Natural Communities Magazine A magazine devoted to the local natural wellness culture.

By Dr. James Howenstine, MD.
February 3, 2007

Dr. James R. Shannon, former director of the National institute of health declared, “the only safe vaccine is one that is never used.”

Cowpox vaccine was believed able to immunize people against smallpox. At the time this vaccine was introduced, there was already a decline in the number of cases of smallpox. Japan introduced compulsory vaccination in 1872. In 1892 there were 165,774 cases of smallpox with 29,979 deaths despite the vaccination program. A stringent compulsory smallpox vaccine program, which prosecuted those refusing the vaccine, was instituted in England in 1867. Within 4 years 97.5 % of persons between 2 and 50 had been vaccinated. The following year England experienced the worst smallpox epidemic[1] in its history with 44,840 deaths. Between 1871 and 1880 the incidence of smallpox escalated from 28 to 46 per 100,000. The smallpox vaccine does not work.

Much of the success attributed to vaccination programs may actually have been due to improvement in public health related to water quality and sanitation, less crowded living conditions, better nutrition, and higher standards of living. Typically the incidence of a disease was clearly declining before the vaccine for that disease was introduced. In England the incidence of polio had decreased by 82 % before the polio vaccine was introduced in 1956. In the early 1900s an astute Indiana physician, Dr. W.B. Clarke, stated “Cancer was practically unknown until compulsory vaccination with cowpox vaccine began to be introduced. I have had to deal with two hundred cases of cancer, and I never saw a case of cancer in an un-vaccinated [2] person.”

There is a widely held belief that vaccines should not be criticized because the public might refuse to take them. This is valid only if the benefits exceed the known risks of the vaccines. Do Vaccines Actually Prevent Disease? This important question does not appear to have ever been adequately studied. Vaccines are enormously profitable for drug companies and recent legislation in the U.S. has exempted, lawsuits against pharmaceutical firms in the event of adverse reactions to vaccines which are very common. In 1975 Germany stopped requiring pertussis (whooping cough) vaccination. Today less than 10 % of German children are vaccinated against pertussis. The number of cases of pertussis has steadily decreased[3] even though far fewer children are receiving pertussis vaccine.

Measles outbreaks have occurred in schools with vaccination rates over 98 % in all parts of the U.S. including areas that had reported no cases of measles for years. As measles immunization rates rise to high levels measles becomes a disease seen only in vaccinated persons. An outbreak of measles occurred in a school where 100 % of the children had been vaccinated. Measles mortality rates had declined by 97 % in England before measles vaccination was instituted.

In 1986 there were 1300 cases of pertussis in Kansas and 90 % of these cases occurred in children who had been adequately vaccinated. Similar vaccine failures have been reported from Nova Scotia where pertussis continues to be occurring despite universal vaccination. Pertussis remains endemic[4] in the Netherlands where for more than 20 years 96 % of children have received 3 pertussis shots by age 12 months. After institution of diphtheria vaccination in England and Wales in 1894 the number of deaths SA from diphtheria rose by 20 % in the subsequent 15 years. Germany had compulsory vaccination in 1939. The rate of diphtheria spiraled to 150,000 cases that year whereas, Norway which did not have compulsory vaccination, had only 50 cases of diphtheria the same year. The continued presence of these infectious diseases in children who have received vaccines proves that life long immunity which follows natural infection does not occur in persons receiving vaccines. The injection process places the viral particles into the blood without providing any clear way to eliminate these foreign substances.

Why Do Vaccines Fail To Protect Against Diseases?

Walene James, author of Immunization: the Reality Behind The Myth, states that the full [5] nflammatory response is necessary to create real immunity. Prior to the introduction of measles and mumps vaccines children got measles and mumps and in the great majority of cases these diseases were benign. Vaccines “trick” the body so it does not mount a complete inflammatory response to the injected virus.

Vaccines and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome SIDS

The incidence of Sudden Infant Death syndrome SIDS has grown from .55 per 1000 live births in 1953 to 12.8 per 1000 in 1992 in Olmstead County, Minnesota. The peak incidence for SIDS is age 2 to 4 months the exact time most vaccines are being given to children. 85 % of cases of SIDS occur in the first 6 months of infancy. The increase in SIDS as a percentage of total infant deaths has risen from 2.5 per 1000 in 1953 to 17.9 per 1000 in 1992. This rise in SIDS deaths has occurred during a period when nearly every childhood disease was declining due to improved sanitation and medical progress except SIDS. These deaths from SIDS did increase during a period when the number of vaccines given a child was steadily rising to 36 per child.

Dr. W. Torch was able to document 12 deaths in infants which appeared within 3½ and 19 hours of a DPT immunization. He later reported 11 new cases of SIDS death and one near miss which had occurred within 24 hours of a DPT injection. When he studied 70 cases of SIDS two thirds of these victims[6] had been vaccinated from one half day to 3 weeks prior to their deaths. None of these deaths was attributed to vaccines. Vaccines are a sacred cow and nothing against them appears in the mass media because they are so profitable to pharmaceutical firms.

There is valid reason to think that not only are vaccines worthless in preventing disease they are counterproductive because they injure the immune system permitting cancer, auto-immune diseases and SIDS to cause much disability and death.

Are Vaccines Sterile?

Dr. Robert Strecker claimed that the department of defense DOD was given $10,000,000 in 1969 to create the AIDS virus to be used as a population-reducing[7] weapon against blacks. By use of the Freedom of Information Act Dr. Strecker was able to learn that the DOD secured funds from Congress to perform studies on immune destroying agents for germ warfare. Once produced, the vaccine was given in two locations.

Smallpox vaccine containing HIV was given to 100,000,000 Africans in 1977. Over 2000 young white homosexual males in New York City were given Hepatitis B vaccine that contained HIV virus in 1978. This vaccine was given at New York City Blood Center. The Hepatitis B vaccine containing the HIV virus was also administered to homosexual males in San Francisco, Los Angeles, St.Louis, Houston and Chicago in 1978 and 1979. U.S. Public Health epidemiology studies have disclosed that these same 6 cities had the highest incidence of AIDS, Aids related Complex (ARC) and deaths rates from HIV, when compared to other U.S. cities. When a new virus is introduced into a community. It takes 20 years for the number of cases to double. If the fabricated story that green monkey bites of pygmies led to the HIV epidemic, the alleged monkey bites in the 1940s should have produced a peak in the incidence of HIV in the 1960s at which time HIV was non existent in Africa. The World Health Organization (WHO) began a African smallpox vaccination campaign in 1977 that targeted urban population centers and avoided pygmies. If the green monkey bites of pygmies truly caused the HIV epidemic the incidence of HIV in pygmies should have been higher than in urban citizens. However, the opposite was true.

