President Macron: The Antidote to Trump’s Climate Change Ignorance

“I do know how your president now has decided to jeopardize your budget, your initiatives, as he is extremely skeptical about climate change.”

These are the words that the newly elected president of France, Emmanuel Macron, used to empathize with American entrepreneurs and scientists as he welcomes them to France to continue their work on climate change, renewable energy, and other technologies that could help our planet.

He ends the video by saying, “France is your nation.” It is hard to not to trust the man and his desire to implement solutions to global warming, but before we jump to conclusions let’s develop a better understanding of what Macron is all about.

After a tumultuous election process filled with protests against both candidates, Macron will be taking over as the youngest president in French history, but don’t let the numbers fool you. Although he garnered 66.1% of the vote, the French people may have simply been voting for the lesser of two evils, an election process that sounds a lot like what Americans experienced during the United States presidential election of 2016.

However, unlike President Trump, Macron is attempting to unite the left, right, and center by recruiting people to government based on “their experience, their competence, what they have done and not for what they represent or their political weight.” Even former president of the United States of America, Barack Obama, endorses Macron for his liberal values and how he appeals to people’s hopes rather than their fears.

Based on what Macron said in his video to American scientists and entrepreneurs, it is hard not to agree with Obama’s point of view. Macron is not only providing solutions for France, he is also addressing the concerns of many Americans.

Macron may be the spark of positive change that France, the European Union, and the United States need.  However, it is important to remember that words are just words. Until these words become actions, we can only hope that Macron is the antidote to Trump’s climate change ignorance and a saving grace for climate change scientists and entrepreneurs.

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The Acne Vaccine Is Coming

Scientists don’t know the cause of acne. They know the bacteria Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) is partly to blame, but beyond that, they aren’t sure the cause of the skin condition that affects nearly 50 million Americans every year. Experts can’t be sure as to P. acnes’ role in acne, as the bacteria is also a part of beneficial processes in the body, like secreting digestive enzymes. That doesn’t matter, though. What matters is that there are 50 million people a year diagnosed with acne every year, and someone needs to fix it, quick. Enter a new vaccine.

Which One of These is Not Like the Other

At the University of California San Diego, researchers are developing a vaccine for acne. Lab tests on skin biopsies collected from test subjects suffering from acne have been positive, and the researchers are anxious to begin the next stage of trials. But if they don’t know the definitive cause of acne, what are they vaccinating against? According to the lead researcher of the project, Dr. Eric Huang, “Acne is caused, in part, by P. acnes bacteria that are with you your whole life — and we couldn’t create a vaccine for the bacteria because, in some ways, P. acnes are good for you…But we found an antibody to a toxic protein that P. acnes bacteria secrete on skin — the protein is associated with the inflammation that leads to acne.”

What is Being Treated?

So this vaccine is targeting a protein that causes inflammation that leads to acne. Here’s where the idea goes off the rails a bit. Vaccines are specifically designed to elicit an immune response, which inflammation is. Basically, scientists are hoping to treat inflammation with a different kind of inflammation. That kind of treatment makes sense if you’re thinking like a five-year-old who cleans their room by shoving everything into the closet or under the bed.

What if a pimple was treated as a sign to take care of your body? When the body (kidneys in particular) are not processing waste out of the body quickly enough, excess toxins push out through the skin. When that waste gets clogged in pores and infected a pimple forms. That’s a lot of steps that happen before the pimple forms, and with each step, there’s an opportunity to put safeguards in place. To focus on fortifying and strengthening your system with fresh, raw, organic produce while eliminating boxes, bags, and sugars? Diet is the foundation of health, but no one is perfect. Pimples can be a sign to look at what you’re eating and dial things back to healthy.

Forcing Nature

You have a pimple and you want it gone. The vaccine can accomplish that. But at what cost? You have a pimple for a reason. Scientists don’t know the cause of acne. If this vaccine is brought to market it will likely be labeled not harmful to humans. But there won’t be any long-term studies. The side-effects will likely be worse than what the vaccine is meant to fix. Those promoting it will never look beyond conventional medicine to actually address the cause of infection. After all, it worked so well with antibiotics.

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What is Cascara? Coffee, Tea, Superfood?

