Natural methods to prevent and treat kidney stones

(NaturalNews) The excruciating pain of passing a kidney stone usually makes sufferers go to the hospital. In most cases, physicians aren’t able to do much except send the patient home with a prescription for painkillers. In instances where a stone is particularly large, doctors use shock waves to break the stone into pieces small enough to pass through the urethra. Either way, the patient incurs the usual outsize bill that goes with any emergency room visit. Rather than experience first-hand why the saying “harder than passing a kidney stone” has become a common way to describe an agonizing experience, you may want to take adjust your diet to avoid the formation of these mineral deposits comprised of calcium, uric acid or the amino acid cysteine. Highly acidic diets tend to create an environment which encourages kidney stones, while more alkaline diets help prevent these kind of deposits. Soft drinks, coffee, alcohol, products containing corn syrup and most forms of animal protein have an acidic effect on the body. Some fruits and vegetables have a more alkaline effect, while others are more acidic. Some otherwise healthful foods such as rhubarb, spinach, beet greens, sorrel, green tea and chocolate can contribute to kidney stone formation because they contain oxalic acid. You can learn more about alkaline/acidic balance on NaturalNews (http://www.naturalnews.com/026971_body_health_alkaline.html). This link (http://www.rense.com/1.mpicons/acidalka.htm) also provides useful information about where specific foods fall on the acidity-alkalinity scale. Drinking plenty of pure water also helps discourage the formation of mineral deposits in the kidneys. Holding the bladder rather than urinating when nature calls can also contribute to stone formation. Unless there is a history of kidney infection, people who maintain diets which emphasize fruits and vegetables over animal protein generally have a lower risk of kidney stones. Symptoms of kidney stones may include nausea and vomiting, as well as pain in the lower back and/or abdomen and blood in the urine. There are natural home remedies which can help dissolve kidney stones, as well as natural aids to help ease stones out of the body more quickly and reduce the pain associated with kidney stones. Western herbal remedies to prevent kidney stones include meadowsweet, sarsaparilla, joe-pye weed and plantain which help cleanse excess uric acid from the kidneys. Goldenrod is so effective in helping dissolve kidney stones that in Germany, where herbal medicine has received more official acceptance than in the U.S., it is part of the recommended course of treatment. Multiple scientific studies have verified the folk medicine wisdom which has long prescribed goldenrod for a variety of kidney, bladder and urinary tract disorders. Herbs such as St. John’s wort, agrimony, horsetail, nettles, yarrow and shepherd’s purse can offer some relief for the kidney stone pain and bleeding. Next time you treat yourself to some fresh corn on the cob, don’t discard the silky part of the cornhusk known as cornsilk. Instead, boil the cornsilk in pure water along with some marshmallow herb to make a potent stone-dissolving tea. Cornsilk is an excellent example of how the move away from fresh, whole foods deprives people of natural healing. If you buy frozen corn, or the pre-husked and cut corn on the cob, you miss out on this substance which also aids against urinary tract stones, urinary tract infections, hypertension and prostate disorders. The name of Amazon herb chanca piedra actually translates as “stone breaker.” Concoctions of this plant have long been used in South America to break down stones of the kidneys and gallbladder. It is also effective against a host of ailments from diabetes to jaundice. Sources http://www.rense.com/1.mpicons/acidalka.htm http://library.mothernature.com/l/herbs-for-health-and-healing/kidney-stones_1072.html http://www.herbreference.com/cornsilk.html http://www.naturalnews.com/021294.html http://www.rain-tree.com/chanca-techreport.pdf

Doctors discover female reproductive system growing inside abdomen of Indian man admitted to hospital for stomach pains

(NaturalNews) Doctors treating an otherwise healthy Indian farmer, who was recently admitted to a hospital near Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, in India, were shocked to discover that the man, identified as “Ryalu,” had a lot more than simple digestive problems in his pain-stricken abdomen. According to The Telegraph , Ryalu’s stomach pain was the result of a full set of female organs developing inside his gut, complete with uterus, ovaries, Fallopian tubes, a cervix, and even partially-developed vaginal tissue. According to Dr. Pramod Kumar Shrivastava, a surgeon at the hospital where Ryalu was admitted, the man appeared healthy, had fully-functional male sex organs, and was physically fit from working regularly in his fields. But upon closer inspection, the hernial sac discovered inside his body contained something entirely different and unexpected. “Usually the contents of the Hernia Sac are abdomen organs like large intestines and small intestines. But when we operated on the patient, we were surprised to find female reproductive organs,” said Dr. Shrivastava. “We have removed the organs through a hysterectomy and repaired the hernia.” Dr. Shrivastava added that while medically Ryalu is a hermaphrodite, his hormones and sexuality are obviously male. And oddly enough, Ryalu had not experienced any other serious health problems prior to his recent hospital admittance, which is strikingly unusual considering the extent to which the man’s female sex organs had developed. “The external reproductive organs of the patient were masculine and he has no problems whatsoever with his sexuality,” added Dr. Shrivastava. “He had functional male genitals and there was no formation of breasts in the patient. It’s an embryological accident at the time of embryonic formation.” One of the known contributors to, and causes of, such intersexual development is exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides and herbicides, both of which have been widely adopted by Indian farmers as part of Monsanto’s genetically-modified (GM) crop systems (http://www.naturalnews.com/030913_Monsanto_suicides.html). Conventional weed killing chemicals are also linked to sexual development problems, as was seen in a 2010 study where frogs developed ambiguous sex organs (http://www.naturalnews.com/028876_herbicides_frogs.html). Sources for this story include: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8675043/Indian-man-has-hysterectomy-after-doctors-find-uterus.html