In 1954 Dr. Bernice Eddy (bacteriologist) discovered live monkey viruses in supposedly sterile inactivated polio vaccine[8] developed by Dr. Jonas Salk. This discovery was not well received at the NIH and Dr. Eddy was demoted. Later Dr. Eddy, working with Sarah Stewart, discovered SE polyoma virus. This virus was quite important because it caused cancer in every animal receiving it. Yellow fever vaccine had previously been found to contain avian (bird) leukemia virus. Later Dr. Hilleman isolated SV 40 virus from both the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines. There were 40 different viruses[9] in these polio vaccines they were trying to eradicate. They were never able to get rid of these viruses contaminating the polio vaccines.

The SV 40 virus causes malignancies. It has now been identified in 43 % of cases of non-Hodgekin lymphoma[10] , 36 % of brain tumors[11] , 18 % of healthy blood samples, and 22 % of healthy semen samples, mesothiolomas and other malignancies. By the time of this discovery SV 40 had already been injected into 10,000,000 people in Salk vaccine. Gastric digestion inactivtes some of SV 40 in Sabin vaccine. However, the isolation of strains of Sabin polio vaccine from all 38 cases of Guillan Barre Syndrome[12] GBS in Brazil suggests that significant numbers of persons are able to be infected from this vaccine. All 38 of these patients had received Sabin polio vaccine months to years before the onset of GBS.

The incidence of non-Hodgekin lymphoma has”mysteriouly” doubled since the 1970s. Dr. John Martin, Professor of Pathology at the Univ. of Southern California, was employed by the Viral Oncology Branch of the Bureau of Biologics (FDA) from 1976 to 1980. While employed there he identified foreign DNA in the live polio vaccine Orimune Lederle that suggested serious vaccine contamination. He warned his supervisors about this problem and was told to discontinue his work as it was outside the scope of testing required for polio vaccine.

Later Dr. Martin learned that all eleven of the African green monkeys used to grow the Lederle polio virus Orimune had grown simian cytomegalovirus from kidney cell cultures. Lederle was aware of this viral contamination as their Cytomegaloviral Contamination Plan [13] clearly showed in 1972. The Bureau of Biologics decided not to pursue the matter so production of infected polio vaccine continued. In 1955 Dr. Martin identified unique cell destroying viruses termed stealth viruses in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. These viruses lacked genes that would enable the immune system to recognize them. Thus they were protected by the body’s failure to develop antiviral antibodies. In March of 1995, Dr. Martin learned that some of these stealth viruses had originated from African green monkey simian cytomegalovirus of a type known to infect man.

The Lederle vaccine experience suggests that the higher-ups are not concerned about sloppy and dangerous preparation of vaccines. Animal cross infection is a huge unsolved current problem for all vaccine manufacturing. If this vaccine production sounds like an unbelievable mess to you, you are right. The influential Club of Rome has a position paper in which they state that the world population is too large and needs to be reduced by 90 %. This means that 6 billion people must be reduced to 500 to 600 million. Obviously, creating famines and genocidal wars such as wrecked havoc in Africa, and loosing new laboratory-created diseases (HIV, Ebola, Marburg[14] , and probably West Nile virus and SARS) can help reduce the population. Other elitist groups (Trilaterals, Bildenbergers) have expressed similar concerns about excess people on planet Earth.

The company that was projected to produce the new smallpox vaccine in the U.S. was in serious trouble in England because of unsatisfactory quality of operations before setting up their facility in the U.S. Why would their performance here be any better than it was in England? If there are important powerful groups of people that are determined to reduce the world population, what could be a more diabolically clever way to eliminate people than to inject them with a cancer-causing vaccine? The person receiving the injection would never suspect that the vaccine taken 10 to 15 years earlier had caused the cancer to appear.

Other Dangers From Vaccines

In the March 4, 1977 issue of Science Jonas and Darrell Salk warn, “Live virus vaccines against influenza or poliomyelitis may in each instance produce the disease it intended to prevent. The live virus against measles and mumps may produce such side effects as encephalitis (brain damage).The swine flu vaccine was administered to the American public even though there had never been a case of swine flu identified in a human. Farmers refused to use the vaccine because it killed too many animals. Within a few months of use in humans this vaccine caused many cases of serious nerve injury (Guillan Barre syndrome).

An article in the Washington Post on Jan. 26, 1988 mentioned that all cases of polio since 1979 had been caused by the polio vaccine with no known cases of polio from a wild strain since 1979. This might have created a perfect situation to discontinue the vaccine, but the vaccine is still given. Vaccines are a wonderful source of profits with no risks to the drug companies since vaccine injuries are now recompensed by the government [income tax payers]. The steady escalation in the number of vaccines administered has been followed by an identical rise in the incidence of auto-immune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, subacute lupus erythematosus, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, asthma) seen in children. While there is a genetic transmission of some of these diseases many are probably due to the injury from foreign protein particles, mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde and other toxic agents injected in vaccines.

In 1999, the rotavirus vaccine was recommended by the Center for Disease Control for all infants. When this vaccine program was instituted several infants died and many had life endangering bowel obstructions. Prelicensure trials[15] of the rotavirus vaccine had demonstrated an increased incidence of intussusception 30 times greater than normal but the vaccine was released anyway without special warnings to practitioners to be on the lookout for bowel problems. Children’s vaccines are often not studied for toxicity possibly because such study might eliminate them from being used.

A large study from Australia showed that the risk of developing encephalitis from the pertussis vaccine was 5 times greater than the risk of developing encephalitis by contacting pertussis by natural methods. Naturally acquired immunity by illness evolves by spread of a virus from the respiratory tract to the liver, thymus, spleen, and bone marrow. When symptoms begin, the entire immune response has been mobilized to repel the invading virus. This complex immune system response creates antibodies that confer life long immunity against that invading virus and prepares the child to respond promptly to an infection by the same virus in the future. Vaccination, in contrast, results in the persisting of live virus or other foreign antigens within the cells of the body, a situation that may provoke auto-immune reactions as the body attempts to destroy its own infected cells.

