'Virtually no progress' in alleviating world hunger

I grew up after WW II and the big theme then was feeding enough food for Cox's Army. You'll understand if you grew up in a Southern family. Then came the Korean War. We were told to clean the plate as it was somehow connected to starving children in Korea.

Then I found myself in Ballard, circa late 80s. That buffet, King's Table, if you know the neighborhood at all. I'd take 'Squeak' out for dinner there once in a while. He's the one that called them 'porksters'. Sad watching those fat liitle kids, rounder than an OOmpa-Loompa, load thier plates. Not with vegetables, mind you. And yes, even put the soft serve on top of their slab of roast beef! The fun really began watching them go for the second and later rounds.

My kids used to be served up Cox's Army style when they were little. It was so bad that they woud lean on the sink in the rest room in order to make Pop-Pop happy by eating more.

Today neither are porksters. One even works for a group that helps with Bono's effort to feed the starving.

Now on Halloween all the little porkster goblins will be out in droves, greedy for fattening goodies by the ton. Maybe we should call it off. Do something nice for a change. Stop Western gluttony in favour of feeding the starving. Have a world wide, non-political (meaning that the hungry really get the food) food drive. Yes, that's it! No candy. Only healthy food collecting and getting out to all who hunger on Wednesday.

Next Day: Wednesday. All Saint's Day for those who remember.

Quick call in Santa, the Elves and reindeer for logistics.

It just might lead the way to the end of all dis-ease.

(those nasty collected things known as 'stats' tell us that 99% of all dis-ease is caused by malnutrition, skinny and fat alike...)

The FAO lamented the "hunger-poverty trap," saying that hunger is not only a consequence of poverty but also one of its causes, because it "compromises the health and productivity of individuals and their efforts to escape poverty."

by Andrea BambinoMon Oct 30, 9:50 AM ET

The world has made "virtually no progress" in eradicating hunger over the past decade despite greater wealth, according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The latest figures, from 2001-03, show that 854 million people were undernourished. Most, some 820 million, were in developing countries.

The World Food Summit, held in Rome in 1996, set the ambitious target of halving world hunger by 2015 relative to 1990-92.

"Ten years later, we are confronted with the sad reality that virtually no progress has been made towards that objective," said FAO chief Jacques Diouf in the report titled "The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2006."

The drop from 823 million to 820 million undernourished people in developing countries is so tiny that it is "within the bounds of statistical error," he said in the UN agency's report.

"The most recent trends are a cause for concern," the report said, noting that 26 million more people were malnourished between 1995-97 and 2001-03, whereas the 1980s had seen a decrease of 100 million.

"The world is richer today than it was 10 years ago. There is more food available. ... What is lacking is sufficient political will to mobilize ... resources to the benefit of the hungry," Diouf said.

The FAO's projections for the future are more optimistic at 582 million undernourished in 2015, but the global figure hides several dire realities.

The total figure and the proportion of underfed people declined in Asia and the Pacific between 1990-92 and 2001-03, but the drop was mainly in China and Vietnam, where agriculture grew.

Also, "most countries in South America have advanced towards the target, but a significant increase in hunger was recorded in ... Venezuela. Setbacks have also been recorded for most Central Amercian countries, especially Guatemala and Panama."

In sub-Saharan Africa, wars, HIV-AIDS and natural disasters hampered measures taken to fight hunger, notably in Burundi, Eritrea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The FAO is especially concerned for the DRC, which was at war between 1998 and 2002 involving seven countries and where the number of undernourished people tripled between 1990-92 and 2001-03, from 12 million to 36 million, or some 72 percent of the population.

The FAO called for massive investments in agriculture and areas where hunger is concentrated.

"The agriculture sector tends to be the engine of growth for entire rural economies, and productivity-driven increases in output can expand food supplies and reduce food prices in local markets, raise farm incomes and boost the overall local economy by generating demand for locally produced goods and services," the report says.

The FAO lamented the "hunger-poverty trap," saying that hunger is not only a consequence of poverty but also one of its causes, because it "compromises the health and productivity of individuals and their efforts to escape poverty."

Flu Shot Risk Too High, Here's What You Need To Do.

With two supportive articles we now can claim that even the medical profession is finally waking up to what we've said for years: DO NOT GET A FLU SHOT!

What we recommend is plain, simple and inexpensive: Good old Calcium Ascorbate (vitamin C for those not in the know). No, we are not suggesting ascorbic acid, so make sure you don't buy on the cheap and you read the label first. Make sure you take enough and take it often. Drink lots of fluids, wash your hands frequently, use tissues, and get rest.

If they push you toward the shot under the guise of preventing pneumonia, remember that high doses of vitamin A for a few days will keep you safe.

If you want more information: contact us and read more below -

Report casts doubt on flu vaccine effectiveness

Thu. Oct. 26 2006 CTV.ca News Staff

With flu season upon us, a controversial editorial in the British Medical Journal is warning that the flu shots many Canadians get every fall may not be as effective as we believe.

Across the world, health agencies recommend the use of inactivated flu vaccines, or vaccines containing dead flu viruses, to protect the population from seasonal outbreaks of influenza.

But because influenza viruses mutate from year to year, argues vaccine expert Dr. Tom Jefferson, it's difficult to study the precise effects of the widely-prescribed vaccines.

In fact, Jefferson says there's evidence proving these vaccines have little or no effect on things such as hospital stay, time off work, or even death resulting from influenza and its complications -- especially in elderly people.

Jefferson makes his arguments in a controversial report titled "Influenza vaccination: policy versus evidence," published in volume 333 of the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

The rationales behind the use of the vaccines in Canada and the U.S., he says, rests on the "heavy burden that influenza imposes on the population and the benefits of vaccination."

Canada backs present policy

Dr. Theresa Tam, an influenza expert with the Public Health Agency of Canada who has read Jefferson's report, said the agency stands behind its recommendation of flu vaccines.

"We base our policies or recommendations on scientific evidence, and we have reviewed all available evidence," Tam told CTV.ca on Thursday.

"Our summation is that the benefits of influenza vaccines outweigh any risk, and the vaccine is safe and effective. It can prevent hospitalization and save lives."

This is supported by the World Health Organization, which estimates that vaccinating elderly people reduces their risk of serious complications or of death by 70 to 85 per cent.

However, says Jefferson, WHO bases its recommendations on "single studies" that are random and are carried out from one or two seasons, making them "difficult to interpret."

"Single studies are also not reliable sources for generalizing and forecasting the effects of vaccines, especially when numbers are small," he said.

A better way, he said, would be to use systematic studies that average out over several years and test a large number of people in order to prove that these vaccines are having any effect.

The evidence

To highlight his claim that there's a lack of evidence backing the vaccine's effectiveness, Jefferson cites a study in the Cochrane review, "Vaccines for preventing influenza in healthy children," which found that in children under two years old, inactivated vaccines had the same effectiveness as placebo.

Further, a study in the same review for adults found that "in healthy people under 65 vaccination did not affect hospital stay, time off work, or death from influenza and its complication."

Jefferson says there is a "surprising" gap between what the policies of health agencies surrounding influenza tell us and the actual data.

"The reason for this situation are not clear and may be complex," says Jefferson.

He suggests there may be a confusion between influenza and influenza-like illness, where people are being diagnosed with the flu when they have something else.

"This confusion leads to a gross overestimation of the impact of influenza, unrealistic expectations of the performance of vaccines, and spurious certainty of our ability to predict viral circulation and impact."

He said this problem is compounded by the lack of accurate, fast surveillance systems that can tell exactly what viruses are going around in a community. Therefore, at the end of the flu season, there's no way for scientists to get an accurate picture of what went on to better prepare for future tends, said Jefferson.

In summary, Jefferson found in his research:

* Public policy worldwide recommends the use of inactivated flu vaccines to prevent seasonal outbreaks.
* Systematic reviews of large datasets from several decades provide the best information on how vaccines are performing since influenza viruses vary year to year -- but we're basing our policies today on poor, insufficient single studies.
* There's little comparative evidence out there proving these vaccines are safe.
* There's big gap between policy and evidence surrounding these vaccines. But there' are hug resources out there and health agencies urgently needed to re-evaluate their policies.

While Jefferson ignored several studies because of perceived weaknesses in their methodology, Dr. Tam said they nonetheless offer significant and useful data to health care specialists.

"When a program is in place, the other types of studies that are generated are ones that are more descriptive, where you don't have controls and cases. So methodologically, they may be considered weaker from that perspective," said Dr. Tam.

"However, they're nonetheless extremely useful and much more feasible to do. So we certainly believe there are a variety of studies out there. They may differ in the methodology, and some of them may have biases for which we will take into consideration when we're considering the strength of the study. But the bottom line is that the weight of evidence is such that we believe the influenza vaccine is effective."

Vitamin C intake has been found to speed resolution of upper respiratory tract infections in young people. Students who supplemented with hourly doses of 1000 mg of vitamin C for six hours and then three times daily thereafter exhibited an extraordinary 85% decrease in cold and flu symptoms compared to those who took pain relievers and decongestants for their infectious symptoms.

These benefits of improved healing are not limited to children and young adults. Elderly patients that were hospitalized with pneumonia or bronchitis showed substantial improvement following supplementation with vitamin C. In a study of women with nonspecific vaginal infection, locally administered vitamin C significantly improved symptoms and led to a reduction in bacterial count.

Vitamin C’s strength in countering bacterial infection was further demonstrated in a study of the dangerous breed of bacteria known as Helicobacter pylori, or H. pylori. Chronic infection of the stomach with H. pylori contributes to gastritis, stomach ulcers, and even deadly gastric cancer. In an epidemiological study, however, high intake of the powerful antioxidant vitamins C and E was associated with an astounding 90% reduction in the risk of developing stomach cancer. Lending additional support to these findings is another study showing that infection with H. pylori was a major risk factor for gastric cancer in patients with low vitamin C intake, but not in those with high vitamin C intake. By protecting against infection with H. pylori, vitamin C may thus help to prevent potentially fatal stomach cancer as well as other painful gastrointestinal complications.

...there's not a lot of evidence...

So it's been antibiotics added to cattle feed, treat everything with antibiotics, spray your food with bacteria, and let you eat cloned meat and milk without knowing it.

Gee, can anyone please tell me how it happens that C. difficile - that nasty bug a lot of people end up contracting in hospital - sounds an alarm when it's found in meat?

