Swine flu pandemic outbreak sweeping through Britain even though 70 percent were vaccinated last year

(NaturalNews) A swine flu pandemic is sweeping through Britain despite the fact that 70 percent of Britain’s over-65 population was vaccinated against swine flu last year. This year, that number is nearly the same — 68.5% — but flu vaccine proponents insist that until everyone is vaccinated, the flu will continue to infect people. What these vaccine advocates absolutely will not admit, however, is how many of those who are sick with the flu this year also got vaccinated last year . This little detail is left out of every mainstream media report on vaccines and the flu. They simply refuse to mention this all-important number, leaving readers to leap to the incorrect conclusion that only those who were not vaccinated get sick with the flu . Most infected patients were previously vaccinated That assumption is false. In fact, of the 450 critical care beds in England that are now occupied by flu patients, I have no doubt that most of those infected patients are people who received flu vaccines in the past . Such statistics are never made available to the public or the press, of course. To release such statistics would expose the Great Lie of the vaccine industry: That flu vaccines simply don’t work on 99 percent of people! In fact, the people who are most susceptible to catching the flu are precisely the very same people who get vaccinated. Why is that? Because vaccines weaken the immune system in the long run , leaving you more vulnerable to future infections. They deny your immune system the opportunity to practice its own adaptive response to invading microorganisms or viruses, thereby causing your immune system to atrophy in the same way that a wheelchair-bound person will experience leg muscle atrophy. The immune system is a lot like a muscle: Use it or lose it! But flu vaccines provide weakened viruses to the immune system (along with other preservative chemicals that can be extremely dangerous to neurological health). It’s sort of like working out your muscles at the gym but having your trainer do all the heavy lifting for you. Obviously you’re not going to have very strong muscles in the end because your body won’t need to invoke a very strong adaptive response. The same is true with vaccines and the flu: If your body is exposed to weakened flu viruses year after year, it gets lazy and weak, and when it one day comes into contact with a full-strength virus circulating in the wild, it’s not in good enough shape to handle the challenge. Vitamin D deficiency is widespread in Britain At the same time this is going on, a person who is vitamin D deficient will also have an alarmingly weak immune system response because vitamin D activates the immune system to do its job. In people with extremely low vitamin D levels, even vaccines containing weakened viruses won’t solicit an antibody response. But instead of testing patients for vitamin D deficiency and prescribing that with the vaccine, conventional medical doctors and contagious disease authorities robotically urge everyone to just “get multiple vaccine shots” as if following one failed vaccine with yet another failed vaccine will somehow make them both work. That’s idiotic, of course. And the other idiotic thing about all this is that if people had sufficient levels of vitamin D circulating in their blood , they wouldn’t need seasonal flu vaccines in the first place! That’s because a strong, healthy immune system with lots of circulating vitamin D is universally effective at halting ALL seasonal flu strains, with near 100% success in those with vitamin D levels between 50 – 70 (ng/dL). The three main reasons behind Britain’s flu pandemic So the real reason Britain is suffering a swine flu pandemic right now is actually three-fold: #1) It’s winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and Britain is so far north (of the equator) that the people living there aren’t currently generating any vitamin D whatsoever. This makes virtually the entire British population ridiculously vitamin D deficient throughout the winter. #2) The majority of the British population has been subjected to flu vaccines in previous years, weakening their immune systems and making them more vulnerable to this year’s flu strains. #3) The flu strain itself is so successful in the wild precisely because so many Britons walk around in chronic states of immune suppression (from vitamin D deficiency, chronic stress, poor dietary habits and so on). This creates a “viral breeding ground” which encourages more rapid virus mutations that make vaccines obsolete anyway. The question you are not allowed to ask vaccine quacks The vaccine-pushing quack medical community believes that if they could magically convince 100 percent of the people to get vaccinated, they would have this problem licked. In their own minds, they have unscientifically convinced themselves that a vaccine equals automatic and full protection against a flu virus. And yet even they won’t dare ask this simple question: Of all the people sick from the flu who are right now lying in Britain’s hospital beds, what percentage were vaccinated against the flu last year or this year? The answer to that question will expose the outright fraud of the vaccine industry because the answer is a very large number. No one in the medical industry dares ask that question, of course, because they realize that delving into the actual re-infection rate of flu vaccine recipients would expose their quackery and fraud, causing yet more people to lose faith in vaccines which are, after all, sold based entirely on misplaced faith and clever propaganda. The flu vaccine propaganda, of course, demands that people never be allowed to collide with the scientific facts about how many people who are vaccinated against the flu still catch the flu anyway. (The flu re-infection rate.) That’s why you will NEVER see an honest answer to this question released by hospitals, vaccine companies or vaccine-pushing doctors. Keep taking your flu jabs, everybody. But don’t ask whether they actually work, because that question isn’t allowed to be asked in the cult of medicine that dominates the sick-care landscape around the world today. We wouldn’t want actual science to interfere with a really profitable con job now, would we?

