West Nile Virus- Not to Worry

West Nile Virus Infection Symptoms and Risk Factors

Medical Author: Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD
Medical Editor: Jay W. Marks, MD

West Nile Virus is spread to humans from birds via mosquitos

What is West Nile virus?

West Nile virus was first observed in the U.S. during the summer of 1999 and is believed to be permanently established (endemic) in the U.S. at this time. A member of the flavivirus family, West Nile virus is related to the St. Louis encephalitis virus that is also found in the U.S. West Nile virus is commonly found in Africa, the Middle East, and in the western parts of Asia. It infects mosquitoes, birds, horses, humans, and some other mammals. In 2012, West Nile virus infections reached epidemic levels in Texas, and were reported in many other states.

How do you get West Nile?

Humans normally acquire the viral infection through a mosquito bite. The early fall, from late August to early September, is the most common time for infection to occur in the U.S. West Nile virus has the potential to cause a very serious illness, although 60%-80% of people infected will not develop any symptoms at all. The others most commonly develop a mild illness, sometimes termed West Nile fever, which is characterized by:

fever,
tiredness,
headaches,
body aches,
swollen lymph nodes, and
sometimes a rash.

West Nile fever develops two to 15 days following the bite of an infected mosquito and persists for a few days to a few weeks.

How dangerous is West Nile virus?

In less than 1% of cases, West Nile virus infection leads to severe illness that is referred to as “neuroinvasive” disease since it affects the nervous system. This severe form of West Nile virus infection results in an inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) or the meninges, tissues that cover the brain and central nervous system (meningitis). A combination of the two (meningoencephalitis) can also occur, and the disease can be fatal. People over 50 years of age, pregnant women, infants, and those with weakened immune systems due to medications, HIV, or cancer are at greatest risk for severe illness related to West Nile virus infection. Neuroinvasive West Nile virus infection is characterized by:

high fever,
neck stiffness,
stupor,
disorientation,
coma,
seizures,
muscle weakness, and
potentially permanent neurological disturbances.

West Nile virus infection cannot be spread by casual contact such as touching or kissing an infected person. In addition to transmission via mosquito bites, less common modes of transmission of the virus include organ transplantation, blood donation, and from mothers to their fetuses in the womb or to infants via breast milk.

How can I prevent West Nile virus?

The best way to avoid West Nile virus infection is to prevent mosquito bites. There is no human vaccine available, although a vaccine against West Nile virus has been licensed for use in horses. No specific treatment is available for the illness. West Nile fever generally resolves on its own, and those with severe infections must be hospitalized to receive supportive care.

Medically reviewed by Robert Cox, MD; American Board of Internal Medicine with subspecialty in Infectious Disease

REFERENCE:

United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “West Nile Virus.”

Now for Dr. D’s Information based on the Virginia Dept. of Health

According to the Virginia Department of Health Department here are their tips on how to keep your odds low of contracting West Nile Virus.

Wear insect repellent (use natural non-toxic brands do not spray on infants or small children as it can be toxic to them.

Wear light colored long and short sleeve clothing when ever possible to keep “biteable” areas covered.

Repair holes in window screens and door screens.

Keep gutters clean and clear so standing water cannot gather to breed mosquitos.

Get rid of old tires, plant pots and any container that can hold rain water. Even an ounce of standing water can breed mosquitos!

Fill low places in the yard with sand or level them with top soil.

Keep ditches clear of grass, leaves, trash and any debris so rain water doesn’t sit and accumulate in them.

Cover trash can to keep out rain water or drill a small hole in the bottom so water cannot fill the bottom of trash cans.

Add sand to outdoor plant pot trays so that not standing water accumulates there but yet your plants can stay watered.

Fill tree root holes in the yard.

Fill tree stump holes and tree branch holes in large trees with sand to stop free standing water from accumulating there.

Keep the lawn mowed and short. Keep shrubs trimmed and the bottom area around the bushes clean and neat.

For stagnant ponds or other areas where free standing water cannot be drained use environmentally safe larvicides that are safe for pets and people. Follow package instructions. This will kill mosquito larvae and not harm your pets or people if they should drink or get the water on them.

For more information visit the Virginia Dept. of Health website at, www.vdh.virginia.gov or contact your local health department.

Kids with Horns, “Text Neck”

By Isaac Stanley-Becker

Mobile technology has transformed the way we live — how we read, work, communicate, shop and date.

But we already know this.

What we have not yet grasped is the way the tiny machines in front of us are remolding our skeletons, possibly altering not just the behaviors we exhibit but the bodies we inhabit.

New research in biomechanics suggests that young people are developing hornlike spikes at the back of their skulls — bone spurs caused by the forward tilt of the head, which shifts weight from the spine to the muscles at the back of the head, causing bone growth in the connecting tendons and ligaments. The weight transfer that causes the buildup can be compared to the way the skin thickens into a callus as a response to pressure or abrasion.

The result is a hook or hornlike feature jutting out from the skull, just above the neck.

In academic papers, a pair of researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, argues that the prevalence of the bone growth in younger adults points to shifting body posture brought about by the use of modern technology. They say smartphones and other handheld devices are contorting the human form, requiring users to bend their heads forward to make sense of what’s happening on the miniature screens.