There is no surprise that the incidence of auto-immune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, subacute lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis, asthma, psoriasis) has risen sharply in this era of multiple vaccine immunization.

Vaccine Induced Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

Dr. John Classen has published 29 articles on vaccine-induced [16] diabetes. At least 8 of 10 children with Type 1 (insulin needing) diabetes have this disease as a result of vaccination. These children may have avoided measles, mumps, and whooping cough but they have received something far worse: an illness that shortens life expectancy by 10 to 15 years and results in a life requiring constant medical care. Dr. Classen has shown in Finland, the introduction of hemophilus type b vaccine caused three times as many cases of type 1 diabetes as the number of deaths and brain damage from hemophilus influenza type b it might have prevented.

In New Zealand, the incidence of Type 1 diabetes in children rose by 61 % after an aggressive vaccine program against hepatitis B.. This same program has been started in the U.S.A. so we can now look forward to many cases of Type 1 diabetes in children. Similar rises in Type 1 diabetes have been seen in England, Italy, Sweden, and Denmark after immunization programs against Hepatitis B.

Toxic Substances Are Needed To Make Vaccines.

Vaccines contain many toxic substances that are needed to prevent the vaccines from becoming infected or to improve the performance of the vaccine. Among these substances are mercury, formaldehyde and aluminum.[17] In the past 10 years, the number of autistic children has risen from between 200 and 500 percent in every state in the U.S. This sharp rise in autism followed the introduction of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in 1975. Representative Dan Burton’s healthy grandson was given injections for 9 diseases in one day. These injections were instantly followed by autism. These injections contain a preservative of mercury called thimerosal. The boy received 41 times the amount of mercury which is capable of harm to the body. Mercury is a neurotoxin that can injure the brain and nervous system. And tragically, it did.

In the United States the number of compulsory vaccine injections has increased from 10 to 36 in the last 25 years. During this period, there has been a simultaneous increase in the number of children suffering learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder. Some of these childhood disabilities are related to intrauterine cerebral damage from maternal cocaine use, but probably vaccines cause many of the others. Many vaccines contain aluminum. A new disease called macrophagic myofasciitis causes pain in muscles, bones and joints. All persons with this disease have received aluminum containing vaccines. Deposits of aluminum are able to remain as an irritant in tissues and disturb the immune and nervous system for a lifetime.

Nearly all vaccines contain aluminum and mercury. These metals appear to play an important role in the etiology of Alzheimer’s Disease. An expert at the 1997 International Vaccine Conference related that a person who takes 5 or more annual flu vaccine shots has increased the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s Disease by a factor of 10 over the person who has had 2 or fewer flu shots. When we take vaccines we are playing a modern version of Russian Roulette. We not only get exposed to aluminum, mercury, formaldehyde and foreign cell proteins but we may get simian virus 40 and other dangerous viruses which can cause cancer, leukemia and other severe health problems because the vaccine pool is contaminated due to careless animal isolation techniques.

Congress has protected the manufacturers from lawsuits, so dangerous vaccines simply increase profits at no risk to the drug companies. U.S. children aged 2 months began receiving hepatitis B vaccine in December 2000.No peer-reviewed studies of the safety of hepatitis B in this age bracket had been done. Over 36,000 adverse reactions with 440 deaths were soon reported but the true incidence is much higher as reporting is voluntary so only approximately 10 % of adverse reactions get reported. This means that about 5000 infants are dying annually from the hepatitis B vaccine. The CDC’s Chief of Epidemiology admits that the frequency of serious reactions to hepatitis B vaccine is 10 times higher than other vaccines. Hepatitis B is transmitted sexually and by contaminated blood, so the incidence of this disease must be near zero in this age bracket. A vaccine expert, Dr. Philip Incao, states that “the conclusion is obvious that the risks[18] of hepatitis B vaccinat ion far outweigh the benefits. Once a vaccine is mandated the vaccine manufacturer is no longer liable for adverse reactions.

Dr. W.B. Clarke’s important observation that cancer was not found in unvaccinated individuals demands an explanation and one now appears forthcoming. All vaccines given over a short period of time to an immature immune system deplete the thymus gland (the primary gland involved in immune reactions) of irreplaceable immature immune cells. Each of these cells could have multiplied and developed into an army of valuable cells to combat infection and growth of abnormal cells. When these immune cells have been used up, permanent immunity may not appear. The Arthur Research Foundation in Tucson, Arizona estimates that up to 60 % of our immune system may be exhausted [19] by multiple mass vaccines (36 are now required for children). Only 10 % of immune cells are permanently lost when a child is permitted to develop natural immunity from disease. There needs to be grave concern about these immune system injuring vaccinations! Could the persons who approve these mass vaccinations know that they are impairing the health of these children, many of whom are being doomed to requiring much medical care in the future?

Compelling evidence is available that the development of the immune system after contracting the usual childhood diseases matures and renders it capable to fight infection and malignant cells in the future.The use of multiple vaccines, which prevents natural immunity, promotes the development of allergies and asthma. A New Zealand study disclosed that 23 % of vaccinated children develop asthma , as compared to zero in unvaccinated children. Cancer was a very rare illness in the 1890’s. This evidence about immune system injury from vaccinating affords a plausible explanation for Dr. Clarke’s finding that only vaccinated individuals got cancer. Some radical adverse change in health occurred in the early 1900s to permit cancer to explode and vaccinating appears to be the reason. Vaccines are an unnatural phenomena. My guess is that if enough persons said no to immunizations there would be a striking improvement in general health with nature back in the immunizing business instead of man. Having a child vaccinated should be a choice not a requirement. Medical and religious exemptions are permitted by most states.

When governmental policies require vaccinations before children enter schools coercion has overruled the lack of evidence of vaccine efficacy and safety. There is no proof that vaccines work and they are never studied for safety before release. My opinion is that there is overwhelming evidence that vaccines are dangerous and the only reason for their existence is to increase profits of pharmaceutical firms.

