Olive Oil Really Reduces Stroke Risk

It really does not spell out the numbers, but the additional benefits strongly indicate that making olive oil your dominant cooking oil is clearly beneficial.  I would also like to see this compared directly with canola oil on the same basis.  The advent of canola oil gave the food industry oil that matched or surpassed the preferred fat ratios of olive oil which was far superior to any competitor.  The difficulty, if that is an issue is that it is flavorless, but easily flavored with a small addition of an oil of your choice.

In the meantime, we read here that olive oil clearly reduces the incidence of stroke although this likely means that it lessens cardiovascular stress.  The problem is not cured but it is simply running better and stroke becomes less likely.

I suspect then that canola oil has similar benefits and the best approach is to use olive oil for straight consumption while canola is reserved for cooking.

Olive oil really does reduce risk of stroke, says research

Tuesday, June 28, 2011 by: J. D. Heyes

(NaturalNews) Another new study has confirmed what we've known for quite some time - that olive oil contributes to better health.

According to researchers who followed about 7,000 people aged 65 and older in three French cities for five years, olive oil can help greatly reduce the incidence of stroke.

Scientists conducting the study said they found that people who used a lot of olive oil either in their cooking or as a dip for bread and other foods had lower rates of stroke than people who never use it.

The scientists, who published their results in the medical journal Neurology, say people should be given new advice about their diets to include wider use of olive oil, based on the study's results.

"Stroke is so common in older people, and olive oil would be an inexpensive and easy way to help prevent it," said Dr Cecilia Samieri, of the University of Bordeaux, the study's lead author.

"Our research suggests that a new set of dietary recommendations should be issued to prevent stroke in people 65 and older."

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Internet Stroke Center, which tracks the disease. In all, more than 143,500 people die each year in the U.S. from strokes, out of 795,000 who experience a stroke.

The health benefits of olive oil are well known. An earlier study by Italian researchers found that olive oil, combined with green leafy vegetables, help prevent heart disease.

Another study found that the culinary oil helps prevent oxidative stress, which has been linked to a number of health issues, on the liver.

Still another found that extra virgin olive oil helps combat breast cancer. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), a woman in the United States is diagnosed with breast cancer every three minutes.

In an age when fast food reigns and home cooking is on the downward trend, incorporating more olive oil in your diet seems to be a simple, effective and inexpensive way to maintain better overall health.

"Olive oil has long been known to have potential health benefits," said Sharlin Ahmed of Britain's Stroke Association. "It is believed that it could protect against conditions such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and heart disease and so it's promising to see that it could have a similar protective function against stroke."

Learn more:http://www.naturalnews.com/032836_olive_oil_stroke.html#ixzz1QajXeRy4

Mining Helium3 Will Transform Moon

Let me see.  This means one ton of He-3 will be worth over one billion dollars.  And yes, it is a piece of cake to use it for producing direct fusion power..  The present effort by focus fusion is using a bismuth protocol that is as safe and as easy to use to produce power.  It is still difficult to make happen and this is certainly worthy of enthusiasm while it fuels space exploration.

At least it provides a convincing business plan able to justify the investment effort.

I suspect though that we will have cheap fusion power inside of the next five years which will pull the thunder from having an Earth customer.  However this is certainly the quick and easy solution to space power were our power needs will be difficult without a heat efficient protocol.

We are still several years away from a final plunge into space and a hop onto the Moon.  Tritium may just appear the best available option then.  I wonder how it will be beneficiated?

Mining Helium-3 will Transform Dark Side of the Moon

Russia, India, China, Caterpillar, Google, and Virgin race for the Moon to mine helium-3--an isotope that can transform our energy future through nuclear fusion

 Mining Helium-3 will Transform Dark Side of the Moon

9 MAY 2011 John Shimkus

http://www.energydigital.com/global_mining/mining-helium-3-will-transform-dark-side-of-the-moon

 Mining Helium-3 will Transform the Dark Side of the Moon

Most people are unaware that our Moon holds countless resources.  Some are familiar: titanium, platinum, silicon, ammonia, mercury, and even water (yes, H20 has been confirmed to be present on the moon).  But a more elusive substance, which is a rarity here on Earth, is also found on the Moon: helium-3. 

Helium-3 is a non-radioactive hydrogen isotope with one neutron and two protons.  It is carried through space via the Sun’s solar winds, but burns up as it enters Earth’s atmosphere, making it almost non-existent here on our planet.  However, an abundance of helium-3 has built up on the Moon’s surface over the millennia as confirmed in soil samples collected by the Apollo 17 lunar mission, and it is just waiting to be mined.  Why you ask?  Because, helium-3 can fuel non-radioactive nuclear fusion reactions to produce safe, clean, abundant energy, and can completely transform our energy future. 

Helium-3 nuclear fusion reactions release non-radioactive protons that can be harnessed to create electricity directly.  This type of nuclear fusion is safer and far more efficient than the nuclear fission reactions used in nuclear plants today, which use heat to run steam turbines, losing energy in the conversion process and creating radioactive waste as a byproduct. 

