The Weston A Price Foundation is an important source of nutritional information whose article on soy and its negative impact on the brain and the thyroid is worth reading.
If you do decide to eat soy products, please make sure that they are strictly organic since most soy beans grown in the US are Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and carry serious potential dangers in addition to those listed here.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org
www.Organics4U.org
www.NaturalSolutionsMarketPlace.org
www.NaturalSolutionsMedia.tv
Soy Alert!Soy and the Brain
By John MacArthur http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/soyandbrain.html
“Tofu Shrinks Brain!” No science fiction scenario, this sobering soybean revelation is for real. But how did the “poster bean” of the ’90s go wrong? Apparently, in many ways–none of which bode well for the brain.
In a major ongoing study involving 3,734 elderly Japanese-American men, those who ate the most tofu during midlife had up to 2.4 times the risk of later developing Alzheimer’s disease. As part of the three-decade long Honolulu-Asia Aging Study, 27 foods and drinks were correlated with participants’ health. Men who consumed tofu at least twice weekly had more cognitive impairment than those who rarely or never ate the soybean curd.1, 2
“The test results were about equivalent to what they would have been if they were five years older,” said lead researcher Dr. Lon R. White from the Hawaii Center for Health Research. For the guys who ate no tofu, however, they tested as though they were five years younger.
What’s more, higher midlife tofu consumption was also associated with low brain weight. Brain atrophy was assessed in 574 men using MRI results and in 290 men using autopsy information. Shrinkage occurs naturally with age, but for the men who had consumed more tofu, White said “their brains seemed to be showing an exaggeration of the usual patterns we see in aging.”
Phytoestrogens–Soy Self Defense
Tofu and other soybean foods contain isoflavones, three-ringed molecules bearing a structural resemblance to mammalian steroidal hormones. White and his fellow researchers speculate that soy’s estrogen-like compounds (phytoestrogens) might compete with the body’s natural estrogens for estrogen receptors in brain cells.
Plants have evolved many different strategies to protect themselves from predators. Some have thorns or spines, while others smell bad, taste bad, or poison animals that eat them. Some plants took a different route, using birth control as a way to counter the critters who were wont to munch.
Plants such as soy are making oral contraceptives to defend themselves, says Claude Hughes, Ph.D., a neuroendocrinologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. They evolved compounds that mimic natural estrogen. These phytoestrogens can interfere with the mammalian hormones involved in reproduction and growth–a strategy to reduce the number and size of predators.
Toxicologists Concerned about Soy’s Health Risks
The soy industry says that White’s study only shows an association between tofu consumption and brain aging, but does not prove cause and effect. On the other hand, soy experts at the National Center for Toxicological Research, Daniel Sheehan, Ph.D., and Daniel Doerge, Ph.D., consider this tofu study very important. “It is one of the more robust, well-designed prospective epidemiological studies generally available. . . We rarely have such power in human studies, as well as a potential mechanism.”
In a 1999 letter to the FDA (and on the ABC News program 20/20), the two toxicologists expressed their opposition to the agency’s health claims for soy, saying the Honolulu study “provides evidence that soy (tofu) phytoestrogens cause vascular dementia. Given that estrogens are important for maintenance of brain function in women; that the male brain contains aromatase, the enzyme that converts testosterone to estradiol; and that isoflavones inhibit this enzymatic activity, there is a mechanistic basis for the human findings.” 3
Although estrogen’s role in the central nervous system is not well understood, White notes that “a growing body of information suggests that estrogens may be needed for optimal repair and replacement of neural structures eroded with aging.”
One link to the puzzle may involve calcium-binding proteins, which are associated with protection against neurodegenerative diseases. In recent animal studies at Brigham Young University’s Neuroscience Center, researchers found that consumption of phytoestrogens via a soy diet for a relatively short interval can significantly elevate phytoestrogen levels in the brain and decrease brain calcium-binding proteins.4
Concerns About Giving Soy to Infants
The most serious problem with soy may be its use in infant formulas. “The amount of phytoestrogens that are in a day’s worth of soy infant formula equals 5 birth control pills,” says Mike Fitzpatrick, a New Zealand toxicologist. Fitzpatrick and other scientists believe that infant exposure to high amounts of phytoestrogens is associated with early puberty in girls and retarded physical maturation in boys.5
A study reported in The Lancet found that the “daily exposure of infants to isoflavones in soy infant-formulas is 6-11 fold higher on a bodyweight basis than the dose that has hormonal effects in adults consuming soy foods.” (This dose, equivalent to two glasses of soy milk per day, was enough to change menstrual patterns in women.6 In the blood of infants tested, concentrations of isoflavones were 13,000-22,000 times higher than natural estrogen concentrations in early life.7 )
Soy Interferes with Enzymes
While soybeans are relatively high in protein compared to other legumes, they are a poor source of protein because other proteins found in soybeans act as potent enzyme inhibitors. These “anti-nutrients” block the action of trypsin and other enzymes needed for protein digestion. Trypsin inhibitors are large, tightly folded proteins that are not completely deactivated during ordinary cooking and can reduce protein digestion. Therefore, soy consumption may lead to chronic deficiencies in amino acid uptake.8
Soy’s ability to interfere with enzymes and amino acids may have direct consequence for the brain. As White and his colleagues suggest, “isoflavones in tofu and other soyfoods might exert their influence through interference with tyrosine kinase-dependent mechanisms required for optimal hippocampal function, structure and plasticity.”2
High amounts of protein tyrosine kinases are found in the hippocampus, a brain region involved with learning and memory. One of soy’s primary isoflavones, genistein, has been shown to inhibit tyrosine kinase in the hippocampus, where it blocked “long-term potentiation,” a mechanism of memory formation.9
Tyrosine, Dopamine, and Parkinson’s Disease
The brain uses the amino acids tyrosine or phenylalanine to synthesize the key neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine, brain chemicals that promote alertness and activity. Dopamine is crucial to fine muscle coordination. People whose hands tremble from Parkinson’s disease have a diminished ability to synthesize dopamine. An increased incidence of depression and other mood disorders are associated with low levels of dopamine and norepinephrine. Also, the current scientific consensus on attention-deficit disorder points to a dopamine imbalance.
