Curcumin could aid diabetic kidney disease patients
Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, December 17 2021.
A meta-analysis of randomized trials concluded that curcumin supplementation was associated with improved creatinine (a marker of kidney function), cholesterol, glucose and systolic blood pressure compared to a placebo in men and women with diabetic kidney disease, a frequent complication of diabetes. The findings were published on December 2, 2021 in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
Analysis of the four trials that evaluated curcumin’s effects on serum creatinine, total cholesterol and fasting plasma glucose determined that curcumin was associated with significant reductions in these factors compared to a placebo. Systolic blood pressure was lower in association with curcumin in an analysis of the four trials that assessed blood pressure.
“According to the available evidence from this meta-analysis, curcumin supplementation has beneficial effects on serum creatinine, total cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, and fasting blood glucose levels.”
Cardiovascular disease risk boosted by stress
University of Gothenburg (Sweden), December 16, 2021
The risk of cardiovascular disease rises with an increasing burden of perceived stress, financial problems and adverse life events, a major international study with University of Gothenburg researchers as main authors shows. They were able to link the risk of both heart attack and stroke with high stress levels.
The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, included 118,706 individuals in 21 countries, five of which were low-income, twelve middle-income, and four high-income countries. The participants, both men and women, were aged 35–70, 50 years being the average when the study began).
After adjustments for differences in risk factors between those with high and low stress, it was found that in the participants with high stress the risk of some form of cardiovascular event was elevated by 22 percent, that of heart attack by 24 percent and that of stroke 30 percent.
New study suggests health benefits of swapping animal proteins for plant proteins
St Michael’s Hospital, December 20, 2021
Substituting one to two servings of animal proteins with plant proteins every day could lead to a small reduction in the three main cholesterol markers for cardiovascular disease prevention, a new study suggests.
The health benefits could be even greater if people combined plant proteins with other cholesterol-lowering foods such as viscous, water soluble fibres from oats, barley and psyllium, and plant sterols, said lead author Dr. John Sievenpiper of St. Michael’s Hospital.
Dr. Sievenpiper led a systematic review and meta-analysis of 112 randomized control trials in which people substituted plant proteins for some animal proteins in their diets for at least three weeks. The results were published online today in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Dr. Sievenpiper said the review indicated that replacing one to two servings of animal proteins with plant proteins every day – primarily soy, nuts and pulses (dried peas and beans, lentils and chickpeas) – could reduce the main cholesterol markers by about 5 per cent.
The study looked at the impact of replacing animal protein with plant protein of three key markers for cholesterol: low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL or “bad” cholesterol, which contributes to fatty buildups in arteries and raises the risk for heart attack, stroke and peripheral artery disease); non-high density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C, or total cholesterol minus HDL or healthy/good cholesterol) and apolipoprotein B (the proteins in bad cholesterol that clog arteries).
Blueberry vinegar improves memory in mice with amnesia
Konkuk University (S Korea) December 20, 2021
In the search for new ways to fight cognitive decline, scientists report in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that blueberry vinegar might offer some help. They found that the fermented product could restore cognitive function in mice.
To carry out their experiment, the researchers administered blueberry vinegar to mice with induced amnesia. Measurements of molecules in their brains showed that the vinegar reduced the breakdown of acetylcholine and boosted levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a protein associated with maintaining and creating healthy neurons. To test how the treatment affected cognition, the researchers analyzed the animals’ performance in mazes and an avoidance test, in which the mice would receive a low-intensity shock in one of two chambers.
The treated rodents showed improved performance in both of these tests, suggesting that the fermented product improved short-term memory. Thus, although further testing is needed, the researchers say that blueberry vinegar could potentially be a promising food to help treat amnesia and cognitive decline related to aging.
Protective effect of education against midlife mental health struggle waning for Americans
Arizona State University, December 16, 2021
Middle-aged adults in the United States today experience worse mental health than older generations of Americans and also their European and Asian peers.
To understand what is happening with middle-aged American adults, a research team led by Arizona State University scientists compared middle age across different cultures and periods of time. The study examined how physical and mental health in midlife changed over time and in different countries.
“The protective effect of education is waning in the US. People born in the 1950s and 1960s who have a college education report more depressive symptoms and have poorer memory and overall health than both older American adults and their same-age peers in other countries with similar economic structures to the US,” said Frank Infurna, associate professor of psychology at ASU and lead author on the study.
