tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60677109004599607072024-02-20T10:04:06.039-08:00Health Education ResearchExploring what we know - and how we know it - about the human bodymind.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532471984503165704noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6067710900459960707.post-2667430462445523802017-09-05T15:22:00.000-07:002017-09-05T15:22:06.926-07:00<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> The following article was submitted to the Journal of Chiropractic Humanities in August 2017. But they wanted me to make so many changes I decided to withdraw it.</span><span style="font-size: 18.6667px;"> </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">What's In A Word</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Commentary
by William Conder, D.C.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Abstract</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Presented is a discussion of
chiropractic in the context of the history of the greater American culture of
the late 19<sup>th</sup> and early 20<sup>th</sup> century. Using a non-linear
style of narrative writing, science-based evidence, and reports from
well-respected observers, we explore various factors that formed the
perceptions of D.D. and B.J. Palmer and other doctors of the period, and we
compare these to factors that have driven the medicalization movement in the
profession. In this discussion, we find significant differences between the
sensibilities of traditional chiropractors and modern mainstream spine
specialists. What we find in the profession, obscured by the lines of
typographic programming, is the presence of a re-emerging oral culture
traceable to the roots of the Palmers' chiropractic.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Introduction</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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...it is
important to realize that great changes in the ways of ordinary human speaking
and acting are bound up with the adoption of new instruments. <sup>1</sup><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>throw the dog a bone</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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A May 22, 2017<i> Palmer News</i>
report happily announced, “Chiropractic Garners Positive Mainstream Media
Coverage”. The article refers to several recent publications in medical journals
that seem to support chiropractic “spinal manipulation” as being at least as
effective and safe as medical procedures performed by doctors. <sup>2</sup><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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One article in particular to which <i>Palmer
News </i>refers appears in <i>The Upshot</i> section of the May 1 <i>New York
Times</i> online, written by Aaron Carroll, M.D. The title of the article is
“For Bad Backs, It May Be Time to Rethink Biases About Chiropractors”. <sup>3</sup><o:p></o:p></div>
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The title of the article alone
contains important talking points: the word “chiropractor” in print in a <i>New
York Times</i> article, without derogatory or demeaning reference, is a big
step; and the open admission of bias toward chiropractors on the part of a
member of the medical establishment is astonishing. Reading this article, a
chiropractor might think, as declared by <i>Palmer News</i>, that this
“mainstream media coverage” about chiropractic was “positive”. But that would
be a mistake.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Aside from the persistent use of the
phrase “spinal manipulation”, offensive to the sensibility of some in the
chiropractic profession, as in “[P]hysicians are traditionally wary of spinal
manipulation (applying pressure on bones and joints) because the practitioners
are often not doctors...”; and Carroll's kind-of definition, “...applying
pressure on bones and joints...”; and wariness about the procedure as it may
not be performed by real doctors; and Carroll's ignorance about what
chiropractors do and his arrogance about it because he is a <i>real</i> doctor
and he <i>knows</i>. Aside from these chronic annoyances, or possibly central
to the issue, is Carroll's incorrect use of the word “traditional”.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As mentioned above, Carroll says
“[P]hysicians are traditionally wary of spinal manipulation....” His use of the
word “traditionally” is inaccurate at best. It betrays his ignorance concerning
what tradition is. Elsewhere in the article, Carroll says, “And spinal
manipulation – along with other less traditional therapies – like heat,
meditation, and acupuncture - ...” What he seems to be saying here is that his
profession, conventional medicine, is the traditional form.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Discussion<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Tradition is specific to oral
cultures' method of passing skills, beliefs, and values from generation to
generation by word-of-mouth, for example, from father to son. The intention is
to maintain the culture's skills, beliefs, and values, and to provide a kind of
education in the ways of the culture for the coming generation. According to
this proper definition, Carroll obviously does not participate in a traditional
culture. Carroll practices <i>conventional</i> medicine.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>...the war is in words...</i>
James Joyce, <i>Finnegan's Wake</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Conventional medicine practitioners
“convene” on a regular basis, yearly, for example, to discuss new discoveries,
and reformulate protocols based on these discoveries. The intention here is to
improve medical practice in the belief that new research, when implemented,
will bring about “progress” in medical care, even though the notion of progress
in conventional medicine is one of genuine debate. For example, see David W.
Light's 2014 “New Prescription Drugs: A Major Health Risk with Few Offsetting
Advantages”. <sup>4</sup><o:p></o:p></div>
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In general, the idea of progress
implies that society can become increasingly better in political, economic,
scientific, and technological areas. In this regard it is believed, especially
in science and technology, that advances assure social progress and
modernization and result in an improvement in the “human condition”. But modern
conventional and traditional cultural forms are very different kinds of social
organization.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The so-called Progressive Era in
American culture is identified as coming into dominance in the late 19<sup>th</sup>
through the early 20<sup>th</sup> century, a period which coincides with the
Carnegie Institute's <i>Flexner Report </i><sup>5</sup> and the introduction of
scientific medicine. In this same period, philanthropy was a force behind
progressivism, especially on the part of Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations
and Johns Hopkins. However, some observers have proposed that philanthropy and
progressive reforms were intended to empower American industrialism, which
would destroy rural agrarian culture, and to promote standardized education.
Industrialism, and American industrialism in particular, are effects of print
literacy and typography.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Socially, the
typographic extension of man brought in nationalism, industrialism, mass
markets, and universal literacy and education... print presented an image of
repeatable precision that inspired totally new forms of extending social
energies. <i><sup>6</sup></i><o:p></o:p></div>
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“Progress” seems always to have a
positive connotation, but some say there is a downside. Daniel O'Leary
describes the “progress trap” as “the condition in which we find ourselves when
innovation creates more problems than it can solve, often inadvertently”. <sup>7</sup>
According to historian Sidney Pollack, progress is “...the assumption that a
pattern of change exists in the history of mankind... that it consists of
irreversible changes in one direction only, and that this direction is towards
improvement.” <sup>8</sup><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>...the continuing pursuit of
human advancement...<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Chiropractic is a traditional health
care system. Little has changed about its activity and purpose since D.D. and
B.J. Palmer. Even the Palmer family's somewhat clumsy passage of the system
through several generations bears evidence of a tradition. For the most part,
students still attend chiropractic colleges to learn to adjust subluxations.
Superficially, however, much has changed. The smothering of chiropractic's
holistic, vitalistic ideology by its acceptance of the reductionist belief that
“life is chemical” and that chiropractic is “neck and spine care” has corrupted
chiropractic education and its identity.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So-called scientific medicine,
associated with the <i>Flexner Report</i> and the introduction of standardized
European-style education in medical schools in America in the early 20<sup>th</sup>
century, ultimately led to chiropractic college accreditation. The process,
which begins at the federal level, is run and overseen by people who know
little or nothing about chiropractic, yet we assume that these standards
improve the quality of education and the quality of chiropractic college
graduates. In any case, grants and student aid are available only to students
who attend accredited schools. This is the same kind of coercion that the
American Medical Association (AMA) and the Carnegie Institute via the <i>Flexner
Report</i> imposed on dozens of medical schools in the early 20<sup>th</sup>
century. Privately owned, proprietary medical schools were offered “grants” if
they adopted the Johns Hopkins medical school model. Schools that did not
accept the offer found that they could not compete and eventually went out of
business.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>tail
wags the dog<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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In 2010 the American Chiropractic
Association and the Council on Chiropractic Guidelines and Practice Parameters
“engaged in a multidisciplinary consensus process to
address the terminology related to 'levels of care.'” A “consensus language”
was developed “[T]o ensure equitable inclusion in the health care arena.” The
ultimate purpose of adopting the consensus language, as stated, is to
“facilitate better integration of chiropractic care within the health care mainstream<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 200%;">.</span>” <sup>9</sup><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>We are
Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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The
language of mainstream medicine is defined, analytical, and pedantic and is an
effect of print literacy programming. The language of traditional chiropractic
is metaphoric and based in the rural, oral culture of late 19<sup>th</sup>
century America. The argument presented by some is that the vernacular of
chiropractic should be modernized and mainstreamed to make chiropractic more
acceptable to consumers and insurance companies. But because American culture,
and Western culture in general, has transformed from the modern, mechanical,
print-literacy sensibility to an electric, new oral sensibility, the old-timey
chiropractic metaphors may resonate with consumers better than the mechanical
officialese of conventional medicine, even as insurance payments for
chiropractors dry up.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It helps to know that civilization is entirely the product
of phonetic literacy, and as it dissolves with the electronic revolution we
rediscover a tribal, integral awareness that manifests itself in a complete
shift in our sensory lives. <sup>10</sup><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>he who
defines the terms wins the argument<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Since we
identify the so-called electric age as having begun with the telegraph in the
mid 19<sup>th</sup> century, we might begin to see D.D. Palmer as a kind of
prophet of what has come to be called “energy medicine”. “Biofield science” as
discussed by Rubik and others in “Biofield Science and Healing: History,
Terminology, and Concepts” <sup>11</sup> is an “emerging field of
study that aims to provide a scientific foundation for
understanding the complex homeodynamic regulation of living systems”. The
beneficial effects of the chiropractic adjustment are included in this
“emerging field of study”.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It took
less than 20 years after Samuel Morse installed his telegraph line from
Washington D.C. to Baltimore in 1844 for a telegraph cable to be laid under the
Atlantic Ocean and then strung across America. Morse's' first message in 1844
was “What hath God wrought?” Though its importance was overshadowed by the
railroad in this early period, it soon proved to be critical in coordinating
railroad schedules and routing. Ironically, as it was customary for telegraph
lines to be strung alongside of rail lines, this marked the beginning of the
end of the railroad as a dominant technology.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>lyceum<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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According
to Myron Brown's “Old Dad Chiro: his thoughts, words, and deeds”,<sup>12</sup> Ralph
Waldo Emerson was one of D.D. Palmer's favorite sources. In the article Brown
quotes Simon Senzon as saying that Emerson was one of Palmer's “inspirations”.<br />
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Ralph Waldo Emerson was a 19<sup>th</sup>
century American writer, poet, and orator. He is identified as America's
leading proponent of Transcendentalism, which has been associated with Romanticism,
Hinduism, and the philosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg. (According to Walter Ong in
<i>Orality and Literacy</i>, “[T]he Romantic Movement marks the beginning of
the end of the old orality-grounded rhetoric” <sup>13</sup><i>.) </i>Transcendentalism,
Romanticism, and the New Thought movement are considered to have grown out of
the same frustration artists, writers, and spiritual leaders had with
over-intellectualism, industrialism, and the perceived loss of individuality of
that period. New Thought, a quasi-religious organization, exists today with
many of its same original principles, including the presence of an infinite,
universal intelligence that dwells in every person. Emerson was one of the
first to introduce Eastern religion concepts to the American public.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Leaving a position as pastor of a
church in Boston, Emerson first engaged a lecture tour in Europe and then
participated in the Lyceum movement in America. Though he was called a writer
and poet, Emerson wrote his material to be presented orally in lecture format.
He gave over a thousand oral presentations in the Lyceum circuit.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Lyceum was a lecture circuit popular
in the Midwest in the late 19<sup>th</sup> century. Educators, entertainers,
and politicians toured with the Lyceum movement in the interest of improving
the education of local people and encouraging public debate. Lyceum was an
important part of oral culture adult education.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In Ancient Greece, the Lyceum was a
temple dedicated to the god Apollo where Aristotle later founded his
Peripatetic school. Peripatetics walked about and talked about various
philosophical matters.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Palmer College's Lyceum Hall is a
vestige of the Lyceum movement, and it remains an indication of the Palmers'
preference for the oral mode. Today, however, it is difficult to find a
reference for lyceum except as a synonym for a couple of chiropractic college's
homecoming events. A search in chiro.org yields no results for “lyceum”, even
though the website contains a significant amount of chiropractic historian
Joseph Keating's research.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>innate vs. educated<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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The late Dr. Joseph Keating, Jr.,
was a clinical psychologist who made his way into chiropractic as a research
and history professor. He was beloved and respected by many in the chiropractic
profession, but in some ways he was chiropractic's Trojan Horse. His history of
the formative years of the profession was linear and analytical, as one would
expect of a university-trained Ph.D., and without due respect for D.D. and
B.J.'s oral sensibility and common sense. Further, his history of chiropractic
was abstracted from the greater social context, and it ignored the wave of
change underway in the culture at large. Unfortunately, many chiropractors have
accepted Keating's literal point-of-view as the official word of chiropractic
history.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>magic and bullets<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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In the early 20<sup>th</sup> century
German physician Paul Ehrlich conceived the “magic bullet” idea, a chemical
treatment of an infected or diseased patient that would kill the offending
microorganism without harming the rest of the patient's body. His first
medicine based on this concept was an arsenic compound for the treatment of
syphilis. It was moderately successful at killing the spirochete but too toxic
to patients, causing convulsions and other neurological side effects, and
death. Though the magic bullet concept drives pharmaceutical research to this
day even the miracle drug penicillin could not live up to that ideal.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The “germ theory” of the late 19<sup>th</sup>
century is another concept introduced with scientific medicine. Both concepts,
the magic bullet medicine and the germ theory of disease, are examples of a
propensity of the visually biased for abstracting a figure from its ground, of
taking text out of context, of not seeing the forest for the trees.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The magic bullet and germ theory
ideas became dominant in the early days of American scientific medicine, but
other points-of-view expressed by prominent medical doctors were popular, too.
For example, William Osler, M.D., one of the four founders of Johns Hopkins
Hospital famously said, “The person who takes medicine must recover twice. Once
from the disease and once from the medicine.” And, “One of the first duties of
the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicines.” Harvard-trained
Richard Cabot, M.D., in the early 20<sup>th</sup> century, said, “Every
educated physician knows that most diseases are not appreciably helped by
medicine.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Medical doctors Elmer Lee, Henry
Lindlahr, and John Tilden, considered to have been originators of natural and
alternative medicine in the early 20<sup>th</sup> century, expressed views
about medicine similar to those of A.S. Still and D.D. Palmer, as well as those
of Osler and Cabot. The following is from John Tilden, M.D., who developed the
idea that poor diet, poor hygiene, and too much stress caused toxemia, which he
identified as the cause of disease:<o:p></o:p></div>
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What hope is there for medical science to ever become a
true science when the entire structure of medical knowledge is built around the
idea that there is an entity called disease which can be expelled when the
right drug is found? <sup>14</sup><o:p></o:p></div>
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Tilden was a so-called “eclectic”
doctor. Eclectics were a primary target of the AMA and the<i> Flexner Report</i>.
The last Eclectic medical school closed in 1939. Although these targets of the
AMA seem to have been shot down by the mid-20<sup>th</sup> century, by the
1990's they returned with other modalities as Complementary and Alternative
Medicine (CAM). <sup>15</sup><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>the universal tolerates no
alternatives<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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The Catholic Church is an important
cornerstone in the foundation of Western culture. Comparing the Church to
today's conventional medical establishment may yield some interesting insights.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The etymology of “catholic” is
“universal” from Greek and Latin vocabularies. The Roman Church was decreed The
Catholic Church by Constantine in the 4<sup>th</sup> century. It wasn't until
the Reformation and Martin Luther that Christian worshipers could consider a
different way of approaching their Christianity. It calls itself “the one true
church”. As such, it acknowledges no alternative to its teaching.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Marcia Angell, M.D., former editor
of the<i> New England Journal of Medicine</i>, known for her criticism of
pharmaceutical industry ties to the FDA, also has been critical of “alternative
medicine”. In a 1998 NEJM editorial she wrote “What sets alternative medicine
apart... is that it has not been scientifically tested and its advocates
largely deny the need for such testing.” <sup>16</sup> The kind of testing she
refers to is the kind required by the FDA, the results of which are published
in medical journals. She says, “It's time for the scientific community to stop
giving alternative medicine a free ride. There cannot be two kinds of medicine
– conventional and alternative. There is only one medicine....” Elsewhere, however, she's been critical of clinical
trials and the FDA's response to them. <sup>17 </sup>Angell is a science
crusader.<o:p></o:p></div>
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A June 28, 2017 Medpagetoday.com F.
Perry Wilson, M.D. interview with Steven Novella, M.D., featured the title
“What Used to be Fraud is Now Alternative Medicine”.<sup>18</sup> Fraud is a
criminal act of intentionally deceiving another for monetary or personal gain.
According to findlaw.com, “Fraud offenses always
include some sort of false statement, misrepresentation, or deceitful conduct.”<sup>19
</sup>Perry and Novella, in their discussion of “science-based medicine”,
mention homeopathy, acupuncture, and naturopathy. In the interview, the doctors
lament that patients seek health care at the hands of these practitioners. They
don't specify that these modalities are fraudulent, but the damage is done in
the title. And, in fact, Medpagetoday, in posting that title, may be the party
committing a fraudulent or defamatory act. Chiropractic was not mentioned
during the interview but it didn't have to be: conventionally, chiropractic is
included in the category “alternative medicine”. Implicit in the words of these
doctors is their belief that conventional medicine, whether it is
evidence-based or science-based, is “the one true medicine” - rigorous, rigid,
infallible, mechanical, catholic, universal.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The sense of touch had been
anesthetized in the mechanical age... <sup>10</sup><o:p></o:p></div>
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Conventional medicine doctors and
traditional chiropractic doctors operate from different perceptions of life and
health. We are reluctant to recognize this difference, however, because as
programmed literates we assume we can know and understand all things and that
we see the world from a superior point-of-view. To us, the oral sensibility is
inferior. In fact, our typographic literacy disturbs the natural sensory
balance that all people enjoy prior to acquiring phonetic alphabet literacy.
Our sense of hearing is the common sense, but after literacy training and
repeated reading of print, we suffer a visual bias, trading an “eye for an
ear”, as James Joyce so adroitly observed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 35.45pt;">
Prolonged
mimesis of the alphabet and its fragmenting properties produced a new dominant
mode of perception and then of culture. <sup>20</sup><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 35.45pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%;">
In <i>Laws of Media</i>, McLuhan
defines “visual space” as a human artifact, a technology, “created and
perceived by the eyes <i>when they are abstracted or separated from the activity
of the other senses</i>.” Further, he cites studies indicating that American
English literacy is a most analytic, left cortical hemisphere function.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%;">
Researching the importance of the
right cerebral cortex in language function, psychiatrists Mitchell and Crow
identified an important distinction between it and the left cerebral cortex.
Right hemisphere language function “includes discourse planning/comprehension,
understanding humor, sarcasm, metaphors and indirect requests, and the
generation/comprehension of emotional prosody.” (“Right hemisphere language
functions and schizophrenia: the forgotten hemisphere?” <sup>21</sup><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 35.45pt;">
Behavioral
evidence indicates that patients with typical schizophrenic illnesses perform
poorly on tests of these functions, and aspects of these functions are
disturbed in schizo-affective and affective psychoses. The higher order
language functions mediated by the right hemisphere are essential to an
accurate understanding of someone's communicative intent... we now know that
the left hemisphere is not sufficient to mediate normal levels of discourse
comprehension... and temporal lobe activity is right lateralized when
participants listen to stories... (Mitchell and Crow.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%;">
When we override right cortex
language function and intensively program the left cortex with print literacy
are we not creating a schizoid effect in the mind and affect in the world? Is
not conventional, scientific medicine, as it is presented to us, rigorously
analytic and literal, cortically left-lateralized? Does not chiropractic's
roots reach into the fertile ground of the American oral, rural culture of the
late 19<sup>th</sup> century? Is not the conventional medical model, which dominates
the health care industry and to which some chiropractors aspire, a kind of
pathological adaptation to unbalanced cortical hemisphere function? Does not
the natural, vitalistic, holistic perception of chiropractic doctors represent
whole brain mental functioning? Is not the latter <i>at least</i> as valid as
the former?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 35.45pt;">
...the electric
principle everywhere dissolves the mechanical technique of visual separation
and analysis of functions. <sup>6</sup><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%;">
<b>Conclusion<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%;">
One way to understand the
polarization in the chiropractic profession is to recognize that some of us are
more left-brain oriented and some of us are more right-brain oriented. This
simplified view, possibly, can be traced to a habit for preferring one form of
sensory input and output over another. Some of us believe that the only way to
respectability in health care is to do the research, drop the old words and
ideas for medicalized ones, and become specialists in the conventional medical
system. Others of us prefer to stick with the “principles”, attend uplifting
seminars, revivals, and “Jams”, and adjust subluxations to liberate Innate. We
suggest that the former position, though apparently firmly entrenched, will be
recognized increasingly as old, stodgy, and <i>out-of-touch</i>, while the
latter moves into prominence as the front-line energy medicine that – since
D.D. Palmer – it always has been.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 35.45pt;">
Tactility is the
integral sense, the one that brings all others into relation. <sup>10</sup><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard" style="line-height: 200%;">
The shift from mechanical to
electric, which has been underway for many years in the greater culture, is not
something that can be changed or stopped. It is an effect of the form of the
culture's dominant communications medium, which now is electric/electronic. For
500 years the mechanical printing press and print literacy programmed perception
and established “visual space” as the only realm where truth could be
determined. Today the electric media overwhelms the mechanical and, as an
extension of the human nervous system, obsolesces the old sensibility and
retrieves the whole world, and the whole body, at once. It increases our
appreciation for the tactile, haptic, feeling, auditory sensibilities, and
revives the roots of chiropractic.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="PreformattedText" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">What's In A Word</span></b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"> References<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">1. Young, J.Z. Doubt and Certainty in Science.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">2.
http://blogs.palmer.edu/news/2017/05/22/chiropractic-garners-mainstream-media-coverage/<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">3.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/upshot/for-bad-backs-its-time-to-rethink-biases-about-chiropractors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">4. https://ethics.harvard.edu/blog/new-prescription-drugs-major-health-risk-few-offsetting-advantages<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">5.
http://archive.carnegiefoundation.org/pdfs/elibrary/Carnegie_Flexner_Report.pdf<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">6. McLuhan, M. Understanding Media: The
Extensions of Man. New York: New American Library, 1964.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">7. O'Leary, D. Escaping the Progress Trap.
Westmount, QC: Geozone Communications, 1991.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">8. Wright, R. A Short History of Progress. New
York: Avalon, 2004.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">9. Dehen, M.D., Whalen, W.M., Farabaugh, R.J.,
Hawk, C. Consensus terminology for stages of care: acute, chronic, recurrent
and wellness. J Manipulative Physiol Ther, 2010 July-August;33(6):458-463.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">10. McLuhan, M. War
and Peace in the Global Village. New York: Bantam Books, 1968.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">11. Rubik, B, et. al.
Biofield science and healing: history, terminology, and concepts. Global Adv
Health Med. 2015;4(suppl):8-14.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">12. Brown, M.D. Old
dad chiro: his thoughts, words, and deeds. Journal of Chiropractic Humanities
(2009) 16, 57–75.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">13. Ong, W. Orality
and Literacy. New York: Routledge, 2002.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">14. Tilden, J. H.
Toxemia Explained. Denver: John H. Tilden, M.D., 1935.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">15.<u> </u></span><a href="http://www.chiro.org/alt_med_abstracts/FULL/Expanding_Medical_Horizons_UPDATE/Manual"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;">www.chiro.org/alt_med_abstracts/FULL/Expanding_Medical_Horizons_UPDATE/Manual</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">16. Angell, M.,
Kasirer, J. Alternative medicine: the risks of untested and unregulated
remedies. NEJM, September 17, 1998 – volume 339, number 12.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">17. </span><a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2009/01/15/drug-companies-doctorsa-story-of-corruption/"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;">www.nybooks.com/articles/2009/01/15/drug-companies-doctorsa-story-of-corruption/</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">18. </span><a href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/AlternativeMedicine/66316"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt; text-decoration-line: none;">www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/AlternativeMedicine/66316</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">19.
criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/fraud.html<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">20. McLuhan, M. Laws
of Media: The New Science. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<br /></div>
<div class="PreformattedText">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">21. Mitchell, R.,
Crow, T. Right hemisphere language functions and schizophrenia: the forgotten
hemisphere? </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AdvP3DB395; mso-fareast-font-family: AdvP3DB395;">Brain </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AdvP3DD951; mso-fareast-font-family: AdvP3DD951;">(2005), </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AdvP3D9181; mso-fareast-font-family: AdvP3D9181;">128, </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AdvP3DD951; mso-fareast-font-family: AdvP3DD951;">963–978.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532471984503165704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6067710900459960707.post-6501518460793303932017-01-27T16:51:00.000-08:002017-01-27T16:51:41.138-08:00<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 15pt;"><b>CBD
and Chiropractic</b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />Emerging from the shadow of its
controversial - and sexier - sibling tetrahydrocannabinol (THC),
cannabidiol (CBD) is close to being a panacea. Judging from the
amount of research conducted in the last 10 years on this
phytochemical, and by a wide range of claims concerning its
therapeutic benefit, CBD may be a health-care game-changer.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A non-psychoactive supporter of the
human endocannabinoid system, CBD appears to be useful in relieving
seizures, pain, anxiety, insomnia, depression, and more, and
theoretically replacing painkillers, anxiolytics, sleeping pills,
antidepressants and other dangerous prescription drugs. CBD has no
unwanted side-effects.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In contrast to medical and recreational
cannabis products containing THC, CBD oil, an extract of the
low-to-no THC industrial hemp plant, is legal for sale and
consumption in all states of the U.S. in spite of the December 2016
Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) creation of a new "Code
Number" for "Marihuana Extract". CBD oil is legal for
consumption in all states.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Background</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The hemp plant from which CBD is
extracted has been used for thousands of years and across a variety
of cultures in dozens of applications including paper, clothing,
rope, fuel, plastics, and building materials. In 17th century
America, farmers were ordered by law to grow hemp. According to an
1850 census there were 8400 hemp plantations in the U.S. In the early
20th century, the Ford Motor Company produced hemp fuel.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But in 1937 Congress put an end to hemp
farming by passing the <i>Marijuana Tax Act</i>, spearheaded by
Federal Bureau of Narcotics chief Harry Anslinger. The <i>Marihuana
Tax Act</i> made it illegal to grow cannabis of any kind including
hemp - and for anyone to possess cannabis - without a tax stamp. The
catch-22 here is that the government never issued the tax stamps.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A strict alcohol prohibitionist,
Anslinger - as the story goes - looked for another prohibition about
which to evangelize when alcohol prohibition ended in 1933. Some say
that Anslinger chose this new prohibition to justify the continuation
of his job at the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. In any case, growing
cannabis of any kind, including industrial hemp, in the U.S. became
illegal as it still is today. (The 2015 <i>Industrial Hemp Farming
Act</i>, a federal bill that would legalize hemp cultivation in the
U.S., would change that.)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Ironically, the U.S. is the largest
importer and consumer of hemp and hemp products, and it's the only
industrialized nation that can't grow it. (The U.S. imports most of
its hemp from China.) On top of that irony is another: CBD oil
extracted from industrial hemp is legal to sell and consume in all
fifty states.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Biochemistry</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
CBD was discovered in the cannabis
plant in 1940 but its structure wasn't described until 1963. When THC
was isolated from hashish in 1964 by Yehiel Gaoni and Raphael
Mechoulam at Hebrew University, and subsequently identified as the
major active component in cannabis, CBD was considered inactive and
it faded from view.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Cell receptors in the human body for
the cannabinoids were discovered in the 1980's by Raphael Mechoulam.
In the 1990's Mechoulam identified cannabinoids made in the human
body (called <i>endo</i>cannabinoids) one of which he and his
associates called "anandamide", from the Sanskrit "ananda"
meaning joy or bliss. With the discovery of anandamide, the
cannabinoid receptors, and related enzymes, the "endocannabinoid
system" (ECS) emerged.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The human body makes the fatty acid
endocannabinoids from arachidonic acid and cell-membrane
phospholipids. These fat-related molecules, such as anandamide, have
cell receptors identified as CB1 and CB2. Anandamide and THC are
"ligands" with respect to the endogenous cannabinoid
receptors, especially CB1, which is present mostly in the brain and
nervous system. ("Ligands" are molecules, inside or outside
of the body, that are alike in their ability to bind to the same
receptor.) Another important endocannabinoid derived from arachidonic
acid is identified simply as 2-AG.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
CBD is an exogenous cannabinoid that
has a weak affinity for endogenous receptors CB1 and CB2. However,
CBD inhibits the enzyme that breaks down the endogenous anandamide,
thus increasing the presence of anandamide. Some researchers
speculate that its inhibition of this enzyme accounts for some of
CBD's effects on the nervous, immune, and other systems.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Some physiological functions of the
endocannabinoid system include homeostasis, neuroprotection, memory
processing, heart rate and blood pressure regulation, and lung
function.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
To review, in the human body a very
important physiological system of lipid molecules, cell receptors,
and enzymes operates to help maintain homeostasis. This system, the
endocannabinoid system, responds to lipid chemicals called
phytocannabinoids and endogenously-produced cannabinoids such as
anandamide and 2-AG. The phytocannabinoids, especially CBD and THC,
are produced most abundantly in the cannabis plant. Though legal in
some states, at the federal level THC is illegal and still considered
a dangerous drug by DEA. However, CBD is legal and the oil can be
extracted, sold, and consumed everywhere in the U.S. and is viewed
increasingly as a nutritional and therapeutic agent with a wide
spectrum of beneficial effects.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Therapeutic effects</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A partial list of CBD's pharmacologic
characteristics includes anti-inflammatory, anti-convulsant,
anti-biotic, anti-fungal, anti-spasmodic, anti-oxidant,
anti-psychotic, analgesic, and anxiolytic. CBD has been useful in the
treatment of multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's,
Crohn's disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, diabetes, arthritis,
and psychiatric disorders ("... cannabidiol may ameliorate
psychotic symptoms with a superior side-effect profile compared with
established antipsychotics." Leweke, F. Therapeutic Potential of
Cannabinoids in Psychosis. doi: dx.doi.org/
10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.11.018). CBD even can be used in treating
acute psychosis induced by THC.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of the little research that was
performed on CBD prior to the 1990's, two studies, one in 1947 and
another in 1949, demonstrated CBD's anti-convulsant properties in
children, properties comparable to phenobarbitol but without the
latter's toxicity. Considering the harmful side-effects of
phenobarbitol, which include behavioral and cognitive function
issues, it is unfortunate for many families that leads from this
research were not followed. Interestingly, a 1924 book by a Dutch
neurologist listed <i>Cannabis indica</i> as a drug-adjunct in the
treatment of epilepsy. It seems that doctors' fascination with
synthetic chemical medicine in the early-to-mid 20th century in the
U.S. resulted in the obviation of valuable plant-based medicine and
in unnecessary suffering.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As mentioned, endo- and phyto-
cannabinoid research has exploded in the last few years. Much of the
purpose of this research, however, has been to identify "targets"
and "magic bullets" for drug research. There is a
compulsion among ECS researchers to isolate the active components of
the cannabis plant so that pharmaceutical analogs can be synthesized
and marketed for clinical use by doctor prescription. The phrase
"ripe for therapeutic exploitation" found in cannabis
research articles betrays the <i>modus operandi</i>. ("...the
ECS has become one of the main targets for the design of drugs that
could act as therapeutic agents in pathological processes."
Aizpurua-Olaizola, O et.al. Targeting the endocannabinoid system,
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drudis.2016.08.005). However, the many and
varied regulatory actions of the ECS and the wide effects of the
exogenous cannabinoid CBD may frustrate these efforts. There are
about 120 molecules identified as cannabinoids, one of which is CBD.
And there are cannabinoid receptors everywhere in the body, especially in the nervous and immune system cells, where CBD has
effects. CBD also has non-receptor effects. In a sense, these
discoveries about the endocannabinoid system and CBD are guiding us
to a new, more accurate perception of health and holism.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A recent paper by Ethan B. Russo, M.D.,
his third in support of his theory of a Clinical Endocannabinoid
Deficiency Syndrome (CED), illustrates overlapping relationships
between three chronic pain syndromes suffered by many people and
whose successful treatment has eluded conventional medical science.
These three syndromes - migraine, fibromyalgia, and irritable bowel -
have comorbidity and a "commonality of symptomatology",
Russo says, that point to a deficiency of endocannabinoids,
especially anadamide. Cannabidiol is known to raise anadamide levels
("Cannabidiol inhibits the degradation of anadamide" doi:
10.1038/tp.2012.15).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The identification of a CED was made
possible by research into the endocannabinoid system and its
cannabinoid ligands. In the conventional manner, we have named three
apparently different diseases and have attempted to develop specific
drugs to treat these diseases. In the case of CED, however, we see
that the three diseases are the same deficiency disease process with
symptoms that manifest differently. And we find that, possibly, one
plant, that is cannabis, with many synergistic components, is the
appropriate treatment. This latter approach is holistic.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Some success has been realized in the
"magic bullet/biological target" approach, however. For example,
Nabilone, developed by Eli Lilly and Company, is a synthetic THC
prescribed for nausea, pain management, fibromyalgia, and multiple
sclerosis. Nabilone does have unwanted side effects though.
Pharmaceutical extract Sativex, containing about equal amounts of
isolated THC and CBD, is prescribed for multiple sclerosis and
neuropathic pain and has fewer unwanted side-effects. A CBD
pharmaceutical extract called Epidolex currently is the subject of 13
clinical trials in the U.S. alone. These trials are designed to test
CBD isolated extract for its effectiveness against epilepsy,
seizures, refractory childhood epilepsy, and schizophrenia.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In some research, subjects reported
preferring the whole plant to the isolated extract or synthetic form
of cannabinoid ("... the antiinflammatory and antinociceptive
activities of standardized CBD-enriched plant extracts increased with
dose, making whole-plant extracts superior to pure CBD for the
treatment of inflammatory conditions." Aizpurua-Olaizola, O
et.al. Targeting the endocannabinoid system,
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drudis.2016.08.005). Because there are 483
compounds unique to the cannabis plant there may exist what Raphael
Mechoulam calls the "entourage effect" as a way of
explaining the supporting or interacting role played by the plant's
less well-known molecules. Viewing the variety of beneficial effects
of the cannabinoids from the reductionistic "magic
bullet/biological target" perpective, conventional medical
scientists describe the action of the whole plant as a "synergistic
shotgun". The habitual use by the conventional medical system of
the ballistic projectile metaphor is revealing.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Descriptors such as "entourage
effect" and "synergistic shotgun" also suggest the
inherent holism of application of the cannabis plant in addition to a
melding of food, dietary supplement, and medicine concepts. Is a
full-spectrum CBD oil extract a medicine, food, or dietary
supplement? All of the above?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Still the conventional medical system
is behind the curve in developing the phytocannabinoid CBD (see
Sanjay Gupta's documentary <i>Weed</i>). As a general use extract, a
traditional medicine, or a dietary supplement, companies in Colorado,
California, and elsewhere, specializing in botanical extracts, are
developing and marketing CBD oil, and a doctor's prescription is not
needed to obtain these products. This grass-roots, small
private-company approach is likely to appeal to independent
chiropractors.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Chiropractic</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Research published in 2005 in the
<i>Journal of the American Osteopathic Association</i> (JAOA)
purports to show that osteopathic manipulation increases the body's
production of anandamide. From the abstract of the article (J Am
Osteopath Assoc. 2005 Jun, 105(6):283-91), "The authors propose
that healing modalities popularly associated with changes in the
endorphin system, such as OMT [osteopathic manipulative technique],
may actually be mediated by the endocannabinoid system." They
found posttreatment anandamide levels had increased by 168% over
pretreatment levels. (Subsequent research on this subject was
inconclusive.)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A 2008 article published in the JAOA
(JAOA Vol. 108. ,No. 10, October 2008) provides a comprehensive
review of the ECS, and suggests that it "...may reflect OPP
[osteopathic principles and practice] on a molecular level."
Citing four tenets observed by the profession that represent
principles of patient care, the author shows how the ECS relates to
and supports these principles. The ECS's wide ranging homeostatic
effects as described resonate with osteopathy's more holistic
philosophy, according to the article.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Although the beneficial effects of the
chiropractic adjustment in the clinic are well-known, the biochemical
mechanisms that underlie it are not. It may be that the effect of the
adjustment is mediated by the endocannabinoid system, especially
anandamide: both spinal adjustments and the ECS produce a downward
modulation by "retrograde neurotransmission" at neural
synapses of long-term potentiation in spinal neurons caused by
persistent glutamate release. Since stretching, torsion, or
compression of a nerve or nerve root, as in subluxation, causes
damming of CB1 receptors proximal to the damming effect resulting in
persistent glutamate release downstream, the adjustment may
precipitate the "retrograde neurotransmission" phenomenon
and satisfy the feedback loop for pain relief. Thus in this way we
can understand at least the biochemical effects of the adjustment.
And we might recommend the use of a CBD herbal extract, orally or
topically, for increased pain relief. In addition, researchers have
discovered that cerebrospinal fluid contains abundant anandamides and
may play a role in the production of the cranial rhythmic impulse,
which is known to Sacro-Occipital Technique practitioners.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Another irony, this one comic/tragic,
is that the best medicine for the inflammation-based diseases that
lately affect so many Americans has been discovered in a plant that
has been officially villified, outlawed, and sanctioned as having no
value. There are similarities to chiropractic in this irony.