After walking into a coffee shop in Washington D.C. recently, I was quite surprised that they were promoting a new drink for 2017 on the menu called “Cascara”, with a subtitle stating “Warm and nutty caramel tones made from the skin of coffee cherry blossoms”. I asked the barista if this was tea or coffee. She looked perplexed and said to me, “no, it’s a syrup”. Needless to say I was confused, but intrigued. So I thought to myself, a new drink being showcased at this coffee shop which could seem to be a healthier alternative to coffee, yet it’s syrup. This is the brilliance of marketing, which makes you excited about something new being available as a coffee alternative. I proceeded not to order it because I didn’t fully understand what they were offering.  Was it tea, coffee, syrup, or all of it mixed together? Either way, if I was to order Cascara, I would want the real super food coffee cherry tea version I heard of, not a syrup mixed into a hot drink. My visit to this coffee shop left me wondering, what is this elusive Cascara being offered, and is it really coffee or tea?

After further research, I found that Cascara (translated from Spanish meaning ‘husk’ or ‘peel’) is also known as coffee cherry skins in English. Cascara must not be confused with the herbal plant with a similar first name, Cascara Sagrada (Chittem Bark), which is completely different and has natural laxative properties when consumed. Cascara (coffee cherry skin) is the by-product of the coffee beans after they have been removed from their red skins and dried in the sun, much like raisins. In the past, these skins were usually placed in compost or thrown away during harvest because it was believed to ruin the taste of coffee. However, for centuries Cascara has been brewed in Yemen and Ethiopia before coffee beans were even used as a drink. Recently, this alternative sounding exotic drink has made a big move onto the U.S. market in various forms including everything from beauty products, tea infusions, enhanced waters, sports drinks, sodas, to vodka infusions and other alcoholic beverages.

What still remained unclear was how should this elusive and somewhat confusing drink be classified? It is believed that Cascara is something between coffee and tea, although it is derived from the coffee plant. It should be noted that Cascara does not taste like coffee nor does it contain its high caffeine content. According to Moldvaer, “Cascara caffeine content is fairly low, even at the strongest, longest brew, the caffeine content of Cascara came in at 111.4 mg/L, compared to broad range of about 400-800 mg/L in brewed coffee.”  Cascara comes in an interesting mélange of flavors ranging from sweet, subtle, earthy, to rich, warm, robust and nutty. Its undertones have a fruity flavor with hints of raspberry, red mulberry, currant, cranberry, and cherry.[2] Its classification is neither coffee nor tea, but it remains in its own realm because it does not come from beans or tea leaves, but from the fruit of the coffee plant. However, there is an opposing opinion suggesting that it is indeed coffee with high caffeine content.  According to Megan Wood, “cascara is a tropical, berry fruit that just happens to be coffee,” Wood says, “It’s not tea — it’s 100 percent coffee. But it smells like herbal tea.”  She also goes on to say that “It’s kind of like nature’s Red Bull.” So at the end of the day, you might have to make the decision yourself whether you want to categorize cascara as tea, coffee, or a hybrid, and whether it leaves you feeling caffeinated or not.

Regardless of its disputable classification, I would recommend you be courageous and jump on the trendy drink bandwagon for 2017 and give Cascara and its healing benefits a try. Even though you may not know whether it’s truly coffee or tea, the health benefits are numerous.  Due to its high concentration of polyphenols, Cascara is a true superfood. It will also help boost your immune system, provide antioxidants thus protecting you from free radicals, and offer you a host of anti-inflammatory properties. With extensive research over a decade, FutureCeuticals, has also discovered that Cascara produces BDNF (Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor), a protein essential for maintaining healthy cognition, and other brain-related processes such as mood and sleep.

Cascara can be consumed as a hot drink or as a cold refreshing infusion. According to 44 North Coffee, Cascara is loaded with flavor, vitamins, natural sugars, and anti-oxidants. Dr. Debbie Palmer states that, “Cascara is rejuvenating because it’s high in polyphenol compounds: proanthocyanidins, chlorogenic acid, quinic acid, ferulic acid and caffeic acid. The coffee berry fruit has been found to be higher in antioxidants than tea, vitamin C and E, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and pomegranate.” In preparing Cascara, Wood and Raftery recommend steeping three tablespoons of cascara in 10 ounces of hot water for four minutes. For a cold brew, they suggest six tablespoons to 12 ounces of water, steeped for 12 to 16 hours. To purchase Cascara, there are a number of coffee roasters making it available online. Let this year be the year where you become an independent taste tester, and you can make your own personal decision on whether Cascara is coffee, tea, or something in between.  Either way, it’s a highly recommended alternative as a superfood drink option. For a great recipe on making a cold brew of Cascara (Coffee Cherry) tea, visit Alma Holistic Health.

