More attention than ever is being put on your gut health, and understandably so, considering a significant proportion of your immune system resides in your gastrointestinal tract.1 As such, optimizing your gut microbiome is a worthwhile pursuit that will have far-reaching effects on your physical health and emotional well-being. Mounting scientific evidence also continues to suggest a large component of nutrition centers on nourishing health-promoting bacteria in your gut (and elsewhere in and on your body). In doing so, you keep harmful microbes in check and shore up your protection against chronic disease. Disease Begins in Your GutADHD, autism, learning disabilities, obesity, diabetes2 and Parkinson’s disease are but a few of the conditions found to be influenced by your gut microbiome. One 2020 scientific review3 goes so far as to say that all inflammatory disease begins in the gut. Part of the blame is laid on excessive hygiene. In other words, we’re “too clean” for our own good. But your diet also plays a crucial role. The paper specifically addresses the role of zonulin-mediated gut permeability in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory diseases (CIDs). According to the author, Dr. Alessio Fasano,4 a pediatric gastroenterologist, researcher and director of the Center for Celiac Research and Treatment:5
Bacteria, Not Genes, Rule Your Health DestinyFasano points out that we simply do not have enough genes to account for the myriad chronic diseases that can beset us. Genes also cannot explain the timing of disease onset. To solve these mysteries, we must look to the microbiome, he says, as “it is the interplay between us as individuals and the environment in which we live that dictates our clinical destiny.” Aside from the microbes themselves, the condition of your intestinal mucosa also plays a significant role. “Although this enormous mucosal interface (200 m2) is not apparently visible, it plays a pivotal role through its dynamic interactions with a variety of factors coming from our surrounding environment, including microorganisms, nutrients, pollutants and other materials,” Fasano explains. While intracellular tight junctions used to be thought of as static and impermeable, we now know this is not the case. As explained by Fasano, zonulin is a powerful modulator of intestinal permeability. However, while zonulin is a biomarker of gut permeability and plays a pathogenic role in in many chronic inflammatory diseases, not all CIDs are caused by leaky gut. Proposed Chain of Events Leading to CIDThe graphic below, included in Fasano’s review but originating from an earlier paper6 titled “Zonulin, a Regulator of Epithelial and Endothelial Barrier Functions, and Its Involvement in Chronic Inflammatory Diseases,” co-written by Fasano and Craig Sturgeon, details the “proposed chain of events leading to chronic inflammatory disease.” Under normal circumstances, a healthy homeostasis is maintained in your gut lining such that when an antigen is encountered, no excess immune reaction occurs (anergy). Under No. 2 in the graph, gut dysbiosis is setting in (i.e., an imbalance in the number and diversity of your gut microflora), causing excess production of zonulin, which in turn makes the gut lining more permeable. According to Fasano, the two most powerful triggers of zonulin release are bacteria overgrowth and gluten. Zonulin is produced in response to bad bacteria7 — it helps flush the bacteria out by opening up the tight junctions — so bacteria overgrowth makes sense. But why does it respond to gluten? Interestingly enough, the zonulin pathway misinterprets gluten as a potential harmful component of a microorganism. That’s why gluten triggers zonulin release. While not mentioned by Fasano, the herbicide glyphosate also triggers zonulin, and is 10 times more potent than gluten!8 The subsequent permeability allows microbiota-derived antigen and endotoxin to migrate from the lumen to the lamina propria (the connective tissue that is part of the mucous membrane lining your intestine), thereby triggering inflammation. As the process continues to worsen (No. 3 in the graph), your adaptive immune response kicks in, triggering the production of proinflammatory cytokines, including interferon gamma (IFN-γ) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). These cytokines further worsen the permeability, thus creating a vicious cycle. Eventually (No. 4), mucosal tolerance is completely broken, resulting in the onset of a chronic inflammatory disease. Chronic Inflammatory Diseases Linked to Leaky GutThe specific chronic inflammatory disease that ultimately emerges at the end of all this depends in part on your genetic makeup, in part on the types of exposures you’ve had, and in part on the composition of your gut microbiome. As explained by Fasano:9
Chronic inflammatory diseases associated with dysregulation of the zonulin pathway include:
Gut Microbes Influence Genes and Can Influence Cancer RiskWhile the inclusion of cancer on that list may seem odd at first glance, some researchers believe the gut microbiome may actually end up being a game-changer for cancer prevention and treatment. Not only have gut bacteria been shown to influence gene expression,10,11 turning some genes on and others off, research12 published in 2018 found gut microbes actually control antitumor immune responses in your liver, and that antibiotics can alter the composition of immune cells in your liver, triggering tumor growth. Certain gut bacteria also promote inflammation, which is an underlying factor in virtually all cancers, whereas other bacteria quell it.13 The presence of certain gut bacteria has even been shown to boost the patient’s response to anticancer drugs.14 One way in which gut bacteria improve the effectiveness of cancer treatment is by activating your immune system and allowing it to function more efficiently. Researchers have actually found that when these specific microbes are absent, certain anticancer drugs may not work at all. Gut Bacteria Are Part of Your Antiviral DefenseGut bacteria are also involved in your antiviral defense, recent research15 shows. As reported by Harvard Medical School November 18, 2020:16
While the findings still need to be replicated and confirmed, they point to the possibility that you might be able to enhance your antiviral immunity by reseeding your gut with Bacteroides fragilis and other bacteria in the Bacteroides family.17 These bacteria initiate a signaling cascade that induces the release of interferon-beta that protect against viral invasion by stimulating immune cells to attack the virus and causing virus-infected cells to self-destruct.
The Role of Vitamin DRecent research also highlights the role of vitamin D in gut health and systemic autoimmunity. The review article, published January 21, 2020, in Frontiers in Immunology, notes:19
As noted in this review, vitamin D has several direct and indirect regulatory effects on your immune system, including promoting regulatory T cells (Tregs), inhibiting differentiation of Th1 and Th17 cells, impairing development and function of B cells, reducing monocyte activation and stimulating antimicrobial peptides from immune cells. That said, the relationship between vitamin D and autoimmunity is complicated. Aside from immunosuppression, vitamin D also appears to improve autoimmune disorders by the way it affects your microbiota composition and gut barrier. The review cites research showing that your vitamin D status alters the composition of your gut microbiome. Generally speaking, vitamin D deficiency tends to increase Bacteriodetes and Proteobacteria while higher vitamin D intake tends to increase prevalence of Prevotella and reduce certain types of Proteobacteria and Firmicutes. While research is still slim when it comes to vitamin D’s impact on gut bacteria, especially in patients with autoimmune disease, vitamin D deficiency and autoimmune diseases are known comorbidities and vitamin D supplementation is often recommended for these patients. Vitamin D Required for Tight Junction MaintenanceBetter known is how vitamin D supports intestinal and immune cell defenses in the gut. In fact, vitamin D is one of the crucial components required for maintaining tight junctions. As explained in this review:20
How Vitamin D May Contribute to Autoimmune DiseaseAccording to the authors, vitamin D deficiency may contribute to autoimmune disease by affecting the microbiome and the immune system in the following manner:
How to Optimize Your Gut MicrobiomeAll of this information should really drive home the point that optimizing your gut flora and vitamin D level is of crucial importance for good health. By reseeding your gut with beneficial bacteria, you can keep pathogenic microbes and fungi in check and prevent them from taking over, and optimizing your vitamin D will help avoid leaky gut. Regularly eating traditionally fermented and cultured foods is the easiest, most effective and least expensive way to make a significant impact on your gut microbiome. Healthy choices include lassi (an Indian yogurt drink), cultured grass fed organic milk products such as kefir and yogurt, natto (fermented soy) and fermented vegetables of all kinds. Although I'm not a major proponent of taking many supplements (as I believe the majority of your nutrients need to come from food), probiotics are an exception if you don’t eat fermented foods on a regular basis. Spore-based probiotics, or sporebiotics, can be particularly helpful when you’re taking antibiotics. They’re also an excellent complement to regular probiotics. Sporebiotics, which consist of the cell wall of bacillus spores, will help boost your immune tolerance, and because they do not contain any live bacillus strains, only its spores — the protective shell around the DNA and the working mechanism of that DNA — they are unaffected by antibiotics. Antibiotics, as you may know, indiscriminately kill your gut bacteria, both good and bad. This is why secondary infections and lowered immune function are common side effects of taking antibiotics. Chronic low-dose exposure to antibiotics through your food also takes a toll on your gut microbiome, which can result in chronic ill health and increased risk of drug resistance. Last but not least, you also need to avoid things that disrupt or kill your microbiome, and this includes:
from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/12/31/the-gut-microbiome-in-health-and-disease.aspx
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A spate of studies has called into question the effectiveness of mask mandates and other nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) — such as lockdowns, curfews and stay-at-home orders — in controlling COVID-19 and lowering death rates. Researchers from Rational Ground, which is providing resources, including data analysis, related to COVID-19, specifically looked into mask mandates and whether or not they're effective, with results suggesting widespread mask usage has been virtually useless.1The fact is, mask mandates were rolled out despite a lack of solid evidence to support their use among the general population. On the contrary, the evidence against them continues to mount. COVID Cases Higher With Mask Mandates Than WithoutThe computer scientists, actuaries and data analysts that make up Rational Ground2 looked at COVID-19 cases from May 1, 2020, to December 15, 2020, in all 50 U.S. states. They calculated how many cases per day occurred by population with and without mask mandates.3 Non-mandate data included states that had mask mandates at some point but not others, with the data including only days the mask mandates were not in place. The states without mask mandates for the entire study period included:
An important point: the researchers waited 14 days from the start of mask mandates to begin counting COVID-19 cases. This ensured cases from spread that occurred before the mandate weren't counted against them. The results found 9,605,256 confirmed COVID-19 cases over 5,907 days in the mask mandate states. Among states without a mask mandate, 5,781,716 cases were counted over 5,772 days. This works out to:4
No Evidence of Masks Reducing Virus SpreadIn response to critics suggesting the cases were higher with mandates because they were implemented in areas that had higher spread to begin with, Hart posted on Twitter, "Team Apocalypse will object and say: 'well, states which put mandates in place were seeing surges in cases!' Perhaps … but our data shows that even AFTER the mandates went up … it did nothing."5 The data holds true even when population density is taken into account. Among the 12 counties with the greatest population density in Florida, eight had mask mandates at some point, during which 24 cases per 100,000 people per day were counted. On days without mandates, which includes four counties that never had them, 17 cases per 100,000 people per day occurred.6 As noted by Daniel Horowitz, a senior editor of The Blaze:7
Rational Ground's data compilations also include charts that break down daily COVID-19 cases in a wide variety of regions, from Hawaii to Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, and San Diego counties in California to Kansas, West Virginia, France and Peru, marking the dates mask mandates were put in place. The charts show no correlation between the implementation of mask mandates and reduced cases. There is one chart that shows a steady decline of COVID-19 deaths after a mask mandate — New York City. But the mandate occurred as the death rate was already falling, following a similar pattern of a peak followed by a decline seen in many areas, with or without mask usage.8 Four Facts Suggest Importance of NPIs May Be OverstatedNPIs, including not only mask mandates but also travel restrictions, stay-at-home orders, quarantines and lockdowns, do not reduce COVID-19 transmission and death rates, according to a working paper released by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).9 They present four stylized facts that call into question conclusions by health agencies claiming that social distancing and other NPI mandates have been essential in lowering COVID-19 transmission rates and deaths:10