Soy has been shown to affect tyrosine hydroxylase activity in animals, causing the utilization rate of dopamine to be “profoundly disturbed.” When soy lecithin supplements were given throughout perinatal development, they reduced activity in the cerebral cortex and “altered synaptic characteristics in a manner consistent with disturbances in neural function.”10
Researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and at the National Institutes of Health are finding a connection between tyrosine hydroxylase activity, thyroid hormone receptors, and depleted dopamine levels in the brain–particularly in the substantia nigra, a region associated with the movement difficulties characteristic of Parkinson’s disease.11,12,13
Soy Affects the Brain via the Thyroid Gland
Tyrosine is crucial to the brain in another way. It’s needed for the body to make active thyroid hormones, which are a major physiological regulator of mammalian brain development. By affecting the rate of cell differentiation and gene expression, thyroid hormones regulate the growth and migration of neurons, including synaptic development and myelin formation in specific brain regions. Low blood levels of tyrosine are associated with an underactive thyroid gland.
It is well known that isoflavones in soy products can depress thyroid function, causing goiter (enlarged thyroid gland) and autoimmune thyroid disease. In the early 1960s, goiter and hypothyroidism were reported in infants fed soybean diets.14 Scientists at the National Center for Toxicological Research showed that the soy isoflavones genistein and daidzein “inhibit thyroid peroxidase-catalyzed reactions essential to thyroid hormone synthesis.”15
Japanese researchers studied effects on the thyroid from soybeans administered to healthy subjects. They reported that consumption of as little as 30 grams (two tablespoons) of soybeans per day for only one month resulted in a significant increase in thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), which is produced by the brain’s pituitary gland when thyroid hormones are too low. Their findings suggested that “excessive soybean ingestion for a certain duration might suppress thyroid function and cause goiters in healthy people, especially elderly subjects.”16
Thyroid Hormones and Fetal Brain Development
Thyroid alterations are among the most frequently encountered autoimmune conditions in children. Researchers at Cornell University Medical College showed that the “frequency of feedings with soy-based milk formulas in early life was significantly higher in children with autoimmune thyroid disease.”17 In a previous study, they found that twice as many diabetic children had received soy formula in infancy as compared to non-diabetic children.18
Recognizing the risk, Swiss health authorities recommend “very restrictive use” of soy for babies. In England and Australia, public health agencies tell parents to first seek advice from a doctor before giving their infants soy formula. The New Zealand Ministry of Health recommends that “Soy formula should only be used under the direction of a health professional for specific medical indications. . . Clinicians who are treating children with a soy-based infant formula for medical conditions should be aware of the potential interaction between soy infant formula and thyroid function.”19
Thyroid hormones exert their influence during discrete windows of time during development of the infant. Inappropriate hormone levels can have a devastating effect on the developing human brain, especially during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy when the fetus depends on the mother’s thyroid hormones for brain development. After that, both maternal and fetal thyroid hormone levels affect the central nervous system.
A 1999 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that pregnant women with underactive thyroids were four times more likely to have children with low IQs if the disorder were left untreated. The study found that 19 percent of the children born to mothers with thyroid deficiency had IQ scores of 85 or lower, compared with only 5 percent of those born to mothers without such problems.20
Thyroid, Brain, and Environmental Toxins
Children exposed prenatally and during infancy to common environmental toxins like dioxin and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can suffer behavioral, learning, and memory problems because these chemicals may be disrupting the normal action of thyroid hormone.21
Soybeans grown in the United States contain residues of the pesticide dieldrin, an organochlorine similar to DDT. Although both chemicals were banned in the 1970s, dieldrin still persists in soils and is absorbed through the roots. Today it is the most toxic residue found on domestic soybeans.22 In Silent Spring, Rachel Carson warned that dieldrin is nearly 50 times as poisonous as DDT. In addition to disrupting hormones, it can have long delayed neurological effects, ranging from loss of memory to mania.23 Chinese aphids were recently discovered in fields scattered across Wisconsin, so increased pesticide applications are likely.
Combinations of insecticides, weed killers, and artificial fertilizers–even at low levels–have measurable detrimental effects on thyroid and other hormones as well as on the brain.24 EPA scientists now want to upgrade the commonly used herbicide, atrazine, to a “likely carcinogen.” In animal tests, atrazine attaches to sites on the hypothalamus, a crucial brain region involved with regulating levels of stress and sex hormones.25
Individuals newly diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease were more than twice as likely to have been exposed to insecticides in their home, compared to those without the disease.26 In September 2000, The Lancet reported that farmers and gardeners regularly exposed to pesticides may have more than five times the risk of developing mild cognitive dysfunction.
Soy formulas for infants can contain other neurotoxins: aluminum, cadmium, and fluoride. Studies found that aluminum concentrations in soy-based formulas were a 100-fold greater compared to human breast milk,27 while cadmium content was 8-15 times higher than in milk-based formulas.28 In an Australian study, the fluoride content of soy-based formulas ranged from 1.08 to 2.86 parts per million. The authors concluded that “prolonged consumption (beyond 12 months of age) of infant formula reconstituted with optimally-fluoridated water could result in excessive amounts of fluoride being ingested.”29 A study of Connecticut children revealed that mild to moderate fluorosis was strongly associated with soy-based infant formula use.30
In May 2000, Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility released their report, “The Toxic Threats to Child Development.” In the section on neurotoxins, they concluded, “Studies in animals and human populations suggest that fluoride exposure, at levels that are experienced by a significant proportion of the population whose drinking water is fluoridated, may have adverse impacts on the developing brain.”31
Iodine versus Fluorine
The thyroid gland uses tyrosine and the natural element iodine to make thyroxine (T4), a thyroid hormone containing four iodine atoms. The other, much more biologically active thyroid hormone is tri-iodothyronine (T3), which has three iodine atoms. Lack of dietary iodine has long been identified as the problem in diminished thyroid hormone synthesis.
According to the International Council for the Control of Iodine Deficiency Disorders: “Iodine deficiency has been called the world’s major cause of preventable mental retardation. Its severity can vary from mild intellectual blunting to frank cretinism, a condition that includes gross mental retardation, deaf mutism, short stature, and various other defects. . . The damage to the developing brain results in individuals poorly equipped to fight disease, learn, work effectively, or reproduce satisfactorily.”
This crucial role of iodine is another reason why the thyroid gland is especially vulnerable today. Canadian researcher Andreas Schuld has documented more than 100 studies during the last 70 years that demonstrate adverse effects of fluoride on the thyroid gland.32 Schuld says, “Fluorine, being the strongest in the group of halogens, will seriously interfere with iodine and iodine synthesis, forcing more urinary elimination of ingested iodine as fluoride ingestion or absorption increases.” (See page 21.)