Possibly, we are emerging from the harmful effects of a deluding,
deceptive perception. In any case, for chiropractors who want to
provide patients with whole plant-based nutritional support to
potentiate the effects of the adjustment or as support against
fibromyalgia and other conditions of imbalance, CBD extract is ideal.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532471984503165704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6067710900459960707.post-53877157306903993612016-09-20T18:51:00.000-07:002016-09-20T18:51:36.804-07:00<div align="CENTER" style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Everybody's
the Same, and Everybody's Different </b></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Recent stories in the news have sounded
an alarm against nutritional supplements. These articles are
interpretations of <i>Consumer Reports</i> material that has
questioned their safety. The articles imply that nutritional
supplements should have approval from the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The articles, and original reports,
seem to imply that nutritional supplements in general are dangerous.
A more careful inspection reveals that the issue is with specific
substances in non-nutrient products promoted for easy weight loss,
better sex, improved athletic performance, and so on. <i>Consumer
Reports</i> articles propose greater FDA oversight and regulation to
protect consumers from harmful effects of all dietary supplements.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But, according to its web page
fda.gov/food/dietary/supplements, FDA does regulate "both
finished dietary supplement products and dietary ingredients."
FDA assigns manufacturers of supplements the responsibility for
evaluating supplement safety. But if FDA finds a problem it "is
responsible for taking action."</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
These recent articles appear to be a
part of a years-long campaign to bring the nutritional supplement
industry under the authoritarian control of the FDA and the
pharmaceutical industry. But, as many of us know, greater FDA
oversight will not make anything safer; and this strategy may result
only in the pharmaceutical industry increasing its profits and power.
Mercola.com ("Consumer Reports Joins Pharma Campaign Against
Dietary Supplements", August 09, 2016) provides a fairly good
view of the controversy. Andrew Saul at orthomolecular.org reminds us
that there have been "No Deaths From Vitamins. Absolutely None".
Orthomolecular's August 12, 2016 "Supplements Are Safe: Who is
Lying to You Now?" addresses <i>Consumer Reports</i>' study,
also.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>FDA scorecard</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It's no secret that FDA-approved,
doctor-prescribed drugs are a major cause of death in the U.S. each
year. Many of these deaths are the result of patients taking drugs as
prescribed by the doctor. In 2000 an article appearing in the <i>Journal
of the American Medical Association</i> estimated that prescription
drugs kill 106,000 people annually. Recently an article in the
<i>British Journal of Medicine</i> written by researchers at the
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine claims that medical error, including
the use of prescription drugs as prescribed, kills 251,000 each year
and is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. after cancer and
heart disease. In 2010 researcher Robert Wachter wrote that
diagnostic errors, which get no attention, contribute to many medical
errors. A study published in January 2016 in <i>Anesthesiology</i>
found that half of 277 surgeries observed involved medication errors
and adverse drug events and that "there is a substantial
potential for medication-related harm" in the surgical setting.
And we should not forget the overuse and abuse of antibiotics that
has induced antibiotic resistance in bacteria, a phenomenon known to
FDA, which did nothing about it, since at least 1970.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Also noteworthy in this context is the
outbreak in 1989 in the U.S. of a disease called eosinophilia-myalgia
syndrome (EMS) that caused over 37 deaths. When it was determined
that the amino acid tryptophan was associated with EMS, the FDA in
1991 banned its sale. Closer epidemiological study found that a
specific batch from a Japanese company using genetically engineered
bacteria to make the tryptophan was responsible for a deadly impurity
in the amino acid. The FDA, however, whose expressed policy was to
promote biotechnology, attempted - successfully - to obscure the fact
that an impurity from genetic engineering was the cause of EMS.
Interestingly, in 1991 Michael R. Taylor accepted a newly created
post at FDA, "Deputy Commissioner for Policy". He authored
the FDA's guidance that appeared in 1992 on genetically engineered
food. To accept this FDA position, Taylor left his job as a lawyer
and lobbiest for biotech giant Monsanto. In 1996 Taylor left the FDA
and returned to work for Monsanto as Vice President for Public
Policy.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
We should not forget the letter written
in 2009 by nine FDA scientists to then President-elect Obama alleging
that the agency was "fundamentally broken" and that "there
is an atmosphere at FDA in which the honest employee fears the
dishonest employee...." The letter further alleged "systemic
corruption and wrongdoing that permeates all levels of FDA." The
letter said that FDA scientists were "ordered, intimidated, and
coerced... to manipulate data in violation of the law" (wsj.com,
"FDA Scientsts Ask Obama to Restructure Drug Agency", Jan.
8, 2009). Following on this, in 2012, six FDA whistleblowers filed a
lawsuit against FDA for unconstitutionally targeting and monitoring
them. The lawsuit alleged that FDA "converted private emails...
initiated searches and seizures..." violated their "right
to free speech..." and so on.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The FDA/conventional
medical/pharmaceutical sector has serious, deep-rooted problems that
need to be corrected before it points a finger at the nutritional
supplement industry.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Redefining "Expert"</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The FDA, however, was not responsible
for the <i>Consumer Reports</i> atricles. <i>Consumer Reports</i>
chief medical advisor and medical editor, Marvin Lipman, M.D.
probably was. He's written articles such as "The dangers of
dietary supplements", and recommends that - to be safe - one
should research supplements on "trustworthy sites such as
ConsumerReports.org." Another expert on the <i>Consumer</i>
<i>Reports</i> panel was pediatrician Paul Offit, M.D. who famously
called Linus Pauling, Ph.D. a quack for recommending high doses of
vitamin C, even as he, Offit, recommends high doses of vaccines for
infants. A July 26, 2016 <i>Consumer Reports</i> article claims that
"an expert panel of independent doctors and dietary
supplement-researchers" created the report, but the panel was
stacked with people who oppose even the proper use of nutritional
supplements.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In fact, some of the "supplements"
<i>Consumer Reports</i> warns against in its report <i>do</i> have
potential for harm without contributing benefit. But compared to the
number of nutritional supplements produced and marketed responsibly
that are beneficial and have little or no unwanted side-effects, the
<i>Consumer</i> <i>Reports</i> picks are hardly mentionable.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Quick and Easy</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Advertising that promotes a quick and
easy fix for our health problems, whether by dietary supplements or
prescription drugs, usually is too good to be true. But sometimes we
might go for it anyway, maybe because we've been tricked, or because
we haven't been responsible for our health and we want to get back
what we think we've lost. Marketing is the poblem here: some products
that claim to be dietary supplements do contain ingredients that are
potentially dangerous for some people. Furthermore, our culture,
fragmented and specialized as it is, encourages us to rely on "the
doctor" for our health care because we're performing our own
specialized tasks and we don't have time to be better informed. This
detachment makes us dependent on doctors and questionable
"supplements", and makes us externally dependent on the
dangerous inefficiency of the diagnosis-drug match game: "I need
someone or something 'out there' to be healthy."</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
An example of how this
perception-reversal is maintained is in the concept of diagnosis. A
medical diagnosis is the process of using a patient's symptoms,
history, and medical tests to identify or name her/his apparent
disease. Diagnosis is important to match the disease with a developed
drug or medical procedure. (And it's important for insurance
companies.) With a diagnosis, "the doctor" can write a
prescription that the patient will need to take possibly
indefinitely, because "health depends on it".</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But diagnoses usually do not address
underlying causes. Conventional medical practice deals in
symptom-based diagnosis and treatment. It is not equipped to provide
support for biochemical, nutritional, or metabolic imbalances - just
the idea is met with scorn and acqusations of quackery.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Reputable nutritional supplement
companies that produce very high quality products also will promote
their products relative to a diagnosis. In some cases, this is useful
and effective. However, relying on the diagnosis-nutritional
supplement matching game, even when it is successful, obscures the
likelihood that the diagnosed disease is merely a manifest symptom of
deeper nutritional, metabolic imbalance. In order to compete with the
conventional system, nutritional supplement makers must use the same
approach.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In fact, there is no reliable way for a
doctor to know a patient's nutritional insufficiencies. Hair, blood,
urine, saliva, feces, and so on have only a relative value in
determining what can be recommended or prescribed to the patient.
There is no reliable way, except for one.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Doctor, Diagnosis, Drugs</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
You're not feeling right - you don't
know why - so you go to the doctor's office. The doctor looks you
over, arrives at a diagnosis, prescribes medicine, and bills the
insurance company.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Usually the medicine is a toxin that
interrupts a metabolic pathway or interferes with a normal process in
the body. Calcium channel blockers, cholesterol lowering statins, and
proton pump inibitors are examples of these toxins. These "medicines"
are among the most prescribed in the U.S.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And yet each of these three has a very
good "natural alternative" (a phrase that demonstrates the
reversed perception: why is the doctor's <i>first</i> choice in
re-establishing the patient's health a toxin with harmful
side-effects that may extend the patient's poor health?) Health
imbalances for which the doctor prescribes potentially dangerous
"medicines" may be caused by dietary, nutritional
insufficiencies and lifestyle stresses that may be specific to the
patient. Instead of first addressing basic nutritional needs to
support normal physiological function, the doctor prescribes a
substance that further compromises normal function, a substance he
prescribes to everyone with the same apparent symptoms, as if the
cause of the diagnosed disease is the same from patient to patient.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Calcium channel blockers are usually
prescribed for high blood pressure and hypertension. Magnesium is
known as the natural calcium channel blocker and calmative. It's also
the consensus that a majority of the U.S. population is magnesium
deficient. Heart disease is one of the top three causes of death each
year in the U.S. Insufficient magnesium is associated with
cardiovascular (as well as all-cause) mortality. Magnesium is
critical for many important metabolic reactions in the human body.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Your doctor may discover that your
cholesterol numbers are higher than the established quantified
standard conventionally agreed upon by the experts. And even though
this has nothing to do with your original purpose in going to the
doctor, he may want to prescribe a statin drug that blocks the body's
normal and natural production of cholesterol.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Cholesterol is one of the most
important molecules in the body. It is essential in the structure of
human cell membranes. Stress and gender hormones and vitamin D are
metabolites of cholesterol, and it is necessary in tissue repair and
other functions. Except for a small number of people who may be
genetically predisposed to maintaining very high blood cholesterol,
inhibiting the cholesterol metabolic pathway can produce health
problems. The use of niacin, a B-complex vitamin, to moderate
cholesterol, as pioneered by psychiatrist Abram Hoffer, M.D., has
been the safe "alternative" for many years. Increasing
one's daily fiber consumption and improving one's food choices also
might be helpful in modulating blood cholesterol that's considered
high. Since cholesterol is one of the body's ways of controlling
inflammation, eliminating the causes of inflammation (food
sensitivities, mental and emotional stress, poor sleep, and so on)
will be helpful.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One of the deadliest doctor-prescribed
medicines is the proton pump inhibitor. These drugs are designed to
reduce acid production in the stomach, which is identified as a cause
of "acid reflux disease". But when we understand that, in
most cases, acid reflux is the result of too little hydrochloric acid
production possibly from too little chloride in the diet, we get a
glimpse of the tragic folly that is conventional medicine and drug
prescribing in America. Proton pump inhibitor use has been associated
with poor magnesium absorption and bone fractures, among other
things.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If, on your visit to your doctor, he
finds that you have high blood pressure, he may prescribe a calcium
channel blocker and tell you to avoid table salt. Table salt is
sodium chloride, a main source for the body's chloride dependency.
However, it is not the chloride that's contributing to your high
blood pressure, it's probably the sodium. And though sodium is
necessary for normal health, medical scientists have identified it in
certain amounts as causal in high blood pressure, and they tell us to
limit our salt intake. Magnesium and potassium supplementation can
help normalize blood pressure.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you've been using table salt that
contains an aluminosilicate anti-caking agent, this may represent
another layer of complexity to your health. Aluminum is a very good
acid neutralizer. Sodium aluminosilicate is approved by FDA as a
"generally recognized as safe" food additive. But aluminum
is a neurotoxin and continues to be explored in research as a causal
factor in the development of Alzheimer's disease. Aluminum has no
biological function in the human body. It is toxic.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Once you begin taking proton pump
inhibitors the pH of your stomach juice will become even less acidic.
Normal stomach pH should be very acidic, roughly 1.5 to 2.5. This low
pH is necessary to begin digestion of protein foods and activation of
the very important enzyme, pepsin. Without this and other proteolytic
enzymes, you will limit absorption of amino acids from the
gastrointestinal tract into your body.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If your high cholesterol is the result
of chronic, generalized inflammation, a contributing factor may be
poor glutathione production. Glutathione is the body's endogenous
anti-inflammatory enzyme - possibly the most important in-cell enzyme
in the body. The body's cells make glutathione from three amino acids
absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract into the liver. Therefore,
the proteolytic enzyme action on dietary proteins, with glutathione
production in view, is very important.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Glutathione neutralizes reactive oxygen
species that are produced in cells as a result of normal energy
production. That is, energy production in the body's cells always
occurs with free radicals as a by-product. Glutathione, along with
other enzymes, neutralizes those free radicals. Without glutathione
these free radicals may lead to generalized inflammation, which is a
cause of many of our chronic diseases such as cancer and heart
disease.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The signs of nutrition deficiency
diseases (rickets, scurvy, pellagra, and beri-beri for example)
represent the end stage of the disease process that likely has been
ongoing for some time in the form of other noticeable, or
not-so-noticeable, imbalances. For example, Linus Pauling believed
that athersclerosis was a hidden or overlooked sign of scurvy and
suggested high-dose ascorbic acid and the amino acid lysine to
correct the problem. We want our food to provide us with all of the
nutrition materials that we need for good health, and this may be
possible for a few of us, but not for all of us. Conventionally
trained nutritionists give us information based on the current
medical dogma but they resist new, better information. And since
everybody's the same <i>and</i> everybody's different it's hard to
determne appropriate requirements for essential vitamins and minerals
with accuracy for every person. But it can be done.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In addition to harmful dietary aids,
over-the-counter drugs, and prescription drugs, there are relatively
safe supplements that have a desired effect but do not benefit the
highest potential of human function, and do have hidden side-effects.
If these supplements are consumed for a specific purpose and they
achieve that purpose, then they should be in the category of drugs,
not nutritional supplements. Their side-effect may not be as
pronounced as that experienced from prescription drugs or hyped
weight-loss formulas, but if they take something in exchange for
whatever they give they are not nutritional. Fish oil supplements
fall into this category. But this is not to say that these should be
controlled by the pharmaceutical industry or medical doctors.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Indicator Muscle Testing</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The only way to determine if this
specific nutritional supplement in this specific dose is beneficial
and without side effects for this specific patient is to obtain
immediate feedback from the bodymind of the patient. This kind of
feedback can be obtained using indicator muscle testing.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Indicator muscle testing is not a
muscle test to determine the quantitative strength of a muscle. A
young weight lifter's deltoid muscle is much stronger than the
deltoid muscle of an elderly, sedentary woman. Both the weightlifter
and elderly woman should be able to demonstrate that the muscle works
properly, however. That is, the normally healthy muscle contracts and
sustains a contraction against a moderate force, and weakens, or
demonstrates inhibition, with specific challenges. Once this proper
function of an indicator muscle is established, the muscle can be
used as an "indicator" for imbalances in the whole
bodymind.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This muscle testing is a test of a
specific muscle, the right deltoid muscle for example; it's a test of
the nerve that supplies motor and sensory function to the muscle; and
it's a test of the polarized electrical current in the perineural
tissue that surrounds every millimeter of neuron in the body. The
muscle will not function properly without its nerve supply, but the
motor and sensory neurons in the nerve will not function without the
direct current (DC) in the perineural sheath. In fact, the neuron
will die without the perineural DC.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The "imbalances" found in the
bodymind using indicator muscle testing relate to specific loci on
the body that have a specific electromagnetic frequency that
resonates with the electromagnetic frequency of a nutrient - a
vitamin, mineral, amino acid, or fatty acid. In the electromagnetic
body, these imbalance-loci are called "currents of injury",
in general. In other words, there is not a place on the body labelled
"vitamin C" but there is a place that has a high resonance
value with vitamin C. If that place, when specified, causes an
indicator muscle to weaken, we say that there is a current of injury
there, and that supplying vitamin C will correct that current of
injury and help in balancing the body's electrical-energy system.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
With the knowledge and practical
application of the muscle test as a feedback mechanism that provides
the bodymind's reaction to specific nutrients and drugs, our
understanding of the use of these substances changes. We begin to
have a more basic and comprehensive perception of the human bodymind
as electromagnetic and not simply as mechanical or chemical. In fact,
our rigid belief that the bodymind is purely mechanical or chemical
limits and inhibits the holistic perception of its electromagnetic
nature. Indicator muscle testing reinforces the idea that the body is
an irreducible whole organism. In this view, we see that all
substances taken into the body have an impact on its energy system
and, therefore, that all medicine is energy medicine - some
contributes to and supports the body's energy, while some compromises
the body's energy.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Dr. William Conder</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
September 2016</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532471984503165704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6067710900459960707.post-60137853667484692392016-06-29T13:49:00.001-07:002016-06-29T13:49:30.107-07:00A Necessary Evil<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
During the natural birth process (and
for the rest of life), sensory receptors in the baby's skin transduce
the skin's mechanical distortion into electrical signals that travel
up the spinal chord to the thalamus deep inside the brain. Similar
sensory receptors found in the ear are sensitive to vibration, which
is transduced to sound.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Tactile stimulation and subsequent
stimulation of the infant's somatosensory system, as when the infant
suckles and the mother holds and caresses it, is the beginning of the
development of sensory perception.</div>
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<br /></div>
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During this period, the child becomes
accustomed to hearing the quality of its mother's voice. Tactile,
acoustic, and vibration communication are basic and critical to the
child's development, and to conscious awareness in adulthood.</div>
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Normally the child develops hearing
and speech functions from this intimate contact with its mother, and
with other family members and friends. In the first year of life, the
child learns to make sounds to which others respond, beginning its
ability to communicate with others in vocal expression. In this way,
oral-aural communication in words becomes the basic mode of human
communication common to all, facilitating common sense.</div>
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<br /></div>
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We learn to speak, use appropriate
words, and make coherent sentences in verbal interaction in the
oral/aural environment. But within a couple of years our eyes are
presented with the visual coding system that shifts the primary
sensory-communication mode from the ear to the eye, confounding
common sense.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The alphabet and the ability to read,
interpret, and write using its 26 symbols has been imbued with
enormous importance though we begin literacy programming before we have
fully developed oral communication skills. We call it a "phonetic"
alphabet, as compared to an ideographic one, but the speech sounds
that are transcribed using this system are limited to 26 meaningless
symbols seen with the eyes. The acquisition of literacy skill depends
on interpretation of the specific arrangement of letters into a
meaningful word. An ideograph directly represents the idea.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The phonetic alphabet usually is
credited with being a causal factor in the emergence and evolution of
Western civilization, having been initiated in Ancient Greece with
Plato and his influence. When the printing press was invented in
Europe in the 15th century and the alphabet shifted from script to
print, literacy rates exploded destroying Medieval culture and the
authority of the Church.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Because literacy programming begins at
an early age and is pervasive, we blindly appreciate its benefits and
remain ignorant of its side effects. Until the mid 20th century, we
believed that literacy made us smart and that illiteracy was a sign
of ignorance and stupidity. Literacy gives a sense of objectivity and
detachment from experience that is important to scientists and other
detectives. In doing so, however, literacy induces in the mind an
artificial visual perspective that we tend to impose on all
experience, universally.</div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As we continue to use print literacy,
we are used by it: we create structures in the external environment
that represent its mechanisms and that reinforce its programming in
us. In this way it predetermines perception.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Once we have acquired basic literacy
skill, we cannot unlearn it. Presented with words from our learned
language, we are compelled to read. Literacy engenders a cognitive
bias: it selects for a left-to-right linear arrangements of facts,
leads us to believe that complex systems can be understood by
breaking them down into smaller parts, and lets us assume that all
phenomena can be transcribed and recorded using its letters. Literacy
distorts the way we see the world.</div>
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Our technologies, including the
alphabet and print, are mirrors that keep us hypnotized and
anesthetized.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The more conditioned we are by print
literacy, the more we believe in its artificial perspective, which
has evolved into the so-called "virtual reality".
Unfortunately, virtual reality is neither virtuous nor real. In it we
are Narcissus.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
According to the mythology, Narcissus
fell in love with his reflected image but did not know the image was
his own. Meanwhile, Echo, whose love is true yet unrequited, beckons
from the wood just beyond.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Echo was a nature spirit. The word
"echo" comes from a Greek word that means "sound".</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But we cannot abandon literacy - it is
the trunk of our technology tree and, as we are committed to it by
it, it is necessary. Even our electric media are supported by
phonetic alphabet literacy.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The popular 1999 movie <i>The Matrix</i>
proposed that the world perceived by its inhabitants was an
artificially created virtual reality. Interestingly, a matrix in
printmaking is the form that holds the imprinting material and, in
typesetting, is the mold used to make type. Matrix is from the Latin
"mater", which means mother. With the "x" ending,
we might identify it as the evil Techno-mother that gives birth to
deluding human artifice engendered by the spoken word. And we might
distinguish this Techno-mother from every living thing's Mother
Nature.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532471984503165704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6067710900459960707.post-35167552225709090562016-04-11T19:54:00.000-07:002016-04-11T20:07:54.402-07:00Nature Pushes Back Against A Miracle<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"It is not difficult to make microbes resistant to penicillin in the laboratory by exposing them to concentrations not sufficient to kill them."</i> Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; from his 1945 Nobel Lecture.</div>
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The overuse, misuse, and abuse of antibiotics in human health care and animal husbandry, and the consequent emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, reveal the ineptness and corruption of the conventional medical establishment in America. Doctors, pharmaceutical-biotech companies, industrial farming operations, and the FDA share responsibility. "There is no longer time for silence and complacency.<i>"</i> ("Society's failure to protect a precious resource: antibiotics"; doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60401-7).</div>
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<br />
A March 25, 2016 <i>New York Times</i> article titled "How To Stop Overprescribing Antibiotics" gets one's attention: do you mean that prescribing doctors continue to over-prescribe antibiotics? Apparently the answer is "Yes". The article promotes the authors' research and suggests that doctors are just as irrational as the rest of us. (Don't let <i>that</i> information get out.) They say their research demonstrates that some very simple measures could be used to reduce the amount of unnecessary prescriptions written by doctors.</div>
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The article notes a couple of strategies that haven't worked. Educating doctors and patients about antibiotic use and abuse "has had only a modest effect". Alerts to doctors via electronic health records didn't work because doctors ignored the messages. "And offering doctors financial incentives" to <i>not</i> prescribe antibiotics doesn't work so well either "because the payments are modest relative to a doctor's salary." This last strategy is the most preposterous of all: paying doctors a bonus to do what they're getting paid to do in the first place.</div>
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The article mentions a study published in <i>JAMA Internal Medicine </i>that explored the effect of<i> </i>something called "decision fatigue" on the rate of prescribing unnecessary antibiotics. It found that "decision fatigue progressively impairs clinicians' ability to resist ordering inappropriate treatments." In other words, the later in the day you go to the doctor the greater your chance of getting a 'scrip for antibiotics.<br />
<br />
The antibiotic penicillin is called the first "miracle drug" for its ability to stop bacterial infections. Its first important use was in World War II to treat soldiers' infected wounds. But it took only 20 or 30 years for the miracle to fade. By 2013 a CDC official had announced the end of the age of antibiotics and the beginning of a nightmare. "Miracle" may have been an overstatement.<br />
<br />
A CDC Report, "Antibiotic Resistance Threats In The United States, 2013" estimates that "...more than two million people are sickened every year with antibiotic resistant infections, with at least 23,000 dying as a result". It calls these "minimum estimates". It also lists Candida, a yeast normally found in small amounts in the gastrointestinal tract and whose population increases with the use of antibiotics, as a serious threat due to its growing resistance to the anti-fungal drug fluconazole.<br />
<br />
The 2013 CDC Report says that antibiotic-resistant infections "require prolonged and/or costly treatments, extended hospital stays..." and so on, adding "considerable and avoidable costs to the already overburdened U.S. healthcare system." Estimates of cost to the U.S. economy from antibiotic resistance, though hard to calculate, range from "$20 billion in excess direct healthcare costs, with additional costs to society for lost productivity as high as $35 billion a year (2008 dollars)".<br />
<br />
The CDC Report says "up to 50% of all the antibiotics prescribed for people are not needed or are not optimally effective as prescribed." Of the subtherapeutic use in food animals to promote growth, the Report says "...it is not necessary, and the practice should be phased out."<br />
<br />
Antibiotics pose another problem, however. The proper use of antibiotics has many side effects. A 2012 <i>Time</i> article says that 140,000 people, many of them children, go to a hospital emergency room each year with a bad reaction to appropriately prescribed antibiotics, and 9,000 of these have to be hospitalized. The CDC Report says that 1 out of 5 emergency room visits for adverse drug reactions are for antibiotics and that antibiotics are the most common cause of emergency room visits for children 18 years old and younger. Candida overgrowth, noted above, which represents a change in the human microbiome, is a potentially dangerous side-effect of <i>proper</i> antibiotic use.<br />
<br />
The history of the antibiotic resistance debacle, in spite of Fleming's 1945 warning, begins on the farm. In the early 1950's the FDA approved the use of penicillin and a couple other antibiotics in sub-therapeutic doses as "feed additives" after it was discovered that the antibiotics fattened food animals such as chickens, pigs, and cattle. But in 1969 the U.K. "Swann Report on the Use of Antibiotics in Animal Husbandry" said that the rising rate of antibiotic resistant bacteria was due to the subtherapeutic use of antibiotics in animal feed. The FDA wasn't sure, so it put together its own fact finding group, which found that subtherapeutic antibiotics in animal feed was causing the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. It took FDA until 1973 to threaten to dis-approve the 1950's decision to use antibiotics in food-animal feed - unless "industry" could prove the safety of these feed additives. In 1978, after an abundance of convincing research in the U.S. and elsewhere showing that the subtherapeutic dose of antibiotics in animal feed causes the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, FDA decided to have a hearing on the issue. However, the U.S House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations ordered FDA to put a hold on its hearings and to do more research. FDA then asked the National Academy of Sciences to do the research. In 1980 the National Academy of Sciences said, in a kind of backward wink-wink statement, that it could not prove that the subtherapeutic use of antibiotics is safe. No worries, in 1980 the House Committee ordered more research. In 1981 the Senate Committee on Appropriations asked for more research so FDA asked a health department in Seattle to do this research. The Seattle researchers found DNA proof of resistance that was transmitted to other bacteria. Enter the pharmaceutical industry, which tried to pressure the FDA into dropping its intention to hold hearings on the issue. FDA resisted. In 1988 the Institutes of Medicine warned that the farming practice potentially was a hazard to human health. Thirteen years pass. In 2001, the American Medical Association comes out against antibiotics in animal feed. Two years later the Institutes of Medicine issues a second, more direct warning. In 2004, FDA considers telling feed manufacturers that subtherapeutic dosing of antibiotics is "high risk". In 2010 FDA prepares a document recommending that industry voluntarily limit the use of antibiotics in animal feed. In 2011, however, FDA withdrew its efforts and did not issue its recommendations. (Partly based on Maryn McKenna's chronology.)<br />
<br />
Subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics in animal feed has been used as a "growth promoter" since the 1950's when farmers, and then scientists, discovered that feeding chickens a by-product of antibiotic production made them grow faster, live longer, and lay more eggs. Suddenly the survival of the human race was no longer in question- at least in terms of the world's "dwindling resources". In this way, antibiotics made possible intensive, industrial farming. More farm animals could be crowded into the same space and develop less disease even as they brought higher profits in the marketplace with small doses of antibiotics in their feed.<br />
<br />
All of this was going on while doctors were handing out prescriptions for antibiotics to their patients for viral infections, which do not respond to antibiotics. Prescribing antibiotics for acute bronchitis, a viral infection for which antibiotics are useless, has remained at 73% for 30 years in the U.S. according to an October 2013 CNN online article.<br />
<br />
In 2009, nine FDA employees wrote a letter to President Obama saying that FDA was "fundamentally broken". In addition, the agency had been accused by three Congressmen of "being too close to industry". Today FDA's home page says "Protecting and Promoting <i>Your</i> Health". They must be looking in the mirror. The FDA website page <i>Consumer Updates</i> features an article titled "Phasing Out Certain Antibiotic Use in Farm Animals". It says that it is "implementing a voluntary plan with industry to phase out the use of certain antibiotics for enhanced food production." Anticipating the question, "Why Voluntary?" the answer provided is that "it's the fastest, most efficient way to make changes." Really? Finally, the page gives an assurance: "Based on our outreach, we have every reason to believe that animal pharmaceutical companies will support us in this effort," says Michael R. Taylor, FDA's Deputy Commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine. This last statement appears to have been dated Dec. 11, 2013.<br />
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"We estimate that between 2010 and 2030, the global consumption of antimicrobials will increase by 67%..." according to"Global trends in antimicrobial use in food animals," in PNAS February 2015; doi: 10.1073/pnas.1503141112. <br />
<br />
A 2015 FDA report "Antimicrobials sold or distributed for use in food producing animals" says that the domestic sale and distribution of approved antimicrobials for food producing animals increased by 17% from 2009 to 2013. Microbiologist and congresswoman Louise Slaughter, in discussing <i>Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues</i> by Dr. Martin Blaser, says that as of April 2015 "80% of antibiotics sold in the U.S. are used on mostly healthy animals on factory farms." She says, "Blaser's work is a stunning dose of reality in an environment flooded with corporate-agenda-fulfilling pseudoscience."<br />
<br />
Michael R. Taylor was appointed to the newly created Commissioner position in FDA by the Obama administration. But Taylor has been through the industry-government revolving door so many times his head must be spinning. Taylor is a previous Vice President for Public Policy at Monsanto and a lobbiest for the company. Taylor also worked at the Department of Agriculture.<br />
<br />
The obvious question is "Why is a lawyer who was a Monsanto V.P. and lobbiest, the FDA's Deputy Commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine?<br />
<br />
According to Wikipedia, in 1991 Taylor left a law practice to accept a "newly created post of 'Deputy Commissioner for Policy'" at FDA where he promoted the positions that (1) milk from cows treated with Monsanto's rBGH should not have to be labeled, and (2) the FDA policy statement regarding the acceptance and promotion of genetically engineered foods. Under Taylor's tenure, FDA decided that genetically modified foods are exempt from testing because they're food additives, which are generally recognized as safe (GRAS). However, this was not the consensus among scientists at FDA.<br />
<br />
That is, in recent history, <i>two</i> positions have been created at FDA for Michael Taylor.<br />
<br />
In the early 1990's another former Monsanto employee, Margaret Miller, was appointed as Deputy Director of New Animal Drugs at FDA. Miller approved a report from Monsanto that attested to the safety of Monsanto's recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). rBGH is given to milk cows to increase production but it also increases the incidence of mastitis, cancer, and other health problems in the cows. No worries. Miller approved an increase by 100 times the legal limit the amount of antibiotics that could be given to the cows. Oh, and the rBGH report she approved while at FDA was written by - herself, Margaret Miller, while she worked in research at Monsanto. ("Question Is Raised on Hormone Maker's Ties to FDA Aides," <i>New York Times</i>, April 1994.)<br />
<br />
(While antibiotic resistance was exploding as a public health hazard around the country, at FDA claims were made of the safety and importance of genetically engineered food without their having been tested and against the opinions of agency scientists.)<br />
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Antibiotic over-prescribing to humans and subtherapeutic dosing to farm animals have been identified as causal in the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. However, research has demonstrated that for some antibiotics "extremely low concentrations, similar to concentrations found in natural environments, can select for resistant bacteria." This finding suggests that "antibiotic release into the environment might be a significant contributor to the emergence and maintenance of resistance...." Antibiotic concentrations several hundred times lower than previously determined for bacterial susceptibility will select for and enrich resistant bacteria, according to this research. ("Selection of Resistant Bacteria at Very Low Antibiotic Concentrations", doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1002158). In other words, any amount of antibiotics in any environment will tend to induce resistance in the bacteria it is designed to kill, and the emergent, resistant bacteria may be more lethal than the predecessor. Moreover, bacteria with the antibiotic-resistance gene-material have been found in agriculture sectors other than that of food animals. For example, resistant E. coli in spinach may have emerged in cattle eating feed containing a subtherapeutic dose of antibiotics.<br />
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A "miracle drug" that has saved many lives also has caused suffering and death. And many who have taken antibiotics prescribed appropriately have developed health issues that until recently have been invisible or mysterious to those who prescribe.<br />
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"Antibiotic use is the most common and significant cause of major alterations in normal GIT [gastrointestinal tract] microflora." These alterations "are now believed to be contributing factors to many chronic and degenerative diseases." "...infrequent antibiotic use has much longer lasting effects on the microflora and its metabolic activities than was previously believed." Alteration in gut microflora after antibiotic use increases the risk of infection by pathogens. Recent research has shown that one course of antibiotics alters gut microflora metabolism for 16 months. ("The Causes of Intestinal Dysbiosis: A Review", by Hawrelak and Myers in <i>Alternative Medicine Review</i>, 2004.)<br />
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"Dysbiosis" is an intestinal microbial imbalance in which the "good" bacteria no longer control the "bad" bacteria and there is an increase in the yeast population. Antibiotic use is a primary cause of intestinal dysbiosis.<br />
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"The human gut contains an immense number of microorganisms, collectively known as the microbiota... The microbiota can be viewed as a metabolic 'organ' exquisitely tuned to our physiology that performs functions that we have not had to evolve on our own... Our findings suggest that the gut microbiota is an important environmental factor that affects energy harvest from the diet and energy storage in the host... Adult humans are composed of an estimated 10 times more resident microbial than human cells.... We speculate that changes in microbial ecology prompted by Western diets, and/or differences in microbial ecology between individuals living in these societies, may function as an 'environmental' factor that affects predisposition toward energy storage and obesity." ("The gut microbiota as an environmental factor that regulates fat storage," November 2004; doi: 10.1073/pnas.0407076101).<br />
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Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, and other health problems have been increasing since the 1980's. By 2014 38% of American adults were obese ("Obesity Rises Despite All Efforts", November 2015, <i>New York Times). </i>Despite a decrease in caloric intake and a general improvement in diet, Americans mysteriously get fatter. Antibiotics are used to fatten chickens, pigs, and cows - it should come as no surprise that they will fatten humans, too.<br />
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A 2015 Danish study ("Use of Antibiotics and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: A Population-Based Case-Control Study", doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1210/jc.2015-2696) concluded that results "could support the possibility that antibiotics exposure increases type 2 diabetes risk. However, the findings may also represent an increased demand for antibiotics from increased risk of infections in patients with yet-undiagnosed diabetes." A time.com review of this research suggests that children who have had antibiotics experience a change in metabolism due to a change in the composition of their microbiome and consequently develop type 1 diabetes.<br />
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A 2015 article in<i> International Journal of Obesity</i> (doi: 10.1038/ijo.2015.218) concluded "...antibiotic use may influence weight gain throughout childhood and not just during the earliest years as has been the primary focus of most prior studies."<br />
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<br />
In "Antibiotic-induced dysbiosis alters host-bacterial interactions and leads to colonic sensory and motor changes in mice" (doi: 10.4161/19490976.22014.990790) researchers reported that "A 2-week antibiotics treatment induced a colonic dysbiosis..." and "changes in the innate intestinal immune system..." and "...short- and long-term antibiotic treatments seem to generate different states of dysbiosis...."<br />
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"Altering the Intestinal Microbiota During a Critical Developmental Window Has Lasting Metabolic Consequences", <i>Cell</i>, August 2014, (doi: 10.1016/j.cell2014.05.052). This study was performed on mice. However, there are implications for humans: "In humans, early-life microbiota disruption, either due to delivery by Caesarian section or antibiotics, is associated with increased risk of overweight status later in childhood...." The researchers, using a mouse model, showed that "subtherapeutic antibiotic treatment delivered at weaning increased adiposity."<br />
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"Antibiotic use in early life was associated with the development of childhood asthma, a risk that may be reduced by avoiding the use of BS [broad-spectrum] cephalosporins." "Increased Risk of Childhood Asthma From Antibiotic Use in Early Life," (<i>Chest</i>, June 2007; doi: 10.1378/chest.06-3008).<br />
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"From 1980 through 1992, increasing prescribing... was found for the more expensive, broad-spectrum antimicrobial drugs, such as cephalosporins... The increased use of broader spectrum and more expensive antimicrobial drugs have implications for all patients because of the impact on health care costs and the potential for the emergence of antimicrobial resistance." ("Trends in Antimicrobial Drug Prescribing among office-based physicians in the United States," <i>JAMA,</i> 1995 Feb 11;279(6):434.)<br />
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"Exposure to at least one course of antibiotics in the first year of life appears to be a risk factor for the development of childhood asthma." Additional studies are needed to confirm this conclusion, the article says. ("Does Antibiotic Exposure During Infancy Lead to Development of Asthma?" <i>Chest</i>, March 2006; doi: 10.1378/chest.129.3.610).<br />
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Subtherapeutic antibiotic treatment "alterations of the microbiome may affect pluripotent cells that can become osteoblasts, adipocytes, or myocytes," ("Antibiotics in early life alter the murine colonic microbiome and adiposity; doi: 10.1038/nature11400).<br />
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The abstract of "Dysbiosis of the Gut Microbiota in Disease" (<i>Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease </i>2015, 26: 26191 - http//dx.doi.org/10.3402/mehd.v26.26191) begins "There is growing evidence that dysbiosis of the gut microbiota is associated with the pathogenesis of both intestinal and extra-intestinal disorders. Intestinal disorders include inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and coeliac disease, while extra-intestinal disorders include allergy, asthma, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and obesity."<br />
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Results from "Microbiota Modulate Behavioral and Physiological Abnormalities Associated with Neurodevelopmental Disorders" (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2014.11.024) "support a gut-microbiome-brain connection in a mouse model of ASD [autism spectrum disorder] and identify a potential probiotic therapy for GI and particular behavioral symptoms in human neurodevelopmental disorders."<br />
<br />
Reviewing the hundreds of articles detailing the unwanted side-effects of antibiotic use and abuse, one occasionally, unbelievably, comes across the phrase "...but more research is needed...."<br />
<br />
In January 2016 at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland 80 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies complained that they've phased out their antibiotics research efforts because there wasn't any money in it. In a "Declaration" presented at the Forum these companies acknowledge that combating antibiotic resistance "is a top priority for global policy and public health." But because the value to society is not reflected in the costs for developing the drugs, the companies "call on governments to commit to allocating the funds needed to create a sustainable and predictable market for these technologies...." In other words, the wealthiest and most ethically challenged companies in the world want governments to subsidize their research and development of new antibiotic drugs and to "mitigate financial risk". Before following this recommendation, governments first might calculate in monetary terms the responsibility that these companies share in the overuse of antibiotics and the emergence of resistant bacteria. Where was their social consciousness in the 1980's when they tried to pressure FDA into dropping proposed hearings on the safety of antibiotics in animal feed and later when its sales reps pushed doctors to prescribe the expensive broad spectrum cephalosporins?<br />
<br />
It's the end of the "miracle" and the "antibiotic age", and it's the end of "The War On Bugs" and the perception that permits such metaphors. The "bugs" have won because their natural adaptive response is more powerful than the human intellect. <br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532471984503165704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6067710900459960707.post-17316897420244704112015-04-10T14:11:00.000-07:002015-04-10T14:11:50.455-07:00Pretty Smiles<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We have to be
careful when we make decisions for others, or when we criticize
others for making decisions with which we don't agree.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For example, putting
fluoride in a water supply from which everyone in a community drinks
- when other options are available, when controversy exists about its
safety, when some people simply do not want the chemical added to
their water - may be unhealthy, imprudent, and unethical.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Concern is
reasonable in a community whose members have a variety of health
issues, some known and some not known, that the fluoridation of its
water supply may not have a net benefit. Yet there seems to be pressure to convince communities to add
fluoride to its water supply. Dentists and doctors, citing
scientific research, have written how important water fluoridation is
for dental health. Special interests, present but invisible, use
“Science” in an attempt to coerce public opinion and overwhelm
common sense without addressing the complexities.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">If the fluoridation
issue was only about healthy teeth and pretty smiles, there is
compelling scientific evidence to contradict the scientific evidence
that shows the safety, efficiency, and necessity of adding fluoride
to drinking water. This alone might cause concern in the minds of
those who would be drinking the water. But it's not about healthy
teeth and pretty smiles as much as it is about people making
decisions for themselves and their families.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Authoritative fluoride promotion expresses concern for the welfare of
the community: “We know what's best for you,” is implied. Other
assurances are issued from some levels of government but even the
federal government cannot make fluoridation of local water supplies
mandatory. It appears that the intention is to control
public policy.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Fluoride, usually in
the form of hydrofluorosilicic acid (HFSA), a cheap waste product of
phosphate fertilizer production, is added to water supplies to reduce
the incidence of dental caries - cavities - in people who drink the
water. It has been done in various places in the United States since
1945 when sodium fluoride, a pharmaceutical grade chemical, was used.