The researchers said their discovery marks the first documentation of a physiological or skeletal adaptation to the penetration of advanced technology into everyday life.

Health experts warn of “text neck,” and doctors have begun treating “texting thumb,” which is not a clearly defined condition but bears resemblance to carpal tunnel syndrome. But prior research has not linked phone use to bone-deep changes in the body.

“An important question is what the future holds for the young adult populations in our study, when development of a degenerative process is evident in such an early stage of their lives?” ask the authors in one paper, published in Nature Research’s peer-reviewed, open-access Scientific Reports. The study came out last year but has received fresh attention following the publication last week of a BBC story that considers, “How modern life is transforming the human skeleton.”

Since then, the unusual formations have captured the attention of Australian media, and have variously been dubbed “head horns” or “phone bones” or “spikes” or “weird bumps.”

Each is a fitting description, said David Shahar, the paper’s first author, a chiropractor who recently completed a PhD in biomechanics at Sunshine Coast.

“That is up to anyone’s imagination,” he told The Washington Post. “You may say it looks like a bird’s beak, a horn, a hook.”

However it is designated, Shahar said, the formation is a sign of a serious deformity in posture that can cause chronic headaches and pain in the upper back and neck.

Part of what was striking about the findings, he said, was the size of the bone spurs, which are thought to be large if they measure 3 or 5 millimeters in length. An outgrowth was only factored into their research if it measured 10 millimeters, or about two-fifths of an inch.

The danger is not the head horn itself, said Mark Sayers, an associate professor of biomechanics at Sunshine Coast who served as Shahar’s supervisor and co-author. Rather, the formation is a “portent of something nasty going on elsewhere, a sign that the head and neck are not in the proper configuration,” he told The Post.

Their work began about three years ago with a pile of neck X-rays taken in Queensland. The images captured part of the skull, including the area where the bony projections, called enthesophytes, form at the back of the head.

Contrary to conventional understanding of the hornlike structures, which have been thought to crop up rarely and mainly among older people suffering from prolonged strain, Shahar noticed that they appeared prominently on X-rays of younger subjects, including those who were showing no obvious symptoms.

The pair’s first paper, published in the Journal of Anatomy in 2016, enlisted a sample of 218 X-rays, of subjects ages 18 to 30, to suggest that the bone growth could be observed in 41 percent of young adults, much more than previously thought. The feature was more prevalent among men than among women.

The effect — known as enlarged external occipital protuberance — used to be so uncommon, Sayers said, that one of its early observers, toward the end of the 19th century, objected to its title, arguing that there was no real protrusion.

That’s no longer the case.

Another paper, published in Clinical Biomechanics in the spring of 2018, used a case study involving four teenagers to argue that the head horns were not caused by genetic factors or inflammation, pointing instead to the mechanical load on muscles in the skull and neck.

And the Scientific Reports paper, published the month before, zoomed out to consider a sample of 1,200 X-rays of subjects in Queensland, ages 18 to 86. The researchers found that the size of the bone growth, present in 33 percent of the population, actually decreased with age. That discovery was in stark contrast to existing scientific understanding, which had long held that the slow, degenerative process occurred with aging.

They found instead that the bone spurs were larger and more common among young people. To understand what was driving the effect, they looked to recent developments — circumstances over the past 10 or 20 years altering how young people hold their bodies.

“These formations take a long time to develop, so that means that those individuals who suffer from them probably have been stressing that area since early childhood,” Shahar explained.

The sort of strain required for bone to infiltrate the tendon pointed him to handheld devices that bring the head forward and down, requiring the use of muscles at the back of the skull to prevent the head from falling to the chest. “What happens with technology?” he said. “People are more sedentary; they put their head forward, to look at their devices. That requires an adaptive process to spread the load.”

That the bone growth develops over a long period of time suggests that sustained improvement in posture can stop it short and even ward off its associated effects.

The answer is not necessarily swearing off technology, Sayers said. At least, there are less drastic interventions.

“What we need are coping mechanisms that reflect how important technology has become in our lives,” he said.

Shahar is pressing people to become as regimented about posture as they became about dental hygiene in the 1970s, when personal care came to involve brushing and flossing every day. Schools should teach simple posture strategies, he said. Everyone who uses technology during the day should get used to recalibrating their posture at night.

As motivation, he suggested reaching a hand around to the lower rear of the skull. Those who have the hornlike feature can probably feel it.

Red Meat Allergy From Tick Bites (Alpha-gal)

Excerpts from Prevention Magazine Article by Alisa Hrustic May 21, 2019

While not technically classified as a disease, a bite from a lone star tick can cause an allergic reaction to red meat. How? These critters transfer a sugar called alpha-gal into your system, which is found in red meat—like beef, pork, and lamb—but not in humans. Because the sugar travels through your blood, your immune system goes haywire and releases antibodies. Once you try to eat red meat again, your body pumps out histamine in reaction to the sugar, spurring an allergic reaction.

