U.S. States That Support Midwives Have Better Birth Outcomes

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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GMO Corn Bathed in Glyphosate is Now Vermont’s Top Crop

Vermont’s Agency of Agriculture, Food, and Markets eventually released the data from January in response to a public records request after three years of not publishing the information. The newly published data covers the years 2014-2016 and reveals a dramatic growth in pesticide use on Vermont’s dairy farms, particularly with GMO cornfields. Glyphosate use more than doubled in the last three years, while total corn-related pesticide usage climbed 27 percent.

GMO corn is growing on 92,000 acres in Vermont, making it the state’s number one crop by far. The corn is not for human consumption; it’s being fed to the state’s 135,000 cows.

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In 2016, Vermont’s GMO corn plants acquired a 194,631 pound bathing of pesticides, a poisonous stew that comprised 34 distinct goods, everything from atrazine into 2,4-D. The most heavily employed cornfield pesticide in 2016 has been glyphosate, with 62,458 pounds used, over doubling the 27,440 pounds used in 2014.”  – Michael Colby

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Read More: Cornucopia Institute

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Trump Wants Death Penalty For Dangerous Drug Dealers – But who Are the Dangerous Ones?

President Trump suggested drug dealers in the United States should face harsher punishments, including the death penalty or life in prison, during a campaign rally last Saturday. Trump praised Singapore and China for their “zero tolerance policy” regarding drugs, and likes the idea for the U.S.

I think it’s a discussion we have to start thinking about. I don’t know if we’re ready. I don’t know if this country’s ready for it.”

The president seems to be inspired by the Filipino President whose violent war against drugs has led to thousands of deaths, including small-time drug users and innocent people for whom he says is simply “collateral damage.”

That means if we catch a drug dealer, death penalty.”

Last year we know Trump congratulated the Philippines President Duterte for his efforts in eradicating drugs from the country thanks to a leaked transcript of their phone call.

I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem. Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that.”

At Saccone’s campaign rally last Saturday, Trump said that we should handle drug dealers like murderers..

You kill 5,000 people with drugs because you’re smuggling them in and you’re making a lot of money and people are dying and they don’t even put you in jail. That’s why we have a problem, folks. I don’t think we should play games.”

These remarks are consistent with the speech he made at the White House Opioids Summit last week when he suggested that drug dealers should have to face the death penalty.

Some countries have a very, very tough penalty — the ultimate penalty. And, by the way, they have much less of a drug problem than we do.” – Trump said during last week’s summit

The Real Drug Dealers

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collected data that shows that more people die from legally prescribed drugs than from heroin and cocaine combined. The CDC says the situation as an “epidemic.”

And the rates are skyrocketing thanks to America’s opioid dependence.

America represents just five percent of the world’s population but we consume 75 percent of the world’s prescription drugs according to Drugfreeworld.org.There’s a misperception by many people that because pharmaceutical drugs are regulated that they are safer. But when misused or taken without a doctor’s prescription drugs can often kill as easily as street drugs.

Prescription drug deaths for 2016 were tallied at 63,600, up from 52,000 in 2015. 2017 and 2018 look to continue the trend. It’s so bad that we actually except our average lifespan to have declined in 2017, and the trend is looking no better for this year.

In other words, the pharmaceutical companies, the companies supposedly in the business of saving lives, are responsible for a drop in the life expectancy of the entire United States.

Let that sink in.

And these numbers, of course, do not represent all of the other deaths caused by pharmaceutical companies. Big Pharma is killing us.

If you think about it and consider the toxicity and ineffectualness of drugs to actually rid disease, the pharmaceutical companies are killing us at a rate that far exceeds anything else.

Pharmaceutical companies are the dangerous drug dealers we need to put a stop to. We at OLM do not condone the death penalty, we like to see people get well, not get killed. But wouldn’t it be nice if someone had the scruples and fortitude to go after the real bad guys?

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Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli Sentenced to 7 Years In Prison

Martin Shkreli is the still-boyish-looking 34-year-old entrepreneur derisively known as “Pharma Bro.” His own attorney confessed to wanting to punch him in the face occasionally. Martin, before the sentence, choked up as he confessed to mistakes and admitted to the shareholders that he had defrauded them. At one stage, a clerk handed him a box of tissues.

CNBC reports that Shkreli asked for leniency before his sentence.

