I found this interesting video on the Mercola.com website and decided to put it into print. Dr. Mercola says that, “for over 100 years conventional medicine has seized control of the US health care system and as a result we have over 800,000 people who are killed by interacting with this system. It is likely that over 50 million Americans have died prematurely from this abuse”

 

Here are the contents of the video:

 

• Sloppy handwriting is the cause of 7,000 patient deaths each year, while preventable medication mistakes hurt 1.5 million patients.

 

• Every year, 7.5 million unnecessary medical and surgical procedures are performed.

 

• At least 106,000 people die every year from adverse drug reactions.

 

• A mere 6% of all adverse drug reactions are properly identified.

 

• Most side effects are instead mistaken for new disease symptoms, leading to further drugging and unnecessary medical procedures, increasing the risk of death even further.

 

• Most of these deaths are from expected adverse reactions, because they are an extension of the drugs’ action.

 

• The mortality rate for people between the ages of 45-64, who took their prescription drugs correctly, rose 90% in just five years.

 

• As of 2001, Pfizer was the number one most profitable company of all the Fortune 500 companies.

 

• Their profit that year was $7.8 billion, which is more than the profits from all Fortune 500 companies in the homebuilding, apparel, railroad and publishing industries combined.

 

• Modern medicine is no longer about health – it is a for-profit disease industry that can only survive if millions of people get sick…and stay that way.

 

• It is an industry that refuses to consider vitally important aspects of health, like how stress lowers the immune system; how processed foods, alcohol, excessive calories and insufficient exercise; how exposure to the tens of thousands of toxins in our environment and in our food supply, have direct links to the illnesses you suffer.

 

• You’re told to stay out of the sun, yet more than 50,000 people die from cancer each year, because they don’t get enough sun exposure.

 

• Why are we kept in the dark….why is the truth not being sought? Follow the money!

 

• More than half of the United States population have received unnecessary medical treatment.

 

• That’s about 50,000 people per day…42% have been directly affected by a medical mistake, from a procedure or drug, and 84% of our population personally know someone who’s been a victim of a medical error.

 

• These medical errors and deaths equate to six jumbo jets falling out of the sky each and every day.

 

• The only difference is the media coverage – there’s no public display of grief for those who die of faulty medicine.

 

• The error rate of Intensive Care Units is like the Post Office losing more than 16,000 pieces of mail every hour of every day, or banks deducting 32,000 cheques from the wrong account – each and every hour – every day – year in and year out.

 

• The American Medical system is the number one killer in the United States. The deaths caused by conventional medicine, in just one decade, equate to approximately 8 million.

 

• That’s more than all the casualties of all the wars America has fought in it’s entire history.

 

• In 2006, health care spending reached two trillion dollars. We should have the best medicine in the world – preventing and reversing disease – and knowing how to do minimal harm.

 

• Instead we’re getting buried prematurely….

 

• Adding to the problems created by this flawed system? Deceptive marketing that has changed our eating patterns, so now more than 90% of the money people spend on food is for the highly processed, unhealthy variety.

 

• Sugar in soft drinks is the number one source for calories in the US, which now causes one in three Americans to have diabetes or pre-diabetes, and two in three Americans to be overweight.

 

• Half of them are obese….

 

• How many of them must jump off the cliff ahead of you, before you will step out of line?

 

• Toxic medications will never reverse poor health that is due to poor food choices.

 

• Think about it. What benefit can outweigh a statistically proven risk of “unintentional death” as the side effect of most drugs?

 

• Are you ready to stand up and take charge of your health?

 

• Or will you let Big Pharma take you down and cover it up?

 

Source:Mercola.com

 

I know many people will ask for verification of the facts from this video. I can’t think of a better validation than by reading Gary Null’s “Death by Medicine” also on the Mercola.com site. It has 153 references (two complete pages) and an appendix of general facts.

Stuck in a training rut? Don’t despair! There’s a little known fitness system which I’ve been employing and it kicks some serious butt. It’s used as part of the CrossFit craze and it may just be a serious cardiovascular kickstart to whatever type of training you are currently using.

 

The upside: it will leave still you with most of your day to enjoy. The downside: there’s a price to pay. It’s four minutes of pure torture, anguish and misery. Picture yourself purely exhausted, with pools of sweat running down your body. And all that is achieved in four minutes. Skeptical? So was I, until I tried it.

