Swine flu viruses were first detected in North America in 1930. Pigs are susceptible to influenza, be it porcine (pig), avian (bird), or human, and they are well-known crucibles; just add a few viruses, stir, and voila! You’ve created a new virus!

Artealia Gilliard, Press Officer for the Center for Disease Control says, “In a setting such as a farm where chickens, humans, and pigs live in close proximity, pigs act as an influenza virus ‘mixing bowl’. If a pig is infected with avian and human flu simultaneously, the two types of virus may exchange genes. Such a “reassorted” flu virus can sometimes spread from pigs to people.”

Smithfield, a U.S. company, runs an industrial pig farm with 950,000 hogs near La Gloria, Mexico, first said to be ground zero for this virus. While Mexican authorities claim the Smithfield pigs were tested and found free of disease, Steven Trunnell (whose wife Judy was the first U.S. resident to die from novel H1N1) remains unconvinced. He filed a petition against Smithfield Foods to investigate claims that the massive industrialized farm with its overcrowded conditions and poor hygiene was the source of the outbreak.

New information released by the media on July 24th states that a new patient zero has been identified, a baby girl from Northern Mexico with no known contact with pig farms.

Whether or not the Mexican pig farm is the source of the pandemic, industrialized pig farming is not exonerated. Scientists know hogs that novel H1N1 was derived from several viruses circulating in the swine population for the last several years. Overcrowded, unsanitary conditions of industrialized animal farms perpetuate and spread disease among the pig population and the human population.

Overflow from animal sewage contaminates water supplies, and insects such as flies carry disease from open sewage cesspools. Overcrowding increases the spread of disease within a herd. Overflow from animal sewage contaminates water supplies, and insects such as flies carry disease from open sewage cesspools. Overcrowding increases the spread of disease within a herd.

Two large industrial pig farms have since reported outbreaks of novel H1N1. The first, in Alberta, Canada, reported that an outbreak began on April 21, 2009. Of 2020 pigs, 450 were infected. The farm’s report to The World Animal Health Information Database states: “A carpenter hired by the farm owner (ALB-001) travelled to Mexico recently and returned to Canada on 12 April 2009. The carpenter, producer and the producer’s family had been ill with flu like symptoms between 14 — 29 April. Investigation of human cases by the Public Health authorities is underway.” The Alberta Health Department ruled out the farm worker as the source of the infection.

The second report, dated June 6, 2009, sad pig reveals the pig count had grown to 3013 pigs. The farmer culled (killed) 500 pigs due to overcrowded conditions and later destroyed the entire herd. The report states that the animals recovered from the flu, but no slaughterhouse was willing to take them. “…the owner petitioned the Alberta provincial government for the destruction of the herd for economic reasons, to allow him to exit the situation and resume operation with a replacement herd. The culling of the herd was NOT an ordered destruction as the result of animal or human disease considerations.”

A new strain of influenza A which contains seasonal flu genes and swine flu infected pig farm workers in Saskatchewan.

In Buenos Aires another large industrialized pig farm has verified novel H1N1 infection. Of 5586 pigs, 1676 are infected, a 30% morbidity rate, and Australia has reported one farm’s pigs to be infected, suggesting human to pig transmission.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says it will no longer quarantine pig farms with novel H1N1. Their reasons are as follows:

• There is no food safety risk associated with the virus;
• There is no evidence at this time that animals are playing a significant role in the spread of the virus in the general human population; and,
• The virus does not behave any differently in pigs from other influenza viruses commonly detected in swine herds.

After the quarantine of the Alberta herd ended in destruction because slaughterhouses refused to process the animals, this new decision not to quarantine seems to be driven by monetary concerns. How have we had enough experience with novel H1N1 infected stock to decide they pose no health risk?

Humans are susceptible to animal diseases ranging from mad cow disease to novel H1N1 flu. Our current farming practices of feeding animals unnatural foods that cause acidity and disease, overcrowded and cramped conditions that cause disease and the spread of disease within a species as well as species to species, and the problematic over accumulation of waste products due to industrialized farming display a clear and present danger. How many lives will be lost before we reverse this trend? Or will big business prevail, ignoring basic animal rights while killing our citizens with industrialized farm born disease?

Is it time for face masks, vaccinations, and quarantines?

Influenza, or flu, is a highly contagious viral respiratory infection which results in fever, headache, fatigue, body aches, sore throat, and congestion. Diarrhea and vomiting may also occur; children are more likely to suffer from these gastrointestinal symptoms.