Projections estimate that on a commercial basis helium-3 would be worth around $40,000 per ounce.  Roughly 100 tons of Helium-3 could power the entire population of Earth for a year and scientists estimate that the Moon could contain approximately 1 million tons—10,000 years worth of energy.  But is mining the Moon realistic, and who would spearhead such a risky endeavor?

Google announced the “Google Lunar X PRIZE” competition in 2007, in which the Internet giant challenged privately funded spaceflight teams from across the globe to send a robot to the moon’s surface.  The first successful team will win $30 million in prizes.  As of February 2011, 29 teams from various nations are officially competing for the prize, and several will be launching within the next two years.

The US state of Florida is also offering a $2 million prize to the first private spaceflight launched from its soil.  NASA is even willing to pay $10 million or more for data collected from private lunar missions.

Caterpillar—a top name in mining machinery and equipment—has invested in Carnegie Mellon University’s Astrobotic Technology, a company vying for the Google Lunar X PRIZE.  Already having experience in automated machinery, Caterpillar will use the partnership with Astrobotic to propel its own lunar program.  Caterpillar Automation Systems Manager Eric Reiners says,“Caterpillar makes sustainable progress possible by enabling infrastructure development and resource utilization on every continent on Earth.  It only makes sense we would be involved in expanding our efforts to the 8th continent: the Moon.”

Richard Branson—the man, the myth, the legend—has started up Virgin Galactic.  With his own private fleet of spaceships and a spaceport in New Mexico (USA), Branson is already booking spaceflights for those who can afford the $200,000 ticket price.  Initial flights will be sub-orbital, with the goal of eventually setting up a lunar resort, in which the elite can take a vacation to the Moon.  While no official statements have confirmed Branson’s intentions to mine the Moon, media contacts from Virgin Galactic have hinted that it is not out of the realm of possibility.

The governments of Russia, China and India have all made public comments on exploiting the Moon’s resources, and the Russian space company RSC Energia has proposed a permanent lunar base to be completed by 2025 as a hub for helium-3 mining operations.  According to the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, Moon mining does not seem to violate any international agreements.  However, there is debate over who would own the rights to the materials mined.

Mining the Moon would, in fact, create an entirely new industry completely with a radically different kind of supply chain.  Shackleton Energy Co., a subsidiary of Stone Aerospace, is planning on developing orbital rocket fueling stations by 2020, so spaceships will be able to fill up on their way to the Moon and back. 

There is a dark side, however, to mining the Moon.  Let us not forget that the Moon’s orbit dictates the ebb and flow of various systems here on Earth.  From sea tides to weather patterns, animal mating habits to plant growth, even plate tectonics, a number of the Earth’s systems are reliant on the Moon’s consistent circumnavigation of the planet to function properly.  If we remove millions of tons of helium-3 and other minerals from the moon and bring them to Earth, the celestial balance that drives those patterns may be thrown off.  What’s worse, mining activities tend to use explosives, and in low gravity, who’s to say that we may not fracture the moon entirely, hurling giant lunar meteorites toward Earth?  Transforming the Moon into a mining hub is certainly risky business, but it’s bound to be a profitable reality very soon! 

Lithium Indicated for Parkinson's

This is a serious attempt by the two most radical leaders in the American political system to abort the so called war on drugs.  It will not be the whole solution gut it is certainly a good start.

I have come to the conclusion that no drug can be successfully criminalized but it certainly can be regulated to the point it is self financing and victims are put under medical intervention.  In fact it is such a good idea, that we need to apply it to all types.

We can criminalize any activity that promotes victimhood and be quite nasty about it all.

Support this if you can.  If we go the whole way, all the petty wars under way will die on the vine.

Four decades of drug war tyranny may come to an end with Ron Paul's new effort to legalize marijuana

Thursday, June 23, 2011

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)

Four decades of the so-called "War on Drugs" has led only to the suffering of millions of innocents, the crowding of our prisons with non-violent citizens, the utter waste of billions of dollars on law enforcement and the (in)justice system, and the enriching of underground drug gangs who thrive on violence. The outlawing of marijuana in America has been a disastrous political policy and an insane medical policy. It has labeled biochemical addicts "criminals" and thrown them in prisons to be treated like dogs.

The War on Drugs, through interdicting street supplies of drugs, has only made the drug gangs wealthier by driving up the value of the drugs that remain readily available. And it is now admitted that the ATF actually placed tens of thousands of weapons directly into the hands of Mexican drug gangs, giving rise to the very gang violence the agency claims to be preventing

(http://www.reuters.com/article/2011...).

The U.S. government, it turns out, is actually contributing to the drug war violence!

Ron Paul, Barney Frank join forces to end the insanity

In an effort to end the insanity, Rep. Ron Paul has joined forces with Rep. Barney Frank to introduce legislation legalizing marijuana in America. President Obama, you may recall, promised voters on the campaign trail that he would do this, too, but it seems he's been too busy bombing Libya and using the U.S. Constitution as a floor mat to bother keeping any actual promises. (GITMO is still open forbusiness, too, in case you haven't noticed...)

