Tonsillectomies Linked to Increased Risks of Allergies, Respiratory Illnesses, and Infectious Diseases

An original investigation published online by the Journal of the American Medical Association’s Otolaryngology-Head & Neck division finds that children who underwent tonsil and/or adenoid (the gland on the roof of the mouth that near the connection between nose and mouth) removal contend with increased risks of allergies, respiratory illnesses, and infectious diseases. Researchers conducted a review of nearly 1.2 million children where roughly 60,000 of them had tonsillectomies, adenoidectomies, or adenotonsillectomy. The children that underwent the procedure were 2 to 3 times more likely to experience upper respiratory diseases. In addition, adenoid removal resulted in a 17% higher risk of infectious disease.

When I was younger, I remember reading a Sweet Valley Twins book where the twins get their tonsils out. They were scared, but by the end of the book all fears had been assuaged and they accepted that getting your tonsils out was an easy operation, simply another cost of childhood. No one asked any questions. As an adult, I have many. What condition is serious to warrant removing a body part? Were there any other alternatives? Most importantly, what does the removal of your tonsils mean for your health long term?

Why do they do a tonsillectomy? 

Tonsil and adenoid removals are usually done in childhood. In fact, the adenoids typically shrink after the age of seven so later removal of them is usually not considered necessary. Both removals are performed in response to inflammation, as enlarged adenoids and tonsils can block a child’s airway. Tonsils, in particular, are associated with sore throats.

Related: What Causes Chronic Inflammation, and How To Stop It For Good

There is a good reason that tonsils are associated with sore throats. Tonsils and adenoids are the body’s first line of defense against pathogens that enter through the mouth. Doctors remove tonsils and adenoids because they’re inflamed, causing sore throats…but that’s what they’re designed to do. The inflammation is a direct response to infection. The tonsils produce T and B cells, and the adenoids produce white blood cells to combat infection. These organs are known to perform vitally important functions in the body, yet removing them is one of the most commonly performed surgeries in childhood.

Alternative Treatment Options

Many doctors are beginning to steer clear of tonsillectomies and adenoidectomies, as they’re finding equal or better rates of success with antibiotics. Of course, while much better than surgery, antibiotics are problematic as well. There are other ways to get in front of a sore throat, sinus infection, or cold. Time is of the essence, so the sooner you react to the little tingle at the back of your throat indicating something is wrong, the better. Implementing these steps quickly can be the difference between a day of feeling groggy and a week of downing supplements in a valiant effort to avoid bronchitis or strep. Some of them will obviously be difficult for children. Prevention, aka diet, is really the most important, especially for kids.

Related: How to Detoxify From Antibiotics and Other Chemical Antimicrobials

Step One: Lock down the diet. This is not a time to be treating yourself. Sugar, processed foods, and dairy all feed the infection and can prolong the amount of time you need to recover. Big, diverse salads loaded with lots of chopped garlic and herbs are a must.

Step Two: Find (or make) a fire cider. Sip on it all day. The spicier the better. If you have a small child or if you absolutely can’t take the cider without something to sweeten it up, the only option is truly raw honey. Once the honey is heated in any way, the body recognizes it as simple sugars and it feeds the infection. Pro tip: try gargling the cider, especially at the back of the throat. Here’s one we like.

Step Three: Chew on raw garlic. Garlic should be your new best friend. For more on how great garlic is, read this article. You don’t have to swallow it (especially on an empty stomach, as no one wants to puke when they potentially have a sore throat), but if you feel like you can keep it down, go for it! The longer you can chew the garlic in your mouth, the better.

Related:  Make Your Immune System Bulletproof with These Natural Remedies

If you catch the issue in time, these three steps can be lifesavers. If you need a little extra oomph, other good natural treatments include oil of oregano, berberine in one of its many forms, slippery elm tea, cayenne in your lemonade, and in dire straits, herbal snuff (it hurts).

Conclusion

Tonsillectomies and adenoidectomies are responses to these organs working the way they are designed to. There’s a pattern of this, the removal of necessary body parts, in modern medicine, from the tonsils to the appendix to circumcision. In our effort to figure out and control our surroundings, we frequently forget to consider the whole picture. We forget how holistic health actually is.

