NaturalNews.com
originally published April 13, 2008
by Barbara L. Minton
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has given care giant Kaiser Permanente over $300,000 to test and interview 150 to 500 patients suffering from Morgellons Disease. The study will be done in northern California where many Morgellons patients live.
Prior to this news, people had written off the disease as a hoax or the result of hypochondria. But recent evidence suggests that the disease is indeed real, and may be related to genetically modified (GM) food.
What is Morgellons Disease?
On August 1, 2007, the CDC issued the following statement regarding Morgellons Disease: "Morgellons is an unexplained and debilitating condition that has emerged as a public health concern. Recently, the CDC has received an increased number of inquiries from the public, health care providers, public health officials, Congress, and the media regarding this condition. Persons who suffer from this condition report a range of coetaneous symptoms including crawling, biting and stinging sensations; granules, threads or black speck-like materials on or beneath the skin; and/or lesions (e.g., rashes or sores) and some sufferers also report systemic manifestations such as fatigue, mental confusion, short term memory loss, joint pain, and changes in vision. Moreover, some who suffer from this condition appear to have substantial morbidity and social dysfunction, which can include decreased work productivity or job loss, total disability, familial estrangement, divorce, loss of child custody, home abandonment, and suicidal ideation."
Research Foundation (As of February, 2007, approximately 10,000 families had registered with the Morgellons MRF) and felt they or a member of their family met criteria for Morgellons as defined by the MRF. Of the U.S. families in the MRF registry, 24% reside in California with geographic clustering in the San Francisco metropolitan areas.
In New Science magazine, Sept. 15-21 edition, Daniel Elkan describes a patient who for years has been "finding tiny blue, red and black fibers growing from intensely itchy lesions on his skin." These fibers appear like pliable plastic and can be several millimeters long. Some appear in a zig-zag pattern. These fibers can be as fine as spider silk, yet they are strong enough to distend the skin when pulled.
A May 18, 2006 story carried by KGW, a local news channel in Oregon, recounts the story of a family practice doctor experiencing the disease. She reported feeling like bugs were crawling under her skin. "If I fully tell people what has gone on with me medically, they think they're in the twilight zone," said Dr. Drottar who woke up with the feeling that fluid was flowing just below her skin. When black or blue hair-like fibers protruded from her skin, she reported thinking she had been exposed to asbestos. "I thought I was having asbestos fibers come out of my skin. I was pulling long, thin, small hair-like fibers that were extremely sharp that could literally pierce through my finger nail."
According to Dr. Drottar, these symptoms were accompanied by severe depression, chronic fatigue and a weakened immune system. This debilitating condition forced her to give up her medical practice.
Effective treatment for Morgellons sufferers has been elusive. Doctors have claimed that this type of disease must be caused by a parasite, but even the strongest anti-parasitic medications have not helped. In the past, psychologists have insisted that this was a new version of delusional parasitosis, a form of psychosis in which sufferers hold a delusional belief that they are infected by parasites.
The Morgellons, GM Link
According to the CDC statement, the etiology of Morgellons is unknown, and the medical community has insufficient information to determine whether persons who identify themselves as having the disease have a common cause for their symptoms. In April, 2006, the CDC recommended an epidemiologic investigation. It was not until January 16, 2008 that the care grant to Kaiser Permanente was announced.
In the meantime, a research team from Oklahoma State University lead by Dr. Randy Wymore, studied some of the fibers sent to them by Morgellons patients. They discovered that fibers from different people looked remarkably similar to each other and yet seemed to match no common environmental fibers.
Ahmed Kilani, a specialist in infectious disease detection, claimed to have broken down two fiber samples and extracted their DNA. He found that they belonged to a fungus.
In an even more provocative finding, Vitaly Citovsky, Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook University in New York, discovered that the fibers contained the substance Agrobacterium, a genus of gram-negative bacteria capable of genetically transforming not only plants, but also other eukaryotic species, including human cells.