Symptoms: If you have the alpha-gal allergy, you will experience symptoms similar to other severe food allergies, like itching, swelling of the throat, lips, and tongue, weakness, nausea, vomiting, headaches, skin rash, and even passing out due to anaphylaxis (difficulty breathing). Unlike typical allergic reactions to food, which tend to be immediate, symptoms may take hours to appear, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI).

How common it is: It’s hard to tell, since meat allergies themselves aren’t very common. However, one preliminary study presented at the 2018 AAAAI and World Allergy Organization Joint Congress found that 40 percent of 222 anaphylaxis cases had a definitive trigger—and the most common was alpha-gal.

Conclusion on what to do for tick born symptoms is by Dr. Demetrios Kydonieus, Chiropractic Nutritionist.

Nutritional therapy for tick bite diseases and the red meat allergy are based on supporting a normal healthy response of the immune system. This type of treatment is not a cure or a direct assault on the condition like medicine but works very well. In the current scientific research literature there are many studies that show a stronger response to “natural therapies” than conventional medical or drug based ones. Alpha-gal is an allergy most likely related to a weak immune system from leaky gut issues that has been going on way before the tick bite. This is compounded by generations of people eating processed, high sugar, low fiber, high inflammatory fatty (Omega-6) foods. As people eat more of these inflammatory and autoimmune triggering foods their genetics become “weakened” and they pass this onto successive generations (their children). Now weak children eat the same poor diets and they pass on even more weakened genes to their kids and this continues until the poor diet is stopped. So this is one theory as to why we are seeing more diseases and reactions to the environment (allergies) that we have not seen before in such high numbers. These “weak” people are more reactive to environmental stresses like tick bites and pollutants than their grandparents.

The good news is that this can be overcome with targeted nutritional support and knowledge of what you are sensitive to in the environment. Nutrition Response Testing is just one nutritional technique that can accurately help the body become stronger and more healthy, many times overcoming autoimmune and allergy challenges. My definition of Health is, “A normal functioning body(and all systems) with no lasting reactions from environmental challenges expressing itself in a vibrant and active manor for a lifetime.”

So if you are suffering from any tick born disease, like Lyme’s, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Alpha-gal, etc. Nutrition Response Testing may be able to help you feel better by making you stronger enabling your body to use your innate immune responses to overcome your condition. We do not cure or treat any specific disease or condition but work to strengthen and normalize biochemical reactions within your body by restoring normal nerve function and physiology. We teach you how to become “healthier”.

Inflammation from Food can tear ligaments

If you eat too much sugar, flour and fried foods your muscle become weak on the cellular level.

Just came back to work from a great lecture on general inflammation by Dr. David Seaman, DC, MS. Did you know that what you eat can tear your ligaments and discs? In the scientific literature there are hundreds of published papers over the last 20 years that prove and support this concept.

Hypothalamic Immune signaling — The left side is normal tissue based on a “good” diet. The right side is what happens when you eat too much sugar, flour, and refined oils. *Picture comes from the journal article referenced below.

Pro-inflammatory foods will ultimately weaken ALL tissues; muscles, bones, nerves and organs to the point of failure! Not only will you gain weight that is hard to lose but you joints and muscles will weaken and become arthritic WITHOUT physical trauma. Osteoarthritis has been traditionally taught as “wear and tear” or “injury” arthritis but now has been proven to be autoimmune triggered by food and environmental factors. Yes you will have an arthritic knee after that football tackle but it will heal and not chronically swell as you get older from the injury if you have a “good” diet. But the swollen knees and shoulders as you age are from your poor diet which has made you over-weight and environmental pollutants which get “stuck” inside your body weakening it further.

This concept of tissue degradation because of destructive components becoming part of normal tissues like muscles and tendons explains how seemingly low force movements cause BIG injuries that seem trauma or mechanical in origin when they are not. Over time, years and decades your muscles become infiltrated by “bad” fats, inflammatory molecules and immune cells that cause inflammation as part of the clean-up process related to this daily tissue micro tearing or damage. This infiltration means that your tendons, muscles and cartilage(discs) are not as dense and strong later in life like they were when you were younger since this is an accumulation process over time. This weakening of your tissues takes a prolonged amount of time. Now add aging, meaning that your body doesn’t respond as efficiently or fast as it used to at the chemical level, this in turn slows down our physical performance and healing. As time and over-eating these “bad” foods continues you accumulate “junk” in your cells or pro-inflammatory molecules. Now when a 35 or 45 year old tears a meniscus while jogging or walking up the stairs instead of thinking injury from physical activity you should consider tissue failure under normal physical stress caused by poor diet! This was NOT a mechanical injury albeit the stepping or running triggered it but it only tore or became subluxated because of the acquired structural weakness due to chemical mediators. FAT. This was a directly related to your bad diet.

So now you show up at the physical therapist’s office they treat you like they always have, for a “mechanical” injury and do rehab and you heal. Maybe you were sharp enough to see your chiropractor and they do something similar and add chiropractic adjustments (PT’s are not legally aloud to adjust or manipulate joints in most states). And here too your knee heals and you’re running again. But… If the weakened tissue from pro-inflammatory agents like leukotrienes is not addressed your lifestyle will cause other tissues to fail and you will be destined to repeat this back and knee injury scenario again and again! Worse yet this same degradation from eating poorly is happening EVERYWHERE in your body; your heart, your kidneys, your liver, you intestines, your brain, your sexual organs, everywhere. Then one day you middle aged and you have a heart attack. All this could most likely have been prevented had someone caught the problem, the poor diet.

