One of Trump’s campaign promises was to lower drug prices. Trump said they were “getting away with murder.” He has not accomplished his pledge, and new tax filings may reveal why he instead gave the pharmaceutical companies a tax break. In 2017 Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America gave $2.5 million to a pro-Trump advocacy group called America First Policies Inc.

Topping America First Policies’ known donor list for its first year of operation is the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a trade group representing the drug company industry’s lobbying interests, which disclosed giving $2.5 million to America First Policies in a new tax return obtained by the Center for Responsive Politics and first identified by Maplight.” – Open Secrets

Drug prices have not come down and are in fact on a steep rise, but Trump has falsely taken credit for lowering drug costs.

Recommended: How To Heal Your Gut

There were fewer price increases this year from January through July than in comparable prior-year periods, but companies still hiked prices far more often than they cut them. This year through the end of July, there were 4,412 brand-name drug price increases and 46 price cuts. To put it another way: For every price decrease over those seven months, there were 96 price hikes.” – Associated Press

Recommended: How to Detox From Plastics and Other Endocrine Disruptors

While Trump has moved to allow limited negotiation in some parts of Medicare, he has rejected the larger policy he campaigned on, leaving it out of his prescription drug proposal released earlier this year.” – Captian & Main

Source:

• Trump Group Takes In Millions From Big Pharma As Drug Makers Continue To Raise Prices – Medium

It seems Monsanto sold to Bayer just in time. Monsanto was sued by Dewayne Johnson on the grounds that the weedkiller Roundup caused his cancer, and now Bayer is dealing with the fallout from the $289 million dollar verdict that has since been reduced to $78 million. Bayer says that pending lawsuits from 9,300 plaintiffs are also alleging that glyphosate causes cancer. The company reported this in late October.

Experts have stated that these lawsuits (with more to come) could end up costing Bayer billions of dollars. Bayer stated that hundreds of scientific studies show glyphosate is safe to use.

We continue to believe that we have meritorious defenses and intend to defend ourselves vigorously in all of these lawsuits.” – Bayer’s chief executive Werner Baumann

In a telephone conference, Baumann has also been quoted as saying,

Glyphosate is an indispensable chemical for modern agriculture that is safe to use, very effective and saves resources. When used appropriately, glyphosate is a completely safe and good product. Completely safe.”

Glyphosate is Roundup’s active ingredient and it’s the most popular weed killer in the United States. The EPA maintains that glyphosate is not likely to be carcinogenic to people. But the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer said in 2015 that glyphosate was “probably carcinogenic.” And the EPA had labeled glyphosate as a carcinogen in 1985, but the FDA reversed their position in 1991.

Related: GMO Potatoes Are Here – How To Avoid Them

California has glyphosate listed as a chemical known to cause cancer under Prop 65.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who was involved in the glyphosate lawsuit (the Miller Firm says he was at the trial but not on the trial counsel team), is well known for raising awareness regarding vaccine damage (he is often cited as an anti-vaxxer but he is not). Kennedy Jr. now claims to have obtained incriminating documents regarding Monsanto’s business practices in Europe.

What we have is the tip of the iceberg. And in fact we have documents now in our possession, several hundreds of documents, that have not been declassified and some of those are explosive.” – EuroNews

It’s being reported that the European Union is likely to withdraw the license for Roundup before the year is over.

In addition to the glyphosate lawsuits, Monsanto’s dicamba herbicide is causing trouble across farm country:

It’s happening again. In states from Mississippi to Indiana, some US soybean farmers are seeing a troubling sight: Previously healthy plants begin to look wan, their leaves puckering into a cup-like shape. Similar symptoms are hitting trees, ornamental and garden plants, flowers, berries, and vegetables.” –Mother Jones

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

Additional Sources:

• Monsanto owner Bayer hit by new wave of lawsuits over Roundup weed killer – RT
• U.S. EPA says glyphosate not likely to be carcinogenic to people – Reuters
  

It can take six months to regain a normal microbiome after using antibiotics, and chances are good that not all of the microbes present before the antibiotics were administered will return. Researchers in Copenhagen conducted a small study (12 men) that examined gut diversity after a single course of antibiotics. They used 3 drugs considered antibiotics of last resort: meropenem, gentamicin, and vancomycin. While the gut microbes of the subjects recovered, 9 common species of gut bacteria could no longer be detected in their microbiome. Oluf Pedersen is the lead scientist of the study.

In this case, it is good that we can regenerate our gut microbiota which is important for our general health…The concern, however, relates to the potentially permanent loss of beneficial bacteria after multiple exposures to antibiotics during our lifetime.”

