The story of Martin Luther

The dragon and his friends

The final protest: who will you worship?

Giving your child a smartphone is like “giving them a gram of cocaine”, a top addiction therapist has warned.

Independent June, 2017

Giving your child a smartphone is like “giving them a gram of cocaine”, a top addiction therapist has warned.

Time spent messaging friends on Snapchat and Instagram can be just as dangerously addictive for teenagers as drugs and alcohol, and should be treated as such, school leaders and teachers were told at an education conference in London.

Speaking alongside experts in technology addiction and adolescent development, Harley Street rehab clinic specialist Mandy Saligari said screen time was too often overlooked as a potential vehicle for addiction in young people.

“I always say to people, when you’re giving your kid a tablet or a phone, you’re really giving them a bottle of wine or a gram of coke,” she said. 

“Are you really going to leave them to knock the whole thing out on their own behind closed doors? 

“Why do we pay so much less attention to those things than we do to drugs and alcohol when they work on the same brain impulses?”

Her comments follow news that children as young as 13 are being treated for digital technology – with a third of British children aged 12-15 admitting they do not have a good balance between screen time and other activities.

For years it has been a supposed mystery, but it is finally being acknowledged that a primary cause of cancer in the world today is diet

Walking Times   October 30, 2017

For years it has been a supposed mystery, but it is finally being acknowledged that a primary cause of cancer in the world today is diet. Studies are now showing that obesity plays an enormous role in one’s chances of getting cancer, and the main cause of obesity is the type of foods people eat. It is in large part a lifestyle disease, and the most important relevant lifestyle choice is food.

“Overall, we estimated that 40.8% of incident cancer cases were attributable to exposure to the 24 factors included in the analysis (Table 2). Tobacco smoking was responsible for the greatest cancer burden, accounting for an estimated 15.7% of all incident cancer cases (2485 cases), followed by physical inactivity and excess body weight, which were responsible for an estimated 7.2% and 4.3% of incident cancer cases, respectively. All other exposures of interest were estimated to be responsible for less than 4.0% of incident cancer cases each.” [Source]

More specifically, researchers are pointing out the connection between the body’s insulin response to food and cancer metabolism. In short, there is a paradigm shift taking place and we are admitting that food can either feed or starve cancer cells. Here, in a piece for The Los Angeles Times, writer Sam Apple explains this connection:

“… researchers have made progress in understanding the diet-cancer connection. The advances have emerged in the somewhat esoteric field of cancer metabolism, which investigates how cancer cells turn the nutrients we consume into fuel and building blocks for new cancer cells.

Largely ignored in the last decades of the 20th century, cancer metabolism has undergone a revival as researchers have come to appreciate that some of the most well-known cancer-causing genes, long feared for their role in allowing cancer cells to proliferate without restraint, have another, arguably even more fundamental role: allowing cancer cells to “eat” without restraint. This research may yield a blockbuster cancer treatment, but in the meantime it can provide us with something just as crucial — knowledge about how to prevent the disease in the first place.” [Source]

Does this mean that these new revelations about cancer and the foods which cause it will trigger a widespread shift in the consumption habits of ordinary people? Will people switch to real food and abandon fake food?

Could it also mean that major food companies will face some degree of liability for producing addictive foods which are extremely high in sugars, artificial sweeteners, refined carbohydrates and other ingredients which trigger the body’s insulin response?

Black death: warnings of ‘global outbreak’ as PLAGUE continues to spread

Dailystar  30th October 2017

Health experts are warning there is “something different” about a new Black Death outbreak spreading across the world.

Some 1,300 cases of the pneumonic plague, which is transmitted by air, have now been confirmed.

An estimated 50 million lives were lost as a result of the Black Death epidemic of the 1300s.

And now the deadly disease has spread into more African countries after taking root in Madagascar.

Countries affected include South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Comoros, the Seychelles, Mauritius and Reunion.

So far, the virus has killed 124 people and infected around 1,300, but scientists say this figure will definitely rise.

The World Health Organisation, which has been working with Madagascar’s Ministry of Health, has warned the risk of the epidemic spreading is “high”.

"Plague, though terrifying, is nothing new in Madagascar, where about 600 cases are reported annually," the organisation said on its website.

But officials said while "health officials couldn't explain it", the plague is different this time.

A Crisis Emergency Committee has been established in response to the outbreak, which will "coordinate surveillance, contact tracing, case management, isolation and supplies" until it is contained.

Air Seychelles, one of Madagascar's biggest airlines, stopped flying earlier in the month, in an effort to contain the spread and airports are screening passengers to avoid spread of the plague.

Schools and businesses have been closed, and large public gatherings have been cancelled.

A WHO official said: “The risk of the disease spreading is high at national level… because it is present in several towns and this is just the start of the outbreak.”

The last significant outbreak of the disease occurred nearly a century ago in Los Angeles, when a two-week epidemic killed 30 people.

There are three types of plague – bubonic affecting the lymph nodes, septicaemia which causes bleeding under the skin, and pneumonic which affects respiration.

The WHO describes the pneumonic plague as “the deadliest and most rapid form of plague”.

Nearly 1.2 million doses of antibiotics and £11.4 million worth of emergency funding have been sent by the WHO to fight to plague.
People infected with plague usually develop “flu-like” symptoms after an incubation period of three to seven days.
Typical symptoms include fever, chills, head and body-aches and weakness, vomiting and nausea.

Levels of the herbicide glyphosate have soared in older Americans in 23 years

San Diego Union Tribune  October 24, 2017

Levels of the herbicide glyphosate have soared in older Americans in 23 years, according to a study led by University of California researchers.

The study wasn’t designed to detect any potential harm from the increased exposure, but it will help with future studies to determine if any such link exists, said Paul J. Mills, a UC San Diego professor of family medicine and public health.

The study used data from the long-running and influential Rancho Bernardo Study of Healthy Aging, established in 1972. It was published as a research letter Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study can be found at j.mp/roundupucsd.

Environmental activists have attacked the widespread use of glyphosate as causing cancer and other diseases. Some studies have suggested a potential link, but none have actually demonstrated a causal effect in humans. Other studies have found no correlation.

Opponents say animal research shows the potential for harm.

“There's a lot of animal work, but few if any on people,” Mills said. “And I was surprised to see that, given how much the chemical is in the environment, and that's what inspired us to just start researching it so we can fill in that gap.”

Unlike other studies on glyphosate, the data from the Rancho Bernardo study has been collected for decades, providing a time window to examine glyphosate exposure and any effects in individuals. Also importantly, glyphosate levels were directly measured; other studies relied on interviews to assess exposure.

The study examined urinary levels of glyphosate in 100 people from 1993 to 2016. Very few had detectable levels in 1993, but by 2016 70 percent had detectable levels, Mills said. Of those with detectable amounts, in 1993-1996, the average level was 0.203 nanograms per liter. By 2014-2016, the level had risen to 0.449 nanograms per liter.

Ongoing research at UCSD is conducted at the Herbicide Awareness & Research Project. Go to j.mp/ucsdharp for more information.

Glyphosate is widely available as the active ingredient in Roundup, sold by Monsanto, a St. Louis-based agricultural company. Roundup is considered safe by federal regulators within normal levels of use. It enables farmers to quickly kill weeds without using more toxic herbicides. Monsanto also sells crops seeds that are genetically modified to resist Roundup.