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HPV Vaccine May Be Associated with Infertility…Again

A new study has found that women who received the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine were statistically less likely to conceive than those who had not received it. Reviewing data on 8 million U.S. women from ages 25-29 gathered by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the study suggests that under a 100% HPV vaccination rate, the number of women who successfully conceived would drop by 2 million. The data does not give the HPV vaccine as the cause of infertility, but after accounting for others factors like income, ethnicity, marital status, and education women who received the vaccine were 25% less likely to have conceived.

HPV and Controversy

The HPV vaccine has been massively controversial, and it has been associated with infertility before. Three girls aged 16 to 18 in rural southwestern Australia were diagnosed with premature ovarian insufficiency shortly after receiving the vaccination. The study examining those young women also noted that the report for the HPV vaccine did not present an ovary histology report (even though the vaccine is for women…). Gardasil has also been linked to other long-term damage, with many women experiencing the development or aggravation of autoimmune issues or neurological problems like seizures, paralysis, and speech problems. Popular Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, says,

Gardasil alone has had more than 38,000 adverse events reported through March 2015. And that number is estimated to be only 10% of all actual adverse events…”

Even the vaccine inserts show evidence that the HPV vaccine is a factor in inducing serious long-lasting health conditions.

Related: Vaccines, Retroviruses, DNA, and the Discovery That Destroyed Judy Mikovits’ Career

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkyjgY70yPA

Related: How To Detoxify and Heal From Vaccinations – For Adults and Children

A Bad Deal

The HPV vaccine is only one reason for declining fertility, but then again premature ovary failure is only one of the health issues that has been reported as a result of the vaccine. There are nearly 32,000 instances of HPV caused cancer every year in the U.S. The National Institue for Health estimates that 23.5 million Americans suffer from an autoimmune disorder, one of the commonly reported health issues caused by Gardasil. Conventional medicine is pushing a vaccine that will protect thousands at the cost of negatively impacting millions. Why is this ok? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that healthcare costs associated with autoimmune disorders are twice as much as those associated with cancer. Autoimmune disorders create repeat customers…and business is booming.

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Swine Flu Is Now Infecting Dogs

H1N1, a flu virus originating from birds and commonly identified as swine flu, has been discovered in dogs from the Guangxi region of China. These animals were brought to the vet after showing symptoms consistent with canine influenza, and researchers published their analysis of the 16 strains of flu they found. The most notable discovery was H1N1, the swine flu strain responsible for the 2009 pandemic that resulted in more than 200,000 deaths. Study co-author Adolfo García-Sastre, director of the Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, says there is a reason to be cautious.

Related: How Viruses Work and How to Prevent and Eliminate Them Naturally

In our study, what we have found is another set of viruses that come from swine that are originally avian in origin, and now they are jumping into dogs and have been reassorted with other viruses in dogs. We now have H1N1, H3N2, and H3N8 in dogs. They are starting to interact with each other. This is very reminiscent of what happened in swine ten years before the H1N1 pandemic.”

Adaptable Influenza

The continuing battle to correctly guess the dominant flu strain of the season showcases how adaptive and varied the flu is. Often pandemics originate in animals, usually birds or swine. While dogs have never been considered a significant carrier of the virus, more varied and potentially strains have been showing up in canine tests. The potential for a devastating flu pandemic that we aren’t prepared for is high in man’s best friend. There have been documented instances of viruses from avian, porcine, and equine sources successfully jumping to dogs, and that’s a potential flu cocktail that humans don’t have immunity against.

Can It Affect Us?

Does that even matter? There is no case of a human ever being infected by canine flu.

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Humans have previously been infected by the strain of flu found in the dogs, H1N1, but previous exposure has come from birds, who were the original carriers. Of course, H1N1 is now more closely identified with pigs, after 2009 swine flu outbreak. H1N1 became the dominant strain of flu in 1998, and the virus was seriously affecting humans within ten years. Before then, the idea that humans would be suffering from swine flu was farfetched.

It’s important to note that vaccination efforts were unsuccessful in both pigs and humans, primarily due to how fast the virus evolves. H1N1 also showed resistance to Tamiflu, the controversial antiviral drug. Healthcare professionals in the U.S. ended up using vaccines nearly identical to the seasonal flu vaccine, which is a daunting prospect in light of how poorly that immunization performed this year. If the discovery of an adaptable H1N1 virus in dogs follows the same trajectory as H1N1 did in pigs, do we have any good solutions?  In cases of avian flu, farmers eliminate diseased birds from the flock immediately. Is that even an option when many Americans consider their dog a member of the family?