Soy Inhibits Zinc Absorption
The high phytic-acid content in soy may also have adverse effects on brain function. Phytic acid is an organic acid present in the outer portion of all seeds which blocks the uptake of essential minerals in the intestinal tract: calcium, magnesium, iron, and especially zinc. Soybeans have very high levels of a form of phytic acid that is particularly difficult to neutralize and which interferes with zinc absorption more completely than with other minerals.
The soy industry acknowledges the problem with the admission that while “one-half cup of cooked soybeans contains one mg of zinc
. . . zinc is poorly absorbed from soyfoods.” As for iron, “both phytate and soy protein reduce iron absorption so that the iron in soyfoods is generally poorly absorbed.”33
According to unpublished documents, researchers testing soy formula found that it caused negative zinc balance in every infant to whom it was given.34 Even when the diets were additionally supplemented with zinc, there was a strong correlation between phytate content in formula and poor growth.
Zinc and the Brain
Relatively high levels of zinc are found in the brain, especially the hippocampus. Zinc plays an important role in the transmission of the nerve impulse between brain cells. Deficiency of zinc during pregnancy and lactation has been shown to be related to many congenital abnormalities of the nervous system in offspring. In children, “insufficient levels of zinc have been associated with lowered learning ability, apathy, lethargy, and mental retardation.”35
The USDA references a study of 372 Chinese school children with very low levels of zinc in their bodies. The children who received zinc supplements had the most improved performance–especially in perception, memory, reasoning, and psychomotor skills such as eye-hand coordination. Three earlier studies with adults also showed that changes in zinc intake affected cognitive function.36
New research has identified a specific contingent of neurons, called “zinc-containing” neurons, which are found almost exclusively in the forebrain, where in mammals they have evolved into a “complex and elaborate associational network that interconnects most of the cerebral cortices and limbic structures.” This suggests the importance of zinc in the normal and pathological processes of the cerebral cortex.37 Furthermore, age-related tissue zinc deficiency may contribute to brain cell death in Alzheimer’s dementia.38
Not a Good Idea
High levels of phytoestrogens and zinc-blocking phytic acid, plus additional neurotoxic compounds such as dieldrin, aluminum, fluoride and cadmium combine in soy to yield a veritable witches’ brew that can have adverse effects on the brain during development and throughout life.
Unfortunately, many American are now consuming soy foods in high amounts as infant formula, soy milk and tofu-based products, usually as a substitute for nourishing animal foods. In Asia, soy is consumed in small amounts as a fermented condiment and not as a substitute for animal foods.
Asians recognize the need for “brain foods” like eggs and fish and realize that large amounts of soy can cause thyroid problems and inhibit growth. They know that for optimum mental function, soy foods are not a good idea.
References
1. White LR, Petrovich H, Ross GW, Masaki KH, Association of mid-life consumption of tofu with late life cognitive impairment and dementia: the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. Fifth International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease, #487, 27 July 1996, Osaka, Japan.
2. White LR, Petrovitch H, Ross GW, Masaki KH, Hardman J, Nelson J, Davis D, Markesbery W, Brain aging and midlife tofu consumption. J Am Coll Nutr 2000 Apr;19(2):242-55.
3. Doerge and Sheehan, Letter to the FDA, Feb 18, 1999. (http://abcnews.go.com/onair/2020/2020_000609_soyfdaletter_feature.htm)
4. Lephart ED, Thompson JM, Setchell KD, Adlercreutz H, Weber KS, Phytoestrogens decrease brain calcium-binding proteins… Brain Res 2000 Mar 17;859(1):123-31.
5. Soy Infant Formula Could Be Harmful to Infants: Groups Want it Pulled. Nutrition Week, Dec 10, 1999;29(46):1-2; See also www.soyonlineservice.co.nz
6. Cassidy A, Bingham S, Setchell KD, Biological effects of a diet of soy protein rich in isoflavones on the menstrual cycle of premenopausal women. Am J Clin Nutr 1994 Sep;60(3):333-40.
7. Setchell KD, Zimmer-Nechemias L, Cai J, Heubi JE, Exposure of infants to phyto-oestrogens from soy-based infant formula. Lancet 1997 Jul 5;350(9070):23-27.
8. Fallon SA, Enig MG, Tragedy and Hype, The Third International Soy Symposium. Nexus Magazine, Vol 7, No 3, April-May 2000.
9. O’Dell TJ, Kandel ER, Grant SG, Long-term potentiation in the hippocampus is blocked by tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Nature 1991 Oct 10 353:6344 558-60.
10. Bell JM, Whitmore WL, Cowdery T, Slotkin TA, Perinatal dietary supplementation with a soy lecithin preparation: effects on development of central catecholaminergic neurotransmitter systems. Brain Res Bull 1986 Aug;17(2):189-95.
11. Zetterstrom RH, Williams R, Perlmann T, Olson L, Cellular expression of the immediate early transcription factors Nurr1 and NGFI-B suggests a gene regulatory role in several brain regions including the nigrostriatal dopamine system. Brain Res Mol Brain Res 1996 Sep 5;41(1-2):111-20.
12. Castillo SO, Baffi JS, Palkovits M, Goldstein DS, Kopin IJ, Witta J, Magnuson MA, Nikodem VM, Dopamine biosynthesis is selectively abolished in substantia nigra… Mol Cell Neurosci 1998 May;11(1-2):36-46.
13. Baffi JS, Palkovits M, Castillo SO, Mezey E, Nikodem VM, Differential expression of tyrosine hydroxylase in catecholaminergic neurons of neonatal wild-type and Nurr1-deficient mice. Neuroscience 1999;93(2):631-42.
14. Shepard TH, Soybean goiter. New Eng J Med 1960;262:1099-1103.
15. Divi RL, Chang HC, Doerge DR, Anti-thyroid isoflavones from soybean: isolation, characterization, mechanisms of action. Biochem Pharmacol 1997 Nov 15;54(10):1087-96.
16. Ishizuki Y, Hirooka Y, Murata Y, Togashi K, The effects on the thyroid gland of soybeans administered experimentally in healthy subjects. Nippon Naibunpi Gakkai Zasshi 1991 May 20;67(5):622-29.
17. Fort P, Moses N, Fasano M, Goldberg T, Lifshitz F, Breast and soy-formula feedings in early infancy and the prevalence of autoimmune thyroid disease in children. J Am Coll Nutr 1990 Apr;9(2):164-67.
18. Fort P, Lanes R, Dahlem S, Recker B, Weyman-Daum M, Pugliese M, Lifshitz FJ, Breast feeding and insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus in children. Am Coll Nutr 1986;5(5):439-41.