In other words, virus transmission and death rates appear to follow a similar pattern throughout the world, regardless of what type of NPIs were put in place. "[T]hose policies have varied in their timing and implementation across countries and states, but the trends in outcomes do not," the American Institute for Economic Research reported.11 The working paper notes that considering transmission rates for COVID-19 fell during the early days of the pandemic worldwide, "we are concerned that these studies may substantially overstate the role of government-mandated NPI's in reducing disease transmission …"12 Further, they add that since disease transmission rates have remained low worldwide even as NPIs have been lifted, "we are concerned that estimates of the effectiveness of NPI's in reducing disease transmission from the earlier period may not be relevant for forecasting the impact of the relaxation of those NPI's in the current period:"13
Study Praising Mask Mandates RetractedA study that found COVID-19 hospitalizations decreased after mask mandates were put in place in 1,083 U.S. counties was withdrawn in November 2020, after changes in the number of cases caused researchers to second-guess their conclusions:
Meanwhile, the first randomized controlled trial of more than 6,000 individuals to assess the effectiveness of surgical face masks against SARS-CoV-2 infection found masks did not statistically significantly reduce the incidence of infection.16 Among mask wearers, 1.8% ended up testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, compared to 2.1% among controls. When they removed the people who did not adhere to proper mask use, the results remained the same — 1.8%, which suggests adherence makes no significant difference. Among those who reported wearing their face mask "exactly as instructed," 2% tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 compared to 2.1% of the controls. The findings further call into question the effectiveness of mandated masks for preventing COVID-19, as does a case-control investigation of people with COVID-19 who visited 11 U.S. health care facilities. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report revealed factors associated with getting the disease,17 including the use of cloth face coverings or masks in the 14 days before becoming ill. The majority of them — 70.6% — reported that they "always" wore a mask, but they still got sick. Among the interview respondents who became ill, 108, or 70.6%, said they always wore a mask, compared to six, or 3.9%, who said they "never" did, and six more, or 3.9%, who said they "rarely" did. Taken together, this shows that, of the symptomatic adults with COVID-19, 70.6% always wore a mask and still got sick, compared to 7.8% for those who rarely or never did.18 Is Wearing Something Better Than Nothing?Some may suggest that in the case of wearing cloth masks, even if they're not incredibly effective, "something is better than nothing." This may not be the case, however, as wearing a mask isn't innocuous. Dr. Jim Meehan, an ophthalmologist and preventive medicine specialist who has performed more than 10,000 surgical procedures and is also a former editor of the medical journal Ocular Immunology and Inflammation, has peer-reviewed thousands of medical research studies. He used this expertise to conduct an evidence-based scientific analysis on masks, which shows that not only should healthy people not be wearing masks but they could be harmed as a result.19 Meehan suggests that the notion of mask-wearing defies common sense and reason, considering that most of the population is at very low or almost no risk of becoming severely ill from COVID-19. He also compiled 17 ways that masks can cause harm:20
Considering the lack of evidence for their use, and the potential harms, it's no wonder that calls for peaceful civil disobedience against mandatory masking are growing. The U.S. nonprofit Stand for Health Freedom is among those calling for civil disobedience, and has a widget you can use to contact your government representatives to let them know wearing a mask must be a personal choice. If you live in an area without a mask mandate, remember that wearing one, or not, is a highly personal choice. For those in areas with mask mandates, keep in mind that most rules state you must wear a mask "unless you can maintain a 6-foot distance," which means in many cases you can forgo wearing a mask and still be in compliance with the mandate. from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/12/31/pandemic-face-mask.aspx Since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, families have been separated, businesses have been shuttered and schools have been closed down. Many people are living their lives shrouded in fear of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 — a direct response to media coverage and health officials’ claims of its dire associated risks. Understanding the real risks, and being able to make choices on how to live your life in response to them, is only possible, however, if you have real facts, like how many have died from the virus and what the death rate actually is. Is it a lethal virus that warrants lockdowns and panic, or is it one more akin to influenza, which can indeed be deadly but, in most cases, is not? Early on during the pandemic, COVID-19 infection mortality rate claims varied from 2.7% to 7%, with most being in the 4% range. But according to some experts, the actual infection mortality rate may be much lower, ranging from 0.05% to 1%, with a median of about 0.25%.1 The number of COVID-19 deaths may also be skewed, as health officials may count deaths from unrelated causes — even gunshots and motorcycle accidents — as COVID-19 deaths if the person had the virus within the last 30 days.2 Are COVID-19 Deaths Being Inflated?In Grand County, Colorado, five COVID-19 deaths were reported, but according to coroner Brenda Bock, two of them were actually deaths from gunshot wounds. Speaking to CBS4 News, Bock spoke out against the misleading classifications, as the deaths from gunshot wounds were counted as COVID-19 deaths because the victims had tested positive within 30 days. The distinction comes down to some tricky working: deaths “among” COVID-19 cases and deaths “due to” COVID-19. Someone who died with COVID-19 may be counted as a death among COVID-19 cases, even if the virus had nothing to do with their death. When a death is said to be “due to” COVID-19, this is intended when COVID-19 caused or significantly contributed to the death. According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, even deaths among COVID-19 cases must be reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
But according to Bock, the inflated numbers could hurt the region’s economy, which is largely dependent on tourism:
Hundreds of ‘COVID-19 Deaths’ Subtracted in WashingtonWashington state was also accused of inflating COVID-19 deaths, by up to 13%. According to the Freedom Foundation, the state’s Department of Health was counting every death in a person who had previously tested positive for COVID-19 as related to the virus. While the governor denied the inflation, internal emails revealed in May 2020 that the Department of Health (DOH) was, in fact, counting deaths in their official COVID death numbers that weren’t directly due to the virus.5 By December 2020, Washington’s DOH had responded by subtracting more than 200 deaths from its COVID-19 fatality count after “methodological improvements.” However, a Freedom Foundation analysis suggests their fatality counts are still too high. And if this is going on in Washington, it’s likely happening in other states and countries as well. According to the analysis, some of the questionable examples of the DOH’s “COVID-19 deaths” include the following:6
Motorcycle Death Initially Counted as COVID-19 DeathAnother misleading instance occurred in Orlando, Florida, where a man in his 20s who died in a motorcycle accident was initially counted as a COVID-19 death because he had tested positive. In a significant stretch, Orange County health officer Dr. Raul Pino told FOX 35 News, “[Yo]u could actually argue that it could have been the COVID-19 that caused him to crash."7 That death was reportedly removed from the official count, but how many others weren’t? In April 2020, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, also detailed the loose case definition being used for COVID-19 deaths:
Are Total Deaths in 2020 Excessive?Michael Yeadon, Ph.D., a former vice-president and chief scientific adviser of the drug company Pfizer and founder and CEO of the biotech company Ziarco, now owned by Novartis, said in an interview, "You cannot have a lethal pandemic stalking the land and not have excess deaths." Yet, excess deaths on the level of a lethal pandemic just aren’t occurring. About 1,700 people die each day in the U.K. in any given year, Yeadon says — but many of these deaths are now falsely attributed to COVID-19. "I'm calling out the statistics, and even the claim that there is an ongoing pandemic, as false," he said, noting that the definition of a "coronavirus death" in the U.K. is anyone who dies, from any cause, within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test. In the U.S., it’s a similar story. As of December 22, 2020, the provisional total death count from all causes, according to the CDC, is 2,835,533.9 For comparison, the total number of deaths from all causes in 2018 was 2,839,20510 while in 2019 it was 2,854,838.11 Some estimates suggested that 2020 deaths may top 3.2 million when all the final figures are added up,12 but how many of those deaths are directly attributable to COVID-19? According to Yeadon, some of the slight uptick in deaths being presorted in the U.K. — primarily people aged 45 to 65, with equal distribution between the sexes — are mainly from heart disease, stroke and cancer, which suggests they are excess deaths caused by inaccessibility of routine medical care as people are either afraid of or discouraged from going to the hospital. These deaths may be characterized as being COVID related, but that's only because they have been falsely lumped into that category due to a positive test being recorded within 28 days of death. In the U.S., other deaths have also increased, including, according to Robert Anderson of the CDC, “an unexpected number of deaths from certain types of heart and circulatory diseases, diabetes and dementia.”13 Drug overdose deaths are also at record numbers. According to the AP, in late December 2020, “the CDC reported more than 81,000 drug overdose deaths in the 12 months ending in May, making it the highest number ever recorded in a one-year period.”14 Flu Deaths DisappearAnother curiosity in 2020 is what happened to the flu. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tracks influenza (flu) and pneumonia deaths weekly through the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Mortality Reporting System. But, “April 4, 2020 was the last week in-season preliminary burden estimates were provided,” the CDC wrote on its 2019-2020 U.S. flu season webpage.15 The reason the estimates stopped in April is because flu cases plummeted so low that they’re hardly worth tracking. In an update posted December 3, 2020, the CDC stated:
They also added, “The number of hospitalizations estimated so far this season is lower than end-of-season total hospitalization estimates for any season since CDC began making these estimates.”17 Meanwhile, the “COVID” deaths the CDC has been reporting are actually a combination of pneumonia, flu and COVID deaths, under a new category listed as "PIC" (Pneumonia, Influenza, COVID). Their COVIDView webpage, which provides a weekly surveillance summary of U.S. COVID-19 activity, states that levels of SARS-CoV-2 and “associated illnesses” have been increasing since September 2020, while the percentage of deaths due to pneumonia, flu and COVID-19 has been on the rise since October.18 As noted by professor William M. Briggs, a statistical consultant and policy advisor at The Heartland Institute, a free-market think tank, “CDC, up until about July 2020, counted flu and pneumonia deaths separately, been doing this forever, then just mysteriously stopped … It’s become very difficult to tell the difference between these,”19 referring to the combined tracking of deaths from “PIC.” Selection Bias and Problems With TestingDr. Reid Sheftall has also suggested that COVID-19 fatality rates may be inflated, by about 40 times. In an interview with Ivor Cummins, a biochemical engineer with a background in medical device engineering,20 he said selection bias was being used in the counting of cases, and organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and CDC were drastically undercounting the number of people who were infected, which inflated the mortality rate. Sheftall looked for data in which every case had been counted, ending up with a cruise ship, in which every person had been tested, and a small town in Germany that had also tested all residents. “When I crunched the numbers, the infection fatality rate came out to 0.14%, so I knew … there were some gross errors going on.” Sheftall cited COVID-19 survival rates by age, posted by the CDC September 10, 2020, which are as follows:21
This translates into a 0.1% infection fatality rate, using the CDC’s own numbers. More than 224.5 million COVID-19 tests have been conducted in the U.S,22 which includes an unknown number of tests conducted on people with no symptoms. The costs for such testing could be used for a more productive purpose, according to Sheftall, particularly for asymptomatic people. “The whole basis of medicine,” he says, is to test people with symptoms so you can find out what’s wrong and treat them accordingly:
What’s more, positive reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests have proven remarkably unreliable with high false result rates, and a positive test does not mean that an active infection is present. Fear May Be Causing More DeathsTaken together, what’s clear about the COVID-19 fatality rates being reported is that there’s a lot of room for error and misinterpretation. Solid analysis of any “excess” deaths being attributed to COVID-19 are needed before policy decisions are made. When this was done in England in October 2020, deaths were only 1% higher than expected, and many of them were due to heart disease, stroke and diabetes. “Notably” fewer deaths due to respiratory conditions and acute respiratory infections were found, yet deaths occurring in homes due to non-COVID-causes increased. This may be another sad outcome of the fear being propagated in relation to COVID-19. According to the study,
