videos;

The Ingraham Angle – Breakdown Of Covid Scandal (start @ 0:38 – 9:00)

Ex-CDC director speaks out on COVID lab leak theory (4:39)

Dr Fauci engaged in ‘elaborate coverup’ of COVID-19 origins (THE EXCLUSIVE) (4:20)

Matt Gaetz Completely DEMOLISHED General Milley and Sec. Austin For Incompetence (start @ 0:03 – 5:58 )
Don’t Envy People | JORDAN PETERSON Advice (1:00)

Chickpea extract a potential prebiotic: China study shows microflora and short-chain fatty acid benefits

Nanjing and Jinan universities (China), February 27, 2023

Ciceritol extracted from chickpeas has prebiotic potential with a new study showing it can boost the microflora of the colon and promote the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA).

Scientists from Nanjing Agricultural University and Jinan Uinversity said the result of their in vitro study showed the addition of ciceritol enhanced the growth of ‘good bacteria’. Simultaneously, it inhibited the growth of pathogenic bacteria species.

“In order to evaluate the effect of ciceritol on human colonic microflora, in vitro fermentation was applied,” they wrote. During the fermentation, the samples for enumeration of microflora and analysis of SCFAs were withdrawn at zero, six, 12 and 24 hours.

With regard to good bacteria, the number of Lactobacillus/Enterococcus increased after 24 hour fermentation for ciceritol and FOS treatments, but the control had an opposite trend, “which indicated that ciceritol could stimulate the growth of Lactobacillus/Enterococcus group,” said the research team.

They added: “The number of Bifidobacterium spp. for ciceritol treatment was also the highest (10.43 log₁₀ cells/mL) among these three treatments and it showed significant difference compared to the control group (9.45 log₁₀ cells/mL).”

The researchers also discovered after ciceritol treatment, the concentration of total SCFAs – major by-products of bacterial metabolism in the human colon – was nearly twice that witnessed in the control group.

“The result demonstrated that addition of ciceritol could affect the production of SCFAs,” they wrote.

The paper concludes that ciceritol could enhance the growth of Lactobacillus–Enterococcus group and Bifidobacterium spp, and inhibit the growth of Bacteroides–Prevotella, C. histolyticum and Eubacterium–Clostridium groups.

Black Seed Oil Puts Deadly Asthma Meds To Shame

University College London, February 26th 2023 

A study published in the journal Phytotherapeutic Research reveals that a powerful little black seed known as nigella sativa may provide a powerful alternative to pharmaceutical medicine in the treatment of asthma. This is extremely promising for the millions of chronic asthma sufferers who are still taking medications like long-acting beta agonists which the FDA warned actually increased the risk of dying from asthma. 

The new study  was a placebo-controlled RCT performed on 80 asthmatics, with 40 patients in each treatment and placebo groups. The researchers pointed out that “Nigella sativa oil (NSO) is used traditionally for many inflammatory conditions such as asthma.” NSO capsules were administered 500 mg twice daily for 4 weeks. The placebo group received an equal dose of olive oil.

The primary outcome was Asthma Control Test score. The secondary outcomes were pulmonary function test, blood eosinophils and total serum Immunoglobulin E.

“Compared with placebo, NSO group showed a significant improvement in mean Asthma Control Test score 21.1 (standard deviation = 2.6) versus 19.6 (standard deviation = 3.7) (p = 0.044) and a significant reduction in blood eosinophils by -50(-155 to -1) versus 15 (-60 to 87) cells/μL (p = 0.013). NSO improved forced expiratory volume in 1 second as percentage of predicted value by 4 (-1.25 to 8.75) versus 1 (-2 to 5) but non-significant (p = 0.170).

The conclusion of the study reported: “This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial demonstrated that NSO supplementation improves asthma control with a trend in pulmonary function improvement. This was associated with a remarkable normalization of blood eosinophlia. Future studies should follow asthmatics for longer periods in a multicentre trial.”

Reducing social media use by just 15 minutes a day can improve your health, says study

Swansea University (UK), March 8, 2023

New research from Swansea University shows that reducing social media use by 15 minutes a day can significantly improve general health and immune function and reduce levels of loneliness and depression.

The study, published in the Journal of Technology in Behavior Science, was conducted by Professor Phil Reed, Tegan Fowkes, and Mariam Khela from Swansea University’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Over three months, the team examined the effects on physical health and psychological functioning of getting people to reduce their social media usage by 15 minutes a day.

The outcomes were compared to groups that were not asked to reduce their usage or were explicitly asked to do something other than social media during those 15 minutes.