 

So what’s this magical little workout, you ask? It’s called the Tabata Method, after the name of a Japanese researcher Izumi Tabata. He compared the effects of moderate-intensity endurance and high-intensity intermittent training on V02max and anaerobic capacity at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Japan. To everyone’s amazement, he discovered a way to increase both anaerobic and aerobic pathways at the same time. (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise (1996) 28, 1327-1330).

 

It’s a world class training plan with a protocol that is unique among aerobic training programs for its intensity and brevity. It can help in many disciplines, and drops body fat quickly. However, don’t let the word simple fool you, as it is also incredibly difficult. Many will try it once and then drop it because they can’t stand thinking about doing it again.

 

So here it is: take one exercise and perform it in the following manner:

 

1) For twenty seconds, do as many repetitions as possible.

2) Rest for ten seconds

3) Repeat seven more times!

 

There you have it – four minutes of pure, unadulterated muscle torment and lactic acid burn. Don’t think of it as eight sets of eight, but rather doing as many reps as you can get in during your twenty second periods, followed by ten seconds of rest.

 

It works best with exercises which use a large number of muscles. The two best exercises for it are the front squat and the dumbbell thruster, because of the simple way the weight can be dropped and you can rest a second or so longer.

 

Pressing motions tire the muscles too much and failure will occur before ultimate rep counts. And an exercise like the deadlift will only lead to an injury, unless done strictly.

 

This is not body weight training, because it needs to stimulate the cardiovascular system to failure. But neither is it for those with an inflated ego, so ease up on using big weights. If you regularly squat 400 pounds or more, you’ll likely only hoist about 100 pounds for this routine.

 

Performing this set once or twice weekly is well worth it because it drops body fat very efficiently. In fact, “High-intensity exercise produces much more fat loss because metabolic adaptations resulting from HIIT may lead to a better lipid utilization in the postexercise state and thus contribute to a greater energy and lipid deficit. In plain English, compared to moderate-intensity endurance exercise, high- intensity intermittent exercise causes more calories and fat to be burned following the workout.” (Forget The Fat Burn Zone, High Intensity Aerobics Are Amazingly Effective – www.cbass.com)

 

It might be painful, but Tabata teaches you how to push past pain and achieve the tight mental focus needed to reach your fitness goals. Even if you only have a short work lunch hour, go ahead and squeeze this workout in. You won’t fall asleep at the job afterwards – guaranteed.

 

Note: “High-intensity exercise should not be attempted by individuals at risk for health problems or for obese people who are not used to exercise.”

Eating more than one serving of broccoli and cauliflower a week may reduce the risk of prostate cancer by up to 45 per cent, says a new study of almost 30,000 men over 4.2 years.

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Epidemiological and animal studies have shown that diets high in cruciferous vegetables (with broccoli and cauliflower singled out as offering most protection) result in less instances of certain cancers, especially lung, colon, breast and ovarian cancer. It also suggests the veggies may benefit prostates.

 

Researchers reported that increased intake of cruciferous vegetables was associated with a 40 per cent reduction in prostate cancer risk, with more than one serving of broccoli per week associated with a 45 per cent risk reduction, compared to less than one broccoli serving per month.

 

Increased consumption of cauliflower was also associated with a significant reduction of prostate cancer, with more than one serving giving a 52 per cent risk reduction, compared to less than one broccoli serving per month.

 

The cancer-fighting properties of broccoli are related to the high levels of active plant chemicals called glucosinolates, which are thought to be powerful anti-carcinogens. Of course it helps that people who eat more vegetables and fruits also tend to lead healthier lifestyles with more exercise, and lower smoking rates.

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Source: Journal of the National Cancer Institute- “Prospective Study of Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Risk of Prostate Cancer,” 2007.

So now the biggest non-secret in bottled water history is out. Aquafina, the PepsiCo Inc. bottled water with the cool blue mountain on the label, will stop trying to fool consumers into thinking its water comes from some far-away bubbling spring.

 

Why? Because it’s merely tap water in a pretty bottle, pushed onto water consumers with a slick, though deeply unethical, marketing move. Does it work? The Beverage Marketing Corporation says that in 2006 the bottled water industry made $11 billion.

 

Now PepsiCo Inc. will come clean with their Aquafina brand, by spelling out public water source, which currently reads P.W.S. on the label.