Fraudulent herbal immune supplement fails to reduce flu symptoms for 99 percent of people

(NaturalNews) In an independent review published in a peer-reviewed medical journal (see below), a popular herbal immune supplement called “ImmunoFlu Remedy” was found to fraudulently marketed as a “flu prevention supplement.” Its makers claim that if you take the supplement, you won’t get the flu and won’t miss a day of work during the flu season (a silly claim, eh?). But clinical testing recently revealed that ImmunoFlu Remedy only works to reduce flu symptoms on 1 out of every 100 people who take the supplement, meaning it is 99 percent ineffective. An FTC spokesperson, commenting on the study results, characterized the marketing of ImmunoFlu Remedy as “obviously fraudulent” and a top FDA official has publicly promised to launch a criminal investigation into the makers of ImmunoFlu Remedy in order to “protect the public from misleading health claims.” Evidence has also surfaced that ImmunoFlu Remedy may contain trace levels of heavy metals linked to neurological disorders. Over a dozen children admitted to emergency rooms at hospitals across the country have been identified as consumers of ImmunoFlu Remedy, and two of those children died. The makers of ImmunoFlu Remedy are being ordered to remove the product from their website and recall the product from distributors and retailers. As shocking as all this sounds, there’s something you need to know as you continue reading this story here on NaturalNews. There is no such thing as ImmunoFlu Remedy . This story is actually about seasonal flu vaccines . Most of the details mentioned above, you see, are actually the true story about seasonal flu vaccines. Flu vaccines don’t work on 99 out of 100 people Seasonal flu vaccines have been scientifically shown to reduce flu symptoms in only 1 out of every 100 people (they are ineffective on 99% of those receiving the shots) (http://www.naturalnews.com/029641_vaccines_junk_science.html). Flu vaccines also contain chemical ingredients linked to neurological disorders, which is why so many children in Australia and around the world have been admitted to hospital emergency rooms suffering from seizures and convulsions following flu shot injections (http://www.naturalnews.com/029586_Australia_vaccines.html). Seasonal flu vaccines are also fraudulently marketed with blatantly false claims that they prevent the flu in everyone who receives a shot. “Get the shot and you won’t miss work” is one of the common claims made in flu shot promotions. Or, as Walgreens implies, “Get the shot and you won’t infect your family members.” That claim is blatantly misleading and scientifically false. And yet, despite this fraudulent marketing of a product that doesn’t work on 99% of those who take it, neither the FTC nor the FDA has taken any action against it. Marketers of flu vaccines, it turns out, can make any claims they wish , even if such claims are laughable in the face of scientific scrutiny. Forget the science… we’ve got vaccines to sell! Flu vaccines, you see, are immune from any real scientific scrutiny — even by the scientific community. The mythology of season flu vaccines has been so pervasive and so widely described as “scientific” that the truth of whether it’s really scientific no longer matters. Flu vaccines are simply assumed to work even without testing; without scientific evidence and without any legitimate application of skeptical thinking. There’s a word for that, of course. It’s the word used to describe a system of belief that requires no evidence… a system in which truths are materialized out of lies through the mere act of enough authoritative people uttering falsehoods until they all begin to believe each other. That word, of course, is a four-letter word: Cult. A cult need not answer to statistical scrutiny. It need not subject its own internal beliefs to outside review because everyone inside the cult already agrees on the answer — and why ask questions when we already know the truth, right? Such is the nature of the cult of flu vaccines . It’s a large cult, of course, but the sheer size of the cult in no way detracts from the fact that it is a cult nonetheless. In other words, just because millions of doctors believe the propaganda of a cult does not make it any less of a cult. Even if all the doctors, pharmacists and drug pushers in the world fall for a fictitious belief and put their faith and professional reputations on the line in order to back that belief, it’s still fiction . And it’s still a cult. Doctors once prescribed mercury and other poisons There was a time in western medicine when doctors routinely prescribed mercury as a remedy to treat various afflictions. For example, mercury was frequently prescribed to treat syphilis . In fact, one study describing the treatment of syphilis with “mercury inhalations” was presented at the Forty-Fourth Annual Session of the American Dermatological Association in Swampscott, Mass., June 2-4 in the year 1921. That study was entitled: THE TREATMENT OF SYPHILIS BY MERCURY INHALATIONS by H. N. COLE, M.D.; A. J. GERICKE, M.D.; TORALD SOLLMANN, M.D. Arch Derm Syphilol . 1922;5(1):18-33. Notice that the three authors were all MDs? That’s because doctors have historically been some of the most persistent promoters of poisonous concoctions that today we would call “quackery.” They even sought to destroy the careers and reputations of their own colleagues who pointed out that perhaps mercury should not be used as a medicine — or even the idea that surgeons should wash their hands! It is an historical fact that western doctors promoted the heavy metal mercury, highly addictive heroin, and other extremely toxic substances as “miracle cures” for all sorts of diseases and conditions. They also advocated cigarettes as being good for your health and even improving your teeth! (http://www.naturalnews.com/021949.html) In fact, the term “quack” comes from the use of mercury by western doctors. Mercury, of course, was once called “quicksilver,” and the term was bastardized into the derogatory “quack” to refer to physicians who continued to use dangerous substances that harmed patients. Under that definition, today’s quacks are not homeopaths or herbalists but rather oncologists who poison their patients with chemotherapy in almost exactly the same way the quack doctors once poisoned their patients with mercury. Flu vaccines are modern medicine’s form of quackery Based nothing more than wishful thinking and physicians quoting each other as reliable sources of expert opinion, the whole of evidence supporting flu vaccines today amounts to little more than an intellectual circle jerk of truly bad science. Today’s flu vaccine-pushing physicians, you see, are no smarter than their colleagues from the 1800′s who prescribed mercury inhalations for patients. And they are arguably less wise, too. The only real difference is that today there are more of them and so their voices seem to take on the illusion of authority and consensus. Consensus is not always fact . More often than not, it is merely the mass infection of many minds with official foolishness. At one time, after all, it was an established, consensus “fact” that the Earth was flat. More recently, even in 1847, a Hungarian obstetrician named Ignaz Semmelweis was viciously attacked by his colleagues for insisting that doctors should wash their hands before delivering babies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis). What Semmelweis discovered then is what every person who speaks out against the insanities of western medicine knows today: Western medicine is an arrogant, misinformed and dangerously ignorant system of control in which truth-tellers are routinely exterminated in order to maintain the mythologies upon which the medical industrial complex is based . The truth about flu vaccines would destroy much of western medicine Semmelweis was much like the Wikileaks of the 1840′s in the sense that he revealed “uncomfortable truths” that challenged the status quo and made a whole lot of really important-sounding people look like