Full article: http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/sick-vets-sue-government-contractor-kbr-over-trash-fires-in-iraq-afghanistan/19583671?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl1|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fnation%2Farticle%2Fsick-vets-sue-government-contractor-kbr-over-trash-fires-in-iraq-afghanistan%2F19583671

Excerpt:

(Aug. 6) — Hundreds of Americans who got sick after working in Iraq and Afghanistan are suing government contractor KBR, claiming they were poisoned by toxic smoke from trash fires on U.S. military bases there, The Washington Post reports today.

According to a lawsuit filed in federal court in Maryland, 241 service veterans and contractors are suing the Houston-based firm, which was in charge of burning trash — including Styrofoam, plastic, solvents, medical waste and even dead animals — at several American bases before the military limited so-called burn pits earlier this year.

Joe Raedle, An Afghan man looks through garbage as some of it burns at a dump at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan in 2002. Americans who worked in Afghanistan and Iraq say exposure to such fires has led to breathing disorders and cancers.

Vitamin B12 deficiency is EPIDEMIC and we suffer from this lack of B12 with many health problems including fatigue and early memory loss. This report found that 50% of TYPE 2 Diabetics have B-12 deficiency, which contributes to the more rapid development of diabetic complications including dementia and neuropathy.

It is so easy to correct this condition using Longevity Plus’s sublingual Beyond B12, which includes the ideal form of B12 Methylcobalamin to support methylation, as well as ACTIVE forms of Folic Acid. Folic acid is also so vital for health and again when properly tested, 5’MTHF is almost routinely deficient in our aging population.

Regards, Linda

http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/Probiotic-research-needed-to-fulfill-gut-health-potential

By Guy Montague-Jones, 02-Dec-2009

Related topics: Probiotics, Research, Probiotics and prebiotics, Gut health

Probiotics should be considered as living drugs rather than “simple good bacteria” in order to become effective treatment options for IBS, according to Joseph Haddad, medical director of Institut Rosell-Lallemand.

Following a recent seminar on probiotics and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), hosted by Institut Rosell in London ahead of Gastro 2009, Haddad gave NutraIngredients.com a progress report.

Delegates at the seminar, which focused on the potential of the Lactobacillus plantarum 299v strain, were agreed on the potential of probiotics to treat IBS, but acknowledged that more work is needed to develop effective treatment strategies.

Probiotic potential

Haddad said a lot of scientific work has been done on the therapeutic potential of some specific strains. This work, Haddad, said: “Is now starting to draw a lot of interest from the medical community, which is very promising.”

The medical attraction of adapted probiotics is that unlike traditional drugs, they may not only treat the symptoms of IBS, but also the cause.

However, the development of a consensus on treatment strategies is still some way off.

Haddad said consensus building is a very long process, beginning with initial clinical evidence that is then reviewed and discussed by the specialist community, who ask for more clinical evidence. And finally, after many years, a consensus can emerge and some common guideline scan be defined.

“Many probiotics are not even at the first stage of this process,” said Haddad. When it comes to IBS, he identified three areas where more work is needed.

1. All IBS mechanisms are not completely elucidated yet.

2. Not all probiotics have the same therapeutic potential so it is very difficult to determine the perfect bacteria for IBS.

3. Even though probiotics have been known and used for a very long time, a therapeutic approach with probiotics is still considered innovative in the medical community.

Recommendations

To help build a treatment consensus, Haddad said more in vivo clinical trials are needed in order to validate in vitro data. This will allow those promising strains that are most effective in alleviating abdominal pain and discomfort to be recognised as truly efficient.

As for the probiotics industry, Haddad said it needs to invest more in R&D and state-of-the-art clinical trials to find out and support the most efficient strains. He said: “Some companies are already well positioned, but overall a lot of investment is still required.

“The challenge is really to demonstrate that the industry is not dealing with ‘simple good bacteria’ but that probiotics should be considered as living drugs, backed up by strong clinical evidence.”