If you are forced to immunize your children so they can enter school, obtain a notarized statement from the director of the facility that they will accept full financial responsibility for any adverse reaction from the vaccine. Since there is at least a 2 percent risk of a serious adverse reaction they may be smart enough to permit your child to escape a dangerous procedure. Recent legislation passed by Congress gives the government the power to imprison persons refusing to take vaccines (smallpox, anthrax, etc). This would be troublesome to enforce if large numbers of citizens declined to be vaccinated at the same time.

Dr. James Howenstine

Footnotes:

1 Null Gary Vaccination: An Analysis of the Health Risks- Part Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients Dec. 2003 pg 78
2 Mullins Eustace Murder by Injection pg 132 The National Council for Medical Research, P. O. Box 1105, Staunton, Virginia 24401
3 Gary Null Interview with Dr. Dean Black April 7, 1995
4 de Melker HE, et al Pertussis in the Netherlands: an outbreak despite high levels of immunization with whole-cell vaccine Emerging Infectious Diseases 1997; 3(2): 175-8 Centers for Disease Control
5 Gary Null Interview with Walene James, April 6, 1995
6 Torch WS Diptheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) immunizations: a potential cause of the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) Neurology 1982; 32-4 A169 abstract.
7 Collin Jonathan The Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients 1988 abstracted in Horowitz L. Emerging Viruses Aids & Ebola pg 1-5
8 Harris RJ et al Contaminant viruses in two live vaccines produced in chick cells.J Hyg (London) 1966 Mar:64(1) : 1-7
9 Horowitz Leonard G. Emerging Viruses AIDS & Ebola pg 484
10 Vilchez RA et al Association between simian virus 40 and non-Hodgekin lymphoma Lancet 2002 Mar 9;359(9309):817-823
11 Bu X A study of simian virus 40 infection and its origin in human brain tumors Zhonghu Liu Xing Bing Xue Zhi 2000 Feb;21 (1):19-21
12 Friedrich F. et al temporal association between the isolation of Sabin-related poliovirus vaccine strains and the Guillan-Barre syndrome Rev Inst Med Trop Sao Paulo 1996 Jan-Feb; 38(1):55-8
13 Horowitz Leonard Emerging Viruses: Aids and Ebola pg 492
14 Horowitz Leonard G Emerging Viruses: Aids & Ebola pg 378-88 Tetrahedron Inc. Suite 147, 206 North 4th Ave. Sandpoint, Idaho 83864 1-888-508-4787 tetra@tetrahedron.org
15 Null, Gary Vaccination: An Anatysis of the health risks-Part 3 Townsend letter for doctors & patients Dec. 2003 pg 78
16 Classen, JB et al. Association between type 1 diabetes and Hib vaccine BMJ 1999; 319:1133
17 Brain 9/01
18 Incao, philip M.D. Letter to representative Dale Van Vyven, Ohio House of Representatives March 1, 1999 provided to www.garynull.com by The Natural Immunity Information Network
19 Rowen Robert Your first consultation with Dr. Rowen pg 20

(c) 2003 Dr. James Howenstine - All Rights Reserved

Dr. James A. Howenstine is a board certified specialist in internal medicine who spent 34 years caring for office and hospital patients. Curiosity sparked a 4 year study of natural health products when 5 of his patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis were able to discontinue the use of methotrexate (chemotherapy agent) after trying an extract of New Zealand mussels for the therapy of severe rheumatoid arthritis.

Dr. Howenstine is convinced that natural products are safer, more effective and less expensive than pharmaceutical drugs. This research led to the publication of his book ‘A Physicians Guide To Natural Health Products That Work’. This book and the recommended health products are available from www.naturalhealthteam.com

Source: educate-yourself.org

Gasoline prices have reached a national average of $4 a gallon for the first time.

Across the South, Southwest and the upper Great Plains, the combination of low incomes, high gas prices and heavy dependence on pickup trucks and vans is putting especially heavy pressure on family budgets.

Some farm workers are borrowing gas money from their bosses so they can get to work. Some are switching jobs for shorter commutes. People are giving up meat so they can buy fuel, and gasoline theft is rising. Drivers are running out of gas more often, leaving their cars by the side of the road until they can scrape together gas money.
Sources: New York Times June 9, 2008

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

According to Rajeev Dhawan, director of the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University, gas prices have doubled across the nation over the last year, but for the rural lower income people — as a proportion of their income — the rise in gas is becoming very high, and for some, unmanageable.

On June 16, the U.S. nationwide price for regular unleaded gasoline reached an average of $4.08 – the highest price ever, and about a dollar higher than at the start of 2008. Nationwide, Americans now spend an average of 4 percent of their take-home income on gas. But in some areas people are spending more than 13 percent of their salaries to get around. That means gas expenses are now rivaling what families spend on food and housing.

Who’s Making Money Here?

Gas prices are as high as they are because they can be. I recently talked to an expert in this area and he and many other experts believe that as much as 60 percent of the price of oil is based on pure speculation from investors bidding up oil futures prices.

According to a June 6 article in the New York Times, a barrel of crude oil is now more expensive than it was in 1980, the previous peak, when adjusted for inflation. The oil and gas industry website Rigzone.com states the latest market rate topped $136/bbl as of June 11.

Venezuela estimate earnings of $75 billion in oil revenue in 2008, which is about twice their external debt. Venezuela has the largest energy reserves in the Americas and is the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter. According to officials about 1.4 million barrels are exported to the U.S. daily, but they still have 130 billion barrels in reserve; not exactly what you’d expect when there’s an “oil shortage.”

Likewise, oil companies are notoriously greedy, and the oil companies — not the people running your local gas station — have record profits. Exxon made corporate history with $11.7 billion in quarterly profit, as reported by CNN Money.com on February 1, 2008 – a 14 percent increase from the previous year.

They reported both the highest quarterly and annual profits EVER for a U.S. company, boosted in large part by soaring crude oil prices. This even tops their previous record achieved in 2005 after hurricanes destroyed the Gulf Coast.

They also set the annual profit record with net earnings of more than $40.6 billion in 2007. That’s about $1,300 of profit per second.

And that’s just ONE oil company. The number two oil giant, Chevron, reported a profit of more than $17.1 billion for 2007.

