trials and observational studies. In a guest post on Dr. Robert Malone’s Substack, Raphael Lataster, Ph.D., writes:16
“An unofficial series of four crucially important medical journal articles, two by me, appearing in major academic publisher Wiley’s Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice reveals that claims made about COVID-19 vaccines’ effectiveness and safety were exaggerated in the clinical trials and observational studies, which significantly impacts risk-benefit analyses.
Also discussed are the concerning topics of myocarditis, with evidence indicating that this one adverse effect alone means that the risks outweigh the benefits in the young and healthy; and perceived negative effectiveness, which indicates that the vaccines increase the chance of COVID-19 infection/hospitalization/death, to say nothing about other adverse effects.”
Summary of Papers
The four papers in question include:
1. “Sources of Bias in Observational Studies of COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness” published in the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice in March 2023, co-authored by BMJ editor Peter Doshi, Ph.D., statistician Kaiser Fung and biostatistician Mark Jones, which concluded that “case-counting window bias” had a significant effect on effectiveness estimates.17
As explained by Lataster, this “concerns the 7 days, 14 days, or even 21 days after the jab where we are meant to overlook jab-related issues, such as COVID infections, for some odd reason as ‘the vaccine has not had sufficient time to stimulate the immune system.’
This may strike you as quite bizarre since all of the ‘fully vaccinated’ must go through the process of being ‘partially vaccinated,’ sometimes even more than once. To make matters worse, the unvaccinated do not get such a ‘grace period,’ meaning that there is also a clear bias at play.
In an example using data from Pfizer’s clinical trial, the authors show that thanks to this bias, a vaccine with effectiveness of 0%, which is confirmed in the hypothetical clinical trial, could be seen in observational studies as having effectiveness of 48%.”
2. “Reply to Fung et. al. on COVID-19 Vaccine Case-Counting Window Biases Overstating Vaccine Effectiveness,” authored by Lataster, which discussed how the counting window bias not only affected effectiveness estimates in observational studies but also safety estimates, suggesting a need for reassessment of vaccine safety.18 The article also addresses “the mysterious rise in non-COVID excess deaths post-pandemic.”19
3. “How the Case Counting Window Affected Vaccine Efficacy Calculations in Randomized Trials of COVID-19 Vaccines,” again co-authored by Doshi and Fung, which detailed how case-counting window issues also overestimated effectiveness in Pfizer and Moderna clinical trials.20
4. A second article by Lataster, in which he highlighted and summarized the evidence showing that clinical trials were affected by adverse effect counting window issues that led to exaggerated safety estimates.21
“Together, these four articles make clear that claims made about COVID-19 vaccines; effectiveness and safety were exaggerated in the clinical trials and observational studies, whilst also finding time to discuss myocarditis and perceived negative effectiveness, meaning that new analyses are very much needed,” Lataster writes.22
Resources for Those Injured by the COVID Jab
Based on data from across the world, it’s beyond clear that the COVID shots are the most dangerous drugs ever deployed. If you already got one or more COVID jabs and are now reconsidering, you’d be wise to avoid all vaccines from here on, as you need to end the assault on your body. Even if you haven’t experienced any obvious side effects, your health may still be impacted long-term, so don’t take any more shots.
If you’re suffering from side effects, your first order of business is to eliminate the spike protein — and/or any aberrant off-target protein — that your body is producing. Two remedies shown to bind to and facilitate the removal of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein are hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. I don’t know if these drugs will work on off-target proteins and nanolipid accumulation as well, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to try.
The Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) has developed a post-vaccine treatment protocol called I-RECOVER. Since the protocol is continuously updated as more data become available, your best bet is to download the latest version straight from the FLCCC website at covid19criticalcare.com.23
For additional suggestions, check out the World Council for Health’s spike protein detox guide,24 which focuses on natural substances like herbs, supplements and teas. Sauna therapy can also help eliminate toxic and misfolded proteins by stimulating autophagy.
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