And, make a point of reading the quoted paragraph from the illustrious Center for Disease Control. It might give hint to being a real voice of reason in the midst of a large pool of government lackeys.

Quote: - "As far as we know, we're exposed to C. difficile all our life, from early on in life. And there's not a lot of evidence that being exposed over and over out in the community hurts you. It may even help you. The exception, of course, is when you're taking antibiotics and your defences are lowered." - Dr. Clifford McDonald, the CDC.

C. difficile found in variety of Canada, U.S. meat products
Provided by: Canadian Press
Written by: HELEN BRANSWELL
Oct. 15, 2006

TORONTO (CP) - C. difficile bacteria have been found in a variety of ground and processed meats bought from grocery stores in Canada and the United States, an unexpected discovery some experts say may be linked to recent baffling changes in the pattern of the disease.

Some of the U.S. meats contained the hypervirulent C. difficile strain responsible for severe outbreaks in hospitals in Quebec, Britain and parts of the U.S. over the past few years, The Canadian Press has learned. In Quebec alone, the so-called epidemic strain is blamed for roughly 2,000 deaths in 2003 and 2004.

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Though still largely a plague of the elderly in hospitals, C. difficile-associated disease has undergone unexplained shifts of late - some deaths in younger people, more infections outside the hospital. At the same time there has been a rapid spread of the epidemic strain across North America and to Europe.

Experts keen to figure out what's going on with this bug say the meat finding may provide a clue and must be explored.

"I don't think we know what it means, but it's a serious concern and it could potentially be contributing to cases, not only in the community but in hospitals as well," said Dr. Dale Gerding, of Hines Veterans Affairs Hospital in Chicago, who was not involved in the research.

But it is too early to conclude people can develop the severe, recurrent and sometimes fatal C. difficile diarrhea by eating meat containing the bacterium, Gerding and other experts insisted.

"The bottom line is that we don't have any evidence to say that C. difficile is a foodborne illness, that people get it from foods," said Dr. Clifford McDonald of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

Two teams of researchers - under Dr. Glenn Songer at the University of Arizona and Dr. Scott Weese at the Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph - found C. difficile spores in some samples of ground beef, veal, turkey and pork, pork sausage, chorizo, summer sausage and liverwurst.

Nearly 30 per cent of the meats tested in Arizona (24 of 81 samples) and 18 per cent tested in Ontario (11 of 60) contained C. difficile. The Guelph team did not find the human epidemic strain but Songer found it in some samples of liverwurst, pork sausage, ground beef and summer sausage.

A preliminary report of the Guelph work was to be presented Monday to the World Buiatrics Congress in France. (Buiatrics is the science of treating cattle diseases.)

Each team bought meat over a period of several months from three different grocery stores in Tucson, Ariz., and in the Guelph, Ont., area respectively. The two projects were conducted independently.

The Ontario researchers, who only tested ground beef and ground veal, are currently working on a larger sampling study, including meat bought in Quebec.

Both research teams had already shown C. difficile infects food animals like dairy calves and pigs. And some of the strains found in those animals - and the sampled meat - were virtually identical to some that cause disease in humans.

CDC laboratories confirmed the University of Arizona testing.

The CDC's McDonald said it is a matter of "public health urgency" to find out if meat is playing a role in the worsening profile of disease outbreaks.

"That's one of our priorities, to start doing the types of studies to determine whether people who eat certain foods would be at increased risk over other persons who don't eat those foods," he said.

Songer, a veterinary microbiologist, hadn't expected to find the bacterium when he started the meat testing, so when it turned up in virtually each type of product he sampled, he was startled. He said when he found the epidemic strain. "I really about had a seizure."

Still, Songer doesn't think consumers should be alarmed at this point. "What we need is more information, not panic."

For one thing, no one knows if this is a new phenomenon, or if C. difficile spores - which are widely dispersed in soil and water - have always found their way into some meats. (Gerding noted though that a study of hospital food in the 1980s did not find C. difficile.)

Earlier this month, Songer and McDonald met with officials of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service to lay out the findings and discuss the need for further research.

Weese, whose lab did the Canadian sampling, said the fact that C. difficile is a spore-forming bacteria heightens the need for answers. Spores can potentially survive cooking, though exposure to temperatures of 80 C for 10 minutes will kill C. difficile, Gerding said.

"It's something we need to explore," said Weese.

"Currently, there is no objective evidence indicating that C. diff is a foodborne pathogen, but the recent changes in C. diff epidemiology and the emergence of C. diff as a community-associated pathogen necessitates looking at areas such as food to explain these changes."

It has been known for about 25 years that C. difficile is a cause of severe and sometimes life-threatening diarrhea in people, typically elderly hospitalized people taking antibiotics. Antibiotics destroy the normal balance of bacteria in the gut, allowing C. difficile to run rampant.

Within the last eight years, though, the pattern of disease has shown signs of shifting.

Hospitals in Pittsburgh, then Quebec, Maine, Florida and later Britain began to report persistent outbreaks with sharply elevated death rates. Some deaths were among younger, previously healthy patients.

More recently, researchers are finding the disease in people who hadn't been hospitalized, many of whom hadn't recently taken antibiotics. How they became infected and why they were susceptible is a puzzle to scientists, who believe that C. difficile cannot cause illness unless the bacterial balance of the gut has been seriously disrupted.

Meat may provide some answers, experts acknowledge.

"The question is: Is it contributing to the current epidemic situation? Obviously we don't know whether that's a contributing factor or not," Gerding said.

"But one of the things we've wondered about for years is: How does this epidemic strain get around so readily to such a wide variety of hospitals? And how does it spread from the U.S. to Europe, and country to country in Europe? So this is one possible vehicle for how that might occur."

But until the issue has been studied further, that's just a hypothesis.

"I think we're a long way from saying that meat is an important part of the epidemiology of this disease," said Dr. John Bartlett, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

-

Some facts about C. difficile:

What is it? - Clostridium difficile is a spore-forming bacterium commonly found in nature.

What does it do in humans? - Nothing happens to most people who ingest C. diff spores. But in those whose gut flora (the normal bacteria that inhabit our gastrointestinal tracts) has been disrupted by antibiotics, C. difficile can take root and cause serious disease.

What kind of disease? - C. difficile triggers a severe, recurrent and hard to treat diarrhea. Relapses are common, sometimes over weeks and months. In severe cases it can destroy the colon. It can be fatal.

What's new? - Research teams in Ontario and Arizona have found C. diff spores in a range of ground and processed meats, raising suspicions some people may be becoming infected by eating meat. But that is only a theory at the moment.

Quote: - "As far as we know, we're exposed to C. difficile all our life, from early on in life. And there's not a lot of evidence that being exposed over and over out in the community hurts you. It may even help you. The exception, of course, is when you're taking antibiotics and your defences are lowered." - Dr. Clifford McDonald, the CDC.

More Vaccine Failure Reported

It's that time of year in the northern hemisphere when the flu shot hoopla starts in full force.

We want you to know that you can do a lot to prevent the flu and lung sequelae by first skipping the shot.

Secondly add vitamin C, garlic and vitamin A to your medicine chest.

Vitamin C in high enough doses will keep your immmune system working on high, along with garlic. Garlic also fights off the tough-to-treat TB.

If the flu or a cold does attack and affects your lungs start on your vitamin A. Vitamin A in proper quantity over a few days will help you to knock out pneumonia.

Other good whole herb products to keep on hand are echinacea and elderberry. We are also great fans of Cyclone Cider.

If an elderly person is not in good health, flu vaccination does little to help ward off lung infections, Dutch investigators report.

They found that annual flu shots appear to reduce the risk of developing lower respiratory tract infections among healthy individuals age 65 and older during years with mild to moderate influenza epidemics, but this benefit was not evident among subjects with other illnesses.

Despite this finding of modest risk reduction, reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine, Dr. Bettie C. G. Voordouw and colleagues still recommend flu vaccinations for all elderly subjects because the researchers had previously established that these treatments reduced mortality rates.

The team evaluated the extent to which annual influenza vaccination alters the overall risk of developing an infection among 26,071 community-dwelling individuals age 65 and older, who had medical records in the database at the researchers' institution, Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam during the period from 1996 to 2002. Approximately half of the subjects had other illnesses.

During the study, more than 59,000 flu vaccinations were administered to almost 21,000 patients. Out of the entire cohort, some 3400 developed a first episode of pneumonia, acute bronchitis or exacerbation of chronic bronchitis.

Overall, influenza vaccination did not alter the risk for developing one of these lung conditions.

However, the team noted a 33 percent reduction in risk of lung infections in moderate flu seasons following any flu vaccination or revaccination among the subjects who were otherwise healthy. On the other hand, subjects with pre-existing illness were not protected in the same way.

Nevertheless, Voordouw's group still recommends that, "although the protective effect is modest, influenza vaccination should be advised in view of the high background incidence of lower respiratory tract infection and because of the observed reduced mortality in elderly individuals."

SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, October 9, 2006.

More to wonder about

It is interesting to note the continuing attack on parents who raise concerns about risks of harm to the health of their children when they oppose vaccination.

I am one of those people who grew up when children were exposed to the standard childhood diseases without vaccination. So did my children, on the advice of our prudent pediatrician.

As far back in medical history as 1926, physicians knew that the pertussis vaccine was responsible for neurological interference. Many of these wise people told us that actually the vaccine would be worse than the disease. Now perhaps we see the truth of those statements since clusters of the disease appear where most children have had parental pressure to vaccinate. These pysicians also found that when giving more than one vaccine at a time caused higher rates of illness and side effect.

Vitamin C once again is the hero for treating whooping cough.

It's an immunity thing you know.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
State laws that make it easy for parents to opt out of vaccinating their children may be contributing to outbreaks of whooping cough,researchers reported Tuesday.

In an analysis of U.S. vaccine-exemption laws, investigators found higher rates of whooping cough in states where parents can refuse to vaccinate their child due
to "personal beliefs."

The disease rate in these states was about 50 percent higher than it was in states that only allowed exemptions for medical reasons and religious beliefs, the researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The same was true of states with "easy" exemption procedures, according to the study authors, led by Saad B. Omer of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

This includes states such as California, where parents can take a personal-belief exemption by simply signing a school immunization form. Other states, such as Maryland, officially allow only religious exemptions; but again, parents have only to sign a form, making it likely that many take the exemption for personal reasons.