Chronic health conditions such as asthma, heart disease, or diabetes increase the risk of complications such as sinus infections, ear infections, dehydration, bacterial pneumonia, and respiratory failure.

Each year an average of 200,000 Americans are hospitalized with seasonal flu; an average of 36,000 die. The CDC’s July 24th update reports 43,771 cases of novel H1N1 (called Swine Flu) in the United States (this number is not indicative of hospitalizations) and 302 reported deaths. So if we currently show a Swine Flu mortality rate that is .00838% of the annual seasonal flu rate, why the hysteria? There are many reasons. But in order to understand the current frenzy, it helps to start with a basic understanding of influenza.

Influenza isn’t limited to humans. Birds and other mammals including ducks, chickens, pigs, horses, ferrets, seals, whales, dogs, and minks suffer from the flu as well. Each influenza virus strain spreads easily within its natural hosts (bird to bird, pig to pig, and so forth) but an influenza strain can shift and jump to another species–bird to pig, horse to dog, pig or bird to human.

Since the 1990s, a particularly virulent strain of bird flu (avian flu) has spread from wild birds to chickens and turkeys. Millions of birds were killed by the flu. Hundreds of millions more have been killed in an effort to stop the spread of the disease. This virus has infected humans; however, to date, it has not evolved to efficiently spread from human to human.

In 1918 the worst recorded global flu pandemic–an avian flu–killed between 50-100 million people world wide. This horrific flu struck hard and fast, sometimes killing its victims within hours. In addition to death by pneumonia, a secondary infection, the flu itself was deadly, causing edema in the lungs and hemorrhagic complications. In many cases, the afflicted bled from the lungs, stomach, intestines, eyes, nose, and ears. Petechial hemorrhages (bleeding under the skin) were so severe, bodies were tagged for race, as it became difficult to differentiate a victim’s race post mortem.

Influenza viruses mutate and change over time. Artealia A. Gilliard of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta explained through a written Q&A that the two ways influenza viruses change are through antigenic drift or antigenic shift. Antigenic drift refers to the “small changes in the virus that happen continually over time. Antigenic drift produces new virus strains that may not be recognized by the body’s immune system.”

H1N1

If an influenza virus sweeps across America infecting Mary Smith, Mary’s immune system will produce antibodies that recognize this influenza, antibodies that provide immunity if Mary is later exposed to the same virus.

The next year when the virus comes back around, Mary’s immune system still recognizes this virus. Even though the virus will have undergone antigenic drift, it will remain very similar to the previous year’s strain. Over time (over a number of years) antigenic drift will render the virus unrecognizable to Mary’s immune system and re-infection can or will occur. “The other type of change is called ‘antigenic shift.’ Antigenic shift is an abrupt, major change in the influenza A viruses,” writes Ms. Gilliard. “…[Antigenic] shift results in a new influenza A subtype. When shift happens, most people have little or no protection against the new virus.” “While influenza viruses are changing by antigenic drift all the time,” she writes, “antigenic shift happens only occasionally.” Novel H1N1 is a type A influenza. Genetically, it is a combination of avian, porcine (pig), and human flu. “In a setting such as a farm where chickens, humans, and pigs live in close proximity, pigs act as an influenza virus ‘mixing bowl’,” writes Ms. Gillard. “If a pig is infected with avian and human flu simultaneously, the two types of virus may exchange genes. Such a ‘reassorted’ flu virus can sometimes spread from pigs to people.”

This is an antigenic shift, which results in a new influenza A subtype, to which most people have little or no immune protection. “If this new virus causes illness in people and can be transmitted easily from person to person, an influenza pandemic can occur.”

We have seen combinations of avian, porcine, and human influenza before, but Ms. Gillard tells us that we have not seen this combination before.

Swine Flu Vaccine…H1N1 virus, has spread to 70 countries…

In the 1918 pandemic, three waves of the virus swept across the United States within one year rather than the usual one wave per year. The first wave’s mortality rate was lower than a typical seasonal flu. The second and third waves were deadly. The first wave struck in spring, the second in fall, the third in winter. The 1918 pandemic was caused by an influenza A, H1N1 virus.

Now, in 2009, novel H1N1, a highly contagious influenza A, H1N1 virus, has spread to 70 countries around the world within 4 months of its identification. And while the morbidity count has been low and the vast majority of people infected with novel H1N1 have recovered without medical intervention, we need to remember that flu season has not yet begun.