Don’t forget that kitchen cabinets also are full of Formaldehyde.  Be careful of grout fillings, glue, and carpets.  Many are not chemical sensitive and your body might not react to these chemicals, but that is not good either, as you have NO warning.  At least if you are chemical sensitivity your body lets you know pretty quickly.  I personally am like a Canary.  I can walk into a building, room, new construction, even retail stores and sense these dangerous chemicals.  Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target and most clothing stores are full of pesticides from the clothing they are selling.  Remember to wash clothes, etc., etc., at least 3 times before wearing.  Please don’t look at your body reaction as a burden, be thankful that your body reacts, so that you can remove yourself.  When I buy new tires for my car I react to the tires.  Bicycle shops are out.

Just remember that these are very harmful chemicals and be thankful that you react.  Being an informed person could very well save your life.  Why now and not previous years?  The chemicals that are used are made with cheap materials, that were not used years ago.  Be careful of stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot, they are full of pesticides,herbicides,paints, treated woods and more.

They say that 85% of Cancers today are environmental.  I provide my body with the right detox methods, so I am neutralizing these chemical assaults, while replenishing my body with the right herbals, supplements and nutrients.  Buyer Beware!!

Regards,

Linda

CPSC study confirms homeowner’s worst fears about Chinese drywall

Tom Kraeutler
Nov 24th 2009 at 3:00PM More Text SizeAAA

A study of 51 homes released this week by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) found a strong association between homes with Chinese-made drywall and levels corrosive hydrogen sulfide, which gives off a smell similar to rotten eggs.

It was the largest investigation ever taken on by the CPSC, costing $3.5 million and involving 15% of the staff, according to the CPSC.

CPSC has received more than 2,000 complaints from homeowners in 32 states, reporting that their health had been adversely affected by odors given off by the suspect material. Victims also reported blackening or corrosion of metal in their homes, including electrical wiring, appliances and air conditioning systems. The complaints stem from homes built largely in 2006 and 2007, following an unexpected demand for building materials spurred on by the destructive hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005.

By confirming the corrosive effects of the Chinese sourced drywall, the CPSC hopes to develop protocols that will identify homes with the problem material and determine effective remediation methods. “Ongoing studies will examine health and safety effects, but we are now ready to get to work fixing this problem,”CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum said in a press release.

To date though, the CPSC states it remains difficult to estimate the total number of homes that contain the toxic drywall and recently reached out to the governors of all 50 states to assemble the fullest possible accounting. Together with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, CPSC is also monitoring imports and believes no new Chinese drywall has entered the United States in 2009.

What to do if you suspect your house has Chinese drywall
If you have reason to believe that your home was built with Chinese drywall, the CPSC recommends you take the following four steps:

1. If you are suffering from the health symptoms described as common to the reports of exposure to problem drywall, please consult your physician as soon as possible. If you experience any of the electrical or fire safety concerns described as common to the reports of exposure to problem drywall, please consult your local gas or electric supplier and a licensed electrician or building inspector as soon as possible.
2. Contact your State and local authorities to report your concerns and get direction on any help or resources in your area.
3. Report your concerns to the CPSC using this form.
4. Consider contacting your insurance company and homebuilder to report your concerns.

For more information on the problem and to monitor ongoing progress in the investigation, go to the CPSC’s Drywall Information Center.

Tom Kraeutler reports on toxic black mold and other home repair issues each week as host of The Money Pit, a nationally syndicated home improvement radio program. He is also AOL’s Home Improvement Editor and author of “My Home, My Money Pit: Your Guide to Every Home Improvement Adventure.”

Linda’s comment:  Several of us have been trying for years to get the Department of Health to classify Lyme disease as an STD.  Doctors including Lyme Literate Medical Doctors=LLMD’s, are split.  We now know that Lyme can be sexually transmitted.  It makes sense to classify Lyme as STD.  We need to do all we can to help stop the spread of Lyme and Company.  I suggest when talking to your children about their sexual activities, to strongly warn them about the chance of getting sexually transmitted Lyme.

One in Four Teenage Girls Have STDs

Getty Images/Comstock Images

By Deborah Huso

According to a report just released from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), One in four teenage girls has or has had a sexually transmitted disease (STD). The research shows that many of these girls are infected soon after their first sexual encounter, leading to renewed calls for better sexual health education among teens.