fools. Since really important-sounding people don’t enjoy looking like fools, they simply attack the messenger and increase their resolve to defend their ridiculous falsehoods and mythologies… even in the face of clear evidence that shows them to be wrong. Such is precisely the situation happening today with flu vaccines. To challenge the sanctity of seasonal flu vaccines and the regimen of annual shots (which just happen to coincide with steady profits for the drug companies) is to question the very foundation of western medicine. Without the mythology of vaccines firmly imprinted in the minds of the people, western medicine would no longer appear to have authority over the flu. If flu vaccines were halted for just one year — forcing people to turn to vitamin D instead — the illusion of flu vaccines would be forever shattered and the people would realize that taking seasonal flu vaccine shots is just as ludicrous as inhaling mercury vapor. That’s why flu vaccines have to be incessantly pushed, each and every year, without any gaps in the “treatment.” The real quackery of vaccines The evil genius in all this is that people have been tricked into believing in vaccines whether they work or not . When someone receives a vaccine shot, they consider themselves “protected” from the flu. So what happens if they get the flu anyway? They simply reason in their own heads that if they hadn’t been vaccinated, they might have experienced far worse flu symptoms. And if they don’t get the flu at all? Then they reason that the vaccine prevented the flu! Thus, with the right programming, flu vaccines can be thought of as useful and effective regardless of the actual health outcome . This is a classic red flag for a system of quackery. It’s one of the most common complaints leveled against energy medicine by conventional scientists, in fact. They rightly point out that determining whether energy medicine really works for you is a guessing game: If you still get sick, you might think the energy medicine worked a little bit but not enough. If you don’t get sick, then you might think the energy medicine worked like a miracle. Such a logic matrix is prone to misinterpretation by patients and doctors alike. In both cases — energy medicine as well as flu vaccines — patients are likely to convince themselves that it’s working, even if there is no real evidence that their belief is accurate. Belief itself, of course, is perhaps the best medicine of all, and it is a distinct possibility that the small number of patients who seem to be helped by flu vaccines (one percent) may be experiencing the benefit of the placebo effect . Nevertheless, the way out of this puzzle is to subject flu vaccines (or energy medicine, similarly) to rigorous clinical trials in which a serious attempt is made to tease out some statistically significant answers such as “what percentage of people are actually helped by this treatment?” What’s really amazing about all this is that such clinical trials have already been done on flu vaccines , and the results are in: Seasonal flu vaccines prevent flu symptoms in about one percent of the people who receive vaccine jabs. And that’s if you believe the more optimistic conclusions of the vaccine manufacturers themselves, by the way (http://www.naturalnews.com/029641_vaccines_junk_science.html). How would this quackery be viewed if it were an herbal remedy? From a scientific perspective, then, seasonal flu vaccines have roughly a one percent effectiveness rate, which means they have no apparent effect on 99 out of 100 people . What’s interesting about this is that if homeopathy, or energy medicine, or an herbal formula produced such poor results, it would be widely ridiculed as a quack remedy promoted via fraudulent marketing. A one percent effectiveness rate proves any “natural” remedy to be quackery, you see, and yet the same one percent effectiveness rate is more than sufficient to support the mythology of vaccines to those who believe the vaccine cult. What it all comes down to is really this: Seasonal flu vaccines are really 1% science and 99% wishful thinking. And yet, apparently, that’s more than enough reason for virtually the entire medical and scientific establishments to back seasonal flu vaccines as if they were scientifically proven while touting highly exaggerated marketing claims that imply one hundred percent effectiveness. In any other industry, marketing a product that didn’t work 99 percent of the time would be considered fraud. But in the vaccine industry? It’s just business as usual. How to make money selling a product that almost never works as advertised The seasonal flu vaccine is a great money-making con, too. Imagine how much money you could make if you could convince hundreds of millions of people to buy a product that didn’t work on 99 percent of your customers, and yet 100 percent of them were convinced that they were receiving benefits from it! It’s a pretty clever con, and it all depends on promoting the mythology — or “catapulting the propaganda” as President George Bush famously said — in order to make sure that 99 percent of the wishful thinking that powers the flu vaccine industry remains in place. Because, let’s face it: If flu vaccines actually worked, the industry really wouldn’t need to advertise them so heavily , would they? If these vaccines really stopped flu infections with 100 percent effectiveness, word of mouth about flu vaccines would spread even faster than the flu itself, and virtually everyone would line up to get their “flu protection” shots out of sheer necessity. The only reason the industry needs to engage in such aggressive flu vaccine promotion is because flu vaccines are only based on 1% science , and the other 99% of the marketing formula depends on keeping people brainwashed into believing the false mythology of flu vaccines. Flu shots as placebo Flu vaccines, in effect, are largely just placebo shots . If you think they’re going to work for you, then you’ll remain convinced of that regardless of whether you get sick or not. There wouldn’t really be any harm in that except for the inconvenient fact that vaccine shots contain harmful chemical ingredients that pose a health risk to those who take them. Thus, even while a flu vaccine may be providing as much as a 1% protection against the flu, it may simultaneously subject a person to a significantly smaller risk of a far more serious detrimental outcome: Neurological damage, convulsions, learning disabilities or even the accelerated development of Alzheimer’s disease. Are these risks really worth a 1-in-100 chance of preventing the flu? A rational answer seems to be no, they aren’t. Especially when the available evidence says that vitamin D supplements work far better at preventing flu infections . And vitamin D can be taken with virtually no health risks whatsoever. Even better, vitamin D supplements are not formulated with mercury preservatives, chemical adjuvants or other questionable chemicals that are typically added to vaccines. But don’t expect this sort of rational, clear-thinking discussion of flu vaccines and vitamin D to be undertaken by your physician. Doctors have already drank the flu vaccine Kool-Aid, and as a result the science no longer matters to them . Even if Wikileaks released definitive documents showing the entire flu vaccine industry to be a complete scam based on fraudulent science, most doctors would no doubt continue to push flu vaccines anyway because that’s what they’ve always done. Doctors don’t change course very often… especially not if they’ve participated as active members of the vaccine cult for several years (or decades). The likelihood of a doctor actually changing his mind on this issue of flu vaccines is even less than the likelihood of a flu vaccine preventing you from getting the flu this winter. And that likelihood is ridiculously low to begin with. So don’t hold your breath. And don’t hold out any faith for the idea that doctors will suddenly embrace scientific thinking, either. Because there’s no room for truly scientific thought in the membership ranks of the vaccine cult.