In our office we not only do the chiropractic, the physical therapy rehab we always include the nutritional detective work to give our patients the fullest recovery and lowest chance of re-injury or organ failure. If this pro-inflammatory state that sugar, grains and refined oils has led you to isn’t addressed you will be a cardiac or brain disease victim later in life if you are not one already. According to top researchers, Carey Lumbeng and Alan Saltiel¹ these joint and muscle injuries should be treated like heart disease and not just soft tissue injuries. (I have paraphrased their exact comment).

If you do not address your diet and environment you will be destined for a shortened life full of muscle and joint injuries, unnecessary prescriptions and doctor visits. Find a holistic doctor that uses chiropractic, nutrition and rehab exercise to fix your injuries and improve your total health.

1.Carey N. Lumeng and Alan R. Saltiel,
Inflammatory links between obesity and metabolic disease. J Clin Invest. 2011 Jun 1; 121(6): 2111–2117. Published online 2011 Jun 1. doi: 10.1172/JCI571321.

Rosy Red Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Pancakes!

A great tasting pancake either crepe style or “fluffy”!

2 cups gluten-free All-Purpose flour – I prefer rice based flours.
1 cup flax milk
1 cup water
4 eggs
1 tsp beet powder – adds the rich red color and a little sugar
1 tsp baking powder to make them rise or “fluffy”. Leave out to make a denser more crepe like pancake.

Mix and cook on medium heat in a frying pan using butter or coconut oil to keep from sticking. Cook each side 1-2 min.

Add fresh fruit as they cook or you can add it directly to the batter.

Bon Appetit!

Arizona May Add Chiropractic to Curb Opioid Crises

Medicaid recipients in Arizona may soon be able to see the chiropractor when care is ordered by a primary medical care doctor.

Introduced by Senator Heather Carter (R-Cave Creek), the new bill would allow patients on the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System to get a prescription from their primary care physician(PCP) for 20 chiropractic visits per year, and more as needed if the PCP authorizes it with the chiropractor.

The concern so far is that people with chronic pain that are opiod recipents will need a lot of chiropractic adjusting to get them off the pain-killers and stable. Most new chiropractic patients start care out at two to three visits per week for a month or two and that would use up the initial 20 visits. Acute care can last a couple of months, tapering off steadily before a person can get into “wellness” or “maintenance” care at 1-2 x per month. This means many Medicaid recipients will need more than 20 annual visits to really get off the opioids and well, biomechanically speaking.

The bill is currently being reviewed by the House, and Representative Randy Friese (D-Tucson) told Arizona Central that the limitations are meant to safeguard the state’s first attempt at covering a new practice. If recipients are consistently meeting the imposed caps, they will consider removing the limits. Legislatures are considering both budget implications and how to best address the opioid crisis.

Many states currently offer chiropractic care, with about 30 states offering some form of coverage through their state Medicaid program, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This bill adds options for both physicians and patients who experience chronic pain and want to improve their quality of life and not take addictive pain medication for life.

Nothing here in Virginia as far as getting Medicaid to pay for chiropractic yet. So let your state legislatures know call and email them, tell them what Arizona is doing and maybe we can get some movement here in the east with chiropractic for Medicaid recipients.

Dr. Demetrios Kydonieus, DC

Information from an article written by
Katherine Rushlau, CPT, is the editor of IntegrativePractitioner.com.

How Do We Get Results?

surface_EMG — Non-invasive nerve testing, nerve health

How Do We Measure Your Progress?

We use the latest and most accurate technology to measure how well the “inside” of your body is healing and base all our care on these measurements and reflex markers along with your symptomology. Gathering this information on each visit gives the doctor information that they need to make a correction and keep the healing process moving as quickly as possible, making you a more energetic, active and happy person. We all are aging so why not age as well as possible! No other profession checks your body’s SELF REGULATION SYSTEM like we do. Regular checkups of your body’s self-regulation and reflex system gives the doctor a real-time assessment of what is working at optimum and what is below par on each visit. Then a focused and personalized plan can be put in place to find the true cause of your weaknesses and get you back in shape or keep you in shape if you are on Wellness Care! We understand that symptoms or poor performance brought you in here for help and we want to help you get well but remember this problem started on the “inside” before you noticed any symptoms. There was some interference and a vital deficiency that started way before you could feel anything that was slowly degrading your body and health. The great thing about our system is that it can quickly be rechecked on each visit and is very accurate when done by a trained professional with thousands of hours of experience like our doctor. From time to time more high tech evaluations like the one you just went through are done in addition to your regular treatment visits. This is to measure and compare the progress of your physiology and neurology, again taking specific measurements of what is going on inside your body where you can’t “feel” anything happening. Using Heart Rate Variability, Surface EMG, Spinal Thermography Differential Scanning, Orthopedics, Chiropractic and basic vital sign instrumentation gives the doctor the most accurate picture of what is going on inside your body before it hurts. All this data gives the doctor a deeper understanding which helps you better, knowing when you are finally stable enough to go on Wellness Care.