American adults born in the 1950s and 1960s have been healthier in midlife than people born in the 1930s and 1940s were when they were in their 40s and 50s. In the US, this health improvement dissipates by the late 50s and early 60s.”While the future of American middle-aged adults might not look that bright, we can look to other countries to see what works for overall success in midlife,” Infurna said. “Other countries have more accessible health care systems and social safety nets like paid family leave, subsidized childcare, and paid work and vacation leave. These differences can help support adults in midlife, who are often juggling working, parenting and caregiving, and suggest ways the US can make things better.”
OTHER NEWS
UK Scientist Reveals Bombshell Data Analysis: Tracks Batches Of Pfizer, Moderna and Janssen, Finds “..Some Batches Are 50 Times Worse Than Others”
Celia Farber, December 17, 2021
I was told about the work of Craig Paardekooper by my friend of many years, PhD bio-chemist Dr. Dave Rasnick a few days ago; Today came this email from Dave, clarifying his shocking findings:
Three of his conclusions:
- The companies purposely manufactured non-uniform formulations of their vaccines while representing to the public that all COVID-19 vaccines from a given manufacturer were uniform in their formulation.
- Over 20,000 different batches (lots) of Pfizer, Moderna, J & J injections total.
- 1 in 200 lots contain deadly ingredients. He urged me to watch a series of videos, in which he lays out the unthinkable. One video here:
- Another, “Death By Alphabet: Moderna Batch Codes And Associated Deaths:”
Swedes start implanting microchips with Covid passports in the arm
The chips can be used to store certificates, office documents, bus passes, or gym membership
112 Agency International, December 18, 2021
Swedish Epicenter, a specialist in subdermal microchips, has demonstrated an implant capable of storing information about a person’s Covid passport. The company says the implanted chip will be able to read any device that uses the Near Field Communication (NFC) protocol.
“Implants are a very versatile technology that can be used for a variety of purposes, and now it is very helpful to have your Covid passport at your fingertips. If your phone runs out of battery, the Covid passport will always be available,” company representative Hannes Sjoblad.
He explained that the chips can be implanted either between the thumb and forefinger, or in the arm itself just above the wrist. The microchip itself is the size of a grain of rice. Hannes Sjoblad argues that the implementation process is completely reversible.
According to the researcher of digital cultures Moa Petersen, at the moment in Sweden, about 6 000 people have already implanted a chip in their hand, but this does not mean that they all loaded their Covid passports there. The chips can store not only certificates, but also office documents, bus passes or gym membership.
Early CDC COVID Tests Were Not Only Contaminated, But Flawed: Report
HealthDay News, December 16, 2021
Along with being contaminated, there was also a basic design flaw in COVID-19 testing kits created by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention early in the pandemic, a new agency review shows.
It was already known that the PCR kits were contaminated, but the CDC’s findings published in the journal PLOS ONE are the first to note a design error that caused false positives.
The CDC acknowledged later that month that the kits were flawed, and U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said in April that poor manufacturing practices had caused contamination of the kits, the Times reported.
Importantly, the primers and probes need to bind to the virus’ genetic sequences and not to each other. In this case, one of the probes in the kit sometimes bound to one of the primers, producing the fluorescent signal and generating a false positive.
The investigation also confirmed that the kits had been contaminated with synthetic fragments of the virus’s genetic material. These synthetic sequences, which are often used to ensure that the tests are working properly, were manufactured at the same CDC lab where the test kits were being tested for quality. It is “likely” that the test kits were contaminated there, the agency concluded in its report.
Teens 50X More Likely to Have Heart Disease After COVID Shots than All Other FDA Approved Vaccines in 2021 Combined
Brian Shivaley, Health Impact News, December 16. 2021
Data released by the U.S. Government in their Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) continues to show just how deadly the experimental COVID shots are on teenagers and young people.
I did another analysis looking at deaths and injuries in the 12 to 19-year-old age group following experimental COVID shots, as compared to all other vaccines that this age group receives before they leave high-school.
VAERS is reporting that for ages 12 through 19 (I choose to start with age 12 because that is the youngest age that the COVID injections are currently authorized to be injected with), there have been 31 deaths, 181 permanent disabilities, 3,679 ER visits, 1,655 hospitalizations, 331 life threatening events, and 748 reports of heart inflammation (all forms of “carditis”).
I searched the exact same age group, for the same time period (December 2020 through the most recent data dump on Friday), and excluded COVID-19 shots but included every other vaccine listed.
From all of these vaccines that include every non-COVID shot that 12 to 19 year-olds have received this year so far, there have been 4 deaths, 12 permanent disabilities, 78 ER visits, 36 hospitalizations, and 14 life threatening events during the same time period as the COVID-19 shots were administered.