Folks, never be fooled into thinking that the oil companies are forced to jack prices up this high because of crude oil costs; they are only benefiting from the run-up in oil prices. But don’t expect gas prices to go down any time soon. $4 a gallon gas is no doubt just the beginning. I see three, potentially interconnected, reasons for the current situation:

1. Oil giants are trying to make as much profit as possible before the world wizens up and switches to alternative forms of energy, and/or
2. We’ve reached “peak oil” where the global demand now exceeds global production, which will result in never-ending price hikes as reserves start to dwindle, and
3. Runaway inflation due to the Federal Reserve’s over-printing of money that isn’t backed by anything of real value

Rising Gas Prices is Just the Beginning of U.S. Financial Woes

Rising oil prices affect so much more than just prices at the pump. Not only are you spending more on commuting, but prices on everything from groceries to tires, household goods and petroleum based personal products are also soaring.

Companies that make goods using raw materials derived from oil are trying to determine how to cope as well, opting between raising prices, shifting their production process to something less costly, or cutting workers. Many are doing all three.

For example, the tire giant Goodyear has raised the prices on its tires by 15 percent in just four months. Procter & Gamble have averaged an increase of 5 percent on its paper products and diapers, and Dow Company has hiked its prices as much as 20 percent across the board, which include wide-ranging products like paint, PC and television screens, mobile phones, light bulbs, paper and carpets.

Meanwhile, incomes are stagnating, and for many, disappearing altogether. Just last month the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics reported a jump in the unemployment rate from 5 percent to 5.5 percent with the loss of 861,000 jobs in the month of May.

Where Do We Go From Here?

We are simply running out of excuses for not converting to safer, renewable energy sources that don’t turn the Earth into a toxic waste dump, and that doesn’t continue to push the population into financial despair.

And there are already many viable alternatives!

Harnessing the energy of the sun, for example, is now becoming a very cost effective alternative for homes and other buildings. The award winning Nanosolar Company has created a breakthrough solar coating, produced at an 80 percent reduced cost from previous years, which makes them a serious contender for consumer dollars.

My new office building, constructed for my practice and web team, will eventually be powered with Nanosolar electricity , and it seems obvious to me that this technology will allow us to not only radically lower our utility bills in the coming future, but do it without polluting our environment.

Think about it: there is enough energy in the sunshine that falls on the earth in ONE HOUR to satisfy the energy needs of the entire human race for ONE YEAR. There’s simply no need for this over-reliance on oil that is now decimating the earth and financially destroying so many people’s lives.

I’ve also posted previous articles written by Darshan Goswami, retired from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture where he headed the Department of Load Forecasting and Renewable Energy. Darshan Goswami brings up many good points and explains the viability of switching from a “Hydrocarbon Economy” to a “Hydrogen Economy,” thereby eliminating our reliance on foreign oil completely.

He believes that a Hydrogen Economy would eliminate many of the problems that the hydrocarbon technology has created, and offer advantages such as:

• The elimination of pollution caused by fossil fuels - When hydrogen is used in a fuel cell to create power, it is a completely clean technology. The only byproduct is water. There are also no environmental dangers like oil spills to worry about with hydrogen.
• The elimination of greenhouse gases - If the hydrogen comes from the electrolysis of water, then hydrogen adds no greenhouse gases to the environment. There is a perfect cycle — electrolysis produces hydrogen from water, and the hydrogen recombines with oxygen to create water and power in a fuel cell.
• The elimination of economic dependence - The elimination of oil means no dependence on the Middle East and its oil reserves.
• Distributed production - Hydrogen can be produced anywhere that you have electricity and water. People can even produce it in their homes with relatively simple technology.
• Generate new employment - This new Hydrogen Economy will create a very positive impact on the world economy.

For more information about the use of hydrogen, I recommend reading Darshan Goswami’s articles listed below.

What Can You Do Personally?

On a personal level, you can reduce your own need for oil by carpooling to work, turning off your lights and keeping your air conditioner use to a minimum. You can also bypass the rising food transportation costs by buying mostly locally grown food and even planting some of your own.

For the times when you do have to drive, you can actually increase your gas mileage by 37 percent just by braking easier and slowing down. Some people are even taking fuel economy to a whole new level simply by skillfully changing the way they drive.

One group known as hypermilers, use tips like coasting to stop lights, using cruise control, and avoiding full stops as much as possible to save gas … and some of them boast getting up to 90 mpg. Something worth looking into!

Source: www.mercola.com

A recent study at Cardiff University in Wales shows that antimicrobial wipes, including those containing triclosan, may be spreading antibiotic-resistant bacteria, rather than killing it. Researchers from the Welsh School of Pharmacy studied the bacteria methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, and the ability of different types of wipes to remove or kill it. They found that in “normal use” conditions, or how hospitals in Wales have been using the wipes, bacteria is only moved from surface to surface, increasing potential exposure.

According to the university, “The research involved a surveillance programme observing hospital staff using surface wipes to decontaminate surfaces near patients, such as bed rails, and other surfaces commonly touched by staff and patients, such as monitors, tables and keypads. It was found that the wipes were being applied to the same surface several times and used on consecutive surfaces before being discarded.”

Furthermore, in laboratory replications, the team found “that although some wipes can remove higher numbers of bacteria from surfaces than others, the wipes tested were unable to kill the bacteria removed. As a result, high numbers of bacteria were transferred to other surfaces when reused.”

The findings raise concern from others in the field. Professor Mark Enright, an expert in hospital acquired infections at Imperial College in London, said, “Many cleaners use cleaning products more than just once, and if they are not using fresh disinfectant every time then they are effectively just spreading the infection.”

Professor Donna Duberg, of St. Louis University, concurred. “Our bodies are designed to handle a certain number of bacteria,” she said. “We use way too many antibacterial agents,” which can lead to resistant bacteria. “I personally believe there isn’t anything that good, hot soapy water can’t clean.”

Antibacterials, particularly triclosan, have been linked to a host of hazards, from bacteria resistance to endocrine disruption and environmental persistence. To learn more about these increasingly common products, visit our antibacterials program page.

