Kids who play secondhand plastic toys might be exposed to dangerous levels of substances such as lead and cadmium. At low levels, these compounds may be hazardous to children that are subjected to them over a protracted time period, especially if children chew on toys.

Related: How to Detox From Plastics and Other Endocrine Disruptors

Investigators analyzed 200 secondhand plastic toys that they found in houses, nurseries and secondhand stores.  Researchers found high concentrations of poisonous elements such as antimony, barium, bromine, cadmium, chromium, selenium and lead in several building blocks, amounts and items of jewelry which were normally either yellow, black or red. Toys included cars, trains, action figures, blocks, and puzzles – all of which were small enough to be chewed by young kids.

The findings confirm the presence of relatively large concentrations of chemicals which have since been restricted or banned, including the brightly colored pigments cadmium sulphoselenide and lead chromate.” – Andrew Turner, environmental researcher at University of Plymouth.

Recommended: Household Cleaners May Damage Lungs Like Pack-a-Day Smoking Habit, According to New Study

To evaluate the number of compounds in the toys, investigators used what is called X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, a procedure that scientists frequently use to ascertain what substances are in stones, minerals, sediments and fluids. Researchers also did extra tests made to simulate gut conditions by placing toys in a hydrochloric acid solution. Under those circumstances, several toys published amounts of bromine, cadmium, or lead which exceeded limitations allowed beneath bunny safety regulations in Europe.

Young children are especially vulnerable to the health effects of the chemicals because children have faster metabolisms than adults along with the growth and development of organs and cells.

Related: Shaken Baby Syndrome – Child Abuse or Vaccine Injury?

Example: yellow and red Lego bricks in the 1970s appeared like Legos in the 1990s, but the old variants contained cadmium that was not present in the more recent ones.

The findings imply that parents must be careful about used plastic toys since they might contain banned chemicals that can leech out readily when children chew on them, ” stated Dr. Luz Claudio, a medical health researcher in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in nyc.

The stricter regulations that limit chemicals in toys do not apply retroactively to older toys,” Claudio, not involved in the analysis

Sources:

• Hand-me-down plastic toys may not be good for kids – Rueters
• Concentrations and Migratabilities of Hazardous Elements in Second-Hand Children’s Plastic toys – Environmental Sciences and Technology

States with laws which make it easier for midwives to care for pregnant women and deliver infants may have better birth outcomes than states where it is tougher for midwives to provide care, a recent study indicates.

Researchers ranked each state on how easy it is for midwives to practice and collaborate with obstetricians and other providers. Scores ranged from a low of 17 from North Carolina out of 100 points, to a high of 61 in Washington. Higher scores were associated with a considerably higher proportion of babies delivered by midwives, more spontaneous vaginal deliveries, and greater rates of breastfeeding. Higher scores correlated to underweight newborns with fewer preterm births and less frequent surgical cesarean section deliveries.

The question is not whether it is better to have a midwife or a doctor, but the degree to which midwives and doctors are able to work together to provide the best care utilizing all of their expertise and abilities,” Vedam stated to Reuters via email.

Related Reading: 10 Circumcision Myths – Let’s Get the Facts Straight

Roughly eight in 10 U.S. births were handled by physicians in 2015, while roughly 9 percent have been attended by certified nurse midwives with advanced training or other midwives, researchers notice in PLoS One.

Certified nurse midwives may get accredited in all 50 states and may offer well-woman gynecology and primary care in addition to pregnancy care.

To evaluate how simple it is to allow midwives to take care of girls, researchers evaluated licensing demands, any constraints on which sort of maintenance midwives can supply or where they could practice, any prerequisites for midwives to consult doctors or refer patients to physicians for specific conditions, any legislation regulating quality and security of births in hospitals in addition to at birthing facilities or at home, and some other laws regulating if midwives could write prescriptions.