Interesting fact: In Yemen, Cascara is consumed as Qishr (a hot beverage containing spiced coffee husks, with ginger and cinnamon) which is usually consumed instead of coffee because it is much cheaper.

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USDA Drops Glyphosate Testing Plans, Makes Monsanto’s Life Easier

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is no longer planning to test samples of corn syrup for glyphosate residue. Plans to test for the herbicide were coordinated between the USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency and scheduled to begin in April of this year.

The cancellation of this program is good news for Monsanto. The company is currently embroiled in litigation, with plaintiffs in the case alleging that Roundup caused non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The extent of the EPA’s involvement in the lawsuit is not known, although the federal judge presiding over the case has indicated he is likely to subpoena the chair of the EPA’s Cancer Assessment Review Committee. Regardless of the lawsuit, the decision by the USDA to drop scheduled glyphosate testing is disheartening and further erodes their food integrity credibility.

Agencies in Disarray

The USDA’s failure to properly test for glyphosate residue is baffling. The agency’s reasons for not testing for the world’s most used pesticide center around that process being too expensive and inefficient. If that argument sounds familiar, that’s because it echoes Monsanto’s own thoughts on glyphosate tests. The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t necessarily agree. Last year they set in motion a testing program that found glyphosate in every sample of honey tested. Launched in February, it was indefinitely suspended by November.

When Demand Isn’t Enough

Europe and Canada have glyphosate testing programs in place, with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency planning to release their findings in the near future. This is the most used herbicide in the world, with over 250 million pounds of it used in the U.S. every year. Any layperson looking for it has only to walk into the nearest supermarket, restaurant, or convenience store. But we don’t know for sure, although we definitely want to.

The entire motivation behind the FDA’s short-lived was public demand. The American public and the U.S Government Accountability Office both have issues with the current ill-advised and unsustainable system. For a brief, shining period the USDA got it. The taxpayer need and demand for testing didn’t change. So what did?

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How Health Affects Body Odor

What do people smell like? If you live in a developed country, your answer is likely to mention a perfume or a soap or some variation of a product designed to keep people from smelling. The modern person is terrified of smelling “bad.” The personal care market in the U.S. is projected to take advantage of this fear to the tune of 11 billion in revenue by 2018. But these products merely cover up the way we smell. None of them address or fix the way we smell.

Why Do We Smell?

We smell because of our bacteria.  The sweat produced by the apocrine glands at our armpits, genital area, and other select body locations is largely odorless until it’s broken down by our bacteria into thioalcohols. These thioalcohols are sulfur based compounds, which helps explain why some people smell strongly of onions or garlic. Scientists have identified the bacteria that breaks down into largest amount of thioalcohols, Staphylococcus hominis, but they aren’t sure about the role of the other bacteria on the skin.

Smells are incredibly useful in ways we aren’t even aware of and don’t fully understand. Smells help you recognize family, find a mate or partner, and identify stress or potential danger. In the face of stress, signals from the nose change the way you react to visual cues. The sensitivity to negative facial expressions, for example, increases when the nose smells stress signals. The nearness to stress signals also increases the body’s startle reflex and instinctively causes us to avoid or withdraw from the stressful smell. If you’re a lady, smells can also influence your monthly cycle. Women who smell signals from other women in the ovulatory stage of their cycle are more likely to experience lengthened menstrual cycles.

Smells and Your Health

Sick people have a different odor. Dogs know it. An organization called “Medical Detection Dogs in the U.K.” is using dogs and their noses to detect early warning signs of both prostate and breast cancer. Dogs can also smell changes in blood sugar levels. While humans may not be able to smell illness on that level, unhealthy smells do register. Researchers in Sweden elicited an immune response in volunteers to see if the smell of the response could be detected later. Those who smelled both the T-shirts worn by the volunteers experiencing the immune response and an unworn T-shirt reported that the worn shirt smelled less healthy and less pleasant.

