The Gary Null Show

2019-08

Episodes

Wednesday Aug 28, 2019

The Meat You Eat and Cancer
The Meat You Eat and Cancer
By Gary Null PhD and Amy Mitura JD
Who are we supposed to believe when it comes to our health? There is a movement towards plant-based foods with many leading physicians seeing the reversal of conditions in patients following plant-based diets. Unfortunately, people researching the subject may come across writings by Dr. Stephen Barrett. Regarding nutrition, Barrett relies on the now scientifically debunked advice of the food pyramid where meat and dairy are the top bases of the diet, followed by wheat products, such as breads and pastas. Fruits and vegetables are given less significance. As Barrett has been a primary source for health-related articles on Wikipedia, influencing a massive audience, we decided to look at a few of the statements he has made over the years. Does he deserve to be considered an unbiased, objective authority on the subject? Judge for yourself…
Read The Rest OF This Article Here

Monday Aug 26, 2019

Study shows frying oil consumption worsened colon cancer and colitis in mice University of Massachusetts, August 26, 2019
Foods fried in vegetable oil are popular worldwide, but research about the health effects of this cooking technique has been largely inconclusive and focused on healthy people. For the first time, UMass Amherst food scientists set out to examine the impact of frying oil consumption on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and colon cancer, using animal models. In their paper published Aug. 23 in Cancer Prevention Research, researchers showed that feeding frying oil to mice exaggerated colonic inflammation, enhanced tumor growth and worsened gut leakage, spreading bacteria or toxic bacterial products into the bloodstream. Rather, the new research suggests that eating fried foods may exacerbate and advance conditions of the colon. "In the United States, many people have these diseases, but many of them may still eat fast food and fried food," says Guodong Zhang. "If somebody has IBD or colon cancer and they eat this kind of food, there is a chance it will make the diseases more aggressive." For their experiments, the researchers used a real-world sample of canola oil, in which falafel had been cooked at 325 F in a standard commercial fryer at an eatery in Amherst, Massachusetts. "Canola oil is used widely in America for frying," Jianan Zhang says. To test their hypothesis that the oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids, which occurs when the oil is heated, is instrumental in the inflammatory effects, the researchers isolated polar compounds from the frying oil and fed them to the mice. The results were "very similar" to those from the experiment in which the mice were fed frying oil, suggesting that the polar compounds mediated the inflammatory effects.
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Research: Black Seed Oil Protects Pancreas Damage from Diabetes – Helps Heal Wounds Bu-Ali Sina University, August 23, 2019 The Mideast region of Eurasia has known that black cumin seed (Nigella sativa) “remedies all but death” for centuries. A study report published explained recent research on wound healing with diabetic rats using an extract of Nigella sativa or black seed cumin oil. None of the rats were naturally diabetic. Out of the 49 standard lab rats used, three groups of seven were rendered diabetic with a one-time injection of streptozocin. You may wonder why this study’s researchers bothered to chemically induce healthy lab rats into diabetes to test Nigella sativa’s wound healing properties. It’s because diabetics heal more slowly and worsen more rapidly than those not afflicted. The result was that the larger dose of the black cumin seed extract at 40 percent healed the inflicted wounds of diabetic rats almost twice as fast as the control group, closely followed by the 20 percent extract used on diabetic rats, leading the researchers to conclude: N. sativa extract significantly promoted wound healing in diabetic rats in comparison with control groups. Although the beneficial mechanism of the promotion of wound healing was not specifically studied, it is believed that the anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties of N. sativa would contribute to this enhanced wound healing. Black Cumin Seed Oil to Protect Against Pancreas Damage Leading to Diabetes This animal study’s report also published it was designed to confirm earlier studies showing that virgin olive oil and Nigella sativa (black cumin seed) oil protects the pancreas and preserves the pancreatic Beta cells that produce insulin.
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More than 100 vapers have contracted a severe lung disease, per CDC Centers for Disease Control, August 22, 2019
