Global Fungus Infections Caused by Climate Change, Says Study
Three unrelated strains of Candida Auris have emerged on three different continents simultaneously, and a new study says rising temperatures due to climate change are to blame. Dr. Arturo Casadevall from Johns Hopkins University is one of the study’s authors, and according to him,
The argument that we are making based on comparison to other close relative fungi is that as the climate has gotten warmer, some of these organisms, including Candida auris, have adapted to the higher temperature, and as they adapt, they break through human’s protective temperatures…What this study suggests is this is the beginning of fungi adapting to higher temperatures, and we are going to have more and more problems as the century goes on…”
Why This Is Scary
C. auris came to the medical world’s attention in 2009, and it has proven to be a particularly troublesome microbe. It often occurs with other infections, leading to the fungus being misidentified and mistreated. C. auris also displays multi-drug resistance and outbreaks usually happen in a healthcare setting like a hospital.
Silent and Deadly
In all the noise about climate change, it’s easy to forget that we aren’t the only organism that will be forever altered by the changes to the Earth’s climate. It would be a mistake to forget that, especially when you realize how much more easily bacteria and fungus will be able to adapt. Candida auris is a new kind of infection, one that’s immune to our usual antifungals, difficult to properly detect, and can be transmitted through person to person contact. This fungus is a new, scary plague, and it won’t be the last.
How Many Acres of Hemp Would Stop Global Warming? – Thought Experiment
I got curious about carbon sequestration and did some math.
According to my sources, we have about 770,000,000,000 (770 billion) tons of excess carbon dioxide that we need to remove from our atmosphere.
One ton of carbon equals 3.67 tons of carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide has two oxygen molecules for every carbon).
So we need to remove 210,000,000,000 tons of carbon from the air.
One tree removes 13 pounds of carbon per year. Let’s give it a ten-year lifespan for this purpose. One tree sequesters 130 pounds of carbon in a ten year time period.
A forest contains about 100 trees per acre.
So an acre of trees over a ten year period can sequester 13,000 pounds or 6.5 tons of carbon.
So we need about 32,300,000,000 (32.3 billion) acres of trees planted to capture the excess carbon within a decade.
And this assumes we don’t add any more C02 to the atmosphere. Plus we are losing 200,000 acres of rainforest every day (73,000,000 acres a year), so that too would have to stop.
What about hemp?
Glad you asked! An acre of hemp can absorb 4.2 tons of carbon per year per acre. That’s 42 tons in a decade. But we can’t just chop down the hemp, let it decompose, and plant more. We need to do something with the hemp, or else much of that carbon goes back into the air. That’s where hempcrete (we need this bad, look it up!) and a variety of textiles and other uses come in! We can make much better concrete out of hemp and concrete is a massive source of C02 output (Cement is the source of about 8% of the world’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions).
So if we only planted hemp instead of the trees we need (obviously we should do both) we would need 5,000,000,000 (5 billion) acres of hemp. Let’s add another billion acres for fertilizer production and transportation and other production-C02 costs.
Google Removed Natural Health Websites From Search Results – List of Alternative Search Engines
The internet has increased our level of awareness to unprecedented heights. For better and for worse, we have had a freedom of information that we have never enjoyed before. One major drawback has been fake news (though the phrase has been co-opted to mean news one disagrees with). Today social media sites are using fake news and other disinformation as an excuse to censor alternative news and information.
A few years ago we saw the writing on the wall and we put our energy towards ensuring we ranked well on the search engines – primarily Google because they account for more than 95% of search engine web traffic.
But on June 3rd, Google had a major algorithm change, which nearly eliminated the organic search results for natural health websites including Green Med Info, Mercola,DrAxe.com, Naturalnews.com, and ours.
We agree that disinformation is a problem but questioning the prevailing wisdom, raising concerns, and alternative news is imperative for a fair democracy. Censorship is not what we need.
The problem of fake news isn’t solved by hoping for a referee, but rather because we as citizens, we as users of these services, help each other. We talk and we share and we point out what is fake. We point out what is true. The answer to bad speech is not censorship, the answer to bad speech is more speech. We have to exercise and spread the idea that critical thinking matters, now more than ever, given the fact that lies seem to be getting more popular.”