Anonymous samples were provided to Professor Citovsky by the Morgellons Research Foundation to use in investigating the potential presence of Agrobacterium in biopsies from Morgellons patients. Control reactions included samples provided by healthy donors. Only Morgellons, not healthy subjects, tested positive in these studies.
According to a statement issued by Professor Citovsky, this observation does not imply that Agrobacterium causes Morgellons or that Morgellons is indeed an infectious disease. However, it does encourage future studies to determine (1) statistical significance of data, (2) whether Agrobacterium is not only present extracellularly, but also causes genetic transformation of the infected tissues, and (3) whether infection of laboratory animals with Agrobacterium can recreate symptoms of Morgellons.
Sources:
"Background information on the involvement of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the investigation of Morgellons disease in the U.S.", published by the CDC.
"Skin Disease May Be Linked to GM Food", Whitley Strieber's Unknown Country, Oct. 12, 2007.
"Serious Study of Mystery Disease", Whitney Strieber's Unknown Country, Jan. 31, 2008.
"GMO Disease Epidemics: (10) Bt-cotton Fiber Disease", Myron Stagman, Ph.D., Portland independent media center
Morgellons Watch, "Clarification from Vitaly Citovsky"
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Morgellons Disease May Be Linked to Genetically Modified Food
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Drug Company Seeks to Outlaw Vitamin B6 to Protect Pharma Profits
NaturalNews.com
by Mike Adams
Big Pharma is constantly finding new ways to destroy the natural supplements market, in much the same way that the American Medical Association once sought to destroy the chiropractic industry (for which it was later found guilty of conspiracy in U.S. courts, by the way). The latest attack against vitamins comes from an FDA petition filed by MedicurePharma, Inc., which has astonishingly asked the FDA to ban the sale of Vitamin B6!
Vitamin B6, of course, is a naturally-occurring nutrient found in numerous vegetables, nuts and whole grains. Its natural form is called pyridoxal 5'-phosphate or P5P for short. It's an essential nutrient for expectant mothers, growing children and anyone who wishes to be healthy. It's absolutely crucial for healthy blood cell function, and it's used in over 100 enzymatic reactions involving protein metabolism.
So why would a pharmaceutical company petition the FDA to outlaw the sale of this essential nutrient? It's simple: Because Big Pharma wants to market its own form of Vitamin B6 and call it a "drug."
Medicure Pharma, Inc., has been studying the clinical effects of Vitamin B6 (which they call "MC-1") on humans. This is part of a process for receiving FDA approval on MC-1 as a "drug," and then marketing this drug through the conventional medical system (and selling it at markups that can reach 500,000% over the cost of the actual ingredients).
This issue was reported by the Alliance for Natural Health, an outstanding health freedom organization that deserves your support. You can read about this Vitamin B6 issue (along with links to the petition) at:
http://www.anhcampaign.org/news/hand-ph...
Obviously, it is in the financial interest of Medicure Pharma, Inc. to not only receive FDA approval for their "MC-1" version of Vitamin B6; it's also crucial to eliminate the competition. After all, if people knew MC-1 was just Vitamin B6, they could go out and buy it on their own, for a fraction of the price of a prescription drug. This is most likely why Medicure Pharma petitioned the FDA to outlaw Vitamin B6 supplements: It's the simplest and easiest way to eliminate the competition and guarantee profits!
Screwy logic, biopiracy and Big Pharma scams
So what's the logic behind banning Vitamin B6? It's simple: Medicare Pharma wants the FDA to declare Vitamin B6 to be "adulterated" because it contains a drug. Which drug does it contain? Well, MC-1, of course!
Do you see the circular reasoning here? Vitamin B6 is a naturally-occurring vitamin, but if a drug company gets FDA approval on Vitamin B6 (with a different name), then that very same drug company can petition the FDA to ban Vitamin B6, claiming it contains their drug!
I know this sounds incredibly stupid. And it is. But it isn't unprecedented. In fact, the very same thing happened with red yeast rice.
A few years ago, drug companies discovered that red yeast rice (a natural supplement) contained powerful, natural compounds that balance cholesterol levels. These compounds are called lovastatins (sound familiar?)