Vaccine Hearings Need Your Input

Congressional Hearings on Measles Outbreaks (2/27/2019) and State Vaccine Laws (3/5/2019)ACTION NEEDED: Calls and Emails to Support Vaccine Exemptions and Share Vaccine Injuries Dear NVIC Advocacy Team Members,We wanted to make you aware of two upcoming federal committee hearings scheduled in the U.S. House of Representatives on February 27, 2019 and in the U.S. Senate on March 5, 2019 to discuss measles outbreaks and state vaccine laws. Communication with members of these two committees along with your U.S. Representative and 2 U.S. Senators to protect vaccine exemptions is absolutely critical.On February 14, 2019, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb made an inappropriate public statement warning state legislators that if they do not tighten vaccine exemptions in “lax laws,” then the federal government will take action. Vaccine mandate and exemption laws are state laws. Federal officials threatening government intervention if state legislators do not restrict or eliminate vaccine exemptions is federal interference in state rights.The truth is vaccine injuries happen. No amount of industry sponsored attacks on state vaccine exemption laws or censorship of vaccine reaction, harassment or discrimination experiences over the internet or in the media will change that fact.NVIC issued a national press release Feb. 25, 2019 urging Americans to attend these Congressional hearings and to communicate concerns directly with elected officials because official testimony is by invitation only. NVIC was not invited. Attacks on vaccine exemptions and attempts to limit free speech about vaccine reactions are resulting in bills working their way through state legislatures around the country on both sides of the debate. As of Feb. 25^th, NVIC is tracking 140 vaccine related bills across 31 states on the NVIC Advocacy Portal, and NVIC supports 61, opposes 74, and we are watching 5 to see what happens. There are currently bills filed in 8 states to add or expand vaccine exemptions and 11 states to restrict or remove exemptions. The lack of informed consent in the vaccination process has resulted in bills being filed in 12 states to improve vaccine informed consent.The U.S. Vaccine Market alone was $36.45 Billion in 2018, and expected to reach $50.42 billion by 2023. This is a very powerful industry with lots of resources to lobby and influence policy to remove parental rights to be able to delay or decline a vaccine. The industry benefits from forced use.Thousands of parents have attended state legislative public hearings across the country on bills to restrict or expand vaccine exemptions and informed consent rights. Many have included powerful testimony by parents describing how their children suffered vaccine reactions that permanently injured them or caused their death. The public conversation about vaccine exemptions, parental rights and civil liberties is happening right now in the halls of state legislatures and in Congress. You can be part of that conversation by using the NVIC Advocacy Portal to contact your state and federal legislators and make sure they understand you want them to protect vaccine exemptions and informed consent rights in America.ACTION ITEMS1) Plan on attending the hearings on February 27^th and March 5^th and calling and emailing members of the committees to express your support for vaccine exemptions and informed consent rights in light of the upcoming hearings. Share your vaccine reaction, harassment and discrimination stories and ask that they are relayed with the Representative or Senator because you don’t know if experiences like yours will be represented in the hearings. Feb. 27, 2019 U.S. House of Representatives public hearing on “Confronting a Growing Public Health Threat: Measles Outbreaks in the U.S.” (contains link to live stream)Time: 10:00amLocation: 2123 Rayburn House Office BuildingU.S. House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce (use links on committee site to fill out web contact form for email)Chair: Diana DeGette (CO): (202) 225-4431Chair: Joseph P. Kennedy (MA): (202) 225-5931Janice D. Schakowsky (IL): (202) 225-2111Raul Ruiz (CA): (202) 225-5330Ann M. Kuster (NH): (202) 225-5206Kathy Castor (FL): (202) 225-3376 John P. Sarbanes (MD): (202) 225-4016Paul Tonko (NY): (202) 225-5076Yvette D. Clarke (NY): (202) 225-6231Scott H. Peters (CA): (202)-225-0508Ex-Officio: Frank Pallone (NJ): (202) 225-4671Ranking: Brett Guthrie (KY): (202) 225-3501 Michael C. Burgess (TX): (202) 225-7772 David B. McKinley (WVA): (202) 225-4172H Morgan Griffith (VA): (202) 225-3861 Susan W. Brooks (IN): (202)-225-2276Markwayne Mullin (OK): (202) 225-2701Jeff Duncan (SC): (202) 225-5301Ex-Officio: Greg Walden (OR): (202) 225-6730 Mar. 5, 2019 U.S. Senate public hearing on “Vaccines Save Lives: What Is Driving Preventable Disease Outbreaks?” (contains link to live stream)Time: 10:00 AMLocation: 430 Dirksen Senate Office BuildingU.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (use links on committee site to fill out web contact form for email)Chair: Lamar Alexander (TN): (202) 224-4944 Richard Burr (NC): (202) 224-3154Rand Paul (KY): (202)-224-4343Bill Cassidy, MD (LA): (202) 224-5824Lisa Murkowski (AK): (202)-224-6665Mitt Romney (UT): (202) 224-5251Michael B. Enzi (WY): (202) 224-3424Johnny Isakson (GA): (202) 224-3643Susan Collins (ME): (202)224-2523Pat Roberts (KS): (202)-224-4774Tim Scott (SC): (202) 224-6121Mike Braun (IN): (202) 224-4814Ranking Member: Patty Murray (WA): (202) 224-2621Robert P. Casey, Jr (PA): (202) 224-6324Christopher A. Murphy (CT): (202) 224-4041Tim Kaine (VA): (202) 224-4024Tina Smith (MN): (202) 224-5641Jacky Rosen (NV): (202)-224-6244Bernie Sanders (VT): (202) 224-5141Tammy Baldwin (WI): (202) 224-5653Elizabeth Warren (MA): (202) 224-4543Maggie Hassan (NH): (202) 224-3324Doug Jones (AL): (202) 224-4124 2) Call and Email your own U.S. Congressional Representative and 2 U.S. Senators. Let them know about these hearings and that you wanted to express your support for vaccine exemptions and informed consent rights. Share your vaccine reaction, harassment and discrimination stories because you don’t know if experiences like yours will be represented in the hearings. If you do not know who your U.S. House Representative or 2 U.S. Senators are or their contact information, you can login to the NVIC Advocacy Portal, http://NVICAdvocacy.org, click on the “NATIONAL” tab, and your elected Congressional Legislators are automatically posted on the right hand side of the page. Click on their name to display links to all of their contact information. If a district office is close to your home, you may also consider visiting and meeting with local staff in person.3) Login to the NVIC Advocacy Portal, http://NVICAdvocacy.org, OFTEN to check for state and U.S. updates and action items. We review bills and make updates daily. Bills can change many times over the legislative process and your timely visits, calls, and emails directed at the correct legislators are critical to this process. 