Recommended: How to Cure Lyme Disease, and Virtually Any Other Bacterial Infection, Naturally

The More You Know

Scientists repeatedly mention how diverse canine flu strains are becoming, and there isn’t a push to figure out why. Perhaps part of the answer is the proximity of the animals to the ultimate disease incubators – us.

The further we continue down the rabbit hole of our health care system, the more it becomes clear that we have dramatically underestimated our opponents. Our answers to the problems posed by bacteria and viruses have seemed to inspire those pathogens to greater and more creative heights at a speed not seen in nature.

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Breast Cancer, Unnecessary Chemotherapy, and Invasive Procedures for Women

Is it easier to prescribe exhausting, and ineffective medications than it is to look for actual disease prevention and treatment? The answer is yes, and sixty percent of women with breast cancer are paying the price for that complacency with unnecessary chemotherapy.

A recent study released in the New England Journal of Medicine examined outcomes from two different breast cancer treatments: hormone therapy, and chemotherapy. After nine years of following patients, researchers found that the results were indistinguishable. It didn’t matter what treatment they received – nine out of ten women survived. So why do we continue with chemotherapy?

Do the ends justify the means?

Chemotherapy is our default medical standard of care for cancer. While it can eliminate the immediate threat, it’s more problematic than helpful. The cancer is gone, but many women are left crippled in another way. The immune system is a shell of what it once was, leaving the body open to all manner of infections and other health conditions.  According to Otis Brawley, chief medical and scientific officer for the American Cancer Society,

I have lost three patients over the last 25 years because they got leukemia from their chemo…I have lost patients who got congestive heart failure because of their chemo, and I have seen patients who get ‘chemo brain’ and have difficulty concentrating for the rest of their lives.”

The other, less invasive treatment option presented in this article isn’t perfect. Endocrine therapy, which inhibits the body’s ability to produce estrogen, can result in symptoms of early menopause, joint pain, and weight loss. But we didn’t have that option until recently. Why not? Is chemotherapy so effective that medicine should have stopped looking for solutions?

Recommended: How to Detox From Plastics and Other Endocrine Disruptors

It’s a Pattern

The practice of applying unnecessarily invasive treatments to an entire gender is not a new one in the United States. The World Health Organization has advocated for a c-section rate of 10-15% for over 30 years. Yet the U.S. is frequently cited for rates of more than double that. C-sections are among the most performed surgeries in the U.S., yet mothers who fight for a different outcome are constantly told that “the most important thing is a healthy baby.” Yes, this is true, but that should not be a reason to discourage informed women trying to minimize the physiological fallout from pregnancy. There is a reason the percentage of expectant mothers who find it necessary to hire a doula when giving birth has doubled in a six-year period. Having an advocate is more important than ever.

Me Too

Studies have found that doctors are less likely to listen to or take the concerns of female patients seriously, sometimes describing their pain as emotional or psychogenic. Yet that lack of engagement can lead to treating all women with one size all procedures that aren’t always necessary. It also causes many women years of frustration, searching for someone who will take their concerns seriously.

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It’s ironic that the alternative treatment to chemotherapy examined in this study reduces the amount estrogen in the body, literally suppressing female hormones. Women are taught to avoid rocking the boat, but speaking up or voting with your dollar and finding someone who will listen can be the thing that saves you from potential long-lasting health issues.

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CRISPR Edited Cells May Cause Cancer According to Two Studies

Gene editing changes an organism’s DNA. The technology allows genetic material inside a cell to be added, removed, or altered at specific locations within the genome.  Many different gene editing technologies have been developed, including CRISPR-Cas9, short for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR-associated protein 9.” This gene editing method has generated tons of excitement in the scientific community because it was believed to be faster, less expensive, and much more accurate than other existing genome editing methods.

CRISPR-Cas9 was a much-hyped gene editing tool that was going to be a breakthrough for medicine. A Newsweek title read, “…Could Stop Cancer, Diabetes and Bioterrorism.” But there’s a problem. Editing a cell’s genomes with CRISPR-Cas9 could have unintended consequences. According to two studies published in Nature Medicine, the CRISPR-Cas9 edited cells may seed tumors inside a patient. Those same cells that were intended to treat disease could be triggering cancer. Even though the stocks tanked upon the news, researches don’t want to sound the alarm bells. Bernhard Schmierer, a researcher with the Karolinska Institutet, said that CRISPR-Cas9 is a “powerful tool with staggering therapeutic potential,” before he went into possible risks,

Like all medical treatments however, CRISPR-Cas9-based therapies might have side effects, which the patients and caregivers should be aware of. Our study suggests that future work on the mechanisms that trigger p53 in response to CRISPR-Cas9 will be critical in improving the safety of CRISPR-Cas9-based therapies.”