By most accounts it appears to be effective at reducing the incidence
of cavities.</span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 100%;">By 2008, over
195,000,000 Americans were drinking fluoridated water.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) approved of the use of HFSA in place of
sodium fluoride for water fluoridation in 1980 without prior animal
or human studies. It based its decision on HFSA's low cost and the
“longstanding problem” it perceived as air and water
contamination from fertilizer manufacturing. In some expert opinions this “two birds with one stone” solution amounted to a
“double whammy” on human health.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hydrofluorosilicic
acid, the fluoride compound used in over 90% of American communities
that employ fluoridation, contains about 30 parts per million of
arsenic and may be responsible for leaching lead into water from pipe
fittings. HFSA is a good lead solvent and was associated with
elevated children's blood lead levels in Washington, D.C. in the
2001-2004 period. The EPA's maximum water contaminant level for
arsenic is 10 parts per billion and for lead, 15 parts per billion.
Arsenic is a known human carcinogen and lead profoundly harms
children's neurological development. A 1992 research project in
northern Mexico proposed an interaction between fluoride and arsenic
with the possibility that fluoride is partly to blame for signs and
symptoms that usually are attributed to arsenic alone, since they
often occur together and both harmfully affect enzyme activity in
metabolic energy production pathways.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sodium fluoride,
which is found in many commercially available toothpastes, contains
virtually no arsenic and no heavy metals. According to the EPA,
sodium fluoride is not appropriate for water fluoridation.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As pointed-out in an
April 2013 petition to the EPA, 99% of the water treated with HFSA
flushes toilets, washes clothes, bathes bodies, and waters lawns and
as such is an inefficient way to apply fluoride to human teeth where
it has its effect. It may be more a profitable way that the
fluorochemical industry has of disposing of a hazardous waste than it
is an efficient dental treatment.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">According to a 2010
report, the global fluorochemical market was expected to exceed 2.6
million tons by 2015. In 2006, at a considerably lower production
rate, the fluorochemical market was valued at $16 billion with water
fluoridation accounting for about 5%, or roughly $750 million. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The U.S. is the
largest consumer of fluorochemicals in the world. Fluorochemicals are
used in refrigerants, electronics, water repellants, and aluminum
smelting. Teflon and Scotchguard are made using fluorchemicals.
Fluorides are used also in the manufacture of drugs including
statins, antidepressants, and antibiotics. Dupont, 3-M, and Merck are
among the biggest participants in the fluorochemical economy. The
American Chemical Society (ACS), headquartered in Washington, D.C.,
owner of a Title 36 Congressional Charter, is a powerful lobbying
group representing Dupont, 3-M, Merck, Dow, Exxon, and Procter and
Gamble, among many others. In 2015 a former Dupont executive became
the CEO of the ACS. A goal of the ACS, of course, is to establish
public policy supportive of its industry.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In the 1970's, with
the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS), Procter and Gamble sponsored
a study of fluoride's carcinogenicity but did not find a
statistically significant relationship between fluoride and cancer.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The <i>Safe Drinking
Water Act</i>, the federal law that ensures quality drinking water in
the U.S., prohibits the EPA “...from requiring the addition
of any substance to drinking water for preventive health care
purposes...” according to the 2013 petition. Adding fluoride,
either in the hazardous waste form or the pharmaceutical grade form,
is considered a local matter.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">According to the
FDA, “Fluoride, when used in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation,
treatment or prevention of disease in man or animal is a drug that is
subject to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation.” But HFSA
has not been evaluated or approved by the FDA - no new drug
applications to study HFSA for ingestion have ever been received by
FDA.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In 2006 the National
Academies of Science suggested that EPA update its
recommendations on fluoride exposure based on what appeared to be an
increase in the incidence of dental and bone fluorosis over the
previous decades. In 2010 the Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS) reviewed “the best available information” on the incidence
of cavities, the incidence of fluorosis, exposure of adults and
children to various sources of fluoride, and data from the EPA,
resulting in a downward revision of the EPA's recommended standard of
0.7 to 1.2 milligrams per liter to 0.7 milligrams per liter, the
value at the low end of the range. Note that the recommended revision
was downward from an acceptable range to the concentration at the low
end of the range of EPA's previous standard. It's not known if EPA
has implemented the revision.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dental fluorosis,
considered a developmental defect, is caused by ingesting fluoride
while teeth are developing. Fluorosis starts to occur at fluoride
concentrations in water at 1 part per million, according to <i>The
Chemistry of Mature Enamel</i>. It is characterized by white lacy
markings on teeth in its mild form to pitting and mottling with brown
discoloration of the enamel in more severe cases. The greatest risk
is to children up to 8 years of age, but in the period 1999-2004 the
incidence of fluorosis in 12 to 15 year olds was 41%. The CDC has
blamed the increase in incidence of fluorosis on the availability of
fluoride-containing toothpastes and other dental treatments, and the
consumption of food prepared with fluoride-containing water. By the
1990's, 90% of commercial toothpastes contained fluoride. Some antibiotics contribute to fluorosis at lower levels of fluoride
ingestion.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dental caries is a
bacterial infection of teeth in which acids from bacteria dissolve
the tooth's enamel, resulting in pain, tooth loss, and possibly
systemic infection. These bacteria live in the plaque that forms
around teeth and sticks to tooth enamel. The more sugar that enters
the environment of the mouth, the happier and more active the
bacteria become.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">According to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Fluoride's
predominant effect is... topical and depends on fluoride being in the
right amount in the right place at the right time.” This statement
seems to recommend the use of fluoride-containing toothpaste when
brushing teeth after eating, but CDC still recommends water
fluoridation calling it “one of the ten great public health
achievements of the 20<sup><span style="font-size: xx-small;">th</span></sup> century”.
Though we often hear that fluoride “prevents” cavities, experts
insist that fluoride technically doesn't <i>prevent</i> cavities – it
promotes re-mineralization of enamel that's been dissolved by
bacterial acids. Thus, fluoride's beneficial effect is observed when it's applied topically as opposed to systemically by ingestion.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cavities are no
small problem. The World Health Organization recognizes dental caries
as a major health concern related to diabetes, cardiovascular
disease, cancer, and lung disease by risk factors that are considered
“modifiable”. An odd thing about the incidence of cavities is
that it is very low in poor, non-industrialized countries but in
developed, industrialized countries it is high especially in poor,
socioeconomically disadvantaged areas. Risk factors for dental caries
include - in addition to low income - high sugar consumption, smoking
and other tobacco use, and low (acidic) salivary pH. They're
“modifiable” because we can choose to eat less sugar or stop
smoking cigarettes, for example. Usually cavities are a sign of poor
health in general not an isolated health problem.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A 1999 Polish study
found that a variety of factors influence a child's risk for caries,
including genetics, and that prevention should be individualized to
match the risk. The study found that high caries-risk children
benefitted most from chewing fluoride gum.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Chewing gum
sweetened with xylitol has benefits to oral health including
reduction of plaque formation and gum-tissue inflammation, and in
increasing re-mineralization of tooth enamel. American Dental
Association (ADA) research questions xylitol's benefits, however,
quoting the study's author as saying “The best evidence for
preventing tooth decay is still brushing with fluoride toothpaste and
eating less sugar.”</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Fluoride isn't <i>safe</i> - it's relatively safe and relatively toxic. It is not an
essential nutrient in the human diet. The pharmaceutical compound
sodium fluoride is a drug regulated by the FDA and requires a
doctor's prescription (except in toothpaste or mouthwash). Ingested
either from the water supply or in a pill as prescribed, fluoride
interferes with magnesium absorption. It's generally acknowledged
that many people are magnesium deficient, even that magnesium
deficiency is endemic in the U.S. According to the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, 57% of the U.S. population does not meet the U.S. RDA
for dietary intake of magnesium. The more magnesium deficient one is
the greater is one's absorption of fluoride. Taking magnesium
supplements may reduce fluoride absorption. Fluoride also inhibits
iodine absorption and, because of the chemical similarity between the
two, the former competes with the latter in the sensitive metabolism
of the thyroid gland and its hormones. Because of the way in which it
can interfere with thyroid metabolism, fluoride is considered a
“hormone disruptor”. Fluoride is excreted from the body by the
kidneys. If one has kidney problems, one must filter fluoride from
the water before drinking it. Fluoride accumulates in bone and soft
tissues. Fluoride has an affinity for aluminum, which is abundant in
the environment and in prepared food, and which has been implicated
as a causal factor in the development of Alzheimer's disease.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Chronic ingestion of
fluoride at 4 parts per million or more can cause serious
neurological and musculoskeletal health problems, and at lower
concentrations it has other unwanted and unanticipated effects. In
research to explore the effect of fluoride ingestion on
postmenopausal women, it was found consistently that fluoride
increased bone mass but also increased the incidence of bone
fracture. Research performed by a former researcher from the National
Cancer Institute (NCI) demonstrated an increased risk of cancer in
those ingesting fluoridated water, research that was contested by the
NCI and the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) in a famous court case
in the 1970's.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It doesn't seem
reasonable to assume that fluoride does not have harmful effects on
the human body along a continuum of concentrations before side
effects manifest, especially if the body's ability to detoxify it is
compromised in some way. It may be that we don't recognize yet some
health problems as fluoride-related.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Fluoride occurs
naturally in many water supplies in the U.S. In some areas, for
example in the Southwest, naturally occurring fluoride is present in
water at high concentrations and must be reduced for drinking. In
Rifle, Colorado, where artificial water fluoridation is an issue, the naturally occurring fluoride content of public water is
0.33 milligrams per liter, which is about half of the most recent
recommendation of 0.70 milligrams per liter made by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Researchers have
discovered that living at a relatively high altitude improves enamel
production in the same way that fluoride does and that its effects
may be additive to fluoride's. This observation was made on dental
patients at an elevation of 4300 feet above sea level. Rifle's
elevation is 5350 feet above sea level.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Some European
countries have rejected fluoridation of public drinking water on the
principle that doing so amounts to the indiscriminate medication of a
population. Under the terms of the 1999 European Biomedical
Convention, “Fluoridation as a practice is clearly unethical.”
The Convention established “the individual's right to informed
consent on any personal intervention”.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
“<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Informed consent”
is a voluntary agreement between a patient and her or his doctor for
participation in a research project, or for a diagnostic or
therapeutic procedure, the patient having been informed thoroughly of
the purpose, methods, benefits, and risks. “The patient must be put
in a position, through the use of terms he or she can understand, to
weigh up the necessity or usefulness of the aim and methods of the
intervention against its risks and the discomfort or pain it will
cause.” In some opinions, in the case of water fluoridation
informed consent does not occur and fluoridation, therefore, is
medical malpractice.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A classic paper in
support of water fluoridation titled the <i>Newburgh-Kingston
Caries-Fluorine Study: Final Report</i>, published in the <i>Journal
of the American Dental Association</i> in 1956, announced that water
fluoridation presented no risk to human health, and that those who
opposed it were “... chiefly food faddists, cultists,
chiropractors, misguided and misinformed persons who are ignorant of
the scientific facts on the ingestion of water fluorides, and,
strange as it may seem, even among a few uninformed physicians and
dentists.” According to Graham and Morin, in a paper published in
the <i>Journal of Land Use and Environmental Law</i> in 1999, this
sentiment “...set the tone of ADA and USPHS activists and others
promoting this practice in the face of growing opposition from
eminent scientists and physicians... there has always been learned
and respectable opposition to artificial fluoridation of public water
supplies, and all attempts to deny it can only be characterized as
irresponsible.” Graham and Morin say further that “...the lowest
rates of tooth decay in children occur in areas where the fluoride
level is about 0.2-0.4 ppm, which is the normal level in most parts
of the world.” And finally, “...trial judges over the past twenty
years have repeatedly found, after hearing experts, that fluoridation
is injurious to public health”.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">World renowned
cancer research scientist Dean Burk, head of cytochemistry at NCI,
testified before congress in 1976:</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-left: 0.49in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-left: 0.49in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The scientific and
medical status of artificial fluoridation of public water supplies
has now advanced to the stage of the possibility of socially imposed
mass murder on an unexpectedly large scale involving tens of
thousands of cancer deaths of Americans annually.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In response the
USPHS criticized Burk's methods and the NCI, for whom he'd worked for
30 years, attacked his epidemiological work. Eventually, NCI
convinced Congress that there was no association between fluoridation
and cancer.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">(Dean Burk earned
his first Ph.D at the age of 20, co-discovered biotin, taught
biochemistry at the medical school at Cornell University, and
co-authored research with Nobel laureate Otto Warburg, with whom he
was a close friend. Burk had a remarkable professional career.)</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Other important
lawsuits against mandatory fluoridation have been decided in favor of
plaintifs who sought injunctions against the procedure. Three notable
cases, in Pittsburg, Alton (Illinois), and Houston, in the '70's
and '80's all found that research demonstrated that fluoridation was
associated with an increased risk of cancer and that the proposed
benefit was not worth the risk. The finding of the Judge in the
Houston case was unequivocal:</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-left: 0.49in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-left: 0.49in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">...the artificial
fluoridation of public water supplies, such as is contemplated by
[Houston] City Ordinance No.80-2530 may cause or contribute to the
cause of cancer, genetic damage, intolerant reactions, and chronic
toxicity, including dental mottling, in man; that the said artificial
fluoridation may aggravate malnutrition and existing illnesses in
man; and that the value of said artificial fluoridation is in some
doubt as to the reduction of tooth decay in man.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Subsequently, the
Texas Court of Appeals found that injecting fluoride into the city's
water was harmful. But these decisions (and judges' rulings in Pittsburgh and Alton) were not enough to prevent
the state from exercising what is called “police power” to proceed with fluoridation. Police power is
the legal authority of states to act in the interest of the “health,
safety, morals, and general welfare of the public”. It gives the
states the power to force people to do what it thinks is best for
them and to overturn a judge's decision.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0.02in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<div style="line-height: 100%;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Having learned their
lesson in court, “pro-fluoridation activists” from the ADA and
the USPHS decided on a different tactic for future defenses of its
program: avoid court and the decisions of a judge who probably would
not know enough about science to make the "right" decision.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 100%;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 100%;">Graham and Morin believe that, eventually, the practice of artificially fluoridating water supplies will be discontinued. Meanwhile it is important to maintain the legal history of the issue because, as they say, "time is the solvent of truth".</span></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532471984503165704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6067710900459960707.post-91443703781217529532015-03-23T20:25:00.000-07:002015-03-23T20:25:56.924-07:00Matters of the Heart<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
“<i>There is the
enormous risk one might have to change one’s mind.”</i> Abram
Hoffer, M.D.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In spite of advances claimed by
conventional medical science, serious human health conditions
persist. Research continues, hope is raised, new drugs are approved,
and profits are counted. Meanwhile, cardiovascular disease, cancer,
diabetes, depression and other mental health issues, Alzheimers, a
long list of infectious and food-borne illnesses, disease-causing
genetic disorders, and on and on, continue to plague bodies and
minds.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
According to the World Health
Organization, the leading cause of death in the world is heart
disease. In 2008 ischemic heart disease accounted for 1/8th of the 57
million deaths worldwide and is increasing in low and middle income
countries. Hypertensive heart disease, number 11 on the list, killed
2% of people in that year. Heart disease killed 7.4 million people in
2012 and still is the leading cause of death.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In ischemic heart disease blood flow to
the heart is diminished because of a build-up of atherosclerotic
plaque in the arteries of the heart. Ischemic heart disease is a
major risk factor for congestive heart failure, which has increased
steadily over the last 20 years (“Risk Factors for Congestive Heart
Failure,” doi: 10.1001/archinte.161.7.996).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So in March and again in August 2014
when Novartis released the results of its PARADIGM-HF study on a new
drug for heart disease, it’s no surprise that it attracted
considerable attention. The new drug, which was still being
investigated and didn’t have a name yet, is designed to target a
specific heart condition cardiologists have labeled “heart
failure”.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>a failure of heart</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Heart failure is a type of heart
disease in which the heart is unable to pump enough blood to meet the
demands of the body. Ischemic heart disease, hypertension, heart
attack, and heart muscle or heart valve disease cause or contribute
to heart failure; emotional stress, work stress, and other sources of
psychosocial stress also are contributors.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Symptoms of heart failure include
fatigue, exercise intolerance, heavy breathing, fluid in the lungs
(with coughing and wheezing), unusual heart rhythms, difficulty
breathing while lying down at night, edema in the ankles and feet,
and dizziness.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Conventional medical treatment for
heart failure includes medications such as angiotensin converting
enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), beta
blockers, calcium channel blockers, statins (HMG-CoA reductase
inhibitors), diuretics, lifestyle changes (diet, exercise, smoking
cessation) and so on. Sometimes a pacemaker is implanted in the
chest. In very serious cases, a heart transplant may be necessary.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In heart failure, energy-producing
cells are not getting enough oxygen because the heart is failing in
its job to pump oxygenated blood to them. Oxygen induces the
production of the energy molecule ATP in a complex chain of reactions
in cell structures called mitochondria. Simply stated, oxygen
converts glucose into carbon dioxide, water, and the “energy
currency” adenosine triphosphate - ATP. In this process energy as
ATP is made in all the cells of the human body, including heart
muscle cells.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Since nothing happens in the body
without ATP, its production is very important. If the heart is unable
to pump oxygen-containing blood efficiently to energy-producing
cells, every activity in the body will be compromised. The autonomic
nervous system will assist the oxygen and energy deficit by
increasing the production of adrenalin, which increases blood
pressure and respiratory rate. But this is a temporarily useful
reaction - this sympathetic reaction of the autonomic nervous system
is a feature of the stress response, which is a component in heart
failure. Heart muscle cells will work less and less efficiently as
adrenal hormones futilely try to make the heart work harder.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Novartis’ new drug, hailed as
introducing “a paradigm shift” in heart failure therapy and as
representing “a new threshold of hope”, combines an ARB with
sacubitril, a neprilysin inhibitor. The ARB is used instead of an ACE
inhibitor, according to the study report, due to the latter’s
tendency to cause tissue swelling called angioedema, which is a
serious side-effect that can be fatal in sensitive patients.
Sacubitril, the neprilysin inhibitor, has the effect of increasing
concentrations of a heart hormone called atrial natriuretic peptide,
which promotes relaxation of blood vessels and inhibits other effects
of sympathetic nervous system involvement.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The research compared the new drug to
the previous “gold standard” for heart failure, the ACE inhibitor
enalapril, which, as mentioned above, can cause angioedema. (In this
research, however, though the numbers were small, the group receiving
the new drug experienced a <i>higher</i> incidence of angioedema than
the enalapril group). According to the study’s authors, the new
drug “out-performed” enalapril. Adverse effects, however, were
experienced by all test subjects.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>heart and kidney, courage and fear</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Both ACE inhibitors and ARBs work to
lower high blood pressure and hypertension, which are predisposing
factors in heart failure. They achieve their effect by acting in a
metabolic pathway associated with the kidneys known as the
renin-angiotensin system, which is built into the body as a survival
mechanism against a loss of blood volume.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The effect of angiotensin, once it gets
hooked up at the cell receptor sites, is to increase blood pressure
by causing constriction of blood vessels, stimulating aldosterone
secretion from the adrenal glands, and increasing sympathetic nervous
system activity, among other things. For its part, aldosterone acts
on the kidneys to reabsorb sodium and water and, therefore, to
increase blood pressure.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Both ACE inhibitors and ARBs lower
blood pressure by working in the angiotensin system, but there is a
significant difference between the two in how the effect is achieved.
ACE inhibitors inhibit the enzyme that converts angiotensin from its
inactive form into its active form. If the enzyme isn’t present,
the hormone will not become active, aldosterone secretion will not be
stimulated, and blood pressure will be modulated. In contrast, ARBs,
angiotensin receptor blockers, work at the site of cell receptors
<i>after</i> angiotensin has been converted into its active form.
With ARBs, though activated angiotensin can’t cause its effect by
acting with cells at specific receptor sites, there remains in the
blood a significant amount of activated angiotensin. Though ARBs
lower blood pressure, the active angiotensin in blood has
side-effects by acting through secondary receptors.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
ARBs are very specific about the
receptors they block. Activated angiotensin, while not interacting
with its primary receptor, will continue to interact with receptors
of a secondary but supportive role. Researchers have discovered
several activated angiotensin receptor sites on tissue cells only one
of which is blocked by the ARB in Novartis’ LCZ696. In relation to
this and in spite of the fact that ARBs performed well at lowering
blood pressure, a “paradoxical” effect has been observed: in
other studies ARBs were associated with an <i>increase</i> in heart
attacks and other cardiovascular events (doi:
10.1161.CIRCULATIONAHA.105.594986). This unwanted effect of ARBs has
called into question the drug’s usefulness in the treatment of
heart failure and explains why they’re not prescribed as a first
line drug for the condition.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The other component of Novartis’
LCZ696 is the neprilysin inhibitor, sacubitril. Neprilysin is an
important enzyme that breaks down proteins that tend to cause
vasodilation among other things. The net effect of inhibiting
neprilysin, therefore, is vasodilation, which is beneficial to people
with high blood pressure.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One of the proteins degraded by
neprilysin is atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), a potent vasodilator
secreted by cardiac muscle cells of the atria of the heart. Having
the opposite effect of the adrenal hormone aldosterone, ANP helps to
reduce blood pressure by causing sodium and water excretion by the
kidneys. (A co-principle investigator in the trial said that the
neprilysin inhibitor “enhances the body’s natural defenses
against heart failure”, artificially stretching the definition of
“natural” into a convenient distortion.) ANP secretion is
increased<i> naturally</i> by a number of things including exercise
and immersion in water.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In rats, however, artificial neprilysin
inhibition is associated with an increase of proteins in the brain
that are related to Alzheimer’s disease (“Identification of the
major AB1-42 degrading catabolic pathway in brain parenchyma:
Suppression leads to biochemical and pathological deposition,”
<i>Nature Medicine</i> 2000; doi: 10.1038/72237). That is, neprilysin
is an enzyme that degrades the proteins associated with Alzheimer’s
disease. Therefore, artificial neprilysin inhibition may be useful
against heart disease but also may contribute to an increase in
Alzheimer’s in humans.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In any case, PARADIGM-HF, Novartis’
double-blind trial involving over 8000 patients, appears well
designed and executed and the results seem to demonstrate the
superiority of LCZ696 over the previous “gold standard” drug, the
ACE inhibitor enalapril. The original article “Angiotensin-Neprilysin
Inhibition versus Enalapril in Heart Failure” (doi:
10.1056/NEJMoa1409077) can be viewed at nejm.org.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>cross my heart</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A correct diagnosis of heart failure is
not an easy one to make. There is no definitive diagnostic rubric,
there are many classifications and categories, and there are other
serious illnesses causally related to heart failure.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
An article titled “Heart Failure:
Gaps in Knowledge and Failures in Treatment” by Druin Burch,
published on plosmedicine.org in August 2014 (doi:
10.1371/journal.pmed.1001702) cites some of the problems in the
diagnosis and treatment of heart failure. The author paraphrases the
conclusion of a cited article: ...“routinely doctors and healthcare
systems cause needless death and major illness through failing to
provide the care they should”. Burch continues,</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
Recent work has
suggested that 85% of all medical research is wasted through asking
the wrong questions or asking questions badly, and more through
difficulties in open access to useful knowledge. Still more, though,
is wasted when valuable and widely disseminated research results are
not acted on.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
Geographical
discrepancies in the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure suggest
that clinical opinions and behaviour vary across the world. One
speculation is that clinical diagnoses of heart failure are often
plain wrong.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
For some patients diagnosed with heart
failure based on clinical evaluation, care “...is typically limited
to efforts to relieve symptoms…” because “ …no treatments
have been shown to improve outcomes…” (“Lessons from TOPCAT
Trial”, New England Journal of Medicine, April 2014; doi:
10.1056/NEJMe1401231).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Medical drug research is plagued with a
unique set of problems and pressures.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
According to “Why Most Published
Research Findings Are False” written in 2005 (doi:
10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124) by John Ioannadis, M.D., medical
research has issues:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
There is increasing
concern that in modern research, false findings may be the majority
or even the vast majority of published research claims. However, this
should not be surprising. It can be proven that most claimed research
findings are false.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
Published research findings are sometimes refuted by subsequent evidence...<br />
<br />
Conflicts of interest are very common in biomedical research, and typically they are inadequately and sparsely reported. Prejudice may not necessarily have financial roots. Scientists in a given field may be prejudiced purely because of their belief in a scientific theory or commitment to their own findings.<br />
<br />
Prestigious investigators may suppress via the peer review process the appearance and dissemination of findings that refute their findings, thus condemning their field to perpetuate false dogma. Empirical evidence on expert opinion shows that it is extremely unreliable.<br />
<br />
...the fact that a field is hot or has strong invested interests may sometimes promote larger studies and improved standards of research, enhancing the predictive value of its research findings...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<span 0.5in="" 0in="">
<span 0.5in="" 0in="">
<span 0.5in="" 0in="">
<span 0.5in="" 0in="">
<span 0.5in="" 0in="">
<span 0.5in="" 0in="">
<span 0.5in="" 0in="">
<span 0.5in="" 0in="">
<span initial="">Traditionally
investigators have viewed large and highly significant effects with
excitement, as signs of important discoveries. Too large and too
highly significant effects may actually be more likely to be signs of
large bias in most fields of modern research</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<span 0in="">
<span 0in="">
<span 0.5in="" 0in="">
<span 0.5in="" 0in="">
<br />
</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As for the intentional manipulation of data in research, Ioannidis says, "Commercially available "data mining" packages actually are proud of their ability to yield statistically significant results through data dredging."<br />
<br />
In reference to other research trials,
Ioannidis says, “Early termination of... trials owing to
statistically significant interim analyses inflates estimates of
treatment effects.” The “selection of high risk populations”
also inflates a test drug’s effects (BMJ 2013; 347:f6698).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
PARADIGM-HF, funded by Novartis, was
terminated early. It was a large trial involving “high risk
populations”, hundreds of doctors from dozens of countries, and
resulted in “highly significant effects”.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Ioannidis “...has become one of the
world’s foremost experts on the credibility of medical research. He
and his team have shown, again and again, and in different ways, that
much of what biomedical researchers conclude in published studies…
is misleading, exaggerated, and often flat-out wrong. He charges that
as much as 90 percent of the published medical information that
doctors rely on is flawed.” Yet “his work has been widely
accepted by the medical community…” However, he doubts that
change in medical research will come easily. According to “Lies,
Damned Lies, and Medical Science” by David Freedman, Ioannidis
fears that “pervasive flaws” and “conflicts of interest” will
inhibit necessary changes
(TheAtlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/lies, damned lies/308269).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
There is an
intellectual conflict of interest that pressures researchers to find
whatever it is that is most likely to get them funded.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Ioannidis believes that the peer-review
process itself may encourage researchers to stick with the herd
because their colleagues, members of the herd, are the ones
performing the review. In this way wrong outcomes may be repeated and
new ideas avoided. He says,</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
I’m not sure that
more than a very small percentage of medical research is ever likely
to lead to major improvements in clinical outcomes and quality of
life. We should be very comfortable with that fact.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Nor is it likely that this insight will
be repeated by pharmaceutical industry spokespeople.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Still some critics of the system who
have seen it up close are unwilling to make <i>any</i> assumptions
about the efficacy of medical practice. A 2006 businessweek.com
article features cardiologist turned mathematician David Eddy, M.D.,
Ph.D., who created a computer program that he says determines an
effective and efficient treatment plan given a specific diagnosis. He
says,</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
The problem is we
don’t know what we’re doing… The practice of medicine is more
guesswork than science… The limitation is the human mind.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Dr. Eddy calls his computer program
“Archimedes” after the great Ancient Greek mathematician. Compare
Dr. Eddy’s approach to that of Dr. Abram Hoffer’s, which is
revealed in his recommendation: “We have to learn to think rather
than calculate.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>shot through the heart</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
For all the logic and rigor to which it
ascribes its activity, conventional medical drug research is a kind
of high stakes wild-goose chase for an elusive ultimate destructive
projectile: the magic bullet. “Magic bullet” is a metaphor for a
chemical substance that could be injected into, or swallowed by, a
patient that would destroy an offending agent, infectious organism,
or cancer and leave the rest of the body unaffected. “Magic bullet”
was coined and defined by 19th century German physician Paul Ehrlich.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Ironically, there’s an old German
folktale about a young man who makes a deal with the devil for a
“magic bullet” to be used in a contest of marksmanship to win
the love of a young woman. The tale, which was made into an opera in
the mid 19th century, became popular throughout Europe. This opera was
considered culturally important in Germany in that period.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Ehrlich’s “magic bullet” concept
grew out of the aggressive “heroic medicine” practices of the
early 19th century. His invention of the arsenic compound salvarsan
(considered the first chemotherapeutic agent) for the treatment of
syphilis gave him mild success in the idea’s realization. Though it
was effective, salvarsan had serious harmful side effects.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The “magic bullet” idea still
dominates drug research. The related concept of a “biological
target”, denoting an enzyme, hormone receptor, cell membrane
protein, nucleic acid, and so on, that can be altered by a chemical
drug (the “magic bullet”) for a specific therapeutic effect, is
the modus operandi of so-called drug discovery in the pharmaceutical
industry. A <i>Therapeutic Target Database</i> that contains 2025
targets and 17,816 magic bullet drugs is available “for
facilitating drug discovery”
(http://bidd.nus.edu.sg/group/cjttd/TTD.asp).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Ehrlich was a colleague of Robert Koch
whose “Postulates” and “germ theory” became the foundation of
bacteriology. Famous French chemist Louis Pasteur, British surgeon
Joseph Lister, German physician Hermann von Helmholtz, and French
physiologist Claude Bernard, among others, were responsible for
important advances in 19th century science and medicine, or so we’re
told. This post “heroic medicine” era, in which chemical research
was applied increasingly to medical conditions, called the attention
of American education reformers to the educational systems within
which these advances came about.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the late 19th century, European and
especially the German (or Prussian, as it was called) educational
system became the model for the standardized public and university
education systems in America. Horace Mann, Henry Pritchett, Daniel
Coit Gilman, Charles Eliot, and others imported and implemented the
German system, and became influential in defining public, university,
and postgraduate education in the U.S. Pritchett, who earned a Ph.D.
at the University of Munich, was president of Massachusetts Institute
of Technology and president of the Carnegie Foundation when Abraham
Flexner wrote his report on medical education in the U.S.; Gilman,
who was president of University of California and Johns Hopkins
University, and a founder of Carnegie Institute, made it his personal
policy to remodel American universities on the German system; and
Eliot, president of Harvard, visited European schools and was
impressed that they used discoveries of scientific principles to
promote the development of industry.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The magic bullet-biological target
concept of chemical medicine is expressed repeatedly in the
pharmaceutical industry’s attempts to invent drugs to “combat”
and to “wage war” on fearsome human health conditions. In the
case of Novartis’ PARADIGM-HF, magic bullet LCZ696 targets an
angiotensin receptor and blocks it, and targets the enzyme
neprilysin, which it inhibits. This metaphor betrays a perceptual
mode conditioned by training, education, and culture that is
increasingly difficult to maintain because cultural values are
changing.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The bullet-target concept is based in
the reductionist philosophy that complex systems are mechanical and
can be broken down into smaller units without distortion or
compromise. This perception empowered scientists in the 19th century
in the study of the human “machine” and its “mechanisms”. The
reductionist philosophy was expressed succinctly by Hermann von
Helmholtz in the late 19th century who said, as a way of trying to
eliminate “vital forces” from the scientific equation, “...no
other forces than the common physical-chemical ones are active within
the organism.” This reductionist philosophy facilitated the
industrial revolution.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
That a natural physiological process
has an immediate cause that can be targeted and blocked or inhibited
by a specific chemical agent, which will have no other significant
effect in the human body, is an assumption of conventional medical
science and of pharmaceutical research in particular. This
assumption, for the most part, is one we must swallow along with our
prescription, pharmaceutical medicine.This assumption, which is
rooted in the mechanical perception, will be scrutinized,
re-evaluated, and abandoned increasingly as holistic models of human
function are validated increasingly.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>heart to heart</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A press release on the European Society
of Cardiology’s website dated May 25, 2013, in conjunction with the
annual meeting of the <i>Heart Failure Association of the European
Society of Cardiology</i>, highlighting the results of a CoQ10
research project, is titled “A potential new approach to improve
heart failure outcome - Coenzyme Q10 decreases all cause mortality by
half in randomised double blind trial”. Lead author Svend Mortensen
of Denmark says in the article,</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
CoQ10 is the first
new medication to improve survival in chronic heart failure and it
should be added to standard therapy…. Other heart failure
medications block rather than enhance cellular processes and may have
side effects. Supplementation with CoQ10, which is a natural and safe
substance, corrects a deficiency in the body and blocks the vicious
metabolic cycle in chronic heart failure called the energy starved
heart.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of course Mortensen’s CoQ10 research
is subject to the same criticisms as Novartis’ PARADIGM-HF
(Mortensen is affiliated with a company that manufactures CoQ10) but
there are important differences: CoQ10 is safe, it’s produced
endogenously in the body, it’s an antioxidant <i>and</i> a cofactor
in the electron transport chain, it’s normally in high
concentrations in the heart and kidneys, it prevents oxidation of bad
cholesterol, and is known to be deficient in degenerative diseases.