4) Please forward this email to family and friends and ask them to register for the NVIC Advocacy Portal at http://NVICAdvocacy.org and share their concerns with their legislators as well. TALKING POINTS in the NVIC press release:Protecting vaccine exemptions is a parental rights and civil liberty issue. NVIC Co-founder and President Barbara Loe Fisher said, “The state and federal public hearings being held this year are an opportunity for Americans to communicate with their legislators about this important parental rights and civil liberty issue.”· Vaccine laws are state laws. The federal government licenses vaccines, makes vaccine use recommendations and enacts vaccination requirements for persons crossing U.S. borders, while state governments enact mandatory vaccination laws for residents of states, including for children attending school. In 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the constitutional authority of state governments to mandate vaccines but warned that vaccine laws must be “limited in their application as not to lead to injustice, oppression, or an absurd consequence” and become “cruel and inhuman to the last degree.”· In 2019 so far, 140 vaccine-related bills have been introduced in 31 states. Most propose to expand, restrict or eliminate vaccine exemptions and informed consent rights. NVIC is supporting 61 of the bills, including bills to add or protect personal belief vaccine exemptions. There are currently bills filed in 8 states to add or expand vaccine exemptions and 11 states to restrict or remove exemptions. The lack of informed consent in the vaccination process has resulted in bills being filed in 12 states to improve vaccine informed consent.· Few people qualify for medical vaccine exemptions. There are few federally approved contraindications to vaccination and most adverse health conditions and vaccine reactions do not qualify for a medical exemption to vaccination under federal guidelines.Federal officials threatening government intervention if state legislators do not restrict or eliminate vaccine exemptions is federal interference in state rights. NVIC advocates for public participation in vaccine policy and law making. In response to a public statementmade by FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb on Feb. 14, 2019 warning state legislators that if they do not tighten vaccine exemptions in “lax laws,” then the federal government will take action, NVIC’s President responded, “The constitutional authority to mandate vaccinations belongs to the states. The FDA Commissioner heading a federal agency legally responsible for regulating the safety and effectiveness of vaccine products sold by drug companies should not be threatening state legislators with federal intervention if they don’t restrict or remove exemptions in vaccine laws.”· In 2011 the U.S. Supreme Court effectively removed all liability for FDA licensed, CDC recommended and state mandated vaccines. NVIC co-founders worked with Congress to secure vaccine safety informing, recording, reporting and research provisions in the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act. The Act gave the pharmaceutical industry a partial liability shield for harm caused by government licensed, recommended and mandated vaccines and created a federal vaccine injury compensation program (VICP) alternative to a vaccine injury lawsuit. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that FDA licensed vaccines are “unavoidably unsafe” and effectively granted vaccine manufacturers a full liability shield, even when there was evidence a company could have made a vaccine safer. More than $4 billionhas been awarded to children and adults harmed by federally recommended vaccines since 1988 but two out of three petitioners filing injury claims in the VICP are denied compensation.Congress should hold oversight hearings on the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, which has been seriously compromised by weakening amendments and federal agency rule making. For the past two decades, NVIC has been critical of federal agency implementation of the 1986 Act’s vaccine safety, research and vaccine injury compensation provisions. In 1999 and 2002, congressional oversight hearings were held on operation of the VICP, and the General Accountability Office (GAO) issued an investigative report in 2014 pointing out continuing problems with the VICP. NVIC Co-founder and Vice President said, “The integrity of the original law has been seriously compromised and no substantive action has been taken by Congress to repair damage done to the 1986 Act by eroding amendments and federal agency rule making. Part of the current focus by Congress on disease control and vaccine laws should include hearings to hold the Department of Health and Department of Justice accountable for betraying the trust of parents obeying laws to vaccinate their children.”Incentivizing grants are given to states by the CDC to achieve high vaccination rates.The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) gives incentivizing grants to states to achieve high vaccination rates among children with federally recommended vaccines. States with higher vaccination rates receive “bonus” funding awards and states with lower rates may receive lower grant amounts. The CDC’s recommended childhood vaccine schedule currently is 69 doses of 16 vaccines given between the day of birth and age 18 with 50 doses given before age six· There are many new vaccines coming that will be federally recommended and state mandated. There are 27 FDA licensed vaccines and 16 of them are mandated by different states for children to attend school. There are new vaccines in development, many of which will be federally recommended and considered by state legislatures for mandates in the future. Sincerely,NVIC Advocacy Team
National Vaccine Information Center
http://NVIC.org and http://NVICAdvocacy.org
https://nvicadvocacy.org/members/Members/ContactUs.aspxThe National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) works diligently to prepare and disseminate our legislative advocacy action alerts and supporting materials. We request that organizations and members of the public forward our alerts in their original form to assure consistent and accurate messaging and effective action. Please acknowledge NVIC as originators of this work when forwarding to members of the public and like-minded organizations. To receive alerts immediately, register at http://NVICAdvocacy.org, a website dedicated to this sole purpose and provided as a free public service by NVIC.