Related Reading: Considering Home Birth

States with greatest scores had licensing demands for various kinds of midwives and gave midwives the maximum ability to take care of girls in various configurations, write prescriptions and get payments from Medicaid, the U.S. health insurance plan for the poor.

States in the Northeast, Pacific Northwest and Southwest had the maximum density of midwives, as quantified by the number of midwives practicing for every 1,000 births.

Related Reading: How Healthy is the United States Compared to Other Countries?

States from the South had the lowest scores for midwifery policies, and these countries also had the greatest levels of premature births, underweight infants, and infant mortality, the analysis found.

The analysis was not a controlled experiment designed to establish whether midwives may mean better birth outcomes or the way specific state policies regulating midwives may lead to greater health for mothers or infants.

Since scientists looked whatsoever policies collectively, the analysis also could not shed light on which impact individual coverages concerning midwife practice could mean for birth results, the authors note. Nevertheless, the findings increase the evidence that birth results might be better compared to midwives perform much more deliveries, ” explained Erin Wright, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing in Baltimore who was not involved in the analysis.

In many other nations midwives manage 50 to 70 percent of births according to Wright.

Related Reading:

• SIDS and SUID
• Galactagogues Foods, Herbs, and other Ways to Increase Breast Milk Production
• How Healthy is the United States Compared to Other Countries?
• Drinking One Soda Per Day Can Decrease Fertility By 33%, Study Finds

Scientists at Norway’s University of Bergen found that using toxic cleaning products has as much of an impact on health as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.

The study tracked 6,000 people, with an average age of 34 at the time of enrollment in the study, who used the cleaning products over a period of two decades, according to the research published in the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.Lung function declined in women who regularly used cleaning products. They, such as those who worked as cleaners, was equivalent over the period to those with a 20-cigarette daily smoking habit.

Related: How to Clean Your Floors with Homemade Non-toxic Cleaners Instead of Store Bought Chemicals

While the short-term effects of cleaning chemicals on asthma are becoming increasingly well documented, we lack knowledge of the long-term impact. We feared that such chemicals, by steadily causing a little damage to the airways day after day, year after year, might accelerate the rate of lung function decline that occurs with age.” – Dr. Cecile Svanes, professor at the University of Bergen in Norway, senior author of the study.

Must Read: How To Heal Your Gut

The study measured lung function by testing the amount of air the subjects could forcefully breathe out. They examined the results alongside a questionnaire where participants were asked about they use cleaning products. The study found that women who used the cleaning products regularly have decreased lung capacity and an increased rate of asthma. The products seemed to affect women more than men, though the scientists noted that the number of male participants was limited. The mode of chemical cleaner—be it spray or other liquid—was not statistically relevant, only that a chemical cleaner was used.

When you think of inhaling small particles from cleaning agents that are meant for cleaning the floor and not your lungs, maybe it is not so surprising after all.” – Øistein Svanes, a doctoral student.

Recommended Reading:

• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included
• Start Eating Like That and Start Eating Like This – Your Guide to Homeostasis Through Diet
• How to Make the Healthiest Smoothies – 4 Recipes
• Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

Mingo County has the fourth-highest prescription opioid death rate of any county in the United States. This county in West Virginia had a population of 26,839 in 2010 according to the census, and it has likely declined since. There are small four towns of similar population density and one city that make up Mingo County, according to Wikipedia. Kermit is is one of these towns, and it has a population around 400.

Over a period of just two years out-of-state drug companies have shipped nearly 9 million opioid pills to a single pharmacy in this town, Kermit, West Virgnia.

Related: U.S. Life Expectancy To Decline, CDC Blames Pharmaceutical Companies

In six years the drug wholesalers sold West Virgnia 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills. 1,728 West Virginians have been reported to have fatally overdosed on these painkillers, according to a Gazette-Mail investigation.