 

The company has been under intense pressure from a group called Corporate Accountability International to be more transparent about its product. Coca-Cola Company’s Dasani brand and Nestle Waters, North America’s Nestle Pure Life brand are also being pursued by the group.

 

The Los Angeles Times (July 29) says “Pepsi’s Aquafina and Coca-Cola Co.’s Dasani are both made from purified water from public reservoirs, (tap water in other words), as opposed to Groupe Danone’s Evian or Nestle’s Poland Spring, so-called spring waters shipped from specific locations that the firms say have notably clean water.

 

Many municipalities in the US are now citing concerns about the bottled-water industry, with some cities even banning employees from using city funds to buy bottled water (San Francisco) when tap water was available.

 

This pressure comes from the bottled water industry adding plastic to landfills, using too much energy by producing and shipping bottles across the world. In other words, the ban is merely another part of an effort to combat global warming. While I don’t condone the practices of the bottled water industry, I also think the move is hypocritical, in light of allowing pop or sweetened drinks to remain unscathed.

 

The general public probably agrees, with the industry newsletter Beverage Digest estimating that U.S. consumers spent about $15 billion on bottled water last year. Globally, consumption of bottled water had increased by 57 percent during 1999-2004 according to the Washington-based Earth Policy Institute.

 

Touting tap water as a safe alternative is ridiculous. You can’t tell if your water is safe by the way it looks, tastes, or smells. Some contaminants in water are so harmful that they are measured in “parts per million” or “parts per billion.” In other words, just a drop of these poisons added to many gallons of water can be very harmful.

 

For example, six studies examining a combined total of almost 8,000 people have indicated that men who drank more than 2 litres of tap water a day ran a 50 percent higher risk of bladder cancer than those who drank half a liter or less. Other beverages were not found to have the same associated risks (International Journal of Cancer, April 15, 2006; 118(8): 2040-2047).

 

Tap water should be avoided because it contains chlorine and may contain fluoride, toxic substances that, with ongoing consumption, can have dire consequences for the body. Research now confirms that cancer-causing agents are created when disinfectant chemicals like chlorine come in contact with organic materials already in water, among them trihalomethanes. Fluoride, (hydrofluoric acid) which is a compound of fluorine that is a chemical byproduct of aluminum, steel, cement, phosphate, and nuclear weapons manufacturing, also can be every bit as toxic as chlorine

 

In Canada, the risk is no better. Many Canadian public water supplies contain traces of one medication or another because sewage treatment plants usually aren’t equipped to filter drugs and antibiotics.

 

“In 2005 an Alberta Environment study found traces of ibuprofen, birth control pills, and steroids in samples from wastewater treatment plants in five Alberta cities. A couple of years before that, tap water tests from 10 Canadian cities found drugs in the drinking water of four. In the first Canadian study between 2000 and 2001, a team took water samples in 14 municipalities and at open water points along the Great Lakes; they found traces of painkillers, anti-inflammatories, and epilepsy and blood cholesterol drugs.” (Source: alive #294, April 2007)

 

Having said all that, the bottled water industry is not without dangers. Like most things in life there are positive and negative aspects to this trend. The major benefit of course is that people are drinking water more as a primary beverage to improve their physical health.

 

Even so, about one-quarter of U.S. bottled water comes from a municipal water source, (filtered tap water). While typical filtering removes chlorine, it does not remove fluoride. The bottled water industry maintains that no illness outbreaks have ever been linked to U.S. bottled water.However, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) conducted a study of 103 brands of bottled water (over 1,000 bottles were tested in all) and found that one-third contained synthetic organic chemicals and bacteria.

 

As well, the plastic bottles in which bottled water is typically sold are made of plastic polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. The manufacture of these bottles can release phathalates, which have been found to cause birth defects in animals, into the environment.

 

The International Bottled Water Association says that the bottles are recyclable and are reused up to 100 times before being made into other products. (PBS Frontline World June 2002)

 

Wide-mouth high-density Nalgene bottles are made from a safer plastic. Plastics that are safer to use for storing food and beverages, none of which are known to leach harmful substances, include:

 

• Polypropylene, designated “#5 PP”
• High-density polyethylene, designated “#2HDPE”
• Low-density polyethylene, designated “#4 LDPE”

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Of course glass containers are still best. And if you are going to pay the price for bottled water, you might as well get bottled spring water, not the filtered tap water Coke, Pepsi and others are selling.