Support Youths Trying to Stop School Violence

Kids Killing Kids

Wow that title really hit me as I typed it just now, “Kids killing kids”. Saddens me beyond belief. While everyone is hot to look at guns as the “cure” to this problem I really don’t think any of them see the problem. If they did they would know it is much deeper and a backlash of our modern culture’s drive for instant gratification and more “stuff”. Feel better instantly, bigger houses, faster cars, more food, more electronics, instant replies to our texts or we’re devastated and drugs to make our bad habits okay, video fantasy worlds and so on. We neglect our health by eating and sitting too much. Then when we get “sick” we want it gone immediately or at least we don’t want to “feel” it but when the “feeling of being sick” goes away we assume we’re are “well”. We are not. Just not feeling sick is NOT being well. We have been taught to base our lives on how we feel rather than how we live them.

If you have high blood pressure your heart or circulation is not “good” so you take a pill but no medical doctor tells you to eat less sugar or breath better air or take supplement to improve your overall health but I do because it works. I don’t treat your blood pressure I care for your body to make it normal again. Normal means not having to take medicines for the rest of your life. How about our kids health? When your child has an active and time-demanding personality we call them “hyper”, the teachers and the MD’s tell you to put them on a drug like Ritalin or Adderall to make them “fit in” and stay in line. Now Mommy and Daddy are selfishly for this as they have demands outside the child that they love but it would be nice not having to watch their child so intensely. And “he” just doesn’t seem to listen and is a discipline problem most of the time. (Trust me I know this I had a true ADHD child and helped him pay attention with nutrition not drugs). On Ritalin he now seems to listen better and pay attention The teacher now can teach the “class’ instead of spending so much time on ‘little Johnny” and the parents can do “other things” so everyone is happy right? Everyone except Johnny. All is well until the child’s brain chemistry finally revolts after years of psychotropic medications and little Johnny is now a teen and can’ think straight or see the real world as it is so his coping mechanisms are broken and he self destructs. We want to blame this on the evil on the drug companies but if you look deeper the drug companies are just giving us what we ask for- “Keep Johnny out of my hair”.

Companies give us the consumer what we ask for and demand. If WE THE PEOPLE do not keep them accountable and in full view they like all people will cut corners to make short term gains(profit and market share) to increase their positions, this is human DNA. Companies and governments are not to blame the lazy citizen is. Without voting and examination large organizations become Goliath sized entities forcing products down our throats using sophisticated psychology convincing us we need things we don’t really want or need. Dandruff was never a “thing” until a shampoo company back in the 50’s decided it was and created ads that convinced us we were not socially acceptable if we had flakes on our shoulders so we had better buy their new shampoo! Drugs are not bad, abuse and dependence on them is. If you have a headache because you drank too much the night before don’t look to drug to fix it, aspirin doesn’t really work anyway. But we keep hoping for a magic pill to take care of our abuses. The side-effects of medicines as we hear on the drug commercials are not good.

Big companies are not “bad”, “secret societies” are not plotting to enslave us, money and wanting more money is not “bad”, politicians are not “bad”. They are all reflections of us and our wants as “the people”. Corporations only exist and gain wealth and power because we buy their goods. Politicians only get elected (in this country at least) because we vote for them even after they repeatedly lie to us and break promises. Money is a tool, if you’re grounded and have sensible values you tend to spend it well and it helps you. If you are an egomaniac and operate on narcissistic values then money hurts you and everything you touch. The common denominator is all these situations is, YOU. You have the power to use violence, coercion and force to get what you want or to use peaceful, logical win-win tactics. Take the orange from the fruit stand when the shopkeeper is distracted or earn the money and reward yourself with a good tasting orange. We all make this choice every day.