from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/12/30/coronavirus-death-count.aspx In a December 9, 2020, Twitter thread,1 Michael P. Senger, an attorney and author of the September 2020 article,2 “China’s Global Lockdown Propaganda Campaign,” reviewed the largely hidden impacts of global lockdowns. Ivor Cummins’ video above also reviews data showing just how “hugely ineffective” lockdowns have been. As one would expect, shutting down businesses for extended periods of time leads to businesses going under for impaired cash flow from lack of revenue. Back in August 2020, Bloomberg reported3 that more than half of all small business owners feared their businesses wouldn’t survive. They were right. According to a September 2020 economic impact report4 by Yelp, 163,735 U.S. businesses had closed their doors as of August 31, 2020, and of those, 60% — a total of 97,966 businesses — were permanent closures.5 As noted by Senger:6
The Greatest Wealth Transfer in HistoryHow does shutting small businesses but allowing big box stores to stay open protect public health? There’s really no rhyme or reason for such a decision, other than to shift wealth away from small, private business owners to multinational corporations. While working-class Americans have been forced to file for unemployment by the tens of millions, the top five richest people in the U.S. increased their wealth by 26% between March 18 and June 17, 2020.7 Since the beginning of the pandemic, the collective wealth of 651 billionaires in the U.S. rose by more than 36% ($1 trillion).8 The assets of these 651 billionaires is now nearly double that of the combined wealth of the least wealthy 165 million Americans. As noted by Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, “Never before has America seen such an accumulation of wealth in so few hands.”9 Far from being the great equalizer, COVID-19 is the greatest wealth transfer scheme in the history of the world. Indeed, you may as well call it what it is: grand-scale asset theft from the poor and middle class. A December 14, 2020, article10 in The Defender reviews who has benefited from pandemic measures the most, from the finance and tech industries to the pharmaceutical and military-intelligence sectors. Minority-Owned Businesses Have Taken Biggest HitAccording to an August 10, 2020, article11 by Forbes, pandemic measures had eliminated nearly half of all Black-owned small businesses in the U.S. by the end of April 2020. It cites data from a New York Fed report,12 which found that “Black-owned businesses were more than twice as likely to shutter as their white counterparts.” While nationally representative data on small businesses showed active business ownership dropped 22% between February and April 2020, the number of businesses owned by Blacks dropped by 41%. The decline in Latin-owned businesses was 32%; Asian-owned 26%; and White-owned 17%. According to Forbes:13
Food Insecurity at Staggering LevelsMere weeks into the pandemic, Americans were lining up at food banks. An April 12, 2020, article14 in The New York Times showed miles-long lines in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Miami, Florida and elsewhere:
The situation is much the same in other countries. An April 10, 2020, report15 by the Financial Times cited survey results showing an estimated 3 million Britons had gone without food at some point in the previous three weeks. An estimated 1 million people had by then already lost all sources of income. Anna Taylor, executive director for the Food Foundation in the U.K., told the Financial Times there’s a “food poverty problem that has not been dealt with” that is now becoming glaringly apparent — and that was mere weeks into the pandemic. We’re now nine months down the line, and governments around the world are again calling for lockdowns over the winter holidays. Mental Health Slides as Despair GrowsThat forcing people into poverty will have a detrimental effect on their mental health is also not surprising. A Canadian survey16 in early October 2020 found 22% of Canadians experienced high anxiety levels — four times higher than the prepandemic rate — and 13% reported severe depression. In the U.S., an August 2020 survey17,18 by the American Psychological Association found Gen-Z’ers are among the hardest hit in this regard, with young adults aged 18 to 23 reporting the highest levels of stress and depression. More than 7 out of 10 in this age group reported symptoms of depression in the two weeks before the survey. Among teens aged 13 to 17, 51% said the pandemic makes it impossible to plan for the future. Sixty-seven percent of college-aged respondents echoed this concern. With despair comes drug-related problems, and according to the American Medical Association, the drug overdose epidemic has significantly worsened and become more complicated this year. “More than 40 states have reported increases in opioid-related mortality as well as ongoing concerns for those with a mental illness or substance use disorder,” the AMA reported in an Issue Brief19 updated December 9, 2020. A list of national news included in the AMA’s brief20 include reports of increases in overdose-related cardiac arrests, surges in street fentanyl leading to deaths in the thousands and a “dramatic increase” in illicit opioid fatalities. Spikes and record numbers of overdose deaths have been reported in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Florida and many other states. Young Adults Dying in Greater Than Normal NumbersThat pandemic measures are doing more harm than good can also be seen in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data21,22 showing that, compared to previous years, excess deaths among 25- to 44-year-olds has increased by a remarkable 26.5%, even though this age group accounts for fewer than 3% of COVID-19-related deaths. To put it bluntly, in our misguided efforts to prevent the elderly and immune compromised from dying from COVID-19, we’re sacrificing people who are in the prime of their lives. As noted by Senger:23
Lockdowns Dramatically Increase Domestic AbuseRising despair is also reflected in statistics showing dramatic increases in domestic abuse, rape, child sex abuse and suicides. By July 2020, Ireland reported a 98% increase in people seeking counseling for rape and child sex abuse.24 Data from the British group Women’s Aid showed 61% of domestic abuse victims reported abuse had worsened during the lockdown.25 The number of women killed by their domestic partners also doubled during the first three weeks of lockdowns in the U.K.26 In the U.S., data27 from a Massachusetts hospital revealed a dramatic jump in patients seeking emergency care after being battered by their domestic partner in the nine weeks between March 11 and May 3, 2020, when the state had ordered schools closed. During this time, 26 patients were treated for domestic abuse injuries that included strangulation, stabbing, burns and gunshot wounds. That’s just one shy of the number of cases seen in the same time period during 2018 and 2019 combined. In other words, domestic abuse cases were nearly double the annual norm for that hospital. In early April 2020, United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned28 of a “horrifying” surge in global domestic abuse linked to pandemic lockdowns as calls to helplines in some countries had by then already doubled.29 The number of people looking into divorce in the U.S. was also 34% higher in March through June 2020 compared to the same time frame in 2019.30 Children Brought to Suffer in Countless WaysChild abuse, meanwhile, is less likely to be detected and reported thanks to virtual schooling. As noted by Human Rights Watch:31
There are signs of rising child abuse though, including a British study32 that found a shocking 1,493% rise in the incidence of abusive head trauma among children during the first month of the lockdown, compared to the same time period in the previous three years. Children are also in danger of falling behind socially and developmentally, even if they’re not exposed to direct abuse. In November 2020, The Guardian reported that many children are regressing mentally and physically as a result of the lockdowns.33 The Washington Post reported34 scholastic achievement gaps have widened in the U.S. and early literacy among kindergarteners has seen a sharp decline this year. According to The Economist,35 American children over the age of 10 cut physical activity by half during the lockdown, spending most of their time playing video games and eating junk food. Indeed, closing parks and beaches right along with small businesses and schools was undoubtedly among the most ignorant and destructive pandemic measures of all. Suicide EpidemicPreventing healthy people from working and upending everyone’s lives has also (as expected) resulted in a massive rise in suicide, and abnormal spikes became apparent within weeks of the initial lockdowns. As noted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in “How the Government Uses Fear to Control,” research from the 1980s found that for every 1-point rise in unemployment there were 37,000 excess deaths, 4,000 excess imprisonments and 3,300 excess admissions into mental institutions. Kennedy also cites recent data from a hospital in San Francisco that stated they saw one year’s-worth of suicides in a single month, a 1,200% increase. In September 2020, Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, admitted a record number of 37 pediatric patients who had tried to commit suicide. Dr. Kia Carter, medical director of Psychiatry at Cook Children’s told CBS:36
In Japan — which didn’t even implement lockdowns — government statistics reveal more people died from suicide in the month of October than have died from COVID-19 all year.37 While only 2,087 Japanese had died from COVID-19 as of November 27, 2020, the suicide toll in October alone was 2,153. Women make up the lion’s share of suicides, and hotlines are also reporting that women are confessing thoughts of killing their children out of sheer desperation. Developing World Fares Even WorseAs horrible as all of these statistics are, they don’t even begin to compare to the tragedies taking place in developing nations. In India, millions of migrant workers were stranded early on in the pandemic without a way to make a living and unable to leave the cities due to lockdown orders.38 Food lines stretched for miles in South Africa at the end of April 202039 and in Saudi Arabia, “hundreds if not thousands” of African migrants — mostly Ethiopian men — have been left to die from lack of food and water in COVID-19 detention centers after a moratorium on deportation was issued in April, according to an August 30, 2020, report by The Telegraph.40 The United Nations estimates pandemic responses have “pushed an additional 150 million children into multidimensional poverty — deprived of education, health, housing, nutrition, sanitation or water,”41 and at the end of April 2020 warned the world was facing “famine of biblical proportions, with only a limited amount of time to act before starvation claims hundreds of millions of lives."42
Pandemics Highlight Pre-Existing Health InequalitiesIndeed, an ever-growing number of doctors, academics and scientists are now questioning the validity of using PCR tests to diagnose “cases,” the usefulness of face masks, the questionable classification of COVID-19 deaths, and the suppression of scientifically verified methods of prevention and treatment, as well as the safety and usefulness of COVID-19 vaccines. There are clear problems in all of these areas, yet questions and logical thinking have been, and continue to be, met with harsh resistance and denial. Those leading the charge in terms of pandemic responses have not been shy about their censoring of counter-narratives, almost without exception. When it comes to the disease itself, we now know certain comorbidities significantly raise your risk of complications and deaths. Among the top ones are obesity, insulin resistance and vitamin D deficiency. While these conditions are exceptionally common overall, they’re particularly prevalent in Black and indigenous communities, and when combined with inadequate access to health care, these groups also end up being disproportionally affected by COVID-19.44 COVID-19 Is a Class WarWhile the media and political and economic institutions claim the pandemic narrative is based on scientific consensus, this clearly isn’t the case. There’s no evidence supporting universal mask use, for example, and there’s even less scientific support for lockdowns — a strategy based on a high school project that won third place.45 James Corbett of the Corbett Report discusses this shocking revelation in the video above. Now, as many small businesses are failing thanks to months-long shutdowns and employment opportunities look bleak, world leaders are suddenly joining the World Economic Forum in calling for a Great Reset of the economy.46 This is hardly a random coincidence. This plan, which has been in the works for decades, will further empower and enrich wealthy, unelected powerbrokers while enslaving and impoverishing everyone else. The fact that the pandemic has been used to shift wealth from the poor and middle class to the ultra-wealthy is clear for anyone to see at this point. As noted by IPS News:47
The Global RestructuringAt this point, it should be obvious for anyone paying attention that the pandemic is being prolonged and exaggerated for a reason, and it’s not because there’s concern for life. Quite the contrary. It’s a ploy to quite literally enslave the global population within a digital surveillance system49 — a system so unnatural and inhumane that no rational population would ever voluntarily go down that road.