19. Regulatory Guidance in other countries: New Zealand Ministry of Health Position Statement on Soy Formulas (http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/regulat.htm)(Adobe Acrobat PDF file: http://www.soyonlineservice.co.nz/files/mohsoy.pdf)
20. Haddow JE, Palomaki GE, Allan WC, Williams JR, Knight GJ, Gagnon J, O’Heir CE, Mitchell ML, Hermos RJ, Waisbren SE, Faix JD, Klein RZ, Maternal thyroid deficiency during pregnancy and subsequent neuropsychological development of the child. N Engl J Med 1999 Aug 19;341(8):549-55.
21. Hauser P, McMillin JM, Bhatara VS, Resistance to thyroid hormone: implications for neurodevelopmental research on the effects of thyroid hormone disruptors. Toxicol Ind Health 1998 Jan-Apr;14(1-2):85-101.
22. Groth E, Benbrook CM, Lutz K, Update: pesticides in children’s foods, an analysis of 1998 USDA PDP data on pesticide residues, Consumers Union of U.S., Inc., May, 2000 (Adobe Acrobat PDF file).
23. Hayes WJ, The toxicity of dieldrin to man. Bull World Health Organ 1959;20:891-92.
24. Porter WP, Jaeger JW, Carlson IH, Endocrine, immune and behavioral effects of aldicarb (carbamate), atrazine (triazine) and nitrate (fertilizer) mixtures at groundwater concentrations. Toxicol Ind Health 1999 Jan-Mar;15(1-2):133-50.
25. Watson, Traci, Common herbicide likely causes cancer. USA Today, June 29, 2000.
26. Nelson L, American Academy of Neurology’s 52nd annual meeting in San Diego, CA, April 29-May 6, 2000.
27. McGraw M, Bishop N, Jameson R, Robinson MJ, O’Hara M, Hewitt CD, Day JP, Aluminium content of milk formulae and intravenous fluids used in infants.Lancet 1986 Jan 18;1(8473):157.
28. Dabeka RW, McKenzie AD, Lead, cadmium, and fluoride levels in market milk and infant formulas in Canada. J Assoc Off Anal Chem 1987;70(4):754-57.
29. Silva M, Reynolds EC, Fluoride content of infant formulae in Australia. Aust Dent J 1996 Feb;41(1):37-42.
30. Pendrys DG, Katz RV, Morse DE, Risk factors for enamel fluorosis in a fluoridated population. Am J Epidemiol 1994 Sep 1;140(5):461-71.
31. Schettler T, Stein J, Reich F, Valenti M, In Harm’s Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development. (http://www.igc.org/psr/ihw.htm) Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility, May 2000.
32. Studies dealing with fluoride and thyroid. (http://www.bruha.com/fluoride/html/thyroid_studies.htm)See also: Fluoride Controversy in the Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients. (http://www.tldp.com/fluoride.htm)
33. Soy Nutritive Content, United Soybean Board. (http://www.talksoy.com/nutritive1.htm)
34. Pfeiffer CC, Braverman ER, Zinc, the brain and behavior. Biol Psychiatry 1982 Apr;17(4):513-32.
35. Personal communication with Dr. Mary G. Enig
36. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Food & Nutrition Research Briefs, July 1997. (http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/usda/fnrb/fnrb797.html)
37. Frederickson CJ, Suh SW, Silva D, Frederickson CJ, Thompson RB, Importance of zinc in the central nervous system: the zinc-containing neuron. J Nutr 2000 May;130(5S Suppl):1471S-83S.
38. Ho LH, Ratnaike RN, Zalewski PD, Involvement of intracellular labile zinc in suppression of DEVD-caspase activity in human neuroblastoma cells. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2000 Feb 5;268(1):148-54.
Natural Solutions Foundation eAlert
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Updated: http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?p=1449
November 20, 2008
EMERGENCY HEALTH FREEDOM
ACTION REQUIRED
ADMINISTRATION USING FDA, USDA TO FORCE FEED INDUSTRIAL TOXINS – GMOs, DRUG CROPS/ANIMALS -KILL SUPPLEMENTS
PLEASE FORWARD AS WIDELY AS YOU CAN
Protect Your Health and Your Health Freedom
Urgent Action Alerts In This Issue
Can You Afford Not to Take These Actions?
~ 5 DAYS LEFT TO PROTECT FROM ILLEGAL FDA ATTACK
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26269
Here is the link to the original FDA request for comments:
http://www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/98fr/E8-17356.pdf
~3 DAYS LEFT TO STOP USDA
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26267
FROM SURRENDERING ALL OVERSIGHT TO BIOTECH CORPORATIONS
LET’S TAKE THESE TWO EMERGENCIES ONE AT A TIME AND CREATE A MASSIVE PUSHBACK
1. FDA SAYS “NO SHIPMENT ACROSS STATE LINES IF STUDIES ABOUT SUPPLEMENT HAVE EVER BEEN PUBLISHED!”
FDA, both domestically and through Codex, has been trying to make information about the relationship of food and food components to health forbidden speech. That includes supplements, of course.
As if that were not bad enough, they have come up with another ploy to make it illegal to ship supplements across state lines IF THERE HAVE BEEN ANY PUBLISHED HEALTH STUDIES ABOUT ANY INGREDIENT! And we have only 5 days to stop them.
This is a diabolical, but brilliant, drug company-inspired double whammy:
Whammy Number 1 : Under proposed FDA/Codex rules you cannot tell anyone about what nutrients and supplement can do for them because they are, say the bureaucrats, not “supported” in the scientific literature (despite the science called “Biochemistry” and millions of peer-reviewed journal articles)
Whammy Number 2 : You won’t be able to get supplements if what they can do for you has ever been documented in the scientific literature, as part of any medical study.
It’s Actually Even Worse Than That
In July, 2007, The FDA Amendments Act of 2007, Public Law 110-85, was adopted by the US. Congress. With your support, Natural Solutions Foundation Health Freedom advocates fought hard to convince Senator Harkin (R-IL) and others to fight to keep the language exempting dietary supplements from the enhanced FDA power provisions in the bill in the House/Senate conference committee version, where it appeared that it might have been removed. That protective language remained the law of the United States of America, enacted as section 1011, the DSHEA Product Rule of Construction.