Healthy hips require plenty of vitamin D

(NaturalNews) Healthy bones cannot be maintained without adequate levels of vitamin D. And a recent study out of New Delhi, India, confirms what previous studies have already found concerning vitamin D’s critical role in bone health. According to recent data, more than 75 percent of people who experience hip fractures are vitamin D deficient, while fracture rates among those with adequate levels is far lower. Presented at the second annual 1st Asia-Pacific Regional Osteoporosis Meeting held in Singapore, the findings revealed that , based on a sampling of 90 hip fracture patients, most had vitamin D levels below 20 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL), which is recognized as being far too low. Only about 32 percent of patients in a control group, on the other hand, had low vitamin D levels. Previous research out of Scotland found that 98 percent of bone fracture patients had insufficient vitamin D levels. It also found that supplementing with vitamin D helped reduce overall occurrences of fractures by up to 50 percent (http://www.naturalnews.com/028965_vitamin_D_bone_fractures.html). According to the Vitamin D Council, a group of concerned citizens and scientists working to educate the public about the importance of vitamin D, healthy blood levels of vitamin D typically fall between 50 – 80 ng/mL. In order to maintain healthy levels, the group recommends that people expose themselves regularly to natural sunlight or take vitamin D3 supplements, especially during the winter when sun exposure is limited. It is also important to get adequate amounts of the nutrient co-factors needed for the body to properly utilize vitamin D. These co-factors include magnesium, zinc, vitamin K2, boron and vitamin A (http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/more-vitamin-d-questions-and-answers.shtml). Vitamin D also helps increase calcium absorption, which is a primary reason why it improves the integrity of bones. Sources for this story include: http://www.iofbonehealth.org/newsroom/media-releases/detail.html?mediaReleaseID=161

It’s amazing: Scottish doctors now warning people to get more sunshine and vitamin D

(NaturalNews) The Scottish government has begun distribution information urging people to get enough vitamin D in an effort to reduce rates of rickets, cancer and autoimmune diseases. The body naturally produces vitamin D upon exposure to sunlight. Moderate deficiency is believed to hamper the immune system, while severe deficiency can lead to the softening and weakening of bones and teeth. “Vitamin D is key to maintaining healthy bones,” Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said. “Young children have a high risk of deficiency and we are seeing an increase in reported cases of rickets in Scotland. These conditions are easily prevented by improving diet and taking a supplement if you are at risk. Recent research suggests that vitamin D deficiency may also contribute to a range of other medical conditions. The Scottish government are keen to continue to monitor this evidence.” The body can produce all the vitamin D it needs in only a fraction of the time it takes to burn — 10 to 15 minutes a day is sufficient for light-skinned people. “The problem of a lack of sun is likely more prevalent than too much sun,” writes KC Craichy in the book Super Health . “If you don’t want to get melanoma, just avoid getting burned.” Because the sun is so weak during the winter in Scotland, an extra effort may be required to maintain optimum levels, especially for people with darker skin. “We know that in Scotland the winter sun is not strong enough to provide the minimum vitamin D needed for health — especially for those with darker skin,” said Sturgeon. “A significant proportion of the U.K. population has low vitamin D levels. This leaflet aims to ensure that those at risk are aware of the implications of vitamin D deficiency and know what they can do to prevent it.” To learn more about the health benefits of vitamin D, read the free NaturalNews.com report “The Healing Power of Sunlight and Vitamin D” at http://www.naturalnews.com/rr-sunlight.html. Sources for this story include: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-11355810.

Genetics determine winter vitamin D status

During the winter, vitamin D status is governed mainly by genetic factors. Conversely, non-genetic factors are most important during the summer. Future studies designed to better understand what these factors are will be especially useful as public health experts continue to explore ways to increase vitamin D status in different populations living under varying environmental and dietary situations.