Related: How To Heal Your Gut

Only One

This is what happens after a single course of antibiotics. What happens in the U.S., where outpatient healthcare providers prescribed more than 266 million courses of antibiotics in 2014, a third of which the CDC says are unnecessary? The same year saw an average of 835 antibiotic prescriptions for every 1,000 people. People who suffer from recurrent urinary tract infections (UTI) or chronic respiratory infections are likely given multiple courses of antibiotics in a single year. If it takes six months to mostly recover from a single course of antibiotics, those who take multiple courses are losing their chance to have a healthy, balanced microbiome.

It’s common to see articles comparing the gut bacteria of indigenous tribes with that of your average American. The indigenous microbiome is always more diverse. M. Gloria Dominguez-Bello is a microbiologist at the New York University School of Medicine and one of the authors of a study of the Yanomami tribe, first visited by the modern world in 2009. While Dominguez-Bello mentions diet, she also notes the difference in antibiotic use. The 2009 visit to the Yanomami in the Amazon is the first time the tribe was exposed to antibiotics, which can have a serious effect on gut health. Domingues-Bello says,

Antibiotics kill bacteria in the gut, and sometimes species don’t come back…This is especially true with children, whose microbiomes are in the process of getting assembled. Impacts on the microbiome at a young age can have long-lasting consequences.”

Recommended: Best Supplements To Kill Candida and Everything Else You Ever Wanted To Know About Fungal Infections

More and Different and Better

Is it possible to replenish your gut bacteria after a course of antibiotics? The answer is both yes and no. You can bring your microbes back, but they will no longer be the same. Each time the microbiome is mowed down and resurrected, diversity and the immune system’s ability to adapt are reduced. Combine that news with the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and you should want to be as far away from antibiotics as well. It pays to take a look at the other likely reason for indigenous peoples microbiome diversity: diet.

Sources:

• Gut bacteria recover from antibiotics, but they may take six months – Ars Technica
• Recovery of gut microbiota of healthy adults following antibiotic exposure – Nature Microbiology
• CDC: 1 in 3 antibiotic prescriptions unnecessary – CDC.gov
• How Modern Life Depletes Our Gut Microbes – NPR

Imagine you have a pain in your chest and fear it might be a heart attack. When you get to the emergency room they run their incredibly expensive tests and then, to your great relief, they tell you that your heart is just fine. It was just indigestion. If you need another reason to stay as healthy as possible, now insurance companies may not pay for your emergency room visit. Some insurance companies are telling you that you need to properly diagnose yourself before heading to the emergency room.

With the price of emergency care skyrocketing, a new report says that some insurance companies won’t pay the claim if it is deemed that the patient did not have an emergency after all.

The new analysis shows that the criteria used by one large insurer, if expanded nationally, could result in denial of payment for nearly 16 percent of ER visits, even though these patients may have the same symptoms when they get to the ER as actual emergency cases, researchers report in JAMA Network Open.” – Reuters

Anthem Inc. insures one in eight people in the U.S. They started a policy of denying coverage for ER visits the company decides are unnecessary. The policy started in three states in 2017 and has expanded to a total of six states in 2018.

A certain proportion of emergency room visits are unnecessary and there are people who use the emergency room as if it were their primary care or only doctor. And there is a certain amount of resentment as this creates crowding in the emergency room and slows things down for people who have true emergencies. But this situation reflects a constellation of underlying problems for which neither the patients nor the emergency rooms are to blame.” – Albert Wu of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore (Reuters)

It’s increasingly important to keep yourself healthy. We recommend starting with the following:

• How To Heal Your Gut
• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included
• Stop Eating Like That and Start Eating Like This – Your Guide to Homeostasis Through Diet

Chemotherapy drugs kill pathogens and beneficial bacteria, and they add a heavy toxic burden to the body. The circulatory system, endocrine system, lymphatic system, and every other system will be overwhelmed with toxins after using chemotherapy drugs, and soon the body will be inundated with pathogenic fungi. While chemotherapy will likely kill fungus, the fungal spores survive. And when there is nothing left to keep them in check, the spores will turn fungal and flourish. We recommend healing the gut and detoxifying the liver to recover from chemotherapy. Diet is crucial to this program, and we recommend continuing on with this diet to avoid another cancer diagnosis.

Gut Health 102

Gut bacteria defines your health. Science is in the process of figuring this out. One big reason gut bacteria is paramount to good health is that your gut bacteria do not stay in your gut. Our microbes that proliferate in our gut reside throughout our whole body. A healthy gut pushes healthy microbes into the bloodstream. It follows that an unhealthy gut ecosystem will leak unhealthy (pathogenic) microbes into the body.

