Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb is on the record indicating that the federal administration will likely be addressing the legalization of marijuana soon. In a television interview with CNBC’s Joe Kernen, Gottlieb said there’s…

…probably going to be a policy reckoning around this at some point in the future. Obviously, it’s happening at the state level, and I think there’s an inevitability that it’s going to happen at the federal level at some point soon…”

It’s possible that the commissioner is referring to a proposed bill that would exempt state-legal marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act. President Trump expressed approval of the bill back in June of 2018, and federal opposition to marijuana could ahve also lessened further with the departure of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Gottlieb was unable to provide any additional insight into federal marijuana policy, adding, “Unfortunately I don’t have anything additional to share.”

What They Have Approved

It’s useful to look at what the U.S. government has legalized. Marijuana in any of its forms is illegal. Even though cannabidiol (CBD) doesn’t contain the Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) that gets users high, it’s only legal under three circumstances – when it is extracted from the parts of the cannabis plant not considered marijuana, when it is produced for research purposes, and when it has been approved for the FDA for medical use. According to the commissioner, FDA approval of marijuana products has happened.

We have approved compounds derived from marijuana, but there is no demonstrated medical use of botanical marijuana. That’s the bottom line.”

So what does botanical mean? A botanical drug is classified as a finished product or medicine that contains plant matter. Three medications using synthetic THC have been approved, but only one drug containing natural CBD medication has been approved by the FDA, Epidiolex from GW Pharmaceuticals in the U.K.

Much has been made of the lack of scientific study and data to back medical claims regarding cannabis and CBD, in large part due to the difficulties of conducting peer-reviewed research on illegal substances. That looks to be changing though, as the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report earlier in the year declaring that naturally occurring CBD is safe and well tolerated in humans (and animals) and not associated with any negative public health effects. The report also touted the compound’s potential as a treatment for epilepsy. While this is not the only study to report positive outcomes from CBD, the WHO is a leader in scientific research and worldwide policy often takes their recommendations into account.

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

Slow Change and Momentum

It was big news when our northern neighbors legalized marijuana in all of its forms on October 17, making Canada only the second country in the world to do so. It remains to be seen if sharing a border with a country containing legally obtainable weed will have any influence on the state of marijuana reform in the U.S. After the 2018 midterms, legalized recreational marijuana is available in 10 states and the District of Columbia.

It’s difficult to know with our current administration where federal policy will end up on the legalization spectrum. Their most vocal marijuana opponent is gone, and Trump is on the record as “probably will end up supporting that” in response to a bill favorable towards cannabis. But who knows if that means anything?

Sources:

• Federal Marijuana Action Is An ‘Inevitability,’ Trump FDA Chief Says – Marijuana Moment
• Here Are All the States That Have Legalized Weed in the U.S. – Esquire
• Uruguay was the first country to fully legalize marijuana – Vox
• Marijuana Law, Policy, and Authority – Vanderbilt University Law School
• WHO Report Finds No Public Health Risks Or Abuse Potential For CBD – Forbes

The gut microbiota is a huge topic and has some very significant implications for health and nutrition.

Especially considering the Gut Microbiome is the big topic in health and science recently, you may know that not all microbes are bad. While there are pathogenic microbes like these just mentioned, at all times there are 500 to 1000 different species of bacteria in the human body. And the importance of their function is becoming more apparent as we learn new things about them.

However, it’s hard to picture how tiny microbes in our gut contribute to our day to day cognition and brain function. In the case of rocky mountain spotted fever it may not be surprising that the introduction of a deadly pathogen could induce drastic changes in a person’s mental state. However, the relationship between the microbes normally residing in the gut and how our brain operates becomes apparent when we take them out.

Related: How To Heal Your Gut

A 2012 paper by Dr. Derrick MacFabe describes what happens when rats are injected with something called Propionic Acid or PPA. The PPA injection provoked peculiar changes in the rats’ brains like neuroinflammation, increased oxidative stress, and glutathione depletion. The rats also displayed abnormal movements, repetitive interests, cognitive deficits, and impaired social interactions. Basically, the results of this injection were very similar to autism spectrum disorders. And, PPA is a fermentation product of bacteria, namely Desulfovibrio, Bacteroidetes and Clostridia. It was found that patients with autism have many more species of the clostridium bacteria and have high levels of PPA in their feces.

Several reports from parents say that their children were developing normally until they received antibiotics for upper respiratory or ear infections. It’s estimated that in one third of patients, autism doesn’t show up until around 18 to 24 months. According to Dr.

Sydney Finegold , antibiotics wipe out or suppress several organisms in the gut, but Clostridia is one of the ones that persists.

Click here to download the full transcription.

Remember when it was one in sixty? The CDC reported one in fifty-nine children were diagnosed with autism last year using data from 2014. But now a new study based on the 2016 National Survey of Children’s Health estimates that the number of children with autism spectrum disorder has grown to one in forty children (2.5%). The new study indicates this disorder now effects an estimated 1.5 million U.S. kids between the ages of 3 to 17. Parents that were included reported their child had received a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and stated that the child currently had the condition.

It’s important to note that the ways these two studies gathered information is different. The new study relies on parents to report their information. The information is not validated by medical records. The CDC report did validate such claims. CNN got an emailed quote from Thomas Frazier, chief science officer of Autism Speaks. He was not involved in the new report.