Fifty participants aged 20–25, answered monthly questions about their health and psychological function and also provided weekly reports on their social media usage.

The results showed that the group asked to reduce their social media use had an average 15% improvement in immune function, including fewer colds, flu, warts, and verrucae, a 50% improvement in sleep quality, and 30% fewer depressive symptoms. These improvements were significantly greater than that experienced by the other two groups, neither of which showed any changes in those measures.

Those instructed to reduce their usage ended up doing so by about 40 minutes a day, rather than the 15 minutes requested, whereas there was a daily 10-minute increase for the group asked not to do anything. Strikingly, the group specifically asked to do something other than social media increased their usage by around 25 minutes a day.

Study associates long COVID with physical inactivity

University of São Paulo (Brazil), March 8, 2023

The link between symptoms of COVID-19 and physical inactivity is increasingly evident. An article published in the journal Scientific Reports by researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil describes a study in which COVID-19 survivors with at least one persistent symptom of the disease were 57% more likely to be sedentary, and the presence of five or more post-acute sequelae of infection by SARS-CoV-2 increased the odds of physical inactivity by 138%.

The study was one of the first to assess the effects of physical activity in the context of long COVID, usually characterized as a syndrome involving symptoms that persist for at least two months after the coronavirus infection has resolved, and that cannot be explained by other health problems.

According to a December 2020 editorial in Nature Medicine, early reports indicated that around three out of every four patients hospitalized because of COVID-19 had at least one persistent symptom six months after discharge.

In the current study, the researchers analyzed data collected from  614 survivors of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 with an average age of 56 were included in the investigation.

The patients were hospitalized and a follow-up protocol was implemented (6-11 months after discharge). They were examined and interviewed to find out how physically active they were and to assess other lifestyle items. They were also asked to report whether they had ten symptoms associated with long COVID, such as fatigue, breathlessness, severe muscle pain, taste and smell loss, and memory impairment, among others.

Sixty percent of the participants were considered physically inactive, a higher proportion than those found for most regions by the Brazilian Health Ministry in a nationwide survey conducted in 2020.

Comorbidities were also significant: 37% were smokers, 58% had high blood pressure, 35% had diabetes and 17% were obese. “These are risk factors for severe COVID-19. They were expected to be frequent in the study because all the participants had been hospitalized,” Roschel said, adding that 55% had required intensive care and 37% had been intubated.

When they adjusted the results for confounding factors (variables that may affect others in a way that produces spurious or distorted associations), the researchers still found that the presence of at least one persistent symptom was associated with 57% higher odds of sedentarism. “The more symptoms, the higher the likelihood of physical inactivity,” Roschel said. When five or more symptoms were reported, the odds of physical activity rose 138%.

Certain sequelae associated with long COVID correlated very closely with physical inactivity, he added. In the adjusted statistical models, the highest correlations were with breathlessness (132%) and fatigue (101%).

“It makes sense to assume that people with this condition experience more difficulty to maintain an active routine,” he said. “But it’s also plausible that people with a sedentary lifestyle are more subject to these long-term symptoms after recovering from an acute infection. Our study doesn’t allow us to infer causality.”

In the article, the authors say physical inactivity “itself may be considered a persistent symptom among COVID-19 survivors.” This hypothesis has also been raised by other research groups. A Dutch paper cited in the article describes a study in which 239 recovering patients reported walking significantly less six months after the onset of symptoms than before they contracted the disease.

Roschel also believes, based on other research, that sedentarism may theoretically heighten the risk of long COVID. A study conducted in 2021 and also led by him found that hospitalized COVID-19 patients with more muscle strength and mass (hence probably less sedentary) tended to stay in hospital for less time.

“From a practical standpoint, the importance of physical activity during the pandemic is clearly demonstrated,” Roschel said. There are cases in which people who have recovered from the disease should follow medical advice as to the precautions required when undertaking physical exercise, but an active lifestyle should be encouraged as a matter of public health, he stressed. Sedentarism accounts for 9% of all-cause deaths worldwide.

Exposure to green space linked to reduced risk of postpartum depression

University of California at Irvine & Peking Union Medical College, March 6, 2023

In an analysis of more than 415,00 electronic health records of healthy, full-term births in Southern California, a team of researchers led by the University of California, Irvine, determined that exposure to green space and tree coverage was associated with a decreased risk of postpartum depression among mothers.

The study, published online in the journal The Lancet Regional Health—Americas, suggests that researchers, city planners and public health professionals should work together to develop policies and interventions that increase the amount of tree coverage to create a beneficial environment for community members—especially new mothers who are at risk of postpartum depression.