Drug-induced illnesses are a common reality in our pill popping society. Each year, more than 9.6 million adverse drug reactions occur in older Americans, with 37 percent of these not being reported.

 

Though doctors may simply attribute the following symptoms to “growing old,” well conducted studies show they are frequently caused by drugs:

 

• Heart toxicity – adverse reactions to digoxin

 

• Lung toxicity – Cordarone, Feldene, Inderal, Prinivil, Tegretol, Vasotec, Visken

 

• Depression – Accutane, Advil, Cipro, Inderal, Pepcid, Tagamet, Zantac

 

• Psychoses/Hallucinations – Benadryl, Celebrex, Dexatrim, Vioxx

 

• Dementia – Aldomet, Inderal, Tagamet, Xanax

 

• Parkinsonism – Cardizem, Haldol, Elavil, Risperdal, Thorazine

 

• Ulcers – NSAID’s (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs).

 

• Tardive dyskinesia – Abilify, Asendin, Buspar, Compazine, Geodon, Haldol, Mellaril, Risperdal, Thorazine, Wellbutrin, Zyban, Zyprexa

 

• Parkinsonism – Abilify, Aldomet, Asendin, Cardizem, Compazine, Elavil, Geodon, Haldol, Mellaril, Prozac, Reglan, Regroton, Risperdal, Thorazine

 

• Dementia - Aldomet, Inderal, Maxzide, Mellaril, Regroton, Restoril, Ser-Ap-Es, Tagamet, Valium, Xanax,Zantac

 

• Psychoses/ hallucinations - Aldomet, Benadryl, Catapres, Celebrex, Cipro, Dexatrim, Elavil, Halcion, Inderal, Lanoxin, Procanbid, Sonata, Tagamet, Ultracet, Valium, Vioxx

 

• Depression – Accutane, Advil, Catapres, Cipro, Dalmane, Factive, Inderal, Naprosyn, Norpace, Pepcid, Reglan, Tagamet, Talwin, Ultracet, Valium, Xanax, Zantac

 

• Addiction – tranquilizers or sleeping pills

 

• Mental Impairment – various drugs

 

• Hip fractures - attributable to drug-induced falls.

 

Source:WorstPills.org

 

One of the best articles on the subject I’ve read is from Gary Null, titled: Death By Medicine , found on Mercola.com. He outlines the scope of this problem in masterful detail, showing how the modern health system is responsible for 800,000 deaths every year in the US alone.

 

In his conclusion, Null states, “When the number one killer in a society is the health care system, then that system has no excuse except to address its own urgent shortcomings. It’s a failed system in need of immediate attention.”

 

It’s enough to make you think that simply staying clear of pharmaceutical drugs can save your life.

The popular media has used the word epidemic when describing the word obesity in recent years, and I’ll admit it was a bit controversial. Traditionally, an epidemic is described as the rapid spread of infectious diseases, but it is now applied by scribes everywhere in a non-biological sense. However, a recent study has led me to believe we have crossed the line. Word is out that researchers are describing obesity as a contagion – not spread by a virus, bacterium or other pathogen – but rather through social networks.

 

Yes you read that correctly. An article in the New England Journal of Medicine involved a detailed analysis of a large social network of 12,067 people who had been closely followed for 32 years, from 1971 until 2003. It showed that if a close friend becomes obese, your likelihood of becoming obese soars by 171 per cent. Even if the friendship is casual, the risk is still said to be about 57 per cent. Having an obese sibling was said to increase your risk 40 per cent, and an obese spouse ups your risk 37 per cent.

 

The catchy interpretation is: Your social circle may make you unhealthy. It is meant to reinforce the idea that obesity is not just an individual problem, but a collective problem,” said Nicholas Christakis, a professor of medical sociology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. She is of the belief that people who are overweight or obese don’t seek each other out, but rather grow fatter together, thinking it’s okay to be bigger, since those around them are bigger.

 

The absurdity of such a conclusion is obvious. Many of us have had fat friends, but we never envied them for their bodily confidence. In fact, kids can be extremely cruel at times, and taunting was more common than admiration. Think of the local hockey rink; the basketball court or the soccer game. Who was picked first, the fast, skinny kid or the slow, lumbering overweight one? Confidence back then came from achievement, not lack of it.