We don’t know if we have only seen the first wave of the year or if novel H1N1 will behave as the majority of influenza viruses in the past have behaved, circulating in a drifted form a year later with no discernable change in virility. Will we be hit with a second or third wave? Will its severity increase like the pandemic virus of 1918? No one knows.

So, once again, why the sense of panic? Some fear the disease, some fear the lack of vaccine, some fear the vaccines and fear the Vaccine Lab government will force us to take the shots, while others are convinced by conspiracy theories, believing the influenza to be manmade, created for profit by unscrupulous drug companies.

Newscasts remind us that flu shots are being produced, but there will not be enough initially for everyone. Those most at risk will receive the first shots. This approach, of course, makes the shots more desirable to those not deemed high risk and strikes a bit of fear into the hearts of everyone eagerly awaiting a shot.

Many fear the hurriedly produced novel H1N1 flu vaccine will be rushed to market without the usual precautions, especially since new laws have granted further protections to drug companies should their vaccines prove dangerous or fatal.

Those opposed to vaccines fear the government may mandate vaccinations for adults and children. In the wake of controversy regarding vaccine injury and links to autism, Alzheimer’s disease, and other neurologically-based diseases, mandated vaccinations, especially shots with thermisal (mercury), are unacceptable to many. Though the drug companies removed thermisal from most of the childhood vaccines, flu shots have remained the exception.

Others have spread theories that novel H1N1 is a manmade virus, created by drug companies for profit, while those familiar with genetic re-assortment believe the origin of the disease to be an industrial pig farm in Mexico, where 950 hogs are raised in filthy conditions, which provide both the animals and the environment to breed disease and spread it through water contamination, flies and other insects.

If either the morbidity or the mortality rates rise sharply, our government may close schools and day care centers, limit or ban sports events and concerts as well as any other congregations, and recommend that businesses stagger working hours and encourage telecommunicating. Those with active infections will be asked to stay home for 10-14 days, their unaffected family members for 7 days. We will all be encouraged to wash our hands often and to get a shot–or two–or three. One is for seasonal flu, one or two will be offered for novel H1N1.

Your best defense is to get healthy and stay healthy. Don’t eat sugar; it depresses your immune system. If you do contract the flu, remember to rest and drink a lot of fluids. Try lemonade sweetened with stevia; it’s great hot or cold.

We don’t know if we have only seen the first wave of the year or if novel H1N1 will behave as the majority of influenza viruses in the past have behaved, circulating in a drifted form a year later with no discernable change in virility. Will we be hit with a second or third wave? Will its severity increase like the pandemic virus of 1918? No one knows.

So, once again, why the sense of panic? Some fear the disease, some fear the lack of vaccine, some fear the government will force us to take the shots, while others are convinced the influenza is manmade, created for profit by unscrupulous drug companies.

Newscasts remind us that flu shots are being produced, but there will not be enough initially for everyone. Those most at risk will receive the first shots. This approach, of course, makes the shots more desirable to those not deemed high risk and strikes a bit of fear into the hearts of everyone eagerly awaiting a shot.

Many fear the hurriedly produced novel H1N1 flu vaccine will be rushed to market without the usual precautions, especially since new laws have granted further protections to drug companies should their vaccines prove dangerous or fatal.

Only time will tell whether the Swine Flu hysteria was justified.

Who Owns Your Body?

If you think the U.S. Constitution guarantees its citizens the right to refuse a compulsory vaccination program, think again. It never has. Mandatory vaccination laws date back to 1809, giving states and municipalities the right to enforce compulsory vaccination under police powers, which are designed to protect the public health and safety. Children are required to be vaccinated to attend day care centers and schools, young adults are required to show proof of vaccinations to attend college, and soldiers must submit to vaccinations required by the military.¹

Currently exemptions are allowed for medical and religious reasons. Some states allow exemptions for philosophical or moral convictions. But what will happen if we face a public health emergency—real or contrived? The governor, the state board of health, or the state health officer may expand compulsory vaccinations for children and adults in response to bioterrorism or a pandemic and can choose to levy fines and/or force quarantine for those who refuse.