The elevated rates of whooping cough in these states point to the "very
real consequences" of relaxing vaccination requirements,Omer said in a statement.

Also known as pertussis, whooping cough is a highly contagious bacterial infection of the respiratory system that causes fits of severe coughing and breathing difficulties -- often with a distinctive "whoop" sound on inhalation. People of any age can become infected, but it's most dangerous, and potentially fatal, in babies and young children.

Childhood vaccination with the combined diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine
can prevent whooping cough, but the rate of infection in the U.S. has been climbing in recent years.

This trend is one reason the current study was undertaken, said Dr. Daniel A. Salmon, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Florida College of
Medicine and the study's senior author.

All U.S. states require children entering school to have proof they've received standard vaccinations, though all also grant exemptions for medical reasons. In
addition, nearly all states also allow exemptions for religious beliefs, while 19 grant waivers for personal beliefs.

In these latter states, more and more parents have been opting out of vaccination in recent years, Salmon and his colleagues found. On average, the rate of non-medical exemptions grew by 6 percent per year between 1991 and 2004.

Concerns about vaccine safety seem to be the main reason parents claim such exemptions, Salmon told Reuters Health. In an earlier study, he and his colleagues found that 69 percent of parents who sought exemptions did so because they feared
vaccination did more harm than the diseases it prevents.

In part, such concerns stem from the proposed link between the measles/mumps/rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism -- a link that a number of international studies have since refuted.

Salmon and his colleagues argue that states should have "administrative controls" that make non-medical exemptions more difficult to obtain. This, Salmon said, could look something like the process of becoming a conscientious objector to the draft.

Parents would apply for an exemption and have to show a "strongly held belief" against vaccines, he explained. Then the government would either have to demonstrate an "overwhelming need" for universal vaccination or grant the exemption.

SOURCE: Journal of the American Medical Association, October 11, 2006.

"BREAST CANCER CASES RISE 80 PER CENT IN THIRTY YEARS"

The UK press reports that breast cancer rates have risen 80% since the 1970s, say figures from Office for National Statistics.
There are now 41,000 UK cases a year - almost twice as many as 30 years ago. In 2004, 120 in 100,000 of the populaton contracted breast cancer, which was 66.9 per 100,000 in 1971.
It increased 50% from 1971 to 2001 in those aged 20-34, though it is still rare for this age group.
It rose 41% in the 45-49 age group. The biggest increase has been in the 50-64 age group. The charity "Breast Cancer UK" yesterday demanded action to halt the disease by prevention. Exposure to pesticides & other carcinogens must be investigated the charity said.

Now consider some of these facts, often withheld from the public, for the most part:

Think Before You Pink –
by Dr. Gayle Eversole

"The benefit is marginal, the harm caused is substantial, and the costs incurred are enormous..."

“… Mammograms increase the risk for developing breast cancer and raise the risk of spreading or metastasizing an existing growth,' says Dr. Charles B. Simone, a former clinical associate in immunology and pharmacology at the National Cancer Institute...“…the annual mammography screening of 10,000 women aged 50-70 will extend the lives of, at best, 26 of them; and annual screening of 10,000 women in their 40s will extend the lives of only 12 women per year."

In a Swedish study of 60,000 women, 70 percent of tumors detected by mammography weren't tumors at all. These " false positives " aren't just financial and emotional strains, they may also lead to many unnecessary and invasive biopsies. In fact, 70 to 80 percent of all positive mammograms do not, upon biopsy , show any presence of cancer. Remember also that it takes 8 to 12 years for a 'tumor' to be detected by x-ray.

For some reason mammography-centric medicine has completely overlooked the much safer thermal and infrared imaging technologies... Further no comments are made regarding dangers of X-Ray exposure.

An allegation that breast screening is being over-promoted to women who are not being alerted to the harm that can result was published in the British Medical Journal several years ago.

Hazel Thornton, a former breast cancer patient and visiting fellow at the University of Leicester, and Michael Baum, emeritus professor of surgery at University College, London, and a long-time critic of screening, have teamed up with a colleague to demand information for women that sets out the risks and benefits. They cite evidence showing 1,200 women would have to be screened for 14 years to save one life from breast cancer while during that time scores would suffer anxiety, surgery and mastectomies for suspicious lumps that turned out to be benign.

In 1978, Irwin J. D. Bross, Director of Biostatistics at Roswell Park Memorial Institute for Cancer Research commented about the cancer screening program: "The women should have been given the information about the hazards of radiation at the same time they were given the sales talk for mammography... A jump to the exposure of a quarter of a million persons to something which could do more harm than good was criminal and it was supported by money from the federal government and the American Cancer Society."

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) was warned in 1974 by Professor Malcolm C. Pike at the University of Southern California, School of Medicine. A number of specialists concluded that "giving women under age 50 a mammogram on a routine basis is close to unethical." Repeat... The experts in the government were told not to do this to healthy women in the YEAR 1974! The warning was ignored.

"Over 280,000 women were recruited without being told that no benefit of mammography had been shown in a controlled trial for women below 50, and without being warned about the potential risk of induction of breast cancer by the test which was supposed to detect it ...in women below 50…mammography gives no benefit..." Mammography was known to cause cancer but the media and the "health officials" in the government stayed silent! The mammography policy pushed by the American Cancer Society to fill its bank account remained the U.S. government policy for ten more years until a massive Canadian study showed conclusively what was known 20 YEARS earlier (1972) but what was not in the interests of ACS and NCI to admit: X- raying the breasts of women younger than age 50 provided no benefit and probably endangered their lives.

1992. Dr. Samuel Epstein “…The high sensitivity of the breast, especially in young women, to radiation induced cancer was known by 1970. Nevertheless, the establishment then screened some 300,000 women with x-ray dosages so high as to increase breast cancer risk by up to 20 percent in women aged 40 to 50 who had mammogram annually. Women were given no warning whatever; how many subsequently developed breast cancer remains uninvestigated. “…Additionally, the establishment ignores safe and effective alternatives to mammography, particularly trans-illumination with infrared scanning. “…For most cancers, survival has not changed for decades. Contrary claims are based on rubber numbers."

Please refer to the work of Dr. John Gofman on mammographic radiation and the increase of breast cancer.

Find more information about the risks of breast screening at http://www.leaflady.org/women.htm

I guess you can decide...

Have you figured it out yet?

Well here it is another year and no cure for cancer. So the Race for the Cure has scammed women once again. Maybe these two articles, along with the many on the Leaflady's Women's page will help you learn that cells phones and yearly mammography do help raise your risk for breast cancer, in a system that really does not have an interest in a cure.

"BITTER MEDICINE" - Jean McFarlane of Northwood, Middlesex (UK) found the motor nerves involved in movement had been damaged by radiotherapy for breast cancer. Her left hand is now "like a claw" & it does not work properly. Prof. Jane Maher, a consultant oncologist, predicts more long-term side-effects from radiotherapy treatment. She says that radiotherapy dangers are not properly understood. Side-effects can include bone fractures, hair loss, broken blood vessels, infertility, thyroid problems, congestive heart failure, more cancer, etc.

Chemo has long-term impact on brain function
Chemotherapy causes changes in the brain's metabolism and blood flow that can last as long as 10 years, a discovery that may explain the mental fog and confusion that affect many cancer survivors, researchers said on Thursday.

The researchers, from the University of California, Los Angeles, found that women who had undergone chemotherapy five to 10 years earlier had lower metabolism in a key region of the frontal cortex.

Women treated with chemotherapy also showed a spike in blood flow to the frontal cortex and cerebellum while performing memory tests, indicating a rapid jump in activity level, the researchers said in a statement about their study.

"The same area of the frontal lobe that showed lower resting metabolism displayed a substantial leap in activity when the patients were performing the memory exercise," said Daniel Silverman, the UCLA associate professor who led the study.

"In effect, these women's brains were working harder than the control subjects' to recall the same information," he said in a statement.

Experts estimate at least 25 percent of chemotherapy patients are affected by symptoms of confusion, so-called chemo brain, and a recent study by the University of Minnesota reported an 82 percent rate, the statement said.

"People with 'chemo brain' often can't focus, remember things or multitask the way they did before chemotherapy," Silverman said. "Our study demonstrates for the first time that patients suffering from these cognitive symptoms have specific alterations in brain metabolism."

The study, published on Thursday in the online edition of Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, tested 21 women who had surgery to remove breast tumors, 16 of whom had received chemotherapy and five who had not.

The researchers used positron emission tomography scans to compare the brain function of the women. They also compared the scans with those of 13 women who had not had breast cancer or chemotherapy.

Positron emission tomography creates an image of sections of the body using a special camera that follows the progress of an injected radioactive tracer.

Researchers used the scans to examine the women's resting brain metabolism as well as the blood flow to their brains as they did a short-term memory exercise.

Silverman said the findings suggested PET scans could be used to monitor the effects of chemotherapy on brain metabolism. Since the scans already are used to monitor patients for tumor response to therapy, the additional tests would be easy to add, he said.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women, with some 211,000 new cases diagnosed each year, the statement said.

Go Get Your Garlic

Here it is, only decades after a Utah university microbiology department proved that garlic kills resistant strains of TB. It does much more than this too but the "scientific and medical" crowd is way behind on the facts.

Garlic Blasts Worst Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria
10-2-6

Crush garlic 20 minutes before eating it...
This creates more beneficial chemical compounds

CHICAGO (UPI) - Microbiology researchers said Wednesday the active ingredient in garlic combats two of the nastiest antibiotic resistant microbes faced by doctors and patients.

The ingredient, a substance know as allicin, has been found effective in killing off methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus -- a microbe that has been especially troubling in skin and soft tissue wounds -- and in inhibiting growth of vancomycin-resistant enterococci, an intestinal bacteria that causes considerable illness and deaths in hospital settings.

"Allicin simply blows enormous holes through MRSA,' said Ronald Cutler, senior lecturer in microbiology at the University of East London, England. He has formulated allicin into skin products such as creams and soaps and has achieved success in destroying the microbes in laboratory tests.

He said he also tested the cream on healthy volunteers -- including himself -- and "we have found absolutely no adverse reactions."

Cutler, and his commercial venture Allicin International Ltd., are beginning human testing with the allicin cream on patients with stubborn skin infections caused by MRSA.