Plus, it’s been studied and recommended as a dietary supplement for
about 50 years.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the introduction to a December 2014
article in the journal <i>Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics</i>
(doi: 10.1038/clpt.2014.175), Mortensen continues,</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br />
Heart failure is a disabling disease with increasing prevalence and a poor prognosis despite advances in drug and device-based therapies. The biochemical rationale for using Q10 (CoQ10) in HF is correction of a deficiency state whose association with the disease was established years ago.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span 0in=""><br /></span>
<span 0in="">
</span>
<span 0in="">CoQ10, also known as ubiquinone, because in the body it is a ubiquitous quinone (a class of chemicals based on a ring structure), was discovered in 1955. The specific structure of CoQ10 was identified in 1958 by Merck pharmaceutical chemist Karl Folkers who also determined the chemical structures of vitamin B-6, pantothenic acid, biotin, vitamin B-12, and lipoid acid, among other things. Folders promoted the therapeutic value of CoQ10 and recommended its use, but his rationale fell on deaf ears. In 1990 Folkers and others (pas.org/content/87/22/8928.full.pdf) found that</span><br />
<span 0in=""><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
lovastatin
does indeed lower tissue concentrations of CoQ and that a return to
normal can be achieved by supplementation with CoQ.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Karl
Folkers was one of the more important 20th century researchers in
biochemical nutrition.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span 0in=""><i>losing heart</i></span><br />
<br />
Merck manufactures the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor lovastatin and sells it under the name Mevacor. Lovastatin is prescribed to lower cholesterol, which is the very important precursor for all steroid hormones, vitamin D, and bile in the human body. Lovastatin can have many side effects including muscle aches and pain, gastrointestinal upset, dizziness, weakness, liver damage, memory loss, confusion and, notably, increased blood serum levels of creatine phosphokinase. Creatine phosphokinase (also called creatine kinase), is the enzyme, especially important in heart muscle, that transfers a phosphorous group to ADP to maintain ATP levels when the heart is under high demand. Increased creatine phosphokinase found in blood tests is an indication of tissue damage. Heart tissue creatine phosphokinase is depleted in heart failure.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span 0in=""><br /></span>
<span 0in="">CoQ10 is made in the human body in the same biosynthetic pathway in which cholesterol is made. The enzyme that controls the rate of production of cholesterol, CoQ10, and other important substances in this pathway is called HMG-CoA reductase - the biological target for the magic bullet statin. CoQ10 production is inhibited also by beta blockers, pharmaceutical bullets that target the action of some adrenal hormones in hypertension and other cardiovascular conditions.</span><br />
<span 0in=""><br /></span>
<span 0in="">Paradoxically, it begins to seem as if the treatment of heart disease with prescription drugs creates conditions that cause or contribute to... heart disease.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
Some papers indicate that CoQ10 depletion during statin therapy might be associated with subclinical cardiomyopathy and this situation is reversed upon CoQ10 treatment. ("The Role of CoenzymeQ in Cellular Medicine," <i>Mitochondrion</i> 2007, doi: 10.1016/j.mito.2007.03.002).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This “statin cardiomyopathy” has
been implicated as a causal factor in the development of heart
failure, the incidence of which has been increasing since the
introduction of statins.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
...statin-related
side-effects, including statin cardiomyopathy, are far more common
that previously published and are reversible with the combination of
statin discontinuation and supplemental CoQ(10). We saw no adverse
consequences from statin discontinuation. (PMID: 16873939).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Statin drugs, prescribed to reduce
cholesterol, actually cause an up-regulation of the process by which
cholesterol is made (“Quercetin up-regulates LDL Receptor…”,
<i>Physiotherapy Research</i>, March 2012, doi: 10.1002/ptr.4646).
This discovery has led drug companies to develop monoclonal
antibodies to potentiate the effects of statins by inhibiting an
enzyme identified as PCSK9 which prevents LDL clearance from blood at
cell receptor sites. This research shows that the naturally-occurring
bioflavonoid quercetin, found in fruits and vegetables and as a
nutritional supplement, increases cell LDL receptors and inhibits
PCSK9 resulting in lower serum LDL. Quercetin also reduces oxidized
vitamin C as a way of recycling it for subsequent antioxidant
activity.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
An article in<i> Trends in Biochemical
Science</i> by Costet, and others, titled “PCSK9 and LDL
Cholesterol: Unravelling the Target to Design the Bullet,”
demonstrates that the conventional perceptual mode has been carried
forward into medical science’s latest whack-a-mole extravasation
(doi: 10.1016/j.tibs.2008.06.005).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
CoQ10 depletion is not the only
potentially harmful side effect of statin therapy intended to lower
cholesterol by targeting HMG-CoA reductase. Because so many important
molecules are made in this pathway (called the mevalonate pathway) a
wide range of adverse effects may become apparent from inhibition of
this one enzyme. An August 2010 <i>Scientific American</i> article
titled “It’s Not Dementia, It’s Your Heart Medication:
Cholesterol Drugs and Memory” is a personal report on the cognitive
side effects of statins experienced while taking them as prescribed.
Though there is some equivocation in the article about these adverse
effects, one statin patient, Duane Graveline, M.D., expresses a more
definitive opinion on his website <a href="http://www.spacedoc.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><u>www.spacedoc.com</u></span></a>.
Graveline says certain statins’ adverse side effects such as sleep
disturbances, nightmares, memory loss, depression, and interstitial
lung disease are generally acknowledged and serious, and patients
should be warned of them.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
An article titled
“Atorvastatin-associated Memory Loss: Analysis of 662 Cases of
Cognitive Damage Reported to Medwatch” by Graveline and Cohen that
appears on Graveline’s website ends with the paranoia-inducing
statement: “There is resonable research evidence that 100% of
statin users suffer some cognitive deficit that is not evident to
them.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
An article in the December 2014 <i>JAMA
Internal Medicine</i> titled “Statin-Related Cognitive Impairment
in the Real World - You’ll Live Longer but You Might Not Like It”,
written by non-medical professional Jonathan McDonagh (doi:
10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.5376), discusses the authors experience
with statin drugs. McDonagh says that after he had not taken his
statin medication for a few days he realized that they were making
him grumpy, depressed, and mentally slow when he did take them as
prescribed. He tells of the trouble he had convincing his doctor that
statins were causing these problems, and the relief he experienced
when he quit taking them.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
It’s
disappointing to miss out on some of the cardiovascular benefits that
statins may provide. But it’s more important to me to have my
cognitive function back so I can earn a living and provide for the
people I love.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Apparently, Mr. McDonagh had been sold
on statins’ “cardiovascular benefits”.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Cholesterol is the most common organic
molecule in the brain and is essential to neurological function.
Non-neuronal brain cells called glia produce cholesterol for their
growth and survival. In a 2001 report in <i>Science</i> (“CNS
synaptogenesis promoted by glia-derived cholesterol,” <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&cmd=prlinks&retmode=ref&id=11701931"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><u>Pub
Med I.D. 11701931</u></span></a>), Mauch and others announced their
discovery about the “synapse”, which facilitates the transmission
of electrical signals between neurons or between a neuron and a
receptor cell:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
Previous reports
showed that a glia-derived factor strongly promotes synapse
development in cultures of purified CNS neurons. Here, we identify
this factor as cholesterol… CNS neurons produce enough cholesterol to survive and grow, but the formation of numerous mature synapses demands additional amounts that must be provided by glia. Thus, the availability of cholesterol appears to limit synapse development. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A review of the importance of
cholesterol in synapse formation titled “Role of cholesterol in
synapse formation and function” by F. Pfrieger (doi:
10.1016/s0005-2736(03)00024-5) concludes,</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
Cholesterol is an
essential component of synapses and… their formation, function, and
stability are sensitive to disturbances in cholesterol metabolism.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As for other effects of lowering
cholesterol (“The Ugly Side of Statins. Systemic appraisal of the
Contemporary Unknown Unknowns”, in <i>The Open Journal of Endocrine and Metabolic Disease</i>, doi: 10.4236/ojemd.2013.33025) considerable controversy persists:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We seem to have fallen into the marketing trap and ignored the niggling side effects with regard to the HMGCoA reductase inhibitors. The only statin benefit that has actually been demonstrated is in middle aged men with coronary heart disease. However, statins were not shown to best form of primary prevention. Aspirin, as a form of primary prevention decreases the risk for total cardiovascular events and nonfatal Myocardial Infarction over any other factor. In actual fact, high cholesterol levels have been found to be protective in elderly and heart failure patients and hypo-cholestereamic patients had higher incidence of intra-cerebral bleeds, depression, and cancer.</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The statin industry, with all of its spin-off, is a 20-billion-a-year industry. We are observing the revealing of the utmost medical tragedy of all times. It is unprecedented that the healthcare industry has inadvertently induced life-threatening nutrient deficiency in millions of otherwise healthy people. What is even more disparaging is that not only has there been a failure to report on these negative side-effects of statins, there has actually been active discouragement to publish any negative studies on statins. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Statins... induce insulin resistance..Cholesterol is a critical component of neuronal cell membranes and synapses, and plays an important role in their proper functioning. A strong association between lower cholesterol and Parkinson disease risk has been reported... </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Cholesterol levels are the main determinant of coenzyme Q10, an important antioxidant and mitochondrial electron receptor. Coenzyme Q10 is neuroprotective and in study involving patients with early Parkinson disease, administration of high-dosage (1200 mg/day) coenzyme Q10 significantly slowed progression of disability with halting of their statin. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Confirm
registry had shocked the scientific world with the strongest evidence
that statin use is associated with an increased prevalence and extent
of coronary plaques calcification. Ironically for a drug which was
marketed to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, the confirm
registry identified a strong association of statin use to the
progression of coronary artery plaque features. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Statin use was correlated with a greater incidence of severe coronary artery stenosis... </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Statin therapy activates Atrogen-1 Gene which results in muscle atrophy, wasting and damage... statin induced cardiomyopathy is the result of statin-induced coenzyme q10 deficiency and statin-induced atogen-1 activation. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
There is increased risk of Diabetes Mellitus, Cataract formation, and Erectile Dysfunction in young statin users... there is a significant increase in the risk of cancer and neurodegenerative disorders in the elderly plus and enhanced risk of a myriad of infectious diseases. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
All side effects are dose dependent and persist during treatment. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Statin therapy activates Atrogen-1 Gene which results in muscle atrophy, wasting and damage... statin induced cardiomyopathy is the result of statin-induced coenzyme q10 deficiency and statin-induced atropine-1 activation. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
There is increased risk of Diabetes Mellitus, Cataract formation, Erectie Dysfunction in young statin users... there is a significant increase in the risk of cancer and neurodegenerative disorders in the elderly plus an enhanced risk of a myriad of infectious diseases.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
All side effects are dose dependent and persist during treatment. </blockquote>
Obviously punches were not pulled in this non peer-reviewed article. The "Confirm registry" mentioned is in reference to this discovery: "Statin use is associated with an increased prevalence and extent of coronary plaques possessing calcium." (Statin use and coronary artery plaque composition: Results from the International Multicenter CONFIRM Registry", doi: 10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2012.08.002).</div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Another comprehensive look at statin
adverse effects (AE) by Golomb and Evans (“Statin Adverse Effects:
A Review of the Literature and Evidence for a Mitochondrial
Mechanism” in <i>American Journal of Cardiovascular Drug</i>s…
2008;8(6):373-418) reveals that “[P]hysician awareness of statin
AEs is reportedly low even for the AEs most widely reported by
patients.” The article concludes, “[S]tatins are a linchpin of
current approaches to cardiovascular protection: however, AEs of
statins are neither vanishingly rare nor of trivial impact.”</div>
<div align="JUSTIFY" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>hungry heart</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The theory that heart failure is the
result of a depletion of cofactors or raw materials necessary to make
energy in heart muscle cells has been a consideration since the late
1920’s. That is, is the failing heart “energy starved”? In 1933
Dechard and Visscher determined that “the failing heart is not in
need of fuel, but rather of materials for repairs…” (“The
failing heart is unable to convert… energy into useful work.”
PubMed id: 19870240.)<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A more recent review exploring the
hypothesis of an energy-starved failing heart uncovered several
interesting facts including: 1) production of the “energy”
molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is critical to the
normal function of the heart, decreases slowly in heart failure; 2)
creatine and the phosphocreatine/creatine kinase shuttle, which is
responsible for the rapid formation of ATP during times of cardiac
stress, decrease significantly in heart failure; 3) energy production
shifts from using fatty acids (oxidative phosphorylation) to glucose
(glycolysis); 4) production of new adenine, a component of the ATP
molecule, is reduced (“Is the failing heart energy starved”,
<i>Circulation Research,</i> 2004. doi
10.1161/01.res.0000137170.41939.d9). Supplementing the diets of heart
failure patients with creatine or adenine had only “modest”
success, however, according to this article.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>by heart</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One of the more researched and least
recognized nutrients for its importance in the human diet, especially
as it relates to heart function, is magnesium (Mg). In 1933 Wilkins
and Cullen found in human cadavers that “...hearts showing cardiac
disease have a decidedly lower magnesium content than do the normal
hearts.” (J. Biol. Chem. 1933 102: 415-423.)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In 1959, exploring the relationship
between steroid-induced heart lesions and electrolytes in rats,
duRuisseau and Mori reported in “Biochemical Studies on
Experimental Cardiomyopathy” (Br J Exp Pathol. v. 40(3); 1959 Jun)
that</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
...it is
established that the feeding of K- or Mg- deficient diets results in
cardiac necrosis.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
...if either MgCl
or KCl is administered simultaneously with phosphate-steroid
treatment no cardiac necrosis can be detected.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Subsequently, they found that potassium
(K) was unchanged but magnesium (Mg) “dropped considerably” under
experimental steroid-treatment conditions.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
Mg deficiency can
cause secondary K depletion, Na retention and hypercalcemia in rats…
due to a Mg deficiency in mitochondria. Mg plays a role of primary
importance amongst electrolytes in relation to metabolism of living
tissues.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
An article in the<i> American Journal
of Clinical Nutrition</i> (1987;45:1305-12) by P.O. Wester, M.D.,
titled “Magnesium”, says</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
...magnesium
deficiency was first observed in cattle (grass staggers). The
symptoms (irritability, excitation, exhaustion, fibrillary
fasciculations, muscle cramps, tetany, etc.) could be relieved by
feeding the animals Mg supplements. Autopsy examination of cows and
calves who died revealed severe cardiovascular damage including
necroses and calcification. Experimental Mg deficiency in rats
produces degenerative changes in skeletal and cardiac muscle and
renal tubular changes with nephrocalcinosis.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
Mg deficiency in
man may develop in many disease states. Symptoms may come from the
central nervous system, the skeletal muscles, the gastrointestinal
tract, and the cardiovascular system. The symptoms are often vague
and uncharacteristic in mild deficiency.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
Dietary Mg
deficiency tends to produce cardiovascular damage in experimental and
domestic animals and hypertension as well as hyperlipidemia has been
observed in Mg-deficient animals. There is also some evidence from
epidemiological data that Mg might be involved in cardiovascular
disease.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Researcher Mildred Seelig, M.D.’s
contribution to our understanding of the importance of magnesium in
human physiology is extraordinary and yet relatively unknown. A
review of her books and published articles, available at the
<i>Magnesium Online Library</i> (<a href="http://www.mgwater.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><u>www.mgwater.com</u></span></a>),
verifies her authority. Her 1980 book <i>Magnesium Deficiency in the
Pathogenesis of Disease </i>provides exhaustive evidence that
magnesium deficiency or insufficiency causes or contributes to heart
attack, arrhythmias, atherosclerosis, infant sudden death, and other
diseases. In her 2003 <i>The Magnesium Factor</i> with Andrea
Rosanoff, Ph.D., Dr. Seelig outlines in layman’s language the
importance of magnesium in the human diet and the diseases caused by
magnesium deficiency. “The solution to heart disease has been with
us all along, and it is nutritional. Most modern heart disease is
caused by magnesium deficiency.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
From Dr. Seelig’s “Cardiovascular
Consequences of Mg Deficiency”:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
Dietary magnesium
(Mg) deficiency is more prevalent than generally suspected, and can
cause cardiovascular lesions leading to disease at all stages of
life. The average American diet is deficient in Mg, especially in the
young, in alcoholic persons, and in those under stress or with
diseases or receiving certain drug therapies, who have increased Mg
needs. Otherwise normal, Mg deficient diets cause arterial and
myocardial lesions in all animals, and diets that are atherogenic,
thrombogenic and cardiovasopathic, as well as Mg-deficient, intensify
the cardiovascular lesions, whereas Mg supplementation prevents them.
Diuretics and digitalis can intensify an underlying Mg deficiency,
leading to cardiac arrhythmias that are refractory unless Mg is added
to the regimen. Potassium (K) depletion in diuretic-treated
hypertensive has been linked to an increased incidence of ventricular
ectopy and sudden death. K supplementation alone is not the answer.
Mg has been found to be necessary to intracellular K repletion in
these patients. Because patients with congestive heart failure and
others receiving diuretic therapy are also prone to chloride loss,
leading to metabolic alkalosis that also interferes with K repletion,
the addition of Mg and Cl supplements in addition to the K seems
prudent.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
A variety of
stresses, both psychological and physical, increase Mg requirements
and cause increased cellular Mg loss.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
A vicious cycle
can... develop, because exogenous or endogenous catecholamines
secreted as a result of stress cause mobilization of cellular Mg,
particularly from the myocardium - from which 12-39% losses have been
reported, in association with uptake of Ca. The loss of myocardial Mg
precedes cardiac damage and Ca accumulation. It has been postulated
that catecholamines also block Mg ingress across a proposed
Mg-channel.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
Mg modulates Ca
uptake by myocardial mitochondria, thereby protecting against
conditions and drugs that increase Ca ingress and damage to the
heart. The lesions of the mitochondria of the heart caused by Mg
deficiency resemble those of myocardial ischemia and of catecholamine
induced cardiopathy; in experimental models, and in fatal clinical
ischemic heart disease, the first alteration is loss of Mg from the
heart.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
The most
arrhythmogenic disease, congestive heart failure, is responsible for
many unexpected sudden deaths - not from progressive circulatory
failure, but suddenly and unexpectedly, at a rate even higher than
among patients in the first 12 months after myocardial infarction.
This has been attributed to the dysrhythmias caused by the
electrolyte disturbances produced both by compensatory mechanisms and
by treatment of the disease.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
The compensatory
mechanisms resulting from reduced cardiac output cause increased
secretion of vasoconstrictor and volume regulating hormones:
catecholamines, renin-angiotensin-aldosterone, and anti-diuretics.
Catecholamine and aldosterone secretion is increased by underlying Mg
deficiency - which is increased by both diuretic and digitalis
therapy, which further stimulate the neurohormones. Loss of K and Mg,
caused by diuretics and aldosterone, increases arrhythmias, which are
intensified by angiotensin's stimulation of aldosterone secretion and
potentiation of the sympathetic nervous system.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
Correction of
secondary aldosterone- and treatment-induced losses of both K and Mg
is responsible for the favorable immediate response of heart failure
patients with digitalis arrhythmias. When both cations are deficient,
repletion of Mg is necessary for the repair of Mg and K tissue levels
and the dysrhythmias. Infusion of K before Mg infusion had a much
weaker anti-arrhythmic effect than did Mg infusion alone; in several
patients, the K infusion actually caused more ectopic beats, that
were largely corrected by the Mg infusion.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The<i> Magnesium Online Library</i>
contains a wealth of material about dietary magnesium deficiency
written by Dr. Seelig.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One wonders why this research has not
made its way into the conventional medical establishment or, if it
has, why it is being ignored. Cardiologist James Roberts, M.D.
proposes an answer:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
...politics, money,
and training. Major medical research is funded by drug companies…
Nutritional therapies do not move the revenue needle for hospitals,
doctors, research institutions, or the drug companies. And… doctors
have not been well trained in biochemistry….</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
...doctors do not
want to be known as “vitamin doctors.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
...they use the
“lack of science” argument when discussing nutritional therapies.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
The orthodox
medical community is ten years behind in this area of research…</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
Nutritional science
provides answers to many lingering questions in medicine. It’s the
difference between natural science and the man-made science of drug
therapy.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Dr. Robert’s comments appear in the
Introduction to <i>The Sinatra Solution: Metabolic Cardiology</i> by
Stephen Sinatra, M.D. Dr. Sinatra’s “Solution” includes dietary
supplementation with CoQ10, magnesium, ribose (the five-carbon sugar
found in ATP), and carnitine.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Carnitine is an amino acid-like
metabolite made in the human body from the two essential amino acids
methionine and lysine. Carnitine is important as a transporter of
long chain fatty acids into the mitochondria of cells where they can
be used to produce energy in the form of ATP.<br />
<br />
The March 1990 <i>American Journal of Cardiology</i> contains an article titled "Defective myocardial carnitine metabolism in congestive heart failure secondary to dilated cardiomyopathy and to coronary, hypertensive and valvular heart diseases" (doi: 10.1016/0002-9149(90)91383-H) says<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...total myocardial carnitine was significantly reduced in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy... and CHF.... Alterations in myocardial caritine metabolism represent nonspecific biochemical markers in CHF with yet unknown consequences for myocardial function.</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Reduced myocardial carnitine may result
in reduced oxidation of fatty acids for energy production and a
reversion to glucose metabolism in glycolysis, which, as noted above,
is the case in heart failure.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Carnitine is most abundant in heart and
skeletal muscle. Because of heart muscle’s occasionally increased
requirement for energy, and carnitine’s function as a cofactor in
the metabolism of fatty acids to make eneregy, carnitine has been
studied as a treatment in heart failure. The conclusion of one study
(Pub Med ID10650325) reads: “L-carnitine appears to possess
considerable potential for the long-term treatment of patients with
heart failure attributable to dilated cardiomyopathy.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>have a heart</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Linus Pauling, Ph.D.’s ascorbic acid
research and promotion as a cure for cardiovascular disease is based
on the observation that the disease is a form of scurvy. Eventually,
Pauling added the amino acid lysine to his high-dose ascorbic acid
protocol, which became known as “Pauling Therapy”. It was
Pauling’s contention that lysine inhibits and even reverses the
build-up of atherosclerotic plaque, which is<i> the </i>predisposing
factor in cardiovascular disease. And, as mentioned above, lysine is
one of two essential amino acids required in the endogenous
production of carnitine. Pauling believed that his protocol could
“...control cardiovascular disease, heart attacks and strokes…”
and even cure it. (<a href="http://www.paulingtherapy.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><u>www.paulingtherapy.com</u></span></a>).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Pauling and colleague Matthias Rath,
M.D., developed the “Unified Theory of Human Cardiovascular
Disease” in 1989. Their scientific paper on the subject, “A
Unified Theory of Human Cardiovascular Disease Leading the Way to the
Abolition of This Disease as a Cause for Human Mortality,”
initially was accepted for publication by the National Academy of
Sciences but was never published (<a href="http://www.paulingtherapy.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc;"><u>www.paulingtherapy.com</u></span></a>).
In spite of the fact that there is abundant research that supports
Pauling’s hypothesis, it has not been tested.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In 1985 a paper published in <i>The
Journal of Biological Chemistry</i> titled “Inhibition of Human
Leukocyte 3-Hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl Coenzyme A Reductase Activity by
Ascorbic Acid”, by Harwood and others, exploring the hypothesis
“...that marginal ascorbate deficiency may be a significant
contributing factor to development of hypercholesterolemia and
atherosclerosis in man,” found that ascorbic acid “...may be
important in the regulation of endogenous cholesterol synthesis in
man.” This paper proposes that ascorbic acid lowers cholesterol and
modulates its synthesis in the body by decreasing the activity of
HMG-CoA reductase non-competitively and that, reciprocally, low
vitamin C causes HMG-CoA reductase to increase its activity, thus
increasing cholesterol synthesis. Article authors propose that as
much as a 50% inhibition of human leukocyte HMG-CoA reductase is
possible with ascorbic acid, based on their model. They discovered
further that ascorbic acid’s ability to act on HMG-CoA reductase is
potentiated by endogenous glutathione, and that ascorbic acid
promotes the biosynthesis of CoQ10.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Most animals produce ascorbic acid
endogenously. A few animals, including some apes, the guinea pig, a
kind of bat, and humans, do not. Cardiovascular disease occurs only
in the animals that do not have endogenous production of ascorbic
acid. Authorities say that an animal that weighs 150 lbs
biosynthesizes 12 to 13 grams of ascorbic acid daily, and more when
stressed.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As good as it was, Pauling’s theory
concerning heart disease, and his and Rath’s “Unified Theory”
paper did not appear at a good time. By then Merck was marketing its
lovastatin Mevacor, the “lipid hypothesis” of heart disease had
become established (though still controversial), and the<i> National
Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s</i> “1984 Coronary Primary
Prevention Trial” was published in the <i>Journal of the American
Medical Association</i> (doi: 10.1001/jama.1984.03340270029025)
purportedly demonstrating the heart health benefits of lowering blood
cholesterol. (The substance used in this study was not a statin,
however, but the drug cholestyramine that binds bile in the intestine
for excretion.)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the mid 1960’s the <i>National
Heart, Lung and Blood Institute</i>, a division of the<i> National
Institutes of Health</i>, began exploring the development of a
“permanently implantable artificial heart to replace the ailing
natural heart.” This seems a macabre idea but the bioengineers
believed they could design mechanical pumps and control systems to do
what the natural heart does. The first “successful” heart
transplant was performed in 1982 on a dentist with heart failure. He
lived for 112 days but with additional surgeries, complications from
bleeding, and mental confusion. He asked to die on several occasions
(celebrities.healthdiaries.com). Wikipedia says that “A synthetic
replacement for the heart remains one of the long-sought ‘holy
grails’ of modern medicine.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>openhearted</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Canadian psychiatrist Abram Hoffer,
M.D., who used large doses of niacin in his treatment of
schizophrenia and alcoholism, discovered that the vitamin also had a
beneficial effect on blood cholesterol: it lowered total cholesterol
and raised HDL, the “good” cholesterol. In the 1980’s the Mayo
Clinic confirmed niacin’s beneficial effect and it was approved by
the FDA for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Before earning a medical degree, Hoffer
was a biochemist studying the niacin content in wheat. But he
abandoned agricultural research after developing an interest in
medicine and eventually in psychosomatic medicine and psychiatry. In
the early 1950’s, Hoffer realised his ideal: combining biochemistry
and psychiatry in research.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
By 1952 Hoffer identified schizophrenia
as “the most important single problem”. Half of mental hospital
beds in Canada, he said, were occupied by schizophrenics, and one
quarter of all hospital beds in the country at that time were
occupied by schizophrenics. As a doctor with a background in
biochemistry, especially in niacin and the other B vitamins, it was
natural for Hoffer to explore the biological basis of this disease.
Unfortunately, psychoanalysis and other forms of “talk” therapy
had become very popular in psychiatry, making it difficult for Dr.
Hoffer and colleagues to communicate their discoveries.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Dr. Hoffer’s research into the
effects of adrenal hormones on cognitive function is especially
important. He found that the oxidized form of adrenalin,
adrenochrome, and related neuro-hormones, possess psychoactive
properties and could cause hallucinations and psychoses. Known as the
“Adrenochrome Theory of Schizophrenia” Dr. Hoffer explained it
this way:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
...schizophrenia
arose in an individual when too much adrenochrome was formed, that
adrenochrome then interfered with brain function as would LSD, and
that created the essential stage for the formation of schizophrenia.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Not only is adrenochrome toxic to
neurons, Hoffer demonstrated its toxicity to heart tissue:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
Adrenochrome is
toxic to myocardial tissue and may be responsible for fibrillation
and sudden death under stress. Myocardial tissue is very high in the
enzyme which oxidizes adrenalin to adrenochrome.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
He discovered that ascorbic acid and
glutathione can reduce, that is, neutralize adrenochrome. Dr. Hoffer
recommended that people with Parkinson’s disease take niacin
because “...it protects brain tissue against some of the toxic
effects of adrenochrome…” and that “niacin could prevent the
excessive formation of adrenochrome on myocardial tissue…”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
(From “Dopamine, Noradrenalin and
Adrenalin Metabolism…” 1985, by Abram Hoffer, M.D.-Ph.D at
orthomolecular.org).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
The aminochromes
undoubtedly are involved in almost every reaction in which
catecholamines play a part. <span style="font-size: small;"> </span>A vast new area has
now opened for physiological and bio-chemical research. Thus, Ganguly
(1989) and Ganguly, Beamish and Dhalla (1989) state “...oxidation
products of catecholamines, such as adrenochrome, rather than
catecholamines per se, may be involved in catecholamine-induced
myocardial cell damage. Previous studies have revealed that
adrenochrome is capable of inducing coronary spasm, arrhythmias,
ultrastructural changes and ventricular dysfunction.” They suggest
damage caused by pheochromocytomas is due to adrenochrome. Extra
adrenaline is oxidized when other mechanisms for inactivating
catecholamines are saturated.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Colleague John Smythies reported in
2002 that there is evidence “...that the gene for the enzyme
glutathioneS-transferase is defective in schizophrenics. This enzyme
detoxifies adrenochrome” (doi: 10.1080/10298420290015827).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Trying to explain why the adrenochrome
hypothesis and the orthomolecular approach to schizophrenia and other
diseases was not explored by his contemporaries, Hoffer proposed
another theory: “There is the enormous risk one might have to
change one’s mind.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As a biochemist studying niacin, Hoffer
was familiar with the niacin deficiency disease pellagra. Known as
having symptoms called “The 4 D’s”, diarrhea, dermatitis,
dementia, and death, it is caused by a chronic dietary deficiency of
the B vitamin niacin. Other factors may include tryptophan or lysine
deficiency, or a leucine excess. Tryptophan, lysine, and leucine are
essential amino acids.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>brokenhearted</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
An excellent article by Alfred Jay
Bollet, M.D. appearing in the<i> Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine</i>
65 (1992), 211-221, titled “Politics and Pellagra: The Epidemic of
Pellagra in the U.S. in the Early Twentieth Century”, summarized
here, refreshes our historical perspective on a serious disease and
the politics of medicine.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A nutritional wasting disease, pellagra
was epidemic in the United States in the early 20th century,
especially in the southern states where corn was a staple food. A
“First National Conference on Pellagra” in South Carolina in 1908
initiated the “pellagra scare” and “pellagraphobia”. Rarely
observed in the U.S. prior to the early 1900’s, a precipitating
factor in the epidemic was the mechanized degermination of corn by
the Beall degerminator introduced during the first decade (Bollet).
This new industrial method of degerminating corn, while increasing
the stability of cornmeal for storage and transport, removed the corn
germ, which contains enzymes, fats, and niacin, thus reducing its
nutritional value. An analogous phenomenon caused the beriberi
epidemic in Asia in the late 19th century: a new method of milling
rice removed the husk, which contains the essential B vitamin
thiamin. That milling process was intended to improve rice’s shelf
life.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In fact, biochemical researcher Casimir
Funk, who identified husk-milling as causal in thiamin deficiency
beriberi, proposed in 1913 that the new corn milling technology
affected its nutritional value and was responsible for pellagra.
Unfortunately for the many people who later died from pellagra
(conservatively estimated at 27,648 between 1915 and 1925; Bollet),
Funk’s observation was ignored. The reason Funk’s observation,
and that of others, was ignored provides a revealing look into the
politics of medical science, then and now.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
By 1912 Funk proposed that many common
diseases blamed on infectious microorganisms or food intoxication
were due to nutritional deficiencies. By this time, however, the
magic bullet concept of Ehrlich and the germ theory of Koch had
become very popular, obscuring the less exciting science of
nutritional factors in food, factors necessary to prevent common
diseases and promote health. This refusal to consider nutritional
factors had dramatic consequences. By some estimates, between 1906
and 1940, which was the period of the epidemic, there were about
3,000,000 reported cases and 100,000 deaths due to pellagra. And
these figures do not include statistics from 4 southern states whose
officials refused to report but that were known to have had a high
incidence of the disease (Bollet).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The rate at which pellagra became an
epidemic convinced epidemiologists that an infectious agent was to
blame. This idea was accepted readily by doctors and officials in the
affected states whose view may have been obscured by cultural values.
Considered a social stigma associated with poverty and race, the
epidemic was an embarrassment to local politicians and an insult to
“Southern pride”. Many doctors ignored the problem even when the
Surgeon General of the Public Health Service declared that pellagra
was becoming a “national calamity”. Assigned to finding the
infectious agent and possibly its insect vector, a commission was
established in South Carolina. Not surprisingly, the commission found
no relationship between diet and the disease but identified
unsanitary living conditions as the cause. “... it was more
acceptable for it to be considered infectious than a direct result of
poverty” (Bollet).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Joseph Goldberger, M.D., whose letter
to the Surgeon General identified a relationship between poverty,
poor diet, and pellagra, was appointed to study the epidemic in 1914.
He had had significant experience in epidemiology but, an immigrant
from New York, he did not receive the hospitality by which
Southerners usually were known. Coupled with worsening economic
conditions and still stinging from the loss of their agrarian
lifestyle at the hands of the industrial North, Southerner’s
sensibilities contributed to Goldberger’s uphill battle. On several
occasions he demonstrated that pellagra could be reversed within days
by feeding pellagrins a varied diet that included meat, milk, and
fresh vegetables, and that the disease could be induced by feeding
healthy subjects a restricted corn-based diet. Still, doctors were
unimpressed. Goldberger died in 1927 before the anti-pellagra factor
in food could be identified.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In 1937 nutritional biochemist C.A.
Elvehjem at the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, University of
Wisconsin, isolated from meat and yeast an antipellagra factor, which
he called vitamin G in honor of Goldberger. In 1938 Tom Spies, M.D.
identified the antipellagra factor as nicotinic acid, also called
niacin and vitamin B-3. Spies received recognition from the American
Medical Association for his nutritional research on pellagra and a
disease called tropical sprue, which he treated successfully with the
B vitamin folic acid.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In 1949 William Kaufman, M.D., Ph.D.,
published<i> The Common Form of Joint Dysfunction</i> based on his
clinical studies with niacinamide deficiency disease, which he called
“aniacinamidosis” and whose symptoms were similar to those of
pellagra. Kaufman observed that patients with aniacinamidosis and
arthritis responded to niacinamide therapy and regressed when
niacinamide was removed from therapy.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In 1952, having earned a Ph.D. in
biochemistry researching niacin in grains and an M.D. with an
interest in psychosomatic medicine, Abram Hoffer, with Humphrey
Osmond, M.D., began an investigation into schizophrenia. It is
noteworthy that, according to Bollet, in 1906 a doctor in a mental
hospital in Alabama identified 88 cases of pellagra “with a
mortality rate of of 64 percent”. Orphanages, prisons, and mental
hospitals seemed to have higher concentrations of people with the
disease, though it was found also in the general population. Hoffer’s
observations, that the hospitals and especially the mental hospitals
in Canada in the early 1950’s, were highly populated with
schizophrenics, echoes the 1906 observation. Moreover, though
pellagra is associated with the “4 D’s”, Hoffer, as well as
other doctors, suggest that the disease onset involves the nervous
system, cognitive function, and emotional disturbances
(aggressiveness, anxiety, ataxia, confusion, hypersensitivity, and so
on). Certainly, poor nutrition is a predisposing factor for many
diseases, including pellagra. However, it’s likely that many
institutionalized people, in 1906 and today, suffer a “pre-pellagra”
or a “non-dermatitis pellagra” even before being subjected to
non-nutritious institution food. They will never recover from their
B-3 “dependency” though their diets may provide enough
nutritional factors to prevent the diagnosis of pellagra.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If vitamin B-3 is even moderately
effective in treating aggression, anxiety, ataxia, and other nervous
system symptoms of imbalance, we owe it to inmates in the overcrowded
prisons and to the homeless people on the street to give it a try.
Andrew Saul discusses vitamin B-3 for mental illness and other health
problems on mercola.com, October 21, 2012.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>... men’s hearts will fail from
fear...</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
According to Decherd and Visscher, in
1927</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
Starling and
Visscher found that adrenalin, although it caused a great increase in
total energy liberation, produced a marked lowering of efficiency and
therefore left the heart in worse condition than it had been before.