The study followed over 800 girls between the ages of 14 and 19. Among the STDs the researchers tracked were gonorrhea, Chlamydia, herpes simplex virus type 2 and human papillomavirus (HPV). Twenty-four percent of study participants were infected with one of more of these STDs. Of that 24 percent, more than 18 percent were infected with HPV, the presence of which can eventually lead to cervical cancer.

Teenage girls also accounted for the greatest number of reported cases of Chlamydia and gonorrhea, outpacing women in their early 20s. The study also showed that African American teens and young women are particularly vulnerable to STDs. Black teenage girls have the highest rates of Chlamydia and gonorrhea infection of any racial or age group.

“We cannot ignore the glaring racial disparities in rates of STDs, particularly when we consider the hard truth that gonorrhea rates among African Americans are 20 times those of whites,” says John M. Douglas, Jr., M.D., director of CDC’s Division of STD Prevention. He cites lack of access to quality health care as a major cause of the prevalence of STDs in minority communities.

As for the high rates of STDs among female teens, study authors claim public reluctance to talk about sexual health is largely to blame. “STDs are hidden epidemics of enormous health and economic consequence in the United States,” the study authors claim.

“We know adolescent girls and minorities are most impacted by STDs,” says Kevin Fenton, M.D., director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention. “So it is up to us as a nation to reach out to them and ensure we are providing the necessary prevention, testing and treatment services.”

Authors of the newly released study strongly advocate that girls between 11 and 12 years of age should get the HPV vaccine, and they also advocate annual testing for Chlamydia, which if left untreated can lead to both infertility and pelvic inflammatory disease, in teenage girls and young women.

France’s highest court has ruled that U.S. agrochemical giant Monsanto had not told the truth about the safety of its best-selling weed-killer, Roundup. The court confirmed an earlier judgment that Monsanto had falsely advertised its herbicide as “biodegradable” and claimed it “left the soil clean.” Roundup is the world’s best-selling herbicide.

French environmental groups had brought the case in 2001 on the basis that glyphosate, Roundup’s main ingredient, is classed as “dangerous for the environment” by the European Union.

In the latest ruling, France’s Supreme Court upheld two earlier convictions against Monsanto by the Lyon criminal court in 2007, and the Lyon court of appeal in 2008, the AFP news agency reports.

Monsanto already dominates America’s food chain with its genetically modified seeds. Now it has targeted milk production. Just as frightening as the corporation’s tactics, including ruthless legal battles against small farmers, is its decades-long history of toxic contamination.

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

Monsanto is a very dark cloud hanging over the future of health and food safety in the United States. This powerful entity has already managed so many reprehensible acts it boggles the mind, including:

Leading the world into a new age of potentially hazardous genetic modification of seeds.
Patenting not only their own GMO seeds, but also a huge number of crop seeds, patenting life forms for the first time — without a vote of the people or Congress. 
Not allowing farmers to save their seeds to replant the next year — a practice that has been done for generations. Instead, they aggressively seek out and sue farmers they suspect of doing so.
Suing farmers who have not been able to prevent the inevitable drift of Monsanto’s GE pollen or seed onto their land for patent infringement!
Producing two of the most toxic substances ever known — polychlorinated biphenyls, known as PCBs, and dioxin (Agent Orange).
Now France’s highest court has confirmed an earlier judgment that Monsanto falsely advertised its Roundup herbicide as “biodegradable” and said it “left the soil clean” — claims that could not be further from the truth.

The Reality about Roundup

Monsanto long used the slogans, “It’s Safer than Mowing,” “Biodegradable,” and “Environmentally Friendly” to describe Roundup — until the real effects of this toxic herbicide were revealed and they were forced to discontinue their deceptive advertising.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in RoundUp, is the most commonly reported cause of pesticide illness among landscape maintenance workers in California. Additionally:

The surfactant ingredient in Roundup is more acutely toxic than glyphosate itself, and the combination of the two is even more toxic.
Glyphosate is suspected of causing genetic damage.
Glyphosate is acutely toxic to fish and birds and can kill beneficial insects and soil organisms that maintain ecological balance.
Laboratory studies have identified adverse effects of glyphosate-containing products in all standard categories of toxicological testing.
In one animal study, rats given 1,000 mg/kg of glyphosate resulted in a 50 percent mortality rate, and skeletal alterations were observed in over 57 percent of fetuses!