Of course, the War on Drugs is a very effective tool of tyranny to be used against the American people. It empowers the DEA and the federal government to conduct surprise searches of any home or business for any reason whatsoever (even without a warrant), it keeps the prison industry overflowing with endless cheap human labor, and it grants the big drug companies a monopoly over all those recreational drugs that are now sold as pharmaceuticals.

"Speed," for example, is now sold as an ADHD treatment for children. Big Pharma is also going after THC chemicals in marijuana and hopes to sell them as prescription drugs. By keeping the War on Drugs in place, Big Pharma is assured a monopoly that even the drug lords haven't been able to accomplish.

An issue that crosses political boundaries

One thing that's especially interesting about the so-called War on Drugs is how the best-informed people on both the left and the right now see it all as a complete fraud. Perhaps that's why Rep. Ron Paul (Republican) and Rep. Barney Frank (Democrat) are the perfect sponsors of this bill. Each has staked out positions on the opposite ends of the political spectrum for some issues, yet they both agree that it's time to end the failed Nixon-era policies that have only brought this nation suffering and injustice.

Ending the failed War on Drugs is not a conservative idea nor a liberal idea; it's a principle of liberty whose time has come in America.

Because in observing the War on Drugs, the prison crowding, the drug underground economy and all the other unintended consequence of marijuana prohibition, we must ask the question: Is society served in any way by criminalizing marijuana smokers? How does taking a medical addict and throwing them behind bars accomplish anything at all?

The prohibition against marijuana accomplishes nothing for society

For starters, it halts the contributions of a tax paying citizen. Most pot smokers actually have jobs and pay taxes. They are functioning citizens -- lawyers, accountants, musicians, administrators and more. By throwing them in prison, you're destroying their own ability to participate in the economy while actually placing a new cost burden on the rest of society.

Secondly, from a moral perspective, pot smokers need medical support, not criminal indictment. If someone is suffering from a substance addiction, how does throwing them in prison and surrounding them with other addicts and hardened criminals serve any positive purpose whatsoever? Today, U.S. prisons actually function more like criminal training camps where people come out as far more violent criminals than when they went in. So the justice system actually ends up capturing people who are relatively peaceful, tax-paying citizens and then turning them into hardened criminals who are eventually released

How insane is that?

Wouldn't it make more sense to allow them to continue to function in society but help them with their drug addiction through a medical / health perspective? Addicts need support, not incarceration. And today's justice system does absolutely nothing to rehabilitate prisoners. It only makes them far worse criminals.

And finally, from an economic perspective alone, can any U.S. state really afford to continue incarcerating people for non-violent crimes that have no victims? Who is harmed with a guy down the street lights up a joint? No one. There are no victims. There is no crime, either, other than the fictional crime the State fabricates to incarcerate people.

A "real" crime is a crime that has a victim: A rape, a burglary, a mugging, or a murder. Those crimes deserve proper consideration by the justice system, and people who commit such crimes are precisely the kind of people society can justifiably put behind bars. But carrying a few ounces of marijuana in your pocket -- or even lighting up a smoke -- violates no person or property. Nor does it violate any moral or ethical principle. It is, in every way, an act that is improperly and unjustifiably criminalized through legal fictions engineered by the state.

The solution to marijuana prohibition is finally at hand

It is time to end those legal fictions and end the War on Drugs in America. The solution is to:

#1) LEGALIZE marijuana across the country.

#2) REGULATE marijuana and allow it to be sold through licensed retailers.

#3) TAX marijuana sales and use the tax proceeds to fund addiction support programs for those small percentage of users who end up addicted.

The results of these actions will be:

#1) A COLLAPSE of the drug gangs. If marijuana is suddenly legal, who would bother buying it from a street dealer?

China's Struggle to Shift to Consumption Economy

China’s stunning expansion has been funded by banks that do not fail and an all out effort to bring as much infrastructure to as many people as possible.  A lot of the debt repayment is predicated on the idea that the asset involved will access a much larger economy in a couple of years.  It has worked and it may still work, although that is now becoming less and less believable.

They have drawn in the entire working population to this process and that part of the economy can no longer grow.  They must now transition to rising productivity and rising consumption.  The fastest way to do that is to allow rising wages to drive consumption.  In the meantime it is necessary to restructure the banking system into a profit making system that supports consumption.

Certainly it is becoming rather difficult to sell into the global market which may well be contracting and certainly could.

China is trying to shift from infrastructure investment to consumption driven economy

JUNE 17, 2011

http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/06/china-is-trying-to-shift-from.html

Data Dictionary - infrastructure investment (Gross fixed capital formation) has been driving China’s GDP growth over the last decade and they are trying to engineer a shift to a more consumption driven economy.