The body gives off multiple warning smells for a variety of conditions. Since your smell is determined by your bacteria, and bacteria determines your overall health, paying attention to these smells can serve as an early warning system. The type and location of the smells can tip you off as to potential health issues.

A persistent sweet or fruity smell in the mouth can be a sign that the body is releasing large amounts of ketones, a sign of diabetes. On the other side of the smell spectrum, “bad” breath smells can indicate that the body is having difficulties processing out toxins properly, releasing them through the mouth instead.

Smells in the groin area, while potentially embarrassing, can also be excellent indicators of a health issue. Pee that smells like ammonia could indicate a urinary tract infection. Especially strong fishy or musty smells are evidence of a bacterial infection, although the actual infection could run the gamut from various sexually transmitted diseases to yeast or Gardnerella infections. Most people have a subtle smell down there, but noticing a stronger than usual musty, fishy, or sour smell allows you to do something about it, like ramping up the cranberry lemonade and the raw veggies and cutting back on the sugar (see Detox Cheap and Easy).

Now let’s talk some shit. While there are lots of caveats and exceptions, for the most part, how gross a bathroom smells after a #2 is dropped is indicative of how poor one’s health is.

Related: Natural Cure for Yeast Infection

Smell also plays a role in how other people perceive you. We’re subconsciously able to smell and identify immune responses. We’re more attracted to the smell of a healthy person. People are more inclined to identify with or seek out a person who smells healthy.

The Impact of Deodorant

If smells tell us so much, why do we cover them up? Because we’ve been conditioned to be terrified of the way we smell. Early deodorant advertising campaigns capitalized on the fear of rejection, first telling women they couldn’t get a man due to their smelly underarms and later convincing men their smell was unprofessional. Deodorants and other scented personal care items are considered a must in the modern world.

There is the distinct possibility that the products that make us smell acceptable in society actually damage our bodies. The lymphatic vessels that enable the spread of breast cancer are located in the armpit where aluminum and paraben-laden deodorants are applied. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin. Parabens are known to have estrogen-like effects and encourage cells in the breast to grow and split. Deodorant may not be the cause of cancer, but an overloaded and toxic lymphatic system is never going to result in good things.

In addition to exacerbating health issues, deodorants wipe out defenses. They don’t discriminate; they kill both the smelly and the beneficial bacteria. Matters are not helped by the increasingly sterile environment we live in, where antibacterial soaps and handwashes ensure that good bacteria is gone before it has a chance to do anything.

Related: How To Make Your Own Natural Deodorant at Home – Recipe

Making Better Choices

Nothing is going to improve your smell like eating well. Upon hearing that bacteria is the reason you smell, it’s easy to want to get rid of it for causing bad smells, but the flip side is the important part. The bacteria causes the good smells, too, and that can be cultivated. A diet consisting of mostly organic, fresh, raw produce with minimally processed food and refined sugars will feed beneficial bacteria. Better bacteria leads to better body odor. Products with aluminum and parabens kill all of that good bacteria and leach into the body, disrupting the body’s working and potentially leading to serious disease. Reading labels and choosing better products or making your own chemical-free products are solutions that will not only leave you smelling better, you’ll feel better.

The Smelly One

No one wants to be the smelly one. But the definition of smell can be relative, as someone who is used to the natural, healthy smell of the body will find perfumes and scented deodorants overwhelming. These products will also never be able to completely mask the body’s natural signals, leaving the user to forever bandage a wound that won’t close.

It all comes back to the bacteria. Treat your microbes right, and you just might save a lot of money on colognes and antiperspirants. And if somebody ever says about you, “He thinks his shit don’t stink!” you can know with confidence that it probably smells a lot better than theirs. Check out the recommended reading below for more on your microbes.

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Monsanto Might Be in Big Trouble

Monsanto is currently embroiled in a lawsuit from farmers claiming that glyphosate caused their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, contradicting the EPA’s finding that the chemical is “…not likely to be carcinogenic to humans.” On Tuesday, documents from the case were unsealed, including an internal email exchange at Monsanto that implies they wrote portions of EPA studies on the herbicide. According to one email, “…we would be keeping the cost down by us doing the writing and they would just edit & sign their names so to speak…” Another email specifically mentions portions of studies that would be ghostwritten by Monsanto employees, as opposed to regulatory agencies.