Supreme Court Justice Kagan lied about ties to Obamacare

(NaturalNews) President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, dubbed “Obamacare,” has been in litigation since it was passed last year. A number of federal courts have already issued rulings on whether or not the provision contained within the law that requires Americans to purchase health insurance is constitutional. Federal courts have differed on that point, with some ruling that the provision passes constitutional muster and other courts ruling it does not. For that reason, most legal experts believe that Obamacare will eventually end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. And at least one Supreme Court justice may not be the impartial arbiter of the Constitution she claims to be, at least on this particular issue. Some 49 members of Congress are pointing to what they have termed “contradictory” evidence regarding Justice Elena Kagan’s confirmation testimony regarding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and say Kagan should excuse herself from all cases having anything to do with it. “We respectfully call upon the House Judiciary Committee to promptly investigate the extent to which U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan was involved in preparing a legal defense of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) during her tenure as Solicitor General,” the lawmakers said in a letter to Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the committee, and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the committee’s ranking member. “Contradictory to her 2010 confirmation testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, recently released Department of Justice (DOJ) documents indicate that Justice Kagan actively participated with her Obama Administration colleagues in formulating a defense of PPACA,” said the letter. The letter is a result of a Freedom of Information Act request filed by CNSNews.com and the Media Research Center , both of which allege that Kagan’s involvement in the case as solicitor general disqualifies her from ruling on any cases dealing with the law. “As you know,” the lawmakers wrote, “Section 455 of Title 28 of the United States Code establishes unambiguous conditions in which federal judges must excuse themselves from proceedings in which their impartiality might reasonably be questioned. According to the law, a justice should excuse themselves in cases where he has served in governmental employment and in such capacity served as counsel, adviser or material witness concerning the proceedings or expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the particular case in controversy.” During her Senate confirmation hearings, Kagan was asked point-blank whether she had ever been asked her opinion regarding the underlying constitutional questions surrounding the law, or offered any views about it, to which she replied simply, “No.”

Anesthesiologists spread dangerous infections during surgery because they don’t wash their hands

(NaturalNews) With all the amazing and advanced medical technology available in the 21st century, operating rooms must be extremely safe when it comes to being sterile and clean for surgery. At least, that is what most of us assume. But now a new study just reported in Anesthesia and Analgesia , the official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS), shows that’s a dangerous assumption. In fact, bacteria — including some very dangerous varieties — are commonly found on the hands of anesthesia providers, resulting in high rates of transmission of these germs to the surgical field during operations. The reason behind this hand contamination is nothing less than astounding. It turns out, anesthesiologists simply aren’t washing their hands or washing them well enough. The study points out that while other factors contribute to bacteria being spread in operating rooms, the problem is mostly from a lack of compliance with plain, old-fashioned hand-washing. “As anesthesiologists, we like to think that the surgical drapes protect the patient from tens of trillions of microorganisms that are in and on our bodies,” Dr. Steven L. Shafer of Columbia University, who is Editor-in-Chief of Anesthesia and Analgesia , said in a statement to the media. “Nope! These studies provide evidence that our bacterial flora contribute to surgical site infections.” Dr. Randy W. Loftus and colleagues of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, carried out a detailed study to investigate the specific origin of bacteria transmitted to the surgical field in 164 operating room procedures that all involved general anesthesia. The researchers performed culture tests and discovered that bacteria were transmitted to the stopcock valves of the intravenous lines in 11.5% of procedures. And in about 50% of these cases, the bacteria found in the intravenous lines were the same as those identified on the hands of anesthesia providers, including attending anesthesiologists, residents, and nurse-anesthetists What’s more, before the start of surgical procedures, contamination with potential disease-causing bacteria was identified on the hands of anesthesia providers in 66% of cases. And bacteria were transmitted in the operating room in an astounding 89% of procedures. The study found there were several factors that were linked with an increased risk of bacterial transmission. For example, germ transmission was more likely when the anesthesiologist had to supervise more than one operating room simultaneously. The spreading of bacteria was also more likely in older patients, and when the patient was sent directly from the operating room to the intensive care unit. “Contamination of provider hands before patient care represents an important modifiable risk factor for bacterial cross-contamination,” Dr. Loftus and colleagues wrote in the journal article. “These findings support initiatives designed to improve intraoperative hand hygiene of anesthesia providers both before and during patient care, as well as intraoperative decontamination strategies.” An editorial accompanying the study pointed out there that while there’s a need to improve decontamination measures, there’s little doubt that what the authors call “abysmal compliance with hand-washing recommendations” is the major contributor to the spread of surgical infections. “Although we know that hand-washing is an important step, our compliance is poor, and there is little excuse for hospitals not implementing systems that facilitate compliance with hand-washing guidelines,” Dr. Shafer stated. For more information: http://www.anesthesia-analgesia.org/content/112/1/98.full