On June 11, 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the flu pandemic alert for the influenza A virus H1N1 (called Swine Flu) to a level 6, the highest level. WHO’s July 6th update reports 94,512 laboratory confirmed cases and 429 deaths worldwide. The United States of America reports the highest number of cases with a total of 33,902 laboratory confirmed cases and 170 deaths. To clearly see the increase rate, compare these numbers to the CDC’s July 24th update report of 43,771 cases of novel H1N1 in the United States and 302 reported deaths. ²

Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO’s Director General,reports, “…the overwhelming majority of patients experience mild symptoms and make a rapid and full recovery, often in the absence of any form of medical treatment.” So far, the pandemic is of moderate severity, though this could change. “The virus writes the rules and this one, like all influenza viruses, can change the rules, without rhyme or reason, at any time.” Severity can also vary from one country to another due to many factors.

Though most of the severe and fatal infections were reported from adults 30-50 years of age, the majority of cases in areas of “large and sustained outbreaks” have occurred in people under 25. Dr. Chan warns we are still in the early stages of this pandemic and that countries who have seen a peak in cases should prepare for a second wave. She also states, “I understand that production of vaccines for seasonal influenza will be completed soon, and that full capacity will be available to ensure the largest possible supply of pandemic vaccine in the months to come.” ³

Influenza pandemics can indeed result in widespread morbidity and fatalities. We have only to look back to the pandemic of 1918-1919, the Spanish Flu, which infected one-third of the world’s population and killed 50 million of the approximately 500 million it infected.4 (Wikipedia and the CDC ⁵ state that the number of deaths could have actually been as high as 100 million). Many died within hours of their first flu symptoms from virulent pneumonia. The Spanish flu was a H1N1 Influenza A subtype, as is the current Swine Flu (or novel H1N1),⁴ though the current pandemic flu is obviously a less virulent strain.

If you follow news reports on the current pandemic, you will notice nearly every report reminds us that a vaccination is in development and will soon be available.

Though the historical and legal precedence was already in place for mandatory inoculations, fears of an avian flu pandemic early in this decade set government wheels in motion. President Obama was one of five senators to introduce the Pandemic Preparedness and Response Act in October of 2005, a bill that was not passed. However, the fear of an avian flu outbreak and the looming threat of bio-terrorism did result in recent laws that further pave the way for compulsory vaccinations if the government declares the need while holding the drug companies harmless if death or illness results from vaccinations: The Project BioShield Act of 2004 (S. 15) and The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act (2006) are two examples.

The Project BioShield Act further erodes safeguards for safety of vaccinations by expediting and streamlining the approval process in case of a health emergency. The three main components of Project BioShield are:

• Ensuring that resources are available to pay for vaccines and other drugs
• Speeding up NIH research and development by authorizing NIAID to accelerate the normal contracting, scientific peer review, and approval processes
• Providing new emergency-use authorization for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for medical treatments that have not been formally approved and licensed ⁷

The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act allows the Health and Human Services Secretary to declare an epidemic or disease to be a national emergency. The current pandemic has been declared a national health emergency and anti-viral drugs which have not been approved for young children will now be allowed due to the emergency. Some believe this act allows the HHS secretary to mandate vaccinations. The language is unclear. There is no question that HHS purchases the vaccine, stockpiles the vaccine, pays the states to distribute vaccines, decides who will first receive vaccines, and so forth.

A level 6 pandemic is characterized by the person to person spread of disease with community level outbreaks, in at least 2 countries in more than one WHO region. The level system does not take into account severity or mortality.⁶ The United States has declared the pandemic to be a national emergency. The question now is what criteria will be used to mandate vaccinations?

1. Congressional Research Service, CRS Report for Congress
2. World Health Organization website Pandemic (H1N1)
3. Statement by WHO director, Margaret Cho on April 29, 2009
4. Pandemic, Wikipedia
5. 1918 Influenza: the Mother of All Pandemics, Jeffery K. Taubenberger and David M. Morens
6. World Health Organization website
7. Planning for the Unthinkable: Preparation and Response in Public Health, HHS website, media kit.

1. Conventional doctors are egotistical, brainwashed drug pushers who know nothing about health.
Yes, there are some good doctors out there, but unfortunately doctors typically don’t know anything about health. Their expertise lies in disease management and whatever the drug companies have told them.

2. Alternative health doctors and practitioners with their potions, herbs, creams, and supplements are typically no better than conventional doctors.