Sources: http://www.beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/?p=372

You know it as well as I do: the main threat to our health and health freedom is that we are so very productive, financially speaking, when we are sick. Healthy, we work and go to school and pay taxes and get married and so forth. Health is, after all, our natural state of being but it does not generate much income for the illness industry.

Sick, we have the capacity to pour nearly limitless streams of wealth into the coffers of the vast industry that prospers only if we are ill. The huge hospitals, the ubiquitous drug stores, the nurses and doctors, the cancer and cardiovascular centers, the sleek and slick drug companies - where would they be if we were well? Nonexistent— that’s where they would be.

If illness were not so profitable, we would not have to fight so hard for our health. It would not be in anyone’s best interests to have us sicker younger, longer. If our illness were not the most financially productive reality on Planet Earth, we would use herbs, nutrients, exercise, sunlight, mind/body techniques and other inexpensive, powerful and non toxic health strategies as a matter of course. There would be no battle for our minds and our bodies to degrade our immune systems and force us into lingering, tragic diseases which are so very profitable for the illness industry - and devastating for us.

I have said it before and I will say it again: the other side has more money than God. They will use it to make you sick and to make you believe that the only way to get well is to put your faith, your money and your health, in the hands of the agencies and industries that profit from your illness, not your wellness. These are the people who, like the FDA, are perfectly happy to jeopardize your health, indeed your very life, to keep their corporate masters happy by approving unsafe food and dangerous drugs while conducting a vigorous war on your well being and your right to use products, services and strategies which do not enhance illness, but support wellness.

Buying Your Ring Side Seat At Codex

I am writing to ask you to once again dig deep and give generously. First, the annual Codex Commission meeting is approaching and we need your tax deductible help (http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=189) to get to the meeting so that we can keep your interests in the forefront and make sure that the international food cartel, led by the US, does not get away with poisoning your food, and everyone else’s.

That takes dedicated, knowledgeable people with a capacity to understand what is going on there at many levels at once and then work with our international allies in the developing world and those Codex NGOs which are really on the same side that we are (that’s only a small number of them, by the way).

We will be giving live reports from Geneva for Alex Jones and Jeff Rense - and you! But getting there is only half the fun. And less than half the cost, for sure. With the ailing dollar, Switzerland, always expensive, is extremely costly for us. But that’s where the meeting is and that’s where we need to be for you. So here’s your first opportunity in this letter to push back the illness industry by using our resources to fund the Wellness Push-back, through Health Freedom Power.

Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director
Natural Solutions Foundation
 www.HealthFreedomUSA.org

This is a compilation of quotes about soft drink company marketing tactics from some of the leading authors on health, food marketing and food politics. This full list, and much more information, is included in The Five Soft Drink Monsters downloadable ebook.

Marion Nestle
Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health

“In 1997 children spent nearly $8 billion of their own money on food and beverages, of which $1 billion each went for sweets and soft drinks. The amounts spent on food increase with age; in 1997, children aged 7-12 spent $2.3 billion of discretionary money on snacks and beverages, teenagers $58 billion.”

“Children also influence a substantial proportion of the total annual sales of certain foods… 30 percent on soft drinks.”

“Soft drink companies unapologetically name 8-to-12-year-olds as marketing targets. Advertisers encourage marketing directed to 9-year-olds as a logical consequence of the fact that children — and girls in particular — are maturing earlier.”

“The reason they chose Coke or Pepsi had nothing to do with taste… . [We] think the advertising media targets their advertisements to appeal to teenagers because … [that’s when you] develop buying habits and that’s when you have more pressure to drink the brand that’s cool.”

“Researchers counted not a single commercial for fruits, vegetables, bread, or fish…. for the most frequently aired commercials such as those for sugared cereals, candy bars, and soft drinks.”

“Soft drink companies are especially comprehensive in their approach to young consumers…. Coca-Cola puts its logo on so many items that it runs a chain of stores to sell them; it even has stores at international airports.”

“Coca-Cola company, for example, sends multiple copies of “Coke cards” to “teen influentials” — school officers, cheerleaders, and sports participants — expecting that they will pass the extras along to their network of friends. These “educational” counting books and puzzles for young children require the use of cereals or cookies as tokens, provide discount coupons to encourage adults to purchase these products, and advertise the food throughout. These convert children into advertisers as well as consumers of soft drinks. ”

“Critics also are troubled by studies showing that children do not readily distinguish Channel One’s commercials from its entertainment, news, and public service programs and that they are confused about such distinctions. Children say, for example, that they believe Channel One advertisers such as Pepsi -Cola are “deeply committed to helping them cope with their emotional and psychological problems.”

“Recent development in food marketing: large payments from soft drink companies to school districts in return for the right to sell that company’s products — and only those products — in every one of the district’s schools.”

“The company’s most evident marketing strategy is advertising. Coca -Cola’s global advertising budget exceeded $1.6 billion in the late 1990s. In 1999 the company spent $867 million for advertising in the United States alone — $174.4 million for Coca-Cola beverages, $68.4 million for Sprite, $41.4 million for Minute Maid, and $17.6 million for Powerade”

“PepsiCo spends even more on advertising. Its total domestic advertising budget was $1.31 billion in 1999 — $165 million for Pepsi beverages, $37.7 million for Mountain Dew”

“Some soft drink companies go so far as to license their logos to makers of infant-feeding bottles.”

William Duffy
Sugar Blues

“A product like Coca–Cola, which contains known poisons and destroys [one’s] teeth and stomach, has one of the most stunning ad campaigns in the history of the Western world…. Coke executives have learned from extensive research that young America is searching for what is real, meaningful in this plastic world, and one bright ad executive comes up with the idea that it is Coke. Yep, Coke is the real thing and this is drilled into the minds of 97 percent of all young people between the age of six and nineteen until their teeth are rotting just like their parents’ did.”

“Another congressman asked if the doctor had made any tests of the effect of cola beverages on metal and iron. When the doctor said he hadn’t, the congressman volunteered: “A friend of mine told me once that he dropped three tenpenny nails into one of the cola bottles, and in forty-eight hours the nails had completely dissolved.” Sure,” the doctor answered. “Phosphoric acid there would dissolve iron or limestone. You might drop it on the steps, and it would erode the steps coining up here…. Try it.”