Terminal cancer patients routinely exploited by high-profit screening scams even as death approaches

(NaturalNews) Want to know the disturbing truth about the greed-driven cancer industry? I’ve written about it using blunt language here on NaturalNews, and awareness is spreading. People are sick of pinkwashing nonsense, and they’re wising up to the fundraising “run for the cure” scams that only funnel more money into corrupt, Pharma-dominated cancer non-profits. Now a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association sheds new light on just how cruel and greedy the cancer industry really is. It turns out that even when cancer patients are terminal — meaning they’re expected to die soon — the cancer industry herds them into yet more screening, mammograms, biopsies and lab tests in order to generate more profits from Medicare before the patient expires. It turns out they’re still irradiating women with mammograms even though these women already have “incurable” cancers! (Incurable by conventional medicine, that is.) Even according to cancer industry doctors, patients who have less than 10 years left to live receive no benefit from cancer screening. So why are such patients being subjected to a barrage of cancer screening tests? Because the tests make more money for the cancer industry! Hurry, make more money before they die! It’s almost as if they’re saying, “Gee, these patients are about to expire, and we can’t bill Medicare if they’re already dead, so hurry up and run some tests before they die!” Never mind the fact that such tests don’t help the patient at all. In fact, these tests can be invasive, painful and psychologically damaging. They put patients through hell in order to rake in some additional profits in the last few days, weeks or months before the cancer patient dies. That’s the truth about how the cancer industry really operates. To them, people are just profit machines to be exploited. This is now evidenced by the cancer industry’s own actions , by the way. It’s one thing to accuse the cancer industry of being driven by greed (which I’ve done on many occasions), but it’s another thing entirely for the industry to be caught red handed in a study published in JAMA and funded by the National Cancer Institute that documents this systematic abuse of patients. Turning a human being into sick profits The sad, sick truth of the matter is that both cancer screening and cancer treatments are profit centers for hospitals and cancer clinics. The more people they can screen, diagnose and treat with toxic chemotherapy, radiation or surgery, the more money they can collect off that person before they die. A dying cancer patient is a cash cow to the cancer industry because doctors can try almost anything and say they’re holding out for “hope” that something might work. It’s called “heroic medicine” but there are no heroes, really. Just cowards in the form of the cancer doctors exploiting patients for profit. Many conventional doctors have come to realize that a terminal cancer patient is like a blank check that they can cash in for huge financial gains. I knew a cancer patient described as terminal by the doctors who was offered an “experimental” cancer drug which would involve a series of weekly injections. The only catch? The bill was $14,000 a month and you have to pay out of pocket since no insurance would cover it. Drug companies and cancer doctors pressure cancer patients to try these useless “experimental” therapies not as a way to actually cure their cancers but as a way to extract their entire life savings before they die . No one has ever been cured by chemotherapy The conventional cancer industry, you see, has cured no one . There isn’t a single person who has ever been cured by chemotherapy because chemotherapy does not cure cancer, it only poisons the body . In fact, cancer doctors practicing today will tell you straight up that “there are no cures for cancer” which is they are “looking for the cure” by selling pink products and taking your donation money. The cancer industry, you see, has a zero percent success rate at curing cancer . Think about it: After billions of dollars, three decades of research, and millions of cancer victims dead from chemotherapy and radiation, the cancer industry has not produced even a single success story of someone who was CURED of cancer. Not a single one! How’s that for a failed approach to cancer? And they claim that if they only had a few billion more dollars, then they would be able to find the cure. Do you smell something fishy with that? Meanwhile, in the world of natural medicine, people are cured of cancer every day. Well, technically they are not cured from the outside but rather are healed from the inside so that their cancer disappears and they regain full immune system health. It’s so common in the world of natural health that the really good cancer doctors don’t even consider cancer to be much of a challenge. I know of one cancer doctor who produces cancer cures every week at his clinic in Florida. But he has one rule: He will not see patients who have poisoned their bodies with chemotherapy. “They’re too far gone and cannot heal themselves,” he explains. No wonder the conventional industry has zero success stories of people cured of cancer. Now, sure, they have some “remission” stories of people who temporarily “conquered” cancer, but guess what? Cancer always comes back in those people! And why? Because their body’s defenses have now been poisoned by chemotherapy, making them even more vulnerable to tumor growth. Cancer patients come and go, you see, but the cancer industry keeps churning along, trading bodies for dollars, causing unimaginable human suffering just so it can keep itself alive with an infusion of new daily profits. Now, even the peer-reviewed medical journals are starting to see the ugly truth of just how profit-driven this industry really is. I am confident that one day this present era of medicine will be characterized as a “Dark Ages” of medicine, driven by egos, profits and greed. Chemotherapy will be seen as utterly senseless, and radiation therapy as barbaric. Future generations will look back upon the pinkwashing, the “Run for the Cure” fundraising and the free mammogram drives and just shake their heads in disbelief, wondering, “How could they have all been so stupid?” The answer to that is complex, of course. Some people aren’t stupid. They’re the ones reading NaturalNews and taking charge of their health to prevent cancer in the first place. There are lots of smart, informed people around who don’t buy into the cancer industry’s ridiculous propaganda and disease fear mongering. It’s the masses, however, that fall for the cancer industry quackery that has now become so routine that almost no one questions it. And in understanding their stupidity, you have to remember that they’ve all been dosed with fluoride in the drinking water and injected with brain-harming seasonal flu vaccines. They’re also living on chemically-altered, genetically modified processed junk food. Thus, they probably don’t have their full mental faculties up and running, and it’s difficult for them to think clearly enough to resist cancer industry propaganda.