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that it’s looking into 153 possible cases of a mysterious lung disease that seems to be associated with e-cigarette use. The agency says it’s investigating the illness alongside 16 states where the cases were reported from June 28th to August 20th. The illness seems to start out gradually with symptoms that include difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, and / or chest pain. Some cases also involve mild to moderate gastrointestinal illness, including vomiting, diarrhea, and fatigue. No one has died of the still-unnamed illness. The CDC and impacted states haven’t identified a cause, but in all reported cases, affected people had used vapes. In multiple cases, these people also said they had recently used tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)-containing products. THC is found in marijuana, so it could be possible that people are vaping weed products. Vaping among high schoolers increased by 78 percent between 2017 and 2018, with more than 27 percent of high schoolers using e-cigarettes regularly.
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Essential oils could counter lung and liver ailments caused by air pollution Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale (France), August 23, 2019
Certain ingredients in essential oils made from plants such as cloves, anise, fennel and ylang-ylang could serve as a natural treatment of lung and liver conditions caused by air pollution. This is according to Miriana Kfoury of the Unité de Chimie Environnementale et Interactions sur le Vivant, Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale in France and the Lebanese University in Lebanon. It is the first of its kind to evaluate the value of using certain essential oil compounds to treat inflammation caused by the fine particles that are typical of hazy, polluted air, and that are known to be carcinogenic. Plants naturally contain various essential oils that are made up of different compounds. Some of these have been found to have antioxidant value, and to also be able to fight inflammation.Cytokin levels normally increase when the body's immune system is fighting a specific infection. "The findings provide the first evidence that natural essential oil components counteract the inflammatory effects of particulate matter, such as that contained in polluted air," says Kfoury.
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Melatonin boost a key to fighting breast cancer Michigan State University, August 24, 2019 Melatonin, a hormone produced in the human brain, appears to suppress the growth of breast cancer tumors. The brain manufactures melatonin only at night to regulate sleep cycles. Epidemiologists and experimentalists have speculated that the lack of melatonin, due in part to our sleep-deprived modern society, put women at higher risk for breast cancer. The latest MSU study showed that melatonin suppresses the growth of breast cancer stem cells, providing scientific proof to support the growing body of anecdotal evidence on sleep deprivation. Before the team could test its theory, the scientists had to grow tumors from stem cells, known as "mammospheres," a method perfected in the laboratory of James Trosko at MSU. The growth of these mammospheres was enhanced with chemicals known to fuel tumor growth, namely, the natural hormone estrogen, and estrogen-like chemical Bisphenol A, or BPA, found in many types of plastic food packages. Melatonin treatment significantly decreased the number and size of mammospheres when compared with the control group. Furthermore, when the cells were stimulated by estrogen or BPA and treated with melatonin at the same time, there was a greater reduction in the number and size of mammospheres.
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Acupuncture may yield pain relief for children who have complex medical conditions Gillette Children's Healthcare, (Minnesota), August 22, 2019
It appears that acupuncture may be a viable option for pain management when it comes to pediatric patients who have complex medical conditions. The study found that a significant portion of children who have chronic care conditions - many of whom are already on numerous medications - might benefit from the use of the low-risk and non-toxic benefits of acupuncture. The study was published in a recent edition of Medical Acupuncture. Many patients who have complex medical conditions such as cerebral palsy, spinal cord injuries and other brain and musculoskeletal conditions experience chronic pain. As a result, they are often medicated with drugs that can make them sleepy, gain weight and exacerbate mood swigs that burden both the child and their families, says Scott Schwantes, M.D., a pediatrician at Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare and lead author of the study.
(Child Abuse Article Next)
