GUT WRENCHING! Tell FDA to remove toxin, making us sick, from food

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Rates of digestive diseases are rising—ranging from widespread digestive discomfort (“belly bloat,” “spastic colon,” Irritable Bowel Syndrome) to serious and sometimes life-threatening diseases such as ulcerative colitis and colon cancer.

For decades, scientists conducting laboratory animal experiments using the common food additive carrageenan have found higher rates of gastrointestinal inflammation, colitis-like disease, and even colon cancer.

Carrageenan is a convenient and unique food additive for the food industry, and selling carrageenan is a profitable enterprise for a handful of chemical corporations. For decades, these companies have spread misinformation—often, outright lies—about carrageenan’s safety.

Carrageenan can be found in many foods, even foods labeled “natural” and “organic.” It is widely used in dairy products (chocolate milk, whipping cream, ice cream, nonfat sour cream), frozen dinners, dairy alternatives (soy milk, coconut milk, almond milk), prepared poultry and cold cuts, nutritional drinks, and even infant formula.

And who has been more than willing to listen to the corporate scientists rather than to the scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health? That’s right: the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In June 2012, the FDA rejected a citizen petition by the nation’s preeminent publicly funded scientist and carrageenan expert, who formally requested that carrageenan be removed from our food supply.

 

http://www.cornucopia.org/carrageenanfda/#petition

Low vitamin D levels can alter your gene expression

Mon. Apr.1, 2013 by Blanche Levine

Antibiotic News(NaturalHealth365) Low vitamin D levels can be the most damaging influence on our genetic health, according to professor George Ebers, Action Medical Research professor of Clinical Neurology and one of the senior authors of published scientific research.

What are the capabilities of vitamin D?

Researchers, at the University of Oxford, have shown the extent in which vitamin D interacts with our DNA. The researchers found 2,776 binding sites from the vitamin D receptor along the length of the genome. These are the ones unusually concentrated near a number of genes associated with autoimmune conditions such as MS, Crohn’s disease, systemic lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and cancers such as, lymphocytic leukemia and colorectal cancer. (more…)

The peppermint herb offers outstanding health benefits

Cold Shower News The peppermint herb is considered by many cultures to be a true “superfood”. Superfoods are foods and herbs that have a unique concentration of nutrients that synergize together to boost potential. These foods and herbs are typically loaded with a combination of critical fatty acids, anti-oxidant phytonutrients and essential amino acids.

Peppermint is a natural hybrid cross between mint and spearmint and thrives in Europe and North America. The plant and oil are commonly used in fragrances, soaps, cosmetics, foods and drinks. Peppermint has been shown to improve digestion and stimulate higher level brain function. (more…)

How to calm IBS without prescription drugs

More than 50 million Americans suffer from some form of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a mysterious health condition that can manifest itself in many forms including upset stomach, constipation, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, flatulence, and heartburn. Though distinctly less severe than inflammatory bowel conditions like Crohn’s disease, which can cause damaging ulcers in the bowel, IBS is still a greatly discomforting condition that deprives its victims of vitality and well-being. (more…)

A Gluten for Punishment: the Whole Grain Assault on Health

 
Nathan Daley, MD, MPH

Waking Times

From Few to You

Among thoughtful and informed medical providers and public alike, there is an ongoing transition toward recognizing adverse health effects from grains as being common and normal rather than rare and abnormal.  Not all medical providers, of course, support this change in perspective and some are downright hostile toward it.  Likewise, a segment of the public seems to be irritated by the gluten free trend and consider it just a silly fad.

Yet, if medicine is to be science based, no credible medical provider can dismiss the possibility that a large proportion of the U.S. (and possibly world) population may be sensitive to certain molecules present in most grains.  Similarly, those that belittle the gluten free movement as a fad might, in fact, be an unknowing victim of grain sensitivity.

Celiac disease may have been described by the ancient physician Aretaeus of Cappadocia in the first century CE.  It was not until the 1940′s, however, that the Dutch physician Willem Karel Dicke connected the disease to wheat as a result of the Dutch famine of 1944, in which wheat was scarce and those suffering from the disease seemed to dramatically improve.  Since that time, modern medicine has narrowly defined the disease as an autoimmune disease resulting from the ingestion of gliadin, a component of wheat gluten. (more…)

Root Causes of Autoimmune Illness

You have countless immune cells in every corner of your body that are constantly working to keep you healthy by identifying, packaging, and eliminating harmful substances that have made their way into your blood.

If your immune system falters and begins to identify some of your own tissues as being harmful or unnecessary, it will work to attack and eliminate these tissues through an inflammatory response that can cause pain and discomfort in many forms – this is how autoimmune illness develops. (more…)

Inflammatory bowel, ulcerative colitis linked to intestinal fungi

Intestinal fungusA microscopic image of an intestinal fungus. (Iliyan Iliev / Cedars-Sinai Medical Center / June 8, 201

Bacteria in the gut play a crucial role in human health, and imbalances in bacterial populations can contribute to many disorders. New research suggests that fungi, though not as common in the intestines as bacteria, may also play a role in causing and modulating disease. (more…)