It should also be clear that most if not all pandemic restrictions to freedom are meant to become permanent. In other words, these past nine months have been a preview of the world the technocratic elite wants to implement as part of the new social and economic order. If this is the first time you’re hearing any of this, be sure to review “Who Pressed the Great Reset Button?” “The Pressing Dangers of Technocracy,” “The Global Takeover Is Underway” and “Coronavirus Fraud Scandal — The Biggest Fight Has Just Begun.” Now’s the Time to Fight BackIt’s important to understand that now’s the time to fight back: to resist any and all unconstitutional edicts. Once the “new world order” is in place, you will no longer be able to do a thing about it. Your life — your health, educational and work opportunities, your finances and your very identity — will be so meshed with the automated technological infrastructure that any attempt to break free will result in you being locked out or erased from the system, leaving you with no ability to learn, work, travel or engage in commerce. It sounds far-fetched, I know, but when you follow the technocratic plan to its inevitable end, that’s basically what you end up with. The warning signs are all around us, if we’re willing to see them for what they actually are. The only question now is whether enough people are willing to resist it to make a difference. Most important of all is the need to release the fear. It’s a fearful public that allows the technocratic elite to dictate the future and rip away our personal freedoms. It’s fear that allows tyranny to flourish. Really look at the data, so you can see for yourself that panic is unwarranted, and that the so-called “solutions” to the pandemic are in fact a path of total destruction. This destruction — both moral and economic — is necessary for the Great Reset to occur. The technocratic elite need everything and everyone to fall apart in order to justify the implementation of their new system. Without this desperation, no one would agree to what they have planned. For practical strategies on how you can respond in light of all the tyrannical interventions that have been imposed on us, check out James Corbett’s interview with Howard Lichtman below. I also recommend reading “Constitutional Sheriffs Are the Difference Between Freedom and Tyranny.” Last but not least, now is also the time to take control of your own health. Make it a point to really take care of yourself. Remember, insulin resistance, obesity and vitamin D deficiency top the list of comorbidities that significantly raise your risk complications and death from COVID-19. These are also underlying factors in a host of other chronic diseases, including mental health problems, so by addressing them, you’ll improve your chances of getting through this challenging time with your health and sanity intact. You can find tons of information about how to reverse all of these issues by searching my article archives. from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/12/30/lockdowns-do-not-work.aspx Ivor Cummins is a biochemical engineer with a background in medical device engineering and leading teams in complex problem-solving. On his website, TheFatEmperor.com,1 he offers guidance on how to decode science to transform your health. In a podcast from December 11, 2020, he interviewed Dr. Reid Sheftall about SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Sheftall is an intelligent surgeon, having scored in the 99.95 percentile on the SATs and off the scale on his medical board and surgical board exams. He begins by explaining that the SARS-CoV-2 is only 100 nanometers in dimeter, which is smaller by one-fourth than SARS-2 virus, which is only 100 nanometers in diameter, which is smaller, by one-fourth, than the shortest wavelength that we can see in the visible spectrum. He's been using social media to write essays about different aspects of the virus and the policies that were enacted because of what he calls "mistakes that were made early on" in the pandemic. Here are seven of Sheftall's predictions and corrections, along with the date in which he made them, which are covered in more detail during the interview:
Infection Fatality Rate Has Been Wrong Since the BeginningEarly on during the pandemic, infection mortality rate claims varied from 2.7% to 7%, with most being in the 4% range. According to Sheftall, that's "about 40 times too high" and ended up causing panic and fear in the public. He figured out the infection mortality rate was wrong because he noticed something important: The wide fluctuations in mortality rates didn't add up:
Sheftall suggested that selection bias was being used in the counting of cases, and organizations such as the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were drastically undercounting the number of people who were infected, which inflated the mortality rate. Sheftall looked for data in which every case had been counted, ending up with a cruise ship, in which every person had been tested, and a small town in Germany that had also tested all residents. "When I crunched the numbers, the infection fatality rate came out to 0.14%, so I knew … there were some gross errors going on." Sheftall posted his findings on Facebook, only to be told he was wrong. He then wrote letters to Fox and CNN, hoping to share the information with the public, but he didn't hear back.
Other experts, like Stanford University's disease prevention chairman Dr. John Ioannidis — an epidemiologist who has made a name for himself by exposing bad science — have also criticized global lockdown measures, saying they were implemented based on flawed modeling and grossly unreliable data. Like Sheftall, Ioannidis suggested the infection fatality rate was actually 0.05% to 1%, with a median of about 0.25%.2 Shutting Down Schools 'Makes Absolutely No Sense'Sheftall cites COVID-19 survival rates by age, posted by the CDC September 10, 2020, which are as follows:
This translates into a 0.1% infection fatality rate, using the CDC's own numbers — and the CDC is one of the agencies that cited a 4% infection fatality rate early on. Sheftall couldn't find data on the survival rate of school-aged children from 5 to 17 years, but he did uncover that there were 51 COVID-19 deaths reported in that age range from March 1 to September 10, 2020. "Now there are 56.4 million students in elementary, middle and high school in the United States so that means the chances by population, not by infection but by population, are less than 1 in a million per year for a student in school, and that's very important because we've shut down the schools in America, which causes a lot of problems," he said. Given these numbers, shutting down schools "makes absolutely no sense," as he noted that every year more than 200 school-aged children, on average, die from the flu during a five-month flu season. "So, if you want to be consistent … if you're going to close the schools for SARS-CoV-2 you must close them every year for the flu because it's actually much more severe in the school-age group." But closing schools has consequences, as has been made readily apparent during the pandemic. Interruptions in learning are common — "they did a survey in Boston and only half the children were logging in" to virtual learning, Sheftall said, while others don't have money for a computer or internet connection. Other issues that may have been picked up on at school, like problems with vision or hearing, or cases of abuse, may also go unnoticed. Asymptomatic Testing Goes 'Against Good Practice'According to The Atlantic's COVID Tracking Project, more than 230.3 million COVID-19 tests have been conducted in the U.S. as of December 20, 2020,3 which includes an unknown number of tests conducted on people with no symptoms. The costs for such testing could be used for a more productive purpose, according to Sheftall. Cummins also notes that "it's kind of unethical and it's against good practice" to test asymptomatic people at such a massive rate. "The whole basis of medicine," he says, is to test people with symptoms so you can find out what's wrong and treat them accordingly. Sheftall continues:
During a June 8, 2020, press briefing, Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's technical lead for the COVID-19 pandemic, made it very clear that asymptomatic transmission is very rare, meaning an individual who tests positive but does not exhibit symptoms is highly unlikely to transmit live virus to others. A study in Nature Communications also found "there was no evidence of transmission from asymptomatic positive persons to traced close contacts."4 Meanwhile, the COVID-19 tests are problematic in and of themselves. These positive reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests have been used as the justification for keeping large portions of the world locked down for the better part of 2020, despite the fact that PCR tests have proven remarkably unreliable with high false result rates. A positive test does not actually mean that an active infection is present. The PCR swab collects RNA from your nasal cavity. This RNA is then reverse transcribed into DNA. However, the genetic snippets are so small they must be amplified in order to become discernible. What this does is amplify any, even insignificant sequences of viral DNA that might be present to the point that the test reads "positive," even if the viral load is extremely low or the virus is inactive. According to Sheftall:
Masks, Lockdowns Don't WorkSheftall also compiled daily new deaths for six countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Sweden. All of them have similar death curves, despite whether they instituted lockdowns or not. He also found a graph (pictured at 40 minutes in the video) in which scientists compared the number of cases in a region with how stringent the measures were by the government, including degree of lockdown, group restrictions and mask mandates. "You can see that there's no reverse correlation like you would expect … if the measures are not stringent you should see more cases, according to their thinking … [but] it's the exact opposite of what the people were saying," Sheftall said. In fact, the graph largely shows lower cases when less stringent measures were taken. "It's the same with mask introductions," Cummins added. "If you look at around 10 or 12 countries where they brought in mask mandates, there was no impact on the curve … whatsoever so the empirical science of our own eyes is screaming at us: Masks and lockdowns don't really move the needle much, maybe a little, but no one wants to know. It's an ideology now. It's a religion." Sheftall studied mask usage extensively and found mask mandates did not noticeably change the number of cases or deaths the way they should if they actually reduce transmissibility. Countries that used minimal masks were not worse off than neighboring countries with mask mandates. "Due to statements by experts and CNN commercials claiming that masks prevent viral spread, mass hysteria descended on the world over the wearing of masks," he said. There have been cases of hot coffee being thrown in the faces of people not wearing masks, fines issued and other hysteria, over a measure that's not proven to work. In fact, in the first randomized controlled trial of more than 6,000 individuals to assess the effectiveness of surgical face masks against SARS-CoV-2 infection found masks did not statistically significantly reduce the incidence of infection. Among mask wearers, 1.8% ended up testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, compared to 2.1% among controls.5 When they removed the people who did not adhere to proper mask use, the results remained the same — 1.8%, which suggests adherence makes no significant difference. Bringing in the Great ResetWhen the science flies in the face of the restrictions being imposed, it becomes clear that there's a sinister hidden agenda. Many of the global elite need this crisis and have been "fermenting panic for the past eight months. Why they're doing it you can argue but the fact that they're doing it is plain and obvious," Cummins said, adding:
Ultimately, Cummins believes there's not one "single evil genius stroking a cat" that orchestrated a conspiracy, but rather COVID-19 presented an opportunity that multiple entities have used to further their own agendas. What you can do now is keep your eyes open and your ears tuned to the science, so you don't fall victim to the unnecessary panic and fear they are seeking to cause:
from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/12/29/asymptomatic-covid-testing.aspx A bipartisan coalition of 46 states and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) separately filed antitrust suits against Facebook alleging the company’s anticompetitive tactics and acquisitions of rival companies intrude on your privacy.1 At the same time, Facebook is attacking Apple for limiting the information Facebook can gather from Apple devices.2 The fight is all about your information — where you shop, your interests, friends, thoughts, politics, health and more. The antitrust laws were originally developed to limit the economic power of companies and ensure adequate competition in the market to protect consumer rights.3 Specifically, three federal statutes in the Antitrust Law define and prohibit various aspects of anticompetitive conduct. The two new lawsuits, both filed in the District of Columbia federal district court, will help to define how the Antitrust Law, developed in an era before social media, addresses the anticompetitive actions of Facebook. Wired defines antitrust simply as, “a complicated field built on a simple premise: When a company doesn’t face real competition, it will be free to do bad things.”4 In this case, “bad things” are a breach of consumer welfare standards that have hinged on demonstrating financial harm since the 1970s. In 2019, legal scholar Dina Srinivasan wrote a paper in which she essentially argued that when Facebook took over the market, they forced consumers to accept inferior privacy protection to support the growth of the social media giant. She wrote:5
The change in focus from financial harm to privacy damage was a conceptual breakthrough that the FTC and state coalition believe meets the intention of the Antitrust Law. This comes at a time when Facebook is gaining financial traction using your private data to increase the company’s advertising revenue and change your opinions to match their rhetoric. Facebook Facing Two Antitrust SuitsThese two antitrust suits come on the heels of FTC penalty and privacy restrictions imposed in mid-2019.6 The FTC called it a “record-breaking $5 billion penalty,” yet as I reported in 2019 when I announced “Mercola.com Leaves Facebook Today,” Facebook stock rose after the announcement and the penalty was equal to only one month of revenue for the company.7 So although the FTC called the penalty “the largest ever imposed on any company for violating consumers’ privacy and almost 20 times greater than the largest privacy or data security penalty ever imposed worldwide,”8 it was not close to tapping the financial reserves of the largest social media platform on the planet. Facebook has fallen far from their origins when the company promised to take privacy seriously and not use tracking cookies — and that any changes to their privacy policy would be voted on by users.9 The company's evolution from a privacy-focused start-up to the surveillance platform they've currently become has been at the heart of multiple suits, including the recent antitrust cases. It's anticipated the two cases will be combined as the suits move forward. Interestingly, Facebook released a statement from their general counsel, which called the lawsuits “revisionist history,” but acknowledges there may be questions of “whether Facebook and its competitors are making the right decisions around things like elections, harmful content and privacy.”10 The challenge will be in demonstrating that Facebook not only built up a monopoly but that the monopoly has been harmful to the consumer. In her paper, Srinivasan argued early changes to Facebook privacy policy were met with market resistance, an indication of consumer choice. In 2007, Facebook rolled out a product to track user activity, even when they weren't on Facebook.11 There was enough backlash that within the year the program was discontinued, but later a new program took its place as Facebook currently uses pixel trackers to keep tabs on their users all around the internet. Srinivasan points to changes made again in 2011 when Facebook was fending off Google+. Emails showed that decision-makers in the company were intent on avoiding disturbances in the market and wanted to save any potentially controversial changes until comparisons against other products died down. The antitrust lawsuits include the acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram by Facebook. As a condition of buying WhatsApp, Facebook committed to preserving privacy. However, the WhatsApp founder quit after Facebook broke their promise.12 Decade-Long Plan Revealed in the Rise of Social MediaThese gradual changes were not organic but rather appear to have been an orchestrated event that moved consumers from engagement with a new social media platform to dependence on a surveillance giant that gathers more information on users’ movements and habits than most people are willing to share with their family and friends. According to Statistica, Facebook has 2.5 billion active users, demonstrating the massive phenomenon that social media has become.13 When you consider there are 7.7 billion people globally and nearly half are online, these numbers are huge.14 Facebook is the most popular platform by far. YouTube runs second at 1.9 billion users and Instagram and WeChat have 1 billion users apiece. The first to reach 1 million active users was Myspace in 2004, which was the same year that Facebook was launched in Cambridge, Massachusetts.15 By 2010, Facebook had overtaken all other social media sites in number of active users each month and has continued to dominate the market.16 The changes and evolution of the social media giant over the past 15 years is a visible demonstration of the flexibility and drive behind the management team, which devised a plan to enable the company to overtake older more established media platforms. From their history, it has appeared the strategy is to acquire other social media platforms that threaten Facebook’s market share.17 For example, as Instagram and WhatsApp were gaining popularity, Facebook brought them into the fold. The company may have an aim at being all things to all people, growing their company through a large number of acquisitions, including over 75 companies beginning in 2007.18 Privacy: Apple Wants It, Facebook Doesn’tOn the opposite end of the spectrum, Apple decided to add settings on users' iPhones that will change how mobile advertising is displayed on those devices. The upgrade puts a privacy option that had always been in the apps, upfront when the user opens the app.19 The expectation is that it will have a dramatic effect on targeted advertising. The change was initially planned for fall of 2020 but was delayed, giving advertising systems a chance to comply. Each user will see a pop-up window that warns them the app may be gathering data and give them the opportunity to block it. In response, Facebook took out advertising in major newspapers across the U.S., criticizing the upgrade and defending the use of targeted advertising, writing these changes will hurt small businesses.20 The ads appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and New York Times, as reported by Bloomberg. Facebook asserts that:21
At issue is Facebook's Audience Network system.22 The platform was released in 2014 and is “an off Facebook, in-app advertising network for mobile apps.”23 Data gathering on Facebook allows advertisers to show customers who are using other mobile sites and apps their ads, which extends their reach beyond Facebook while still using Facebook’s advertising system. Beginning in 2021, in response to Apple's move to improve privacy, the Audience Network will begin using bidding only to fill ads in the iOS network.24 Facebook anticipates that the changes to iOS 14 will decrease their ability to collect the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) information, which will then impact monetization of in-app advertising. While this may impact targeted advertising for business, it protects your privacy. It may appear these ads are only irritating, but the underlying issue isn’t just one or two ads. Rather it’s the massive amount of data that’s gathered and collated based on your identifying information, which reveals insight into your communication and spending habits. This in turn allows Facebook to make fairly accurate assumptions about your behavior. The Power of Social MediaFacebook can then use this data about your behavior patterns to serve information that may change your mind about political candidates, spending practices, weight loss efforts and a variety of other choices you make each day. In other words, by simply gathering information, Facebook has the potential to change your behavior. Facebook also uses strategies to remove information that you might find helpful. For example, in their promise to combat “fake news” censorship doesn't end at blatantly fake articles but includes removal of any information they find unfavorable to Facebook or their advertisers. Former U.S. presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) is an outspoken proponent of breaking up monopolies such as Amazon, Facebook and Google and vowed to introduce “sweeping new regulation of Silicon Valley” should she have been elected president.25 However, three of Warren’s Facebook ads were removed with the message they were “against Facebook advertising policies,” a glaringly obvious example of why her proposal is so sorely needed.26 Facebook uses the same tactics to remove anything they believe contains “misinformation” about health, such as topics related to vaccines or treatments for COVID-19 that they and their advertisers do not deem beneficial to their end results. Their draconian means of protecting their platform and rhetoric were one of the reasons Mercola.com left Facebook. Facebook uses data mining to subvert your privacy and change your behavior by meticulously tracking your hobbies, habits and preferences. In fact, their entire profit model is based on surveillance and selling your personal information. They not only have access to the websites you visit but can also access your computer or smartphone’s microphone without your knowledge.27 If you suddenly find yourself receiving ads for products or services you only spoke out loud about, chances are that one or more of your apps are linked to your microphone and are eavesdropping. In the current stay-at-home environment, more people are using Facebook and sharing more of their personal information, which means Facebook has more to lose. For example, a study published by Carnegie Mellon University in May 2020 found 45% of the Twitter accounts posting about the coronavirus were likely bots “aimed at sowing division in America.”28 While this example is from another social media conglomerate, it is just one method that social media platforms can use to change your mind about current events, health decisions and spending habits. Study: Unplugging May Increase Happiness and SatisfactionA study published in late 2019 from New York University used a randomized experiment to find that unplugging from Facebook for four weeks increased a person's offline activities, such as socializing with people, reduced their political polarization and increased their feeling of well-being.29 Psychotherapist Nancy Colier is the author of the book “The Power of Off: The Mindful Way to Stay Sane in a Virtual World.” She knows that when you have an addiction, “it gets harder and harder to derive joy from the present moment. We're in this chronic state of wanting to get our substance.”30 Research has also suggested the validation you get when someone “likes” your post may trigger a release of dopamine and oxytocin, feel-good neurotransmitters. It's important to remember that social media is designed to be addictive, to keep you on the site longer and longer. As Computer World reports:31
There are strategies you can use to break free from this addiction, such as setting a time limit, checking in once a day or quitting cold turkey. Colier has suggested using mindfulness. The Epoch Times reported:32
If you're not ready to completely give up your devices, here are strategies compiled by the Center for Humane Technology that you can use to help develop an intentional relationship with technology.33 These are good starting points and worth sharing with your kids too.
from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/12/29/facebook-antitrust-suit.aspx 1 How does the normalization of cultured, fake meat fit into the Great Reset agenda?