I want the people who came here today to support me to understand one thing: The only person to blame for me being here today is me,” he said. “There is no conspiracy to take down Martin Shkreli. I took down Martin Shkreli.” – Martin Shkreli speaking in third person, like all the greats do

In August, the 34-year-old was detained on federal fraud charges, accused of deceiving investors regarding a set of hedge funds he worked. Shkreli also manipulated inventory stocks for his firm Retrophin, and utilized that money to pay back investors of the hedge funds.

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U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto gave Martin a sentence of 7 years. Prosecutors wanted 15 and his defense argued for 18 months. He was also fined $75,000.

Back in August he was found guilty of lying to his investors in and cheating them out of millions. This case was not related to the 2015  incident where he was accused of price-gouging and went on TV with his famous smirk, but his arrest was seen as sweet justice by many.

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The judge insisted that he did not take into account Shkreli’s online antics, or when he famously raised the price of the anti-parisitic drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 a pill.

This case is not about Mr. Shkreli’s self-cultivated public persona … nor his controversial statements about politics or culture.” – Judge Kiyo Matsumoto

But she did say that she doubted the sincerity of his remorse due to his conduct after the verdict. She cited when he bragged after the verdict that he would only be sentenced to time served. And she quoted him in correspondence having written, “F— the feds.”

He received credit for the roughly six months he has been in jail.



Bug Foggers Are Dangerous and Cause Injury Despite Relabeling Efforts

Insecticide foggers, also called”bug bombs,” are still causing injuries in the U.S., despite the fact that manufacturers worderedderd to modify the products’ labels in order to make them safer. The study team notes in the Centers for Disease Control’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report noted that some types of incidents even increased.

The best precaution is not to have bugs inside your house in the first place, so depriving food, shelter and water from insects. If these steps don’t work and you want to use insect ships, it’s necessary that you read and follow the label directions.” – Walter Alarcon of the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety via email to Reuters.

Due to high injury rate the EPA required bug bombs to have improved instruction labels after 2012, with images emphasizing safety precautions such as leaving the home for at least two hours and ventilating the area well for an additional two hours. But the rate of illness related to bug bombs was not reduced. Some types of incidents even increased.

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If you’re going to use foggers or bug bombs follow all instructions and keep them away from heat sources and evacuate the building. The EPA has put out a series of videos regarding fogger safety.

Obviously, we at OLM contend there are better ways to eliminate a bug problem other than through the use of toxic chemicals, though eliminating the problem in the first place by depriving them of food, water, and shelter is the right first step. Keeping the home as clean as possible, use essential oils like neem and lemongrass to wipe down, spray, and clean every surface insects may come in contact with.

Alarcon and colleagues used several health surveillance databases to see whether the relabeled products changed the statistics, characteristics, or severity of illnesses with bug bombs between 2007-2015. In particular, they looked at data from pesticides programs and poison control centers in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Michigan, Washington, California, Louisiana, New York, Oregon and Nebraska. Among 3,222 illnesses, common symptoms included coughing, vomiting, nausea, respiratory pain and abdominal pain. Five percent of cases happened in children less than five years of age, and 14% of injuries occurred in adults over age 60.

Exposure narratives in case reports indicated that most users didn’t read or follow label directions,” Alarcon said.

Individuals who did not leave their houses throughout the insect bomb installation were much more likely to report illeness. Others had problems following re-entry to their homes too early or by spraying themselves from simply pointing the nozzle in the wrong direction.

Foggers are obsolete residential pest management apparatus for many reasons. It isn’t too powerful for several insects, like bed bugs or cockroaches. It certainly introduces a fantastic concern for human exposure to pesticides following usage as residue is left on surfaces which individuals, particularly toddlers and young kids, develop into contact afterwards.

It is quite simple to abuse them adhere to the directions correctly. I have a tough time following the specific instructions.”- Dr. Alex Lu of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston (wasn’t involved in the study).

A limitation of this study is the poison control centers might not have info from those who had moderate cases and did not report their encounters. A few of the cases might also be considered”false positives” because the symptoms might not be brought on by foggers, the authors note. Moreover, the analysis only includes data from 10 nations and also for three years following the new EPA label conditions have been in force.

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Cancer and Processed Food – A New Study Officially Finds a Link

A new study of over 100,000 people’s eating habits in France found that a 10 percent increase in consumption of ultra-processed foods resulted in a 12 percent increase some cancers, confirming yet again that diet is a key component in disease prevention. Ultra-processed foods include soda, mass-produced bread, sweets, processed meats, and prepackaged meals, and this is the first scientific study to strongly link them to cancer. The study also established a massive database of the additives in specific foods, including commercial names and brands. The NutriNet-Santé cohort study concludes, “Further studies are also needed to better understand the relative effect of nutritional composition, food additives, contact materials, and neoformed contaminants in this relation. Rapidly increasing consumption of ultra-processed foods may drive an increasing burden of cancer and other non-communicable diseases.”