Related: How to Avoid GMOs in 2018 – And Everything Else You Should Know About Genetic Engineering

Dr. Emma Haapaniemi, a researcher at the Department of Medicine, Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet and co-first author of the study stated,

By picking cells that have successfully repaired the damaged gene we intended to fix, we might inadvertently also pick cells without functional p53. If transplanted into a patient, as in gene therapy for inherited diseases, such cells could give rise to cancer, raising concerns for the safety of CRISPR-based gene therapies.”

P53 mutations are responsible for nearly half of ovarian cancers; 43 percent of colorectal cancers; 38 percent of lung cancers; nearly one-third of pancreatic, stomach, and liver cancers; and one-quarter of breast cancers, among others.” – STAT

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TransCanada Natural Gas Pipeline Exploded In West Virginia

A newly installed TransCanada natural gas pipeline exploded last Thursday morning in the remote Nixon Ridge area of Marshall County in West Virginia, sending a ball of fire shooting up into the sky. People as far away as Washington County reported seeing flames. WTOV-TV states that the explosion occurred in a TransCanada pipeline. No injuries have been reported.

It sounded like a freight train coming through, or a tornado, and the sky lit up bright orange, and then I got up and looked out the window and flames were shooting I don’t know how far into the sky.” – Tina Heath-Chaplin, of Moundsville

WTOV-TV in Steubenville, Ohio, reported that the explosion happened on June 7th shortly before 4:30 a.m.

Area police told CBS News “…if you can see it from your house, evacuate,” but reports showed that the flames could be seen from at least 20 miles away.

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TransCanada is the company behind the infamous Keystone pipeline. Shortly after the explosion, the company stated that the situation had been contained.

As soon as the issue was identified, emergency response procedures were enacted and the segment of impacted pipeline was isolated. The fire was fully extinguished by approximately 8:30 a.m.”

Recommended: How to Avoid GMOs in 2018 – And Everything Else You Should Know About Genetic Engineering

https://www.facebook.com/ruby.mason.54/videos/1587635261364082/

This pipeline is the Leach XPress. It was put into service January 1, 2018. TransCanada emphasized that the pipeline was built very quickly, but also safely.

We’re looking forward to generations of safe operations. This is truly a best-in-class pipeline and we look forward to many years of safe, reliable, and efficient operation on behalf of our customers.” – ” Scott Castleman, manager of U.S. Gas Communications for TransCanada

Related:

Keystone Pipeline Leak in South Dakota About Double Previous Estimate



Monsanto’s Name To Be Retired – Bayer Aims To Erase Sordid History

Now that the merger between Bayer and Monsanto has been approved, the German pharmaceutical giant has announced plans to scrub the Monsanto name from their agrochemical products, selling them under the name Bayer Crop Science instead. After receiving the U.S. government approval for the merger, the company announced,

Bayer will remain the company name. Monsanto will no longer be a company name. The acquired products will retain their brand names and become part of the Bayer portfolio…”

The deal is scheduled to be completed on June 14.

The Benefits

In eliminating the name Monsanto, Bayer is getting rid of quite a bit of baggage. Monsanto is responsible for the introduction of several products that have done serious damage to the environment and public health, like Agent Orange, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), saccharin, aspartame, and recently designated carcinogen, glyphosate. Entire protest movements are dedicated to opposing Monsanto, and there’s always the possibility that the more stringent regulations of GMOs have been in response to their reputation. With this move, Bayer loses the liability of the Monsanto reputation while maintaining Monsanto’s profits and market control.

Must Read: How to Avoid GMOs in 2018 – And Everything Else You Should Know About Genetic Engineering

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-EW4XzQwRM

Holistic Profits

Bayer is remaking itself. Originally a pharmaceutical company, they’re now moving into agriculture. But not just any agriculture…they’re getting into agriculture with a company that has been definitively linked to making people sick. Which makes this an excellent move for Bayer. Step one, take control of the food system. Step two, make the food that causes cancer and disrupts the endocrine system impossible to avoid. Step three, sell the drugs needed to manage the conditions caused by unavoidable unhealthy food. Step four? Profit, clearly.

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