Suspect Everyone

Federal judge Vince Chhabria, who is based in Northern California and is overseeing the litigation against the company, has indicated that, “My reaction is when you consider the relevance of the EPA’s reports, and you consider their relevance to this litigation, it seems appropriate to take Jess Rowland’s deposition…” Previous documents released in the case included a letter from a long-time EPA employee, alleging that Rowland and other colleagues played “political, conniving games with the science to favor the registrants.” Other emails directly from Rowland indicated that he would quash another assessment of glyphosate from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, among other things. Rowland’s testimony will be key for the plaintiff, as his time as the chair of the Cancer Assessment Review Committee coincides with the release of the EPA memo that disputes the World Health Organization’s classification of glyphosate as probably carcinogenic. A subpoena will likely be necessary to interview Rowland, as he has declined a previous, voluntary request.

The EPA is also concerned about their standing in this lawsuit. Raven M. Norris, the attorney representing them this case,  stated, “The agency has legitimate concerns about being pulled into private litigation…They want to be able to maintain their impartiality.” If the already released documents are any indication, impartiality is already off the table. They are left fighting for plausible deniability.

Monsanto has maintained its defense of glyphosate, and Bill Heydens, one of the alleged ghostwriters, has given sworn testimony about his original emails, claiming, “It was things like editing relatively minor things, editing for formatting, just for clarity, really just for overall readability to make it easier for people to read in a more organized fashion…”. Rowland will hopefully provide the other side of that conversation, but it is likely his testimony will protect the company.

A Vulnerable Position for the Agricultural Giant

Complaints and studies against Monsanto and glyphosate have been piling up for quite some time now. While the WHO has reclassified the chemical after extensive research, the U.S. regulators have lagged behind with a different script. The EPA may be able to claim that they were unaware of this manipulation, though plaintiff attorneys have suggested that the EPA “may be unaware of Monsanto’s deceptive authorship practices.” But there really isn’t a good position here. If Rowland implicates Monsanto and saves the EPA, Monsanto’s $66 million dollar merger with Bayer might be in jeopardy. If Rowland follows the money (history indicates probably) or martyrs himself, the EPA looks incompetent. For the rest of us, we’ll get a better picture of who is pulling the strings when this case is decided.

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Should Patient Groups Not Required to Disclose Funding From Pharmaceutical Companies

A new study has found that more than 80% of patient advocacy groups receive funding from drug and medical device companies. The study looked at 104 of the top patient advocacy nonprofits. Combined, they report more than 7.5 million dollars in revenue in 2014, with a wide discrepancy in the way that these companies reported their donations. Patient advocacy groups exist to provide the support and information needed to navigate the modern medical system, but why are their own conflicts of interest not one of the things they disclose?

The Ties that Bind

Patient advocacy is a growing profession in the United States. Insurance companies, government, medical professionals, and the pharmaceutical industry all have fingers in the healthcare pie. People can get overwhelmed by all of the red tape and can be subjected to less than ideal care. The benefit of a health advocate is having someone focused on your needs without the conflict of an employer or any other commercial interest. But while patient advocacy on a small scale can provide incredible personal benefits, health advocacy as a whole has strong ties to the pharmaceutical and medical device community. Nearly forty percent of the organizations reviewed in this study had an industry member seated on their board.

Who Watches the Watchmen

There are times when these ties damage the recipients of service that the health advocacy groups list in their mission statements. Many of these groups have been silent on the issue of rising drug prices or disclosing their funding sources in court proceedings. The lack of disclosure also allows other businesses to take advantage of the altruistic framework of health advocacy and use it to confuse the public, like the Global Energy Balance Network set up by Coca-Cola in 2014. Advocacy groups aren’t entirely funded by pharmaceutical companies, but without a standard of disclosure, is there any way to know exactly how much influence those companies have?

Being Informed

Professional health and patient advocacy is a relatively new profession. There are no licenses or accreditations required to be a patient advocate. Combine that lack of oversight with the lack of disclosure and there is a system ripe for behind the scenes manipulation. The good that these groups can do, especially when it comes to negotiating with insurers, needs to be carefully weighed against their reluctance and even inability to speak out against harmful pharmaceutical and medical device practices. Now more than ever, you are your best health care advocate. Being informed about medical issues and options is the best weapon in your arsenal.

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