See our comments at that time:
http://vitaminlawyerhealthfreedom.blogspot.com/2007/07/trip-to-dc-congress-liberty-coalition.html
The failed and corrupt FDA, however, in its relentless crusade to eliminate the rights of Americans to learn about or use the most significant economic competitor to pharmaceutical drugs has no respect for the law and no interest in either your freedom or your health. They are currently seeking comments that could lead to them promulgating regulations which would make it illegal to ship supplements across state lines. This would accomplish both definitions of “Nutricide” as I have lectured and written about for years:
Nu tri cide (3 syllables):
1. The death of the body of knowledge about the relationship between health and nutrition
2. The death of large populations through the manipulation of the food [and supplement] supply.
URGENT ACTION REQUIRED NOW
Comments close on November 25, 2008 on a new regulatory sneak attack against supplements. FDA regulations will, if the FDA succeeds, make the shipment of supplements across state lines illegal – get this – IF THE SUPPLEMENT HAS BEEN THE SUBJECT OF A CLINICAL STUDY.
They’re BAAAAAAACK!
If you value
* Your access to supplements and nutrients
* Your health
* Your freedom to determine what goes into your body
* Your First Amendment Rights
then I urge you in the strongest terms to click below NOW to help make sure that the FDA, at least this once, obeys the law of the land.
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26269
Last time the FDA tried something this awful, through the 2007 “Draft CAM Guidance”, the Natural Solutions Foundation alerted health freedom lovers. Time was very short then, too but as a result, 588,000+ people came to our site to tell the FDA not to continue with its plan to turn nutrients into “untested drugs” and therefore make them all illegal. The FDA system “accidentally’ crashed so “only” 198,000+ people got their comments in but FDA got the message and backed off.
We said at that time we counted their backing off as a triumph but that they would be back. Well, they are back and they are sneakier and meaner than ever.
We have enormous power in the aggregate. Now it is time to use it. Again.
Click the link below to use our power and back off the forces that are dedicated to taking away your right to use natural health options prevent and deal with illness – or even know what they can do for you – instead of high-profit drugs.
It is imperative that you tell your friends about his and have them take action, too. Forward this email NOW to your entire list with a little note at the top telling them that taking action now is vitally important to their health and to their freedom.
Keep Reading
Emergency Number 2 Coming Right Up, Courtesy of the Lame Duck Administration
Make no mistake – as the days of the Bush Administration draw to a close, Industry shills inside the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are ramming through regulations (which acquire the force of law once finalized) which weaken protection for human and environmental health to a degree which leaves the observer nearly speechless.
USDA has released a proposed rule gutting any meaningful oversight of GMO (genetically engineered) crops and allowing biotech companies to grow food crops engineered to produce drugs and industrial chemicals without protection for conventional or organic crops. It is imperative to remember that GMO foods are deemed “substantially equivalent” because of a 1992 Executive Order by then-President George Bush, Sr., NOT because of any scientific or epidemiological studies. It is imperative, too, to recall that the genetic material from these crops and animals enters the genetic material of humans or animals consuming it and mingles in totally uncontrolled ways with all plants once GMO crops are grown outdoors. Once mingled, there is no one on the planet who can say with certainty what the short or long term consequences of that mingling will be. All independently conducted science, however, shows, often to the surprise of the scientist, devastating health and environmental consequences.
Four years ago the FDA promised stricter oversight of GMO plants. None of the oversight promised has occurred and the new rule opens even wider holes in any regulatory restrictions despite the strong desire of US and global consumers to avoid GMO foods through labeling and selection. The new rule will make that virtually impossible:
* Biotech companies will assess their OWN crops to determine whether USDA SHOULD regulate them. Since the criteria are loose, open and subjective, the outcome is assured: no regulation.
* Biotech companies will be able to grow UNTESTED crops without any USDA oversight whatsoever, making, according to the USDA contamination of conventional and organic crops with untested GMO material “more likely”.
* This contamination does not bother USDA regulators since the new rule allows “Low Level Presence” of GMO material in BOTH conventional “organic” food, feed and seed.
* Outdoor cultivation of pharmaceutical-producing and industrial material-producing crops is allowed without supervision or restriction. The cross pollination of other plants, weeds, feed and food crops with this material is assured. The consequences include drugs and industrial chemicals ending up in our food and animal feed.
* The rule virtually assures that the DNA to produce these materials will wind up in our own DNA and that of the animals we eat. Both consumer and food industry groups have urged controls on this practice, but the USDA is determined to ignore that input.
* USDA refuses to propose any controls on GMO plants which require or tolerate high levels of pesticide or herbicide use. Insects and weeds both adapt to the presence of these toxins and become resistant to them. Chemical resistant GMO DNA mixes with the genetic material of weeds and insects: an epidemic of super weeds and pests has already resulted.
* In a move to vitiate State and local authorities from protecting farmers and consumers from these regulations, a last minute “correction” bars state or local regulation of GE crops more protective than its own weak rule.
The USDA is following the lead of the FDA by opening new loopholes which make consumer and environmental protection meaningless. The new rule will be of great benefit to Biotech companies who already have more than free reign to contaminate and then own the entire food stock of the US and beyond.
If you are not content to be exposed to more, and more dangerous, GMO “foods”, drugs and industrial chemicals in your “food” then I urge you to click below to tell the USDA in no uncertain terms that this is unacceptable to you and to millions more just like you.
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26267
To get that message across right away, I urge you to also send this to your entire email list with a short note asking each person to take the actions here and forward the mails as well. Nothing short of your health and that of the planet is at stake.
Then click below to urge your members of Congress to support the protective legislation which Rep. Denis Kucinich (D-OH) has introduced which would take the FDA and the USDA in exactly the opposit direction – safety testing, stronger regulation and more oversight by both agencies, plus mandatory labeling.
Click Here:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/568/t/1128/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25920
Health and Freedom Options the FDA Wishes You Did Not Know About !
News flash! Neither the USDA nor the FDA are your friends. They do share a great deal, however: Both care a lot about keeping industry happy and nothing at all about keeping you healthy.
FDA wants you to eat what industry wants you to ingest into your body and then take drugs, lots and lots of them. FDA prohibits the labeling of genetically modified foods (which the Austrian Government has just shown decrease reproductive capacity!) It wants you to eat Codex-approved levels of hormones (no upper limits), pesticides and other dangerous chemicals (many with no upper limits) as well as free radicals from irradiation. When you get sick, either from the drugs or the routinely contaminated foods they allow, then you make the drug side of the house very, very happy!
USDA wants you to eat whatever industry wants you to eat and put dangerous chemicals, untested DNA and hormones into your body. Whether you get sick or not is of literally no concern to them.