Prevalence is not growing that rapidly, although the CDC’s data suggests it is still growing. What is happening is that these studies use methods that are a bit more liberal and inclusive than the CDC’s methods,” Frazier said, adding that he prefers the CDC’s numbers but understands “that they are likely a bit conservative.” – Thomas Frazier

Glyphosate isn’t the only harmful herbicide in the water supply. An investigation from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that atrazine, a Syngenta product used on corn, sugarcane, and lawns, is in the tap water of over 30 million people in the U.S. 76 millions pounds of atrazine were sprayed in 2014, making it the second most commonly used herbicide (after glyphosate) in the United States. Several studies have identified the chemical as an endocrine disruptor, and it has also been linked to cancer and birth defects. The new EWG study is only a snapshot of how hard it is to avoid atrazine.

EWG’s Tap Water Database, which aggregates water testing data from utilities nationwide, shows that nearly 30 million Americans in 28 states have some level of atrazine in their tap water. Environmental Protection Agency data for 2017 show late-spring and early-summer spikes of atrazine in drinking water commonly are three to seven times higher than the federal legal limit, but these exceedances are not reported to people in the affected communities…”

Related: Foods Most Likely to Contain Glyphosate

Previous Litigation and Discovery

Syngenta is aware of the problems with atrazine and water contamination. In 2012, Syngenta was sued by 23 cities and towns in the Midwest. These municipalities alleged that Syngenta knew about but didn’t inform their communities about atrazine and its potential for groundwater contamination. Syngenta settled that class-action suit for 105 million dollars, enough to properly filter the atrazine from the towns water sources. The company did not admit any fault and maintains that atrazine is safe.

Related: Why Romaine Lettuce and Spinach Keep Trying To Kill Us, and What We Can Do About It

Even if that is the case, many areas where the herbicide is used (the most commonly treated crop is corn) are still drinking far more than the Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended maximum amount of 3.4 parts per billion of atrazine in surface water. Atrazine doesn’t break down readily in water. According to the chemical’s toxicological profile issued by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry,

Atrazine tends to persist in surface and groundwater, with a moderate tendency to bind to sediments. Slow or no biodegradation occurs in surface water or groundwater environments, respectively…Depending on the availability of sunlight, oxygen, microorganisms, and plants, the half-life of atrazine in water tends to be longer than 6 months; in some cases, no degradation of atrazine has been observed in aquatic systems.”

There are some serious issues linked to atrazine and many questions surround its health and environmental implications.

Municipalities in states like Nebraska and Wisconsin shut down wells during peak atrazine season, typically in the spring. Multiple studies have linked it to disrupted growth, behavior, immune function, and gonadal development in fish and amphibians. A study from the University of Kentucky found a high likelihood of a connection between atrazine exposure and premature births. The Centers for Disease Control lists congestion of heart, lungs, and kidneys, low blood pressure, muscle spasms, weight loss, and damage to adrenal glands as potential side effects of atrazine exposure above the maximum contaminant level for short periods of time. Use of the herbicide was banned in the European Union in 2004.

Related: What’s the Best Water for Detoxifying and For Drinking?

Atrazine Needs to Be Examined

Atrazine, while effective at killing, weeds, has not been definitively proven to be safe for the environment or public health. Syngenta has thrown millions at the EPA and succeeded in having it declared otherwise. Yet the company was unable to prove the same thing to the European Union in 2004.

This news makes me sad for the farmers. To make a profit on the nutritionally-deficient crops they grow, they spray them in large quantities of harmful chemicals that then leach into their water supply. Make a living to live what kind of life?

Sources:

• A Hormone-Disrupting Weed Killer May Be In Your Tap Water. Here’s What to Do About It – Environmental Working Group
• A Valuable Reputation – The New Yorker
• Atrazine – Living History Farm
• ‘Strict’ pesticide rules fail to erase threat to Wisconsin’s drinking water – Channel 3000
• Atrazine Exposure in Public Drinking Water and Preterm Birth – NCBI
• Potential for Human Exposure – ATSDR
• Community Water – CDC.gov

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

Antibiotics are designed to kill bacteria. Probiotics are beneficial bacteria. Doctors, concerned that probiotics can weaken the effectiveness of antibiotics, have sometimes warned patients not to take probiotics while on an antibiotic regimen or while on chemotherapy.

But now the mainstream medical opinion has shifted. With conventional researchers and doctors developing a deeper understanding of the importance of gut bacteria and the role it plays in our immune system, many doctors now recommend taking probiotics during antibiotic and chemo regimens. Apparently, the probiotics do not significantly affect the drugs if taken two or three hours after the drugs are administered (some say to wait two hours, some say three). In fact, studies have shown that probiotics can even increase the success rate of these treatments while potentially alleviating diarrhea and other side effects.

Probiotics are typically transient. Most do not colonize well, if at all, and the ones that are more likely to won’t colonize at all under antibiotic use or chemotherapy. But even if a probiotic can’t colonize effectively, with continued administration, it’s presence can keep pathogenic organisms from proliferating without disrupting existing beneficial gut bacteria.

So how do we protect or rebuild a healthy gut microbiome? The best way to get a healthy bacterial ecosystem to develop in the gut is to eat large salads like this one every day. Antifungal supplements (like SF722) and beneficial mushrooms can also help keep the gut flora healthy and ward off infections. But no supplement compares to eating right. Doing the right supplement with a healthy diet is great, but if money is too tight to do both, put that money towards the right diet.

For more information, be sure to check out the following:

• Chemotherapy Detox
• How To Heal Your Gut
• Best Supplements To Kill Candida and Everything Else You Ever Wanted To Know About Fungal Infections
• Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included

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