750 Million GMO Mosquitoes Approved for release in Florida Keys
The plan to release over 750 million genetically engineered mosquitoes into the Florida Keys in 2021 and 2022 has final approval from local authorities, despite objections from many local residents and environmental groups.
The proposal had already won state and federal approval.”With all the urgent crises facing our nation and the State of Florida — the Covid-19 pandemic, racial injustice, climate change — the administration has used tax dollars and government resources for a Jurassic Park experiment.
Now the Monroe County Mosquito Control District has given the final permission needed. What could possibly go wrong? We don’t know, because EPA unlawfully refused to seriously analyze environmental risks, now without further review of the risks, the experiment can proceed.
This pilot project is designed to see if genetically engineered mosquitos are a viable alternative to spraying insecticides to control the Aedes aegypti, also known as the yellow fever mosquito. This species carries several deadly diseases including Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever.
The GM mosquito has been named OX5034. It has been altered to produce female offspring that die in the larval stage before they can bite and spread disease.
These mosquitos are also approved to be released in Harris County, Texas according to Oxitec, the U.S.-owned, British-based company that developed the GMO.
Do you think these GM mosquitoes are a better choice than spraying pesticides? Or is there a better alternative?
Natural Coronavirus Prevention
It’s important to note that when looking at studies for supplementation to prevent or help treat coronavirus we’re usually looking at research on supplement efficacy for other viruses. We’re dealing with a novel virus with this pandemic. But, the body is a holistic, complex system. Having a body in homeostasis during a pandemic only makes sense. And while coronavirus is new and different, it’s still a virus. And we have a lot of good science on how to help prevent virus infections.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C has long been touted to cure everything from cancer to liver failure. Studies show that ingesting vitamin C supplements does not seem to be the cure-all we’d hoped for but the studies that administer intravenous vitamin C look very promising. If our pharmaceutical industry had our best interests at heart patients who are being treated for severe cases of coronavirus would be administered IV Vitamin C, and many lives would likely be saved.
Regular injections aren’t practical for normal people, and we suspect there might be a few side effects if people use injections regularly as a preventative measure. But Vitamin C injections do show a lot of promise for treating many diseases.
This is not to say that vitamin C supplementation is useless. If you don’t have enough vitamin C in your body when you get sick the vitamin C may reduce severity and duration, but not much. A better way to get enough vitamin C in order to prevent disease is to eat the right foods before there is a health issue.
Zinc helps your immune system fight off infection, helps the body heal wounds, and is needed for making protein and DNA.
There have been several studies testing whether zinc supplements can help treat or prevent the common cold. A comprehensive review of 18 of such studies showed zinc is may reduce the duration of patients’ common cold.
Studies also show that colds, school absences, and antibiotic prescription rates are lower in for those who take zinc supplementation regularly, suggesting that zinc could also prevent colds.
The National Institutes of Health says oysters as the best food source of zinc avaialble. Another benefits of oysters is they have copper in just the right amount to make the zinc more easily absorbed and assimilated (if you don’t have enough copper you can’t get enough zinc). You can also get zinc from red meat, legumes, nuts, whole grains, and dairy.
Zinc has been proven to reduce symptoms of illnesses from rhinoviruses by messing with the viruses’ RNA replication, but there are no studies yet that look at zinc with COVID-19. We don’t know how similar COVID-19 is to rhinoviruses, but it is possible that zinc could mess with the RNA replication of coronavirus in a similar way. Regardless, getting enough zinc to keep your immune system strong makes sense for the other aforementioned reasons.
COVID-19 deaths are usually attributed to a “cytokine storm”, which is a physiological feedback loop where our body creates an excessive release of cytokines, a pro-inflammatory signaling molecule. A new study has evaluated the treatment of two patients with COVID-19 pneumonia who were given IV and orally administered glutathione.
Oral and IV glutathione, glutathione precursors (N-acetyl-cysteine) and alpha lipoic acid may represent a novel treatment approach for blocking NF-κB and addressing “cytokine storm syndrome” and respiratory distress in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.
Dr. Richard Horowitz is a board-certified internist with a private integrative medicine practice. He is considered to be one of the best Lyme disease doctors and he’s built a practice around combining conventional treatments with alternative, naturopathic methods to treat Lyme disease. Dr. Horowitz has treated patents successfully with glutathione therapy.
“It is a miracle and it’s not,” says Horowitz of glutathione, which he has used on thousands of patients in his medical practice over the past 30 years. “It’s already in the literature—there are published articles on glutathione showing that it has anti-viral activity against herpes viruses, HIV, and hepatitis. The problem is, all of the COVID research is happening through pharmaceutical companies. No one is looking at natural approaches. You hear a little about how low vitamin D might put you at risk, so it’s coming out in dribs and drabs.” And just like with vitamin D, you can be deficient in glutathione—especially if you’ve been exposed to a lot of environmental toxins (which is everyone). Older people are also more likely to be depleted of the compound.