2 SARS-CoV-2 has been found on:
3 Imitation meats, such as plant-based and laboratory-grown cell-based meats, are:
4 During and after the loss of a loved one, the following increases symptoms of prolonged grief disorder:
5 How many of those who had been in close contact with an asymptomatic individual ended up testing positive, according to data collected from nearly 9.9 million Chinese tested for SARS-CoV-2?
6 The high-pitched screaming with arching of the back or inconsolable crying that many parents of vaccine-injured children describe following vaccination are signs of:
7 Which of the following, when consumed in excess, can cause you to become insulin resistant?
from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/12/28/week-162-health-quiz.aspx I've reviewed the science on mask wearing in several articles over the past nine months. So far, there's not been a study showing a significant benefit. On the contrary, evidence is conspicuously piled on the side of the argument that they don't protect the wearer or prevent the spread of infection in community settings. Despite the lack of scientific basis, universal mask mandates continue to be pushed to ludicrous ends. Case in point: A family was recently booted off a United Airlines flight because the couple's 2-year-old daughter refused to wear a face mask.1 Family Kicked Off Flight Over 2-Year-Old's Mask RefusalThe father, Eliz Orban, spoke to Eyewitness News about the incident in their December 13, 2020, report. United Airlines issued a statement about the event, saying the company has "a multi-layered set of policies, including mandating that everyone onboard 2 and older wears a mask." United Airlines added that "These procedures are not only backed by guidance from the CDC and our partners at the Cleveland Clinic, but they're also consistent across every major airline." The Orban family were refunded for the flight, and contrary to the couple's original video2 statement, they are not banned from future flights. This is about as unreasonable as it can get. Not only do universal mask mandates have no scientific backing in general, but insisting that a 2-year-old wear a mask is also nonsensical for the fact that the only way to get what little benefit you can from a mask is by putting it on, wearing and removing properly. Readers Digest published "11 Mistakes You're Probably Making with Face Masks,"3 reviewing all the ways in which you might nullify the mask's benefit. The idea that a young child would be able to comply with these detailed instructions is beyond unreasonable, seeing how a vast majority of adults cannot even follow them. One key way by which you negate the benefit of a mask is by touching it. Yet people are constantly fiddling with their masks as they fall down or shift on their face as they talk or move around. A young child is even more likely to contaminate the mask beyond the point of it providing any benefit whatsoever. Young Children Pose Extremely Low Risk to OthersImportantly though, young children are insignificant disease vectors,4, 5,6,7 meaning they rarely test positive or spread the infection. This makes kicking the family off the plane all the more egregious. In truth, the smartest person in this whole affair is the baby who refused to comply. Interestingly enough, back in May 2020, United Airlines' COVID-19 policy stressed the need to avoid confrontation. In a statement to CNN for a May 14, 2020, article on airline mask policies, United Airlines said:8
Apparently, the flight attendant in this case disregarded such solutions and chose the most traumatic path in dealing with the Orbans instead. Incidentally, while the Orbans are apparently being allowed to fly United Airlines in the future, the company does have a policy that calls for the permanent suspension of noncompliant passengers, according to Forbes.9 Hundreds of Mask Refusers Placed on No-Fly ListThe Orbans aren't the first to be kicked off a flight over a mask dispute. According to Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian, nearly 700 people have been placed on the company's no-fly list since May 2020 for refusing to wear a face mask.10 The Orbans also aren't' the first to be booted because of an uncompliant child. September 14, 2020, CNN reported11 that Jodi Degyansky and her 2-year-old son were asked to de-board a Southwestern Airlines flight because her son had his mask pulled under his chin while eating some gummy bears. A flight attendant told Degyansky that families with small children shirk the company's mask policy by eating throughout the entire flight. Even though Degyansky's son voluntarily put his mask back on, the plane taxied back to the gate and the pair were told to get off. "I feel horrible that my son had to endure that," Degyansky told CNN.12 In August, Southwest Airlines also booted a passenger and her 3-year-old autistic son off a flight after the boy became upset by efforts to force a mask onto his face.13 Defund Forced MaskersForcing young children to wear masks for hours on end is ludicrous for all the reasons already mentioned. Even the idea that adults must wear them while flying flies in the face of scientific evidence. My sister recently took a flight during which she noted that first-class passengers were unmasked throughout the entire flight without repercussions. Meanwhile, flight attendants policed everyone else. If we were really dealing with a lethal virus, wouldn't first-class passengers be as prone to carry and contract it as those with cheaper tickets? And if masks really did work, wouldn't first-class passengers be forced to wear them as well? Enforcement discrepancies alone point to the whole thing being part of a class war and little else. So, what's the answer? Probably the best strategy would be to "defund" companies that strictly enforce these unscientific rules. In short, don't fly with airlines that boot children off for mask infractions. What Risk Do Flights Pose?Do flights pose an infection risk? Probably, yes, for the simple fact that you're in a confined space with many individuals. At least two studies14,15 published in November 2020 have confirmed that infection can and does take place during flights. Unfortunately, both looked at flights that took place in early March 2020, and neither specify whether passengers were wearing masks or not. Proximity to an infected person appears to be the key finding in these studies, which suggests that spacing out passengers and not filling flights to capacity is the right thing to do to limit transmission. That said, experts who have looked at available flight data say your risk of catching COVID-19 during a flight is still pretty slim. According to an August 20, 2020, report by CNN:16
Barnett does include mask wearing as one of the factors in his risk calculation. I'm curious how he rated the effectiveness of the masks, seeing how he states that:
To Pose a Risk, You Need To Be SymptomaticStudies have repeatedly shown that masks do not significantly reduce transmission of viruses, so it's safe to assume that a mask will in fact fail in this regard. That leaves two key factors: There must be a contagious person onboard, and they must be sufficiently close for transmission to occur. We now know that asymptomatic individuals — even if they test positive using a PCR test — are highly unlikely to be contagious.17 So, really, a key prevention strategy for COVID-19 seems to be to stay home if you have symptoms. Clearly, forcing a healthy young child to wear a face mask is not going to make the flight any safer. What Does the Science Say About Masks?If you're still on the fence about whether masks are a necessity that must be forced on everyone, including young children, I urge you to take the time to actually read through some of the studies that have been published. As noted by Denis Rancourt, Ph.D., a former full professor of physics and researcher with the Ontario Civil Liberties Association in Canada, all of the well-designed studies that have been published so far have failed to find a statistically significant advantage to wearing a mask versus not wearing one. Here's a sampling of what you'll find when you start searching for data on face masks as a strategy to prevent viral infection:
Statistics Show Mask Use Have No Impact on Infection RatesAnother way to shed light on whether masks work or not is to compare infection rates (read: positive test rates) before and after the implementation of universal mask mandates. In his article,32 "These 12 Graphs Show Mask Mandates Do Nothing to Stop COVID," Yinon Weiss does just that. He points out that "No matter how strictly mask laws are enforced nor the level of mask compliance the population follows, cases all fall and rise around the same time." To see all of the graphs, check out Weiss' article33 or Twitter thread.34 Here are just a select few to bring home the point: Let's Embrace RealityMask wearing, which clearly does little in terms of preventing the rate and risk of infectious spread of SARS-CoV-2, delays the inevitable, which is the acceptance that the disease known as COVID-19 is part of our future, just like the pandemic swine flu H1N1, all the influenza viruses that shift with each season, tuberculosis, Zika and a whole host of other viruses. We simply cannot prevent any and all COVID-19 deaths any more than we can prevent death from any other cause. All we can do is understand what makes us vulnerable, and take steps to address those underlying weaknesses. In the case of COVID-19, that includes addressing metabolic health, insulin resistance, obesity, and nutritional deficiencies such as vitamin D, magnesium and zinc. By doing that, you make yourself more resistant to infection and complications thereof. For nine months, the focus has been on masking, social distancing, shutting down businesses and getting a vaccine. Time and again, the goal post has shifted, such that now we're told that even with a vaccine, all of the other measures will still be required well into 2022. There's a reason why none of it makes sense, and that is because the measures have nothing to do with preventing infection. They're tools used to implement a new economic and social system, as explained in "What You Need to Know About the Great Reset," "Who Pressed the Great Reset Button?" and "Technocracy and the Great Reset." We need to start presenting a united front against those who seek to destroy society as we know it and steal our assets and resources. One of the first steps toward that end is taking a firm stand against nonsensical and scientifically unjustifiable rules such as universal mask wearing, be it on planes, in stores or outdoors. While it may not always be possible, consider not frequenting or buying from businesses that kick people out for not wearing a mask. Remember that collectively we have financial clout and, typically, hitting businesses in the pocketbook is the most effective way to demand change. from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/12/28/face-mask-on-flight.aspx Sulfur is in the top three abundant minerals found in the human body1 and the topic of the interview with Stephanie Seneff, senior research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the video above. An epidemiological study from West Virginia University found glucosamine sulfate supplements may lower overall mortality as much as regular exercise.2 The underlying mechanism may be related to sulfur. If you've ever smelled sulfur gas when it comes up from well water, you won't forget the smell of rotten eggs. In fact, the natural gas industry adds mercaptan, a component of sulfur, to natural gas — which has no odor — to make it smell like rotten