"What happens in a test tube may not occur when it is used in humans," cautioned Dr. Jaya Prakash, chairperson of the department of pathology, microbiology and public health at National University of Health Sciences, Lombard, Ill.

Prakash is experimenting with allicin in thwarting VRE.

"We have shown that we can inhibit the growth of these bacteria with allicin. Some of the isolates are more stubborn than others," she said, but at 150 micrograms of allicin the bacteria cannot proliferate.

She said humans can ingest about 25 grams a day of garlic without ill effects, and that much garlic contains about 15 milligrams of allicin -- about 100 times more than what she used to control VRE.

Methicillin and vancomycin both are powerful antibiotics that for many years were considered among the last medical defenses against vicious microbes such as S. aureus. In recent years, however, both S. aureus and enterococci have developed mutations that allow the bugs to escape the killing power of these antibiotics. Both organisms are multi-drug resistant.

The studies were presented at the annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a meeting sponsored by the American Society of Microbiology in Chicago.

In Prakash's study, allicin was tested against two normal strains of Enterococci fecalis and 24 vancomycin-resistant strains of E. fecalis. The allicin concentrations stopped growth of the microbes within four hours.

Cutler said concentrations of allicin at levels of 32 parts per million in a liquid or cream formulation were sufficient to inhibit MRSA. The cream he tested on himself contained 500 parts per million of allicin.

Prakash said that before calling the substance "Allicin Wonderdrug" a lot of clinical testing still must be accomplished.

TY Pennington - We love you and love what you do but please Wake Up and Get Some Facts

There is effective, non-drug help available for children and adults labelled with this diagnosis.
FMI contact us.

ADHD Fraud

"The ADHD Fraud is vital reading for everyone. The information is factual, easy to read and debunks every lie that psychiatrists have spun about childhood 'mental disorders' and the drugs used to 'treat' them. It cannot be emphasized enough the urgency with which this book needs to be broadly distributed if we are truly going to safeguard our future generation."

Dr. Baughman's long-awaited book is acclaimed for providing much needed, detailed and practical advice on how to prevent children from being labeled as victims of "ADHD" and other "mental disorders."

"Read the book and weep—for the children, and for the intellectual dishonesty that now inhabits the core of American psychiatry."

Robert Whitaker, author of Mad in America

"This book documents (how) the charlatan (quack) psychiatric profession abuses normal, healthy children with brain-destructive drugs for the unconscionable purpose of creating so-called 'mental illnesses' such as ADHD, for financial gain."

Congressman Ron Paul (M.D.)(Texas)

Drug Gets New Warnings

First they tell you you have cancer, you accept the drugs, and wonder of wonders, look at your risk.

Oh, did they explain the risk of the drug before you signed?

If you are interested in more information about healthier options

By MATTHEW PERRONE Business Writer
Sept. 25, 2006 © 2006 The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Federal health officials have changed the labeling of a Genentech cancer drug to include warnings of a rare brain-bleeding condition and deterioration of nasal tissue.

The Food and Drug Administration notes today on its Web site that the company's drug Avastin can possibly cause a rare brain-capillary leak syndrome that leads to headache, seizure, blindness and other visual and neurological problems. According to Genentech, less than 0.1 percent of the 60,000 patients treated with Avastin have reported the condition, which is reversible.

Genentech began reviewing safety data for Avastin after the brain-bleeding condition was described in two letters-to-the-editor published in the March issue of the "New England Journal of Medicine."

In a letter posted to the FDA's Web site today, Genentech updated physicians on the labeling changes, which also include a warning of possible nasal septum perforation.

The condition, reported in seven patients, results in a small hole between the cartilage separating the two nostrils. Side effects include bleeding and nasal discharge.

Avastin, which accounted for $1.1 billion in Genentech's revenue in fiscal 2005, is currently used with chemotherapy to treat colorectal cancer. Genentech has applied for FDA approval to use the drug in breast cancer and advanced lung cancer. Avastin works by inhibiting a protein that causes tumor growth. The company said that the negative side effects are a rare reaction to this inhibiting action.

So yo believe tort reform is necessary to keep health costs affordable?

Since 2000, health insurance premiums have gone up 87 percent; wages 20 percent.The 7.7 percent increase in 2006 was still more than twice the rate of inflation.

Maybe you need to read this book: Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class -- And What We Can Do About It by Mark Crispin Miller and Thom Hartmann

Tort reform is always the battle cry of those who want to put profits above health and human need. At no time have I ever received a reply when I asked hospital administrators (I used to be one) and government officials about the impact of the insurance industry (layer upon layer)and Big Pharma on obscene increases in health care costs.

and as the song goes, "no one's gettin' fat" except you guessed it!

Health insurance is twice inflation rate
By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer

Workers won't find much comfort in the smallest increase in health insurance premiums since 1999. The 7.7 percent increase this year was still more than twice the rate of inflation.

"To working people and business owners, a reduction in an already very high rate of increase just means you're still paying more," said Dr. Drew Altman, president and chief executive officer of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health care research organization that annually tracks the cost of health insurance.

Altman said the rising gap between premium growth and wages is particularly startling when one takes a longer look back. Since 2000, health insurance premiums have gone up 87 percent; wages 20 percent.

"Yes, the rate of increase is down, but I don't think anybody is celebrating," Altman said of this year's numbers.

The Kaiser Family Foundation's findings are based on a telephone survey of 3,159 randomly selected private and public employers. More that 155 million Americans get their health insurance through their jobs.

Employers on average pick up 84 percent of the cost for individuals and 73 percent for families.

The rising cost of health insurance is one reason that employers are finding it an increasingly difficult benefit to give their workers. Since 2000, the percentage of firms offering health benefits has fallen to 61 percent from 69 percent. This year, however, the deterioration appeared to stop, particularly among small businesses.

Yet, Altman said the slight improvement noted by the Kaiser study was statistically insignificant.

"It's worth observing that this survey comes out on the heels of the Census report showing that we added 1.3 million people to the ranks of the uninsured in 2005," he said. "The long-term trend is very clear, and it's the slow unraveling of coverage in the employment-based system, especially among smaller employers."

Overall, the total cost of health insurance for individuals now averages $4,242 a year. For families, the costs average a whopping $11,480.

In this year's survey, Kaiser also looked at how many firms offer high-deductible insurance plans and health savings accounts. Such plans are being pushed aggressively by the Bush administration. They have lower monthly premiums, but that's because they require consumers to pay more of the initial cost of their health care.

Kaiser estimates about 2.7 million workers are enrolled in high-deductible plans with a savings account. Employers or employees get a tax break when they put money in the accounts.

Altman said what struck him about that number is that the intensity of the debate in Washington over health savings accounts is completely out of sync with the reality of the marketplace.

"Just a modest number of employers tell us they plan to move to these arrangements next year. It's a trickle, not a tidal wave," he said. "Secondly, employers don't have a great deal of confidence that any of the weapons at their disposal to control health care costs will produce big results."

Cary Shealy said the law firm for which he works, Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd of Charleston, S.C., pays all the insurance costs for its 330 employees but nothing for their dependents. The firm has seen premiums increase between 8 and 12 percent each of the past four years, which effects other employee benefits.

"The pie is only so big. If you're taking a larger portion of that pie to pay for benefits, there won't be as much remaining for salary increases," Shealy said.

The law firm began offering high-deductible insurance plans along with health savings accounts just this year. About 20 percent of the firm's employees participated in such plans this year. He anticipates the number will rise to about 30 percent next year. The firm's insurer has experienced fewer claims as a result of the switch, which should generate savings down the road.

"For 2007, we're expecting a 2 percent increase in premiums," Shealy said. "I attribute 95 percent of that to the implementation of the high-deductible health plan. I'm a big fan of those."

However, most employers and their workers probably won't find much relief next year, according to another survey of 167 large corporations that was conducted by Towers Perrin, a consulting firm. The companies expect their health care costs to rise by about 6 percent next year, which is well above the anticipated rate of overall inflation.

"The issue of affordability for both businesses and employees could become considerably more challenging in the years ahead as baby boomers age and chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity proliferate," the consulting firm said.

ZINC

ZINC - Common use: Supports the immune system; maintains healthy vision; supports prostate health; essential mineral for proper insulin activity and wound healing.

Zinc Improves Mental Performance in 7th Graders

The results of a study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture showed seventh graders given 20mg Zinc, five days per week for 10-12 weeks, demonstrated improvement in mental performance, responded more quickly and accurately on memory tasks and with more sustained attention, than their classmates who received no additional Zinc.

A risk of Zinc deficiency is particularly high in adolescents because they're undergoing rapid growth and often have poor eating habits.

Previous studies have show that Zinc is needed for growth and immune function, and may be important for eye-hand coordination and reasoning in young children.

Zinc is also necessary for memory, muscle strength and endurance in adults.

Here You Have It in a Nutshell

If you do not understand why health care in the US is so expensive and so poor, please read this quote taken from Ms Arnst's article which follows.

--As a share of total health expenditures, insurance administrative costs in the U.S. were more than three times the rate in countries with integrated payment systems.

I work with very sick people ever day. Most of the reason they are sick is because of many of the issues cited below. From my perspective it is the lack of
qualified people in medicine who can really determine what is wrong with you.

I don't know if medical education today is missing some of the key elements of diagnostics that I learned 30 plus years ago. I don't know either if it is lacking
the in-depth diagnostic skills taught at the time my father was a student at Tulane Medical School, but most of this is what I learned by osmosis and example, as I followed him around on house calls and on rounds.

Seems like we need to return to those days.

U.S. Health-Care System Gets a "D"

By Catherine ArnstThu Sep 21, 3:08 AM ET

The U.S. health-care system is doing poorly by virtually every measure. That's the conclusion of a national report card on the U.S. health-care system, released Sept. 20. Although there are pockets of excellence, the report, commissioned by the non-profit and non-partisan Commonwealth Fund, gave the U.S. system low grades on outcomes, quality of care, access to care, and efficiency, compared to other industrialized nations or generally accepted standards of care. Bottom line: U.S. health care barely passes with an overall grade of 66 out of 100.

The survey was carried out by 18 academic and private-sector health-care leaders, who rate the system on 37 different measures. The poor grade is particularly discomfiting, the researchers note, because the U.S. spends more on medicine, by far, than any other country. Approximately 16% of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) is devoted to health care, compared with 10% or less in other industrialized nations.