Americans are over medicated and under ‘healthed’ according to study after study. Click below to read the two latest studies which, like the many others published around the world, show that the US has the poorest health, and gets the worst health service, in the developed world – often worse than many countries in the developing world.
http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?p=1440
Then ask yourself whether that is related to the fact that the number of filled drug prescriptions has gone up 72% in 10 years and vaccinations have gone up by an astonishing – and wildly profitable – 12800 percent during the same period.
The number of childhood vaccinations in that time has gone from 11 recommended doses to 78 for girls (75 for boys unless they, too, are vaccinated “against” HPV to “protect” a cervix they do not have) in that time. Starting at age 18, if people follow the recommendations and receive an annual flu sho (and we sincerely hope that they will not), that will add another 63 shots if you live to the expected age of 81 for a woman or 60 if you are a man and die at 78 as predicted. That’s right: a lifetime average of 141 shots for women and 135 for men IF you do not accept any other vaccinations.
FDA Does Not Want You to Know How
To Control Your Health
Take Silver, For Example. Please do!
FDA does not want you to have Nano Silver in your medicine chest. It is a nutrient traditionally effective against every pathogenic (disease causing organism) against which it has ever been tested and has no known side effects. It eliminates the need for most antibiotics and would, singlehandedly, reverse the cataclysmic problem of drug resistant bacteria and other disease agents which are a huge and looming threat to all of us. Instead of embracing a solution which has an enormous margin of safety, is hugely inexpensive compared to drugs and can be used without a prescription, the FDA has attacked silver products for decades. They do not want you to know that published studies show that it is effective against the H5N1 Virus (among all the others it kills). Click below to lay in a supply before the drug-cartel, through its government arm, succeeds in getting it off the market.
www.nutronix.com/ naturalsolutions – > Products tab >
While there are many silvers on the market, only nano silver has been shown friendly to the beneficial bacteria in your body, an essential part of your immune system. And your purchase supports the Natural Solutions Foundation!
Speaking of support, times are tough but we need to keep going forward together, as this email makes clear. The other side is not out of money! They are continuing their disastrous disregard of our well-being in order to take care of their own bottom line. Both the USDA and the FDA are totally controlled by industry interests. Big Pharma sales are down about 13% because of the economic downturn so they are using regulatory powers to try to kill health products.
We rely upon your support.
Here’s how you can give it:
1. Give GMO-free, Chemical-free, Shade-Grown Valley of the Moon(TM) Coffee to evey coffee drinker on your gift list – and get some for yourself. This product is the first output of our Valley of the Moon(TM) Eco Demonstration Project in the beautiful, bountiful Chiriqui Highlands of Panama. We are teaching farmers how to grow coffee without chemicals so Valley of the Moon(TM) coffee is good for you, good for the workers and good for the planet. That’s why it is certified as a “Friendly Food” by the Natural Solutions Foundation.
By the way, we say, “Chemical Free” rather than “Organic” because we believe that the term “organic” should be reserved for products which are certified organic. We will be applying for that status next year after our coffee crop is in. No chemicals have been used on this land for at least 5 years. Everything we are using on the land and the coffee crop is totally safe and meets or exceeds organic standards. We could use the word “organic” but we feel it would be misleading since certification lies in the future but I give you my word that the Valley of the Moon(TM) coffee exceeds organic standards by a wide margin.
You can purchase for yourself or as a gift here:
http://drrimatruthreports.com/?page_id=1130
2. Visit our two online stores, www.Organics4U.org and www.NaturalSolutionsMarketplace.org . they are designed to make products and services available to you that we believe in and that we hope you will enjoy. If you have a product or service that you want to share with our enormous readership, please send an email to Drew at NSFmarketplace@gmail.com with “Marketplace” in the subject line. Every purchase supports your well-being and health, the wellness industry (you can see from the first item in this newsletter how serious the attacks on the supplement industry are) and supports the Natural Solutions Foundation at the same time.
3. Donate to the Natural Solutions Foundation. All US tax payers receive a 100% tax deduction for the amount of your donation. As the economy turns down, the drug companies will fight harder to kill supplements, sell hormones and drugs. The Biotech companies will fight harder to sell their dangerous “food” and “feed”.
Our Donation Page is at:
http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?page_id=189
The chemical companies will fight harder to convince people to use more of their poisons. Who is there on your behalf? Natural Solutions Foundation. You work without pay, but we have bills to pay. If every person who reads this donates a minimum of $1 per month, we will have enough money to fight this battle well. If you can give more, do it now. Click below to do it now while you are thinking about it. And let your friends and contacts know that this issue is very hot, requiring their participation, too.
http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?page_id=189
For more information about what is going on, please take a look at Natural Solutions trustee Ralph Fucetola JD’s recent blog:
http://vitaminlawyerhealthfreedom.blogspot.com/2008/11/musings-on-health-freedom-in-coming.html
We’re here for you. Please make sure that you are, too. We are a team, after all, Team Health Freedom!
Please forward this email!
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
On November 18, 2008 the NY Times published the report of a health scorecard entitled “The Wrong Place to Be Chronically Ill” which follows. It once again documents, as does every survey of international health and health cost, that the US reliance on prescription medication rather than on healthy food, healthy life style, exercise and supplements, is a national disaster of the first water.
Only clean food, high potency natural supplements and nutrients and a huge pile of sceptical salt about what the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry, through its gullable spokespeople, uninformed doctors, will change that along with one more ingredient: common sense!
Eating GMO food is disastrous for your health. Organic food and supplements are essential. Go to www.Organics4U.org to stop using nutrients from GMO sources! Get hold of some high quality nano silver and stop using antibiotics. Check out http://www.Nutronix.com/naturalsolutions and go to the Products tab, then the Silver solutions button. Your health will thank you! Growing whatever you can and making contact with local growers to make sure you know what is in your food.
It’s your choice. Act now to make your life a healthy one! And act now to donate (http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?page_id=189) to the Health Freedom organization that is there for you, the Natural Solutions Foundation, www.HealthFreedomUSA.org.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org
www.Organics4U.org
www.NaturalSolutionsMarketPlace.org
www.NaturalSolutionsMedia.tv
The Wrong Place to Be Chronically Ill
Tuesday 18 November 2008
The New York Times | Editorial
Chronically ill Americans suffer far worse care than their counterparts in seven other industrial nations, according to a new study by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based foundation that has pioneered in international comparisons. It is the latest telling evidence that the dysfunctional American health care system badly needs reform.