Why daylight saving time is bad for health

(NaturalNews) Every fall, much of the world rolls back its clocks as part of the bi-annual daylight saving time (DST) ritual. In early spring, time gets moved forward to extend daylight hours, which makes for long summer days. But in the fall, the clock is moved back and everyone loses and hour. And some experts out of the U.K. say that this lost daylight hour is taking a huge toll on public health. Cases of chronic illness are rapidly rising, and many attribute their onset to poor diet and increasing lack of exercise among populations. According to Mayer Hillman, Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Policy Studies Institute in the U.K., losing an hour makes the lack of exercise problem even worse because people have less of an incentive to go outside and engage in physical activity when it is dark. So he and others are suggesting that the time roll-back come to an end. Regular physical activity is important for preventing diseases like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and even cancer. And engaging in at least 30 minutes to an hour of moderate or vigorous activity every day has been proven to not only ward off disease but improve mood and feelings of happiness. In light of this reality, it makes no sense to continue chopping off an hour of “accessible” daylight every year, wrote the team. According to the study, most people surveyed indicated that they would welcome the elimination of the time rollback. After all, stopping the practice makes the days brighter and longer which, even apart from exercise, helps to at least improve poor mood and reduce depression — two conditions that are known to increase during the winter months. “It must be rare to find a means of vastly improving the health and well-being of nearly everyone in the population — and at no cost,” said Hillman. “Here we have it.” Sources for this story include: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-10/bmj-npt102710.php

Cocoa Mojo superfood hot chocolate and my adventure through the Andes (with pictures)