Stanford University says vax court is abusive to parents Federal program for vaccine-injured children is failing, Stanford scholar says A Stanford professor has found that the federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has not lived up to its original goals of providing "simple justice" to children injured by vaccines. Lengthy delays and an adversarial tone characterize the program. BY CLIFTON B. PARKER A Stanford law scholar says a no-fault alternative dispute resolution system for resolving vaccine injury claims is not working as intended. The safety net that Congress created to protect children who suffer from vaccine injury is not working as intended, a Stanford law professor has found. “The bottom line is that the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was supposed to offer ‘simple justice’ to vaccine-injured children. But it has largely failed to do so,” wrote Stanford law Professor Nora Freeman Engstrom in a new research article. Outside the court system Created by Congress in 1986 as the problem of vaccine injury hit crisis proportions, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, or VICP, is a no-fault compensation system housed within the U.S. Court of Claims and funded by a 75-cent tax on each vaccine dose administered across the country. Vaccines are given to reduce the threat of common diseases, such as measles, chicken pox, smallpox and polio, and they save the lives of tens of thousands of Americans each year. However, vaccines also cause a very small proportion of those inoculated to sustain serious and sometimes fatal injuries, according to Engstrom. She said the VCIP uses a no-fault alternative dispute resolution system for resolving vaccine injury claims. Known as an “alternative compensation mechanism,” it is similar to workers’ compensation funds or the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund in providing payment to injured individuals outside the traditional court system. Engstrom, who also recently wrote an op-ed on this issue, noted the vaccine fund has adjudicated more than 14,000 petitions for vaccine injury since its beginning in 1986. In her research, she analyzed nearly three decades’ worth of data concerning the program’s operation. “The results are discouraging,” she said. “Despite initial optimism in Congress and beyond that such a fund could resolve claims efficiently and amicably, in operation the program has been astonishingly slow and surprisingly combative.” For example, Congress originally established a 240-day deadline for all adjudication decisions. But Engstrom reported that, in reality, the average adjudication takes over five years. “This is years longer than similar claims resolved by court judgment or trial verdict within the traditional tort system,” she said. The tone and nature of the experience is also disillusioning, she noted. Though claims within the system are supposed to be amicably resolved, in reality “the resolution of petitions is frequently antagonistic,” she said. Engstrom found that even when children are found to be entitled to compensation, governmental lawyers have sometimes hassled petitioners over relatively piddling amounts. For example, in one case, a dispute arose whether a 14-year-old girl with profound mental retardation was or was not entitled to a $40 pair of high-top tennis shoes. Perhaps as a result, Engstrom said, the vaccine program has heavily relied on lawyers. Early on, some hoped that procedures would be straightforward and collaborative enough to make it unnecessary to hire counsel. But Engstrom discovered that petitioners need counsel – and often highly specialized legal help – to have any chance at successfully resolving their claims.
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GOP LOBBYISTS HELP BRAZIL RECRUIT U.S. COMPANIES TO EXPLOIT THE AMAZON Lee Fang THE INTERCEPT August 23 2019
THIS SUMMER, fires are being used to clear wide swaths of the Amazon at an unprecedented rate. One-fifth of the Amazon has already been destroyed in the past 50 years; further industrialization of the rainforest risks destroying another fifth, a loss that would be catastrophic for the global ecosystem. The disaster is widely blamed on interests seeking to clear the world’s largest rainforest for cattle ranching, mining, and export-focused agribusiness. Documents reveal that those interests are being pushed in the U.S. by Republican lobbyists, friendly with President Donald Trump’s administration, who entered into talks with the Brazilian government to promote corporate investment in the Amazon. The crisis in the Amazon comes as Brazil is now governed by an administration openly hostile to environmental concerns and Indigenous communities. President Jair Bolsonaro, a former Army captain once viewed as a fringe figure in Brazilian politics, has been referred to himself as “Captain Chainsaw” for his drive to promote logging and agribusiness in the Amazon. Shortly after taking office in January, Bolsonaro slashed funding for Brazil’s main environmental agency by 24 percent. And this week, after a report by Brazil’s space research center revealed that fires in the Amazon are up 83% this year, Bolsonaro blamed the fires on international NGOsrather than his own anti-environmental policies. MEANWHILE, A MEMBER of the Brazilian government has contracted with Washington lobbyists to continue selling land and destroying the forest.