The problem at the core of school shooting and teen suicide (all suicide) is a distorted picture of the world. In my humble opinion this is a symptom of the worst problem facing Americans and eventually the world. It is a symptom of apathy and poor problem solving.

Kids are dying because their brain chemistry and values are being distorted by a medical or drugs fix everything attitude which spills over into our food supply. The chemicals and GMO tech we use to produce food is slowly damaging our DNA and and causing the degenerative diseases we can’t seem to cure.

So what to do?

Ask yourself if what you are about to do is fair to you and all parties involved?
Ask yourself is you are using force or coercion to get what you are after? If so it is not right.
Ask yourself if you are doing what is good for your body or your taste buds?
Ask yourself if you are as healthy as your should be at this stage of your life?
Ask yourself if there is a way to heal that is based on what your body knows? Your body knows the plants and animals it has evolved with, it doesn’t know GMO or Roundup.
If you need healing or health improvement (who doesn’t these days) How can I do that with the least amount of “modern” interventions? Sleep, exercise, relaxation, whole food diets and supplements, chiropractic, acupuncture, massage first. Medicine last.
How do I affect the violence and pain I see in the world? Lead by example of peaceful, honest advancment. Did you earn your position or did you use others to get where you are?

This girl is making a positive statement on addressing the cultural problem, “My life doesn’t matter and neither do the lives of my classmates so let’s all die together”. This is a distorted self worth psychosis distorted by Ritalin and other teen prescribed drugs. We all need to support these efforts as part of our effort to protect our communities. It’s not a gun law or an 2nd Amendment issue it’s a cultural issue. Change the culture to a more compassionate one and the violence will go down. Stop looking for a “magic” pill to cure your self neglect and stop poisoning our food with chemicals to increase yield. You’ll never stop the violence completely but it shouldn’t be this bad in our schools.

Keep Monsanto OUT of Your Garden

Whether your garden is big or small keep it YOURS.

Have you unknowingly invited Monsanto to your garden party? Updated from 2013.

In 2005, Monsanto grabbed 40% of the U.S. seed market and 20% of the global seed market when it bought out Seminis, making them the largest seed company in the world. —supplying the genetics for 55% of the lettuce on U.S. supermarket shelves, 75% of the tomatoes, and 85% of the peppers, with strong holdings in beans, cucumbers, squash, melons, broccoli, cabbage, spinach and peas! (source)

And Monsanto has been buying up every seed company they can ever since. By going to the Seminis site, you can see their history of acquisitions. You can see Syngenta and Dow are doing the same.

Apparently, Monsanto is now legally registered or established to hold the trademark for a plethora of the named heirloom seed varieties. (See a list of names below.) This company has strategically positioned itself to profit from the growing heirloom or open-pollinated home-gardening market.

Bayer, Monsanto and Their Terrible Little Secrets

First, as of “2015, the Bayer takeover of Monsanto merges a chemical giant with a seed giant and leaves the control of the world’s food supply in too few hands. The merger also links two key parts of agricultural production, reducing competition in the food chain. Bayer is now expected to control 29 per cent of the global seed market and 24 per cent of the global pesticide market.

“Second, there are serious concerns about increased farmer dependency on a smaller number of suppliers, and higher prices due to weak competition.

“Third, the deal increases the power of an even smaller group of companies over the intellectual property, and patents that already lock up much of the world’s commercially produced food supply. The patents weaken farmers’ ability to use and reuse their own seeds.”

“Finally, there are ongoing food health and safety concerns related to the seeds and chemicals produced by these companies. Increasing their market share increases their power over the market and over the producers and consumers that use their products. In 2015, the World Health Organisation declared glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s herbicide, Roundup, as “probably carcinogenic in humans,””(source)

These companies may change so check them out yourself to make sure that a Monsanto company has not bought them out and tainted their seeds.

1.) Avoid buying anything from companies that are affiliated with Monsanto or Seminis. You can search the companies they do business with to avoid them as they are potentially compromised.

2.) Avoid buying seed or seedlings varieties that are trademarked and owned by Seminis or Monsanto. This includes popular tomato varieties such as ‘Early Girl’, ‘Better Boy’, and ‘Burpee’s Big Boy’, as well as a host of other common home garden varieties like ‘Habanero’ hot pepper and ‘Packman’ broccoli. These are not GMO varieties, but their purchase does profit Monsanto.

Here’s a list.

3.) Ask seed companies if they have taken the Safe Seed Pledge and tested their stock for GMOs. Here’s a list.

4.) Purchase, plant, and save seeds from heirloom varieties. We need to support Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Seed Savers Exchange, and Clear Creek Heirloom Seeds and others that specialize in heirlooms and that are NOT owned by Monsanto or Seminis. The legacy of Seed Saver’s Exchange is to tell you how to collect and store seeds.

This article originally posted here.