These numbers will shake even the most cynical observer. Distributors have fed their greed on human frailties and to criminal effect. There is no excuse and should be no forgiveness.” – Former Delegate Don Perdue, retired pharmacist

In court cases, the companies have repeatedly denied they played any role in the nation’s pain-pill epidemic, but records show that the state’s southern counties have been maligned by a disproportionate number of pain pills and fatal drug overdoses. The wholesalers fought to keep the sales numbers secret in previous court actions brought on by the newspaper. The unfettered shipments amount to a total of 433 pills for each man, woman, and child in West Virginia. The nation’s three largest prescription drug wholesalers, McKesson Corp., Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., supplied more than half of all pain pills statewide. Be sure to check out the Charleston Gazette Mail‘s expose for more information; they did an amazing job on the report and the article itself.

Related: A History of Bad Medical Advice

Good News: States Are Suing

New York City sued eight companies that make or distribute prescription opioids, for their responsibility in the deadly epidemic.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said the lawsuit sought $500 million of damages to help fight the crisis. Reuters states that the opioid epidemic kills more people in the city annually than homicides and car accidents combined.

Big Pharma helped to fuel this epidemic by deceptively peddling these dangerous drugs and hooking millions of Americans in exchange for profit,” – de Blasio said in a statement

Defendants include the manufacturers Allergan Plc (AGN.N), Endo International Plc (ENDP.O), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N), Purdue Pharma LP and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (TEVA.TA), and distributors AmerisourceBergen Corp (ABC.N), Cardinal Health Inc (CAH.N) and McKesson Corp (MCK.N).

On the 19th of Janurary, Delaware Attorney General Matt Denn sued Purdue Pharma LP and Endo International Plc, and retailers CVS and Walgreens. Two days ago Alabama became the latest state to file a lawsuit against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, and yesterday Baltimore City Solicitor Andre Davis announced lawsuits aimed at Purdue and their main distributor McKessen, and some of the local businesses that city officials describe as “pill mills.

Related Reading:

• Wakefield and His Study Linking MMR Vaccine To Autism Has Been Vindicated
• Shaken Baby Syndrome – Child Abuse or Vaccine Injury?
• 10 Circumcision Myths – Let’s Get the Facts Straight

Sources:

• Delaware sues opioid manufacturers, distributors over epidemic – Reuters
• Alabama sues OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma over opioid epidemic – Reuters
• Baltimore suing opioid manufacturers, distributors – The Hill
• Suing Big Pharma for the Opioid Epidemic – The Atlantic

Florida has introduced Senate Bill 1558, legislature that would make the HPV vaccine mandatory for public school children. The bill would mimic similar vaccine mandate laws in Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington D.C.

Florida’s HPV vaccine rates are lower than the rest of the country. Sen. José Javier Rodríguez (Dem) introduced this bill on January 4th. If it’s passed the bill is said to be titled “Women’s Cancer Prevention Act”. It would begin taking effect July 1st of 2018.

The good news is that only 1 in 5 parents believe the mandate to be a good idea, according to the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

From Dr. Mercola:

Review of HPV Vaccine Trials Conclude Effectiveness Is Still Unproven

Last year, a systematic review¹⁰ of pre- and post-licensure trials of the HPV vaccine by researchers at University of British Columbia showed that the vaccine’s effectiveness is not only overstated (through the use of selective reporting or “cherry picking” data) but also unproven. In the summary of the clinical trial review, the authors state it quite clearly:

“We carried out a systematic review of HPV vaccine pre- and post-licensure trials to assess the evidence of their effectiveness and safety. We found that HPV vaccine clinical trials design, and data interpretation of both efficacy and safety outcomes, were largely inadequate. Additionally, we note evidence of selective reporting of results from clinical trials(i.e., exclusion of vaccine efficacy figures related to study subgroups in which efficacy might be lower or even negative from peer-reviewed publications).

Given this, the widespread optimism regarding HPV vaccines long-term benefits appears to rest on a number of unproven assumptions (or such which are at odds with factual evidence) and significant misinterpretation of available data.