You may think that OLM is all about the alternative medicine practitioners. While we do feel that the best doctors in the world practice alternative medicine, we prefer a holistic naturopath who understands how the whole body works together. You can’t fix one symptom and/or one organ while ignoring a toxic lifestyle and expect the body to work right. The biggest problem with doctors of both the conventional and alternative varieties is that they tend to think that their one area of expertise, be it drugs, surgery, herbs, or chiropractic, is the answer to everything. First and foremost, if you want to be healthy, you need to adopt a natural, healthy lifestyle. And if your doctor doesn’t address this, he or she’s not the doctor for you. It should be noted that most doctors who say they take a holistic approach do not, and they still have a lot to learn about what really is a healthy lifestyle. You’d be surprised to know how many doctors don’t even know what essential fatty acids are (they think they do, but they don’t).
3. Complementary alternative medicine is for people who can’t make up their minds.

In most cases of complementary alternative medicine, the “alternative” part is so weak and’ half-assed” that there would be no positive results without the conventional medicine. However, with the conventional medicine, it’s extremely hard to get anywhere with alternative medicine because you are too busy adding chemicals to your body.

4. Medicine is very rarely used to restore health.

Whether it be alternative or conventional, medicine is typically used to cover up symptoms so that one can go about a toxic lifestyle unhampered.

5. Health and fitness are not the same thing.

Look at Lance Armstrong! While he is a remarkable man, and a hero in many respects by most standards, he had to be in extremely poor health to get cancer. Health and fitness can go very well together, but they are not synonymous. Powerbars, gelpacks, protein powders, creatine, Gatorade, and caffeine are not healthy.

6. Healthcare in America and most of our modern societies is all about illness –
not about health.

It’s about treating and managing illness. The goal is to make patients feel good enough
to carry their illness through their toxic lifestyles. When is the last time you heard of the
modern medical establishment coming up with a cure for anything?

7. The majority of supplements sold are ineffective.

Synthetic vitamins, fillers, undigestible minerals; the list goes on. Forget buying quality supplements at your local drug store, GNC, multi-level marketing sources, or even at most health food stores. At best, most supplements are weak and ineffective. At worst, supplements are toxic and actually cause deficiencies.
8. Vaccines do more damage than good.

This article is not here to argue whether or not vaccines can eradicate disease. But there are too many vaccines, they contain toxic ingredients, and they are damaging the health of our children. It’s out of control! Why more people don’t see this is absolutely amazing!

9. Pharmacies are the unhealthiest places to be.

There isn’t anything healthy at a pharmacy!

10. There is a cure for cancer, diabetes, and most of the other illnesses plaguing us today.

The cure is a natural, healthy lifestyle. Raymond Francis says it best, “There is only one disease, cell malfunction. There are two causes, toxicity and deficiency.”

11. You and only you are responsible for your own health.

The easy part is accepting this. The hard part is undoing the brainwashing most people have had. Health is much simpler than we make it out to be. Eat mostly raw, nutrient dense foods as free of toxins as you can find. If most of your diet consists of raw fresh fruits and vegetables that have been grown properly (in rich soil), you will prevent almost every disease plaguing man today, and eradicate most as well.

12. Ignore the top disclaimer. That’s only for us not to get sued.

Note: Please remember, the entire list, including number 12 is what we would say only if we had no concern of lawsuits, but we do.

Recently, a couple of federal budget analysts from Washington, D.C., wondered about the profits in pharmaceutical drugs and came up with some interesting figures. Turns out that to purchase the active ingredients for many drugs is often pennies, while a hundred dollar plus price tag is passed on to consumers.

They found that 100 tablets of 20 mg Prozac costs the consumer about $247.47, while the active ingredients only cost $0.11. Yes, that’s right: eleven cents for all one hundred tablets. It’s a 224,973 percent mark-up, a profit margin most business owners dream of – but could never get away with.

Even more profitable, Xanax customers regularly pay $136.79 for a hundred 1 mg tablets, while the active ingredients cost just under three cents. The mark-up is an unbelievable 569,958 percent.

Of course, the active ingredients aren’t the only expense in making these chemical concoctions. Drug companies regularly pay more than a million dollars per drug to their regulators, the FDA, in order to put their drug on the market. Exorbitant fees, which all too often beg the question about any real regulation taking place when the regulatory agency is funded by those it’s supposed to be regulating.

If you were regulating the person writing your paychecks, how hard would you be on them? Maybe, perhaps, you’d cater to them? Catering is exactly what a group of FDA scientists told Congress was happening at the drug approval agency in a letter last October.