They say that your gut comprises 80% of your immune system. That’s sort of true. A healthy gut has thousands of different bacteria that live in harmony. A less healthy gut has fewer kinds of bacteria inside. Fungi and other pathogens will easily flourish in such a gut. When there is an injury in the body pathogens and beneficial bacteria do the same thing; they feed off of the sugars and starches of the dead and decaying cells. Pathogens cause more damage to the area, beneficial bacteria do not. Because of how beneficial bacteria works, they make it difficult for pathogens to flourish. A healthy gut feeds the body a colony of beneficial microbes that help keep pathogenic activity from proliferating.

Diet

Beneficial bacteria like healthy food. Pathogens like unhealthy food. Your diet should primarily consist of the healthiest foods, lots of raw vegetables and herbs. We recommend 80% raw vegetables and 20% cooked vegetables and healthy whole grains like quinoa, brown rice, amaranth, and millet. Raw produce is high in fiber, which is essential for gut health. Fiber not only moves toxins through the bowels, but it also provides the perfect environment for healthy bacteria to thrive. Buy organic whenever possible, but small farms at your local farmer’s market may have organic food that they don’t certify (certification can be expensive).

Choose a wide variety of nutrient-dense foods. Eat huge salads every day with at least 12 different vegetables and a few fresh herbs. Pack your gut with raw vegetables and herbs every day and your gut will produce a variety of beneficial bacteria. There is no shortcut to this!

If you eat meat, make sure you choose organic meat. You do not want to eat meat from diseased animals fed hormones and antibiotics. Avoid processed foods, and do not eat any foods with artificial flavorings, colorings, preservatives, MSG, or trans fats. Avoid all GMOs. And do not let anyone cook your food for you. No rice cakes, no organic chips, no restaurant food, get completely well before you splurge. We also recommend cranberry lemonade made with stevia to help detoxify the kidneys and the liver. Check out Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included and Start Eating Like That and Start Eating Like This – Your Guide to Homeostasis Through Diet for more on diet.

Supplements To Kill and Prevent Yeast, Candida, Mold, Fungus

Chemotherapy will leave a body ripe for fungal infections, but a body with cancer was a body that was probably already dealing with fungal issues. The supplements below will help properly balance the gut’s ecosystem. SF722 kills all fungi, and it works amazingly well. Berberine is a potent antimicrobial. The Candida Complex and the Microdefense are two good supplement complexes that eliminate pathogens as well. Syntol and Abzorb are probiotics. In the past doctors have warned against using probiotics during chemo treatments but now well-informed doctors are recommending that probiotics should be taken a few hours after chemotherapy drug administrations for better treatment outcomes. Abzorb also has a systemic enzyme that will help break down Candida along with many other benefits.

• Formula SF722
• Syntol AMD Probiotic
• Berberine 500mg
• Candida Complex
• MycoCeutics MycoPhyto Complex
• MicroDefense
• Abzorb

Related: How To Heal Your Gut

Liver Cleanse

The cranberry lemonade recipe mentioned in Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting is very beneficial for the liver and kidneys. If money is tight, put the money towards food first, and just get the SF722 and the Abzorb, above. But if it’s affordable, we also recommend a liver detox with  Shillington’s Blood Detox Tea, (and/or formula) Shillington’s Liver & Gallbladder Tea (and/or formula), and Mother Earth Organic Root Cider – Barrier Island Organics.

Enhanced Golden Milk Tea Recipe

This is a new twist on an ancient way of experiencing the benefits of turmeric. Ideally, use all fresh, unadulterated herbs whenever available. This will help detoxify the body, and it feels really good.

• 1 cup of warm Coconut Milk
• 1 ounce of turmeric juice, or 1 tablespoon of freshly grated turmeric (both should be with skin)
• 1 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
• 1 ounce of ginger juice or 1 tablespoon of freshly grated ginger (both should be with skin)
• 1 pinch of black pepper
• Pinch of cayenne pepper

Mix it all up and drink. For the drink to be warm, warm up the coconut milk only, but be careful not to cook the other ingredients. Add them in when the coconut milk is not too hot to drink so as to preserve enzymes and other fragile micronutrients.

Related: Holistic Guide to Healing the Endocrine System and Balancing Our Hormones

Conclusion

It all comes down to gut health. We can’t harp on this enough. For healing from chemotherapy to preventing cancer, gut health is paramount. Don’t skip and don’t skimp on the salads. If you do nothing else from this article, we hope you’ll start eating large, diverse salads as often as possible. Salads change the gut ecology for the better. Nothing else makes as big of a difference.

Click here for image credit

The genetically modified Innate potato was approved by the USDA in 2014. The “Innate” potato is a group of potato varieties that have had the same genetic alterations applied using a new form of genetic engineering known as RNA interference (RNAi). Five different potato varieties have been transformed, including the Ranger Russet, Russet Burbank, and Atlantic potatoes. Simplot also has two proprietary varieties. Simplot has designed the potato to reduce spotting, browning, and bruising by lowering certain enzymes and to reduce the amount of asparagine, a naturally occurring chemical that converts to acrylamide under heat, which is believed to be a cancer-causing carcinogen.