Google today is not only a weapon for promoting the pharmaceutical agenda but now also a drug company itself. During the past six years, Google’s parent company Alphabet has launched two pharmaceutical companies. In 2013, it founded Calico, run by Genentech’s former CEO Arthur Levinson. Calico operates an R&D facility in the San Francisco Bay Area for the discovery of treatments associated with age-related diseases. Two years later, Alphabet founded Verily Life Sciences (previously Google Life Sciences). Both pharma companies are partnering with other drug corporations. Recently, Verily has partnered with the European pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline to form a new drug company, Galvani Bioelectronics for the development of “bioelectronic medicines.” The collaboration is costing the companies $715 million, and the new firm is being chaired by Glaxo’s former chairman of its global vaccines business.
DuckDuckGo – A private search engine based in the US.
Mojeek – The only true search engine (rather than metasearch engine) that has its own crawler and index (based in the UK).
YaCy – A decentralized, open-source, peer-to-peer search engine.
Givero – Based in Denmark, Givero offers more privacy than Google and combines search with charitable donations.
Ecosia – Ecosia is based in Germany and donates a part of revenues to planting trees.
Chiropractor Ordered to Pay 100K Due to Anti-Vax Beliefs
Dena Churchill, a Canadian chiropractor formerly based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has been ordered to pay 100,000 dollars as a settlement with the Nova Scotia College of Chiropractors (NSCC) due to her publically-expressed anti-vaccination views. Dr. Churchill has 10 years to pay the full amount, but the first 30,000 must be paid by the year 2022.
The investigation into Dr. Churchill began in May of 2018 and included posts from her personal website (then drsexymom, currently healthtruth.org) and thoughts expressed on a facebook page where she promotes herself as an “innovator in women’s health and wellness.” Dr. Churchill voluntarily gave up her chiropractors license in January of 2019 and admitted to being “professionally incompetent as a result of incompetence arising out of mental incapacity.” She reached a settlement with the NSCC in May. The last piece of the puzzle was the fees she has been ordered to pay to her regulating body.
The majority of the fees Dr. Churchill has been ordered to pay are those incurred by the hearing committee. These include the costs of the actual investigation, the hearing committee, solicitor fees, and charges against the defendant. The final payment agreement amount of 100,000 dollars is a reduction of the 178,831.34 dollars in fees incurred by the NSCC during the course of this investigation, although the larger amount initially proposed does include a charge that Dr. Churchill had already settled.
The NSCC hearing committee was quite firm in its condemnation of Dr. Churchill’s behavior. In their decision, they wrote,
Dr. Churchill’s conduct brought the profession of chiropractic into disrepute…Dr. Churchill has shown no remorse. There is genuine concern that she is ungovernable.”
As a member of a professional organization, Dr. Churchill is bound to the laws and regulations of that organization. She was asked multiple times to delete anti-vaccination posts from her social media accounts, an act that would have eliminated the need for this whole settlement had she done it. Now she’s paying the price for standing by her beliefs.
The Environmental Protection Agency has rejected a proposal to ban the use of chlorpyrifos, a pesticide that is already classified as moderately hazardous and that has been linked to neurological issues in young children. This is no the first time the EPA has blocked a ban of this pesticide, with Scott Pruitt denying a petition to ban the pesticide back in 2017. These rejections are contrary to recommendations from the EPA’s own experts.
Chlorpyrifos has been banned in Europe since 2008. States in the U.S. are also working towards banning the pesticide. Hawaii voted to ban the chemical in 2018, California Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed 5.7 million towards finding safer alternatives to chlorpyrifos, and the New York state legislature has passed a bill banning all use of the pesticide by December of 2021.
Chlorpyrifos has been linked to several health issues, the most egregious being neurological conditions in small children. A study conducted by researchers from Columbia University followed measured chlorpyrifos levels in mother’s umbilical cords and gave their children intelligence tests later in childhood. Higher chlorpyrifos levels corresponded with decreased mental development. The chemical has also been linked to attention deficit disorder, lower IQs, and other developmental, altered thyroid levels, and learning disorders in children and lung cancer and immune disorders in adults.