For example, the claim that HPV vaccination will result in approximately 70% reduction of cervical cancers is made despite the fact that the clinical trials data have not demonstrated to date that the vaccines have actually prevented a single case of cervical cancer (let alone cervical cancer death), nor that the current overly optimistic surrogate marker-based extrapolations are justified.

Likewise, the notion that HPV vaccines have an impressive safety profile is only supported by highly flawed design of safety trials and is contrary to accumulating evidence from vaccine safety surveillance databases and case reports which continue to link HPV vaccination to serious adverse outcomes (including death and permanent disabilities).

Related Reading:

• How To Detoxify and Heal From Vaccinations – For Adults and Children
• Doctors Against Vaccines – Hear From Those Who Have Done the Research
• Nurses Against Vaccines
• Celebrities Who Have Spoken Out Against Vaccines
• Statesmen Against Mandatory Vaccines
• Scientists Against Vaccines – Hear From Those Who Have Done the Research

Over the past couple of years, I have noticed at least three young TV presenters here on UK television who have crooked smiles – and I started to wonder why.

On doing some research, I found that I was not the only one questioning this trend.

I came across someone by the name of Forrest Maready who had also become curious.  He noticed that many babies, children, and young adults were sporting crooked smiles.  He started his search for answers by going back into archive photographs for the past one hundred years or even longer – and he could find absolutely no sign of any crooked mouths in these photographs until he reached a couple of decades ago.

Of course, one problem with much older photos is that often people’s portraits were serious-faced, making it less easy to see if a smile was crooked or not.  But then, with the more recent photos, crooked smiles started to appear in ever-increasing numbers and among many well-known faces too.   I have found such examples myself including Katie Holmes, Patrick Dempsey, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ryan Gosling, Dax Shepard, Natalie Dormer and many more.

It is certainly not about crooked teeth. It’s all about the smile where the mouth itself turns down on the one side and up on the opposite side (usually the left side for down and the right for up) when smiling.

Recommended: Being Outdoors Improves Children’s Ability to Learn

Metal Toxicity

Forrest has been busy and says that some research has now pointed to it being a sign of metal toxicity – that is mercury, lead, or aluminum.  Our faces are controlled by the cranial nerves and it is possible for these to be damaged by metals, perhaps causing a crooked smile, a droopy frown, or even the appearance as of a mini-stroke.  Another symptom can be where the eyes fail to point in the same direction.  This has even been given a medical term – strabismus.

He tells us that high amounts of aluminum have already been blamed for Alzheimer’s while even higher traces of the metal have been found in autistic brain samples.

The problem is that aluminum is very neurotoxic and even just tiny amounts can destroy the cranial nerves.  The thinking behind the connection between aluminum and Alzheimer’s was that the former had built up over many years.  However, with these higher amounts now being found in children, researchers are looking for the source.

Forrest has his own theories on the source of such high amounts of aluminum appearing in children which he is happy to share with those who are interested.  He takes great pains to point out that at this stage, they are only theories.

In the meantime, he would like you to look carefully at your own face or those of your family members including your children.

Related: We Consume Livestock Vaccines When We Ingest Meat

What to do if You Notice a Crooked Smile on Yourself or a Family Member?

Get out the family photo album or those digital photographs stored online and take a good look at them.  Has there been any change in the appearance of the face over a short space of time particularly with the smile or the eyes?

There are 6 warning signs to look out for: a crooked smile, a droopy frown, outward eye, inward eye, partial eye blinks, and droopy face.

If you notice something, start an urgent course of aluminum detoxification.

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

Other Serious Damage Caused By Aluminum

• Aluminum damages your central nervous system.
• Aluminum can damage your brain.
• Aluminum robs the body of magnesium, calcium, and iron.
• Aluminum accumulates in bone tissue, which results in weakened bones.
• Aluminum causes oxidative stress in cells throughout the body, causing aging and damage to DNA.