Eric Schlosser
Fast Food Nation

“In one of the most despicable marketing gambits,” Michael Jacobson, the author of “Liquid Candy” reports, “Pepsi, Dr Pepper and Seven-Up encourage feeding soft drinks to babies by licensing their logos to a major maker of baby bottles, Munchkin Bottling, Inc.” A 1997 study published in the Journal of Dentistry for Children found that many infants were indeed being fed soda in those bottles.”

Greg Critser
Fat Land : How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World

“The soft drink industry alone spends upward of $600 million annually to promote its trash (compared with the National Cancer Institute’s paltry $1 million budget for promoting fruit and vegetable consumption), such promotional campaigns can be highly effective”

Richard Brodie
Virus of the Mind:: The New Science of the Meme

“In psychology, the word conditioning often refers to implanting association-memes. When the Coca-Cola Bottling Company pays millions of dollars to show you young people in bathing suits having a good time drinking their products, they are conditioning you to associate good feelings with their brands.”

“Another effect of meme evolution on advertising is the divergence of advertising content from product content. I remember noticing, as a kid, the Coca-Cola Company changing its slogan from “Drink Coca-Cola” to “Enjoy Coca -Cola “to “Things Go Better with Coke.” Somewhere along the line, somebody realized that they didn’t really have to discuss the product itself, just create a mood full of enough attractive elements that people took notice and felt good when they saw the product — they created an association-meme in the customer. A recent Diet Pepsi campaign featured celebrities and showgirls smiling, cavorting, and grunting “uh-huh!” for half a minute. Not exactly a logical delineation of the product’s features and benefits.”

John Robbins
“The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World”

“Coca-Cola and other soft drink companies are giving millions of dollars to cash-strapped school districts in return for exclusive rights to sell their products in schools. In one such deal, a school district in Colorado actually requires teachers to push Coca-Cola consumption in classrooms whenever sales fall below contractual obligations.”

Earl Mindell PhD and Virginia Hopkins MA
Earl Mindell’s New Vitamin Bible

“There’s a good chance that one of the leading contributors to osteoporosis in the U.S. is carbonated soft drinks containing phosphorus. Research has shown a direct link between too much phosphorus and calcium loss.”

H J Roberts MD
Aspartame (Nutrasweet): Is It Safe?

“Many TV commercials featuring household-name stars are targeted to child viewers. A major manufacturer of aspartame-containing soft drinks has already taken aim at children watching Saturday morning television, known as the “moppet market” (The Wall Street Journal December 9, 1988, p.B-1). Producers had previously avoided such targeting due to concern over the unique vulnerability of children, and the possible exacerbation of obesity among sedentary young video viewers.”

Source: www.naturalnews.com

Conventional medicine claims that nutritional supplements are worthless and only their patented drugs can make people healthy. Today, I publicly challenge the entire drug industry with a $10,000 health challenge that promises to pay any drug company ten grand if they can find a single person taking their pharmaceuticals who can beat me in a contest of strength, endurance, flexibility, coordination and adaptability.

Read the announcement here: http://www.naturalnews.com/023476.html
Watch the video here: http://www.naturalnews.com/023475.html

Big Pharma can no longer run and hide behind their ridiculous claims that only drugs can improve people’s health. Now, it’s time for them to either put up, or shut up!

Source http://www.naturalnews.com/023476.html

The United Kingdom’s Health Secretary has called on doctors to stop prescribing antibiotics for minor health problems like coughs, colds and sore throats, as part of a government initiative to prevent the spread of antibiotic-resistant superbugs like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

The British government is launching a £270 million ($530 million) campaign against superbugs, which includes the imposition of new rules to mandate deep cleaning of hospitals, screening of all hospital patients for MRSA by 2009, keeping health professionals bare below the elbows, and providing specialized infection control nurses and antibiotic pharmacists for hospitals. A major component of the campaign is preventing the over-prescription of antibiotics.

By wiping out susceptible bacteria but leaving resistant bacteria unharmed, antibiotics inevitably create conditions in which drug-resistant bacteria can reproduce nearly uninhibited. This problem is exacerbated when patients do not finish their antibiotic courses, or when antibiotics are used without good reason.

Because antibiotics affect only bacteria and the vast majority of upper respiratory infections are caused by viruses, prescribing the drugs for these patients provides no health benefit. Health Secretary Alan Johnson noted that such unnecessary prescriptions cost the British health system £1.7 billion ($3.3 billion) per year.

“In the old days, before we had problems with resistance, people thought it really didn’t matter - you could throw antibiotics at these cases and you would pick up the odd one that was treatable that way,” said Mark Enright, a professor of molecular epidemiology at Imperial College London. “I am sure there are still [doctors] who think … antibiotics are the global panacea we once thought they were.”

Antibiotics also destroy native and beneficial bacteria in the human gut, leaving patients susceptible to colonization by potentially dangerous gut infections.

Three of the most common antibiotic treatments - amoxicillin, cefaclor and trimethoprim - have all become less effective in recent years as drug resistant strains have become more common.

source: http://www.naturalnews.com/023463.html

www.wisconsinwellnessdirectory.com
715-833-1096
 geiglej@yahoo.com

The Toyota Corporation intends to develop a plug-in hybrid vehicle for its demonstration fleet by 2010, according to an announcement made by Chief Executive Officer Katsuaki Watanabe.

The planned plug-in hybrids are already under development, with two prototypes currently undergoing demonstration tests by researchers at the University of California. But while existing prototypes operate with nickel-metal-hydride battery packs, Toyota aims for its new hybrids to be equipped with lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries, already widely used in consumer electronics, provide more energy per unit weight than older nickel-metal-hydride batteries, and can store a charge for longer when not in use.

Watanabe cautioned that while successful lithium-ion batteries have already been developed for hybrid electric automobiles, it is premature to assume that such batteries can be mass produced with existing techniques

“As of today in the lab, the small volume of lithium-ion we have already developed is closer to the level we are satisfied with, but that is only in small quality,” he said. “There is a huge difference between small volume and mass production of lithium-ion.”

The remarks were interpreted as a response to General Motors’ (GM) alliance with battery maker A123, which has so far failed to deliver mass production of lithium-ion batteries.