Friday Aug 23, 2019

The Gary Null Show is here to inform you on the best news in health, healing, the environment. 

Thursday Aug 22, 2019

Dr. Beverly Rubik is an internationally renowned biophysicist investigating the role of consciousness in the physical world and complementary and alternative medicine, particularly the role of  the human biofield.  She is currently the founder of the Institute of Frontier Science, a nonprofit research laboratory in Emeryville California. Between 1988 and 1995, she was the Director of the Center for Frontier Sciences at Temple University and was a Congressionally appointed member of the National Institutes of Health advisory board for the Office of Alternative Medicine. Through her research the term "biofield" was accepted into the National Library of Medicine. Dr. Rubik serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine and the Journal of Vortex Science and technology. She holds a doctorate in biophysics from the University of California at Berkeley and is an adjunct faculty member of the California institute for Human Science, Saybrook University and the Energy Medicine University. Her present research is to investigate the effects of electromagnetic frequencies from wireless technology on human biology and the development of novel sensors for measuring Qi.  Her websites are FrontierSciences. org   and   BRubik.com
 

The Gary Null Show - 08.21.19

Wednesday Aug 21, 2019

Wednesday Aug 21, 2019

Study supports link between pollution and neuropsychiatric disorders University of Chicago, August 20, 2019
A new study led by University of Chicago researchers suggests a significant link between exposure to environmental pollution and an increase in the prevalence of neuropsychiatric disorders. Based on analysis of large population data sets from both the United States and Denmark, the study, published in PLoS Biology, found poor air quality associated with increased rates of bipolar disorder and major depression in both countries. "Our studies in the United States and Denmark show that living in polluted areas, especially early in life, is predictive of mental disorders," said computational biologist Atif Khan, PhD, the first author of the new study. "These neurological and psychiatric diseases--so costly in both financial and social terms--appear linked to the physical environment, particularly air quality."
Green space is good for your mental health -- the nearer the better!University of Warwick (UK), August 20, 2019
First study to demonstrate relationship between green space and mental wellbeing at an individual level published Using data from 25,518 people, the researchers show that Londoners who live within 300m of green space have significantly better mental wellbeingProximity to green space was more important than lifestyle factors such as employment, income, and general health. It is hoped that planners will use the results to help create a healthier, happier and more productive urban landscape. The study, published in the August issue of Applied Geography, found:- Overall there is a very strong relationship between the amount of green space around a person's home and their feelings of life satisfaction, happiness and self-worth Green space within 300m of home had the greatest influence on mental wellbeing An increase of 1 hectare - about the size of an international Rugby Union pitch - within 300m of residents was associated with an increase of 8 percentage points in a life satisfaction, 7 in worth and 5 in happiness. Green space was less important for mental wellbeing in Central London and East London
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Study confirms cannabis flower is an effective mid-level analgesic medication for pain treatment University of New Mexico, August 21, 2019
Using the largest database of real-time recordings of the effects of common and commercially available cannabis products in the United States (U.S.), researchers at The University of New Mexico (UNM) found strong evidence that cannabis can significantly alleviate pain, with the average user experiencing a three-point drop in pain suffering on a 0-10 point scale immediately following cannabis consumption. With a mounting opioid epidemic at full force and relatively few alternative painmedications available to the general public, scientists found conclusive support that cannabis is very effective at reducing pain caused by different types of health conditions, with relatively minimal negative side effects. Chronic pain afflicts more than 20 percent of adults and is the most financially burdensome health condition that the U.S faces; exceeding, for example, the combined costs of treating heart disease and cancer.
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Ginkgo Extract Lowers Oxidative Stress Leading to Reduced Amyloid Aggregation in Alzheimer Disease Dalian Medical University (China), August 21, 2019
According to news reporting originating from Dalian, People’s Republic of China, research stated, “Abundant evidence demonstrates that oxidative stress may be not only an early event in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but also a key factor in the pathogenesis of AD. Ginkgo Extract has a strong ability to scavenge oxygen free radicals and supply hydrogen.” Oxidative stress was assessed by measuring free radicals and the activities of antioxidant enzymes. Our studies showed that Ginkgo extract treatment reduced the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) significantly while total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activities were enhanced “These findings suggest that Ginkgo extract can reduce oxidative stress by decreasing free radical and enhancing antioxidant status, further leading to reduced A aggregation; Ginkgo extract might be a potential therapeutic agent for Alzheimer’s disease (AD).”
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Low Intake of Vitamin E Accelerates Cellular Aging In Patients With Established Cardiovascular Disease University of Cordoba (Spain), August 21, 2019
According to news originating from Cordoba, Spain, esearch stated, “Leukocyte telomere length (LTL) shortening is a biomarker of cellular aging that can be decelerated by diet. We aimed to investigate the effect of dietary intake of vitamin E on biomarkers of cellular senescence in patients with established cardiovascular disease.” DNA from 1,002 participants was isolated and Leukocyte telomere length was measured by real-time PCR. We found that patients with an inadequate intake of vitamin E had shorter LTL than those with an adequate intake. Moreover, we observed a positive correlation between olive oil, fish consumption and LTL. Subjects who consumed more than 30 mL olive oil/day had longer LTL than subjects with lower consumption (p=.013). Furthermore, we observed higher glutathione peroxidase activity in subjects consuming less vitamin E (p=.031).” According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Our findings support the importance of an adequate consumption of the antioxidant vitamin E, and the value of the diet as a modulating tool of the senescence process.”
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N-acetylcysteine Prevents Osteoporosis By Inhibiting Oxidative Stress Caused by Testosterone Deficiency Nanjing Medical University (China), August 21, 2019
According to news reporting from Nanjing, People’s Republic of China, research stated, “Oxidative stress is associated with many diseases and has been found to induce DNA damage and cellular senescence. Numerous evidences support the detrimental effects of oxidative stress or cellular senescence on skeletal homeostasis.” According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “The results from this study suggest that NAC could be considered as a potential therapeutic agent for prevention and treatment of osteoporosis caused by testosterone deficiency.”
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Lifelong study links early blood pressure change to poorer brain health University College London, August 20, 2019
Changes in blood pressure in those as young as 36 are linked to markers of poorer brain health in later life, finds UCL-led research involving participants of Britain's oldest running birth cohort study. The findings from the Insight 46 study are published in The Lancet Neurology.
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Antibiotic use linked to heightened bowel cancer risk Johns Hopkins University, August 20, 2019
Antibiotic use (pills/capsules) is linked to a heightened risk of bowel (colon) cancer, but a lower risk of rectal cancer, and depends, to some extent, on the type and class of drug prescribed, suggests research published online in the journal Gut. The findings suggest a pattern of risk that may be linked to differences in gut microbiome (bacteria) activity along the length of the bowel and reiterate the importance of judicious prescribing, say the researchers.
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Nicotine-free e-cigarettes can damage blood vessels University of Pennsylvania, August 20, 2019
Smoking e-cigarettes, also called vaping, has been marketed as a safe alternative to tobacco cigarettes and is rising in popularity among non-smoking adolescents. However, a single e-cigarette can be harmful to the body's blood vessels -- even when the vapor is entirely nicotine-free -- according to a new study by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The results were published today in Radiology.