“This is the first study of its kind that examined the relationship between diverse green spaces, postpartum depression and the role of physical activity,” said senior and corresponding author Jun Wu, Ph.D., professor of environmental and occupational health in UCI’s Program in Public Health. “We were able to show a reduced risk of postpartum depression associated with eye-level exposure to green space on the streets of the neighborhood, and that reduction was further mediated by physical activity.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in eight women who recently gave birth experience symptoms of postpartum depression, and if left untreated, the condition can impact the mother’s health and may cause sleeping, eating and behavioral problems for the baby.

Analysis of the electronic health records of 415,020 singleton births to women residing in Southern California between 2008 and 2018 revealed that the highest reduction in risk of PPD was associated with a street-level view of green space, compared to, say, proximity to a park.

“The postpartum depression risk decreased by approximately 4.2% with each 10% increase in street-view green space,” said lead author Yi Sun, at Peking Union Medical College. “Tree coverage showed stronger protective effects against postpartum depression versus other types of green space (i.e., low-lying vegetation and grass).”

Furthermore, the researchers found that increased physical activity during pregnancy was a plausible pathway linking green space to lower risk of postpartum depression.

Long-term exposure to nitrates in drinking water may be a risk factor for prostate cancer

Barcelona Institute for Global Health (Spain), March 7. 2023

The nitrate ingested over the course of a person’s adult lifetime through the consumption of tap water and bottled water could be a risk factor for prostate cancer, particularly in the case of aggressive tumors and in younger men. This is the conclusion of a study conducted in Spain and led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal). The findings have been published in Environmental Health Perspectives.

The study also suggests that diet plays an important role. The researchers found that eating plenty of fiber, fruit/vegetables and vitamin C could reduce the negative effect of nitrate in drinking water.

The aim of the study was to assess whether there was an association between the ingestion of waterborne nitrate and trihalomethanes (THMs) and the risk of prostate cancer. Nitrate and THMs are two of the most common contaminants in drinking water. The nitrate present in the water comes from agricultural fertilizers and manure from intensive livestock farming; it is washed into aquifers and rivers by rainfall. The new study looked at whether long-term exposure to nitrite throughout adulthood could lead to cancer.

THMs are by-products of water disinfection—i.e., chemical compounds formed after drinking water is disinfected, usually with chlorine. Unlike nitrate, for which the only route of entry is ingestion, THMs can also be inhaled and absorbed through the skin while showering, swimming in pools or washing dishes. Long-term exposure to THMs has been associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer, but evidence of the relationship between THMs and other types of cancer is, to date, very limited.

To evaluate the possible association between prostate cancer and long-term exposure to nitrate and THMs in drinking water, a research teamstudied 697 cases of prostate cancer in hospitals between 2008 and 2013 (including 97 aggressive tumors), as well as a control group made up of 927 men aged 38–85 years who had not been diagnosed with cancer at the time of the study.

The findings showed that the higher the nitrate intake, the greater the association with prostate cancer. Participants with higher waterborne nitrate ingestion (lifetime average of more than 14 mg per day) were 1.6 times more likely to develop low-grade or medium-grade prostate cancer and nearly three times more likely to develop an aggressive prostate tumor than participants with lower nitrate intakes (lifetime average of less than 6 mg per day).

The authors noted that this study simply provides the first evidence of the association, which will need to be confirmed through further research. 

While the ingestion of waterborne THMs was not associated with prostate cancer, THM concentrations in residential tap water were associated with the development of these tumors, suggesting that inhalation and dermal exposure may play a significant role in total exposure. Further studies properly quantifying exposure to THMs via multiple routes are needed to draw firm conclusions.

A striking finding of the study was that the association between ingested nitrate and prostate cancer were only observed in men with lower intakes of fiber, fruit/vegetables and vitamin C.

“Antioxidants, vitamins and polyphenols in fruits and vegetables may inhibit the formation of nitrosamines—compounds with carcinogenic potential—in the stomach,” explained Donat-Vargas. “Moreover, vitamin C has shown significant anti-tumor activity. And fiber, for its part, benefits the intestinal bacteria, which protect against food-derived toxicants, including nitrosamines.”

In participants with lower intakes of fiber (≤11 g/day), higher nitrate intake increased the likelihood of prostate cancer by a factor of 2.3. However, in those with higher intakes of fiber (>11 g/day), higher nitrate intake was not associated with an increased likelihood of prostate cancer.