Although temporarily stimulating to energy liberation by the heart,
adrenalin eventually leaves the heart muscle less efficient and must
therefore frequently be very harmful to a weakened myocardium.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In <i>Circulation</i> in 1986
(PMID3510777) an article titled “Milrinone for long-term therapy of
severe heart failure…” researchers testing milrinone on subjects
with severe heart failure found that 25 of 37 patients reported
“substantial improvement in well-being”. However, 24 of the 37
subjects died, either of sudden death or worsening heart failure. And
they report that “...long-term therapy with milrinone appears to
improve functional status without eliciting overt clinical adverse
reactions. However, the possibility that milrinone might have
contributed to the high mortality noted during this therapeutic trial
cannot be excluded.” In other words, it’s a good drug but may
have death as a side effect.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A<i> </i>1991 <i>New England Journal of
Medicine</i> article detailing research in which patients with severe
heart failure were administered milrinone (doi:
10.1056/NEJM199111213252103) concluded,</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
that despite its
beneficial hemodynamic actions, long-term therapy with oral milrinone
increases the morbidity and mortality of patients with severe chronic
heart failure.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In this research, milrinone “was
associated with a 28 percent increase in mortality from all
causes”... and “...a 34 percent increase in cardiovascular
mortality…” which increased to 53 percent for those “patients
with the most severe symptoms”. Milrinone is still prescribed for
patients diagnosed with heart failure in spite of this project’s
findings that include no beneficial effects and “serious adverse
cardiovascular reactions…”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In discussing heart muscle function, an
inotrope is a substance that changes the force of the heart’s
contraction. A positive inotrope, such as milrinone in the above
research, increases the force of the heart’s contraction and in so
doing increases intracellular calcium. Adrenalin, angiotensin,
amrinone, and milrinone are among the positive cardiac inotropes. In
spite of the Starling and Descher observation of the effect of
adrenalin on heart muscle, the abstract of the milrinone study says
“...the long-term effect of this type of positive inotropic agent
on the survival of patients with chronic heart failure has not been
determined.” However, a 1984 study of the positive inotrope
amrinone concluded that “Prolonged administration of inotropic
drugs may achieve short-term gains at the expense of long-term
detrimental effects on the myocardium.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Amrinone and milrinone are chemical
analogs, the latter a derivative of the former, and belong to the
class of positive inotropes whose action is to target and inhibit
phosphodiesterase in the heart. Research on the effect of these drugs
began in about 1980 shortly after drug company Sterling-Winthrop
invented and patented amrinone. Numerous studies in the 1980’s,
some supported by Sterling-Winthrop and mostly equivocal, found
beneficial positive inotropic effects with amrinone and milrinone.
One amrinone researcher who did not arrive at the conclusions
favorable to Sterling-Winthrop, however, encountered resistance from
the drug company and from within the profession, in general, when he
tried to have his research published. British cardiologist Peter
Wilmshurst, M.D. was ignored, threatened, and then censored when his
research on amrinone did not match up to previous research and
Sterling-Winthrop’s expectations. When he tried to publicise the
“misconduct” in medical research that he’d discovered
subsequently, he had difficulty finding someone to listen, including
a high profile medical journal, industry regulators, and editors at
the Guardian newspaper (healthwatch-uk.org).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In 1992 a review in <i>Clinical
Cardiology</i> (16, 5-14) titled “Inotropic Therapy of the Failing
Myocardium” summarized that “...the phosphodiesterase inhibitors
- amrinone, milrinone, and enoximone - have demonstrated unacceptable
clinical side effects and have been withdrawn from further clinical
study.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But in January 2015 researchers in
China reported in <i>Basic and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology</i>
the results of their meta analysis:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
Despite advances in
modern medicine, the treatment of acute heart failure (AHF) after
acute myocardial infarction (AMI) remains challenging. Milrinone is
effective in the treatment of chronic congestive heart failure, but
its safety and efficacy in patients with AHF after AMI have not been
systematically evaluated.<br />
<br />
While studies to date are few and limited by small sample sizes and poor quality, they suggest that treatment with milrinone may be safe and effective for patients with AHF after AMI. However, this meta-analysis did not show that milrinone could improve prognosis or the survival rat.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
Maybe someday the numbers will come out right.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>my heart in my mouth</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Adrenalin, an endogenous positive
inotrope, is a biochemical mediator of the so-called
“fight-or-flight” reaction. This automatic reaction is in
response to a perceived threat to one’s being. The threat may or
may not be “real”, but it often is accompanied by fear (<i>Cognition
& Emotion</i>, Volume 13, Issue 2, 1999).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In response to the perceived threat,
adrenalin is secreted by the adrenal medulla into the bloodstream.
Some effects of this stimulation include increased heart rate,
increased respiratory rate, increased blood pressure by constriction
of blood vessels, an increase in blood fatty acids and glucose, and,
as it increases sympathetic nervous system activity, a decrease in
digestive and immune system functions. Strong sensory stimuli, such
as loud noises and bright lights, also will cause an increased
secretion of adrenalin.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Adrenalin is used medically to treat
anaphylactic shock and cardiac arrest.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Positive inotropes adrenalin,
milrinone, and amrinone do not have identical effects on the heart. A
net effect of these substances, however, is the same: they increase
the flow of calcium into heart muscle cells and thereby increase the
heart’s contraction.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The adrenal glands are located on top
of the kidneys. In addition to adrenalin, the adrenal glands produce
cortisol and aldosterone (which has its effect on the kidneys and the
cardiovascular system as noted above) and other steroidal hormones.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The “fight-or-flight” reaction was
first identified by physiologist Walter Cannon in the early 20th
century. Its effect is important for short-term survival when danger
presents. But if the reaction is prolonged, or if it becomes chronic,
and the body is not permitted to recover from its effects, the body’s
resources will be depleted and it will be unable to carry out many of
its normal functions. Hans Selye, M.D., in his 1956 classic <i>The
Stress of Life</i> identified three phases of the human body’s
response to stress, which he called the “general adaptation
syndrome” (GAS): alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. The final phase
of Selye’s GAS, exhaustion, may result in cardiovascular disease,
compromised immune function, diabetes, gastrointestinal disturbances,
kidney disease, and depression.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Selye suggested that we attend to our
internal, physiological state to become more aware of how stress
becomes distress, which may lead to exhaustion and disease. His list
of signs of distress that are “self-observable” includes
irritability, heart-pounding (indicative of high blood pressure),
impulsive behavior, emotional instability, increased thirst, fatigue,
insomnia, indigestion, and even neurosis or psychosis.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
For a culture such as ours in which
excitement, sensationalism, thrill-seeking, and the “adrenalin
rush” are desirable indicators of “fun”, attentive
self-modulation of the stress reaction may not be a popular activity.
Considering that many of us have a low fight-or-flight threshold as
it were built into our daily work and personal relationship
activities, chances are the suggestion would be met with confusion -
at best.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In 1975 Herbert Benson, M.D. published
results of research that he describes as “...the opposite of the
fight or flight response” in his book <i>The Relaxation Response</i>.
Benson describes the Relaxation Response as “ a physical state of
deep rest that changes the physical and emotional responses to
stress.” In the introduction to the 2000 edition of the book Benson
says,</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
Thirty-five years
ago, when I was a young cardiologist, I noticed a trend among my
patients with high blood pressure, or hypertension, a silent and
dangerous precursor of heart disease. Once I prescribed medications,
I noticed they often complained about fainting or becoming dizzy.
These were side effects of having their blood pressures lowered with
medications. Patients went from feeling fine to being burdened with
irritating and disabling side effects, all the result of medicine I
had prescribed.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
This troubled me.
It appeared that by following the standard treatment approach, I was
over-medicating patients - unleashing on otherwise symptomless people
maddening side effects from medications that they would be required
to take the rest of their lives.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
After being approached in the late
1960’s by Transcendental Meditation (TM) practitioners who said
they could lower their blood pressure intentionally, Benson’s
research uncovered the “Relaxation Response - an inducible,
physiologic state of quietude.” The more he learned about adrenalin
and stress the more he realized that they “...contributed to or
caused many more medical problems than Western medicine appreciated.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
In modern times,
the Relaxation Response is undoubtedly even more important to our
survival, since anxiety and tension often inappropriately trigger the
fight-or-flight response in us. Regular elicitation of the Relaxation
Response can prevent, and compensate for, the damage incurred by
frequent nervous reactions that pulse through our hearts and bodies.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Benson’s “Relaxation Response” is
a generic Western interpretation of Eastern meditation techniques.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
According to Hoffer, adrenochrome, the
oxidized form of adrenalin, is toxic to the brain and heart. If more
is made than can be metabolized serious brain dysfunction may result.
Although adrenalin oxidizes to adrenochrome spontaneously, an enzyme
that oxidizes adrenalin to adrenochrome is very high in heart tissue.
Toxic to heart muscle, adrenochrome “...may be responsible for
fibrillation and sudden death under stress” according to Hoffer.
Since adrenochrome inhibits cellular respiration and niacin is
necessary for many metabolic and cellular processes, Hoffer chose
niacin over other B complex vitamins for his research. He observed
that dementia in its early stages in pellagra resembled
schizophrenia. He believed that niacin “...relieves the body of the
pernicious effects of chronic stress…” and “...frees the body
to carry on its routine function of repairing itself more
efficiently. Vitamin B-3 is a specific antidote to adrenalin…”
(Vitamin B-3: Niacin and Its Amide, by A. Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D., at
doctoryourself.com).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>the heart of the matter</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
The desperate
disability of contemporary man to envisage an alternative to the
industrial aggression on the human condition is an integral part of
the curse from which he suffers. (Ivan Illich, “Medical Nemesis”,
doi: 10.1136/jech.57.12.010; first published in 1974 in the<i>
Lancet</i>).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Social philosopher and critic Ivan
Illich wrote in 1974 that the
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
...technically
unwarranted rise of medical prestige can only be explained as a
magical ritual for the achievement of goals which are beyond
technical and political reach.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Illich says that what he calls the
“Medical Nemesis”, which he defines as “the backlash of
progress” in medicine or the “inescapable cosmic retaliation”
for an industrial medicine that has ignored its limitations, is
difficult to verify or measure in a conventional way, but that the
“...intensity with which it is experienced depends on the
independence, vitality, and relatedness of each individual.” He
says,</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
Within the last
decade medical professional practice has become a major threat to
health. Depression, infection, disability, dysfunction, and other
specific iatrogenic diseases now cause more suffering than all
accidents from traffic or industry. Beyond this, medical practice
sponsors sickness by the reinforcement of a morbid society… the
so-called health-professions have an indirect sickening power - a
structurally health-denying effect.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Illich says that “Medical Nemesis”
is an aspect of a more general phenomenon he calls “industrial
Nemesis”, which is</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
the backlash of
institutionally structured industrial hubris. This hubris consists of
a disregard for the boundaries within which the human phenomenon
remains viable. Current research is overwhelmingly oriented towards
unattainable ‘breakthroughs’. What I have called counterfoil
research is the disciplined analysis of the levels at which such
reverberations must inevitably damage man.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
The indictment of
medicine as a form of institutional hubris exposes precisely those
personal illusions which make the critic dependent on health care.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
To the degree to
which he becomes dependent on the management of his intimacy he
renounces his autonomy and his health <i>must</i> decline.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
That society which
can reduce professional intervention to the minimum will provide the
best conditions for health.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>take it to heart</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Dr. William Conder. February 2015.</blockquote>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532471984503165704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6067710900459960707.post-36916272594787485982014-08-24T11:06:00.000-07:002014-08-24T11:06:12.583-07:00Drug Wars: Robin Williams<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Robin Williams' suicide death was
shocking and surprising, until his health problems were made public.
He'd been diagnosed with depression and Parkinson's disease in
addition to having had a history of alcoholism and recreational drug
abuse. And he had surgery in 2009 for a heart condition.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Just a month before Williams' death,
the health news was abuzz with condemnations of an essential nutrient
in the human diet: niacin. The drug company Merck was testing its
high-dose niacin to determine if it really was helpful to people with
heart disease. In the project, Merck researchers gave older adults
with advanced cardiovascular disease a drug “cocktail” that
included a statin, another cholesterol-lowering drug that works in
the intestine, a drug that was refused approval by the FDA – and
threw niacin in on top. When the research project didn't go as
planned, Merck halted it, saying that niacin was causing dangerous
side-effects and that, in general, it was harmful.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Merck's conclusion, however,
contradicts 60 years of research and clinical discovery that niacin
is the most effective, safest, and cheapest substance in the
treatment of cardiovascular disease. Canadian psychiatrist and
biochemist Abram Hoffer discovered niacin's cholesterol-lowering,
heart-health effects after he had been using it successfully in the
treatment of schizophrenia, depression, and alcoholism.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Hoffer, with a few others, discovered a
stress hormone that was associated with schizophrenic episodes and
theorized that in many cases mental illness was a biochemical
imbalance that could be corrected with high doses of niacin. His
research confirmed his theory. At the time, Hoffer thought he would
be praised for his discoveries. Instead, other shrinks, especially
those representing the American Psychiatric Association, did their
best to ignore, and even discredit, Hoffer's work.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Hoffer and Linus Pauling, Ph.D.,
collaborating with others, did research, wrote papers and books, and
established what they called orthomolecular medicine. Pauling, after
famous physiologist Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, the Nobel Prize winner who
discovered vitamin C, and the less well-known bio-chemist Irwin
Stone, Ph.D., promoted and popularized the use of high-dose ascorbic
acid. Pauling, however, met with substantial resistance, which
persists to this day, from the conventional nutrition and medical
establishments. Recently, a pediatrician who developed a vaccine for
a common “stomach flu” virus, called Pauling a “quack” for
recommending vitamin C for colds. This pediatrician's vaccine is
manufactured by Merck. Vitamin C is known to have potent anti-viral
activity. Pauling, a two-time Nobel Prize winner, is generally
regarded as one of the most important scientists in Western history.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Bill W., founder of Alcoholics
Anonymous, was treated successfully by Abram Hoffer for depression
and alcoholism. Hoffer treated 5000 schizophrenics with niacin. Many
of his case studies are remarkable. When asked how could something
simple like the vitamin niacin be so effective against so many
disease conditions, he would point to its essential importance in
hundreds of metabolic reactions in every moment in the human body.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Robin Williams' health history –
alcoholism, addiction, depression, heart disease, Parkinson's –
would have made him a perfect candidate for Hoffer's high-dose niacin
therapy. It's doubtful that Hoffer's approach was made available to
Williams, and there's no guarantee that it would have helped him. But
it is known that he was prescribed a “cocktail” of drugs,
probably the “best” drugs developed by the “best” drug
companies, by the “best” doctors money can buy. And it's known
that the prescription drugs Williams was taking can cause depression.
Friend and fellow comedian Rob Schneider clearly stated his opinion
in the days following Williams' death that the prescription drugs
caused Williams' suicidal depression.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In a 1996 article in which he discussed
the differences between the vitamins-as-prevention versus the
vitamins-as-treatment paradigms, Hoffer said, “The American
Psychiatric Association bears major responsibility for preventing the
introduction of a treatment which would have saved millions of
patients from the ravages of chronic schizophrenia.” He said that
the American Psychiatic Association had been “...captured by
tranquilizers.” Anti-psychotic drugs, prescribed for schizophrenia
and bi-polar disorder, netted $9.6 billion in 2004 and increased to
$18.5 billion by 2011.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
“Do not let either the medical
authorities or the politicians mislead you. Find out what the facts
are, and make your own decisions about how to lead a happy life and
how to work for a better world.” Linus Pauling</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
William Conder August 2014</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532471984503165704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6067710900459960707.post-88914615657385457832014-08-23T23:13:00.002-07:002014-08-23T23:13:57.965-07:00Drug Wars (short version)<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A July 2014 article in the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">New England Journal of Medicine</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (NEJM) discussed research that found niacin, which for 60 years was the best option for lowering cholesterol and improving cardiovascular health, was ineffective and that it may be dangerous in large doses.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Soon thereafter, the media, following </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">NEJM</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">’s lead, was awash in warnings with headlines like “New study finds niacin harmful for health” (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Utah People’s Post</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">), “Excessive niacin consumption is harmful, study says” (KTVW.com, San Francisco), and “The dangers of niacin” (NBC news).</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Niacin, a B-complex vitamin, is an essential nutrient in the human diet. A niacin deficiency causes pellagra whose symptoms include dermatitis, diarrhea, dementia, and death - the “4 D’s”. Niacin has been used without prescription as a nutritional supplement for decades, and in large doses in the treatment of cardiovascular disease and schizophrenia. It is safe and, except for skin flushing when used in larger doses, has no adverse side effects.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What happened?</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The research, funded by pharmaceutical company Merck, was designed to test the effects of its drug, Tredaptive, on test subjects’ cardiovascular parameters. Tredaptive contains 1000 milligrams of extended-release niacin in combination with the drug laropiprant.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Laropiprant is a drug that inhibits hormone-like substances in the body called prostaglandins, specifically the ones that mediate niacin’s flushing reaction. Since the harmless flushing reaction is uncomfortable for some, laropiprant was combined with high-dose niacin to improve test subject compliance.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">However, laropiprant has not been approved by the FDA. FDA’s reasons for non-approval have not been published, but some speculate that FDA was concerned about laropiprant’s safety. The Merck project was carried out in Europe.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The prostaglandins inhibited by laropiprant have several functions including causing blood vessels to relax. In other words, laropiprant makes it harder for blood vessels to relax. It’s this function, dilation or relaxing of blood vessels that niacin causes, that laropiprant inhibits.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the Merck study, test subjects - over 29,000 high-risk cardiovascular patients age 50 to 80 years whose cholesterol had been lowered as a preparatory measure by a statin drug or statin in combination with a drug called ezetimibe - were given Tredaptive, Merck’s extended-release, high-dose niacin with laropiprant.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ezetimibe is a drug that prevents absorption from the intestine of cholesterol in the diet. Though ezetimibe is an FDA-approved drug it, too, is controversial. Ezetimibe is effective at lowering cholesterol, but it has no effect in reducing atherosclerotic plaque that accumulates in arteries, and it’s associated with an increase in cardiovascular disease parameters. In fact, in a different study, a “paradoxical increase” in carotid plaque was found in patients who had the greatest reduction in cholesterol using ezetimibe. Results of research supported by pharmaceutical company Abbott published in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">NEJM</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in November 2009, using Abbott’s mega-dose, extended-release niacin (without laropiprant) found “[M]ajor cardiovascular events occurred at a significantly higher incidence in the ezetimibe group…” They concluded that their study “...demonstrates the superiority of extended-release niacin over ezetimibe when combined with statin therapy.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Statin drugs lower cholesterol by inhibiting an enzyme in an important metabolic pathway. Cholesterol is the precursor of critical stress and sex hormones and vitamin D. Though statins are considered safe they are known to have side effects, including muscle pain and weakness, diabetes, sexual dysfunction, cognitive loss, neuropathy, and others. Further, it’s recognized that statins’ side-effects can be potentiated when used in combination with other cholesterol lowering drugs - ezetimibe, for example.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Statins earn drug companies billions of dollars a year. Merck’s Vytorin, the combination simvastatin and ezetimibe, and its Zetia, which is its ezetimibe alone, earned $4.6 billion in 2008.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We must question the quality of the journalism that reported Merck’s study and the credibility of Merck’s interpretation of its own results. Test subjects were older people with serious cardiovascular disease. To lower cholesterol in preparation for the study, test subjects were administered a statin drug, which inhibits an important metabolic pathway and can cause complicating side-effects. In combination with the statin, some test subjects were given a drug that has been shown to contribute to cardiovascular events even though it lowers cholesterol. Finally, test subjects were administered another drug, the test drug Tredaptive, that is a combination of a substance - not approved by the FDA - that inhibits another important metabolic pathway and whose effect is to limit the ability of arteries to relax, and the essential nutrient niacin in an extended-release mega dose.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The conclusion reported by Merck and the media was that niacin is harmful. But as it goes with drug wars, because the stakes are so high it’s hard to know what the truth is.</span></span></div>
<span style="color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">William Conder, August 2014.</span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532471984503165704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6067710900459960707.post-41135990866775416552014-07-07T14:20:00.000-07:002014-07-07T14:20:14.697-07:00Well Done<div align="CENTER" style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid; widows: 4;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to
all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory,
and a sterner sense of justice than we do. </i>Wendell Berry</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One of the more controversial issues in Colorado, and the United
States, is the development of natural gas resources by hydraulic
fracturing, commonly called fracking. Recently an oil and gas
industry lawyer said that Colorado “has become an epicenter in the
national debate over hydraulic fracturing”. Polling conducted in
2013 by a group at a Texas state university found that “oil and gas
is the most negatively perceived industry in the U.S.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In Colorado, Garfield County’s contribution to the controversy is significant.
Locally, leases for natural gas development in the Thompson Divide
area and the growing and on-going drilling for natural gas along the
Colorado River basin from New Castle to beyond Parachute have been
most newsworthy. The issue is complex, includes the whole fossil fuel
industry, and involves several areas of cultural interaction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Fracking”, that is, hydraulic fracturing, refers specifically to
a technique in the initial process of drilling gas wells that
involves injecting water, sand, and chemicals under high pressure
into a drilled well’s horizontal section to fracture the shale or
other rock layers that contain natural gas in an attempt to release
the gas. Sometimes “fracking” is used more casually, however, in
reference to the whole development of a gas well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">environmental impact</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As reported in the April 14, 2014 <i>Post Independent</i>, “The BLM is
conducting an Environmental Impact Statement to address deficiencies
that were identified by the Interior Board of Land Appeals in a 1993
Forest Service EIS that was used as the basis for issuing the leases
across an area extending from the embattled Thompson Divide region
southwest of Glenwood Springs to an area just east of De Beque.”
And the Bureau of Land Management is staging a series of local
meeting and a scoping period “...to give the public a chance to
tell the BLM what issues and concerns they think should be addressed
in the EIS.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The April 14 article continues, “The federal review includes 25
leases in the rugged Thompson Divide area, where conservation groups
and local governments have opposed the recent extension of leases
held by a handful of energy companies that want to drill for natural
gas in the area.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">An April 21, 2014 <i>Post Independent</i> article by John Stroud, “City
signs follow-up appeal on Thompson Divide lease decision”, says,
“Three Roaring Fork Valley governments are continuing their appeal
of Bureau of Land Management decision last month to extend several
gas leases in the Thompson Divide area that were due to expire, even
as the agency takes a new look at the original decision to issue the
leases.” BLM area director Steve Bennett suspended the expiration
of 25 leases issued in 2003 for the “development” of this area of
Garfield County for natural gas production.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">According to a lawyer for neighboring Pitkin County and one for the Western Colorado conservation watchdog Wilderness
Workshop, the 2003 leases were issued illegally, which has been
acknowledged by BLM.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Field manager for the local BLM, whose office is located in the heart
of fracking country, articulated the goal as “...to provide the
public opportunities to have their questions answered and to provide
specific, effective comments.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Representatives from Colorado's Western Slope oil and gas industry are
opposed to a Thompson Divide moratorium or any hesitation in issuing
drilling leases anywhere.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A report <span style="color: #1155cc;"><u><a href="http://www.gao.gov/assets/670663121.txt)">(</a><a href="http://www.gao.gov/assets/670663121.txt)">www</a><a href="http://www.gao.gov/assets/670663121.txt)">.</a><a href="http://www.gao.gov/assets/670663121.txt)">gao</a><a href="http://www.gao.gov/assets/670663121.txt)">.</a><a href="http://www.gao.gov/assets/670663121.txt)">gov</a><a href="http://www.gao.gov/assets/670663121.txt)">/</a><a href="http://www.gao.gov/assets/670663121.txt)">assets</a><a href="http://www.gao.gov/assets/670663121.txt)">/670663121.</a><a href="http://www.gao.gov/assets/670663121.txt)">txt</a><a href="http://www.gao.gov/assets/670663121.txt)">)</a></u></span>
by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released May 12, 2014
says</span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">BLM has not followed Interior's guidance to routinely review rules
and update them consistently along with technological advances. As a
result, some of BLM's rules and guidance governing oil and gas
development have not kept pace with technological advancements, such
as its guidance on well spacing, which, among other things,
determines how to maximize oil and gas production from a formation.
Improper spacing guidance could lead to lower levels of oil and gas
production and, therefore, less revenue for the federal
government and tribes. In addition, BLM has not developed formal
agreements to improve coordination with state regulatory agencies, as
called for in its internal guidance. As a result, BLM and state
agency officials told GAO that agencies conduct duplicative
inspections of some wells, while leaving other wells uninspected.</span></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This latest report says “In September 2012, we reported that oil
and gas development poses a risk to water quality from
contamination of surface water and groundwater as a result of spills
and releases of produced water, chemicals, and drill cuttings;
erosion from ground disturbances; or, underground migration of gases
and chemicals.” Some states including Colorado, it says, have
revised its rules for groundwater sampling and monitoring. This
report says, “In September 2012, we reported that oil and gas
development poses risks to air quality, generally as a result of
engine exhaust from increased truck traffic, emissions from
diesel-powered pumps used to power equipment, gas that is flared
or vented for operational reasons, and unintentional emissions of
pollutants from faulty equipment.” Again, it mentioned Colorado’s
efforts to correct potential problems in these areas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">However, BLM’s scorecard still is not good. GAO says:</span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The effectiveness of BLM's management and oversight of federal and
Indian oil and gas resources is hindered by the following five
factors: (1) outdated BLM rules and guidance, (2) limited formal
coordination between BLM and state regulatory agencies on
inspections, (3) incomplete BLM inspections and limited oversight of
inspection activities, (4) incomplete data on onshore oil and gas
resources and drilling activities, and (5) BLM delays reviewing
communitization agreements.</span></blockquote>
</div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">...more than 2,100 of the 3,702 wells that were identified as high
priority in BLM's AFMS database and drilled from fiscal year
2009 through fiscal year 2012 were not inspected. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The extent to which BLM has conducted inspections of high-priority
wells, as called for by its internal guidance, is not known because
BLM's AFMSS database is missing key data. Without these data, the
extent to which the agency inspects high-priority wells is not known.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But the report stresses the basic assumption that “BLM's inspection
program is fundamental to ensuring sound oil and gas operations”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In 2010 GAO found that the Department of the Interior’s “oversight
of the roughly 700 million subsurface acres for which the federal
government holds mineral rights…” had “...a range of
weaknesses.” In 2011, GAO said “added Interior’s programs [are]
at high risk of waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement or in need of
broad reform.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ironically, the causes of some of BLM’s problems in its oversight
of the wealthy oil and gas industry is its limited funding and
limited staff. “[T]he dramatic increase in domestic oil and gas
development has exacerbated BLM's long-standing challenges hiring and
retaining staff needed to ensure effective oversight of oil and gas
activities.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The GAO report is a must-read for all concerned citizens because...</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">...as of May 2014 there are 10,694 active oil and gas wells in
Garfield County and 52,049 active oil and gas wells in the state of
Colorado, according to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation
Commission (COGCC). In Colorado only Weld County with 21,214 wells
has more wells than Garfield County. There are over 493,000 active
gas wells in 31 states in the U.S. as of 2009. (Many more have been
drilled since then.) About 90% of these wells have been fracked.
About 15.3 million people in only 11 natural gas producing states
live within 1 mile of a natural gas well. According to an October
2013 <i>Wall Street Journal</i> article, in Johnson County, Texas 99.5% of
its 150,000 residents live within 1 mile of one of the county’s
3900 wells. In 2000 there were less than 20 wells in Johnson County.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(Note: While BLM has struggled with budget cuts, the fossil fuel
industry has received tax breaks - for about a hundred years. Since
1916, according to Kroll, Gilson, and Park at <i>Mother Jones</i>,
the federal government has given the oil and gas industry $470
billion in tax breaks. Currently it’s about $4.8 billion per year.
And about one-half of that $4.8 billion goes to Exxon, BP, Shell,
Chevron, and Conoco. Exxon and BP, as discussed below, are among the
top 5 entities world-wide responsible for generating atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub>
and methane.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(As for methane, in 1977 the federal government funded the
development of the technology we would come to call fracking. Then it
established tax incentives to support the industry’s $283 billion
per year boom. In this sense, fracking has been financed by
taxpayers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(But with 796 lobbyists, 60% of whom are ex-congress members and
staffers, and deep pockets - in the last 15 years, the oil and gas
industry has spent $1.4 billion in lobbying and, since 1990, $357
million in campaign donations - oil and gas has the “affluence to
influence”.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">explosive growth</span></i></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On April 23, 2014 an explosion at a natural gas processing plant in
Opal, Wyoming caused authorities to evacuate the 95 or so local
inhabitants. Amazingly, no one was killed or injured. The plant is
operated by Williams of Tulsa, Oklahoma.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Williams operates the Northwest Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline, and
Opal is a major hub. Opal is where regional gas-pricing is
determined.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On March 31 of this year, an explosion along the Northwest pipeline
near Plymouth, Washington injured 5 and caused the evacuation of
local residents. It was a powerful blast that sent shrapnel flying -
one piece penetrated the exterior wall of a nearby storage tank.
According to Reuters, the explosion “...sprayed chunks of shrapnel
as heavy as 250 pounds as far as 300 yards.” Williams operates the
Northwest Pipeline and the facility at Plymouth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On January 3, 2013 a leak in a natural gas pipeline along Parachute
Creek near Parachute, Colorado was discovered. A pressure gauge was
replaced and the pipeline was put back into service. However, neither
authorities nor local residents were notified of the leak until
March. Subsequently, it was determined that the leak had begun on
December 20, 2012. Note that in spite of all the technological
precautions and industry and government oversight, the leak was
discovered <i>accidentally</i>. By the end of August 2013 almost 8000
gallons of hydrocarbons and 369,000 gallons of contaminated water had
been extracted from the leak and 1700 tons of contaminated soil had
been removed and disposed. The leak created a 10.6 acre plume that
contained benzene, toluene, hexane, and other chemicals. The
Parachute Creek facility is operated by Williams. According to a
March 18, 2013 report in the Denver Post:</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A cattleman who runs a herd along the creek said such spills are
common and often remain secret. State records show the oil-and-gas
industry causes hundreds of toxic spills each year and that water
often is contaminated. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It is among the worst of recent spills reported in a part of western
Colorado traditionally known for fruit orchards and green pastures —
now home to what are meant to be heavily regulated industrial
facilities. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"I've had to accept it," said cattleman Rick Bumgardner,
whose 200 cows graze along Parachute Creek. His family homesteaded in
the area. Over the past year, a leak from a storage tank and another
from a gas compressor station affected his cattle operations,
Bumgardner said. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"If I had my choice, I'd just as soon be someplace away from
here, but I guess I couldn't afford it," he said. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Nobody notified him about this spill or the others, he said. Oil and
gas companies "try to beat it back, hope nobody finds them.
That's the way they operate."</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC)
Matt Lepore, speaking in March 2013 to Pitkin County Commissioners
about the Parachute Creek spill, said that things go wrong in natural
gas production as in any other industrial process. “There are
spills. There are accidents. Nobody is happy about this, including
the operators…” Pitkin Commissioners - among others - expressed
concern that the industry, in this case Williams, was policing
itself.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In July 2013, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) fined a Williams company (Bogarth) and 2 other employers over
$27,000 for failing to provide adequate respirators for workers they
sent into the Parachute spill area to clean it up. The companies also
did not advise these workers of the kinds of materials to which they
would be exposed. In 2004 Williams was fined by COGCC for a fire that
burned out of control at a well near Parachute. In 2003 Williams and
Encana paid a $20 million settlement over claims that they had
reported false data in an attempt to manipulate U.S. gas prices.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">These are not Williams’ only violations - the list of violations
and fines is substantial - and Williams is not the only oil and gas
industry company that has been fined for violations and incidents.
Still industry spokesmen and government regulators insist that
incidents involving the oil and gas industry are “rare”. A web
search, however, shows just how common they are and that, in spite of
new technology and tighter regulations, they continue to happen.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">playing with fire</span></i></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In April 2014 a 12 inch gas pipeline owned by Williams exploded and
burst into flames in Marshall County West Virginia. Six homes were
evacuated, 2 acres of trees were scorched, and a county road was
closed as a result. There were no injuries reported and Williams was
not fined. The explosion occurred near a construction site where
Williams is building a natural gas refinery. From a local news source
interview with a local resident discussing the explosion and
Williams’ plans for the area:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"There's a lot of subsidence here. A lot of mining went on in this area, long walling, he said. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Oak Grove plant has been under construction for several months. That's the same location where a 510,000 pound, 41-yard-long de-ethanizer was transported last week. The super load stalled traffic during its transport. Williams Energy will eventually refine ethane from natural gas coming out of the Marcellus and Utica shales at the plant. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Marshall County economy has benefitted from the Marcellus shale play but Dobbs admits it comes with a cost. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"It's very stressful and then have stuff like this in your backyard going on," he said. "I don't know what the chemicals are that burned off. What's in the air? Is that going to bother us? I don't know."</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Longwalling” is a term that applies to a method of underground
coal mining.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In February 2014 in rural Knifely, Kentucky a Columbia gas pipeline
explosion and fire in the middle of the night placed the local county
in a state of emergency, caused the evacuation of the town of 150,
sent two people to the hospital, destroyed two homes and rocked the
foundations of several others, and burned 5 vehicles and 2 barns. The
explosion left a crater 60 feet deep and 50 feet wide. According to a
local resident:</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"All the sudden, the house shook and everything lit up like
daylight, so we ran to the window and looked out and all we saw was
this big ball of fire," said Bill Kingdollar, who lives about a
quarter-mile from the blast site.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">He said what happened early Thursday is like nothing he’s
experienced before.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"It looked like a war zone. I’ve never seen anything like
that. I’ve told you I spent 20 years in the military and I’ve
never seen a fireball or anything like that. It was the craziest
thing I’ve ever seen. Everything shook. The ground shook. The
windows shook. Everything was shaking, including me, because you
don’t know what’s going on," Kingdollar said.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">An explosion at a Williams’ processing facility in Geismar near
Baton Rouge, Louisiana in June 2013 killed two and injured 114.
According to a Williams spokesman, the explosion was caused by a
rupture in a heat exchanger that released vapor that was ignited by
“an unknown source.” He said that plans had been underway to
expand the facility to increase production by 50%. Over 2 weeks after
the explosion the Williams facility still was too dangerous for
investigators to enter. A Louisiana senator who lived 5 miles from
the Williams plant and who was at home at the time of the explosion
said that it felt like an earthquake. The explosion released 31,187
pounds of volatile chemicals, according to one “conservative”
estimate, and the water used in putting out the fire, which became
toxic wastewater, escaped the site, violating a permit granted the
company for wastewater discharge. In a public statement after the
accident Williams president and CEO said, among other things, that
his company had ‘a solid safety record.” Reports from a local
newspaper, however, show that the plant experienced leaks in 2008,
2009, 2010, and 2012 in addition to the 2013 leak and explosion.
According to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality,
Williams had a history of not complying with safety regulations.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In January 2014, after completing its investigation, the U.S.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited Williams
for six workplace violations of safety management standards. One of
these violations was determined “willful”, that is, intentional.