COVID-19 shots given to our teenagers have 7.75 X more deaths, 15 X more disabilities, 47 X more ER visits, and 46 X more hospitalizations than all other FDA-approved vaccines COMBINED that these teenagers are receiving.
Open letter from The British Medical Journal to Mark Zuckerberg
We are Fiona Godlee and Kamran Abbasi, editors of The BMJ, one of the world’s oldest and most influential general medical journals. We are writing to raise serious concerns about the “fact checking” being undertaken by third party providers on behalf of Facebook/Meta.
In September, a former employee of Ventavia, a contract research company helping carry out the main Pfizer covid-19 vaccine trial, began providing The BMJ with dozens of internal company documents, photos, audio recordings, and emails. These materials revealed a host of poor clinical trial research practices occurring at Ventavia that could impact data integrity and patient safety. We also discovered that, despite receiving a direct complaint about these problems over a year ago, the FDA did not inspect Ventavia’s trial sites.
The BMJ commissioned an investigative reporter to write up the story for our journal. The article was published on 2 November, following legal review, external peer review and subject to The BMJ’s usual high level editorial oversight and review.[1]
But from November 10, readers began reporting a variety of problems when trying to share our article. Some reported being unable to share it. Many others reported having their posts flagged with a warning about “Missing context … Independent fact-checkers say this information could mislead people.” Those trying to post the article were informed by Facebook that people who repeatedly share “false information” might have their posts moved lower in Facebook’s News Feed. Group administrators where the article was shared received messages from Facebook informing them that such posts were “partly false.”
Readers were directed to a “fact check” performed by a Facebook contractor named Lead Stories.[2]
We find the “fact check” performed by Lead Stories to be inaccurate, incompetent and irresponsible.
— It fails to provide any assertions of fact that The BMJ article got wrong
— It has a nonsensical title: “Fact Check: The British Medical Journal Did NOT Reveal Disqualifying And Ignored Reports Of Flaws In Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Trials”
— The first paragraph inaccurately labels The BMJ a “news blog”
— It contains a screenshot of our article with a stamp over it stating “Flaws Reviewed,” despite the Lead Stories article not identifying anything false or untrue in The BMJ article
— It published the story on its website under a URL that contains the phrase “hoax-alert”
We have contacted Lead Stories, but they refuse to change anything about their article or actions that have led to Facebook flagging our article.
We have also contacted Facebook directly, requesting immediate removal of the “fact checking” label and any link to the Lead Stories article, thereby allowing our readers to freely share the article on your platform.
There is also a wider concern that we wish to raise. We are aware that The BMJ is not the only high quality information provider to have been affected by the incompetence of Meta’s fact checking regime. To give one other example, we would highlight the treatment by Instagram (also owned by Meta) of Cochrane, the international provider of high quality systematic reviews of the medical evidence.[3] Rather than investing a proportion of Meta’s substantial profits to help ensure the accuracy of medical information shared through social media, you have apparently delegated responsibility to people incompetent in carrying out this crucial task. Fact checking has been a staple of good journalism for decades. What has happened in this instance should be of concern to anyone who values and relies on sources such as The BMJ.
We hope you will act swiftly: specifically to correct the error relating to The BMJ’s article and to review the processes that led to the error; and generally to reconsider your investment in and approach to fact checking overall.
Best wishes,
Fiona Godlee, editor in chief
Kamran Abbasi, incoming editor in chief
The BMJ
FDA Should Need Only ‘12 Weeks’ to Release Pfizer Data, Not 75 Years, Plaintiff Calculates
Seth Hancock, Global Research, December 20, 2021
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials skipped the start of oral arguments Tuesday as a federal district court weighed whether the agency can take 75 years to fully release documents on Pfizer’s Comirnaty COVID vaccine, according to a lawyer representing plaintiffs who sued the FDA for the documents.
A U.S. Department of Justice lawyer representing the FDA told the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas the agency will produce more than 329,000 related documents as fast as it can, while safeguarding personally identifiable information and Pfizer trade secrets.
Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency (PHMPT), the group behind the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and subsequent lawsuit, is seeking safety and effectiveness data, adverse reaction reports and a list of active and inactive vaccine ingredients.
PHMPT is a group of more than 30 scientists, medical professionals, international public health professionals and journalists. The group’s lawsuit argues the FDA is overestimating the time needed and understaffing the job.
At the agency’s proposed rate of 500 documents per month, the last documents would be released in 2096.
A quote from Business Intelligence Associates, an e-discovery company, estimated 400,000 pages could be produced within six to eight weeks at a cost of $132,000, according to PHMPT.