China: Toward a Consumption-Driven Growth Path (13 pages, Oct 2006) Peterson Institute for International Economics

China's Currency Continues to be Undervalued - William R. Cline discusses his latest study with John Williamson on fundamental equilibrium exchanges rates (FEERs) and its conclusion that the renminbi remains undervalued

The rmb has actually risen by all of 5 percent against the dollar over the last year--doesn’t get the job done, because the dollar’s gone down against other currencies and there’s been virtually no change in the trade-weighted strength of the rmb. The countries we identify as being overvalued include some of those already at that time: Brazil in particular, Turkey, South Africa. And the countries undervalued as I say include the same suspects: Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan in addition to China, also to some extent Sweden and Switzerland. The authors' calculations show the need for a slightly larger effective revaluation of the Chinese currency, the renminbi, this year (17.6 percent) than last (15.3 percent) and a larger appreciation of the renminbi in terms of the dollar (28.5 percent rather than 24.2 percent). 

Estimates of Fundamental Equilibrium Exchange Rates, May 2011 (18 pages)

Five charts of China’s growth conundrum

Posted on 17 June 2011

http://www.datadiary.com.au/2011/06/17/five-charts-of-chinas-growth-conundrum/

When you think about it, the imminent spike in mining related investment and its impact on Australian GDP is a pretty fair reflection of what has been going on in China for some time. Martin Wolf recently opined on the sustainability of China’s GDP growth without the government sanctioned infrastructure binge (here). It’s the Jim Chanos view of the world, ease off the building and things don’t just slow, they go into reverse pretty quickly. The following charts hint at what’s at stake:

1) The importance of infrastructure investment (Gross fixed capital formation) in driving China’s GDP growth over the last decade is self-evident:

2) And even more simply stated as a proportion of GDP:

3) So it is clear just how difficult is the task is to migrate the driver of GDP growth from investment to consumption.

4) Still that is why China is forecasting GDP growth closer to 7% for the next 5 years – it’ll be weaning the economy off the debt financed infrastructure spend ever so gradually:

5) But the risk is that the problems have already been conceived – China’s financial system is pregnant with debt that has financed investments that will prove uneconomic if the rate of GDP growth (and the attendant asset price inflation) slows.

Looked at from this perspective, it has remarkable similarities to the debt overhang that persists in the developed world – and the resulting underperformance of financial equities from New York to London and beyond.

War is In the Air

I do not think that war is inevitable, but the arguments below are at least sobering.  US leadership is presently adrift and often bone stupid.  Yet that has been true for much of history.  That leadership is theirs is a consequence of overwhelming real world fighting power.  What is today part of every potential belligerent’s calculation is two things.  The first is that the USA can bring overwhelming power to bear.  The second is that however out of touch the current president is, his term ends in less than two years and his replacement will be a response to your aggression should you decide to try something.

I personally do not like the posturing indulged by the odd Chinese leader, not because it should be taken seriously but because it conditions thinking to even consider aggressive behavior in a country that has zero need for it.  It is a case of allowing old fashioned military concerns to be listened to.  It is bad enough that the US indulges this sector and lets them have their toys.

In the meantime, the dysfunctional Islam political diaspora continues to behave like a sack of snakes.  Yet that is the reason for their immense economic weakness. The recent revolt is attempting to shed the feudal system of autocrats, but is likely to end up with another form of Kemalism as the only intact organizing force in the form of the military takes charge of their respective countries.

Way more important than any of this is that the clock is now ticking for the Global oil industry.  Two things have happened.  The most important is the Focardi- Rossi Reactor which is able to produce heat at eight time unity.  The second is the advent of a viable three hundred mile range battery pack for the automobile industry.  They are both coming into the market in some manner or the other now.  This means the world will be converting to a pure electrical power system over the next decade no matter how cheap oil happens to be.  Uranium and Coal will be dumped as fast as the reactors can be put in place.  Cheap power transmission will then flood the market with power while electrical vehicles help absorb some of that power.

In this way the kleptocrats will suddenly be without foreign cash to pay for their security system.  They will all have to walk and likely leave chaos behind.  The Arab Spring was merely the beginning, and perhaps a premature beginning.  The Arab world will look mostly like Pakistan without the support of USA cash.  In the meantime, good governance in the rest of the world is swiftly producing the rise of majority middle classes and the related democratic systems.

The Arab world is facing a massive economic and social transition that must be messy for many.  What needs to be done is clear to a non Muslim but anathema to the majority of Muslims.  It can be allowed to continue for a long time yet although we will face a litany of aggressive behavior.

Yet we need to understand one thing.  The next thirty years will not be a case of linear progress but in fact it will be exponential.  The rest of the world will have joined the resultant communion of modern humanity and political issues will have then been well resolved as we have witnessed in the European Community.

In South East Asia, Chinese faux belligerence will collapse with the first real recession as did Japanese faux belligerence.  North Korea is merely a rotten apple waiting to fall.  After that there is nothing else.

Elsewhere, except along the fault lines between Islam and the rest, the rest is getting its act together and traveling the path of modern development which will now be swiftly accelerated with cheap energy.

The Islamic world is about to enter the fight for its economic survival with the baggage of an ideology that is rejected elsewhere but interferes with their ability to modernize.  Getting past this will inform the next two decades.

The present tinderboxes are well known and include Israel and Pakistan in particular.  It also includes the southern Sudan and eventually parts of the Sahel.  We also have conflict in the Caucasus and other potential embers needing only a breathe or two.