(NaturalNews) In June of 2009, I embarked on an adventure into the Podocarpus National Forest near Vilcabamba, Ecuador. This trip was primarily on horseback (with a lot of walking through rugged terrain, too), and I documented the entire thing with photographs you can see here: http://www.naturalnews.com/phototours/podocarpus-vilcabamba-ecuador-tour/index.html Our trip involved interactions with some of the local families who lived “way up in the hills” such as these children: http://www.naturalnews.com/phototours/podocarpus-vilcabamba-ecuador-tour/content/IMG_1074_large.html Here’s an amazing picture of one of these children riding a pig (crazy, huh?) http://www.naturalnews.com/phototours/podocarpus-vilcabamba-ecuador-tour/content/IMG_1095_large.html And here’s my beautiful Rottweiler “Roxy” looking over the Valley of Longevity: http://www.naturalnews.com/phototours/podocarpus-vilcabamba-ecuador-tour/content/IMG_1111_large.html The terrain was rugged. We crossed swift-moving streams on horseback: http://www.naturalnews.com/phototours/podocarpus-vilcabamba-ecuador-tour/content/IMG_1162_large.html At times, we had to hack our way through dense forests with bamboo and other overgrowth: http://www.naturalnews.com/phototours/podocarpus-vilcabamba-ecuador-tour/content/IMG_1244_large.html And we traversed steep, majestic ridges with deep canyons on both sides: http://www.naturalnews.com/phototours/podocarpus-vilcabamba-ecuador-tour/content/IMG_1185_large.html At the bottom of those ridges, you can find abundant, pristine waterfalls like this one: http://www.naturalnews.com/phototours/podocarpus-vilcabamba-ecuador-tour/content/IMG_1342_large.html After a grueling day’s hike through rugged terrain (going uphill the whole way), we arrived at our humble camp house: http://www.naturalnews.com/phototours/podocarpus-vilcabamba-ecuador-tour/content/IMG_1215_large.html At this point, we were absolutely exhausted. This high-altitude hike really took it out of us, and one person in our group was even suffering from altitude sickness (probably combined with physical exhaustion). How we recovered from exhaustion I remember distinctly that our guide, Angel (pronounced An-Hel ) used his machete to prep some firewood from an old tree that had died perhaps a year earlier. Within minutes we had a roaring fire going, and Angel and his helper were steaming up some hot water. As I often do, I had brought a number of superfood powders with me, but there’s one in particular that I think really saved us from total exhaustion that night. It’s called Cocoa Mojo , and it’s made by a company called Enerhealth Botanicals founded by Steve Sinclair. Steve had visited me in Vilcabamba and handed me a 12 oz bag of this Cocoa Mojo powder. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but decided to bring it with me on the hike, figuring that it might come in handy during the cold nights at high altitude. Boy was I ever right! Cocoa Mojo is made with Organic Coconut Palm Sugar, Organic South American Cocoa and Organic extracts of a number of very potent mushrooms: Cordyceps Sinensis , Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi), Coriolus Versicolor and Agaricus Blazei . But even though it packs a nutritional punch, it tastes like hot chocolate , and that evening, we drank cup after cup of this warming, nutritional superfood drink while talking, laughing and playing cards. Within an hour, the exhaustion we all felt from the day’s hike just seemed to fade away. We were downright jubilant , in fact, and while I can’t credit Cocoa Mojo with all this — because obviously we were also in a very special region of the planet — I found myself deeply grateful to have remembered to bring Cocoa Mojo with me. At that time, I never would have imagined telling you what I’m about to share with you now: Steve Sinclair, the founder of Enerhealth Botanicals, has given us permission to carry Cocoa Mojo in our NaturalNews Store. Better yet, we’ve even been given exclusive permission to offer a NaturalNews reader discount on the 3-pack of Cocoa Mojo, which you can find here: http://store.naturalnews.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=100151_100410&products_id=1003836 This is a rare special price on a “hot chocolate” product that impressed me so much, I’ve often described it to people as “the best healthy hot chocolate product I’ve ever found,” period. If you love hot chocolate but don’t want refined sugars or low-grade cocoa, I think you’ll absolutely love Cocoa Mojo . It’s an organic, fair-trade product , and the combination of organic palm sugar (the best sugar!), South American cocoa and amazing mushrooms like Reishi and Cordyceps make it a one-of-a-kind superfood product that you simply mix with hot water to keep you warm throughout the winter months. The 3-pack really works as a gift, too. You can give the entire 3-pack to someone who loves healthy living and enjoys hot chocolate, or you can give each of the 12 oz bags to three different people! Click here for the single 12 oz bag of Cocoa Mojo … Or click here for the 3-pack of Cocoa Mojo at the special NaturalNews reader discount. Enerfood Superfood received my “Best Superfood Editor’s Choice Award” Beyond their amazing Cocoa Mojo product, Enerhealth Botanicals also makes a spectacular green superfood powder called Enerfood . I actually awarded it “Best Superfood” a year or two ago, and at the time I never imagined we’d actually be carrying the product in our store. But thanks to Steve, we’ve got it now — a 2-month supply comes out to about 75 cents a day. It’s one of my top superfood recommendations, along with several others like Boku Superfood, Living Fuel, and Rejuvenate Berries and Herbs. Click here to get more details about Enerfood Super Green Energy Drink . Enerfood ingredients Here’s what you’ll find in Enerfood: Organic Spirulina – A nutritionally dense blue green algae, rich in protein, Beta Carotene and B vitamins, especially B12. Organic Chlorella – Also a form of blue green algae, like spirulina, giving Enerfood an even more potent source of optimal nutrition. Organic Non-active, Vegetarian, Saccharomyces Cervisiae Nutritional Yeast – The second highest source of protein in nature and the richest source of B vitamins known. Organic Dulse – Seaweeds are nature’s richest source of minerals. Organic Kelp – Also a nutrient dense seaweed. Organic Barley Grass – Grain grasses contain more nutrition by weight than the grains themselves, providing a powerful source of vitamins, minerals and chlorophyll. Organic Wheat Grass – Is also a grain grass. Organic Alfalfa Leaf – Known as the most potent land source of minerals. It sends its roots down as much as 50 feet drawing up valuable minerals and converting them into a bioavailable form. Organic Spinach – Another rich source of minerals, especially iron. Organic Rose Hips – Along with orange and lemon peel this is a strong source of the nutrients that make up Vitamin- C complex, such as hesperidin and rutin, calcium and other nutrients necessary to assimilate Vitamin C. Organic Beet Root – Just as spinach, beets have long been known to provide us with iron and other minerals. Organic Orange Peel – Vitamin C complex and bioflavinoids. Organic Winter Cherry Root – An ayurvedic herb to strengthen and rebuild the body. Organic White Asparagus Root – Another ayurvedic herb to strengthen and rebuild the body. It is revered by women and also men in the ayurvedic pharmacopia. Organic Dandelion Leaf – Known herbally to build and cleanse the blood. Rich in calcium and organic sodium. Organic Lemon Peel – Vitamin C complex and bioflavinoids. Organic Papaya Leaf – Contains powerful proteolytic enzymes such as papain, which are known to assist in the digestion of protein. Organic Horsetail – Used by herbalists for millennia to strengthen tooth enamel, hair and nails. It also helps the body absorb calcium. Organic Barley and Wheat Grass Juice Powder – An even more potent source of the nutrition provided by the simple ground grasses themselves. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Consult your physician before beginning any diet, nutrition, exercise or dietary supplement program. Hiking back down from Podocarpus The Podocarpus National Forest hike we endured didn’t seem so bad the next day — the “downhill” day. It took about one-fourth the time, and our packs were lighter, too, because we had eaten most of the pack rations. (Our horses were no doubt happy about that, too.) Within a few hours, we reached town and I headed back out to Hacienda San Joaquin (www.VilcabambaHomes.com) where my home was located (I no longer live there, but did at the time) and took a long, hot shower. Three things stood out in my mind about the Podocarpus adventure: #1) Ecuadorian trail guides are amazingly resourceful people . In particular, I strongly recommend that if you visit Vilcabamba, ask for Angel the horse guy . He lives about two blocks South (downhill) from the Southwest corner of the main town square. You can’t miss his residence because he has a large wooden door with horses carved into it. #2) The Podocarpus National Forest is a real treasure of Ecuador . This is one of the most humbling yet inspiring places you’ll ever visit (and we barely got into it with a one-day hike, as you can actually hike in for weeks). #3) Cocoa Mojo earned a well-deserved place on my very short list of really amazing superfood products that have helped me through challenging moments in life. I personally credit this product with supporting the stamina and willpower I needed to recover from a very difficult journey while staying warm in a very unforgiving environment (it’s cold at high altitude in the Andes at night!). Today, I have fond memories of Ecuador, and every time a take a sip of Cocoa Mojo, it takes me back to my horseback adventure across breathtaking ridges and through lush waterfall canyons — an adventure that left me humbled and silent as I struggled to grasp the awesome power and beauty of Mother Nature. That’s why I took so many pictures of flowers along the way, by the way. You can see the entire collection of photos I took right here: http://www.naturalnews.com/phototours/podocarpus-vilcabamba-ecuador-tour/index.html On an interesting note, here’s something you won’t hear anywhere else, probably: Do you see these flower buds in this picture? http://www.naturalnews.com/phototours/podocarpus-vilcabamba-ecuador-tour/content/IMG_1086_large.html Those flowers are sticky, and they’re used by the high-altitude locals there as a fun, free set of earrings! I saw women picking the flower buds them sticking them onto their ear lobes and walking around with their own “natural jewelry!” As a side note, if you’re ever interested in visiting Vilcabamba, be sure to check with “Angel the horse guy” about horse tours. He’s super nice, and be sure to tell him you heard about it from Mike, because he’ll remember me. And if you’re ever looking to retire in Ecuador, the real estate company to work with is VREC, which you’ll find at www.VREC.org (ask for Nick Vasey). They are one of the very few officially authorized real estate companies in town (a lot of operators aren’t licensed). Ask for Marco Muoz there if you need help from an attorney for anything such as immigration papers, driver’s license, etc. (Yes, I have an Ecuadorian driver’s license. It was not an easy thing to get. I actually had to take the written test in Spanish…) And by the way, for all my good friends in Vilcabamba who might be reading this, I want to say hi and wish you all very well. I’m not going to print all your names here out of respect for your privacy, but I’m sending you all some positive vibes. To recap the Enerhealth Botanical products we now carry, here they are: Click here for the 3-pack of Cocoa Mojo Click here for Enerfood Super Food Energy Drink . You will really, really enjoy these Enerfood products. I feel fortunate that products this good are even available anywhere .