Dr. Rhonda Patrick at Found My Fitness thinks vitamin D may be what those who are getting hit with COVID-19 are missing. Other interesting points include:
People with genetic predisposition to lower vitamin D levels are more likely to die of respiratory disease
People with normal vitamin D levels are less likely to die from respiratory disease
Too much vitamin D can be toxic, though concerns of hypercalcemia tend to be overblown
Vitamin D and Vitamin K increase may increase bone density and prevent hypercalcemia
Don’t be concerned with eating “too many leafy greens” and issues with oxalates, kidney stones, etc.
https://youtu.be/4_ZJ8YDOX6g?t=1935
Gut Health
This is the key. Not just for coronavirus defense, but for our health in every physical aspect of our lives. You cannot have a healthy gut and be low in vitamin D, or zinc, or other nutrients. Gut health is everything. When the best farmers see a sick plant they treat their soil’s microbiome first and foremost. When we’re sick, our microbiome is off. When we’re well and everything is working optimally we have a balanced, healthy gut to thank.
In the first case of novel coronavirus reported in the U.S., the patient reported two days of nausea and vomiting along with diarrhea in addition to respiratory symptoms. In some small studies, researchers have linked patients with gastrointestinal issues to poorer coronavirus outcomes. Poor gut health seems to equate to severe disease symptoms including higher fevers and a greater risk of liver injury.
The suggestion is that the gastrointestinal symptoms are caused by the virus invading the ACE2-containing cells that are found throughout the bowel. This, together with the presence of the virus in the stool, suggests the gastrointestinal tract as another possible route of infection and transmission.
But it’s not just that the virus attacks the gut. Science is on the verge of discovering that our gut microbiome supplies our entire body with its microbiome. And what they don’t yet know, but is nevertheless true, is that a body with a healthy, diverse, and plentiful microbiome is a much less hospitable host for foreign invaders.
The health of our gut bacteria plays a crucial role in how our immune system reacts to every disease, including coronavirus. Diet is crucial to developing and maintaining healthy gut flora. The wider variety of raw vegetables and herbs one consumes, the more diverse one’s gut bacteria will be. And diversity is key to a healthy microbiome.
This article, How To Heal Your Gut, goes into detail about how to develop a healthy gut microbiome and is the basis for ridding the body of and being less susceptible to nearly every disease.
From our sister company, Green Lifestyle Market, here are our top supplement picks for anyone concerned with COVID-19 or just wanting to keep their immune system strong:
But don’t skip the aforementioned gut health article! Diet is far more important than supplements, and if finances are tight, put your money towards healthy food before you purchase supplements.
FDA Needs To Reconsider GMO Salmon Approval, Says Federal Judge
The Food and Drug Administration approved biotechnology company AquaBounty’s application to make and sell genetically engineered salmon in 2015, and now a federal judge is on the verge of ordering the government agency to take another look. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria is presiding over a case filed by the Center for Food Safety against the salmon’s approval, and he expressed concerns on Tuesday that the FDA’s approval of the salmon could inspire AquaBounty to expand their AquaAdvantage salmon program without fully considering the ecological impacts of it.
I’m not saying it opens the floodgates or sets the standards, but perhaps it pushes us in a direction and future agency action will likely be informed by this agency action…Shouldn’t the FDA in this case have considered the fact that this was the first such facility and future decisions would be building on this facility?”
The AquaAdvantage salmon is the first genetically engineered food animal that the FDA has approved for raising and selling. The fish is a genetic mix of an ocean pout and Pacific Chinook salmon, a combination that leads to higher growth hormone in the blood. The company plans to breed the salmon at a hatchery on Prince Edward Island in Canada before moving the eggs to their facility in Indiana.
When the agency completed their assessment of the salmon, they listed the salmon as having “no significant impact,” and Department of Justice attorney Marissa Piropato said that…
AquaBounty has no guarantee that the FDA is going to accept whatever comes down the pike…”
Environmental groups have a different take on the approval and current impact status of the modified salmon that echoed Judge Chhabria sentiments. The treatment and regulation of the AquaBounty salmon sets the precedent for the future of gentically engineered food animals.
Whatever they do here is going to inform the approval for those other applications and is going to inform what the FDA does for all GE animals going forward…If the analysis they are doing here is inadequate that means it’s never going to be enough. It’s not going to get better.”
Earthjustice attorney Brettny Hardy
New Study Finds Microplastics in Seafood
A new study published in Environmental Science and Technology found microplastics in 100% of the seafood tested. Researchers acquired 10 oysters, 10 farmed tiger prawns, 10 wild squids, 10 sardines, and five wild blue crabs. All of the samples tested positive for at least trace levels of plastics, with varying amounts of plastic in each type of seafood. Sardines had the highest levels of plastic.