According to OSHA, willful violations that result in a death may be
referred to the Department of Justice for investigation. OSHA said
Williams “failed in its responsibility to find and fix safety
violations and ensure the safety of workers.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But with all of this, Williams was fined only $99,000, which it
contested, of course.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Williams Geismar facility produces ethylene and propylene, which
are used to make plastics, from natural gas. Originally an Allied
Chemical plant, Williams purchased it in 1999. Williams safety record
is so bad even Wikipedia says that “Williams Companies have the
worst safety record of any energy company.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
Hydraulic fracturing has another deadly side effect: traffic fatalities. An article in West Virginia's <i>State Journal</i> dated May 5, 2014, pointing out that the tracking process requires 2300 to 4000 truck trips per well to deliver mixtures of sand,water, and chemicals reports on data that found a quadrupling of traffic deaths in six active drilling states. Traffic deaths in Texas, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia have increased at an alarming rate. In drilling areas of North Dakota the boom has increased the population by 43 percent over the last 10 years while traffic deaths have increased 350 percent. Large trucks and heavy equipment choke streets and highways where fracking wells are drilled. According to a Royal Dutch Shell executive, such deadly crashes are "recognized as one of the key risk areas of the business." Just another day at the office.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
From the May 2014 <i>State Journal</i> article:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Last year, a truck carrying drilling water in Clarksburg, W.Va., overturned onto a car carrying a mother and her two boys. Both children, 7-year-old Nicholas Mazzei-Saum and 8-year-old Alexander, were killed. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"We buried them in the same casket," recalled their father, William Saum. He said his wife, Lucretia Mazzei, has been hospitalized four times over the last year for depression. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On the day his sons were killed, William Saum's wife had taken the boys to the YMCA to register for swimming and karate classes. The truck didn't stop at the stop sign, tried to make a turn and flipped onto the family car. Police issued two traffic tickets but filed no criminal charges. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Saum and his wife waited until she was 40 to have children, Now she's 49, he said, and "it's not like we can have any more."</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">gas expansion is in the pipeline</span></i></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid; widows: 1;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In December 2012 near Sissonville, West Virginia, a few miles from
Charleston, a gas line exploded incinerating 4 homes, extensively
damaging 5 others, and melting asphalt and guardrails on Interstate
77. Amazingly no one was killed and there were only a few minor
injuries - at the time, locals were at work. However, it took the
pipeline people over one hour to stop the flow of gas, according to
the <i>Associated Press</i>. The <i>Christian Science Monitor</i> called the
Sissonville explosion “Just a drop in the disaster bucked.” It
said “The West Virginia gas pipeline explosion follows several
high-profile natural gas accidents and a rapid increase nationally in
pipeline mileage - even as federal oversight appears to lag.” The
article reported that there had been 80 incidents in 2012 involving
only natural gas pipelines, 38 of which were rated “significant”
by the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). In
addition to these 80 were 71 incidents involving deaths and injuries
in gas distribution pipelines.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">From a March 2014 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania news source discussing the
findings of the National Transportation Safety Board, “A corroded
gas pipeline that had not been inspected in more than two decades
contributed to an explosion in 2012 that destroyed homes and melted a
section of Interstate 77 in Sissonville, W.Va…”. This explosion
near Charleston “grew into a raging fire 1100 feet along the
pipeline and more than 800 feet wide. It left a nearly 15-foot-deep
crater just off the interstate and turned a picturesque valley with
rural homes into a scorched moonscape with mailboxes melted to wood
posts and charred foundations.” The fire melted 4 lanes of an
interstate highway. No one was killed in the explosion, “But the
potential for tragedy was clearly there.” The pipeline was owned by
Columbia Pipeline whose representative promised to learn from the
incident. From the article:</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The 20-inch interstate transmission line ruptured at 12:41 p.m. Dec.
11. Despite several alerts at a Columbia Gas control center, the
controller did not realize an explosion had happened for 12 minutes,
the report said. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A line shutdown took an hour to complete and began only when someone
from another gas company told Columbia about the rupture. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Columbia had no automatic shutoff or remote control valves on the
line, the report said. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The pipeline had not been inspected or tested since 1988, the NTSB
found. A rocky backfill likely contributed to corrosion.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">From the December 2012 <i>Christian Science Monitor</i>:</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"There are never enough inspectors at the state or federal level
to adequately cover all the pipelines," says Rebecca Craven,
program director at the Pipeline Safety Trust, a watchdog group based
in<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Bellingham">
</a>Bellingham,
Wash., that monitors energy pipelines of all types. "They can't
physically spend enough time with each operator or pipeline to be
able to do a thorough job and conduct regular inspections. They do
what they can – enough to comply with their requirements." </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The explosion at Sissonville adds to a previous tally of 80 small and
large incidents this year involving just natural gas transmission
lines, the big pipelines that ship huge quantities of gas from
production areas to distribution hubs and population centers across
the country, according to the<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Pipeline+and+Hazardous+Materials+Safety+Administration">
</a>Pipeline<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Pipeline+and+Hazardous+Materials+Safety+Administration">
</a>Hazardous<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Pipeline+and+Hazardous+Materials+Safety+Administration">
</a>Materials<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Pipeline+and+Hazardous+Materials+Safety+Administration">
</a>Safety<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/Pipeline+and+Hazardous+Materials+Safety+Administration">
</a>Administration<u>
</u>(PHMSA), a branch of the<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/U.S.+Department+of+Transportation">
</a>US<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/U.S.+Department+of+Transportation">
</a>Department<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/U.S.+Department+of+Transportation">
</a>of<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/tags/topic/U.S.+Department+of+Transportation">
</a>Transportation
that inspects and regulates the nation's pipelines. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Of the 80 incidents, 38 were classified as significant, PHMSA data
show. The accidents and fires reportedly caused seven injuries, no
fatalities, and $44 million of damage.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">a boom with a blast</span></i></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Plymouth, Washington explosion in March 2014 has called attention
to a proposed gas export facility in a populated area on the Oregon
coast. “Opponents of the proposed export terminals have long
pointed to the risks of locating them in earthquake and tsunami
zones, close to population centers.” according to a report in The
Oregonian. These opponents say that “...there’s potential for a
catastrophic scenario.” However, in March the Obama
administration’s Energy Department, under intense pressure from
industry lobbyists and pro-industry politicians, authorized exports
of LNG from a proposed facility at Coos Bay, Oregon. This Jordan Cove
LNG Terminal, with a $6 billion dollar price tag, would supply 9.3
billion cubic feet of liquified natural gas per day to Asian
countries, gas fracked from Northwest drilling sites including those
in Garfield County, Colorado.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Applications for liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals on both
coasts and the Gulf of Mexico in anticipation of supplying foreign
markets are keeping the Department of Energy busy. From an April 2014
article at thehill.com:</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Even if LNG exports are fast tracked, very little infrastructure
exists to support them, and won’t until at least 2016. Building the
infrastructure necessary to support exports will also require
significant economic investment, making them a risky, expensive and
impractical investment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
Moreover, fracking, the process through which LNG would be obtained,
carries significant environmental risks. In addition to polluting air
and water resources, the process also releases methane into the
atmosphere. A potent greenhouse gas, methane is at least 25 times
more efficient than carbon dioxide at trapping heat over a 100-year
time frame, and causes between 79 to 105 times the climate forcing of
carbon dioxide over a 20-year time frame.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
The International Panel on Climate Change recently highlighted the
dire consequences of what’s to come from climate change if action
is not taken to alleviate it. Climate scientists warn that we must
leave fossil fuels in the ground and aggressively transition to
renewable energy to avert climate catastrophe.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Oil and gas industry rhetoric concerning gas has already given
Americans a false sense of energy security. Even assuming that the
industry’s dream of unrestricted drilling and fracking comes true,
plans to increase the rate of consumption in the U.S. means that we
will only have about 50 years of gas at our fingertips. In many of
our lifetimes, this resource will run out. Exporting it overseas will
further cut into the supply, while contradicting claims of energy
security.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
Thousands of miles away from fracking operations and LNG facilities,
it’s easy for lawmakers in Washington, D.C. to forget about the
effects that gas development imposes on communities. But the
industrialization, public health, economic and environmental problems
that fracking and LNG processing facilities create for rural and
urban communities alike are real, and increasing demand for fracked
gas will only exacerbate them further.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">From an April 2014 article appearing in the <i>Baltimore Sun</i> online
discussing the Chesapeake Bay gas export facility near Cove Point,
Maryland, previously owned and operated by Williams, separated by 3.5
miles and a state park from the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant just
north of it:</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Less talked about is the absurdity of the strategy when almost all of
this U.S. gas would be headed not to Europe but to Asia (where prices
are higher), and how the exports themselves will painfully raise U.S.
gas prices as much as 27 percent. Then there's the huge global
warming damage this fracked gas causes, with new analyses showing
it's probably as bad as coal. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But perhaps the biggest problem of all in the pell-mell rush to build
six or more coastal export terminals in the U.S. is the harm it's
bringing to our domestic traditions of public discourse, transparency
and political accountability. From the start, the Cove Point proposal
in Maryland has been steeped in secrecy, controversial
"nondisclosure" agreements signed by politicians, and the
withholding of key documents of vital safety concern to nearby
residents. To this day, the all-Republican<a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/topic/us/maryland/calvert-county-PLGEO100100604000000.topic">
</a>Calvert County Board of Commissioners (where Cove Point would be
built) has not held a single public hearing dedicated to the full
range of concerns on Cove Point.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Residents in this area are concerned that, based on the magnitude of
the explosion in Plymouth, Washington an explosion at the larger
facility at Cove Point, especially with its proximity to the Calvert
Cliffs nuclear plant, could have a series of disastrous effects.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Currently, the facility at Cove Point is for gas importation but the
plans in the pipeline are to convert it to an import/export facility
- a project which would cost an incredible $3.4 to $3.8 billion.
Though Dominion, the company proposing the project, still is in the
process of getting approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC), it already has signed contracts with India and
Japan for liquified natural gas. Dominion appears to have no doubt
that, in spite of local citizen opposition, FERC will give it a
thumbs up. Maryland governor Martin O’Malley has authorized tax
breaks for Dominion; local residents say the tax breaks will
“subsidize the pollution of their community”. Maryland
Representative Steny Hoyer and the local county commissioners issued
well-scripted statements that include potent industry-government
cliches such as “jobs” and “economic stability” in support of
the project.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Bloomberg </i>has pointed out that, due to
the “advanced” technology that is fracking and the resulting
increased production, there is a “natural-gas glut” which is
leading companies to export the gas. Moreover, some economic analysts say that the current boom can’t be
sustained with the price of gas as it is, that the price of gas will
have to go up if the industry wants to continue to develop… and continue to produce <i>more</i> gas than we need… and perpetuate the vicious circle we're in with the industry's unrestrained frenzy to capitalize on the boom and build
infrastructure before we understand and discuss outcomes.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">crackin’ and frackin’</span></i></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Williams, in addition to expanding its Geismar, Louisiana ethane
cracking facility, is planning a $300 million pipeline that would
connect to existing pipeline infrastructure and carry natural gas
from the fracked Northeast to a facility in Louisiana. The massive
pipeline would carry natural gas to cooling stations on the Gulf
Coast where it would be liquified and loaded onto tankers destined
for foreign markets. The project is awaiting approval from FERC.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Faced with overwhelming opposition from local groups, Williams
abandoned, probably only temporarily, its plan to build the Bluegrass
pipeline through Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia. In the process,
Williams threatened to use eminent domain to obtain private property
it would need for the project. Williams decided that the Bluegrass
pipeline was “a project ahead of its time.” Eminent domain is a
law that gives the government the right to procure - with “proper
compensation” - private property for public use.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">According to the Pipeline Safety Trust, in Colorado there are 47,779
miles of gas and hazardous liquid pipeline, there have been 83
pipeline incidents since 2004 resulting in almost $18,000,000 in
property damage, and almost 9000 barrels of hazardous liquid spilled.
Carl Weimer at Pipeline Safety Trust has said that pipeline leaks
happen “more often than we would believe”.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">to your health</span></i></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In 2010 a Colorado School of Public Health (CSPH) assessment said
that gas drilling would cause small increases in cancer, lung
disease, and headaches. Controversy grew after industry
representatives said the researchers were “jumping to conclusions”.
This “health assessment” was sought by a group of concerned
citizens from Battlement Mesa, Colorado in 2009 when they discovered
that gas company Antero had leased the mineral rights, literally,
“right out from under them”. The citizens group approached the
Garfield County Commissioners with their concerns and, subsequently,
the County contracted CSPH for the assessment prior to an issuance of
drilling permits to Antero.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“We determined that natural gas development and production has the
potential to create a variety of stressors that can impact health,”
the CSPH assessment says. More about Exxon and Battlement Mesa below.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A February 8, 2014 article that appeared in the <i>Post Independent</i>
titled “Study fuels the debate about scientific truth and
fracking”, citing research performed by the Colorado School of
Public Health demonstrating that “certain birth defects are as
much as 30 percent more common among mothers living near natural gas
wells”, inspired a defensive reaction on the part of the Chief
Medical Officer (CMO) of the Colorado Department of Public Health and
Environment (CDPHE). The peer-reviewed research, published in the
journal <i>Environmental Health Perspectives</i>, “found that mothers
living within 10 miles of natural gas wells in rural Colorado were
more likely to give birth to babies with congenital heart defects”.
In response, CDPHE CMO Larry Wolk, instead of considering the
research’s plausibility or simply its importance to public health,
warned about rushing to judgement. The recent appointee of Governor
John Hickenlooper, who is a supporter of oil and gas development,
said the study was flawed. The oil and gas industry didn’t have
much to say about the research. The Colorado Oil and Gas Association,
a trade group, referred questioners to Wolk’s statement.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On March 21, 2014, John Stroud reported in the <i>Post Independent</i>
article “Prenatal defects investigated in Garfield County” that
an epidemiologist from the Colorado Department of Public Health and
Environment (CDPHE) had been sent to investigate “an increase in
anomalies in pregnant women in an area stretching from Carbondale to
Rifle”. Details were not available and only a preliminary inquiry
had been made but Department spokesman Mark Salley said that “the
department has not seen any evidence that would cause the department
to notify the community of a public health concern”.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Research published online in December 2013 in <i>Endocrinology</i>, a
journal of the Endocrine Society, titled “Estrogen and Androgen
Receptor Activities of Hydraulic Fracturing Chemicals and Surface and
Ground Water in a Drilling-Dense Region”, says the following:</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Colorado River, the drainage basin for this region, exhibited
moderate levels of estrogenic, antiestrogenic, and antiandrogenic
activities, suggesting that higher localized activity at sites with
known natural-gas related spills surrounding the river might be
contributing to the multiple receptor activities observed in this
water source. The majority of water samples collected from sites in a
drilling-dense region of Colorado exhibited more estrogenic,
antiestrogenic, or antiandrogenic activities than reference sites
with limited nearby drilling operations. Our data suggest that
natural gas drilling operations may result in elevated
endocrine-disrupting chemical activity in surface and ground water. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hundreds of synthetic and naturally occurring chemicals have the
ability to disrupt normal hormone action and have been termed
endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDC’s). Laboratory experiments have
shown a wide range of effects at environmentally relevant, low
concentrations that were not predicted by traditional risk
assessments from high-dose testing. EDC’s may be of particular
concern during critical windows of development when exposure can
alter normal development and has been linked to adult disease.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A potential novel source of EDC’s is through their use in hydraulic
fracturing operations for natural gas and/or oil extraction
processes…. More than 750 chemicals are reportedly used throughout
this process. Of these, more than 100 are known or suspected EDC’s,
and still others are toxicants and/or carcinogens. The rapid
expansion in drilling operations using hydraulic fracturing increases
the potential for environmental contamination with the hundreds of
hazardous chemicals used. Importantly, hydraulic fracturing was
exempted from multiple federal regulatory acts in 2005 including the
Safe drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Clean Air Act. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Multiple researchers have demonstrated that levels of stray gases and
heavy metals in drinking water increased with proximity to natural
gas wells, suggesting the possibility of underground migration of
fluids associated with hydraulic fracturing. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We report for the first time estrogenic, antiestrogenic, and
antiandrogenic activity in a selected subset of chemicals used in
natural gas operations and the presence of these activities in ground
and surface water from a natural gas drilling-dense area in Garfield
County, Colorado. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Very little estrogen and androgen receptor activity was measured in
drilling-sparse reference water samples, moderate levels were
measured in samples collected from the Colorado River, and moderate
to high activities were measured in water samples from Garfield
County spill sites.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There is evidence that hydraulic fracturing fluids are associated
with negative health outcomes, and there is a critical need to
quickly and thoroughly evaluate the overall human and environmental
health impact of this process.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Water samples for this research project were taken along the Colorado
River basin from just west of New Castle to just west of Parachute,
Colorado in September 2010.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A May 2, 2014 article in the <i>Post Independent</i> reported that,
according to the CDPHE’s investigation, the increase in fetal birth
defects, as reported in the <i>Post</i> on March 21 of this year, was not
related to any common causal factor. From the May 2 report:</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Our investigation looked at each reported case and concluded they
are not linked to any common risk factors,” Dr. Larry Wolk, chief
medical officer for the Colorado Department of Public Health and
Environment, said Friday. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A dozen potential factors were studied, including proximity to active
oil and gas wells, which had been the subject of much speculation as
a possible cause in the weeks after the investigation became public
in late March. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Obviously there was a lot of interest in the community as it
relates to oil and gas,” Wolk said in followup interview. “But
this was never designed, despite what some folks were asking, as a
study of oil and gas effects on newborns. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“We do investigate that to the best of our ability, though,” he
said. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“And in this particular case, there isn’t anything we could find
to tie the two together,” Wolk said, adding the report shouldn’t
be taken as either “an exoneration or implication” of industry
impacts. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">According to the health department report, just 40 percent of the
mothers involved responded to questions about where they lived at the
time of conception. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Of those, the majority (70 percent) lived farther than 15 miles from
an active gas well, while the remainder lived between five and eight
miles from the nearest active well, according to the report. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The cases “were not isolated in any single community,” according
to the report.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Note that, according to this report, 60% of those involved in the
study did <i><b>not</b></i> respond to questions concerning where they lived at the
time of conception.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">can’t see the forest for the gas wells</span></i></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Speaking of water and the Colorado River, the environmental group
American Rivers identified the Upper Colorado River as America’s
2nd most endangered river for 2014. Water diversions to the front
range, and proposed increased demand and diversions, threaten to
“decrease river flows, degrade the environment, and harm river
recreation that is a key element for the tourism economy on the
Western Slope”. Another Colorado river, #7 on American Rivers’
Most Endangered List, is the White River (a tributary of the Green
River, which is a tributary of the Colorado River) in northwestern
Colorado. Its threat: the proposed <i>15,000 new oil and gas wells</i>
authorized by BLM in a “special agreement” with oil and gas
industry. American Rivers says that allowing drilling in this region
will industrialize it and severely compromise its beauty and
environment. Oil and gas operations near the Green River and the
Colorado River near Moab, Utah are either in process or production.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thirty-eight million people in 7 states depend on the Colorado River
for water for drinking, recreation, electricity production, and
especially for agriculture - the Colorado is responsible for the
irrigation of 4 million acres. Every drop of the Colorado is
accounted for as provided in the Colorado River Compact of 1922 and
other laws, contracts, and regulations known collectively as “The
Law of the River”. Contamination by oil or gas extraction
operations along the Colorado or one of its tributaries must be a
consideration for the BLM and Department of the Interior as it
continues to lease federal lands for frenzied fossil fuel
exploitation.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(This just in: In May 2014 an oil well failure in Grand County, Utah
sent oil and water down a wash near the Green River. According to
officials, for 30 hours 80 to 100 barrels per hour of a water and
hydrocarbon mixture leaked from an old well operated by S.W. Energy
Corporation. An article in <i>The Salt Lake Tribune</i> online
reported that this was the oil and gas company’s second spill:</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The leak is the latest example of how Utah’s aging oil and gas
fields, often equipped with outdated and failing infrastructure,
threaten public lands. In March, hikers discovered<a href="http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57802284-78/oil-wash-valley-spill.html.csp">
</a><a href="http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57802284-78/oil-wash-valley-spill.html.csp">oil</a><a href="http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57802284-78/oil-wash-valley-spill.html.csp">
</a><a href="http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57802284-78/oil-wash-valley-spill.html.csp">coating</a><a href="http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57802284-78/oil-wash-valley-spill.html.csp">
</a><a href="http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57802284-78/oil-wash-valley-spill.html.csp">a</a><a href="http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57802284-78/oil-wash-valley-spill.html.csp">
</a><a href="http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57802284-78/oil-wash-valley-spill.html.csp">wash</a>
near a well in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
Further searches around the Upper Valley oil field found old spills
in four other washes and evidence of fresh leaks on the field itself. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A state report on this week’s spill suggested S.W. Energy was
"ill-equipped" to tackle a big spill, the second associated
with its 45-year-old Government Smoot No. 3 well. But the federal Bureau of Land Management
praised the tiny company’s prompt reporting and initial response to
the crisis. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"The well was blowing out before the operator discovered the
spill [Wednesday morning]. It was washing into a dry wash, a
four-mile pathway to the river," said Steve Merrit, an on-scene
coordinator with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The fluid
was roughly a two-to-one mix of water and oil and officials have
little hope of determining exactly how much escaped.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The BLM statement, heavy with dubious reassurances, said that its
inspections were up-to-date but that the leak occurred in a valve
that was not visible to inspectors. In other words, even with
inspections, leaks cannot be avoided and, in fact, are inevitable.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A day later heavy rain overwhelmed clean-up attempts and fluid
contaminant and the hydrocarbon mixture washed into the Green River.
The rainstorm had been forecasted yet the containment structures were
not designed to hold up against the storm. From ecowatch.com,</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Living Rivers conservation director John Weisheit said it's only a
matter of time before a spill contaminates the public water supply. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“Anyone who depends upon the Colorado River should look upstream to
Utah... It's not 'if,' but 'when,'” he said.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Prior to the rainstorm, Juan Palma of Utah BLM proudly announced that
the spill was contained with minimal environmental impact. An amateur
photographer embarrassed state and federal officials, though, by
producing photos of a “giant oil plume” in the Green River 30
miles downstream of the spill area. According to ecowatch.com,</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">...officials presumed little oil had entered the river and issued
statements to the Utah press claiming very little oil had spilled
into the Colorado River water supply. This claim was clearly in the
best interest of the oil company and avoided embarrassment to the BLM
and Utah officials who are on the eve of hosting a large Energy
Summit on June 4 to court energy companies to invest in Utah energy
development.)</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The amount of water used in hydro-fracking gas wells is another
concern of environmentalists. Depending on the source of the
information, fracking one gas well uses about 5 million gallons of
water. Multiply this number by the number of hydro-fracked wells
drilled over the last few years, since fracking became an important
technology, and we obtain a figure that represents a lot of water. To
complicate matters, some environmentalists distinguish between water
that is returned to the natural water cycle, as in agricultural use,
and water that is permanently removed from that cycle due to
contamination, as in fracking. The industry has been quick to point
out that it uses a small percentage (on the order of 0.3%) of water
allocated for agriculture and other domestic purposes. One of the
more recent and absurd statistical talking points concerning fracking
and water is industry’s proud assertion that, in addition to
natural gas being a cleaner energy source, it also creates water
during combustion.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A recent review of data obtained from COGCC by the Center for Western
Priorities found that the oil and gas industry in Colorado has
reported over 4900 spills between 2000 and 2013 - about one spill per
day. Spills for Colorado and New Mexico resulted in the release of
“100 million gallons of oil, drilling fluids and other toxic
materials into the environment.” Between January and March 2014 in
Colorado there were 156 reported spills, 84 of which occurred within
1000 feet of surface water and 63 within 100 feet of groundwater. The
cause for 119 of these spills was attributed to equipment failure and
human error. It’s not a good situation but, as Western Priorities
points out, this kind of transparency on COGCC's part is deserving of credit.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Considering how much depends on the health of the Colorado River it
seems daring to complicate matters by allowing such intense drilling
activity so close to it. The industry and its members say that safety
and protection of the environment are priorities but, as we’ve
seen, the implied promises cannot be kept.
</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">a burning question</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i>
With the exception of Colorado, neither states nor federal agencies regulate methane emissions that escape from oil and gas drilling. In Colorado new regulations to control unintentional methane emissions were brought forward by the Rocky Mountain Environmental Defense Fund.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In February 2014 Colorado became the first state to limit emissions
of methane from oil and gas operations. In spite of initial
opposition to the idea, Gov. Hickenlooper worked with The Colorado
Air Quality Control Commission to adopt rules that will require
operators to install new technology and conduct routine inspections
to prevent and fix leaks. The new rules could reduce the
unintentional escape of methane and other volatile organic compounds
by 95% but may cost industry $30 million per year.</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Then again, “Saving methane from leaking should also result in a
financial benefit to the industry, since it should end up with more
product to sell,” said a spokesman for Encana. However, prior to
the final hearing before the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission
on the matter, industry representatives argued against the controls
and even pushed for an exemption from inspections.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
Outside of Colorado, according to Purdue University's Purdue News', "Hight levels of greenhouse gas methane were found above shale gas wells at a production point not thought to be an important emissions source…" Researchers flew a specially equipped airplane over drilling sites in Pennsylvania. They found "…that large emissions were measured for wells in the drilling phase, in some cases 100 to 1,000 times greater than the inventory estimates…" The research was published in the <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</i> in April 2014.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
Research published in February 2014 in the journal<i> Science</i> titled "Methane Leaks from North American Gas systems" reports that "…recent estimates of leakage have challenged the benefits of switching from coal to NG [natural gas]" because of methane's "high global warming potential". Another paper in <i>Science</i> dated October 2013 titled "Anthropogenic emissions of methane in the United States" suggests that in the South Cental region of the U.S. "…methane emissions due to fossil fuel extraction and processing could be 4.9 plus or minus 2.6 times larger" than what had been determined by a previous "comprehensive global methane inventory". (And there may be as much as twice the methane emitted from cow poo, too.) <i>The Tyee</i>, a Canadian online news source, in a May 2014 article titled "Shale Gas Plagued By Unusual Methane Leaks" says,</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">According to a spate of recent scientific studies from the United States and Australia, the shale gas industry has generated another formidable challenge: methane and radon leakage there times greater than expected. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In some cases the volume of seeping methane, a greenhouse gas that traps heat 25 times more effectively than carbon dioxide, is so high it challenges the notion that shale gas can be a bridge to a cleaner energy future, as promoted by the government of British Columbia and other shale gas jurisdictions.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>The Tyee</i> article refers to a February 2014 <i>Stanford Report</i> titled "America's natural gas system is leaky and in need of a fix…" in which a review of over "200 earlier studies confirms that U.S. emissions are an important part of the problem." It continues,</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Reducing easily avoidable methane leaks from the natural gas system is important for domestic energy security," said Robert Harris, a methane researcher at the Environmental Defense Fund and co-author of the analysis. "As Americans, none of us should be content to stand idly by and let this important resource be wasted through fugitive emissions and unnecessary venting." </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One possible reason the leaks in the gas industry have been underestimated is that emission rates for wells and processing plants were based on operators participating voluntarily. One EPA study asked 30 gas companies to cooperate, but only six allowed the EPA on site.</span></blockquote>
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Texas frackin' fracas</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
Back at the ranch, a May 2014 article in Insideclimatenews.org tells the story of a Texas couple's decision to move:</span></div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After 23 years living on the South Texas prairie, Lynn and herby Buehring are looking for a new home, far from the fumes, traffic and noise of the Eagle Ford Shale boom. </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We're not anti-drilling at all," she said. "My complaint is they need to do it in a responsible way. It's just causing me a lot of medical issues, and I can"t have it." </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Buehring's symptoms began when the drilling rigs arrived in late 2011. Her asthma worsened from a seasonal nuisance to the point where she needed two rescue inhalers and made frequent use of a breathing machine. She also developed chest pains, dizziness, constant fatique and extreme sensitivity to smells.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Today there are at least 57 oil and gas wells and nine processing plants within 2.5 miles of the Buehrings' house. These facilities have the state's permission to emit hundreds of tons of air pollutants per year, including volatile organic compounds like benzene and formaldehyde and toxic hydrogen sulfide, which aggravate respiratory conditions.</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Sometimes there's a yellow haze or mist out there, and my tax customers have to walk through that," she said. "how dangerous is that?"</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">According to the article, a recent 8 month investigation…</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">…revealed that despite hundreds of complaints from local residents, Texas regulators know little about air quality in the 26-county Eagle Ford region, which has nearly 9,000 wells and another 5,500 permitted. As many as 23,000 more wells may be drilled by 2018, according to some projections.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Buehrings began to seriously consider relocation three months ago, when Lynn's symptoms took a turn for the worse. She developed balance issues and would fall over sideways "for absolutely no reason," she said. Her hands trembled so much she feared she had Parkinson's disease, though a doctor later ruled that out. </span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Both she and Shelby had trouble sleeping at night due to the industry-driven truck traffic, which tended to peak between 1 and 4 a.m., Buehring said. Soundproof boards they installed over the bedroom windows proved ineffective.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"I told [Shelby], I can't live this way and I can't work this way. Enough is enough." And Shelby agreed "we've got to get out of here." </span></blockquote>
</div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Buehring's experiences over the past three years have changed how she feels about her country. "I thought we had people in place that were going to help the small man," she said. "And then I find out that the rug's been totally pulled out from underneath me. I feel like I'm one person out there all by myself… and there's nothing I can do. Nobody's there to help."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f5ed2615-08a9-98f2-3127-fc415aa3417e"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lynn Buehring filed a complaint with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). An investigator visited the Buehring home on several occasions. On one visit,</span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-f5ed2615-08a9-98f2-3127-fc415aa3417e"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the investigators noted such high concentrations of volatile organic compounds at one Marathon site that they "evacuated the area quickly to prevent exposure."</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small; line-height: 1.15;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f5ed2615-08a9-98f2-3127-fc415aa3417e"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Marathon, a Houston-based $25 billion company, is the owner of the wells around the Buehring home.</span></span></span><span id="docs-internal-guid-f5ed2615-08a9-98f2-3127-fc415aa3417e" style="line-height: 1.15;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 1.15; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In response to an email inquiry, <i>Inside Climate News</i> received this reply from Marathon spokeswoman Lee Warren: "Marathon places a high value on being a </span><span style="line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">responsible operator and a good neighbor." The article continues,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">InsideClimateNews called the TCEQ for comment, but agency spokesman Terry Clawson would not discuss anything on the phone. "The TCEQ follows up on citizen complaints aggressively and in a timely manner, and has proactively conducted reconnaissance activities to identify emission sources," Clawson wrote in an email. "To date, the TCEQ has il found no indication that authorized air emissions from oil and gas operations are causing adverse health effects in the Eagle ford Shale or any other sea in Texas."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In any case, "Three years of drought, decades of overuse and now the oil and gas industry's outsized demands on water for fracking are running down reservoirs and underground aquifers. And climate change is making things worse," according to an August 2013 <i>Guardian </i>report on Barnhart, Texas. Center for Public Integrity's Jim Morris has said that in the Eagle Ford area air pollution from fracking could end up being a greater health threat than contaminated groundwater.<i> </i></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">screwed</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The new Colorado regulations concerning escaped gas have caught the
attention of some Texas companies. The Environmental Defense Fund has
been approached by some Texas industry representatives to see if what
worked in Colorado will work in Texas, too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ironically, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson wants to do more. In
February 2014, Tillerson, along with former Republican congressmen
Dick Armey and others, participated in a lawsuit to block the
construction of a water tower near his 83 acre horse ranch in north
Texas. The water tower would supply water to a nearby fracking site.