Health care is also responsible for most new job creation, according to BusinessWeek's Sept. 25 cover story (see BusinessWeek.com, 9/25/06, "What's Really Propping Up The Economy"). Yet the U.S. ranks 15th out of 19 countries in terms of the number of deaths that could have been prevented. The study estimates that each year 115 out of 100,000 U.S. deaths could have been avoided with timely and appropriate medical attention. Only Ireland, Britain, and Portugal scored worse in this category, while France scored the best, with 75 preventable deaths per 100,000.

Below Potential. The U.S. ranks at the bottom among industrialized countries for life expectancy both at birth and at age 60. It is also last on infant mortality, with 7 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared with 2.7 in the top three countries. There are dramatic gaps within the U.S. as well, according to the study. The average disability rate for all Americans is 25% worse than the rate for the best five states alone, as is the rate of children missing 11 or more days of school.

The report found that quality of care and access to care varied widely across the country, and it noted substantial gaps between national averages and pockets of excellence. The authors concluded that, if the U.S. improved and standardized health-care performance and access, approximately 100,000 to 150,000 lives could be saved annually, along with $50 billion to $100 billion a year.

The Commonwealth Fund, which studies health-care issues, commissioned the report last year as part of an effort to come up with solutions to the nation's troubled health-care system. The report "tells us that overall we are performing far below our national potential," says Dr. James J. Mongan, chairman of the team that pulled together the study and chief executive officer of Partners Healthcare in Boston. "We can do much better and we need to do much better," he says.

Among the reports' findings:

--Only 49% of U.S. adults receive the recommended preventive and screening tests for their age and sex.

--Only half of patients with congestive heart failure receive written discharge instructions regarding care following hospitalization.

--Nationwide, preventable hospital admissions for patients with chronic health conditions such as diabetes and asthma were twice as high as the level achieved by the best performing states.

--Hospital 30-day re-admission rates for Medicare patients ranged from 14% to 22% across regions.

--One-third of all adults under 65 have problems paying their medical bills or have medical debt they are paying over time.

--Only 17% of U.S. doctors use electronic medical records, compared with 80% in the top three countries.

--On multiple measures across quality of care and access to care, there is a wide gap between low income and the uninsured, and those with higher incomes and insurance. On average, measures for low income and uninsured people in these areas would have to improve by one-third to close the gap.

--As a share of total health expenditures, insurance administrative costs in the U.S. were more than three times the rate in countries with integrated payment systems.

PRAY PEACE

Time to Declare Peace!
Nationwide Events September 21-28:

It is now the eve of the International Day of Peace, and Congress has failed to legislate a plan to bring troops home and support peace in Iraq -- it is time to take action to demand this plan!

More than 500 national and local groups have endorsed The Declaration of Peace campaign. There are more than 360 events taking place this week and next in cities and towns across the United States and in Washington, DC!



National Call-In Campaign to Congress:
Thank you to everyone who made those calls to Congress! It really makes the difference. Mark your calendars for next week's call-in on Tuesday, September 26. In collaboration with the day of action in DC, we will again be calling Congress urging them to sign the Congressional Declaration of Peace Pledge.

Studies Reveal Violent Side Effects of Psychiatric Drugs

One of the KEY components of SSRI drugs is that most of them are based in a fluoride compound of some type. Fluoride has been used for decades as a 'mind control' drug. Taken in areas with fluoridated water supplies the chance of problems is increased. The city that is home to the Columbine shootings and the Oregon town that witnessed a similar high school shooting both added fluoride to the water supply.

Environmental impact of these drugs, unable to be removed at your sewage treatment plant, does much to alter the skeletons of fish and many show increased numbers of bone tumours.

The connection grows when you think of all the other flouride based pharmaceuticals.

Might this have played a part in the death of Anna Nicole Smith's young son?

And what question are you asking?

It is becoming more and more apparent that psychiatric drugs drive people to not only perform violent acts on others, but also to take their own lives as well. A recent article written by Steve Mitchell, United Press International’s Senior Medical Correspondent, states that "Two studies released Monday may bring further scrutiny upon the beleaguered selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor [SSRI] class of anti-depressants. One study suggests the drugs may increase the risk of severe violence, and the other indicates the drugs can have damaging effects on the environment." The report goes on by explaining that a team of researchers from Cardiff University’s North Wales Department of Psychological Medicine has been conducting studies into the link between SSRIs and violent behavior. GlaxoSmithKline's Paxil was the focus of the study. The team leader, David Healy, is quoted in the article as saying, "We've got good evidence that the drugs can make people violent and you'd have to reason from that that there may be more episodes of violence."

It is of importance to note that results of the studies also showed that the rate of violence was higher in healthy volunteers who were given the drug Paxil. This startling result suggests that SSRIs create violent criminals out of healthy individuals. "You have to wonder what they could be doing if they're really being handed out to people who just don't really need them," he said.

Healy points out the responsibility that the pharmaceutical companies need to start taking. "What the companies have done for years and years is put up this message that there is no risk to these drugs, so the onus is more on the companies to let people know that there is this risk," he said.

Results of what psychiatric drugs are doing to the youth of our country are manifest in recent years. In the past seven years, over half of those involved in school shootings were on prescribed psychiatric medications. For example, 18-year-old Eric Harris, the ring leader in the April 20,1999 Columbine school shooting that left 12 classmates and a teacher dead, was taking the prescribed SSRI Luvox. On March 22, 2001, in El Cajon, California, 18-year-old Jason Hoffman was on two antidepressants, Effexor and Celexa, when he opened fire at his high school, wounding five. In March 2005, 16-year-old Jeff Weise from Minnesota shot dead his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend, then went to his school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation where he shot dead nine fellow students and a teacher before killing himself. He was taking Prozac.

Finally, They are Starting to Catch On.

For many of the past years mainstream medicine has wanted you to believe that herbs are just a waste of time and do nothing for your health. With autumn and winter looming this might just help you stay well.

As a practicing medical herbalist for many decades now, my best suggestion is full spectrum and properly made herbal extracts. Standardized herbs do not offer the complete array of what nature intended to help your health.

And you could consider avoiding any type of flu vaccine, but this might help the side effects if you are duped into getting one.

Lots of vitamin C and garlic will come to your rescue along with good, wholesome nutrition.

Echinacea cuts cold incidence
By Martha Kerr

Use of echinacea, or extract of the purple coneflower,
before the onset of full-blown symptoms of the common cold reduces the
incidence by more than a half and the duration by almost two full days,
researchers reported here at the annual meeting of the American College
of Clinical Pharmacology.

There are approximately one billion colds reported annually, Dr. Sachin A. Shah told meeting attendees. He commented that 20 percent of patients report using nutraceuticals for symptom management. Of these, echinacea is the most commonly used.

Shah of the University of Connecticut, Storrs and colleagues conducted a search and ultimately a pooled analysis of randomized controlled trials on the subject.

The investigators found 14 studies that contained information on incidence in 1,356 patients and duration in 1,630 patients.

The team found that echinacea use cut incidence by 58 percent. Duration was shortened by 1.9 days compared with the colds of nonusers.

Fluoride - Even Worse Than We Thought

By Andreas Schuld
UPDATE: 2012
Fluoride lowered in water by CDC, but not enough

9-19-6

In 1999 the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) released a glowing report on the fluoridation of public water supplies, citing the procedure as one of the century's great public health successes.1

Ironically, the same report hints that the alleged benefit from fluorides may not be due to ingestion: "Fluoride's caries-preventive properties initially were attributed to changes in enamel during tooth development because of the association between fluoride and cosmetic changes in enamel and a belief that fluoride incorporated into enamel during tooth development would result in a more acid-resistant mineral."

The CDC report then acknowledges new studies which indicate that the effects are "topical" rather than "systemic." "However, laboratory and epidemiologic research suggests that fluoride prevents dental caries predominately after eruption of the tooth into the mouth, and its actions primarily are topical for both adults and children."

The obvious question is this: How can the CDC consider the addition of fluoride to public water supplies to be a public health success while admitting at the same time that fluoride's benefits are not "systemic," in other words, are not obtained from drinking it?

The truth, now becoming increasingly evident, is that fluoridation and the proclaimed benefit of fluoride as a way of preventing dental decay is perhaps the greatest "scientific" fraud ever perpetrated upon an unsuspecting public.

Even worse, the relentless promotion of fluoride as a "dental benefit" is responsible for the huge neglect in proper assessment of its toxicity, an issue that has become a major concern for many nations. As there is no substance as biochemically active in the human organism as fluoride, excessive total intake of fluoride compounds might well be contributing to many diseases currently afflicting mankind, particularly those involving thyroid dysfunction. In the United States, most citizens are kept entirely ignorant of any adverse effect that might occur from exposure to fluorides. Dental fluorosis, the first visible sign that fluoride poisoning has occurred, is declared a mere "cosmetic effect" by the dental profession, although the "biochemical events which result in dental fluorosis are still unknown."2,3,4 The quantity of fluoride needed to prevent caries but avoid dental fluorosis is also unknown.5

What is Fluoride?

Fluoride is any combination of elements containing the fluoride ion. In its elemental form, fluorine is a pale yellow, highly toxic and corrosive gas. In nature, fluorine is found combined with minerals as fluorides. It is the most chemically active nonmetallic element of all the elements and also has the most reactive electro-negative ion. Because of this extreme reactivity, fluorine is never found in nature as an uncombined element.

Fluorine is a member of group VIIa of the periodic table. It readily displaces other halogens--such as chlorine, bromine and iodine--from their mineral salts. With hydrogen it forms hydrogen fluoride gas which, in a water solution, becomes hydrofluoric acid.