eggs so you can detect a natural gas leak.3 While stinky in gas form, sulfur is an important mineral in the optimal function of your body. Interestingly, you'll get most of your sulfur from specific amino acids, including methionine, cysteine, cystine, homocysteine, homocysteine and taurine.4 Of these, the two most important are methionine and cysteine. Methionine is an essential amino acid, which means your body can’t synthesize it so it must be supplied through your diet. Your body can make cysteine from methionine but not from inorganic forms of sulfur. Some individuals are allergic to sulfa drugs and may have concerns about eating sulfur-containing foods. However, since sulfur is an essential element to life, no one is allergic to sulfur. When a sulfonamide molecule from sulfa drugs is metabolized it can bind to a protein that serves as an allergen.5 The sulfonamide molecule in sulfa drugs does have sulfur, but it is embedded in a compound with the unique property of being able to form proteins that cause an allergic reaction in some people. Glucosamine, the subject of the featured publication, is an amino acid that is often combined with sulfate and not known to trigger allergic reactions from the sulfate.6 However, most glucosamine supplements are derived from shellfish and there is some concern of an allergic reaction in people who have an allergy to shellfish.7 There are several forms of glucosamine supplements that are not interchangeable. They include glucosamine sulfate, glucosamine hydrochloride and n-acetyl glucosamine. Glucosamine sulfate is what is used to help painful arthritis and was the focus of this study. Study: Glucosamine/Chondroitin Lowers All-Cause MortalityIn an epidemiological study released from West Virginia University, researchers found that individuals using glucosamine supplements had reduced overall mortality to the degree conferred by regular exercise.8 The first author, Dana King, is chair of the department of family medicine at West Virginia University.9 He and his partner, a data analyst, evaluated information from 16,686 adults who had participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The results were from 1999 to 2010 and the data was merged with 2015 mortality figures. The researchers controlled for a variety of confounding factors, such as age, activity level and smoking status, and found those taking a glucosamine/chondroitin supplement each day for at least a year or longer had a 39% reduced potential of all-cause mortality and a 65% reduction in mortality from cardiovascular-related events.10 King shared that his interest in glucosamine and chondroitin began when he learned many of the cyclists he rode with on weekends used the supplement. King points out that the data are from an epidemiological study and not a clinical trial so it can’t conclusively demonstrate that death is less likely, but goes on to comment:11
The results of this study support previous research published in the BMJ in which researchers engaged 466,039 participants without cardiovascular disease to determine if there was an association between glucosamine use and a reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease.12 After adjusting for confounding factors, such as age, body mass index, dietary intake, sex and drug use, researchers found there was a “significantly lower risk” of 9% to 22% of all outcome measures. The outcome measures included cardiovascular disease events, coronary heart disease and stroke in people who used glucosamine supplements daily. The researchers found that their findings supported past studies that had demonstrated an inverse relationship between glucosamine supplementation and cardiovascular disease risk and mortality. Interestingly, they also found those taking glucosamine and who were current smokers experienced reductions in cardiovascular disease greater than in those who were past smokers or never smokers. They theorized this was because smokers have a higher level of inflammation and glucosamine is associated with a reduction in C-reactive protein, a marker for systemic inflammation. Sulfur Deficiency May Contribute to Multiple ConditionsAn opinion piece that ran in the same publication points out that the sulfate in glucosamine sulfate supplements, which make up “most glucosamine products available on the market,”13 may have been a contributing factor as it satisfies a potential sulfur deficiency.14 One study analyzing how much sulfur is available in the diet concluded “a significant portion of the population that included disproportionately the aged, may not be receiving sufficient sulfur.”15 Scientists are aware that nutrient deficiencies can produce significant health problems. In one paper in the Journal of the American Heart Association the writers said: “Micronutrients are necessary cofactors for normal cardiac metabolism, and deficiencies have been implicated in the development and progression of HF [heart failure].”16 Seneff and her team proposed the hypothesis that atherosclerosis is the result of a cholesterol sulfate deficiency.17 They proposed that atherosclerosis can be explained by the body using plaque to replenish cholesterol and sulfate to the microvasculature. They argue that insufficient sulfate may increase the risk of high blood pressure and blood clot formation. Seneff calls sulfur an “unappreciated deficiency” since it is found in several foods and most assume that your diet meets your minimum daily requirements.18 Excellent food sources include eggs, garlic, onions and green leafy vegetables. Nuts, grass fed meat and seafood also contain sulfur. However, a depletion in the soil creates a deficiency in your fruits and vegetables and may contribute, in part, to sulfur deficiency. She theorizes that a sulfur deficiency is related to rising obesity rates and is connected to glucose metabolism and cardiovascular disease. In her research, she found people who experience muscle wasting from diseases such as cancer, HIV, sepsis, irritable bowel disease and athletic overtraining may be the result of a deficiency in cysteine and glutathione, two amino acids with sulfur molecules. MSM Is a Powerful Sulfur SupplementSulfur can be found in your muscles, skin and bones. It helps with fat digestion, is needed to make bile acid and required to form collagen.19 The element plays important roles in hundreds of physiological processes. For example, sulfur bonds are needed for proteins to maintain their shape and they determine the biological activity of the protein. Hair and nails are made of a tough protein called keratin, which is high in sulfur, whereas connective tissue and cartilage have protein with flexible sulfur bonds.20 In addition to proteins, sulfur is also required for the proper structure and biological activity of enzymes. Methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) is a sulfur donor and contains 34% elemental sulfur by weight.21 Many of the benefits of supplementing with MSM are related to the compound's ability to reduce inflammation, regulate the balance of reactive oxygen species and antioxidant enzymes,22 and modulate your immune response.23 It is widely used in the treatment of pain, especially pain associated with arthritis. In one clinical trial, researchers found people with osteoarthritis of the knee who took three grams of MSM twice a day for 12 weeks experienced a significant reduction in pain and improvement in physical function, as compared to those who took the placebo.24 In another randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study,25 data showed participants with mild-to-moderate osteoarthritis experienced an analgesic and anti-inflammatory effect when given oral glucosamine and MSM, both individually and in combination. In this study, the treatment groups received 500 milligrams (mg) of glucosamine and/or 500 mg of MSM three times a day for 12 weeks. According to the authors:
The Benefits of Bone Broth and Epsom SaltsIn addition to food and MSM supplementation, you may also absorb sulfur from homemade bone broth or a relaxing soak in a warm Epsom salt bath. As I've written in the past, bone broth contains other valuable minerals that your body can easily absorb in use, including magnesium, phosphorus, calcium, silicon, sulfur chondroitin and glucosamine.26 Bone broth also helps attract and hold liquids in the digestive system and supports proper digestion. In one study, researchers found that chicken soup has medicinal qualities and significantly mitigated inflammation and infection.27,28 The amino acids in bone broth helps to fight inflammation and courtesy of chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine, it helps to reduce joint pain and inflammation.29 Bone broth is made from animal bones. It's important to use homemade bone broth since the store-bought variety is produced by adding chemical-laden bouillon cubes, whereas traditional soups are made by cooking bones and meat for several hours. In its simplest form, it's made by using bones, vinegar and spices, and simmering in a pot or slow cooker for as long as 24 to 72 hours. Bone broth made over longer periods of time increases the release of gelatin, minerals and other nutrients from the bones, which are key to many of the benefits and restorative properties. Epsom salt baths are a simple way of absorbing both magnesium and sulfate. Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate, which is easily absorbed through your skin. It is also a preferable way of absorbing magnesium and sulfate since it's readily available to your body without having to be converted as it is when taken orally. As a general recommendation, use 1 to 2 cups of Epsom salt in a tub of water. The warmer the water, the more the salt will dissolve and the more your body will be able to absorb it. Some people may experience a negative reaction, such as irritability or hyperactivity. In this case, decrease the amount you use and incrementally raise it based on your tolerance. Alternatively, make a foot bath of one part Epsom salt to two parts water and soak your feet for about 30 minutes. from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/12/28/sulfur-consumption-reduces-risk-of-death.aspx Dr. Mercola Interviews the Experts This article is part of a weekly series in which Dr. Mercola interviews various experts on a variety of health issues. To see more expert interviews, click here. In this interview, Tucker Goodrich and I discuss what will be the topic of my next book, namely linoleic acid (LA), which I believe is likely the leading contributing cause of virtually all chronic diseases we’ve encountered over the last century. Unfortunately, this is a topic that most clinicians and health care practitioners who focus on natural medicine have only a superficial understanding of. Goodrich has a business background as a stockbroker and asset manager, and developed an IT risk management system used by two of the largest hedge funds in the world. A string of health crises in his late 30s and early 40s prompted him to apply his research and troubleshooting skills to medical research. As noted by Goodrich, “It was a very upsetting time in my life and medical professionals really weren't any help at all in trying to figure out what caused things.” After a lot of reading and researching, he decided to cut out seed oils from his diet, and in just two days, his 16-year-long bout with irritable bowel disease started to dramatically improve. “I started immediately feeling better,” he says. He also lost a significant amount of weight over the next two months. After that, he stopped eating carbs and realized he must have had a severe case of gluten intolerance.