This is very concerning because millions of pounds of Roundup are used every year on U.S. gardens, lawns and farms, especially on GM crops that are engineered to be Roundup resistant. Roundup works by inhibiting an enzyme called EPSP synthase, which is necessary for plants to grow. Without it, plants are unable to produce essential proteins so they slowly yellow and die.

Monsanto developed a cash cow when they created not only Roundup, but also their genetically modified “Roundup Ready” crops.

Roundup Ready soybean, cotton and corn crops are the world’s largest group of genetically modified crops. In fact, the GM Roundup Ready gene is part of more than 75 percent of soybeans, 65 percent of cotton and 10 percent of corn grown in the United States.

This particular variety of GM crops became so popular because it allows farmers to spray Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide directly onto their fields without harming the crops. Ordinarily, if you were to spray Roundup, or any other glyphosate-based herbicide, onto a plant, it would die.

Monsanto’s Roundup Ready crops, however, produce an enzyme that has the same function as EPSP synthase, but is not affected by Roundup.

As you might imagine, the use of Roundup herbicide has increased dramatically since the GM Roundup Ready crops were introduced, and serious problems have been reported ever since.

Roundup Residues are Toxic
It’s widely known that GM Roundup Ready crops, which are very common in the United States, contain Roundup residues. A study published earlier this year even showed, for the first time, just how toxic these residues may be to your health. 

The study found that residues of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide found in GM food and feed can cause cell damage and death, even at very low levels. The authors of the study said their research “… points to undesirable effects which are currently masked or hidden from scientific scrutiny.”

Even when researchers tested formulations of Roundup that were highly diluted (up to 100,000 times or more) on human cells, the cells died within 24 hours.

They also found damage to cell membranes and DNA, along with an inhibition of cell respiration.

Further, the researchers discovered that the mixture of components used as Roundup adjuvants actually amplified the action of the glyphosate, making at least one of its metabolites even more toxic. The researchers wrote:
“This work clearly confirms that the adjuvants in Roundup formulations are not inert. Moreover, the proprietary mixtures available on the market could cause cell damage and even death around residual levels to be expected, especially in food and feed derived from Roundup formulation-treated crops.”

With findings like these, you can see just how outrageous Monsanto’s claims really were. Roundup is not “biodegradable,” safe or in any way good for people or the environment.

Not by a long shot.

Monsanto’s Sordid Past
It does not come as a surprise that Monsanto lied about Roundup, given their extremely under-handed track record. There is easily enough “dirt” on Monsanto to fill an entire book.

Perhaps their biggest assault to your food supply is what’s known as terminator technology. These are seeds that have been genetically modified to “self-destruct.” In other words, the seeds (and the forthcoming crops) are sterile, which means farmers must buy them again each year.

The implications that terminator seeds could have on the world’s food supply are disastrous: the traits from genetically engineered crops can get passed on to other crops. Once the terminator seeds are released into a region, the trait of seed sterility could be passed to other non-genetically-engineered crops, making most or all of the seeds in the region sterile.

If allowed to continue, every farmer in the world could come to rely on Monsanto for their seed supply!

Monsanto — the convicted liar’s club — has also worked its way into varying high-level positions in the U.S. government, ironically in positions that are meant to protect your food safety!

The New Senior Advisor for the FDA is a Former Monsanto VP!

Michael Taylor, a former vice president of public policy and chief lobbyist at Monsanto Company, is the new senior advisor for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Who is Michael Taylor? He is the person who “oversaw the creation of GMO policy,” according to Jeffrey Smith, the leading spokesperson on the dangers of GM foods. Smith continues: 

“If GMOs are indeed responsible for massive sickness and death, then the individual who oversaw the FDA policy that facilitated their introduction holds a uniquely infamous role in human history. That person is Michael Taylor. He had been Monsanto’s attorney before becoming policy chief at the FDA. Soon after, he became Monsanto’s vice president and chief lobbyist.”