Simplot has also received approval for two other genetically modified (GMO) potato varieties which are resistant to late blight, the disease that caused the Irish potato famine. They also last longer in storage. As far as we know, the only GMO potatoes being sold for consumption are under the label “White Russet.” The Non-GMO Project is now classifying the Russet potato as “high risk.”

The potato has been added to the High-Risk list of the Non-GMO Project Standard because a GMO potato variety is now “widely commercially available” in the United States. To determine when a crop needs to be moved from the Monitored-Risk list to the High-Risk list, the Project uses an established set of criteria related to the likelihood of GMO contamination in the conventional and non-GMO supply chain. As a result of today’s move, products made with potato will now be subject to extra scrutiny before they can become Non-GMO Project Verified.” – The Non-GMO Project

Recommended: How To Heal Your Gut

How To Avoid the White Russet GMO Potato

For starters, avoid any potatoes labeled as “White Russet.” For now, in the produce section, they are being sold in  a bag labeled “White Russet Potatoes.” If history has taught us anything, contamination is likely to be an issue soon, so it may be best to avoid russet potatoes altogether unless they are organic or of the red russet variety. Another option is to check for spots. From the outside, these genetically modified potatoes look similar to their russet non-GMO counterpart except the White Russet should not have any of the common spottings you would see on a russet potato. If peeled or cut in half, a non-GMO Russet potato will begin to develop browning and dark spots within a minute or two. See the video below:

Related: How To Avoid GMO Apples

An easy way to avoid GMO potatoes is to make sure they are organic. This also ensures that your potatoes won’t be grown with as many pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides. Irradiation techniques are also not allowed with organic crops either.

Avoid processed foods with potato ingredients like frozen dinners with potatoes, powdered potatoes, canned soups with potatoes, and potato chips, unless the foods are labeled non-GMO. Of course, we also recommend avoiding processed foods, but if you must, buy organic or at least non-GMO.

Avoid russet potatoes when eating out unless you can get assurances that the potatoes used are non-GMO. We also recommend eating more sweet potatoes and growing your own potatoes. Also, check out How to Avoid GMOs in 2018 – And Everything Else You Should Know About Genetic Engineering.

Researchers from the University of Toronto analyzed over 12,000 men with early-stage prostate cancer and found that men who have received invasive or damaging treatments like surgery or radiation are more likely to use antidepressants. 4,952 men who had surgery, 4,994 got radiation and 2,136 men chose to wait and watch their diagnosis. When researchers contrasted each treatment method to a control group, those who were subject to radiation were 33 percent more likely to be on anti-depressants 5 years later. Those who underwent surgery were 49 percent more likely to take anti-depressants. Those who did nothing showed no significant change in anti-depressant use. Dr. Robert Nam is the senior author of the study.

Once they receive treatment for prostate cancer, whether that is surgery or radiation, they may experience treatment-related side effects, such as erectile dysfunction, incontinence, and bowel dysfunction, which can significantly worsen quality of life…”

Related: Sugar Leads to Depression – World’s First Trial Proves Gut and Brain are Linked (Protocol Included)

The System

The United States is currently engaged in a discussion of what health care should be in this country. Articles and analysis frequently mention how much the U.S. spends in relation to how poor health outcomes are in comparison to other developed nations. More Americans are waking up to the idea that more treatment is not better treatment. Intervention begets more intervention. In this study, those who followed surgery or radiation treatment recommendations were more likely to receive anti-depressant scripts.

Even worse, some of the prostate cancer cases treated with surgery or radiation didn’t need any intervention. One of the ways doctors monitor and diagnose prostate cancer is by measuring levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA). An increase in those levels in a patient with prostate cancer alerts caregivers to disease progression, but studies have found that PSA levels in healthy men aren’t a reliable indicator of prostate cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute,

Most men with an elevated PSA level turn out not to have prostate cancer; only about 25% of men who have a prostate biopsy due to an elevated PSA level actually are found to have prostate cancer when a biopsy is done.”

Prostate Cancer on the Rise

The “wait and see” method of dealing with prostate cancer is only practiced when the cancer is in its earliest stages. For those hoping to avoid radiation or surgery, that could be bad. Prostate cancer is on the rise among younger men and many cases are aggressive. Which means more intervention. How much is too much?

Sources:

• Prostate cancer surgery and radiation tied to antidepressant use – Reuters
• Variation and Trends in Antidepressant Prescribing for Men Undergoing Treatment for Nonmetastatic Prostate Cancer: A Population-based Cohort Study – European Urology
• Is Prostate Cancer on the Rise? – Men’s Journal
• Overdiagnosis: when finding cancer can do more harm than good – Cancer Research U.K.