Tuesday Aug 20, 2019

Joseph Sternberg is a member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal where he hosts a the Political Economics column for its European edition. Joe joined the Journal in 2006 and edited its Business Asia column in Hong Kong.  Previously he was a journalist for the New York Sun and The Public Interest.  He is the author of the recent book "The Theft of a Decade: How the Baby Boomers Stole the Millennials Economic Future" -- which is a searing narrative about poor policies that have contributed Millennials economic well being and stability precarious at best.  Mr Sternberg is a graduate of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg and is speaking to us from London in the UK.

Friday Aug 16, 2019

In this eye-opening talk, veteran investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson shows how astroturf, or fake grassroots movements funded by political, corporate, or other special interests very effectively manipulate and distort media messages. Sharyl Attkisson is an investigative journalist based in Washington D.C. She is currently writing a book entitled Stonewalled (Harper Collins), which addresses the unseen influences of corporations and special interests on the information and images the public receives every day in the news and elsewhere. For twenty years (through March 2014), Attkisson was a correspondent for CBS News.

Friday Aug 16, 2019

Leonard Lopate is a popular American radio personality who currently hosts the talk show Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI, where he first started his broadcasting career in 1977 and ran until the mid 1980s. Until 2017, The Leonard Lopate Show was aired daily on WNYC-FM, New York City’s premier public radio station.  Leonard is best known for his interviewing guests on a very wide range of topics, from politics and currents events, modern science, history and literature, film and theater to food and wine. He has received three James Beard Awards for his coverage of food. Leonard studied art and painting at Brooklyn and Hunter colleges where he studied with the famous American artists Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhardt.  His current program can be heard every weekday from 1-2 pm on WBAI following this broadcast. 
 

Thursday Aug 15, 2019

Quackwatch’s Conspiratorial Theory Against Alternative Medicine
 
Richard Gale and Gary Null PhD
Progressive Radio Network, August 15, 2019
A trend that is increasingly becoming accepted in mainstream, conventional medicine has been the acceptance of complementary and alternative medical theories and practices. Since 1997, Quackwatch has been the nation’s leading voice opposing the growing popularity in alternative medicine and funding for research into its efficacy. Portending to be a consumer protection resource, the organization believes it is serving public health. But Quackwatch is only one faction of a much larger movement and effort to stamp out non-conventional medicine. In the world of the scientific materialism promulgated by Quackwatch and Wikipedia, all roads lead to the ideological movement known as modern Skepticism. Each is a player within a self-reinforcing feedback loop that deceives the public and distorts the very core of the life sciences. For those who are exceptionally critical of Skepticism’s radical reductionist view of medicine and health, it has become evident that this loose confederacy of groups—Quackwatch, Science Based Medicine, Skeptic organizations, and Wikipedia—have sacrificed objectivity for groupthink. 
 