The chemical has also been linked repeatedly to the struggles facing pollinators, specifically bees. Honeybees exposed to chlorpyrifos experience memory and learning deficits, making them less effective pollinators.
Chlorpyrifos is toxic. The Obama administration made efforts to ban the pesticide. Yet Trump and his administration seem determined to treat this like they do other Obama era policies – destroy it. Unfortunately, the president’s destructive behavior is frequently a detriment to the health and safety of the country.
EPA Refuses To Ban Chlorpyrifos – Linked To Neurological Problems With Children
Due to concerns that the insecticide can harm the brain and nervous system, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned chlorpyrifos for household uses in 2000 but agricultural companies are still allowed to spray it on our food.
In August of 2015 public health groups petitioned the agency to reconsider their decision, stating the pesticide should be banned from agriculture. In August 2018, a federal court ordered the EPA to review a petition. The EPA has reviewed the decision and decided not to ban chlorpyrifos.
EPA has determined that their objections must be denied because the data available are not sufficiently valid, complete or reliable to meet petitioners’ burden to present evidence demonstrating that the tolerances are not safe.”
It is a tragedy that this administration sides with corporations instead of children’s health. But this is only a setback. Lawmakers in states like Hawaiʻi and New York are now showing the rest of the country that banning this dreadful pesticide is not only possible, but inevitable.”
Chlorpyrifos is a neurotoxic pesticide that kills a number of pests including insects and worms. By inhibiting the acetylcholinesterase enzyme it destroys the nervous systems of insects. The enzyme also regulates nerve impulses in the human body. Acute poisoning causes convulsions, respiratory paralysis, and sometimes death. Chlorpyrifos is one of the pesticide most frequently linked to pesticide poisonings.
Chlorpyrifos is associated with neurodevelopmental harms in children. Prenatal exposures to chlorpyrifos can lead to “lower birth weight, reduced IQ, loss of working memory, attention disorders, and delayed motor development.”
Autism Linked To Preservative In Processed Foods – New Study
Researchers from the University of Central Florida (UCF) have discovered cellular changes to neuronal stem cells when exposed to propionic acid (PPA), a preservative used to extend shelf life and reduce mold in processsed foods, breads, and cheeses.
The study shows how preservatives in food can reduce the development of neurons in fetal brains. highlighting the importance of diet for pregnant women,
Dr. Saleh A. Naser is Associate Director of the Biomedical Sciences department in College of Medicine’s Burnett School. He specializes in gastroenterology research. Dr. Naser saw reports that autistic children suffer from irritable bowel syndrome and other gastric issues. Curious about the gut-brain anxious and how it may affect children with autism, Dr. Naser examined the gut bacteria of those diagnosed with autism.
Studies have shown a higher level of PPA in stool samples from children with autism and the gut microbiome in autistic children is different. I wanted to know what the underlying cause was.”
PPA exists naturally in our gut. But the study shows that eating foods containing the preservative can increase PPA in the woman’s gut, which can then crosses into the fetus.
Laboratory tests show that exposing neural stem cells to excessive PPA damages brain cells. The acid reduces the number of neurons and increases the number of glial cells (excess glial cells disturb connectivity between neurons and cause inflammation).
Excessive amounts of PPA also damage pathways neural pathways that communicate with the body. Reduced neurons and damaged pathways disrupt the brain’s ability to communicate. This can cause repetitive behavior and difficulty socializing.
To understand the inflammatory response and GI disorder in individuals with ASD, we studied the effect of PPA on gliosis and inflammatory cytokines in differentiated hNSCs. Our data showed that PPA seems to upregulate TNF-α and IL-10 and increase the level of the cytokines (Fig. 6). Since PPA induced glial cell differentiation and increase in TNF-α and IL-10 transcription and translation, we propose that exposure to PPA during gestation may be related to gliosis and inflammation as reported in multiple neuro-developmental diseases including ASD. Specifically, exposure to high dose of PPA during early stages of neural stem cell development promotes proliferation and activation of glial cells, recapitulating the state of neuro-inflammation as reported in the post-partum autistic brain18,19,20,35.”