PHMPT wants the FDA documents released within 108 days. That’s the same amount of time the FDA spent reviewing the responsive documents for “the far more intricate task” of licensing Pfizer’s vaccine, the group said in its lawsuit.
‘Many Lives Being Destroyed’ by Government’s Failure to Recognize Natural Immunity, Physician Says
Dr. Marty Makary, a public health researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, on Tuesday accused government officials of practicing “modern-day McCarthyism” against anyone who suggests young healthy people, especially those who recovered from COVID, don’t need booster shots.
Children’s Health Defense Team, December 20, 2021
Dr. Marty Makary on Tuesday accused public health officials of “modern-day McCarthyism,” and publishing studies not worthy of “a 7th-grade science experiment.”
The public health researcher and professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health told members of the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis some COVID policies have become “too extreme, too rigid and are no longer driven by clinical data.”
Makary zeroed in on natural immunity and COVID booster shots for teens. He criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) rush to push boosters for 16- and 17-year-olds based on lab experiments suggesting boosters raise antibody levels against Omicron.
Makary assured committee members he isn’t “anti-vax” — he’s been vaccinated for COVID. But he’s a strong proponent of acknowledging natural immunity, and not requiring people who have recovered from COVID — especially young people — to get the vaccine.
That viewpoint has made him the target of criticism, Makary said.
“We have a modern-day McCarthyism whenever somebody questions COVID booster shots for kids,” Makary said.
Leading Cause Of Death For Americans Aged 18-45 Is NOT Covid — It’s Fentanyl
FREE THOUGHT PROJECT, December 19, 2021
Because The State Enforces A Drug War Which Outlaws Far Safer Alternatives, Fentanyl Has Taken The Illegal Drug Market By Storm And These Synthetic Opioids That Are Extremely Dangerous Are Flooding The Streets And Leaving Piles Of Bodies In Their Wake. Make No Mistake, Fentanyl Is Dangerous And Kills People By The Thousands But The Government’s Response To It Is Causing Far More Harm Than Good.
Instead Of Realizing The Dangers Brought On By Enforcing A War On Drugs Which Has Led To The Thriving Illicit Fentanyl Market, The State Resorts To Violence, Fear Tactics And Propaganda To Unsuccessfully Scare People Into Compliance.
“Families Against Fentanyl,” An Opioid Awareness Organization, Analyzed The Data From U.S. Government Sources And That Found That Suicide, Car Accidents, And Gun Violence — Which Used To Be The Top Killers Of Folks Aged 18-45 — Have Taken A Back Seat To The New Number One Killer: Fentanyl.
The Group Found That 37,208 People Between 18 And 45 Died From Fentanyl Overdose In 2020 And 41,587 Have Died So Far In 2021.
“This Is A National Emergency. America’s Young Adults — Thousands Of Unsuspecting Americans — Are Being Poisoned,” The Founder Of Families Against Fentanyl, James Rauh, Said According To Fox News. “It Is Widely Known That Illicit Fentanyl Is Driving The Massive Spike In Drug-Related Deaths. A New Approach To This Catastrophe Is Needed.”
According To Families Against Fentanyl, Fentanyl Deaths In America Across All Age Groups Doubled From 32,754 Fatalities To 64,178 Fatalities In Just Two Years Between April 2019 And April 2021, According To The Data.
Meat Accounts For Nearly 60% Of All Greenhouse Gases From Food Production, Study Finds
Production of meat worldwide emits 28 times as much as growing plants, and most crops are raised to feed animals bound for slaughter
THE GUARDIAN 13 Sep 2021
The global production of food is responsible for a third of all planet-heating gases emitted by human activity, with the use of animals for meat causing twice the pollution of producing plant-based foods, a major new study has found.
The entire system of food production, such as the use of farming machinery, spraying of fertilizer and transportation of products, causes 17.3bn metric tonnes of greenhouse gases a year, according to the research. This enormous release of gases that fuel the climate crisis is more than double the entire emissions of the US and represents 35% of all global emissions, researchers said.
The raising and culling of animals for food is far worse for the climate than growing and processing fruits and vegetables for people to eat, the research found, confirming previous findings on the outsized impact that meat production, particularly beef, has on the environment.
The use of cows, pigs and other animals for food, as well as livestock feed, is responsible for 57% of all food production emissions, the research found, with 29% coming from the cultivation of plant-based foods. The rest comes from other uses of land, such as for cotton or rubber. Beef alone accounts for a quarter of emissions produced by raising and growing food.