The FDA policy being referred to is the 1992 GMO policy, which stated:

“The agency is not aware of any information showing that foods derived by these new methods [genetic engineering] differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way.”

In reality, there was major concern among chief lobbyist at Monsanto that GM foods were in fact different than natural foods, and that their creation could prompt unknown and unpredictable health problems.

Along with being a key player in the initial pushing of GM foods onto Americans’ plates (without any required safety studies), Taylor also oversaw the policy regarding Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH/rbST). 

This growth hormone, which has been banned in Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand because of cancer risks and other health concerns, was approved in the United States while Taylor was in charge at the FDA. Smith writes:

“Taylor also determined that milk from injected cows did not require any special labeling. And as a gift to his future employer Monsanto, he wrote a white paper suggesting that if companies ever had the audacity to label their products as not using rbGH, they should also include a disclaimer stating that according to the FDA, there is no difference between milk from treated and untreated cows.”

Taylor’s white paper, which again was untrue as even FDA scientists acknowledged differences in the rbGH milk, allowed Monsanto to sue dairies that labeled their products rbGH-free.

Unfortunately, the connections do not end there. You can find out more about all of Monsanto’s key players who are now part of the Obama administration here. 

You Can Fight Back Against Monsanto

By boycotting all GM foods and instead supporting organic (and local) farmers who do not use Monsanto’s GM seeds, you are using your wallet to make your opinions known. This means abstaining from virtually all processed food products (most are loaded with GM ingredients) and sticking to fresh, locally grown, organic foodstuffs instead.

Monsanto reported a fourth quarter loss of $233 million in October 2009, largely due to a drop in sales of its Roundup brand — so I am confident that many are wising up to the underhanded dealings of this evil company.

If you want to help keep Monsanto from expanding their stronghold on the world’s food supply, please also continue to stay informed.

Monsanto is the poster child for manipulation and corporate greed, so please, forward this article on to your circle of influence, and make the choice to boycott any product that this unethical company is associated with.

Regards,
Linda

CHRONIC Low Level Lead Toxicity and our Health

It seems from this new report that my concerns about chronic lead toxicity are destined to become the concerns of mainstream medicine. All I have to do is live to over 100 and my approach to health problems might become mainstream so perhaps I need to keep working hard to stay ahead of mainstream medicine.

They are not likely to adopt by FIGHT program that fast, as incorporating Food, Infection, Genetic, Heavy Metal/Hormones and Toxins into the new nationalized health care schemes will not work well with their focus on cost containment. Probably everyone could enjoy considerably improved health with such as broad spectrum approach and certainly multifactorial medicine does not fit well in a nationalized health care plan design to save money from the onset, not a few years later.

Garry F. Gordon MD,DO,MD(H)
President, Gordon Research Institute
www.gordonresearch.com

Toxic Metal Report: Lead Is Still in the Workplace and Can Affect Genetic Expression

Dealing with heavy metals—lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and others—were once the concern of integrative medical physicians and dentists alone. In fact, these practitioners were routinely targeted by medical boards for screening patients for heavy metal toxicity. But now the conventional medical literature links mercury to heart attacks and heart disease and lead to high blood pressure.

A new government report says on-the-job exposure to lead continues to be a hazard for US workers. Nationally, blood lead levels increased between 2005 and 2006/2007. Lead may be much higher in tissues rather than circulating in the bloodstream, according to many practitioners.

New research shows that lead, even at low doses, is extremely toxic. Studies of patients with thinning bones suggest that lead toxicity can occur later in life. It is often unrecognized in older adults with high blood pressure. Despite this, allopathic physicians rarely screen for heavy metals, and even many integrative physicians only suggest that their patients be screened.

A larger study shows that a mother’s total lead burden affects her children’s genetic development. Lead released from a mother’s bones during pregnancy is linked with the “turning on and off” of her fetus’s genes, which may make her children and grandchildren more susceptible to diseases that include Alzheimer’s. In addition, lead exposure before birth has been linked to premature births and low birth rates.

Screening at-risk mothers-to-be for lead toxicity should become the standard of care. Integrative physicians are clearly in the forefront of improving patient care as they recognize the role heavy metals play in our health, our children, and future generations.