In the long term, depending on Islamic success or failure, we face a war of confrontation with Islam leading to the de Islamification of Islam.  If we are lucky, it will be done by Muslims. In the short term, the problem is to defuse hot spots as much as possible while hoping they can sort it all out.

The worst hot spot continues to be Israel.  We have presently entered a period of maximum instability because new political structures are emerging in all the surrounding countries.  We simply do not know how it will all shake out.  The potential exists for the renewal of hostilities leading to another Arab war.  If such does occur, Israeli war aims will be quite different beyond outright survival.  They will move to eject Palestinians from Southern Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza.  This provides defensible a northern and eastern border with the Palestinians reoccupying Jordan and establishing a proper Palestinian state.  This might be a Zionist Dream, but the present conditions allow for it.

The Sinai itself will be also in play if the Egyptian army tries again to attack Israel as is likely to occur if the other parts of this scenario play out.

Of course, Israel has to win such a war.  Since they have been preparing for it forever while their enemies have been largely imitating other conflicts, their chances are at least good.

Once again war is in the air, but to be fair, it has always been in the air and far more so in even the recent past.  So muddling along perhaps we can avoid all that.

War Is in the Air

Posted by David Solway on Jun 28th, 2011

http://frontpagemag.com/2011/06/28/war-is-in-the-air/

When one surveys the world situation, one cannot react with anything but intense disquiet and apprehension. The premonition of imminent catastrophe cannot be shunted aside as unthinkable or as the capricious imaginings of the congenitally unstable. War is in the air, as it was in 1914 and 1939, before the actual outbreak of hostilities. And the flashpoints are instantly discernible, namely, the Middle East and the South Asian theater. The sequel appears to be pretty much inevitable.

In a certain sense, assigning blame for the coming eruption is a useless enterprise. Al-Qaeda and the Iranian Shi’ite regime are only acting in character; they are the carnivores of the current political world and cannot be expected to begin acting like herbivores. They have openly declared their intentions many times over and have given every indication of being willing to use nuclear weapons once they control or develop them. Those of us who downplay the utter fanaticism of Twelver Shi’a theology or the visceral savagery and determination of al-Qaeda—both Iran and al-Qaeda may be plausibly defined as “non-rational adversaries”—are living in the flimsiest of bubbles. Russia and China have regularly collaborated with the potential “slayers of mankind” as it is in their nature to do. The former is concerned with supply-profit, the latter with energy demands, and both with the purpose of further weakening the United States. Their lack of forethought is endemic and incurable. As for the feeble European democracies, they cannot do other than posture and appease in the face of an approaching firestorm. That is part of their genome.

But if responsibility for the gathering storm is to be ascribed, it is to the United States of America, in virtue of its pre-eminent position on the global stage and of its failure, under the most dangerous and politically corrupted president in its history, to address the looming threat. For the U.S. until recently was the only nation in the world that enjoyed the power, the means, the legitimacy and the authority to avert the coming disaster, but has now abdicated that responsibility. Indeed, its conduct in the international arena has been entirely myopic and counter-productive.

Its Libyan intervention is a blatant misadventure, without a clear and sustained strategy and in violation of the War Powers Resolution and the Constitution. Its levying of sanctions against Iran is a mordant joke and has had no effect on deterring the mullahs in their quest for nuclear weapons and the development of a long-range delivery system. Its support of the misnamed Arab Spring has led to the credible prospect of an anti-American and anti-Israeli Muslim Brotherhood regime assuming power in Egypt. Its pressuring Israel to make untenable concessions to the Palestinian Authority has only hardened the latter’s negotiating position and rendered the “peace process” null and void. The absence of a strong and effective Middle East policy has facilitated the takeover of Lebanon by Hezbollah, empowered Hamas in dominating a unity government with Fatah, and permitted Turkey to drift inexorably into the Islamic orbit. And just as the U.S. had little to say about Iran’s crushing of its own people during the popular revolt of 2009, so it remains essentially mute as Syria’s Bashar Assad slaughters his own countrymen with complete impunity. After all, according to a recent statement of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Bashar Assad is a “reformer.” The comedy of terrors is literally mind-boggling.

The result of the American forfeiture of its political will, practical intelligence and moral inheritance, as it grows increasingly to resemble the political caricature that goes by the name of the European Union, is all too predictable. It means that there are only two countries in the world left to meet the Islamic nuclear menace: India, which will have to deal with Pakistan in the event that al-Qaeda gains control of the country’s nuclear capability; and Israel, which at tremendous cost to itself will have little choice but to act against a nuclearizing Iran and its terrorist proxies.