There was no US commercial production of fluorine before World War II. A requirement for fluorine in the processing of uranium ores, needed for the atomic bomb, prompted its manufacture.6

Fluorine compounds or fluorides are listed by the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) as among the top 20 of 275 substances that pose the most significant threat to human health.7 In Australia, the National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) recently considered 400 substances for inclusion on the NPI reporting list. A risk ranking was given based on health and environmental hazard identification and human and environmental exposure to the substance. Some substances were grouped together at the same rank to give a total of 208 ranks. Fluoride compounds were ranked 27th out of the 208 ranks.8

Fluorides, hydrogen fluoride and fluorine have been found in at least 130, 19, and 28 sites, respectively, of 1,334 National Priorities List sites identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).9 Consequently, under the provisions of the Superfund Act (CRECLA, 1986), a compilation of information about fluorides, hydrogen fluoride and fluorine and their effects on health was required. This publication appeared in 1993.9

Fluorides are cumulative toxins. The fact that fluorides accumulate in the body is the reason that US law requires the Surgeon General to set a Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for fluoride content in public water supplies as determined by the EPA. This requirement is specifically aimed at avoiding a condition known as Crippling Skeletal Fluorosis (CSF), a disease thought to progress through three stages. The MCL, designed to prevent only the third and crippling stage of this disease, is set at 4ppm or 4mg per liter. It is assumed that people will retain half of this amount (2mg), and therefore 4mg per liter is deemed "safe." Yet a daily dose of 2-8mg is known to cause the third crippling stage of CSF.10,11

In 1998 EPA scientists, whose job and legal duty it is to set the Maximum Contaminant Level, declared that this 4ppm level was set fraudulently by outside forces in a decision that omitted 90 percent of the data showing the mutagenic properties of fluoride.12

The Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products, 5th Edition (1984) gives lead a toxicity rating of 3 to 4 (3 = moderately toxic, 4 = very toxic) and the EPA has set 0.015 ppm as the MCL for lead in drinking water--with a goal of 0.0ppm. The toxicity rating for fluoride is 4, yet the MCL for fluoride is currently set at 4.0ppm, over 250 times the permissable level for lead.

Water Fluoridation

In 1939 a dentist named H. Trendley Dean, working for the U.S. Public Health Service, examined water from 345 communities inTexas. Dean determined that high concentrations of fluoride in the water in these areas corresponded to a high incidence of mottled teeth. This explained why dentists in the area found mottled teeth in so many of their patients. Dean also claimed that there was a lower incidence of dental cavities in communities having about 1 ppm fluoride in the water supply. Among the native residents of these areas about 10 percent developed the very mildest forms of mottled enamel ("dental fluorosis"), which Dean and others described as "beautiful white teeth."

Dean's report led to the initiation of artificial fluoridation of drinking water at 1part-per-million (ppm) in order to supply the "optimal dose" of 1mg fluoride per day--assuming that drinking four glasses of water every day would duplicate Dean's "optimal" intake for most people. Now, according to the American Dental Association, all people, rich or poor, could have "beautiful white teeth" and be free of caries at the same time. After all, the benefits of water fluoridation had been documented "beyond any doubt."13

When other scientists investigated Dean's data, they did not reach the same conclusions. In fact, Dean had engaged in "selective use of data," using findings from 21 cities that supported his case while completely disregarding data from 272 other locations that did not show a correlation.14 In court cases Dean was forced to admit under oath that his data were invalid.15 In 1957 he had to admit at AMA hearings that even waters containing a mere 0.1ppm (0.1 mg/l) could cause dental fluorosis, the first visible sign of fluoride overdose.16 Moreover, there is not one single double-blind study to indicate that fluoridation is effective in reducing cavities.17

So What's the Truth About Tooth Decay?

The truth is that more and more evidence shows that fluorides and dental fluorosis are actually associated with increased tooth decay. The most comprehensive US review was carried out by the National Institute of Dental Research on 39,000 school children aged 5-17 years.18 It showed no significant differences in terms of DMF (decayed, missing and filled teeth). What it did show was that high decay cities (66.5-87.5 percent) have 9.34 percent more decay in the children who drink fluoridated water. Furthermore, a 5.4 percent increase in students with decay was observed when 1 ppm fluoride was added to the water supply. Nine fluoridated cities with high decay had 10 percent more decay than nine equivalent non-fluoridated cities.

The world's largest study on dental caries, which looked at 400,000 students, revealed that decay increased 27 percent with a 1ppm fluoride increase in drinking water.19 In Japan, fluoridation caused decay increases of 7 percent in 22,000 students,20 while in the US a decay increase of 43 percent occured in 29,000 students when 1ppm fluoride was added to drinking water.21

Dental Fluorosis: A "Cosmetic" Defect?

Dental fluorosis is a condition caused by an excessive intake of fluorides, characterized mainly by mottling of the enamel (which starts as "white spots"), although the bones and virtually every organ might also be affected due to fluoride's known anti-thyroid characteristics. Dental fluorosis can only occur during the stage of enamel formation and is therefore a sign that an overdose of fluoride has occurred in a child during that period.

Dental fluorosis has been described as a subsurface enamel hypomineralization, with porosity of the tooth positively correlated with the degree of fluorosis.22 It is characterized by diffuse opacities and under-mineralized enamel. Although identical enamel defects occur in cases of thyroid dysfunction, the dental profession describes the defect as merely "cosmetic" when it is caused by exposure to fluoride.

What is now becoming apparent is that this "cosmetic" defect actually predisposes to tooth decay. In 1988 Duncan23 stated that hypoplastic defects have a strong potential to become carious. In 1989, Silberman,24 evaluating the same data on Head Start children, wrote that "preliminary data indicate that the presence of primary canine hypoplasia [enamel defects] may result in an increased potential for the tooth becoming carious." In 1996 Li 25 wrote that children with enamel hypoplasia demonstrated a significantly higher caries experience than those who did not have such defects and, further, that the "presence of enamel hypoplasia may be a predisposing factor for initiation and progression of dental caries, and a predictor of high caries susceptibility in a community." In 1996 Ellwood & O'Mullane26 stated that "developmental enamel defects may be useful markers of caries susceptibility, which should be considered in the risk-benefit assessment for use of fluoride."

Currently up to 80 percent of US children suffer from some degree of dental fluorosis, while in Canada the figure is up to 71 percent. A prevalence of 80.9 percent was reported in children 12-14 years old in Augusta, Georgia, the highest prevalence yet reported in an "optimally" fluoridated community in the United States. Moderate-to-severe fluorosis was found in 14 percent of the children.27

Before the push for fluoridation began, the dental profession recognized that fluorides were not beneficial but detrimental to dental health. In 1944, the Journal of the American Dental Association reported: "With 1.6 to 4 ppm fluoride in the water, 50 percent or more past age 24 have false teeth because of fluoride damage to their own."28

The Wonder Nutrient?

On countless internet sites, fluoride is proclaimed as the "wonder nutrient," the "deficiency" symptom being increased dental caries.29 It boggles the mind that a cumulative toxin and toxic waste product can be described a "nutrient." Nevertheless, such claims are repeatedly made by pro-fluoridationists.30

On March 16, 1979, the FDA deleted paragraphs 105.3(c) and 105.85(d)(4) of Federal Register documents which had classified fluorine, among other substances, as "essential" or "probably essential." Since that time, nowhere in the Federal Regulations is fluoride classified as "essential" or "probably essential." These deletions were the immediate result of 1978 Court deliberations.31 No essential function for fluoride has ever been proven in humans.32,33,34,35,36

"Nature Thought of It First"

A popular slogan employed by the ADA and other pro-fluoridation organizations is, "Nature thought of it first!" The slogan creates the impression that the fluoridation compounds used in water fluoridation are the same as those discovered many years ago in the water in some areas of the US.37 The fluoride compound in "naturally" fluoridated waters is calcium fluoride. Sodium fluoride, a common fluoridation agent, dissolves easily in water, but calcium fluoride does not.9

Animal studies performed by Kick and others in 1935 revealed that sodium fluoride was much more toxic than calcium fluoride.38 Even worse, toxicity was recorded for hydrofluorosilicic acid, the compound now used in over 90 percent of fluoridation programs, Hydrofluorosilicic acid is a direct byproduct of pollution scrubbers used in the phosphate fertilizer and aluminum industries. Our government adds it to water supplies even though it is also involved in getting rid of its own stockpile of fluoride compounds left over from years and years of stockpiling fluorides for use in the process of refining uranium for nuclear power and weapons.39

In the Kick study, less than 2 percent of calcium fluoride was absorbed and this was excreted quantitatively in the urine. But even calcium fluoride is not benign. As the animals given calcium fluoride also developed mottled teeth, it was clear that such compounds could produce changes on the teeth merely by passing through the body, and not by being "stored in a tooth" or anywhere else. No calcium fluoride was retained.

In 1946 Samuel Chase, one of the authors of the Kick study, became president of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR). This organization promoted the idea that only the fluoride ion in the various fluoridation compounds was of importance. Yet he well knew that sodium fluoride did not behave like calcium fluoride. Unlike calcium fluoride, sodium fluoride was retained in great amounts in the body and was very toxic. Rock phosphate and hydro-fluorosilicic acid experiments yielded the same information.

New areas with "natural" fluoride are appearing all over the world, as now all areas not "artificially" fluoridated are considered "natural." The problem is that this "natural" fluoride is the result of direct water and soil contamination from petrochemical land treatment, uncontrolled fertilizer use, pesticide applications, ground water contamination from industrial waste sites, rocket fuel "burial grounds," and so forth. Suddenly we have "natural" fluorides showing up in areas previously deemed "fluoride deficient"!

Total Intake

It is well established that it is TOTAL fluoride intake from ALL sources which must be considered for any adverse health effect evaluation.40,41,42 This includes intake by ingestion, inhalation and absorption through the skin. In 1971, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated: "In the assessment of the safety of a water supply with respect to the fluoride concentration, the total daily fluoride intake by the individual must be considered."41 Exposure to airborne fluorides from many diverse manufacturing processes--pesticide applications, phosphate fertilizer production, aluminum smelting, uranium enrichment facilities, coal-burning and nuclear power plants, incinerators, glass etching, petroleum refining and vehicle emissions--can be considerable.

In addition, many people consume fluorine-based medications such as Prozac, which greatly adds to fluoride's anti-thyroid effects. ALL fluoride compounds--organic and inorganic--have been shown to exert anti-thyroid effects, often potentiating fluoride effects many fold.43

Household exposures to fluorides can occur with the use of Teflon pans, fluorine-based products, insecticides sprays and even residual airborne fluorides from fluoridated drinking water. Decision-makers at 3M Corporation recently announced a phase-out of Scotchgard products after discovering that the product's primary ingredient--a fluorinated compound called perfluorooctanyl sulfonate (PFOS)--was found in all tested blood bank examinations.44 3M's research showed that the substance had strong tendencies to persist and bioaccumulate in animal and human tissue.

In 1991 the US Public Health Service issued a report stating that the range in total daily fluoride intake from water, dental products, beverages and food items exceeded 6.5 milligrams daily.42 Thus, the total intake from those sources alone already greatly exceeds the levels known to cause the third stage of skeletal fluorosis.