Toyota’s other planned efforts in the area of fuel efficiency include the unveiling of new hybrid-only models in 2009, increased investment in the production of ethanol from wood waste, the expansion of a joint Panasonic-Toyota batter factory, the introduction of “clean diesel” V-8 versions of the Tundra pickup and Sequoia SUV and the sale of 1 million hybrid vehicles by 2012. In addition, Watanabe announced the company’s intention to meet California’s 35 mile per gallon fleet standard “well in advance” of the 2020 deadline.

Unlike competitor GM, Toyota is conducting all of its research in-house, rather than in partnership with small or start-up companies. According to Watanabe, this will make technological development “faster and more efficient.”

The U.S. FDA has approved the first vaccine for adult shingles. The vaccine, known as Zostavax, is intended for use in adults age 60 and older. Studies have shown that it can prevent shingles roughly half the time.

The market for the vaccine is large, according to spokespeople for Merck, the vaccine’s manufacturer. There are approximately 50 million Americans over age 60 and more than 95 percent had chickenpox as children. The company originally sought approval to sell the vaccine to adults 50 and older, but the FDA restricted it to those 60 and older because it had not been studied in patients younger than 60.

Dr. David Markovitz, said that doctors may be tempted to offer “off-label” vaccinations to adults age 50 to 59, but he stressed that the vaccine remains unstudied in such patients and that researchers still don’t know how long immunity lasts after vaccination.

“I don’t think I would rush out and get it myself,” said Markovitz, who is 52.

Sources: * WebMD May 25, 2008

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

For those of you who have anxiously awaitedthe next prescription for disaster from Big Pharma, the wait is over with the advent of yet another installment in a whole line of unnecessary and dangerous, vaccines.

What is Shingles?

Shingles occurs when the chickenpox virus lying dormant in nerve cells becomes reactivated. It is generally a disease of the elderly but can also develop in insulin-dependent diabetics and those who have immunodeficiency diseases such as AIDS and leukemia.

A shingles outbreak can also be triggered by stress (either emotional or physical) or by certain medications, including steroids such as prednisone, chemotherapy and radiation, regardless of whether you’re over the age of 60 or not.

However, unlike the childhood disease of chickenpox, a shingles outbreak is anything but benign.

The first sign is usually unilateral tingling, itching, or stabbing pain on your skin. After a few days, a red, blistering, severely painful rash appears that can last anywhere between two to four weeks. At its peak, symptoms range from a mild itch to intense pain.

When the outbreak resolves, it can leave numbness, skin discoloration and permanent scars. More serious complications, including facial paralysis, hearing loss or encephalitis (inflammation of your brain) can occur, and if the infection includes your eye, it can result in glaucoma, cataracts and even permanent blindness.

Approximately 20 percent of shingles cases can result in what’s called post-herpetic neuralgia. This condition manifests as unrelenting pain that can persist anywhere from 30 days to months or even years.

There is no conventional treatment for post-herpetic neuralgia and even the strongest pain medications are rarely helpful.

Why You Need to Avoid the Shingles Vaccine

In 2002, a study published in JAMA pointed out that vaccinating children against chickenpox (varicella) increases the risk that adults develop shingles.

The team, at Britain’s Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS), said that although vaccination would save thousands of young lives over time (which may also be a total lie, which I’ll explain below), thousands of elderly people could also die from the complications of shingles.

By attempting to eliminate an essentially harmless childhood disease – chickenpox — another unnecessary disaster is being created. And Big Pharma is now hard at work, creating vaccines to treat problems caused by vaccines.

That’s exactly what this shingles vaccine is: a vaccine to treat a delayed side effect of the childhood varicella vaccine.

Marc Brisson and his team said their research showed that adults living with children have more exposure to the virus that causes chickenpox, and from that enjoy high levels of protection against shingles.

Being close to children means that adults are exposed to the virus, which acts like a natural booster vaccine against shingles, they believe. But if all children are vaccinated, adults who have had chickenpox are no longer protected against developing shingles.

Not one to miss an opportunity, Merck – the maker of the varicella vaccine for children – joined hands with the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and set up The Shingles Prevention Study, which eventually led to the unveiling of Zostavax.

None of this makes sense, or maybe it does if you want to sell loads of expensive vaccines and increase your sales through the forced mandate of public school exclusion if you aren’t vaccinated.

Wouldn’t the logical solution be to STOP the chickenpox vaccination and allow this mild virus to do its job?

Chickenpox is a mild childhood viral infection; a self-limiting disease characterized by fever, malaise and an itchy, vesicular rash that covers the entire body that usually resolves within 4 to 5 days, leaving you with lifetime immunity.

The deaths from chickenpox complications that they scare you with are not caused by the virus itself, but rather by overly aggressive medical “care” in treating the symptoms. Some misguided physicians treat the children with more and more antibiotics, analgesics, or steroidal medications as their condition grows progressively worse. Each new symptom getting another drug until the child dies.

Unfortunately, there is a notorious lack of compassionate concern when it comes to the development of new vaccines.

You should also be aware that Zostavax contains live varicella virus that can easily overwhelm your immune system unless you’re in optimal health — in which case your immune system will likely keep the virus at bay anyway!

Additionally, the vaccine has only been tested on whites over the age of 60 – on whom the vaccine worked only about half the time — and according to FDA drug reviewer Dr. David Markovitz, African Americans, Hispanics or Asians may have varying immune responses to the vaccine that have not yet been determined.

What’s Your Best Defense Mechanism Against Disease?

Your immune system!

Regardless of your age, rather than getting a vaccine that will LOWER your natural immune system, following healthy eating habits tailored to your nutritional type and appropriate exercise are two of your best immune system boosters.

For example, a 2007 study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that the practice of tai-chi was able to prevent the incidence of shingles among older folks.

UCLA researchers monitored the health of 112 healthy adults, aged 59 to 86, half of whom participated in tai chi classes three times a week for about four months, while the rest took weekly health education classes. Then, all patients were given injections of the needless Merck chickenpox vaccine, Varivax.

By itself, the practice of tai-chi alone was responsible for increasing a patient’s immunity to that comparable of a 30-40-year-old adult.

And the tai-chi patients doubled their immunity to shingles as compared to the control group during the entire 25-week study, and reported great improvements in mental health, vitality, overall pain and physical functioning — all benefits one can expect from regular exercise.

Source: www.mercola.com