In connection to the letter the New York Times reported, “The scientists have documentary evidence that senior agency managers ‘corrupted the scientific review of medical devices’ by ordering experts to change their opinions and conclusions in violation of the law.”

Wow, change their opinions and conclusions. Could this be done in the name of profits, not protection or health? And if this is done at the FDA, the regulatory agency, how credible are studies funded directly by drug companies and their paid researchers, on staff or university bound?

Then, of course, there’s the advertising expense.

A 2008 study found that pharmaceutical companies spend about 24 percent of their sales dollars on advertising and promotion, in contrast to just 13.4 percent on research and development. This promotional expense includes direct to consumer advertising and the continual wooing and “educating” of doctors – their front line sales force.

solution to anything that ails the body. They’re being hit with the message in-person, from drug reps, about 5 times each working day.

Combine that with the fact that drug companies are funding professors at medical schools, the universities themselves, and university bound researchers, and you’ll get an even clearer picture of why medical doctors think drugs are the only viable avenue in health care.

At Harvard Medical School, about 1,600 professors and lecturers confessed earlier this year that they or a family member were taking pharmaceutical dollars. They admitted this after being required to, upon pressure from students protesting the undue role of the drug companies in their education.

Of course, these dollars play a large role in determining what is taught and studied, what is not, and exactly how the findings are presented. UCSF researchers took a look at 192 published studies comparing different drugs and determined that the source of funding for a drug trial greatly influenced the outcome. They found that if the results favored a drug it was “about 20 times more likely” to have been funded by the manufacturer of that drug.

Now, factor into the equation that the pharmaceutical industry spends more to lobby government officials than any other sector, and it’s all too clear why drugs are the dominant health care solution promoted today.

A 2005 investigation by the Center for Public Integrity found that in the seven years prior, the pharmaceutical and health products industry spent more than $675 million to lobby for the influence of public officials, saying it’s lobbying operation is “the biggest in the nation” and that “no other industry has spent more money to sway public policy in that period.” When you combine campaign contributions with those lobbying costs, the drug industry was outdone only by the insurance industry, with which it has close connections.

So if you were wondering where all of those excessive drug profits were going, now you know. They’re buying influence with the FDA, media, doctors, medical schools, professors, researchers and last but not least, politicians. They’re all on the payroll with plenty of extra money to go around. Wonder what each of those influential sources will prescribe for you?

Resources:

Obscene Drug Mark Ups

• -Prescription Drug User Fee Rates for Fiscal Year 2009
• -F.D.A. Scientists Accuse Agency Officials of Misconduct
• -Big Pharma Spends More On Advertising Than Research And Development, Study Finds
• -Beyond Advertising: The Pharmaceutical Industry’s Hidden Marketing Tactics
• -Pitching Doctors
• -Drug Lobby Second to None
• -Pharmaceutical Giants Establish Fund for Animal Research
• -Drug Company Funding Of Drug Trials Greatly Influences Outcome
• -Harvard Medical School in Ethics Quandary

Reprinted with permission from NaturalNews.com

Just say the words gonads, testosterone or any of the unprintable slang associated with testicles, sex, and male virility and you’ll get a laugh or at least amused looks. Now, say those words again, but in a context that says, “You’re going to lose that capability, son,” and watch what happens. The collective scream you hear is shrill enough to replace the air raid sirens America abandoned in the 1980s.

New research so fresh that it hasn’t yet appeared in a journal article says flat out that eating sugar reduces testosterone levels in the blood by up to 25 percent across the board. The researchers found 74 men at Massachusetts General Hospital with a range of tolerances to glucose (42 normal blood sugar, 23 impaired glucose tolerance “prediabetic” and 9 actually with Type-2 Diabetes) and gave them 75g of a glucose solution. In many cases, the effect lasted at least 2 hours after ingestion and affected all types of men in the study. Of 66 men listed as having normal testosterone levels in a fasting state before the test, 10 developed a hypogonadal (low testosterone) state at some point during the two hours of the test.ⁱ

The actual intent of the research funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Diabetes Association was to refine testing methods for low testosterone levels. Current methodology says to test the man in the morning on two different days and get an average reading to see if the man is truly hypogondal or if the low testosterone will pick up later. So far, no one has said that a man should fast before taking the blood test—until now.

The link between sugar, insulin, obesity, diabetes, the metabolic syndrome and testosterone levels had been touched on in other research that has come out recently. Only these researchers worked backwards relative to this new study; they took people with known elements of the metabolic syndrome (diabetes, obesity, and heart disease) and tested their testosterone levels. Many subjects had low testosterone.