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Global Patterns

Let’s look at breast cancer. Common reasons given for the rise in breast cancer diagnoses include age, stress, obesity, lack of exercise, and having children later in life. Lifestyle choices are usually mentioned, but specific aspects of diet and lifestyle aren’t discussed. With this study, researchers noticed an increase of greater than 10 percent in the rates of breast cancer in response to ultra-processed food. This link mirrors trends happening throughout the world. Rapidly industrializing regions all over the world are all seeing a rapid rise in the incidences of breast cancer in conjunction with the increased presence of pre-packaged foods.

China

Since 2000, cases of breast cancer in China have increased by an average of 3.5 percent per year. Due to the country’s intense industrialization, rates of diagnosis are higher in cities than in rural areas. The move to urban areas has also increased the consumption of quick and easy to prepare pre-packaged meals and junk food offerings from Western companies like Kraft, Nestlé, and PepsiCo. Fast food sales are also a cause for concern, rising an average of 13 percent annually.

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Central and South America

The majority of the Western hemisphere is a large region, but the circumstances are remarkably similar. There were over 140,000 new cases of breast cancer reported in 2012, and estimates predict that number will increase 70 percent by the year 2030. The growth in cancer rates comes at a time when these countries are being inundated by gigantic multinational corporations that specialize in ultra-processed food like Nestlé and Coca-Cola. Fast food chains are also expanding aggressively in the region.

Why Is That?

Ultra-processed foods contain large amounts of fat, sugar, and additives, and have been tied to obesity, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. It’s difficult to know whether the fat, sugar or additives are responsible for ultra-processed food’s link to cancer, as many additives, colorings, and sweeteners in those foods are linked to asthma, skin conditions, vomiting, intestinal distress, inflammation, autoimmune disorders, depression, fatigue, diabetes, periodontal disease, and hyperactivity, among other things. Taken individually, the ingredients in these foods constitute serious health concerns.

Who knows what happens when a product contains more than one of these additives together? We don’t. Until now, no one has been doing that science.

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The Cumulative Effect

Although the sales of processed and packaged foods are declining in the United States, these items still account for over half of all calories consumed in the country. They’re beginning to account for a much larger percentage of the world’s diet than ever before.

Even as deaths from breast cancer decrease, the number of diagnoses continues to rise. Improved standards of care account for fewer deaths, but incidences of cancer continue to increase because those standards don’t address the reason this is happening – our diet. This study is the first to make that connection and the first study that saw a definite increase in breast cancer in correlation with increased processed food consumption.

If we want to manage our health care system, we must manage our food system. They are the same thing.

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Drinking One Soda Per Day Can Decrease Fertility By 33%, Study Finds

A study from Boston University’s School of Medicine discovered a link between consuming one or more sugary drinks a day and a decreased chance of getting pregnant. Fertility dropped in both women and men. Of the 4,000 women surveyed, those who consumed at least one sugary, soda-like drink daily experienced a 25 percent decrease in successful pregnancy attempts. The 1,000 men who were surveyed experienced 33 percent lower conception chances. The study also included sugary energy drinks. According to the lead author of the study, Elizabeth Hatch,

We found positive associations between intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and lower fertility, which were consistent after controlling for many other factors, including obesity, caffeine intake, alcohol, smoking and overall diet quality. Couples planning a pregnancy might consider limiting their consumption of these beverages, especially because they are also related to other adverse health effects.”

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A Usual Culprit

This is not the only time sugar has been linked to infertility. It’s notorious for disrupting hormones, making it difficult to maintain a healthy reproductive system. The most common cause of infertility, polycystic ovary syndrome, is aggravated by sugar consumption. Sugar is also linked to early menstruation in women, another hormone disruption.

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A Perfect Storm

Sugary soda and beverages are not the only product of modern life linked to decreasing fertility.  Pesticides, Ibuprofen, and endocrine-disrupting plastics like BPA have been linked to declining fertility rates in both men and women. Several governments from developed countries like Japan and Denmark have launched initiatives designed to increase birth rates, but one has to wonder if ad campaigns are enough to combat the aspects of modern life that will thwart those ambitions.

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