The results of the study, published by the respected journal Health Affairs, belie the notion held by many American politicians that health care in this country is the best in the world. That may be true at a handful of pre-eminent medical centers, but it is hardly true for the care provided to a huge portion of the population.
The Commonwealth Fund’s survey of 7,500 patients in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Britain and the United States focused on patients who suffered from at least one of seven chronic conditions: hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, lung problems, cancer or depression.
The care they received in this country – or more often did not receive – ought to be a cause for shame. More than half of the American patients went without care because of high out-of-pocket costs. They did not visit a doctor when sick, skipped a recommended test or treatment or failed to fill a prescription. The uninsured suffered most, but even 43 percent of those who had insurance all year skipped care because of costs.
Americans also were most likely to report wasting time because their care was so poorly organized. About a third reported that medical records and test results were not available when needed or that tests were duplicated unnecessarily. A third experienced a medical error, such as being given the wrong medication or test results. Some 40 percent found it very difficult to get after-hours care without going to an emergency room.
The United States did comparatively well in some areas, such as providing relatively prompt access to specialists and clear instructions to patients leaving the hospital. But the nation’s overall performance was abysmal.
By contrast, Dutch patients reported far more favorable experiences with their health care system, largely because the Netherlands provides universal coverage (through individual mandates and private health insurance), a strong primary care system and widespread use of electronic medical records. It should be possible to achieve the same level of performance here.
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Fluoride is a multi-system poison. The Natural Solutions Foundation strongly opposes compulsory drugging through its addtion to the water systems of communities. We believe that this is both medically reckless and unconstitutional.
The Natural Solutions Foundation’s strongly anti-fluoride position for infants and children is now echoed by the American Dental Association (ADA) which says that children under 1 year should not be exposed to fluoride.
Although the US supported fluoride in infant formula during the 2006 Codex Committee on Nutritiona and Foods for Special Dietary Uses meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand which dealt with infant formula and other special purpose foods, using data provided by the Natural Solutions Foundation, South Africa pushed the restriction on fluoride in healthy infants’ formula through, despite strong US objection.
Long a proponent of fluoridation of children’s teeth, the ADA joins the Natural Solutions Foundation in pointing out the dangers of the now-debunked toxin in infant’s bodies.
Rather than deal with the expense of safe disposal, the mining industry created the false belief that fluoride should be added to water, toothpaste, supplements, etc. That way, mining companies make a profit instead of taking a loss on fluoride which is expensive to dispose of according to EPA regulations. Despite propaganda to the contrary, fluoride has no known place in human metabolism and increases disease in those exposed to it. It is toxic to the brain, kidneys, bones, teeth, causes bone and other cancers at levels far lower than those permitted in water and has no known positive impact on human health despite oft-repeated but deeply flawed research claims to the contrary. Recent re-evaluation of the original research and other data make it clear that fluoride in any amount is a cumulative biological poison.
Although the United States has sought to add Fluoride to infant formula in the US and internationally, the World Health Organization recommends that infant formula be prepared in water which has no fluoride. Fluoridating water supplies means that infants will necessarily be exposed to amounts of fluoride which are toxic to them. “Little is known of the particular susceptibility of infants to fluoride but what we do know makes it clear that infant formula should be mixed with fluoride free water because fluoride is so toxic to them. Since infants are generally more sensitive to toxins than adults, banning it from formula is the only sensitive alternative,” according to Rima E. Laibow, MD, Medical Director of the Natural Solutions Foundation (http://www.HealthFreedomUSA.org).
Despite its wide acceptance as a water and food additive, and even as a “nutritional supplement,” fluoride is actually a dangerous metabolic poison with permanent effects at levels much lower than 1 part per million (ppm). Exposure is cumulative since fluoride is a bio-accumulator which remains in the body and can cause cancer, kidney failure, bone disease, including bone cancers, structural damage to bone and teeth, thyroid poisoning, pineal gland calcification, reproductive failure, synergistic increases in lead poisoning when both are present, endocrine disruption leading to diabetes, other cancers and decreases in the availability of essential nutrients like magnesium.
In addition to water, the FDA allows sodium aluminum fluoride (cryolite) to be sprayed on more than 30 fruits and vegetables at up to 7 ppm. The USDA set a 1.2 ppm limit for arsenic and fluoride pesticides in 1933 since they are equally toxic. While arsenic sprays have been phased out, fluoride ones are increasingly popular and now can be used not only on food but on food storage areas as well. Current FDA water fluoridation standards allow up to 4 ppm and assure on-going fluoride contamination for most Americans.
Industry pressure is strong to increase the amount of fluoride we ingest: DOW Chemical uses extremely high fluoride tolerances on a wide number of common foods including 98 ppm for wheat germ, 40 ppm for wheat bran, 31 ppm for rice bran, 30 ppm for some nuts, 28 ppm for corn meal, 26 ppm for corn flour, 25 ppm for millet, wild rice, sorghum and wheat grains and 17 ppm for oat grain.
Leading scientists have called for a ban on all fluoride usage in light of its devastating impact on health and a recent evaluation of the data upon which fluoridation was initially approved by the FDA for municipal water supplies was deeply and fraudulently distorted when presented to the FDA and the public since toxic results were not revealed in the group receiving fluoridated water.
Vaccines often contain fluoride as an adjuvant or immune system irritant to provoke the immune system into producing more antibodies with fewer antigens since antigens are the expensive part of vaccines. Since vaccines also frequently contain aluminum hydroxide, the synergistic toxicity of the two toxins is significantly more than the toxicity of either toxic metal alone at the same dosage. This problem is repeated in municipal water supplies since fluoride is added for its alleged dental health benefits while aluminum salts are added to “polish” the water and give it an appealing gleaming appearance.
Fluoride as an additive has a dark past: it was first added to water in the Soviet Gulag (prison system) since it is a neurological poison and made political and other difficult prisoners complacent and therefore easier to manage. It was added to the water supplies of the Nazi death and slave labor camps for the same reason. Fluoride is widely used as an additive although the scientific evidence upon which its use rests is either fraudulent or flawed. Long a staple of water treatment, sodium fluoride has been replaced by other, even more toxic fluoride compounds like sulfuryl fluoride which has never been tested in water supplies nor approved for use in them.