Drug companies ripped off the lovastatin molecules from red yeast rice, then patented them. Once they achieved FDA approval for their "statin drugs," it was easy to file a petition requesting the outlawing of red yeast rice, claiming the supplement was "adulterated" with drugs! Which drugs? Statin drugs, of course -- the very same drugs that were isolated from red yeast rice in the first place!
This is why the FDA has been on a terror campaign to outlaw red yeast rice supplements. They've sent warning letters to online retailers and threatened numerous companies with legal action. The point of all this is to eliminate red yeast rice from the marketplace because it competes with statin drugs. And it's the exact same strategy now being followed by Medicure Pharma in its attempt to get the FDA to ban Vitamin B6.
Was it a move out of financial desperation?
Medicure Pharma, by the way, is losing its shirt. It recently received notice from the American Stock Exchange that it would be "delisted" because it no longer meets the minimum requirement for shareholder equity vs. ongoing fiscal losses. In other words, the company is losing too much money and has too little shareholder equity to even stay listed in the American Stock Exchange.
This might explain its decision to petition the FDA to outlaw the sale of Vitamin B6 (P5P). If consumers were unable to buy the vitamins, many would have no choice but to seek out the company's own patented, high-profit MC-1 version of the vitamin, and that would generate a windfall of profits!
Making money in the pharmaceutical industry, you see, is not about helping people in any real way; it's about limiting their options, controlling the marketplace, and forcing people to buy products from you at monopoly prices.
This is, in fact, the underlying business model of the entire pharmaceutical industry: Selling drugs at monopoly prices while outlawing competing products. Any approval by the FDA is, in effect, a license to engage in monopolistic market practices. And remarkably, the FDA even enforces this monopoly by threatening, intimidating and raiding the warehouses of competing product companies, especially if they're in the "natural" products industry.
Even more remarkably, the FTC, which claims to protect fair market practices in the United States, has utterly ignored the monopoly practices of Big Pharma. Yes, the same government office that went after Microsoft for creating a "monopoly" user interface in Windows seems to have no interest whatsoever in going after drug companies engaged in widespread, fraudulent monopoly marketing practices that are bankrupting the entire nation! (How's that for selective enforcement of trade practices?)
We must either stop the FDA, or lose all access to herbs and supplements
Do you see where all this is ultimately headed? If the FDA is allowed to keep banning nutritional supplements while promoting the very same drugs synthesized from those natural sources, it could allow Big Pharma to commit widespread biopiracy, stealing all the good medicine from nature, claiming patent protection on the useful molecules, and getting the FDA to outlaw virtually all the natural substances from which those medicines were first derived.
It's not a particularly brilliant strategy, but it is exceedingly effective at defrauding the public out of trillions of dollars in dishonest profits. And the fact that this is going on today gives additional support to something I've proposed for quite some time: Ending all patent protection on medicines, genes and seeds.
I say, there should never be a financial incentive for corporations to deny the People access to information and products that could halt disease, end suffering, and enhance their health. And yet today's conventional medical system is set up precisely to profit from the ongoing disease of the People.
It is a system that offers no cures, no education and no honest information to the public about real health solutions. It only offers a lifetime of ever-more-expensive patented pharmaceuticals that lead to a downward spiral of bad health and bad debt until more and more American families are left diseased and penniless, victims of a profiteering system of medicine that trades lives for profits as the foundation of its business model.
It is time for radical -- revolutionary, in fact! -- changes to our system of medicine, and I believe that begins by ending all patent protection for medicines, genes and seeds. These things belong to ALL the People, not just the rich, white fat cats who take home $300 million annual salaries by fraudulently selling dangerous prescription medications to people who are only harmed by them.
In the mean time if you want to send your comments to the FDA on this Vitamin B6 petition, the web page for you to file a comment on this Vitamin B6 issue is located here: http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/c...
To file a comment, you have to click the little text balloon beside the phrase "Add Comments." It's difficult to find on the page, which just goes to show you that the FDA isn't really interested in people adding comments in the first place.