Besides fluoridated water and toothpaste, many foods contain high levels of flouride compounds due to pesticide applications. One of the worse offenders is grapes.45 Grape juice was found to contain more than 6.8 ppm fluoride. The EPA estimates total fluoride intake from pesticide residues on food and fluoridated drinking water alone to be 0.095 mg/kg/day, meaning a person weighing 70 kg takes in more than 6.65 mg per day.45b Soy infant formula is high in both fluoride and aluminum, far surpassing the "optimal" dose46,47 and has been shown to be a risk factor in dental fluorosis.48

Tea

In their drive to fluoridate the public water supplies, dental health officials continue to pretend that no other sources of fluoride exist. This notion becomes absurd when one looks at the fluoride content in tea. Tea is very high in fluoride because tea leaves accumulate more fluoride (from pollution of soil and air) than any other edible plant.49,50,51 It is well established that fluoride in tea gets absorbed by the body in a manner similar to the fluoride in drinking water.49,52

Fluoride content in tea has risen dramatically over the last 20 years due to industry contamination. Recent analyses have revealed a fluoride content of 17.25 mg per teabag or cup in black tea, and a whopping 22 mg of soluble fluoride ions per teabag or cup in green tea. Aluminum content was also high--over 8 mg. Normal steeping time is five minutes. The longer a tea bag steeped, the more fluoride and aluminum were released. After ten minutes, the measurable amounts of fluoride and aluminum almost doubled.53

A website by a pro-fluoridation infant medical group states that a cup of black tea contains 7.8 mgs of fluoride54 which is the equivalent amount of fluoride from 7.8 litres of water in an area fluoridated at 1ppm. Some British and African studies from the 1990s showed a daily fluoride intake of between 5.8 mgs and 9 mgs a day from tea alone.55, 56, 57 Tea has been found to be a primary cause of dental fluorosis in many international studies.58-70

In Britain, over three-quarters of the population over the age of ten years consumes three cups of tea per day.71Yet the UK government and the British Dental Association are currently contemplating fluoridation of public water supplies! In Ireland, average tea consumption is four cups per day and the drinking water is heavily fluoridated.

Next to water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world. Tea can be found in almost 80 percent of all US households and on any given day, nearly 127 million people--half of all Americans--drink tea.71

The high content of both aluminum and fluoride in tea is cause for great concern as aluminum greatly potentiates fluoride's effects on G protein activation,72 the on/off switches involved in cell communication and of absolute necessity in thyroid hormone function and regulation.

Fluoride and the Thyroid

The recent re-discovery of hundreds of papers dealing with the use of fluorides in effective anti-thyroid medication poses many questions demanding answers.73,74 The enamel defects observed in hypothyroidism are identical to "dental fluorosis." Endemic fluorosis areas have been shown to be the same as those affected with iodine deficiency, considered to be the world's single most important and preventable cause of mental retardation,75 affecting 740 million people a year. Iodine deficiency causes brain disorders, cretinism, miscarriages and goiter, among many other diseases. Synthroid, the drug most commonly prescribed for hypothyroidism, became the top selling drug in the US in 1999, according to Scott-Levin's Source Prescription Audit, clearly indicating that hypothyroidism is a major health problem. Many more millions are thought to have undiagnosed thyroid problems.

Environment

Every year hundreds and thousands of tons of fluorides are emitted by industry. Industrial emissions of fluoride compounds produce elevated concentrations in the atmosphere. Hydrogen fluoride can exist as a particle, dissolving in clouds, fog, rain, dew, or snow. In clouds and moist air it will travel along the air currents until it is deposited as wet acid deposition (acid rain, acid fog, etc.) In waterways it readily mixes with water.

Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), emitted by the electric power industry, is now among six greenhouse gases specifically targeted by the international community, through the Kyoto protocol, for emission reductions to control global warming. The others are carbon dioxide, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), methane and nitrous oxide (N2O).

SF6 is about 23,900 times more destructive, pound for pound, than carbon dioxide over the course of 100 years. EPA estimates that some seven-million metric tons of carbon equivalent (MMTCE) escaped from electric power systems in 1996 alone. The concentration of SF6 in the atmosphere has reportedly increased by two orders of magnitude since 1970. Atmospheric models have indicated that the lifetime of an SF6 molecule in the atmosphere may be over 3000 years.76

The ever-increasing fluoride levels in food, water and air pose a great threat to human health and to the environment as evidenced by the endemic of fluorosis worldwide. It is of utmost urgency that public health officials cease promoting fluoride as beneficial to our health and address instead the issue of its toxicity.

About the Author

Andreas Schuld is head of Parents of Fluoride Poisoned Children (PFPC), an organization of parents whose children have been poisoned by excessive fluoride intake. The group includes educators, artists, scientists, journalists and authors, lawyers, researchers and nutritionists. It is active in worldwide efforts to have the toxicity of fluoride properly assessed. For further information, visit their website at www.bruha.com/fluoride.

REFERENCES

(All web addresses were visited before Fall, 2000)

1. CDC: "Achievements in Public Health, 1900-1999 - Fluoridation of Drinking Water to Prevent Dental Caries" MMWR 48(41);933-940 (1999), http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4841a1.htm

2. Gerlach RF, de Souza AP, Cury JA, Line SR - "Fluoride effect on the activity of enamel matrix proteinases in vitro" Eur J Oral Sci 108(1):48-53 (2000)

3. Limeback H - "Enamel formation and the effects of fluoride" Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 22(3):144-7

4. Wright JT, Chen SC, Hall KI, Yamauchi M, Bawden JW - "Protein characterization of fluorosed human enamel." Dent Res 75(12):1936-41 (1996)

5. Shulman JD, Lalumandier JA, Grabenstein JD -"The average daily dose of fluoride: a model based on fluid consumption" Pediatr Dent 17(1):13-8 (1995)

6. The Columbia Encyclopedia: Sixth Edition (2000), http://www.bartleby.com/65/fl/fluorine.html

7. Phosphoric Acid Waste Dialogue,Report on Phosphoric Wastes Dialogue Committee, Activities and Recommendations, September 1995; Southeast Negotiation Network, Prepared by Gregory Borne for EPA stakeholders review

8. Government of Australia, National Pollutant Inventory, http://www.environment.gov.au/epg/npi/contextual_info/context/fluoride.html

9. ATSDR/USPHS - "Toxicological Profile for Fluorides, Hydrogen Fluoride and Fluorine (F)" CAS# 16984-48-8, 7664-39-3, 7782-41-4 (1993), http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts11.html

10. Health Effects of Ingested Fluoride, Subcommittee on Health Effects of Ingested Fluoride, Committee on Toxicology, Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council, August 1993, p.59

11. World Health Organization - Fluorides and Human Health, p. 239 (1970)

12. Carton RJ, Hirzy JW - "Applying the NAEP code of ethics to the Environmental Protection Agency and the fluoride in drinking water standard" Proceedings of the 23rd Ann. Conf. of the National Association of Environmental Professionals. 20-24 June, 1998. GEN 51-61, http://rvi.net/fluoride/naep.htm

13. American Dental Association, http://www.ada.org/consumer/fluoride/facts/benefits.html#2

14. J.Colquhoun, Chief Dental Officer, NZ, International Symposium on Fluoridation, Porte Alegre, Brazil, September 1988

15. Proceedings, City of Orville Vs. Public Utilities Commission of the State of Carlifornia, Orville, CA, October 20-21 (1955)

16. AMA Council Hearing, Chicago, August 7, 1957

17. NTEU - "Why EPA's Headquarters Union of Scientists Opposes Fluoridation, " Prepared on behalf of the National Treasury Employees Union Chapter 280 by Chapter Senior Vice-President J. William Hirzy, Ph.D. , http://www.bruha.com/fluoride/html/nteu_paper.htm, http://www.cadvision.com/fluoride/epa2.htm

18. Yiamouyannis, J - "Water fluoridation and tooth decay: Results from the 1986-1987 national survey of U.S. school children" Fluoride 23:55-67 (1990). Data also analyzed by Gerard Judd, Ph.D., in:Judd G - "Good Teeth Birth To Death", Research Publications, Glendale Arizona (1997), EPA Research #2 (1994)

19. Teotia SPS, Teotia M -"Dental Caries: A Disorder of High Fluoride And Low Dietary Calcium Interactions (30 years of Personal Research), Fluoride, 1994 27:59-66 (1994)

20. Imai Y - "Study of the relationship between fluorine ions in drinking water and dental caries in Japan". Koku Eisei Gakkai Zasshi 22(2):144-96 (1972)

21. Steelink, Cornelius, PhD, U of AZ Chem Department, in: Chem and Eng News, Jan 27, 1992, p.2; Sci News March 5, 1994, p.159

22. Giambro NJ, Prostak K, Denbesten PK - "Characterization Of Fluorosed Human Enamel By Color Reflectance, Ultrastructure, And Elemental Composition" Fluoride 28:4, 216 (1995) also Caries Research 29 (4) 251-257 (1995)

23. Duncan WK, Silberman SL, Trubman A - "Labial hypoplasia of primary canines in black Head Start children" ASDC J Dent Child 55(6):423-6 (1988)

24. Silberman SL, Duncan WK, Trubman A, Meydrech EF - "Primary canine hypoplasia in Head Start children" J Public Health Dent 49(1):15-8 (1989)

25. Li Y, Navia JM, Bian JY -""Caries experience in deciduous dentition of rural Chinese children 3-5 years old in relation to the presence or absence of enamel hypoplasia" Caries Res 30(1):8-15 (1996)

26. Ellwood RP, O'Mullane D - "The association between developmental enamel defects and caries in populations with and without fluoride in their drinking water" J Public Health Dent 56(2):76-80(1996)

27. Health Effects of Ingested Fluoride, Subcommittee on Health Effects of Ingested Fluoride, Committee on Toxicology, Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, Commission on LifeSciences, National Research Council, August 1993 p 47-48

28. "The Effect of Fluorine On Dental Caries" Journal American Dental Association 31:1360 (1944)

29. Examples: http://ificinfo.health.org/insight/septoct97/flouride.htm; http://www.wvda.org/nutrient/fluoride.html

30. Barrett S, Rovin S (Eds) -"The Tooth Robbers: a Pro-Fluoridation Handbook" George F Stickley Co, Philadelphia pp 44-65 (1980)

31. Federal Register, 3/16/79, page 16006

32. Federal Register: December 28, 1995 (Volume 60, Number 249)] Rules and Regulations , Page 67163-67175 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Food and Drug Administration, 21 CFR Part 101 Docket No. 90N-0134, RIN 0910-AA19

33. The Report of the Department of Health and Social Subjects, No. 41, Dietary Reference Values, Chapter 36 on fluoride (HMSO 1996). "No essential function for fluoride has been proven in humans."