There is no point in deluding ourselves any longer or smugly dismissing apocalyptic scenarios as mere unbridled fear-mongering. War is going to break out in the Middle East, possibly later this year and almost certainly in 2012, and eventually in South Asia. There is a stark likelihood that these may be WMD wars. For if Israel is targeted by Hezbollah’s 40,000-50,000 missiles, some of which are reported to be fitted with chemical and biological payloads and which can reach every corner of the country, it may need to reply in cataclysmic kind in order to survive. Abandoned by its American ally and left to its own resources, it may quite simply have no alternative, unless it agrees to commit national suicide. Despite the promising development of the Arrow anti-ballistic missile program, neither preemption—known in customary international law as “anticipatory self-defense”—nor second-strike reprisal can be ruled out. And if the U.S.-subsidized but unreliable Pakistani regime with its estimated 70-90 nuclear warheads goes rogue, with the finger of al-Qaeda on the nuclear button, India too may have no option but to respond in the same manner.

These two potential war zones are heating up. The Japanese Sankei Shimbunnewspaper reveals that North Korea dispatched 160 nuclear experts to Iran in May, and Fars News Agency reports on Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardan’s recent visit Tehran to discuss “a vast range of issues.” We can readily imagine what some of these topics will be. Between Iran and Pakistan falls the shadow.

True, the Korean peninsula is also a potential war zone, but despite the North’s aggressive rheteoric and occasional acts of belligerence, it will be restrained by China for which a peninsular war on its borders is not in its interests. North Korea’s mischief making is mainly confined to the export of its nuclear technology and expertise to Iran and Syria. The Middle East and South Asia remain the epicenters of the approaching upheavals.

There is a slight chance that we may emerge from the present inflammable circumstances if we are providentially given two gifts: more time, and a new, vigorous and wiser American administration. Otherwise, those of us who are not immediately and physically implicated would have only one hope, that the carnage stays localized. But there is no guarantee that this will be the case. And we will then have deserved whatever calamity is inflicted upon us for our blindness, self-deception, anemic leadership and languid inactivity in the face of what might have been prevented.

The writing is on the wall and it does not take a Daniel to interpret it.

Lithium Prevents Parkinson's Brain Damage

It appears that for all neurological issues derived from progressive physical damage to the brain (which is likely just about everything) that lithium therapy is indicated as beneficial.

It certainly has been beneficial for bi polar disease and in fact has managed the disease entirely.   Been able to suddenly manage Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s is a huge breakthrough.  The tests have started with Parkinson’s but they will certainly be tested everywhere else pretty quickly.

In the meantime patients are presently self medicating at known safe levels.  This means you can use it. And in fairness, these diseases are so horrible and naturally progressive that waiting to see if it actually works is pointless, so long as you will not die from the lithium.  You are certain to die from the diseases themselves, thus holding back is contra indicated.

Lithium Profoundly Prevents Brain Damage Associated with Parkinson's

Released: 6/20/2011 8:00 AM EDT 

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/577888/?sc=dwhn

Source: Buck Institute for Research on Aging

Newswise — Lithium profoundly prevents the aggregation of toxic proteins and cell loss associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD) in a mouse model of the condition. Preclinical research is now underway at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging to determine correct dosages for a drug that continues to be the gold standard for the treatment of bipolar disorder. The Buck is currently working toward initiating a Phase IIa clinical studies of lithium in humans in conjunction with standard PD drug therapy. The research appears in the June 24 online edition of the Journal of Neuroscience Research.

“This is the first time lithium has been tested in an animal model of PD,” said lead author and Buck Professor Julie Andersen, PhD. “The fact that lithium’s safety profile in humans is well understood greatly reduces trial risk and lowers a significant hurdle to getting it into the clinic.”

According to Andersen, lithium has recently been suggested to be neuroprotective in relation to several neurodegenerative conditions including Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and has been touted for its anti-aging properties in simple animals. “We fed our mice levels of lithium that were at the low end of the therapeutic range,” said Andersen. “The possibility that lithium could be effective in PD patients at subclinical levels is exciting, because it would avoid many side effects associated at the higher dose range.” Overuse of lithium has been linked to hyperthyroidism and kidney toxicity.

PD is a progressive, incurable neurodegenerative disorder that affects 1 million Americans and results in tremor, slowness of movement and rigidity. It is the second most common neurodegenerative disease after Alzheimer’s. Between 50,000 and 60,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Age is the largest risk factor for the PD. Onset usually begins between the ages of 45 and 70 years.

Andersen’s research focuses on lithium as a potential treatment for PD as well as its efficacy in combination with drugs currently used to control the symptoms of the disease. An internet search reveals stories from PD patients who are using lithium “off label” as part of their treatment regime; others report benefits from low dose lithium salts which are available as a supplement in some health food stores. “This finding gives us an opportunity to explore lithium as a recognized therapeutic for PD, in doses that are safe and effective” said Andersen.

Contributors to the work:

Other Buck Institute researchers involved in the study include Yong-Hwan Kim, Anand Rane and Stephanie Lussier. The research was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Citation:

Lithium protects against oxidative stress-mediated cell death in alpha-synuclein over-expressing in vitro and in vivo models of Parkinson’s disease. JNR: 852471-744204

About the Buck Institute for Research on Aging:

The Buck Institute is the first freestanding institute in the United States that is devoted solely to basic research on aging and age-associated disease. The Institute is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to extending the healthspan, the healthy years of each individual’s life. Buck Institute scientists work in an innovative, interdisciplinary setting to understand the mechanisms of aging and to discover new ways of detecting, preventing and treating conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease and stroke. Collaborative research at the Institute is supported by new developments in genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics technology. For more information: www.thebuck.org.