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And understanding why and what people eat – quantity and quality – and how active they are is far more complex than whom you hang out with. This study fails to consider income, education, mental outlook, food quality, lack of exercise, and of course most importantly – willpower.

 

In the USA today, 66 per cent of adults are overweight, with 33 per cent considered obese. In Canada, the numbers are similar, with 59 per cent of adults overweight, including 23 per cent obese. Is this 175 million close friends influencing each other, or is it a problem of unhealthy food which is cheap, abundant and tempting? An extra 100 calories a day will pile on 10 pounds in a year, public health messages tell us. Couple that with an inordinate lack of fitness, and in five years you’re looking at an extra fifty pounds.

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Frankly, I don’t see it as too far fetched to imagine people forging lifelong friendships with others who share similar backgrounds and outlooks, as well as unhealthy eating and exercise habits. But even then, not too many of them will be comfortable with a rear end that begs for a “wide load’ decal.

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Ninnies researching such topics push an agenda which leans away from individual responsibility. In their rush for research grants, they forget the basics of good methodology and interpretation, publishing studies with so little epidemiological merit, they would, at another time and place be laughed out of the medical community. We are driven by a liberal agenda which blames everyone but ourselves. Lone responsibility is out: group sickness is in. No one is to blame; so embrace the lard – it’s not your fault.

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Not quite. Obesity is a problem of our own making and our own choices. It’s not a virus or a contagious disease. It’s not an epidemic or plague. It’s something we do to ourselves and if we choose, we can avoid it. Thinking otherwise only twists sound reason. Hmm, you know: my friends are started to get older, and I am too. Maybe I’d better get some new friends.

Here’s an interesting bit of news. A January 2007 study in “Gastroenterology” shows that doctor error may lead to missing obvious signs of colon cancer. Among more than 12,000 colon cancer patients, 430 patients had a new or missed tumor diagnosed anywhere from six months to three years after having a colonoscopy.

 

That scary fact is underscored by another: family physicians and internists who did their own colonoscopies were generally more prone to miss colon cancer. Women patients had the greatest chance of a miss at 85 percent, with men following closely behind at 77 percent. Add an office setting to where the colonscopy was performed, and men fared worse, tripling their risk of new or missed cancers. With women, the risk doubled.

 

Instead of relying on annual check-ups, why not take some preventative steps to this disease? Hopefully you care; but if you don’t, here are some facts to get your attention: Colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of U.S. cancer deaths for women and men combined. About 135,400 new cases of colorectal cancer will be diagnosed in the United States this year and 56,700 patients will die. In fact, more lives are lost each year to colorectal cancer than to AIDS and breast cancer combined. You need to care, because it’s not just some little known disease.

 

Here’s another fact: The link between diet and colorectal cancer is so strong that learning to make sound food choices can influence your risk of developing or not developing this disease. For optimum prevention, follow these tips:

 

1. Consume more high fibre foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, which act as a natural broom to the colon.
2. Consume more high quality fish oil high in omega-3 fats.
3. Consume beneficial bacteria found in foods or supplements daily.
4. Get more exercise. Research indicates that exercising can decrease colon cancer risk by up to 40 percent.

 

Summation: To prevent colorectal cancer, your diet should include a variety of nutrients, high amounts of fiber and adequate levels of beneficial fats. By increasing the amount of vegetables, fruits and whole-grain products in your diet, as well as choosing an active lifestyle, you will significantly lower your risk of this disease.

 

Sources:

 

• Yahoo News, February 23, 2007
• Gastroenterology, Vol. 132, No. 1, January 2007: 96-102
• Colon Cancer and Exercise. American Cancer Society. 20 Jul. 1999. 28 Aug. 2006.

Can’t give up that sweet taste of soft drinks? Think long and hard about your next gulp, because a study published in the November 2006 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported evidence that high sugar intake may be a factor in pancreatic cancer.

 

This study involved 75,000 men and women for more than seven years and came up with some not so surprising conclusions. Those who added sugar to everyday foods and drinks, and who consumed more sugar overall, including soft drinks, had a significantly higher chance of developing cancer of the pancreas. In fact, those who consumed five or more soft drinks daily, increased their risk of pancreatic cancer two-fold.

 

Researchers speculated that fluctuating blood sugar affecting insulin activity and glucose metabolism are the culprit. So there you have it; just another reason to put this nutritional horror show on the shelf and keep the body clean with healthy fluids.