How to Have Less Aluminum in Your Daily Life

1. Change to using aluminum free cookware.
2. Check your water supply because it could be high in aluminum too.
3. Avoid using any hygiene products (including antiperspirants) with aluminum hydroxide.
4. Avoid vaccines and medications that contain aluminum.  If you are unsure, check out the full and official list of ingredients.
5. Stop eating processed foods.

There are Foods that Help to Remove Heavy Metals Naturally

These include onions, blue-green algae, garlic, cilantro, burdock, bentonite (high grade), carrot juice and green tea.  Chlorella is also an excellent food that helps remove metals while assisting the body to rebuild nerve tissue.

Recommended Reading:

• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included
• Start Eating Like That and Start Eating Like This – Your Guide to Homeostasis Through Diet
• How to Make the Healthiest Smoothies – 4 Recipes
• Sugar Leads to Depression – World’s First Trial Proves Gut and Brain are Linked (Protocol Included)
• Fungal Infections – How to Eliminate Yeast, Candida, and Mold Infections For Good

Sources:

• Are You Crooked? – Areyoucrooked.com
• A Gentle Vaccine Detox for Children – Living Whole

A study recently published in the academic journal, Frontiers in Psychology, found that teaching a lesson to children outside allowed teachers to retain the attention of the kids for almost twice compared to a subsequent indoor lesson.

We wanted to see if we could put the nature effect to work in a school setting. If you took a bunch of squirmy third-graders outdoors for lessons, would they show a benefit of having a lesson in nature, or would they just be bouncing off the walls afterward?” – Ming Kuo, lead study author

Recommended: Common Bad Parenting Advice You Should Ignore

The study was conducted over a 10-week period in a Midwestern elementary school. Two third-grade classrooms participated. One of the classrooms had a teacher who was enthusiastic about the concept while the other teacher who was skeptical, thinking like many do that there would be too many distractions. Each teacher held one lesson a week outside before returning to their regular classroom setting.

The outdoor classroom was a grassy spot just outside the school, within view of a wooded area. Following the outdoor lesson, class engagement was assessed in four ways: the teacher’s perception of the students’ level of engagements; the students’ ratings of theirs and their classmates’ engagement; the number of ‘redirects’ during the lesson, when teachers had to call the kids’ attention back to the lesson; and independent photo ratings, where ratings of classroom engagement by an independent observer were based on photos of the observation period.” – TreeHugger

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

What was the effect of lessons outside regarding classroom engagement? Does outdoor learning leave pupils too excited to focus? In this study, classroom engagement was improved after lessons in nature. The advantage of the time outside held true for “four of five measures of classroom engagement.”

We found higher levels of classroom engagement after lessons in nature than after carefully matched classroom-based counterparts; these differences could not be explained by differences in teacher, instructional approach, class (students, classroom, and class size), time of year, or time of day, nor the order of the indoor and outdoor lessons on a given topic. It would seem that lessons in nature boost subsequent classroom engagement, and boost it a great deal; after a lesson in nature, teachers were able to teach for almost twice as long without having to interrupt instruction to redirect students’ attention. This nature advantage persisted across 10 different weeks and lesson topics, and held not only for a teacher with positive expectations for nature-based lessons but also for a teacher who anticipated negative effects of such lessons. The findings here suggest that lessons in nature allow students to simultaneously learn classroom curriculum while rejuvenating their capacity for learning, or “refuel in flight.” Because providing children with more contact with nature in the course of the school day is likely to yield a whole host of additional dividends as well, including improved physical and mental health (see Chawla, 2015 for review), the findings here argue for including more lessons in nature in formal education.

Recommended Reading:

• Five Things You Can Do to Help Your Child Manage ADHD Naturally
• ADHD, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Autism – What Do They Have in Common?
• Shaken Baby Syndrome – Child Abuse or Vaccine Injury?

This video takes things a step further, check it out!