Milk and Grain Addiction

The take home here is that grains and milk both have proteins that bind with receptors to effectively encourage satisfaction with the food but actually sidesteps the choices your body wishes to make.

The problem is that we want to over eat these foods and that promotes excess weight and any related allergies.  I suspect that low level gluten allergy is way more common than anyone realizes.

In the e vent you now know that your hunger for flour based products in particular is not a choice made by your body so much as by the food itself.  Knowing this will allow you to take a more measured approach to their consumption.

Addicted to Nature?

Published on June 8th, 2011

Written by Dr. Al Sears

http://www.alsearsmd.com/addicted-to-nature/

Eating a bagel and cream cheese or crunching on some pretzels is addictive in much the same way, biologically, as narcotics are.

That’s because grains like wheat, barley, and rye – and milk from cows – have something in them that acts just like morphine. They’re called “exorphins.” They can make you weak and tired, and take over your body just like they’ve taken over the Western diet.

But today I’m going to show you how to stop this from happening, get rid of the foods with exorphins that can make you weak, and give your body foods that will keep you strong.

But first, let me explain how grains can be so addictive…

Did you know your body makes its own narcotics? They are mini proteins that are like morphine called endorphins. Endorphins bind to other proteins designed to receive them. These receivers are your “opiate receptors.”

When endorphins bind to these receptors, you get a reduced sensation of pain, it sedates you, and it affects your emotions. It also stimulates your pleasure response. It tells your brain you’re getting a reward.

Sweet foods like fruit and fatty foods like juicy cheeseburgers have this effect. That’s why you crave them. Nature designed you this way so you could get antioxidants from ripe, sweet fruits, and so you could get healthy fats from meat to transport vitamins through your body.

The exorphins in grains and cow’s milk hijack this process and trick you because they act just like natural endorphins. But there’s nothing natural about them.

They replace your endorphins by binding to your opiate receptors instead. This makes you artificially feel pleased and rewarded.

Instead of your own endorphins telling you something is tasty and to eat more of it, the food’s exorphins tell you the food was tasty. The food is fooling you and telling you to eat more, not your body.

In one study, researchers discovered how milk exorphins trick you. They found that two exorphins from cow’s milk carry information with them as they bind to opiate receptors. The message they deliver to your brain is, “Go to sleep, feel bad, but go back for more anyway.”1

Your brain also uses the exorphins instead of neurotransmitters which can impair your learning and memory.

The true source of nutrition, health, and energy starts with eating mainly protein and very few grains that try to mimic or replace your body’s natural endorphins.

Here are my three steps to help you keep exorphins from getting control over your body and robbing you of your health:

Step 1) Get Rid of the Gluten: One exorphin you may have heard of is gluten, a sticky, gluey protein found in grain. It’s commonly used in baked goods. It makes dough stretchy, holds cookies together, and it’s why bagels are doughy.

But here’s the thing about gluten: Besides being an exorphin, it isn’t part of our native diet. It can give you digestive problems like bloating, cramping and even symptoms that resemble irritable bowel syndrome.

You can find gluten in some unlikely places, like pasta, beer, soy sauce, certain medications, toothpaste and even lipstick. It can also hide in sausage and hamburger filler, ketchup, ice cream and mayonnaise, and pre-packaged grated cheese.

Try to avoid these fillers that have gluten exorphins:

• Distilled grain vinegar 

• Malt/Maltodextrin 

• Hydrolyzed protein 

• Yeast extract 

• Food starch 

• Rennet

• Semolina

Step 2) Get Better Bread: The modern food industry is constantly trying to tell you how healthy their “wheat” or “whole grain” breads are. That’s because big business wants you to keep eating grains. They’re cheap to produce and companies make a fortune selling grain for all those rolls, boxes of cereal and loaves of bread.

But none of them are natural in that you could not have eaten these processed foods in your native environment. And none of them are “healthy.” Not only do they have exorphins, but they are loaded with sugar and preservatives. Whole grain breads are junk food.

Coconut flour and almond flour are excellent choices to replace flour from wheat, bran, buckwheat, millet, and other grains if you want bread. If you can’t find them, rice flour makes a good alternative.

Step 3) Get Back To Basics: Everyone can benefit from eating less grains and processed food, and eating more protein. This will get you back to your native way of eating. It will boost your energy, improve focus, improve digestion, and aid with the absorption of nutrients.

The USDA is making this very difficult. Their food pyramid is based on eating lots of exorphin-containing grains that make up breads, pastas and breakfast cereals. The pyramid puts almost no emphasis on proteins and fats.

Instead, you want to turn the USDA’s pyramid on its head. Here’s my Healthy Food Pyramid you can follow to minimize exorphins and maximize your strength and energy:

1 Loukas, S., Varoucha, D., Zioudrou, C., et al, “Opioid activities and structures of alpha-casein-derived exorphins,” Biochemistry Sept. 13, 1983;22(19):4567-73

Peppermint Thoughts

This has a few thoughts about peppermint and it makes clear why it appears beneficial to our senses, while an actual explanation is absent.  We can not win them all.