34. "Is Fluoride an Essential Element?" Fluorides, Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences, 66-68 (1971)

35. Richard Maurer and Harry Day, "The Non-Essentiality of Fluorine in Nutrition," Journal of Nutrition, 62: 61-57(1957)

36. "Applied Chemistry", Second Edition, by Prof. William R. Stine, Chapter 19 (see pp. 413 & 416) Allyn and Bacon, Inc, publishers. "Fluoride has not been shown to be required for normal growth or reproduction in animals or humans consuming an otherwise adequate diet, nor for any specific biological function or mechanism."

37. National Center for Fluoridation Policy & Research (NCFPR) http://fluoride.oralhealth.org/

38. Kick CH, Bethke RM, Edgington BH, Wilder OHM, Record PR, Wilder W, Hill TJ, Chase SW - "Fluorine in Animal Nutrition" Bulletin 558, US Agricultural Experiment Station, Wooster, Ohio (1935)

39. US MINERALS/COMMODITIES DATABASE http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/fluorspar/280396.txt

40. "The problem of providing optimum fluoride intake for prevention of dental caries" - Food and Nutrition Board, Division of Biology and Agriculture, National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, Pub.#294, (1953) ".. a person drinking fluoridated water may be assumed to ingest only about 1 milligram per day from this source ... the development of mottled enamel is, however, a potential hazard of adding fluorides to food. The total daily intake of fluoride is the critical quantity."

41. World Health Organization, International Drinking Water Standards, 1971."In the assessment of the safety of a water supply with respect to the fluoride concentration, the total daily fluoride intake by the individual must be considered. Apart from variations in climatic conditions, it is well known that in certain areas, fluoride containing foods form an important part of the diet. The facts should be borne in mind in deciding the concentration of fluoride to be permitted in drinking water."

42. Review of Fluoride Benefits and Risks, Department of Health and Human Services, p.45 (1991)

43. 200 papers to be posted at: http://www.bruha.com/fluoride

44. Washington Post - "3M to pare Scotchgard products," May 16, 2000 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15648-2000May16.html

45. (a) FLUORIDE IN FOOD http://www.bruha.com/fluoride/html/f-_in_food.htm; (b) Federal Register: August 7, 1997 (Volume 62, Number 152), Notices, Page 42546-42551

46. Silva M, Reynolds EC - "Fluoride content of infant formulae in Australia" Aust Dent J 41(1):37-42 (1996)

47. Dabeka RW, McKenzie AD -"Lead, cadmium, and fluoride levels in market milk and infant formulas in Canada." J Assoc Off Anal Chem 70(4):754-7 (1987)

48. Pendrys DG, Katz RV, Morse DE - "Risk factors for enamel fluorosis in a fluoridated population" Am J Epidemiol 140(5):461-71(1994)

49. Meiers, P. - "Zur Toxizität von Fluorverbindungen, mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Onkogenese", Verlag für Medizin Dr. Ewald Fischer, Heidelberg (1984)

50. Waldbott, GL; Burgstahler, AW; McKinney, HL - "Fluoridation:The Great Dilemma" Coronado Press (1978)

51. Srebnik-Friszman, S; Van der Miynsbrugge, F.-"Teneur en Fluor de quelques thØs prØlevØs sur le MarchØ et de leurs Infusions" Arch Belg Med Soc Hyg Med Trav Med Leg 33:551-556 (1976)

52. Rüh K - "Resorbierbarkeit und Retention von in Mineralwässern und Erfrischungsgetränken enthaltenem Fluorid bei Mensch und Laboratoriumsratte" Diss. Würzburg (1968)

53. Analyses conducted by Parents of Fluoride Poisoned Children (PFPC) at Gov't -approved labs. Contact: pfpc@istar.ca

54. BabyCenter Editorial Team w/ Medical Advisory Board (http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/674.html#3)

55. Jenkins GN - "Fluoride intake and its safety among heavy tea drinkers in a British fluoridated city" Proc Finn Dent Soc 87(4):571-9 (1991) Department of Oral Biology, Dental School, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.

56. Opinya GN, Bwibo N, Valderhaug J, Birkeland JM, Lokken P - "Intake of fluoride and excretion in mothers' milk in a high fluoride (9ppm) area in Kenya" Eur J Clin Nutr 45(1):37-41 (1991) Department of Dental Surgery, University of Nairobi, Kenya

57. Diouf A, Sy FO, Niane B, Ba D, Ciss M - "Dietary intake of fluorine through of tea prepared by the traditional method in Senegal" Dakar Med 39(2):227-30 (1994)

58. Cao J, Zhao Y, Liu J - "Brick tea consumption as the cause of dental fluorosis among children from Mongol, Kazak and Yugu populations in China" Food Chem Toxicol 35(8):827-33 (1997)

59. Cao J, Bai X, Zhao Y, Liu J, Zhou D, Fang S, Jia M, Wu J - "The relationship of fluorosis and brick tea drinking in Chinese Tibetans" Environ Health Perspect 1996 Dec;104(12):1340-3 (1996)

60. Sergio Gomez S, Weber A, Torres C - "Fluoride content of tea and amount ingested by children" Odontol Chil 37(2):251-5 (1989)

61. Cao J, Zhao Y, Liu JW - "Safety evaluation and fluorine concentration of Pu'er brick tea and Bianxiao brick tea" Food Chem Toxicol 36(12):1061-3(1998)

62. Wang LF, Huang JZ- "Outline of control practice of endemic fluorosis in China."Soc Sci Med 41(8):1191-5 (1995)

63. Olsson B -"Dental caries and fluorosis in Arussi province, Ethiopia" Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 6(6):338-43 (1978)

64. Diouf A, Sy FO, Niane B, Ba D, Ciss M - "Dietary intake of fluorine through use of tea prepared by the traditional method in Senegal" DakarMed 39(2):227-30 (1994)

65. Fraysse C, Bilbeissi MW, Mitre D, Kerebel B - "The role of tea consumption in dental fluorosis in Jordan" Bull Group Int Rech Sci Stomatol Odontol 32(1):39-46 (1989)

66. Fraysse C, Bilbeissi W, Benamghar L, Kerebel B- "Comparison of the dental health status of 8 to 14-year-old children in France and in Jordan, a country of endemic fluorosis."Bull Group Int Rech Sci Stomatol Odontol 32(3):169-75 (1989)

67. Villa AE, Guerrero S - "Caries experience and fluorosis prevalence in Chilean children from different socio-economic status."Community Dent Oral Epidemiol 24(3):225-7 (1996)

68. Chan J.T.; Yip, T.T.; Jeske, A.H. - "The role of caffeinated beverages in dental fluorosis" Med Hypotheses 33(1):21-2 (1990)

69. Mann J, Sgan-Cohen HD, Dakuar A, Gedalia I - "Tea drinking, caries prevalence, and fluorosis among northern Israeli Arab youth."Clin Prev Dent

7(6):23-6 (1985)

70. Schmidt, C.W.; Leuschke, W. - "Fluoride content of deciduous teeth after regular intake of black tea" Dtsch Stomatol 40(10):441 (1990)

71. Press Releases/Market Figures - Tea Council http://www.stashtea.com/tt060595.htm

72. Struneckß, A; Patocka, J - "Aluminofluoride complexes: new phosphate analogues for laboratory investigations and potential danger for living organisms" Charles University, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Physiology and Developmental Physiology, Prague/Department of Toxicology, Purkynì Military Medical Academy, Hradec KrßlovØ, Czech Republic http://www.cadvision.com/fluoride/brain3.htm

73. History: Fluoride - Iodine Antagonism http://bruha.com/pfpc/html/thyroid_history.html

74. Fluorides - Anti-thyroid Medication http://bruha.com/pfpc/html/thyroid_page.html

75. WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION PRESS RELEASE, May 25,1999 Iodine Deficiency

76. Miller AE, Miller TM, Viggiano AA, Morris RA, Vazn Doren JM - "Negative Ion Chemistry of SF sub 4" Journal of Chemical Physics 102(22):8865-8873 (1995)

Symptoms of Fluoride Poisoning
· Black tarry stools
· Bloody vomit
· Faintness
· Nausea and vomiting
· Shallow breathing
· Stomach cramps or pain
· Tremors
· Unusual excitement
· Unusual increase in saliva
· Watery eyes
· Weakness
· Constipation
· Loss of appetite
· Pain and aching of bones
· Skin rash
· Sores in the mouth and on the lips
· Stiffness
· Weight loss
· White, brown or black discoloration of teeth

Long Term Effects of Fluoride
· Accelerated aging
· Immune system dysfunction
· Compromised collagen synthesis
· Cartilage problems
· Bony outgrowths in the spine
· Joint "lock-up"

G Proteins

Signals or communications from one cell to another, and from the outside of the cell to the inside, are made possible by the action of special proteins called "G" proteins, which are found in all animal life, including yeasts. G proteins are so called because they bind to guanine nucleotides, a major component of DNA and RNA. G proteins mediate the actions of neurotransmitters, peptide hormones, odorants and light. In other words, G proteins make it possible for our nervous systems to function properly and, in particular, allow for night vision and the sense of smell. All thyroid function is mediated by G-protein activity. Both aluminum and fluoride interfere with the activation of G proteins. Thyrotropin, the thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), is considered the natural G-protein activator. Its action is mimicked by fluoride and vastly potentiated by the presence of aluminum. Pharmacologists estimate that up to 60 percent of all medicines used today exert their effects through G-protein signaling pathways. Vitamin A from cod liver oil has been used successfully to bypass blocked G-protein pathways due to vaccination damage. (See Autism and Vaccinations.) Myristic acid, a saturated fatty acid having 14 carbons, plays an important roll in G-protein function as these signaling proteins require myristic acid added to one end of the protein. (See Kidney Fats.) Thus, diets deficient in vitamin A and saturated fats can be expected to contribute to nervous disorders and vision problems.