Honeybee Colony Collapse Disorder caused by virus? Get ready for honeybee vaccines

(NaturalNews) A group of biologists claims they’ve found the cause of Colony Collapse Disorder — the devastating but mysterious phenomenon of rapidly disappearing honeybees. According to their research, published in PLoS One, the population collapse is caused by the combination of a virus and a fungus (Iridovirus and Microsporidian). From this discovery, the mainstream media is leaping to the conclusion that Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has been “solved.” Oh, it’s a virus and a fungus! Mystery solved! This kind of thinking is quite characteristic of pseudoscientific western medicine, where everything comes down to naming the right virus, fungus or strain of bacteria discovered to be involved. But it completely misses the far more important question of why honeybees are suddenly more susceptible to such viral and fungal infections . The real cause is even deeper You see, the Iridovirus has been around for a long, long time. And the Microsporidian fungal strain has been around for probably even longer. So why didn’t honeybees get infected before? Obviously something had to change over the last few years to create a vulnerability to infection that’s causing the bees to die off. By comparison, in the human world, many people think the seasonal flu is caused by a flu virus. That’s not actually true, since the flu virus is circulating all year long. What truly causes “the flu” is when people become vitamin D deficient in the winter months, creating an immune system vulnerability that the circulating virus is now able to exploit in achieving a successful infection. It is the changes in the terrain (the altered immune function caused by nutrient deficiency) that allows an ever-present virus to cause an infection in humans. That’s why people who have healthy nutrient levels can be exposed to seasonal flu viruses all year long and never get sick. (Go ahead, sneeze on me. I dare ya!) Getting back to the honeybees, something has obviously changed that created a vulnerability that the virus and fungus can now exploit. So the real scientific question here is what caused the honeybee vulnerability to infection? This is a question that’s one level deeper than what western scientists typically dare to ask. Even in medicine, doctors are happy to name a symptom as a disease — “high blood pressure” — without bothering to ask what caused the symptom in the first place. They actually have a disease called “high cholesterol.” Well that’s not a disease. That’s just an observation of a symptom. I could say the weather suffers from “a really windy day” but that tells me nothing about why the wind is actually blowing harder. Similarly, “high blood pressure” is a meaningless disease label because it indicates nothing about the cause of it. To say that honeybees are being killed off by a virus is similarly meaningless because it doesn’t get to the root cause of the infection vulnerability. Are they going to vaccinate the honeybees? Now, according to the limited thinking models of western scientists, the “cure” for a viral infection is, of course, none other than a vaccine! By ignoring the root cause of the infection and focusing on the virus itself, they can promote a vaccine as the solution. Hey, why not? They do it for HPV, flu season and soon even things like cancer! This is precisely what goes on with HPV and the scare campaigns that try to recruit young girls into getting vaccinated with high-profit HPV vaccines. Although cervical cancer is actually caused by the lack of good immune health, it is blamed on the presence of a virus that can be targeted with a vaccine. But in HPV infections, the presence of the virus is actually more of a symptom of disease than the cause of it . I can’t wait to see what the loony vaccine pushers are going to suggest for honeybees. Will they come up with little vaccine needles and set up fly-through honeybee vaccine clinics? Will they set up a Walgreens outside every honeybee colony and offer vaccine shots 24/7? Will they launch a new non-profit called “save the honeybees” and run a TV telethon to raise millions of dollars to fund “the search for the cure?” I can just see the pharmaceutical companies drooling over the possibilities here. If they can push this viral explanation of CCD, they could potentially start marketing vaccines for honeybees. And why stop there? Why not start discovering viral infections in wild birds and butterflies and promote vaccines for them, too? (No animal is safe from Big Pharma’s vaccine agenda, it seems… just ask your veterinarian.) The real cause of Colony Collapse Disorder So what’s the real cause of CCD? Well it’s certainly not the mere presence of a virus and a fungus. Those are just the symptoms of something else that’s gone wrong. To really answer the question, you need to look at the environmental influences on honeybees. What has changed over the last few years that could create an infection vulnerability among honeybees? Some of the more obvious factors to consider include: • An increase in the number of genetically engineered crops that are pollinated by honeybees (http://www.naturalnews.com/025287_bees_honey_crops.html). • An increase in the number of cell phone towers emitting radiation that might affect honeybees. • An increase in the use of chemical pesticides on crops pollinated by honeybees (http://www.naturalnews.com/023679.html). And (http://www.naturalnews.com/028429_colony_collapse_disorder_chemicals.html). • Increased pollution of streams and rivers (water sources for honeybees) with trace levels of pharmaceutical chemicals. • Increased air pollution and coal-fired power plant emissions. • Changes in the atmosphere which may impact the amount of solar radiation reaching honeybees. • Lack of genetic diversity among honeybees, creating an “in-breeding” genetic vulnerability to disease. … and so on. It’s not difficult to come up with a list of possible factors that are likely be the real root causes of CCD. But I suspect that western scientists, who are typically unwilling to consider environmental factors for just about everything (just look at the cancer industry!) will ignore these root causes and focus on the viral infections. And that will send them down the path of trying to come up with a honeybee vaccine rather than addressing the real root causes of disease. They’re doing precisely the same thing in humans, of course. Instead of addressing the real root causes of disease — widespread consumption of processed junk foods, chemicals in personal care products, lack of exercise, and so on — they focus on the presence of a virus and the intervention of a vaccine. Vaccines are useful tools for simple minds . They’re convenient for unintelligent scientists who are incapable of looking beyond the obvious. But they don’t really do much for people. The scientific evidence, by the way, says that seasonal flu vaccines don’t really work at all (http://www.naturalnews.com/029641_vaccines_junk_science.html). But that doesn’t stop superstitious scientists from “believing” in them. I can’t wait to see what sort of vaccines they’re going to come up with to “treat” the honeybees while ignoring the real root causes of CCD. This will go down in history as yet another striking demonstration of human scientific stupidity while the honeybees continue to die off. Maybe they’ll come up with psychiatric drugs to treat the honeybees. That’s actually the subject of a satire article I wrote back in 2007 called Breakthrough honeybee drugs to treat Colony Collapse Disorder (http://www.naturalnews.com/021857_honeybees_colony_collapse_disorder.html). There’s also a CounterThink cartoon on this topic that we published in 2008: http://counterthink.com/Honeybees_Go_on_Strike.asp