In the meantime here is a bit of lore and a couple of recipes to play with or watch out for.

Enjoy!

It Takes Me Someplace Else…

Published on June 7th, 2011

Written by Dr. Al Sears

http://www.alsearsmd.com/it-takes-me-someplace-else/

Peppermint is a real medical curiosity to me. It’s wonderfully effective and it’s almost immediately effective.

I don’t completely understand it. How can you take an herb, and it has its effect in one to five seconds? It means there’s something else going on other than the normal explanations of chemistry and physiology.

Part of it might be the aromatherapy effect, because it’s very aromatic. You can crush the leaf in your fingers and inhale it, and feel better in an instant.

Break it up and breathe it in and you get that “aaaahhhhhhhhhh” feeling. Like you just came back from taking a shower, or a walk on a spring day. It takes you someplace else…

Peppermint grows in my backyard, and I use it quite a bit.

I even use it to make a better mint-flavored drink. I get cachaça from Brazil and it’s so much better if you put peppermint in it.

It’s pronounced “ca-shah-sah” and it’s the national liquor of Brazil. I use it to make a traditional Brazilian drink for guests at my house. It’s called a caipirinha (kie-purr-REEN-yah).

And of course, you can use peppermint to make a mojito.

When I go to Peru, I get Pisco. It’s almost impossible to get here in the United States, but whenever I go I always bring bottles back.

You can go to this area that’s like the Napa Valley of Peru and you can sample the Pisco. But you can only drink about two Pisco drinks. There’s also a Pisco freeze that they make, and they tell you “only drink two.” The first time I was ever exposed to it I drank about eight (bad idea).

Pisco is treated like wine in that they take great care with the grapes, and they make it at estates that are like vineyards. They have their own name and flavor and vintage and all that…

It’s distilled down to a purified, clear liquid, like vodka or gin. But instead of using grain or potatoes it starts with grapes.

They make wine, and then they distill the wine into Pisco which gives it this little bit of an aftertaste. It has a tonal quality that is deeper and broader than something like vodka, which to me, you don’t want to taste at all because it tastes horrible.

But Pisco is refreshing, and if you put peppermint in it, it’s even better.

You can take a piece of peppermint when you have a belly ache, gastritis, reflux or indigestion, put it in the back of your mouth on your molars, bite into it and just let it sit there…

…breathe in, and by the time you exhale your stomach ache will be gone.

And if you take it, not only will your stomach problems go away very quickly, but also it has a mental effect. It tends to be calming and somehow clarifying. You get a mental focus.

It’s the reason we developed mint as an after-dinner candy. Because it was originally made from real peppermint to help you avoid indigestion and feel better after eating.

Healers also use peppermint to treat headaches, skin irritations, nausea, diarrhea, and cramps. It is also an ingredient in chest rubs.

Studies show that peppermint has strong antioxidant and antitumor actions, and kills some types of bacteria and viruses.1

To treat stomach aches, it’s always best to use fresh peppermint. You can just chew a leaf, or make peppermint tea.

For irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, you can take enteric-coated capsules of peppermint oil. It’s completely safe. The coating stops the oil from getting digested too early. One study gave either the capsules or a placebo to people with IBS. Of the people who took peppermint, 75% had a significant reduction of IBS symptoms.

Another study compared enteric-coated peppermint oil capsules to placebo in children with IBS. It found that in only 2 weeks, 75% had reduced symptoms.2

To cure headaches, you can spread a tincture of peppermint on your forehead and let it evaporate.

Making peppermint tea is simple:

Steep 1 teaspoon of crushed peppermint leaves in 1 cup boiling water for 10 minutes;

Strain and cool;

Drink four to five times per day between meals.

To make a Dr. Sears caipirinha:

1. Take a clean lime and roll it a little on a wooden board to loosen the juices;

2. Chop the lime into pieces;

3. Sprinkle a little sugar on the pulp side;

4. In a bowl, press the pieces with a wooden tool just enough to release the juice; 

5. Take the lime out, leaving the juice;

6. Pour into a glass, adding sugar, cachaça ice and a splash of water;

7. Break up two fresh peppermint leaves; add to caipirinha; enjoy!

To make a Dr. Sears Pisco freeze:

1. Take an egg and separate the white from the yolk;

2. Cut one lemon and one lime in half;

3. Squeeze the lemon and lime over the egg white and mix vigorously;

4. Mix in one teaspoon of sugar;

5. Pour Pisco and mix over ice;

6. Break up one peppermint leaf and add to the container;

7. Shake hard until the ice is melted and pour into a cocktail glass;

8. Alternatively, you could crush the ice and make it like a slush.

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD

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1 McKay, Diane L., Blumberg, Jeffrey B., “A review of the bioactivity and potential health benefits of peppermint tea,” Phytotherapy Research August 2006;20(8):619–633
2 “Peppermint,” University of Maryland Medical Center, www.umm.edu