For several decades, the website Quackwatch, founded by former psychiatrist Dr. Stephen Barrett, has been a one-stop shopping center for negative critiques and reviews about practically every kind of medical therapy and practice that falls under the umbrella of alternative medicine. It has been memorialized by Skeptics who have in turn infected many of Wikipedia’s entries with Quackwatch references under the false pretense that it is a scientifically reliable resource. 
 
To be fair, not all of Quackwatch’s criticisms are unwarranted; there are certainly charlatans and entrepreneurs practicing in both conventional and alternative medical camps. Magnetic bracelets, magnetizing beverages, calorie blockers, multilevel marketing for various supplemental products, magic muscle pills, cellulite removers, among others we regard as nonsense as well. And pharmaceutical executives notoriously fool federal health officials with only partial or fake science to get ineffective and toxic drugs through hurdles at the FDA. Yet on numerous other counts, Barrett is flatly wrong. This not only concerns his limited knowledge and highly biased analysis of the scientific literature supporting many common alternative medical practices and natural nutritional protocols, but also many commercial products Americans use or are exposed to on a daily basis. 
 
In his book Chemical Sensitivity: The Truth About Environmental Illness, Barrett states that we live in a time “when our food supply is the world’s safest and our antipollution program is the best we have ever had.” He argues that those who fear chemical- and food-related sensitivities, or who believe they are being poisoned by cosmetic ingredients, pesticides, household cleaning and petrochemical products, fast foods and the average American meat-based diet, food preservatives, fluoride, mercury amalgams, and other environmental toxic substances, are simply delusional. Barrett’s books and Quackwatch articles repeatedly deny that chemical exposure and our industrial processed foods are associated with any diseases.  But scientific consensus strongly disagrees. Barely a day goes by without a new study appearing in the scientific literature about a recently discovered health risk regarding any one of these issues. 
 
The question we ask ourselves is why, and perhaps how, can Barrett categorically deny the enormous body of peer-reviewed scientific evidence that confirms Americans are living in an unhealthy toxic environment every day in their lives? Twenty years ago, Cornell scientists estimated that 40 percent of diseases were environmentally caused, and our planet has become far more noxious since then. The World Health Organization has released dire warnings regarding this trend and estimated that 1 in 4 global deaths are due to air, water, soil pollution and chemical exposure. In 2016, Dr. Stephen Rappaport at the University of California at Berkeley published his research in PLoS One showing that environmental factors, and not genetics, are the major causes of chronic diseases. High sodium, alcohol, low omega-3 fatty acids, lead exposure high trans fatty acids, occupational chemicals and calcium, Vitamin A, iron and zinc deficiencies ranked among the top 15 causes. However, Barrett would rebuff these findings; they do not fit into the corporate-science paradigm he espouses.
 
During an August 26, 2018 podcast interview on the Skeptic Zone in Australia, Barrett denied receiving support from the pharmaceutical industry, a charge his critics frequently level upon him. Of course, it is not necessary to receive funds or remuneration in order to also serve the financial interests of large multinational corporations. Barrett’s role as a Board member of Scientific Advisers to the American Committee on Health Science (ACHS) for almost 4 decades however provides a strong case for his strong biases that would explain his favoritism towards many drugs and commercial products that have been proven to carry high health risks. 
 
ACHS is a corporate-funded consumer advocacy organization that makes the false claim that it supports evidence-based medicine. However practically every Trustee member of the organization has direct ties to large corporations, which is why ACHS advocates for genetically modified foods and industrial agriculture, nuclear power and natural gas, vaccine mandates, cosmetic chemicals, the deregulation of environmentally unsafe toxic chemicals and FDA fast-tracking of drugs. Mother Jones reported that in 2012, ACHS’s donors including Chevron, Coca-Cola, Bristol Myers Squibb, Bayer Cropscience, Procter and Gamble, big ag giant Syngenta, McDonalds and the tobacco industry. It has also received funding to lobby on behalf Pepsi, Monsanto, Exxon-Mobil and British American Tobacco as well as receiving funds from the Koch family and major forces within the Randian pro-industry American Legislative Exchange Council. 
 