Be sure to also visit the Alliance for Natural Health at www.ANHcampaign.org
This Company May Be the Biggest Threat to Your Future Health
On March 11 a new documentary was aired on French television. It is a documentary most Americans will never see, explaining how the gigantic biotech corporation Monsanto is threatening to destroy the agricultural biodiversity which has served mankind for thousands of years.
For millennia, farmers have saved seeds from season to season. But when Monsanto developed GM seeds that would resist its own herbicide, Roundup, Monsanto patented the seeds. For nearly all of its history the United States Patent and Trademark Office refused to grant patents on seeds, viewing them as life-forms with too many variables to be patented. But in 1980 the U.S. Supreme Court allowed for seed patents in a five-to-four decision, laying the groundwork for a handful of corporations to begin taking control of the world’s food supply.
Since the 1980s, Monsanto has become the world leader in genetic modification of seeds and has won 674 biotechnology patents, more than any other company. Farmers who buy Monsanto’s Roundup Ready seeds are required to sign an agreement promising not to save the seed produced after each harvest for re-planting, or to sell the seed to other farmers. This means that farmers must buy new seed every year.
Monsanto puts pressure on farmers, farmers’ co-ops, seed dealers, and anyone else it suspects may have infringed its patents of genetically modified seeds. To do this, Monsanto relies on a shadowy army of private investigators and agents. They secretly videotape and photograph farmers, store owners, and co-ops. They infiltrate community meetings. They gather information from informants about farming activities.
Some Monsanto agents pretend to be surveyors. Others confront farmers on their land and try to pressure them to sign papers giving Monsanto access to their private records. Farmers call them the “seed police” and use words such as “Gestapo” and “Mafia” to describe their tactics.
Sources:
Sunday, June 1, 2008
New Stealth Chemicals Hidden in Your Food
If you pick up a can of soup and find that the sodium levels are lower than you expected, or that a food item advertises it has “less sugar” or “no MSG” ... then there may be cause for alarm.
A relatively young company, Senomyx, may be responsible for the sodium and sugar levels falling in various grocery store items. They may be putting chemicals into your food right now, without telling you and without you even realizing. Under U.S. law, they don’t have to.
Senomyx has contracted with Kraft, Nestle, Coca Cola, and Campbell Soup to put a chemical in foods that masks bitter flavors by turning off bitter flavor receptors on your tongue. The companies can then reduce sugar and sodium levels by approximately half without affecting the flavor.
All of the companies declined to identify which foods and beverages the chemical additives have been or will be added to. These chemical compounds are not required to be listed separately on food labels; they are grouped into the general category of "artificial flavors."
Senomyx was able to obtain FDA approval and a “generally recognized as safe” classification from the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association in less than a year and a half, based on a safety study of rats conducted for just 3 months.
Food items that are most likely to contain these new chemicals include soups, juices (fruit and vegetable), ice cream and sauces.
Sources:
Sunday, May 25, 2008
How Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy's Son Recovered From Autism
In this CNN op-ed piece, actors Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy reflect on their son’s recovery from autism in light of the recent federal court decision which conceded that vaccines could have contributed to another child’s autistic condition.
Carrey and McCarthy’s son, Evan, has been healed thanks to breakthroughs that may not be scientifically proven, but have definitely helped, such as a gluten-free, casein-free diet, vitamin supplementation, detox of metals, and anti-fungals for the yeast overgrowths that plagued his intestines. Once his neurological function was recovered through these medical treatments, speech therapy and applied behavior analysis helped him learn the skills he could not learn while he was frozen in autism.
When Evan was re-evaluated after these treatments, state workers were amazed by his improvement. But although Evan is now 5, not a single member of the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics, or any other health authority has asked to evaluate and understand how Evan recovered from autism. Instead, they simply posit that he was misdiagnosed and never had autism to begin with.
Carrey and McCarthy believe that autism is an environmental illness, and that while vaccines are not the only environmental trigger, they do play a major role. Even if the CDC is not convinced of a link between vaccines and autism, changing the vaccine schedule should be seriously considered as a precautionary measure.