In recent research conducted in Berlin, the conclusion read in part “Lower total testosterone and sex-hormone-binding-globulin (SHBG) predict a higher incidence of the metabolic syndrome…Administration of testosterone to hypogondal men reverses the unfavorable risk profile for the development of diabetes and atherosclerosis.”ⁱⁱ

In Finland where similar research is regularly conducted the researchers came up with this gem: “Low total testosterone and SHBG levels independently predict development of the metabolic syndrome and diabetes in middle-aged men. Thus, hypoandrogenism (hypogondal) is an early marker for disturbances in insulin and glucose metabolism that may progress to the metabolic syndrome or frank diabetes.” ⁱⁱⁱ

It seems that these previous studies were waiting for someone else to have a “The Emperor Seems Naked” moment and try out the inverse of their results in which you give sugar to mostly healthy people and see what happens. No longer should low testosterone be considered just a symptom of the metabolic syndrome, but as what both are…a result of too much sugar in our diet.

We at Nancy Appleton Books have already touched on sugar causing the metabolic syndrome in previous articles like 140 Reasons Why Sugar Ruins Your Health. In it we make simple declarative statements about many of sugar’s ill effects:

• Sugar can increase fasting levels of glucose.iv
• Sugar can cause hypoglycemia.viii
• Sugar can lead to obesity.v
• Sugar can cause heart disease.vii
• Sugar can cause metabolic
• syndrome.viii

One way sugar lowers testosterone is through its effect on the adrenal glands.ix
Sugar taxes the adrenal glands and these glands interrelate with the sex hormone glands (testes and ovaries) that produce testosterone and estrogen.^x

These ailments listed above are elements of and highly associated with the metabolic syndrome, which we have linked to the excessive intake of sugar. The research in Massachusetts says that sugar causes low testosterone. Similar research around the world says that low testosterone is highly associated with the various elements of the metabolic syndrome. So how many times do we have to enjoy the circular logic before we simply say that sugar causes both the low testosterone and the ailments in the metabolic syndrome? Put more simply, sugar kills in a multitude of ways and this one affects men where they really live, in the bedroom.

Related Reading:

• Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases
• Hypothyroidism – Natural Remedies, Causes, and How To Heal the Thyroid
• How I Lost Over 150 Pounds, and How My Life Changed
• Is Your Gut Health Making You Fat?
• Healthy Sugar Alternatives & More

The miracle berry or miracle fruit is a little red berry that changes the way our taste buds respond to acids. When a berry is chewed, the tongue becomes coated with a protein called miraculin. Miraculin alters the taste buds for 30 minutes to two hours causing lemon juice to taste sweet and goat cheese tastes like cheesecake. Even Tabasco sauce tastes like a sugar glaze.

Miracle fruit is not new. West African tribes have been eating these berries for hundreds of years and they have been known by the West for nearly 300 years.

In the 1970s the Miralin Company tried to bring miracle fruit products to the U.S. market. Initial conversations with the FDA were favorable for approving miracle fruit under the GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) Category, the category used by the FDA for foods that have a long history of being eaten with no deleterious side effects. Since miracle berries had been eaten for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, they clearly met the requirements for this approval. But as the time neared for the FDA’s final ruling, strange events occurred. Miralin employees reported they were followed home by strange cars. Their offices were photographed. Files were stolen in a break-in. Anonymous articles were printed in a Jamaican newspaper (where the company owned berry farms) bashing the company and the product. Within weeks Miralin’s request for GRAS status was denied. The Miralin Company never did succeed in bringing miracle fruit products to market. Due to the FDA ruling, the company folded. The FDA denies the claim that pressure from the artificial sweetener companies or the sugar industry led to their unfavorable ruling.

Today the miracle berry is once again gaining attention. Freeze dried tablets and fresh berries can be purchased through the Internet. Fresh berries sell for $2.00-$2.50 each and have a short shelf life. Freeze dried tables sell for around $15.00 for a pack of 18.

If these prices are too steep, consider growing your own. Miracle berry plants are an attractive leafy evergreen with shiny leaves, which can be grown in frost-free climates as well as indoors. If planted in the right soil and carefully tended, they will bear fruit within three years.

So, if you’re interested in taste-tripping, include miracle berries and a taste-treat buffet for your next party.