Plaintiffs said trucks hauling the water would cause “a noise
nuisance and traffic hazards”. For his part though, Tillerson was
more concerned about the devaluation of his property. Tillerson has
been a harsh critic of oil and gas industry regulation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In February 2014 Colorado congressman Jared Polis welcomed Tillerson
to the club:</span></div>
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<div a="" an="" buehring="" commission="" complaint="" div="" environmental="" filed="" gt="" home="" investigator="" occasions.="" on="" one="" quality="" seveal="" style="page-break-after: auto; page-break-before: auto; page-break-inside: avoid;" texas="" the="" visit="" visited="" with="" ynn="">
<blockquote area="" at="" blockquote="" class="tr bq" compounds="" concentrations="" evacuated="" exposure.="" gt="" high="" investigators="" marathon="" noted="" of="" one="" organic="" prevent="" quickly="" site="" such="" that="" the="" they="" to="" volatile="">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“I would like to officially welcome Rex to the ‘Society of
Citizens Really Enraged when Encircled by Drilling’ (SCREWED). This
select group of everyday citizens has been fighting for years to
protect their property values, the health of their local communities,
and the environment. We are thrilled to have the CEO of a major
international oil and gas corporation join our quickly multiplying
ranks.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">burning bridges</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.15; vertical-align: baseline;">Anthony Ingraffea, Ph.D, Professor in Engineering at Cornell University, and Robert Howarth, Ph.D, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell, were important figures in initiating the discussion concerning methane’s so-called “greenhouse footprint”. Their research shows “...</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.15; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.15; vertical-align: baseline;">that the process of extracting natural gas from the earth ultimately releases a significant amount of methane into the atmosphere, where it acts as a greenhouse gas.” Read the research article here: </span><a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10584-011-0061-5" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.15; text-decoration: none;"><span style="text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10584-011-0061-5</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.15; vertical-align: baseline;">. For Howarth and Ingraffea’s directly stated commentary on the issue and their research published in <i>Nature</i> in 2011 titled “</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.15; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.15; vertical-align: baseline;">Should fracking stop? Yes, it is too high risk</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.15; vertical-align: baseline;">”</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.15; vertical-align: baseline;"> read here: </span><a href="http://www.eeb.cornell.edu/howarth/publications/Nature_Commentary.pdf" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.15; text-decoration: none;"><span style="text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.eeb.cornell.edu/howarth/publications/Nature_Commentary.pdf</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">An article in </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">The Cornell Daily Sun</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> dated February 2012 discussing Howarth and Ingraffea’s report continues,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Ingraffea said he measured potential methane leakages that could occur during the combined processes of extraction, purification and transportation to customers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">“We did what is called a ‘life cycle analysis,’ that is, you take not just the burning of the fuel –– whether it’s coal, oil or natural gas –– but you take into account the production of greenhouse gases from the start of the investigation to produce coal or oil or natural gas all the way up to the end use,” Ingraffea said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Using this more comprehensive analysis, Ingraffea determined that “the greenhouse gas footprint of natural gas … is larger than the greenhouse gas footprint of coal and of oil.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">“Global climate change is the largest human health impact issue that will ever be addressed,” Ingraffea said. “My generation –– look what we did. We committed what I call generational greed … burning fossil fuel like there’s no tomorrow and guess what, there might not be.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">The Howarth and Ingraffea research was challenged by another Cornell researcher who questioned the formers’ calculations. Citing 2011 EPA figures that indicated a lower rate of methane leakage and new construction methods using environmentally friendly technology, Professor Lawrence Cathles argued that “If we’re talking relatively long-range … and we think we are … even if methane were bad, we’d be better off using methane if it put less CO</span><span style="vertical-align: sub;">2</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> into the atmosphere,” he said.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Admitting that more study of the issue was necessary, Ingraffea said, “What we are hoping to do by this study is to stimulate the science that should have been done before, in my opinion, corporate business plans superceded national energy strategy,” he added.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">just say no</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">T. Boone Pickens, in his <i>TED</i> talk: ”Let’s transform energy - with natural gas”, says there isn’t, and never was, a national energy strategy. (Some might contradict Pickens’ observation by noting that President George W. Bush did have an energy policy: “drill anywhere, anytime”.) Pickens has called natural gas the “bridge fuel” and proposes a plan based largely on natural gas to cure what he calls ”America’s addiction to OPEC oil”. Mr. Pickens, who is pushing natural gas as a clean alternative fuel for vehicles, says he believes that global warming </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">is</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> happening.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Pickins is right about our addiction but wrong about where it comes from or what form it takes: we’re addicted to fossil fuels whatever the source.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Psychiatrists say that addiction to alcohol, drugs, exercise, sex, (fossil fuels), and so on is characterized by: denial and other patterns of distorted thinking; habituation to accept it as normal; tolerance such that more and more is required; discomfort when the drug is reduced; and anxiety and hallucinations when the drug is completely withdrawn. Intervention and behavior modification often are necessary to break the addiction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">According to an April 2014 article by Howarth titled “A bridge to nowhere: methane emissions and the greenhouse gas footprint of natural gas”, published in </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">Science and Engineering</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> as a response to the idea that natural gas is a “bridge fuel”, “The use of fossil fuels is the major cause of greenhouse gas emissions, and any genuine effort to reduce emissions must begin with fossil fuels.” He says that using natural gas to generate electricity in place of coal </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">might</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> result in a “modest reduction” in total greenhouse gas emissions </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">if </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">there is “unprecedented investment in natural gas infrastructure and regulatory oversight.” But for any other use natural gas’ greenhouse gas footprint is larger than other fossil fuels, especially over the next 2 decades. He says, “Given the sensitivity of the global climate to methane, why take any risk with continuing to use natural gas at all? The current role of methane in global warming is large…” He says he’s not advocating the continued use of coal and oil either, “[B]ut to replace some fossil fuels (coal, oil) with another (natural gas) will not suffice as an approach to take on global warming... Natural gas is a bridge to nowhere.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.15;">Howarth says, “...the conclusions stand that both shale gas and conventional natural gas have a larger GHG [greenhouse gas footprint] than do coal or oil, for any possible use of natural gas.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">take this Mother earth frackin’ job and shove it</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">..contrary to all the unmeaning and unmeant political talk about "job creation," work ought not to be merely a bone thrown to the otherwise unemployed...work ought to be necessary; it ought to be good; it ought to be satisfying and dignifying to the people who do it, and genuinely useful and pleasing to the people for whom it is done. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.15;"> Wendell Berry</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Few multinational corporations are as well known as ExxonMobil of Irving, Texas. Founded by John D. Rockefeller in 1870 as the Standard Oil Company, ExxonMobil is “...the largest publicly traded petroleum and petrochemical enterprise in the world”, according to its website. But whatever its history or innovations or wealth, most of us will remember it as the company responsible for the Valdez oil spill of 1989. At the time, the incident was the U.S.’s most devastating human-caused environmental disaster, resulting in the spilling of 750,000 barrels of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound. The spill covered 1300 miles of coastline and 11,000 square miles of ocean. The cause eventually was determined to be “human error”, which was the result of Exxon’s failure to staff and prepare the crew. The Exxon Valdez crew, it was found, was fatigued and overworked.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as of 2007 only about 10% of the oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez had been recovered.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Proving that the oil and gas industry creates jobs, 11,000 people were hired in the cleanup effort in Alaska. Unfortunately, all of those who were exposed to the aerosols of crude oil caused by spray from hot-water hoses, and the oil dispersant, have died according to a May 2014 Salem-news.com article. The average age at death for these people was 51 years, while the average life expectancy in the U.S. is about 78 years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Not to be outdone by Exxon, in April 2010 a British Petroleum (BP) operation was responsible for </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">the</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> largest accidental oil spill in American history - so far - when its Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded. The incident caused 11 fatalities, spewed 4.9 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf’s marine environment, and covered 68,000 square miles of ocean. As for BP job creation, almost 48,000 people were employed in this oil disaster cleanup, including local fishermen who were desperate for work and income because they could not fish. Unfortunately for these people, as a part of BP’s clean-up strategy 1.84 million gallons of a very toxic dispersant was sprayed onto and into the oil and Gulf waters. Later, in research published in </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">Environmental Pollution Journal</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> in February 2013, it was estimated that the oil-dispersant combination was 52 times more toxic to small marine animals called rotifers than the oil alone. However, even as the dispersant was being used by BP in the Gulf there was little to no toxicology data available to understand its impact on human health or environment.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Corexit, the dispersant used in both the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon spills, is an industrial solvent that breaks-up or emulsifies oil into droplets that will remain in suspension, which oil-eating bacteria can break down, or which will sink to the ocean bottom. Although Corexit is very toxic, according to the manufacturer’s manual, and users should avoid contact with the skin, wear protective clothing, and avoid breathing its fumes, no training or warning about its toxicity was given clean-up crews. In fact, BP prohibited crews from wearing respirator masks, fearing that it would alarm the public if pictures of clean up crews wearing gas masks appeared in the media. BP also told Corexit’s maker, Nalco, to ship the product </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">without</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> the instruction manual and other warnings.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">According to a 2013 Newsweek.com article,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Not only did BP fail to inform workers of the potential hazards of Corexit and to provide them with safety training and protective gear, according to interviews with dozens of cleanup workers, the company also allegedly threatened to fire workers who complained about the lack of respirators and protective clothing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">According to the Institute for Southern Studies,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">the chemicals people are being exposed to in the </span><a href="http://leanweb.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=157:health-impacts-associated-with-dispersants-and-louisiana-sweet-crude&Itemid=100043" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">oil</span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> and </span><a href="http://leanweb.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=157:health-impacts-associated-with-dispersants-and-louisiana-sweet-crude&Itemid=100043" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">dispersants</span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> are known to have health impacts including eye, skin and respiratory irritation, as well as headaches, dizziness, weakness, nausea and confusion. An </span><a href="http://www.southernstudies.org/2010/05/air-tests-from-the-louisiana-coast-reveal-human-health-threats-from-the-oil-disaster.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">analysis of EPA air testing data</span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> has found levels of these chemicals in coastal communities exceeding safety standards.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">A May 2010 New York Times article titled “Less Toxic Dispersants Lose Out in BP Oil Spill” says,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Critics say Nalco, which formed a joint venture company with Exxon Chemical in 1994, boasts oil-industry insiders on its board of directors and among its executives, including an 11-year board member at BP and a top Exxon executive who spent 43 years with the oil giant.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">"It's a chemical that the oil industry makes to sell to itself, basically," said Richard Charter, a senior policy adviser for Defenders of Wildlife.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">The older of the two Corexit products that BP has used in the Gulf spill, Corexit 9527, was also sprayed in 1989 on the 11-million-gallon slick created by the </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">Exxon Valdez</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> grounding in Alaska's Prince William Sound.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Cleanup workers suffered health problems afterward, including blood in their urine and assorted kidney and liver disorders. Some health problems were blamed on the chemical 2-butoxyethanol, an ingredient discontinued in the latest version of Corexit, Corexit 9500, whose production Nalco officials say has been ramped up in response to the Gulf of Mexico disaster.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Doctors treating oil cleanup workers exposed to oil and/or Corexit from the spill in the Gulf of Mexico have identified symptoms similar to what’s been experienced by those who returned from the “Gulf War”. The cause of the complex of symptoms called Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) has not been identified - officially. (Ironically, the same name applies appropriately to both in at least a couple of ways.) Over one-third of those returning from the war in the Persian Gulf expressed GWS.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig was caused by a methane gas leak; dispersants like Corexit are used in the hydraulic fracturing process.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Or, for those who lived on Colorado’s Western Slope about 30 years ago, Exxon is known for “Black Sunday”, May 2, 1982: Exxon, anticipating falling oil prices, abruptly pulled out of its $5 billion “Colony Project” shale oil operation in Battlement Mesa. One day Exxon board of directors made the decision, the next day 2200 people were out of a job. Angry former Exxon employees filled bars. Police ordered liquor stores to close describing the situation as “potentially dangerous”. Fights broke out, disturbances erupted, banks foreclosed on mortgages, families were evicted from their homes, divorces increased, a bank president committed suicide. Soon 15,000 people would leave the area.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Commenting on Exxon’s bust, a Parachute pastor made a most profound statement: “We were here before it started and we’ll be here after it ends.” Those who came to work on the Exxon project, he said, “...were desperate when they came and now they are desperate again.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">After the failure, Exxon, wanting to sell its Battlement Mesa property and the infrastructure it had developed, marketed the property as a retirement community through its front company, The Battlement Mesa Company. Unfortunately, it wasn’t known by mortgagees that Exxon retained the mineral rights to the property, which it sold to Denver gas company Antero in 2009. Antero’s plans to drill included wells as close as 400 feet to homes and recreation areas. According to Battlement Mesa Concerned Citizens:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Most BM home buyers were not aware of the potential for NG drilling and many were told that drilling would never happen since the gas was of poor quality and quantity and therefore not economically feasible to extract.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Citizens of Battlement Mesa, alarmed that a gas drilling operation would be harmful to their health and well-being, went to the Garfield County Commissioners proposing that a “health impact assessment” (HIA) be performed before the drilling commenced. HIA’s are promoted by a national organization, the Health Impact Project, to determine the unwanted effects on health of industrial development, as a way of helping to moderate debates on controversial issues such as this one. An HIA for Antero’s Battlement Mesa project would have been funded by two well-known charitable trusts that support the Health Impact Project. The citizens group from Battlement Mesa had done their homework; it was known from the outset that, according to the online coloradoindependent.com, “The drilling project for Battlement Mesa would be extremely intrusive.” The Concerned Citizens accepted the premise that natural gas development was an important industry; they merely wanted a system in place that would mitigate some of the side-effects on the community of Antero’s natural gas development.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">“Who else do we have to turn to but our county officials to help us look after the welfare of the citizens here?’ was what Battlement Concerned Citizen (BCC) Dave Devanney said earning him Garfield County’s “Famous Last Words” award for that year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Agreeing to the HIA, and agreeing to pay for it, Garfield County Commissioners (BOCC) contracted the Colorado School of Public Health (CSPH) for the project. A first draft was submitted in September 2010, and a second in March 2011, each followed by a 30 day public comment period. From grandvalleycitizensalliance.org:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">It should be mentioned that the CSPH had expected to have a detailed plan of the drilling activities from Antero. However, when Antero did not submit a CDP or any other details to the HIA team, the project became more difficult. Antero’s level of cooperation seemed to diminish as the project progressed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">On March 21, 2011 the county commissioners, at the request of the O&G industry, extended the comment period by an additional thirty days, with a deadline of April 27, 2011.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">On May 2, 2011 the county commissioners terminated the contract with the CSPH for the HIA. “We have gathered adequate data and information in the report and the commissioners put the project to rest,” said Jim Rada, project manager and Garfield County Public Health environmental health manager. “Conflicting perspectives expressed between the oil and gas industry, the community and the School of Public Health were deemed to be irresolvable.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">BCC voiced its opposition to the project termination but were rebuffed by the BOCC.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">(It should be mentioned that Exxon was awarded a $1.5 billion federal loan guarantee for its oil shale operation in August 1981, just 9 months before it pulled out of Battlement Mesa. In 2010 dollars, $1.5 billion is equivalent to $12 billion.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Wendell Berry, agrarian writer, poet, and farmer-activist presently engaged in protesting coal mining in his home state Kentucky, says,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">The message is plain enough, and we have ignored it for too long: the great, centralized economic entities of our time do not come into rural places in order to improve them by "creating jobs." They come to take as much of value as they can take, as cheaply and as quickly as they can take it. They are interested in "job creation" only so long as the jobs can be done more cheaply by humans than by machines. They are not interested in good health--economic or natural or human--of any place on this earth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">In a recent interview with Bill Moyers, Wendell Berry, discussing industry and job creation, observed that it was the purpose of the Industrial Revolution to replace human, manual labor with machines and mechanized labor, and that it had succeeded quite well in achieving this goal. Why, therefore, should we expect industry to make job creation its priority when, by definition, it wants machines to do as much of the work as possible?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">well done</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">An important article published in </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">Climate Change </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">in November 2013 and available online at </span><a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-013-0986-y/fulltext.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-013-0986-y/fulltext.html</span></a><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">, written by Richard Heede of the Climate Accountability Institute in Snowmass, Colorado, paints a clear picture of the relationship between industry and the causal factors of climate change, among other things.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Heede points out that “...some degree of responsibility for both cause and remedy for climate change rests with those entities that have extracted, refined, and marketed the preponderance of the historic carbon fuels.” Heede discovered in his research that almost two-thirds of cumulative, worldwide emissions of industrial carbon dioxide and methane emitted between 1751 and 2010 can be traced to 90 commercial or government entities; that one-half of the cumulative worldwide emissions of industrial carbon dioxide and methane have been emitted since 1984; and that major fossil fuel entities possess enough reserves that, if produced and used, will intensify human-caused climate change. Heede proposes that, if we consider this historical data on the matter, we will be better equipped to determine public policy. Though it’s likely he’s not the first to make the statement, Heede says,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">It is now broadly accepted that anthropogenic climate change presents a serious threat to the health, prosperity, and stability of human communities, and to the stability and existence of non-human species and ecosystems</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">…</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Heede’s research shows that almost 30% of global industrial emissions from 1751 to 2010 are attributable to the 20 largest investor-owned and state energy companies. Of the top 4 on his list, ExxonMobil is #2 and BP is #4. Heede demonstrates a direct relationship between wealth and the side effects of fossil fuel production and consumption, which lead to human-caused environmental damage and anthropogenic climate change.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Considerable benefits have accrued to these carbon majors, and to their state-sponsors and investors. Given this, it seems reasonable to argue that they have an ethical obligation to help address climate destabilization. Moreover, many of these entities—both state- and investor-owned—possess the financial resources and technical capabilities to develop and contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Heede mentions a principle of the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment that “...a nation-state’s ‘sovereign right to exploit their own resources is subject to not causing ‘damage to the environment of other states’”, and the “legal principle of objective responsibility” that a polluter can’t escape responsibilities for having polluted by claiming ignorance of the damage to the environment. Some might say that those in the oil and gas industry who deny the reality of anthropogenic climate change are attempting to avoid responsibility by claiming ignorance. According to one expert, denial, in addition to its being used in addiction, is the first in a series of emotions experienced by one facing death. Anger and bargaining may follow.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Although Heede says that human-caused climate change is”broadly accepted”, it is not universally accepted. So-called “climate deniers”, who appear to represent the interests of the fossil fuel industry, bring to the debate research and statistics that support their contention that human activity has </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">not</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> contributed to climate fluctuations, and that there is no need to pull back on the development and consumption of fossil fuels. The conflict resulting from these opposing views has led some observers to identify a “culture war”.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">A Fall 2012 article, “Climate Science as Culture War” by Andrew Hoffman, discusses the ideological divide between those who believe climate science is real and those who believe it’s a hoax. Though “culture war” in America has been used to identify value conflicts between “conservatives” and “liberals” in a general, political sense, this new “culture war” is bigger than that. Regarding climate change, Hoffman says,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Today, there is no doubt that a </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">scientific consensus</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> exists on the issue of climate change. Scientists have documented that anthropogenic sources of greenhouse gases are leading to a buildup in the atmosphere, which leads to a general warming of the global climate and an alteration in the statistical distribution of localized weather patterns over long periods of time. This assessment is endorsed by a large body of scientific agencies—including every one of the national scientific agencies of the G8 + 5 countries—and by the vast majority of climatologists. The majority of research articles published in refereed scientific journals also support this scientific assessment. Both the US National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science use the word “consensus” when describing the state of climate science.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">And yet a </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">social consensus</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> on climate change </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">does not exist.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">We must acknowledge that the debate over climate change, like almost all environmental issues, is a debate over culture, worldviews, and ideology.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Climate change has become enmeshed in the so-called culture wars. Acceptance of the scientific consensus is now seen as an alignment with liberal views consistent with other “cultural” issues that divide the country (abortion, gun control, health care, and evolution). This partisan divide on climate change was not the case in the 1990s. It is a recent phenomenon, following in the wake of the 1997 Kyoto Treaty that threatened the material interests of powerful economic and political interests, particularly members of the fossil fuel industry.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">This may be a culture war but it is not about science or politics. It’s about the culture of Industrialism resisting its inevitable usurpation in a natural process. </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">“...the electric principle everywhere dissolves the mechanical technique of visual separation and analysis of function” according to Marshall McLuhan.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">shills for shale</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">The Western Slope chapter of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association says on its website that it “...aggressively promotes the expansion of Rocky Mountain natural gas markets, supply and transportation infrastructure through its growing and diverse membership.” Many big names in the oil and gas industry are represented in its board and chapter memberships. But it’s the word “aggressively”, which it uses proudly, that betrays its identity. The manner in which oil and gas industry companies operate </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">is </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">aggressive - and invasive, overwhelming, explosive, and from the top, down. With a purposed rhetoric and the repetition of key phrases such as “job creation”, “energy security” and “community values”, industry controls the dialog, converts the native locals, and occupies the territory.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">If a local property owner, confronted with a drilling operation within sight or smell of his home, should want to complain, or protest, or resist, it would do little good to go directly to the company.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Wendell Berry says, in general,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">...if you should undertake to appeal or complain to one of these great corporations on behalf of your community, you would discover something most remarkable: you would find that these organizations are organized expressly for the evasion of responsibility. They are structures in which, as my brother says, "the buck never stops." The buck is processed up the hierarchy until finally it is passed to "the shareholders," who characteristically are too widely dispersed, too poorly informed, and too unconcerned to be responsible for anything. The ideal of the modern corporation is to be (in terms of its own advantage) anywhere and (in terms of local accountability) nowhere.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">The Concerned Citizens of Battlement Mesa discovered what happens when an appeal is made to County government. If one were to complain at the state level in Colorado, given the governor’s nickname, “Frackenlooper”, and his background in the industry, it would be no surprise that one would get an “official response” and that would be all. As for the federal government, the Department of the Interior, and the BLM…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">...according to Eric Frankowski, hcn.org, April 10, 2014, former Secretary of the Department of the Interior Bruce Babbitt talked about the oil and gas industry on a recent visit to the University of Colorado</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Babbitt criticized the agency he oversaw during the Clinton years, the Bureau of Land Management, for its handling of drilling on 250 million acres of land and 700 million acres of subsurface minerals, all of which it manages for American taxpayers. Agency decisions about drilling are “dictated by the oil and gas industry,” he said bluntly. Instead of protecting the public’s interest, the agency’s culture and structure facilitate industry profits at the expense of recreation, conservation and natural values.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">well hell</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">In a June 18, 2014 rollingstone.com article Al Gore says that we’re at a turning point in “the struggle to solve the climate crisis”, and that “there is hope if we accelerate our transition to a low carbon civilization”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">In the struggle to solve the climate crisis, a powerful, largely unnoticed shift is taking place. The forward journey for human civilization will be difficult and dangerous, but it is now clear that we will ultimately prevail.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Our ability to convert sunshine into usable energy has become much cheaper far more rapidly than anyone had predicted.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">...all over the world, the executives of companies selling electricity generated from the burning of carbon-based fuels (primarily from coal) are openly discussing their growing fears of a "utility death spiral."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Germany's two largest coal-burning utilities have lost 56 percent of their value over the past four years, and the losses have continued into the first half of 2014. And it's not just Germany. Last year, the top 20 utilities throughout Europe reported losing half of their value since 2008. According to the Swiss bank UBS, nine out of 10 European coal and gas plants are now losing money.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">We are witnessing the beginning of a massive shift to a new energy-distribution model – from the "central station" utility-grid model that goes back to the 1880s to a "widely distributed" model with rooftop solar cells, on-site and grid battery storage, and microgrids.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">This year, Citigroup reported that the widespread belief that natural gas – the supply of which has ballooned in the U.S. with the fracking of shale gas – will continue to be the chosen alternative to coal is mistaken, because it too will fall victim to the continuing decline in the cost of solar and wind electricity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">It is worth remembering this key fact about the supply of the basic "fuel": Enough raw energy reaches the Earth from the sun in one hour to equal all of the energy used by the entire world in a full year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">...Internet-based communication – social media, blogs, digital journalism – is laying the foundation for the renewal of individual participation in democracy, and the re-elevation of reason over wealth and power as the basis for collective decisionmaking.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Rapid technological advances in renewable energy are stranding carbon investments; grassroots movements are building opposition to the holding of such assets; and new legal restrictions on collateral flows of pollution – like particulate air pollution in China and mercury pollution in the U.S. – are further reducing the value of coal, tar sands, and oil and gas assets.</span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">The Carbon Tracker Initiative, “Financial specialists making carbon investment risk real today in the capital market”, has proposed the idea of a “carbon bubble” which could burst if investors continue to invest in fossil fuel reserves instead of considering the long-term where companies, such as Exxon, are over-valued and carry high risk. Carbon Tracker says that “Exxon [is] not preparing for an energy transition to limit global warming” and that “investors need to take action” to avoid being stuck with “stranded assets”.</span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Exxon saying that there is no risk does not constitute prudent management of shareholder funds - it is like King Canute assuming he can hold back the tide, but investors can see that a shift in energy is already coming in.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">Carbon Tracker is focusing on the fossil fuel industry where it hurts the most - the wallet - even as it’s trying to awaken its more prominent players to what’s happening.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Wendell Berry knows, without an EIS, HIA, quantitative analysis, investment strategy, or political agenda, the effects of fossil fuel extraction. In his forward to Gene Logsdon’s book </span><span style="font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">The Man Who Created Paradise</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">, he considers the “hell” that is coal stripmining and the...</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">...worst hell of all: a mind almost inconceivably narrow, which can justify this hell making as a necessity, a feat of economic progress, and a human good.</span></div>
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<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">If you can look at the landscapes produced by stripmining [or oil or gas wells] without reacting toward some vision of the land restored, then you not only are looking at one of the versions of hell; you are in it.</span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">The age of Industrialism, including its accomplishments and the fossil fuels that powered it, is over. It was a job well done. But now it’s: well? Done.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; vertical-align: baseline;">William Conder, June 2014</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><br />
<blockquote area="" at="" blockquote="" class="tr bq" compounds="" concentrations="" evacuated="" exposure.="" gt="" high="" investigators="" marathon="" noted="" of="" one="" organic="" prevent="" quickly="" site="" such="" that="" the="" they="" to="" volatile="">
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</blockquote>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532471984503165704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6067710900459960707.post-71523010784651611882012-06-30T13:14:00.000-07:002014-03-29T17:14:40.225-07:00Numb and Number<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"Scientists have <b>finally</b> discovered the secret to...." </i></div>
<br />
A doctor turned mathematician has spent much of his career exposing what has been called "medicine's dark secret". As the doctor puts it, "The problem is we don't know what we're doing." David Eddy, M.D., Ph.D. says further, "The practice of medicine is more guesswork than science."<br />
<br />
Figures. But many people without Dr. Eddy's credentials have known this "secret" for some time.<br />
<br />
The 2006 businessweek.com story in which Dr. Eddy's comments appeared contained confessions to other well known poorly kept dark secrets, including:<br />
- the high-tech health care system in the U.S. costs $2 trillion per year (2006) but there is no evidence to show that costlier treatments are more effective than cheaper ones;<br />
- only 15% of what doctors do is backed by evidence;<br />
- only 20% to 25% of medical treatments have been proven effective.... <br />
<br />
"...can't put my finger on it..."<br />
<br />
"The limitation is the human mind...", says Dr. Eddy and, therefore, we need a computer program to decide what treatments are the most effective and cost efficient given a specific diagnosis. His answer to the "limitation" is a computer program he calls "Archimedes". An official with the American Diabetes Association - and apparently a mathematician, too - said that it, Archimedes, "is better than thinking by at least 10 times."<br />
<br />
Digital! <br />
<br />
(Another problem, which we might add to Dr. Eddy's list, is that we, people, tend to accept without scrutiny pronouncements made by doctors and mathematicians.)<br />
<br />
<br />
In his<i> Understanding Media</i>, Marshall McLuhan proposes the following:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Just as writing is an extension and separation of our most neutral and objective sense, the sense of sight, number is an extension and separation of our most intimate and interrelating activity, our sense of touch.</blockquote>
<br />
The Greek Archimedes (290 B.C. to 210 B.C.) is famous for many things including defining the principle of levers ("...give me a place to stand on and I will move the earth...") and for inventing a method to determine the volume of an object with an irregular shape. Archimedes was profoundly influential in the evolution of science and mathematics in the Western world.<br />
<br />
Galileo Galilei (1564 to 1642) was so inspired by Archimedes' work that he invented a balance for weighing metals in air and water. Galilei was the first to proclaim that the laws of nature and the universe are mathematical. But mathematician Galilei, referred to by some (Einstein, for example) as "the father of modern science", is most famous for his "affair" with the Catholic Church concerning the structure of the solar system.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
("As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not
certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
Einstein.) </blockquote>
I wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole. <br />
<br />
Although we have come to know the Galileo Affair as the unfair and unjust imprisonment of a great scientist by a narrow-minded and anti-science Catholic Church, there are other interpretations. For example, an ex-president of The Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics has explained it succinctly: "Galileo was not condemned for his scientific views but because he wanted to formulate theology."<br />
<br />
Got <i>his </i>number. <br />
<br />
In any case, Galilei represents the "moment" in Western history when mathematics began to dominate science.<br />
<br />
This period in Western history, when the Medieval gave way to the Renaissance and priority was being given to manipulating and controlling nature by translating phenomena into mathematical "language", was one of great change:<br />
<ul>
<li>Speaking of Galilei, he was known also for his perfection of the telescope and
microscope, optical devices which had been around for about 100 years
and which had their first manifestation as spectacles to facilitate reading. (The telescope makes things that are far away
appear close-up, and the microscope makes very small things look big.)
(Ironically, Galilei had problems with his eyesight and was totally blind at age 73,
four years before his death.)</li>
<li>Literacy grew explosively in the 16th century due primarily to the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg (1398 to 1468). Gutenberg's Bible, printed in the mid 15th century, was the first book produced in the West on a printing press. The Gutenberg Bible was and still is considered a masterpiece of artistic achievement.</li>
<li>Christopher Columbus' (1451-1506) explorations, including the one for which he is most famous in the late 15th century, and the explorations of many others in that time, created a demand for maps. As the stars were used in navigation, flaws in the Ptolemaic system were noticed, causing confidence in the old system to wane.</li>
<li>Martin Luther (1483 to 1546) initiated his protest in 1517 with the publication of <i>95 Theses</i> in which he questioned Church practices that included the sale of "indulgences", that is paying for the forgiveness of sin. (Ironically, one of the first profitable jobs undertaken by Gutenberg and his printing press was the printing of indulgences for the Church.) Luther was the figurehead of the so-called Reformation. His Lutheranism was a rejection of the schoolmen and their scholasticism whose reasoning, he believed, could not develop a theology better than what was contained in Scripture.</li>
<br />
Give me your number - I'll be in touch. <br />
<br />
Another prominent figure of Western science of this period is Isaac Newton (1643 to 1727), often identified as the most influential scientist of all time, including Einstein. His theory of color, laws of motion and gravitation, and his work with calculus, the telescope, and so on, have established his reputation even though he wrote more on (and was more interested in) metaphysics and the occult sciences such as alchemy. His theory of light and color, though controversial and not accepted universally in his day, and having been proven incorrect since, is still taught as fact in science classes.<br />
<br />
Hands off!<br />
<br />
The German Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) contradicted Newton's theory of color and, in general, opposed the trend in science that was moving to quantify all phenomena and nature. But Newton was beloved and revered and Goethe's holism was against the mode. Goethe is considered to have been a great writer and botanist but a confused scientist, though his theory of color has been validated.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The mathematician may be compared to a designer of garments, who is utterly oblivious of the creatures whom his garments may fit. ...a shape will occasionally appear which will fit the garment as if the garment had been made for it. Then there is no end of surprise and delight. Tobias Dantzig, <i>Number: The Language of Science</i>.</blockquote>
The goal of our official science is the mathematical quantification of nature, as Galilei proposed. However, the undertone of a more holistic, qualitative approach recently has emerged. "The laws of physics and chemistry," says Michael Polanyi, "are transcended by the morphology of living things."<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In the days when an idea could be silenced by showing that it was contrary to religion, theology was the greatest single source of fallacies. Today, when any human thought can be discredited by branding it as unscientific, the power exercised previously by theology has passed over to science; hence science has become in its turn the greatest single source of error. Polanyi, "Life's Irreducible Structure", 1968.</blockquote>
"I gotta hand it to ya..."<br />
<br />
Morphology, the study of size, shape, and structure in living organisms, originated with Goethe, but Russian embryologist Alexander Gurwitsch (1874-1954) in the 20th century conceived a morphogenetic field theory. He believed that a holistic model was needed to understand the development of an organism from fertilized egg to mature form. In 1944 he wrote "...the field acts on molecules. It creates and supports in living systems a specific molecular orderliness."<br />
<br />
Gurwitsch discovered the biophoton, light emitted from biological systems that appeared to be generated with electromagnetic radiation from living cells. He theorized that this mitogenic radiation guided embryonic development. He observed that "...the individual cell divisions appear to be related to each other more or less randomly and effect their full end result only in relation to a supra-cellular ordering or integrating factor." His work on biophotons was used in Russia to detect cancer.<br />
<br />
Gurwitsch was criticized harshly for his work on biophotons and fields by an influential American industrial chemist who referred to Gurwitsch's work as "pathological science". </ul>
<ul>Following Goethe and Gurwitsch, biologist Rupert Sheldrake proposed the existence of "morphic fields" in his 1981 publication <i>A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Morphic Resonance.</i> Controversial, it was targeted by then editor of <i>Nature</i> John Maddox as "a book for burning".<br />
<br />
From Sheldrake's website:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="bodytext">"This infuriating tract... is the best candidate
for burning there has been for many years." In an interview broadcast on
BBC television in 1994, [Maddox] said: "Sheldrake is putting forward magic
instead of science, and that can be condemned in exactly the language
that the Pope used to condemn Galileo, and for the same reason. It is
heresy."</span> </blockquote>
Reach out and touch someone.<br />
<br />
Sheldrake explains that his morphic fields are similar to but more general than morphogenetic fields, and he suggests that they may help explain telepathy and other parapsychological phenomena.<br />
<br />
Maddox's review of Sheldrake's <i>Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home</i> was equally hostile:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
<div align="left" class="textblockquote">
Rupert Sheldrake is steadfastly incorrigible in the particular sense
that he persists in error. That is the chief import of his eighth and
latest book. Its main message is that animals, especially dogs, use
telepathy in routine communications. The interest of this case is that
the author was a regular scientist, with a Cambridge PhD in
biochemistry, until he chose pursuits that stand in relation to science
as does alternative medicine to medicine proper.</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
Maddox's pronouncement that Sheldrake was a heretic, likening this event to the "Galileo affair", gives irony a new high point. And his analogy using alternative medicine, if Dr. Eddy's characterization of "medicine proper" is accurate, creates a very embarrassing moment for science, medicine and... <i>Nature</i>.<br />
<br />
In his most recent book, <i>The Science Delusion</i>, Sheldrake suggests that taboos in science limit authentic scientific inquiry and that scientific dogma has made a religion of it. "Heretic" Sheldrake's reputation as a scientist was severely damaged by Maddox's comments and the piling-on of subsequent reviewers. Sheldrake has been conferred the status of "untouchable" though some think he is more a messenger than a heretic.</ul>
<ul>
<i>Nature</i>, the journal, took its name from a line of poetry titled "A Volant Tribe of Bards on Earth Are [sic] Found" by William Wordsworth. The first article of the first issue of the journal published in 1869 featured "Nature: Aphorisms by Goethe". The first aphorism is as follows:
<ul><ul>
</ul>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
NATURE! We are surrounded and embraced by her: powerless
to separate ourselves from her, and powerless to penetrate beyond her.</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</ul>
To some it appears that <i>Nature</i>, the journal, knows not what nature, the reality, is, even as doctors know not what health is. If science is in the state it's in, and medicine is more guesswork than science, then medicine is... out of
touch. At least.
<br />
<ul> Your number's up.