Avoiding Omega-6 Fats Is Key for Good HealthWhile considered an essential fat, when consumed in excessive amounts, which over 99% of people do, LA (an omega-6 polyunsaturated fat or PUFA) acts as a metabolic poison. Most clinicians who value nutritional interventions to optimize health understand that vegetable oils, which are loaded with omega-6 PUFAs, are something to be avoided. What most fail to appreciate is that even if you eliminate the vegetable oils and avoid them like the plague, you may still be missing the mark. Chances are you’re still getting too much of this dangerous fat from supposedly healthy food sources such as olive oil and chicken (which are fed LA-rich grains) — a topic covered in “Why Chicken Is Killing You and Saturated Fat Is Your Friend.” Another common mistake is to simply increase the amount of omega-3 that you eat. Many are now aware that the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio is very important, and should be about equal, but simply increasing omega-3 can be a dangerous strategy. You really need to minimize the omega-6. As explained by Goodrich:
LA Is a Primary Contributor to Chronic DiseaseWhen we talk about omega-6, we’re really referring to LA. They’re largely synonymous, as LA makes up the bulk — about 60% to 80% — of omega-6 and is the primary contributor to disease. Broadly speaking, there are three types of fats:
The missing hydrogen atoms make PUFAs highly susceptible to oxidation, which means the fat breaks down into harmful metabolites. OXLAMS (oxidized LA metabolites) are what have a profoundly negative impact on human health. While excess sugar is certainly bad for your health and should be limited to 25 grams per day or less, it doesn’t oxidize like LA does so it’s nowhere near as damaging. Over the last century, thanks to fatally flawed research suggesting saturated animal fat caused heart disease, the LA in the human diet has dramatically increased, from about 2 to 3 grams a day 150 years ago, to 30 or 40 grams a day. Goodrich cites research showing LA used to make up 1% to 3% of the energy in the human diet and now it makes up 15% to 20%. In my mind, this radical change has had the most catastrophic impact on human health in the history of the human race, as it is the complete opposite of what you need for optimal health. This dietary change has undoubtedly killed millions, probably hundreds of millions, prematurely and still continues to do so because people don't understand this.
On a side note, do not confuse LA with conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). While most think CLA and LA are interchangeable, they’re not. CLA has many potent health benefits and will not cause the problems that LA does. How Excess LA Consumption Damages Your HealthAt a molecular level, excess LA consumption damages your metabolism and impedes your body’s ability to generate energy in your mitochondria. There is a particular fat only located in your mitochondria — most of it is found in the inner mitochondrial membrane — called cardiolipin. Cardiolipin is made up of four fatty acids, unlike triglycerides which have three, but the individual fats can vary. Examples include LA, palmitic acid and the fatty acids found in fish oil, DHA and EPA. Each of these have a different effect on mitochondrial function, and depending on the organ, the mitochondria work better with particular kinds of fatty acids. For example, your heart preferentially builds cardiolipin with LA, while your brain dislikes LA and preferentially builds cardiolipin in the mitochondria with fats like DHA. Goodrich further explains:
Oxidation of Cardiolipin Controls AutophagyOxidation of cardiolipin is one of the things that controls autophagy. In other words, it’s one of the signals that your body uses when there’s something wrong with a cell, triggering the destruction and rebuilding of that cell. Your cells know that they’re broken when they have too many damaged mitochondria, and the process that controls this is largely the oxidation of omega-6 fats contained within cardiolipin. So, by altering the composition of cardiolipin in your mitochondria to one that's richer in omega-6 fats, you make it far more susceptible to oxidative damage. Goodrich cites research showing that when the LA in cardiolipin is replaced with oleic acid, another fat found in olive oil, the cardiolipin molecules become highly resistant to oxidative damage.
As mentioned, the primary problem is the OXLAMS, the oxidized byproducts. One of them is 4HNE, which is relatively easy to measure. Studies have shown there’s a definite correlation between elevated levels of 4HNE and heart failure. LA is broken down into 4HNE even faster when the oil is heated, which is why cardiologists recommend avoiding fried foods. OXLAMS Trigger CancerHeart disease isn’t the only condition triggered by excessive LA intake and the subsequent OXLAMS produced. It also plays a significant role in cancer. As noted by Goodrich, to induce cancer in animal models, you actually have to feed them seed oils. “So, this is a really fundamental process that we're talking about here,” he says. Animals typically develop cancer once the LA in their diet reaches 4% to 10% of their energy intake, depending on the cancer. In the breast cancer model, cancer incidents increase once 4% of calories are in the form of seed oils. Disturbingly, most Americans get approximately 8% of their calories from seed oils. “So, we're way over what these thresholds in the lab would suggest is a safe level of these fats based on the laboratory work in animals,” Goodrich says, adding:
4HNE is a mutagen, in other words, a toxin that causes DNA damage. One of the primary genes it damages is the P53 anticancer gene. Mutations in the P53 gene is found in 15% of cancers, making it one of the most common. As noted by Goodrich, “P53 is literally a cancer prevention gene. It's how your body regulates cancer. You can all draw your own conclusions about the wisdom of eating something that can cause that to break.” On a side note, one of the major jobs of glutathione is to detoxify 4HNE. You can often tell that you have excess 4HNE if your glutathione levels are low, as this means it’s being used up detoxifying 4HNE. LA and ObesityHigh-LA diets also cause obesity. “If you feed mice lots of saturated fat, they don't get fat and they don't get sick. It's only when you increase the LA in the diet from 1% to 8% that they become obese,” Goodrich says. Now, mice and rats are not exactly like humans, so how do we know all of this applies to us? Goodrich explains:
Increased LA Also Increases Your Risk of SunburnSo, to summarize, the dramatic increase in LA — and the oxidative end products that cause the damage — is the primary cause behind the increase in chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Simply lowering your LA intake to what your great-great grandparents used to eat, you can essentially eliminate almost every single one of the diseases that is now prematurely killing us. Interestingly enough, there’s even evidence showing eliminating seed oils from your diet will dramatically reduce your risk of sunburn, which is something Goodrich experienced first-hand. “Susceptibility to UV radiation damage is controlled by how much PUFAs are in your diet,” he says. “It's like a dial. They can control how fast it happens, and how fast you get skin cancer.” Seed Oils Raise Risk of ARDS and COVID-19Considering the metabolic and mitochondrial damage caused by LA, there’s reason to suspect LA may also play a role in COVID-19, as some white blood cells convert LA into leukotoxin. Essentially, LA contributes to the inflammatory domino effect that eventually kills. Goodrich explains:
As explained by Goodrich, the key toxin that produce the symptoms of ARDS is called leukotoxin, and leukotoxin is made from LA by white blood cells to kill pathogens. It’s toxic enough to where if you inject high-enough amounts of it into animals, it kills them in minutes. Leukocytes incubated with LA convert all of the LA into this toxin until there's none left, so, a major part of the disease process in ARDS is the conversion of LA into leukotoxin. That is what ends up killing patients.
How LA Triggers Heart DiseaseGoodrich also explains how high LA levels causes heart disease. One of the first things that happens in atherosclerosis is your macrophages, another type of leukocyte, turns into a foam cell, essentially a macrophage stuffed with fat and cholesterol. Atherosclerotic plaque is basically dead macrophages and other types of cells loaded with cholesterol and fat. This is why heart disease is blamed on dietary cholesterol and fat. However, researchers have found that in order for foam cells to form, the LDL must be modified through oxidation, and seed oils do just this. Seed oils cause the LDL to oxidize, thereby forming foam cells. LDL in and of itself does not initiate atherosclerosis. LDL's susceptibility to this oxidative process is controlled by the LA content of your diet.
Understanding Olive OilAs mentioned, olive oil also contains LA, but it also has other healthy fats. This makes olive oil a bit tricky. The main fat in olive oil is oleic acid, which is one of your body's favorite fats. Your body actually makes, it, which is why it's not considered an essential fat. Oleic acid is much more resistant to oxidation than LA, which is why olive oil is a pretty decent cooking oil. According to Goodrich, oleic acid is protective against both cardiolipin oxidation and LDL oxidation. Interestingly, oleic acid can also replace LA in LDL. Other fats, such as palmitic acid, cannot do that. The problem with olive oil is that it also has a fair amount of LA. “The percentages that I've seen quoted in literature range from 2%, which is awesome, to 22%, which is not good,” Goodrich says. The other problem is the olive oil market is hugely corrupt and fraught with fraud. Many olive oils are cut with cheaper seed oils, which raises the LA content. So, in summary, if you’re using olive oil, I strongly recommend keeping close track of your total LA intake. Anything over 10 grams a day is likely to be problematic (although the exact cutoff is still unknown, so this is merely an educated guess). If you really want to be on the safe side, consider cutting LA down to 2 or 3 grams per day, to match what our ancestors used to get before all of these chronic health conditions became widespread. If olive oil puts you over the limit, consider cooking with tallow or lard instead. Beef tallow is 46% oleic acid and lard is 36% oleic acid. High-LA Sources to AvoidAs Goodrich suggests, if you want to protect your health, you’d be wise to avoid all concentrated sources of LA. Top sources include chips fried in vegetable oil, commercial salad dressings, virtually all processed foods and any fried fast food, such as french fries.
The Importance of CarnosineBeef, even conventional grain-finished beef, has low LA. Grass fed beef has higher DHA and CLA, which makes it a healthier option. Beef is also the primary source of carnosine, which has been shown to be anti-atherogenic. Carnosine is also a mitochondrial stimulant, a sacrificial scavenger of advanced lipooxidation end products (ALEs), which is very similar to advanced glycation end products (AGEs). AGEs is another name for HNE and all the other reactive oxygen species generated from oxidizing LA. Carnosine is the most effective scavenger for HNE. Carbonylation of proteins is basically the process through which proteins in your body get damaged and become ineffective. HNE damages 24% of the proteins in your cells, so carnosine can go a long way toward warding off this cellular damage. As explained by Goodrich:
Take Control of Your Health by Lowering Your LA IntakeAs you can see, the evidence strongly suggests excessive LA is driving all the killer diseases today. The solution is simple though. Just lower your LA intake. There’s an easy way to do this. You don't have to send all your food out for analysis. Simply use an online nutritional calculator such as Chronometer to calculate your daily intake. Chronometer will tell you how much omega-6 you’re getting from your food down to the 10th of a gram, and you can assume 90% of that is LA. Again, anything over 10 grams is likely to cause problems. Since there’s no downside to limiting your LA, you’ll want to keep it as low as possible, which you do by avoiding high-LA foods. Keep in mind you’ll never be able to get to zero, and you wouldn’t want to do that either. So, just what should you eat to keep your LA intake low? Goodrich summarizes his own diet:
This is yet another reason for working out in a fasted state, which Goodrich also recommends. “I think working on a fasted state is one of the most important health things that you can do, without question,” he says. Goodrich also points out that the reason a strict ketogenic diet can cause liver failure is due to the omega-6 fats in the diet. It’s crucial to make sure the fats you eat are actually healthy. Goodrich is currently in the process of writing a book about this, as am I, in which all of this information will be laid out in even greater detail. In the meantime, you can learn more by visiting Goodrich’s blog, Yelling-Stop, or follow him on Twitter. In closing:
from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/12/27/linoleic-acid-health-effects.aspx |
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