Vitamin D really does prevent cancer, autoimmune diseases

(NaturalNews) A new study out of Oxford University pinpoints vitamin D deficiency as a culprit in serious illnesses like cancer and autoimmune disorders. According to the report, which was recently published online in the journal Genome Research , genetic receptors throughout the body need adequate vitamin D levels to prevent these and other serious illnesses from developing. Multiple sclerosis, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, Chron’s disease, leukemia — these and many more diseases are often caused by a lack of vitamin D. Your genes literally have receptors that need vitamin D in order to properly express themselves. If there is not enough of the vitamin, serious illness is prone to develop. The Oxford team made specific observations about the importance of vitamin D in the genome regions associated with autoimmune diseases and cancer, noting that the nutrient is absolutely vital in helping to prevent these diseases from forming. “Considerations of vitamin D supplementation as a preventative measure for these diseases are strongly warranted,” expressed Sreeram Ramagopalan, author of the study. However, current recommendations for vitamin D intake are unacceptably low, and many nations are considering updating their guidelines. The U.S. Institute of Medicine, for example, recommends getting a mere 200 to 600 international units (IU) of vitamin D a day, an amount far too low to have much therapeutic effect. Since summer sun exposure creates about 20,000 IU of vitamin D in the skin in just 15 minutes, supplementation with at least 5,000 to 10,000 IU of vitamin D daily, particularly during the winter, is preferable. Healthy blood levels of vitamin D are somewhere between 50 and 80 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml), so many natural health professionals recommend having a “25 OH Vitamin D” blood test performed to check these levels. Sources for this story include: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/diet-fitness/diabetes/articles/2010/08/24/vitamin-d-may-influence-genes-for-cancer-autoimmune-disease.html

Even a low-dose vitamin D pill cuts breast cancer risk by 24 percent

(NaturalNews) A recent research study on vitamin D has shown that even low-dose vitamin D supplementation plays a big role in preventing breast cancer. According to the study, which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition , women who take at least 400 international units (IU) of vitamin D a day lower their risk of developing breast cancer by 24 percent. Over 6,500 patients participated in the study, which study authors believe points to vitamin D’s ability to regulate and control the growth and spread of malignant cancer cells. According to Laura Anderson, one of the study authors, breast cells have their own receptors for vitamin D, so it makes perfect sense that vitamin D exerts a positive influence on the body in terms of warding off cancer. Several other recent studies have also shown a definitive link between vitamin D intake and decreased cancer risk, highlighting this nutrient’s powerful health-promoting and disease-preventing capabilities. The research team also noted that vitamin D assimilates very well when coupled with calcium, and vice versa. The two vitamins work in tandem for maximum absorption of both in the body, so it is important to get plenty of both. And although it was not specifically mentioned in the report, vitamin D is easily obtained through natural sunlight exposure. Your skin is fully capable of absorbing sunlight and processing it into vitamin D. In fact, just 15 to 30 minutes of exposure a day during the warmer months will ensure that you get the maximum amount of vitamin D for maintaining optimal health, without the need for a supplement. During the winter months when sunlight exposure is limited, you can supplement with natural vitamin D3 as an alternative. It will effectively achieve the same results as if you were getting natural sunlight, however natural sunlight is preferable when available. The governmental recommended daily intake of vitamin D is a mere 400 IU for adults, which many now consider to be far too low. To get a significant therapeutic effect from vitamin D, dosages upwards of 10,000 IU a day are far more appropriate. Because the body absorbs roughly 20,000 IU from the sun before shutting off for the day, it is safe to assume that supplementing with vitamin D3 in roughly this amount is safe as well. Sources for this story include: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63S4GH20100429

« Previous Page — Next Page »