The study found that in an average serving of seafood, a person could consume approximately 0.7mg of plastic when eating oysters or squid, and up to 30mg of plastic in an average serving of sardines. A grain of rice weighs 30mg, on average.
“From the edible marine species tested, sardines had the highest plastic content, which was a surprising result,” Riberio told the University of Queensland. “Another interesting aspect was the diversity of microplastic types found among species, with polyethylene predominant in fish and polyvinyl chloride the only plastic detected in oysters.”
Polyethylene, the most popular plastic in the world, was the most common plastic found in the samples. Plastics commonly end up in the ocean where they breakdown into tiny pieces called microplastics. Microplastics are absorbed by plankton and eaten by other marine life and are carried through the food chain. Microplastics are in everything, from the food we eat to the rainwater.
CDC Says 94% of COVID-19 Deaths had Other Causes
The CDC has reported that 94% of deaths marked COVID-19 have other causes. On average, in the cases where COVID-19 was not the sole cause of death, 2.6 additional causes for death were reported.
It is very likely that in many of these cases COVID-19 was not the primary cause of death. In many cases, COVID-19 can exacerbate or worsen pre-existing health conditions. The total death count for COVID-19 is not the number of people who died because of COVID-19, but rather the number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 at the time of death.
Dr. Brown added that CDC and WHO documents show that the case fatality rate for influenza was similar to the coronavirus, implying that the lockdowns were pointless. His paper questions why the 2017-2018 influenza season in the United States did not “receive the same intensive media coverage as COVID-19.”
CDC Admits That 94 Percent of “COVID-19 Deaths” Had Other Causes/Conditions
Many have accused both the WHO and the CDC of inflating numbers to make the pandemic appear worse than it actually is, with some saying the practice is for the sake of gaining control over the population. Public health and government officials have also come out and stated that the mortality rate for COVID-19 is actually much lower than numbers suggest.
Those 77 NFL Positive Coronavirus Tests were All False Positives due to Lab Contamination
On August 22nd the National Football League (NFL) announced that COVID-19 testing indicated 77 positive results from 11 teams. While this was big news in the mainstream media there were clues that the testing may have shown some false positives.
The league asked the New Jersey lab BioReference to investigate the results. They were re-examined and all of the test results came back negative. In other words, all 77 were false positives.
Jon R. Cohen, M.D., the Executive Chairman of BioReference Laboratories, testing partner of the NFL, released a statement explaining that these false-positives were due to an isolated contamination in the New Jersey lab.
“On August 22, BioReference Laboratories reported an elevated number of positive COVID-19 PCR test results for NFL players and personnel at multiple clubs. The NFL immediately took necessary actions to ensure the safety of the players and personnel. Our investigation indicated that these were most likely false positive results, caused by an isolated contamination during test preparation in the New Jersey laboratory. Reagents, analyzers and staff were all ruled out as possible causes and subsequent testing has indicated that the issue has been resolved. All individuals impacted have been confirmed negative and informed.”
A new study in the journal Food Control shows that the avocado oil you purchased may not be 100% pure avocado oil. Like with olive oil the standards are not widely regulated and some comapnies are ripping off health-conscious customers. Scientists analyzed 22 different kinds of commercially available avocado oil to find that 15 had gone rancid before their sell-by date, while six were likely cut with large quantities of cheaper oils.
The study found that many of the oils labeled extra virgin and refined were adulterated with other oils, and 82% of oils went bad before their expiration date, indicating they were of poor quality. Three out of the 22 oils tested were almost 100% adulterated with other oils, like soybean oil. Co-author of the study, Selina Wang said some adulteration was expected but not at such a high level.
When an oil is exposed to oxygen, peroxides and other oxidation products form, thereby giving the oil undesirable odors and flavors. While not as conspicuous as the FFA values, the trend toward high oxidation was also evident. In other words, many of the oils were rancid well before their “best by” date.
Oil is considered authentic when no other additives or oils are added, and the contents of the oil match the label. Oil quality is determined by the extraction process, the quality of the raw food, storage of the oil, and the hydrolysis of the fruit and oxidation of the oil. Many of the oils tested were of low quality. This could explain some of the quality issues as this oil may have improper storage or extreme processing conditions, and the fruit used to make the oil could potentially be rotten or damaged.
Healthy levels of free fatty acidity (FFA) for avocado oil is between 0.1 and 0.055%. Three of the 22 oils sampled had FFA around 2.5%, with extra virgin oils having FFA levels ranging from 0.03%-2.69%, the average being 1.31%. The avocado oils tested also showed high levels of vitamin E content which can suggest that soybean oil may have been added.