</ul>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532471984503165704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6067710900459960707.post-49092954552703212002011-03-30T12:38:00.000-07:002014-03-29T17:11:01.125-07:00rhetoric, propaganda, marketing, spin, lies<br />
"The total life of any culture tends to be 'propaganda'…. It blankets perception and suppresses awareness, making the counter environments created by the artist indispensable to survival and freedom." Marshall McLuhan, 1970. <br />
<br />
<br />
<i>the sound of science</i><br />
<br />
The co-incidental emergence of superbugs in hospitals and superweeds on factory farms is ominous, and each represents a challenge to human health. <br />
<br />
The evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria by the overuse of antibiotics in humans and farm animals has been observed for at least 40 years in the West. Warnings by doctors, scientists, and government agencies in Europe were obscured in arguments and denial in the U.S. Congress. And the controversy still exists with each side citing sound science in support of its opinion.<br />
<br />
To this day, antibiotics are prescribed by doctors for patients with respiratory symptoms caused by viruses or mold, microorganisms which are not affected by antibiotics; and some farmers continue to give sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics to cows, pigs, and chickens to fatten them.<br />
<br />
Herbicide-resistant superweeds have evolved in fields sprayed with Monsanto’s Round-Up, a glyphosphate herbicide Monsanto’s genetically modified crops have been “engineered” to resist. According to some biologists, this practice, and in general the farming practice promoted by Monsanto, is the perfect way to create plants that herbicides can’t kill. Yet, in January 2011, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Tom Vilsack, under pressure from government and industry, deregulated without restriction Monsanto’s genetically modified alfalfa seed. Then, a week or so later, USDA deregulated genetically modified sugar beet.<br />
<br />
Prior to deregulation, as a result of legal proceedings against the deregulation, the USDA was ordered to complete an environmental impact statement (EIS). As a part of performing the EIS, USDA held a public comment period during which concerns about deregulating GM alfalfa could be expressed. The USDA’s final 2300 pages-long EIS document contained many statements of significant concern against deregulation, concerns which the USDA itself acknowledged as valid.<br />
<br />
Consequently Secretary Vilsack, though a proponent of biotechnology and a “friend” of Monsanto, sought to mitigate concern by proposing restrictions on the deregulation of GM alfalfa. However, the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, complaining that “restrictions” would require oversight and oversight would cost money and more taxes, and so on, pressured Vilsack to deregulate without restrictions. Led by committee chairman Frank Lucas, the House Agriculture Committee challenged Vilsack saying that GM alfalfa repeatedly had been found safe. In a public statement after genetically modified alfalfa’s deregulation, Lucas said, “I am pleased the USDA used sound science in making the decision to deregulate GM alfalfa.”<br />
<br />
Monsanto, by the way, was a major contributor to Lucas’ 2010 election; it was listed as a “Top Five Contributor” by opensecrets.org, having given Lucas $11,000 for the 2009-2010 election. On top of that, agribusiness political action committees contributed over $5 million to members of the House Agriculture Committee for the 2010 election cycle. But these figures represent a drop in the bucket, as it were. The practice of special interest groups donating money to support the election of politicians who will carry-out their wishes, of course, is not just commonplace but the way business is done in American politics and governments. Please see opensecrets.org.<br />
<br />
Recall that “sound science” was invoked in May 2010 by the President of the Wisconsin Medical Society in support of then Governor Doyle’s rejection of a bill that temporarily would have legalized raw milk sales in the state. He said, in part, “…the governor acted on behalf of sound science…” in refusing to sign the bill.<br />
<br />
In the last few years the phrases “sound science” and “junk science” have been used increasingly by industry propagandists to criticize research that supports environmental concerns and that is critical of irresponsible industry practices. Neither term has technical relevance or true critical value, however. They are rhetorical devices and are rarely – if ever – used by scientists.<br />
<br />
The term “sound science”, though it seems to have been in the vernacular forever, dates to the 1980’s and the tobacco industry’s attempts to discredit research that revealed the harmful effects of cigaret smoke. A shill for the tobacco industry and proponent of tobacco’s “sound science” was Steven Milloy, Fox News commentator, president of The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC, a defunct lobby group), and propagandist for various industry concerns. On its inoperable website this “Coalition” says that it advocates “the use of sound science in public policy decision making.”<br />
<br />
In a press release in February 1994, TASSC criticized scientists who warned against the use of Monsanto’s rBGH saying "This is a prime example of a special interest group using its own political agenda to drive policy. It has nothing to do with the valid information that sound science has provided." Again, this comment is from a pro rBGH lobby group criticizing scientists who warned against the unwanted side-effects of using the hormone in milk cows – and a demonstration of the power of rhetoric.<br />
<br />
In 1937 the Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA) began discussing rhetorical devices and techniques that were used in political and commercial promotions. The IPA believed that the increasing amounts of propaganda in media at that time decreased a person’s critical thinking ability. According to Sourcewatch, IPA wanted “to teach people how to think rather than what to think.” Initially successful, the group folded in 1942, however, probably under pressure from the proponents of United States’ propaganda aimed at its war enemies.<br />
<br />
Among other things, the IPA developed a list of rhetorical or propaganda techniques with which one could familiarize oneself to aid in identifying and deconstructing the propaganda environment. The original 7 techniques, and a few more recent additions, include: name-calling, smear, glittering generalities, transfer, testimonials, plain folks, card-stacking, bandwagon, fear, double-speak, and junk science.<br />
<br />
From the website propagandacritic.com:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
With the growth of communication tools like the Internet, the flow of persuasive messages has been dramatically accelerated. For the first time ever, citizens around the world are participating in uncensored conversations about their collective future. This is a wonderful development, but there is a cost.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
The information revolution has led to information overload, and people are confronted with hundreds of messages each day. Although few studies have looked at this topic, it seems fair to suggest that many people respond to this pressure by processing messages more quickly and, when possible, by taking mental short-cuts.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Propagandists love short-cuts -- particularly those which short-circuit rational thought. They encourage this by agitating emotions, by exploiting insecurities, by capitalizing on the ambiguity of language, and by bending the rules of logic. As history shows, they can be quite successful.</blockquote>
In <i>The Fine Art of Propaganda</i>, the IPA stated that "It is essential in a democratic society that young people and adults learn how to think, learn how to make up their minds. They must learn how to think independently, and they must learn how to think together. They must come to conclusions, but at the same time they must recognize the right of other men to come to opposite conclusions. So far as individuals are concerned, the art of democracy is the art of thinking and discussing independently together."<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>rhetorical questions and trivium pursuit</i><br />
<br />
Rhetoric, with grammar and logic, comprise the trivium, the foundation of a liberal arts education in Medieval Europe.<br />
<br />
Historically the trivium is traced to the Classical Period of Ancient Greece, to Socrates, his disciple Plato, and Plato’s student Aristotle. Plato and Socrates insisted that rhetoric should be guided by logic and dialog. Aristotle had a lot to say about it in his <i>Art of Rhetoric</i> including how to use emotion, assumptions, and strategy to improve one’s capacity to persuade.<br />
<br />
Plato was a strong proponent of literacy, the acquired ability to read and write, even though his dialog <i>Phaedrus</i> displays Socrates’ criticism of it. But Socrates, as the story goes, capitulated after Plato’s rhetorical argument that literacy would not have the unwanted side effects, of which Socrates warned, if a system like the trivium were used in education.<br />
<br />
A basic definition of rhetoric, in keeping with Aristotle, is “how to say what one has to say, elegantly, effectively, persuasively, and based on good logic”. “Rhetoric” may refer to the skill, the study, or the language.<br />
<br />
Our word “trivial” (meaning “of little importance or significance; ordinary, commonplace”) comes from the point-of-view of those who moved on to the study of the quadrivium (mathematics, natural science, astronomy, and theology) for which the trivium was the foundation. That is, from the point-of-view of high school, grammar school is trivial. However, as the basis for using humanity’s greatest technology - the one that underlies all communication technologies - the trivium should not be trivialized.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>“A point-of-view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding.”</i> Marshall McLuhan, 1962.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>propagate <b>The</b> faith</i><br />
<br />
A strategy of propaganda is to appeal to emotion. This bastard of rhetoric, found most commonly in political, commercial, and religious endeavors, dates to the 16th century and the Catholic Church.<br />
<br />
In Medieval Europe (5th to 15th century) education was rooted in the trivium: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. As the primary cultural influence at that time, the Catholic Church used the trivium to teach and preserve the art of writing.<br />
<br />
In the early 17th century, the Church, in reaction to the Reformation and to take advantage of explorations around the world, installed the “Sacred Congregation of Propaganda” to propagate the faith – <i>de propaganda fide</i>. In this endeavor, the Church established its college in Rome and printed many books and other materials to support and promote its efforts. In that same period Ignatius formed the Jesuit order, which was dedicated to the propagation of the Church and its ideas. Although known for its scholastic system of education, the Jesuits were vilified in that period for casuistry, the selective application of laws on a case-by-case basis, for example, in allowing priests to defrock themselves temporarily so they could go to a brothel.<br />
<br />
Casuistry, in its pejorative sense, refers to a specious argument or one that is intended to deceive, but it also is a branch of ethics that studies the relationship of general principles to particular cases.<br />
<br />
The “Sacred Congregation of Propaganda” was renamed “Congregation for the Evangelization of People” in 1982 by the Pope. Its purpose and function has remained the same throughout its history, however.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>disinfomashin’</i><br />
<br />
Chemical Industry Archives notes that in 2002 a jury in Alabama found Monsanto guilty on all six counts it considered including negligence, wantonness, suppression of the truth, nuisance, trespass and outrage in the operation of its PCB plant in Anniston. According to a February 2002 Washington Post article “Under Alabama law, the rare claim of ‘outrage’ requires conduct ‘so outrageous in character and extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency so as to be regarded as atrocious and utterly intolerable in civilized society’.” That is a legal definition, not rhetoric.<br />
<br />
In roughly the same time period that the outrage was coming to light - and to court - Monsanto agents, disguised as “food safety experts”, infiltrated FDA and USDA and railroaded through FDA’s approval process Monsanto’s recombinant bovine growth hormone, threatening scientists in the agency who protested the approval.<br />
<br />
Currently Monsanto’s “America’s Farmers” website lists the following “pledges”:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
Integrity<br />
<br />
Integrity is the foundation for all that we do. Integrity includes honesty, decency, consistency, and courage. Building on those values, we are committed to:<br />
<br />
Dialogue<br />
<br />
We will listen carefully to diverse points of view and engage in thoughtful dialogue. We will broaden our understanding of issues in order to better address the needs and concerns of society and each other. <br />
<br />
Transparency<br />
<br />
We will ensure that information is available, accessible, and understandable.</blockquote>
Again from www.chemicalindustryarchives.org:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
[As] the company's own documents show, Monsanto went to extraordinary efforts to keep the public in the dark about PCBs, and even manipulated scientific studies by urging scientists to change their conclusions to downplay the risks of PCB exposure. Monsanto's conduct, throughout the entire period that the company made PCBs, was less than commendable. Their attempts today to backpedal on the science and shirk responsibility for the global saturation of PCBs is equally discouraging, as are their repeated attempts to "green" their image with flashy, expensive PR campaigns.</blockquote>
In 2001 an attorney for Monsanto in the Anniston trial is recorded as saying, “The truth is that PCB’s are everywhere...” in an attempt to demonstrate that PCB contamination causes no significant health problems. Paraphrasing his rhetoric, “Look: We’ve all got PCB’s in us and we’re o.k., right? So what’s the big deal?” And he tried to convince the jury that Monsanto didn’t know its PCB’s were toxic.<br />
<br />
However, because of its toxicity PCB production was banned in the U.S. in 1979. Its toxicity was recognized in the 1930’s. A report in 1947 in a chemical industry journal described chlorinated biphenyls, the class of chemicals to which PCB’s belong, as “objectionably toxic”. Internal confidential documents from Monsanto brought forward in the Anniston trial revealed that it knew for decades that its PCB’s were dangerous and toxic to humans and wildlife.<br />
<br />
Until it was banned, Monsanto was the only North American producer of PCB’s.<br />
<br />
PCB toxicity is similar to that of other dioxins, which the Environmental Protection Agency identifies as “likely carcinogenic”. Dioxins were a component of Agent Orange, the herbicide made by Monsanto for the U.S. Defense Department during the Viet Nam war. Currently, Monsanto’s glyphosphate herbicide Round-Up and Monsanto’s Round-Up Ready crops are viewed by some in agriculture as responsible for the latest emergence of superweeds.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>off the grass!</i><br />
<br />
Grassroots organizations are local, community-based groups that form spontaneously in support of a political issue or politician. Obviously a metaphor, it implies a relationship with the soil, and that which is naturally rooted in the earth and grounded.<br />
<br />
Astroturfing is a propaganda technique that a company uses to give support for a cause without revealing its identity. It is a fake grassroots movement that may use a website, or comments on articles or weblogs, or communicates via conversations in social media networks.<br />
<br />
Wikipedia makes this distinction between grassroots and astroturfing:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
Faking a grassroots movement is known as astroturfing. Astroturfing, as the name suggests, is named after Astroturf, a brand of artificial grass. Astroturfing means pretending to be a grassroots movement, when in reality the agenda and strategy is controlled by a hidden non-grassroots organization. A show is made of individuals pretending to be voicing their own opinions.</blockquote>
The anonymity of the web gives companies and governments the perfect opportunity to run astroturf operations: fake grassroots campaigns that create the impression that large numbers of people are demanding or opposing particular policies. This deception is most likely to occur where the interests of companies or governments come into conflict with the interests of the public.<br />
<br />
Astroturf, a brand of synthetic carpeting made to look like natural grass, is installed in sports stadiums all over the country. It was invented in the 1960’s by chemists at… Monsanto. Honest.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532471984503165704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6067710900459960707.post-23972191462077797492011-03-27T08:38:00.000-07:002011-03-27T08:38:29.855-07:00Captain Cosmonaut's Journal<div style="text-align: left; width: 450px;"><object data="http://www.blurb.com/assets/embed.swf?book_id=1171591" height="300" id="myWidget" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><param name="movie" value="http://www.blurb.com/assets/embed.swf?book_id=1171591"></param><a target="_new" href="http://www.blurb.com/books/preview/1171591?ce=blurb_ew&utm_source=widget"><img src="http://bookshow.blurb.com/bookshow/cache/P1630108/md/wcover_2.png"></img></a></object><br />
<div style="display: block;"><a href="http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1171591?ce=blurb_ew&utm_source=widget" style="margin: 12px 3px;" target="_blank">Captain Cosmonaut's Journal by William Conder</a> <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.blurb.com/landing_pages/bookshow?ce=blurb_ew&utm_source=widget" style="margin: 12px 3px;" target="_blank">Make Your Own Book</a></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532471984503165704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6067710900459960707.post-58801133951758196782011-02-19T20:04:00.001-08:002011-02-19T20:08:37.582-08:00Principles of Health<div style="text-align: left; width: 450px;"><object data="http://www.blurb.com/assets/embed.swf?book_id=1888970" height="300" id="myWidget" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><param name="movie" value="http://www.blurb.com/assets/embed.swf?book_id=1888970"></param><a target="_new" href="http://www.blurb.com/books/preview/1888970?ce=blurb_ew&utm_source=widget"><img src="http://bookshow.blurb.com/bookshow/cache/P2611109/md/wcover_2.png"></img></a></object><div style="display: block;"><a href="http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1888970?ce=blurb_ew&utm_source=widget" style="margin: 12px 3px;" target="_blank">Principles of Health by Dr. William Conder</a> <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.blurb.com/landing_pages/bookshow?ce=blurb_ew&utm_source=widget" style="margin: 12px 3px;" target="_blank">Make Your Own Book</a></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532471984503165704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6067710900459960707.post-68545390896715505402010-12-31T08:55:00.000-08:002010-12-31T08:55:26.257-08:00Peek-a-book<div style="text-align: left; width: 450px;"><object data="http://www.blurb.com/assets/embed.swf?book_id=1112984" height="300" id="myWidget" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><param name="movie" value="http://www.blurb.com/assets/embed.swf?book_id=1112984"></param><a target="_new" href="http://www.blurb.com/books/preview/1112984?ce=blurb_ew&utm_source=widget"><img src="http://bookshow.blurb.com/bookshow/cache/P1546957/md/wcover_2.png"></img></a></object><div style="display: block;"><a href="http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1112984?ce=blurb_ew&utm_source=widget" style="margin: 12px 3px;" target="_blank">All Medicine Is Energy Medicine by William Conder, D.C.</a> <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.blurb.com/landing_pages/bookshow?ce=blurb_ew&utm_source=widget" style="margin: 12px 3px;" target="_blank"></a></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532471984503165704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6067710900459960707.post-74713154369724826462010-12-01T13:18:00.000-08:002014-02-13T10:38:00.921-08:00Resist it, it persists<br />
At a news conference in October 2010, FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, citing the "distressingly low" number of new antibiotics in development, proposed providing a "financial incentive" to drug companies to increase their research and development of such substances. She said that this action is important and necessary in view of the increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant strains of "superbugs" that have evolved from harmless, as well as infectious, strains of bacteria.<br />
<br />
In other words, Dr. Hamburg of the FDA wants to pay, or otherwise financially compensate, the wealthiest (and arguably the most ethically-challenged) companies in the world to invent more antibiotic drugs to kill bacteria that have evolved into drug-resistant "superbugs" due to abuse of the drugs these companies have made already to kill less deadly "bugs". Apparently, when Dr. Hamburg's political appointment expires, she will be looking for a really good-paying job in the pharmaceutical industry.<br />
<br />
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified antibiotic resistance as "one of the world's most pressing health problems". The World Health Organization says that the main causes of the emergence of the resistant bacteria are the overuse of antibiotics in feed animals for non-therapeutic reasons and indiscriminant prescribing of these drugs by doctors.<br />
<br />
So, let's have <i>more</i> antibiotics?<br />
<br />
It is common practice on large factory farms to add antibiotics to livestock's feed to promote growth and protect against infection. The prophylactic use is necessary due to changes in the bacterial species in the digestive tract of livestock fed mostly grains instead of grasses, and to control mastitis, udder inflammation.<br />
<br />
In June 2010, the FDA issued a recommendation to farmers to abandon the non-therapeutic use of antibiotics. The problem was identified, however, as early as 1969 in the UK by a group whose "Swann Report" stated:<br />
<blockquote>
It is clear that there has been a dramatic increase over the years in the numbers of strains of enteric bacteria of animal origin which show resistance to one or more antibiotics. This resistance has resulted from the use of antibiotics for growth promotion and other purposes in farm livestock.</blockquote>
<br />
Why did FDA drag its feet for 40 years? A reason may be found in this example: recall that Margaret Miller, Deputy Director of New Animal Drugs at FDA in the early '90's, approved a report from Monsanto attesting to the safety of Monsanto's growth hormone for cows, rBGH. (rBGH, by the way, is known to increase the incidence of mastitis in milk cows.) Later, Miller approved <i>increasing</i> <i>by 100 times</i> the legal limit of antibiotics that could be given to cows. And, by the way, the aforementioned report verifying the safety of rBGH was written by Miller, herself, when she was a researcher at Monsanto, before she worked at FDA.<br />
<br />
The following is a summary of legislation that has been proposed in congress every year (with minor additions) since 2003. It hasn't passed yet.<br />
<blockquote>
Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2003 - Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to provide for a phased elimination of the nontherapeutic use in food-producing animals of critical antimicrobial animal drugs. Defines "critical antimicrobial animal drug" and "nontherapeutic use." Requires manufacturers of a critical antimicrobial animal drug or an animal feed for food-producing animals containing such a drug to report annual sales information.</blockquote>
In addition to 55 congressional supporters, a 2003 report by the "Keep Antibiotics Working"" campaign listed over 300 endorsements for "The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act of 2003" including the American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association, dozens of health and consumer groups, animal protection organizations, religious groups, and sustainable farming and agriculture organizations. The American Farm Bureau was conspicuous in its absence from that list.<br />
<br />
See the list here <a href="http://www.acpm.org/2003051H.pdf">http://www.acpm.org/2003051H.pdf</a><br />
<br />
The Department of Health and Human Services' National Institutes of Health's website lists the following about antibiotic resistant micro-organisms:<br />
<blockquote>
Quick Facts<br />
<br />
•Increasing use of antimicrobials in humans, animals, and agriculture has resulted in many microbes developing resistance to these powerful drugs. <br />
•Many infectious diseases are increasingly difficult to treat because of antimicrobial-resistant organisms, including HIV infection, staphylococcal infection, tuberculosis, influenza, gonorrhea, candida infection, and malaria.<br />
•Between 5 and 10 percent of all hospital patients develop an infection, leading to an increase of about $5 billion in annual U.S. healthcare costs.<br />
•About 90,000 of these patients die each year as a result of their infection, up from 13,300 patient deaths in 1992.<br />
•People infected with antimicrobial-resistant organisms are more likely to have longer hospital stays and may require more complicated treatment.</blockquote>
<i>Ninety thousand hospital patients die each year from superbug infections developed <b>while in the hospital,</b></i> compared to 13,300 in 1992. Remember, Monsanto researcher Margaret Miller, at FDA, approved increasing the legal limit of antibiotic use in cows by 100 times in the early 1990's.<br />
<br />
Robert Cohen, who petitioned FDA to reconsider its approval of rBGH, wrote in May 2000:<br />
<blockquote>
The consequences of her [Margaret Miller] action were that new strains of bacteria developed in dairy cows that were immune to existing antibiotics, which no longer worked when they were needed. People drank milk containing increased amounts of antibiotics and new species of bacteria with immunities to those antimicrobials.</blockquote>
<br />
On its website, Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Application of Science and Technology follows-up Cohen's article with this comment:<br />
<blockquote>
Leading experts have emphasized that powerful measures are required to reduce the use of antibiotics. There are clear evidence linking antibiotics resistance in salmonella and other bacteria to the use of antibiotics in farm animals. In a situation, feared to cause the resurgence of intractable lethal infectious diseases, an FDA official, Margret Miller, has acted so as to further increase the risk of the emergence of dangerous bacteria all over the USA by allowing a considerable increase of antibiotics use on cows. The only obvious reason for such a decision appears to have been to promote the use of rBGH.</blockquote>
If we connect all the dots....we find that industrialized farming practices....which have persisted for several generations in spite of evidence indicating it's harmfulness to humans and farm animals....(because of short-sighted objectives and intentional ignorance with regard to environmental considerations on the part of proponents of these practices)....have caused the emergence of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria....which find their way into food....and wind up in the bodies of people....causing illness and death.<br />
<br />
What is referred to here by the phrase "industrialized farming practices" includes: administering recombinant bovine growth hormone to cows to make them produce more milk than their bodies want to; giving feed animals antibiotics to fatten them and to combat infection caused as unwanted side-effects of rBGH; grain feeding instead of grass grazing; fertilizing vegetable crops with manure from cows that harbor antibiotic resistant bacteria having emerged due to their being subjected to abuse of antibiotics.<br />
<br />
Presently, controversial Senate Bill 510 is being considered by our lawmakers. The bill would grant FDA considerable power to regulate the production and processing of food. With Monsanto operative, lobbyist, and lawyer Michael Taylor acting as "food safety expert" within FDA at this time, one can imagine in whose favor FDA food safety policy will be placed. Meanwhile, the bill to control use of antibiotics in feed animals, first proposed in 2003 and well-supported throughout the health community, can't get out of committee.<br />
<br />
Senate Bill 510, if passed into law, would jeopardize small farms' ability to sell directly to consumers. A paragraph added to the bill in the interest of protecting small farmers from the burden of federal regulations was received with protest from big agriculture lobbyists. Following is an excerpt from their letter to Senators Reid, Harkin, McConnell, and Enzi concerning the amendment proposed by Montana Senator Tester:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
...we are writing to express our opposition to latest “compromise” on Senator Tester’s amendment to exempt small farms and business operations from basic federal food safety requirements.<br />
<br />
Comments from Senator Tester and supporters are now making it abundantly clear that their cause is not to argue that small farms pose less risk, but to wage an ideological war against the vast majority of American farmers that seeks to feed 300 million Americans. We are appalled at statements by Senator Tester reported today in the Capital Press that “Small producers are not raising a commodity, but are raising food. Industrial agriculture, he said, takes the people out of the equation."<br />
<br />
The undersigned produce organizations strongly oppose inclusion of the Tester amendment in S. 510. If this language is included in the bill, we will be forced to oppose final passage of the bill.</blockquote>
The "undersigned" is a list of groups represented by The Produce Marketers Association and United Fresh Produce Association. Regarding the latter, its board of directors lists representatives from Dole, Kroger, McDonalds, Dupont, and Bayer, among others. (Noteworthy in this letter is the use of the phrase "wage an ideological war": where do these small farmers get off bucking the system by wanting to control their own farming methods and by selling directly to consumers?! The nerve!)<br />
<br />
To reiterate, the primary causes of the evolution of antibiotic resistant superbug microorganisms, according to researchers and public health officials, are 1) the over-use and abuse of antibiotics for non-therapeutic purposes in food animals, and 2) over-use and abuse of antibiotics, for health problems not affected by antibiotics, in humans. And it is widely acknowledged that the "food contamination problem" is inherent in industrialized food production.<br />
<br />
When used appropriately, antibiotics are very important drugs and can save lives. In any case, however, they cause unwanted side-effects in the human body. Still, these side-effects are considered a fair and necessary trade-off for stopping a dangerous bacterial infection.<br />
<br />
An analogous situation has emerged in agriculture: "superweeds" resistant to conventional herbicides, especially Monsanto's glyphosphate Roundup, are appearing as another sign that Nature is pushing back.<br />
<br />
A December 2008 report in "The Delta Farm Press" exposed the following:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
The epicenter of glyphosate-resistant Palmer pigweed is Macon County, Ga. That site is now 70 percent to 80 percent resistant and over 10,000 acres were abandoned in 2007.<br />
<br />
Palmer amaranth is suspected to be resistant on 300,000 acres in 20 counties in Georgia; 130,000 acres in nine counties in South Carolina; 200,000 acres in 22 counties in North Carolina.</blockquote>
<br />
The same online newsletter posted the following article on November 2010:<br />
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Are we running out of herbicides? The answer, I believe, is yes — for three reasons.<br />
<br />
The first is the continued development of herbicide-resistant weeds. We have no less than seven glyphosate-resistant weeds in the Mid-South now. They include giant ragweed, common ragweed, johnsongrass, Italian ryegrass, Palmer amaranth and common waterhemp.<br />
<br />
Many folks tend to forget that in the early 1990s, we were beginning to have major issues with herbicide resistance with these same weeds. Roundup Ready crops came on in the mid- to late-1990s and bailed us out of that mess.</blockquote>
...out of the frying-pan "mess" into the fire "mess".... The Roundup Ready bail-out was temporary. (The other 2 reasons indicated by the article's author had to do with pressure from environmental groups and diminished development of herbicides from chemical companies.)<br />
<br />
And now we need more <i>herbicides</i>?<br />
<br />
"Roundup Ready" is Monsanto's name for its genetically engineered crop seeds modified to resist its glyphosphate herbicide, "Roundup". The idea is that if farmers plant Roundup Ready seeds they can spray their fields with the herbicide Roundup and not worry that the herbicide will kill Roundup Ready plants - it kills only the nasty, unwanted weeds.<br />
<br />
Monsanto's response to the emergence of superweeds to farmers, as early as 1997, was to recommend more glyphosphate, more Roundup Ready seeds, and avoid crop rotation using traditional crops and methods. Meanwhile it worked internally to maintain its position: by 2001 Monsanto obtained a patent on mixtures of its glyphosphate and other herbicides to target resistant weeds.<br />
<br />
From Iowa State University's Department of Agronomy in May 2003, the following summarizes what weed scientists knew, and about which Monsanto lied:<br />
<blockquote>
Almost all weed scientists agree that the evolution of resistant biotypes is inevitable with the current use pattern of glyphosate. Increased adoption of rotations relying solely on RR crops will greatly enhance the rate that resistance evolves. Because of this, we feel it is best to develop long-term weed management plans that reduce the selection pressure placed on weeds by any single herbicide, including Roundup.</blockquote>
<br />
An October 2010 report published on the website of the Organic Consumers Association says:<br />
<blockquote>
Environmental scientists warned even before Monsanto's "herbicide tolerant" GMO crops were approved that they would hasten the evolution of resistant weeds. For these scientists, the issue was obvious: introduction of high doses of a single chemical year after year would result in the exact conditions needed to breed resistance: weeds with resistance genes would be the only weeds that could survive and breed, leading to superweeds that are unaffected even by massive herbicide spraying.</blockquote>
<br />
As the industrial model of farming and the industrial model of conventional medical practice fail, the people suffer the fallout. The solution that arises from within these industries is to "just keep doing more of the same". With minds set this way, breakthrough is not likely. And, unfortunately, the "...government by the people, for the people..." has become "...the government by the corporations, for the corporations..."<br />
<br />
Intentional ignoring of adequate warning because commerce was the priority, a blind faith in the infallibility of the technology, and silly human error caused the unsinkable Titanic to sink, too.<br />
<br />
A definition of insanity, attributed by different sources to the likes of Gandhi or Einstein or Twain or Socrates, goes something like "doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results". A variation of this is the observation that "you can't solve a problem using the same logic that created the problem in the first place".<br />
<br />
Obesity is recognized as a predisposing factor in heart disease, type II diabetes, and cancer - the top three health problems in America. Farmers know that feeding antibiotics and grains to livestock fattens them quickly and shortens their lives. Choose your doctor and your food carefully. And, if at all possible, stay out of the hospital.<br />
<br />
December1, 2010 Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532471984503165704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6067710900459960707.post-89173761368646313472010-08-08T10:30:00.000-07:002014-10-21T09:11:20.648-07:00Pasteurized Milk, or, "Hey, Dude, Where's My Cow?"In May 2010, saying that he "...must side with the interests of public health and the dairy industry..." Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle vetoed a bill that would have allowed the sale of raw milk under specific conditions for a year and a half. Many observers thought the bill, already passed in the Wisconsin legislature by a wide margin, would be signed by Doyle.<br />
<br />
In other words, according to what Doyle himself said, he caved-in to the lobbying of special interests: "... side with interests of public health and the dairy industry..." He probably was not aware of what it was to which he was admitting, which makes the problem even worse.<br />
<br />
"Public health" doesn't refer to the health of each individual of "the public", whatever that is. It refers to the officiants of government agencies whose opinions of what should and should not be done is dictated by corporate entities that have a special interest in outcomes.<br />
<br />
Even though there is enough support from the people in Wisconsin for the "legalization" of raw milk, even though there is enough support from the group of elected state representatives for the "legalization" of raw milk, even though raw milk is "legal" in other states including Illinois and Minnesota, even though (in recent history) pasteurized milk caused more serious illness than raw milk, Doyle vetoed the bill under the lobbying influence of apparently powerful non-governmental agencies.<br />
<br />
Statistically, raw spinach and canteloupe are more dangerous than raw milk. Recently, the Departmment of Agriculture announced another "ground beef" recall due to E. coli 0157:H7 contamination, this time 1,000,000 pounds of the mystery meat. The mid-sized Modesto, California, meat processing company in question says it takes food safety very seriously and, of course, it must. But with so many hands in this kind of operation, contamination is inevitable.<br />
<br />
Approving of the governor's veto, the President of the Wisconsin Medical Society issued a statement on May 19, 2010 saying, in part, that "...the governor acted on behalf of sound science and in defense of children who may not understand the hazards of a glass of raw milk..."<br />
<br />
It's no secret that people can be controlled with fear.<br />
<br />
One would ask, "To what 'sound science' does the Wisconsin Medical society refer?" Is it the "sound science" perpetrated by the American Medical Society, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration? One does not find a convincing reason anywhere in the documentation to outlaw raw milk that is produced for raw consumption. In California, where raw milk is "legal", we do not hear of people dropping dead from its consumption the way we hear of people dropping dead from FDA approved drugs prescribed by doctors. What is found, over and over again, is that the dangers lurking in the food supply, including milk, are caused by the over-processing and adulteration of food materials by an impatiently greedy food industry that has influence in government.<br />
<br />
Other groups that lobbyed Doyle included the Wisconsin Dairy Business Association, the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association, and the Wisconsin Farm Bureau.<br />
<br />
The Wisconsin Farm Bureau said that their opposition to legalizing raw milk has to do with<br />
<blockquote>
our overall concern for the State’s $26 billion dairy industry. If a person becomes ill from drinking raw milk, it is not only unpasteurized milk that gets a bad image, but all milk and dairy products. Dairy farmers have invested millions of dollars promoting milk and dairy products. Dairy farmers cannot afford to have an incident adversely affect consumption.</blockquote>
Raw milk dairy farmers can make 3 times as much money selling raw milk to people than they make selling to a processor, and they can do it with smaller herds and healthier cows.<br />
<br />
The Wisconsin Dairy Business Association website lists as "sponsors" many farming industry companies including those involved in banking, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and "genetic improvement", and the Wisconsin Cheesemakers Association.<br />
<br />
This is not to say that there's something wrong with participating in big business and associating with others in big business. But, as in the case of the Wisconsin Dairy Business Association, when their "sponsors" page lists Cargill, Pioneer, Pfizer, Purina, BASF, and many other national and multinational companies, one may assume that their influence probably will not come down in favor of the small, independent farmer who prefers not to have ties to agri-business and biotech.<br />
<br />
Small, independent farmers who don't want to play the game, who believe in the importance of thoughtful, even loving, farming practice, who simply want to provide people with wholesome, nutritious food, are being harrassed by government officials, extensions of the food and agriculture industries. This makes government and governmental agencies unrepresentative and untrustworthy in the eyes of people who expect fairness from their representatives.<br />
<br />
Food pathogens in milk for which pasteurization was found necessary over 100 years ago account for 0.01% of food-borne illness today. Food pathogens found most commonly today have emerged only in the past 30 years. Between 1990 and 2004, all milk, raw and pasteurized, accounted for less than 1% of all reported food-borne illness.<br />
<br />
Antibiotic-resistant Salmonella in <i>pasteurized</i> milk caused 200,000 illnesses and 18 deaths in 1984-1985. After 40 years of controversy, only this year the FDA only <i>recommended</i> that the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals be reduced.<br />
<br />
You don't have to drink raw milk if you don't want to. But if you do want to, you can't because that choice is not available. Sushi? Pack of cigarets, bottle of whiskey, .38 special, roulette...? Yes. Raw milk directly from the farmer? No.<br />
<br />
We have many strange incongruities in our society that we don't question because our perception has been trained to accept them. On closer inspection, some are funny, some are not.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532471984503165704noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6067710900459960707.post-32926513650696267182010-07-02T15:19:00.000-07:002014-02-13T10:46:35.618-08:00Augean StablesIn June 2010 the FDA issued a "Draft Guidance" titled "The Judicious Use of Medically Important Antimicrobial Drugs in Food-producing Animals."<br />
<br />
Basically, it recommends that farmers use antibiotics on food-producing animals only when the animal's health requires it. For many years, food-animal producers have used anitbiotics or anitmicrobials to increase the rate of weight gain and to improve feed efficiency.<br />
<br />
It issued this recommendation because it had been determined that the "non-judicious" (euphemism for careless and abusive) use of antimicrobials was responsible for selectively evolving virulent antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria that found their way into food, and into human bodies.<br />
<br />
The FDA'a report provides some history and background which should be very embarrassing to it, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Agriculture, and Congress.<br />
<br />
In 1969, a "Joint Comittee" in the U.K. explored the issue and presented the "Swann Report" to Parliament:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
The report stated, “It is clear that there has been a dramatic increase over the years in the numbers of strains of enteric bacteria of animal origin which show resistance to one or more antibiotics. Further, these resistant strains are able to transmit this resistance to other bacteria. This resistance has resulted from the use of antibiotics for growth promotion and other purposes in farm livestock”. The report also noted, “There is ample and incontrovertible evidence to show that man may commonly ingest enteric bacteria of animal origin”.</blockquote>
<br />
A 1970 FDA "Task Force" came up with the following:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
This task force acknowledged that the understanding at the time it conducted its study was that the use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals, especially in subtherapeutic amounts, was associated with the development of resistant bacteria, and that treated animals might serve as a reservoir of antimicrobial-resistant pathogens that could produce human disease.</blockquote>
So,<br />
<blockquote>
[i]n 1977, FDA proposed to withdraw the new animal drug approvals for subtherapeutic uses of penicillin and tetracyclines in animal feed on the ground that evidence showed that these drugs, when used for such purposes in animal feed, had not been shown to be safe. These two drugs were chosen because of their importance in human medicine.</blockquote>
But,<br />
<blockquote>
[t]he proposal was criticized because, at that time, there was not adequate epidemiological evidence (or only just-emerging evidence) to show that drug-resistant bacteria of animal origin were commonly transmitted to humans and caused serious illness. Subsequently, Congress directed FDA to conduct further studies related to the use of antimicrobials in animal feed and to hold in abeyance the implementation of the proposed antimicrobial withdrawal actions pending the outcome of these studies.</blockquote>
It might be interesting to know who in congress, or outside of congress, was responsible for this foot-dragging.<br />
<br />
Then in 1980 The National Academy of Sciences, at FDA's request, gave this report<br />
<blockquote>
...that a very limited amount of epidemiological research had been completed on either the subtherapeutic or therapeutic use of antimicrobials in animal feed. According to the study report, much of the information available on the subject involved “poorly controlled studies of small numbers of subjects for brief periods”. Based on a consideration of available evidence, the report concluded that existing data could neither prove nor disprove the postulated hazards to human health from subtherapeutic antimicrobial use in animal feed. However, the report cautioned that “The lack of data linking human illness with subtherapeutic levels of antimicrobials must not be equated with proof that the proposed hazards do not exist. The research necessary to establish and measure a definitive risk has not been conducted and, indeed, may not be possible.”</blockquote>
Apparently, they didn't want to offend anyone. Then, FDA asked the Seattle-King County Health Department to perform a study:<br />
<blockquote>
In 1984, the Seattle-King County Health Department prepared a report summarizing the results of the study. The 1984 study report found that C. jejuni was a more common cause of enteritis than Salmonella. Also, it concluded that C. jejuni "does appear to flow from chickens to man via consumption of poultry products". The report stated, "isolates from human cases and those from retail poultry had similar antibiotic susceptibility patterns, including prevalence of 29.7% and 32.8%, respectively, for tetracycline resistance, which was found to be plasmid-mediated".</blockquote>
A 1988 Institute of Medicine report, requested by the FDA, concerning Salmonella infections that resulted in death<br />
<blockquote>
...was unable to find a substantial body of direct evidence demonstrating that the subtherapeutic use of penicillin or tetracycline in animal feed posed a human health hazard. Nonetheless, the Committee’s 1988 report found a considerable body of indirect evidence implicating both subtherapeutic and therapeutic use of antimicrobials as a potential human health hazard. The Committee also strongly recommended further study of the issue.</blockquote>
Even the World Health Organization could put 2 and 2 together correctly on the issue. In 1997, after studying the matter, it arrived at<br />
<blockquote>
the conclusion that all uses of antimicrobials lead to the selection of resistant forms of bacteria. Furthermore, the report stated that “low-level, long-term exposure to antimicrobials may have greater selective potential than short-term, full-dose therapeutic use". The report found that the selection of resistant bacteria has adverse consequences for preventing and treating disease in humans, animals, and plants.</blockquote>
A 1999 Government Accountability Office report recommended that<br />
<blockquote>
the departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services work together to develop and implement a plan with specific goals, time frames and resources needed for determining the safe use of antibiotics in agriculture.</blockquote>
Also in 1999 the European Commission reported that<br />
<blockquote>
actions should be taken promptly to reduce the overall use of antimicrobials. Four primary recommendations were forwarded: (1) antimicrobial drugs should be used prudently; (2) infections should be prevented and resistant organisms contained; (3) research for new modalities of prevention and treatment of infections should be undertaken; and (4) the effects of such interventions should be monitored and evaluated.</blockquote>
A 2000 World Health Organization "Global Principles for the Containment of Antimicrobial Resistance in Animals Intended for Food" report by expert consultation read, in part:<br />
<blockquote>
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) participated in the June 2000 WHO expert consultation, the purpose of which was to develop global principles for minimizing the negative public health impact associated with the use of antimicrobial agents in food-producing animals while providing for their safe and effective use in veterinary medicine.<br />
<br />
The principles were part of a comprehensive WHO global strategy for the containment of antimicrobial resistance and provided a framework of recommendations to reduce the overuse and misuse of antimicrobials in food-producing animals for the protection of human health. The principles strengthened and endorsed earlier WHO recommendations such as the need to terminate the use of antimicrobial growth promoters pending comprehensive human health safety evaluations, the need to ensure that all antimicrobials for animal use are only supplied through authorized outlets (e.g., by veterinary prescription), and the need to establish surveillance systems on antimicrobial drug consumption.</blockquote>
And then<br />
<blockquote>
In December 2003, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), and the World Health Organization (WHO) convened a workshop to “perform a scientific assessment of the antimicrobial resistance risks arising from non-human usage of antimicrobials and to formulate recommendations and options for future risk management actions to be considered by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex) and OIE”.<br />
<br />
The expert panel’s findings from the workshop were documented in a report which contained a number of conclusions, including: 1) “there is clear evidence of adverse human health consequences due to resistant organisms resulting from non-human usage of antimicrobials;” 2) “the amount and pattern of non-human usage of antimicrobials impact the occurrence of resistant bacteria in animals and on food commodities and thereby human exposure to these resistant bacteria;” 3) “the foodborne route is the major transmission pathway for resistant bacteria and resistance genes from food animals to humans, but other routes of transmission exist;” and 4) the “consequences of antimicrobial resistance are particularly severe when pathogens are resistant to antimicrobials critically important in humans”.</blockquote>
In the following year this group established some guidelines, saying, among other things, that<br />
<blockquote>
...good agricultural practices can reduce the necessity for antimicrobials...</blockquote>
<br />
In 2003 the Institute Of Medicine issued a report, "Microbial Threats to Health: Emergence, Detection and Response" that included recommendations<br />
<blockquote>
to “more finely target the use of antimicrobials” including expanding efforts to decrease the inappropriate use of antimicrobials in human medicine. In addition, the committee recommended that “FDA ban the use of antimicrobials for growth promotion in animals if those classes of antimicrobials are also used in humans”.</blockquote>
That was fairly explicit.<br />
<br />
In 2004 in response to a request from Congress (apparently out to lunch with lobbyists for 35 years), the Government Accountability Office studied the issue again and reported<br />
<blockquote>
that antibiotic-resistant bacteria have been transferred from animals to humans. GAO also stated that many of the studies reviewed as part of GAO’s research found that this transference from animals to humans poses significant risks for human health. According to GAO’s findings, studies have shown two types of evidence related to the transfer of antibiotic-resistant bacteria from animals to humans. First, some studies have provided evidence of associations between changes in antibiotic use in animals and resistance to antibiotics in human bacteria. Second, GAO concluded that studies that have examined the genetic makeup of the bacteria have provided stronger scientific evidence that antibiotic-resistant Campylobacter and Salmonella bacteria are transferred from animals to humans. In those studies, strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria infecting humans were indistinguishable from those found in animals, leading researchers to conclude that the animals were the source of human infection.</blockquote>
Why did it take so long to arrive at the same conclusions at which the UK's Swann Report study arrived in 1969?<br />
<br />
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services read the GAO report and issued the following comments:<br />
<blockquote>
“The draft report presents or refers to significant and growing evidence demonstrating the human health consequences of drug resistant infections related to antibiotic use in agriculture.” “These [11 additional] studies, along with those cited in the GAO report, all demonstrate a relationship between the use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals, antibiotic resistance in humans, and adverse human health consequences as a result. We believe that there is a preponderance of evidence that the use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals has adverse human consequences.” “There is little evidence to the contrary.”</blockquote>
The FDA finally agrees in 2010 saying that it<br />
<blockquote>
...has reviewed the recommendations provided by the various published reports and, based on this review, believes the overall weight of evidence available to date supports the conclusion that using medically important antimicrobial drugs for production purposes is not in the interest of protecting and promoting the public health.</blockquote>
And it proposes the following 2 Principles:<br />
<blockquote>
1. The use of medically important antimicrobial drugs in food-producing animals should be limited to those uses that are considered necessary for assuring animal health.<br />
<br />
2. The use of medically important antimicrobial drugs in food-producing animals should be limited to those uses that include veterinary oversight or consultation.</blockquote>
It took Heracles one day. After 41 years, the FDA is still working on it.<br />
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July 2, 2010. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03532471984503165704noreply@blogger.com