Finally, it should be noted that the watchdog organization Center for Science in the Public Interest issued a report concluding that ACHS promotes fraudulent science to whitewash the health risks of some our most dangerous commercial products. The report stated that the organization is “a consumer fraud; as a scientific group, ACSH seems to arrive at conclusions before conducting studies. Through voodoo or alchemy, bodies of scientific knowledge are transmogrified into industry-oriented position statements.”
 
Therefore, after four decades of fraternizing with ACHS’s executives and providing scientific advice on projects for its corporate clients, how can one accept Barrett’s scientific objectivity?  He has been repeatedly wrong on most of his positions about industrial food and chemical safety. Arguments against Barrett and Quackwatch serving the private corporate interests of some of our nation’s largest polluters, the pharmaceutical cartel and major contributors to environmentally-caused diseases hold absolutely no merit. Therefore, why should anyone believe his assessment of alternative health is scientifically plausible?   
 
This may explain why Barrett has had a career that has been largely out of touch with America’s declining health trends now that iatrogenic or medical-based error is the third leading cause of mortality in the US. The weeds of bias have overgrown any light from reality. However, this does not explain why Quackwatch is obsessively determined to undermine complementary, alternative, non-conventional medical therapies. While the site pretends to be protecting public health by attempting to discredit effective, cost-saving health practices, we observe that it is serving the economic interests of the pharmaceutical industry. By discrediting every alternative medical therapy or supplemental nutrient or botanical medicine a patient may seek out for relief or treatment for a health condition or disease, Quackwatch in effect diverts their queries back into our broken drug-based medical system as the only recourse of treatment available. 
 
In an ingenious way, Barrett has created a perfect distraction. In his estimation, those who place their faith in Chiropractic, acupuncture, homeopathy, Chinese and Ayurveda medicine, nutritional therapy, etc. are mentally unsound. On occasion he has labeled patients who turn towards these therapies as “paranoid,” “hysterical” and subject to “certain psychological factors.”  As for practitioners of these healing arts, he would prefer to see them facing a judge in a courtroom. Therefore, Quackwatch has given birth to a wild conspiracy theory. And this has contaminated the entire Skeptic movement and Jimmy Wales and Wikipedia have drunk deep from the gully of this conspiratorial Kool aid. 
 
We must realize that the vast majority of people seeking relief for any disease will begin with conventional medicine. In many cases that is sufficient and we compliment that. Orthodox approaches are especially beneficial in emergency medicine and surgery. However, most patients who turn towards alternative therapies do so because the predominantly drug-based treatments either failed or they suffered the drugs’ adverse effects. So where is the study that enables Quackwatch and Skeptics to confirm that these patients have not benefitted from alternative approaches?  
 
Over the years we have interviewed hundreds of board-certified physicians who only started to explore complementary and alternative medical modalities after their orthodox approaches to treat patients were found limited. Not only did they discover many of these protocols ineffective, but often in fact harmful. Many physicians reported that it was a lonely journey they undertook. It was fraught with criticism and personal attacks.  In the case of California and New York, some early physicians in the 1960s and 1970s were brought up on charges of fraud: the fraud being that they were not using accepted medical protocols at that time, despite their clinical experience that their patients benefitted. Today physicians are permitted to practice with informed consent without the fear of being harassed or the loss of their medical license. One example is the second largest medical group, the Chiropractors. Upon reviewing the scientific literature, there is a growing body of literature that supports Chiropractic practice. Chiropractic’s success is simply because patients find relief and this is not due to any placebo effect as Skeptics would force us to believe. The same is true for acupuncture, homeopathy, naturopathy and other approaches to natural health. Therefore, the scientific literature has kept pace with consumer interest and these alternative medical therapies.  Yet Quackwatch and the Skeptics remain frozen in a mindset similar to the AMA’s Committee on Quackery back in the 1950s. 
 
Nevertheless, if you search on Google, you will be taken to Wikipedia, which reflects Skepticism’s biases against alternative medicine’s efficacy. This is one among other reasons why Quackwatch, the Skeptics and Science-Based Medicine must be challenged for propagandizing unscientific and biased opinions.

Wednesday Aug 14, 2019

Join the Wellness Way for internationally-known Dr. Sherri Tenpenny's groundbreaking presentation about the scientific truth behind vaccines. This talk is only a small part of her larger mission to deliver reliable vaccine information that is rarely reported in the mainstream media, combined with practical tips for natural health and healing.

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