Acupuncture improves sex drive and decreases hot flashes

(NaturalNews) A recent study conducted by Henry Ford Hospital in Michigan revealed that acupuncture has even more benefits than previously thought for patients with breast cancer. In addition to reducing hot flashes better than drug therapy, acupuncture is effective at boosting the sex drive and overall sense of well-being in women undergoing intensive breast cancer treatment. Published in the Journal of Oncology, the study highlights the superiority of acupuncture in improving the quality of life for breast cancer patients without imposing negative side effects like drugs do. Dr. Eleanor Walker, lead author of the study and division director of breast services in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Henry Ford, confirmed this to be true when explaining the details of the study. Two groups, one receiving acupuncture for their symptoms and the other receiving Venlafaxine drug therapy, were observed over a 12 week period. Initially, all the women experienced a 50 percent reduction in hot flash and night sweat symptoms. At the end of the treatment period, however, the group that received Venlafaxine experienced an immediate increase in symptoms while the acupuncture group did not. The purpose of the study was to focus on alternative treatments to Venlafaxine that would better alleviate the negative side effects of breast cancer treatment and ultimately encourage women to continue participating in it. According to the National Cancer Institute, 13 percent of women will develop breast cancer during their lifetime. Since conventional treatment is long and difficult, researchers hope to alleviate some of the associated misery with methods other than drug therapies that only make the situation more difficult. Comments by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Once again, another clinical study scientifically demonstrates the power of acupuncture to make real, measurable improvements in the health and lives of patients. It’s no surprise, of course: Acupuncture has been used safely and effectively for over five thousand years in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and literally hundreds of clinical trials conducted over the last twenty years have shown it to be remarkably safe and effective in treating a variety of health complaints from back pain to infertility. Acupuncture works because the body reacts to stimulation with a healing response (well, that’s only part of the reason acupuncture works, actually). A skilled acupuncture practitioner can initiate a healing response in the patient that no drug, no surgery and no medical intervention could ever accomplish. That’s what’s really interesting about acupuncture: It doesn’t do any healing. Rather, acupuncture stimulates the body to heal itself . This idea fails to be recognized at all in conventional medicine, which continues to follow the long-outmoded belief that the doctor heals the patient and that, astonishingly, the patient has no role in his or her own healing. Practitioners of acupuncture knew thousands of years ago what many western doctors still haven’t figure out today: The patient is the healer . The doctor is merely an initiator of the patient’s own self-healing ability. Sources for this story include: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/hfhs-arh122909.php