The New York State Attorney General has expressed support for banning this dangerous but widely used pesticide. Fluoride contamination from either natural sources or its addition to liquids and products used by children results in dental fluorosis, a permanent mottling of teeth which is both cosmetic and structural, and similar structural damage to bone associated with increased fractures, osteoporosis (bone loss) and demineralization of bone. IQ loss and other neurological damage is due both to the fluoride itself and the dangerous interaction of fluoride with lead since fluoride renders lead even more toxic to the brain. Fluoride without lead leads to loss of higher cognitive functions including decision-making and IQ.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org
www.Organics4U.org
www.NaturalSolutionsMarketPlace.org
www.NaturalSolutionsMedia.tv
DONATE NOW http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?page_id=189 All deductions are tax deductible if you pay taxes in the US.
For donations in multiples of $25, we’ll say “Thanks†with a 1/2 lb bag of our full bodied Valley of the Moon(TM) Coffee: Shade Grown, GMO and Chemical Free Coffee from the Chiriqui Highlands of Panama, it’s Friendly Food Certified: Friendly to Your Health, Friendly to the Workers and Friendly to the Environment http://drrimatruthreports.com/?page_id=1130
Citing price as the reason, Alaska authorities backed off requiring – and providing – Gardasil shots to young girls and women.
While it is possible to see this announcement as just another cost-cutting measure, the liklihood is that the serious controversy around this unnecessary, dangerous and ineffective vaccine which actually increases cervical cancer incidence in women by as much as 44.7% is the real cause for this back-off.
Whatever the reason, girls in Alaska whose families cannot pay for this shot are a great deal better off than girls whose families can afford it and do make the much hyped, but dangerous decision to give their daughters Gardasil.
Vaccination is so dangerous, despite the hype and hoopla which supports this very profitable segment of the pharmaceutical industry, that it is a totally uninsurable risk. That means that no insurance company will provide a policy to the manufactures to protect them from the liability law suits that they could be exposed to when their products cause harm.
Who will pay if Gardasil causes death and damage? Surely not Merck, Gardasil’s manufacturer. The FDA, the supposed “regulatory agency” which keeps dangerous products off the market, bowed to pressure and conflict of interest and rushed Gardasil through without adequate trials to establish even short term safety. And it has done something else. It has removed any threat of liability from any drug or vaccine manufacturer who causes harm through their product IF that product has been approved for any thing at all by the FDA.
So who will pay for the death and damage to otherwise healthy girls and women who died or were crippled in the immediate post-vaccination period? Who will pay for the cancers and deaths yet to come in a poorly tested vaccine which was rushed to market to make, literally, a killing without proper evaluation? Who will compensate women who cannot bear children as a consequence of this vaccination for the grief of their infertility, should that be one of the long-term effects of Gardasil injection? Who will pay for the injury to children and husbands who loose their mothers and wives prematurely if Gardasil is a long-term killer?
No one.
Yours in health and freedom,
Dr. Rima
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
www.HealthFreedomUSA.org
www.GlobalHealthFreedom.org
www.NaturalSolutionsFoundation.org
www.Organics4U.org
www.NaturalSolutionsMarketPlace.org
www.NaturalSolutionsMedia.tv
DONATE NOW http://drrimatruthreports.com/index.php?page_id=189 Tax deductible
For donations in multiples of $25, we’ll say “Thanks” with a 1/2 lb bag of our full bodied Valley of the Moon(TM) Coffee: Shade Grown, GMO and Chemical Free Coffee from the Chiriqui Highlands of Panama is Friendly Food Certified: Friendly to Your Health, Friendly to the Workers and Friendly to the Environment
http://drrimatruthreports.com/?page_id=1130
State limits access to 2 free vaccines
SCHOOL PROGRAM: 15 others will still be offered but these were too costly.
By GEORGE BRYSON
gbryson@adn.com
Published: November 7th, 2008 02:28 AM
Last Modified: November 7th, 2008 11:16 AM
For the first time in more than 30 years, the State of Alaska will no longer offer all vaccinations free to all Alaska schoolchildren, the state Division of Epidemiology reported this week.
When the new policy begins on Jan. 1, two of the newest and most expensive vaccines — immunizations for girls to prevent cervical cancer and for both boys and girls to prevent meningitis — will only be offered free to low-income, uninsured or Alaska Native and American Indian children.
Other Alaskans will have to rely on health insurance policies to cover the expense, or pay for the vaccines themselves.
Federal funding of the state’s universal immunization program has failed to keep pace with the increasing cost and rising number of recommended vaccines, said Laurel Wood, manager of the Alaska Immunization Program.
For that reason, the state will cut back on two of more than a dozen vaccines it currently distributes to Alaska health care providers at no cost, including:
• Gardasil, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine for girls, and
• Menactra, the meningococcal vaccine for boys and girls.
Under provisions of the federally funded Vaccines for Children program, both immunizations will continue to be offered free to young Alaskans who are Medicaid-eligible.
They will also be offered at federally funded health clinics (including the Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center) to “under-insured” children whose family policies don’t cover the cost of vaccines.
Fifteen older vaccines — including immunizations to protect children against hepatitis, diphtheria, polio, tetanus, measles, mumps, chickenpox and influenza — will continue to be offered free to all Alaskans under 18 years of age, regardless of income or insurance.
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After the cutback, about 4,000 Alaska girls in need of the HPV vaccine and about 5,500 boys and girls in need of the meningococcal vaccine won’t be covered, Wood said.
The meningococcal vaccine costs the state $76 a dose, Wood said. The HPV vaccine — which requires three doses over a period of six months — costs about $300 per child for the complete series.
Trying to provide those vaccines at no cost to all Alaska school children would require an additional $1.6 million, Wood said.
The number of recommended vaccines has grown along with their costs, the Alaska Epidemiology Bulletin reported this week. In 2000 the entire battery of recommended vaccines cost $219 per child. Today the cost is $1,120 for boys and $1,429 for girls.
The cost of the HPV vaccine is the budget-buster.
Last year the state managed to cover that extra cost by tapping additional funds provided by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Wood said. But that was a one-time fix.
“It was basically a disproportionate amount of money for the size of our population compared with other states,” Wood said.
Since the HPV vaccine was first made available in June 2007, the state has distributed 33,000 free doses to girls between 9 and 18 years of age, Wood said.
The vaccine is recommended for young women up to the age of 26, but it’s not mandatory to attend public schools.
The meningococcal vaccine was first made available in January, 2006. Since then the state has distributed about 36,000 free doses to boys and girls between 11 and 18 years of age,” Wood said.
Persons with questions about the Alaska Immunization Program should contact the state Division of Public Health at 269-8000 or 1-888-430-4321.
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/581569.html