His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.

Sir Winston Churchill.

Work like you don’t need the money.

Live like it’s Heaven on Earth.

Plague Makers

Starting in the 1960s, doctors began switching patients with resistant staph to methecillin. This change worked for a time, but of course the staph bacteria just evolved to methecillin like it did to penicillin. Apparently the doctors don’t understand evolutionary biology.

And just as with penicillin, by 1992, approximately 40% of these penicillin-resistant staph infections were resistant to methecillin as well (New England Journal of Medicine, 28 Apr 94.)

Thus by 1993, only one drug remained that could kill staph: Vancomycin. Of course, as of 2009, that is no longer true as many strains of staph that are resistant to vancomycin, penicillin and methecillin. So what will they use instead of vancomycin? Nothing. They’ve run out of miracle cures.

Resistant streptococcus infections have made headlines in the past few years when the patients dies a gruesome death from the “flesh-eating disease”

Today 30% of strep pneumoniae strains are resistant to penicillin, which once was nearly 100% effective. 30% of gonorrhea cases are resistant to both penicillin and tetracycline, while just ten years ago they were almost 100% effective. Now the CDC no longer recommends these two drugs for gonorrhea.

According to Fred Tenover, PhD of the Centers for Disease Control:

“We even have some strains [of streptococcus] now, although not all, that are resistant essentially to all of our clinically useful antibiotics.”

The Era of Superbugs

Every year 70,000 Americans die from bacterial infections they caught in the hospital, and which no antibiotic could cure. Of the 40 million patients hospitalized every year, 2 million acquire infections after they get to the hospital. (New England Journal of Medicine, Apr 94)

That’s a 1 in 20 chance. As many as 60% of those 2 million infections involve antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

In some ICUs, there can be as high as a 70% chance of nosocomial infection! (Nosocomial means acquired in hospital.)

Tuberculosis

At the turn of the 20^th century, tuberculosis was the leading cause of death in the U.S.

The newly discovered antibiotics worked wonderfully to control it, for a time. However, there is no more control, as MDR TB is becoming increasingly common. MDR TB stands for Multiple Drug-Resistant TB. MDR TB means resistant to one or more of the five drugs used to treat TB. Isoniazid and rifampin are the two main TB drugs. By 1991, 42% of new TB patients in New York City were resistant to one of these two drugs, and 60% of relapses were resistant to them both. So in other words, they gave one drug, got temporary remission, and then relapsed with a strain resistant to both!

And worse still, many strains of TB are resistant to all five drugs and predictably the problem is getting worse by the year. According to the World Health Organization, such cases are generally fatal. The WHO predicts that in the next decade, world deaths from TB will increase from 3 million to 30 million!

So motivated by fear are some doctors they have gone on record that they personally would not venture into certain inner city areas of New York City because of the danger of TB infection.

TB is a mycobacterium, this means they can survive in tissues for years, in a dormant state, waiting for an opportunity like a depressed immune system to become active again.

What are doctors doing about this situation of antibiotic resistance? Because of their control of information, most people today are unaware of the extent of drug resistance.

So even if you encounter a doctor who is cautious enough to tell you that you or your child doesn’t need an antibiotic at the first sign of a sniffle, patients will often go to another doctor to get antibiotics.

Thus, most physicians will just write the script as a convenience to their patients—remember they need repeat business to pay their bills and if their patients decide they are not a good source of prescriptions, they could lose their patients. Some studies have shown 10 out of 10 doctors will prescribe an antibiotic for minor colds, without taking a culture. By age nine the average child in the US has already had 17 courses of antibiotics. This is really one major part of the problem. But why?

The problem is called attenuation. It means that not enough of the bacteria are killed.

The three main reasons why this happens are:

1. Many people stop taking the antibiotic as soon as they feel better. They do this to save money. They do it because they don’t understand their contribution to the problem of drug resistance by doing so.
2. Even if people take the full course, no process is 100% efficient so some bugs manage to survive even a full course because of a mutation they posses.
3. If you have cold or flu symptoms, it could be from any of hundreds of viruses. So why give antibiotics, which only kill bacteria? In case you develop a “secondary” bacterial infection as a “complication” of the viral infection.

Leave Those Kids Alone

It starts at birth, children in most jurisdictions are required to have erythromycin ointment put in their eyes immediately after birth. This is because their mothers may have a venereal disease that could cause the child to go blind if it never saw a doctor again. The laws requiring this were passed in the 19^th century, before antibiotics (they initially required silver nitrate). Plus if the mother tests positive for any of a number of bacteria like GBH, the mother will be put on IV antibiotics while in labor.

Ear infections are another cause for antibiotic use. At the slightest sign of redness around the ear, or the slightest sniffle, any “good” mother will take her baby to see a doctor for a prescription of antibiotics.

Yet according to the NEJM (28 Jan 99) at least 41% of ear infections are caused by a virus. But they get antibiotics anyway. The drug of choice is amoxicillin, even though doctors have known since 1991 that kids who take amoxicillin for ear infection have a 2-6 times greater chance of recurring infection than kids who don’t. (JAMA, 18 Dec 1991)

Every time a child takes antibiotics unnecessarily, at least three things happen:

1. They gets better
2. Their immune system gets weaker, making recurrent infections more likely
3. The same type of antibiotics won’t work the next time, because the bugs that survived will still be present.

Most of the time, the child would have recovered anyway, without drugs, just like they did for all those centuries before antibiotics and like they increasingly do now if they have a drug resistant infection.

Kids are supposed to be sick sometimes, just like trees are supposed to be in storms. It’s how they build a strong immune system. Our kids are the most overdrugged, overprotected, artificially nourished kids and as a result are among the sickest, most allergic, most asthmatic, and most overweight children in the world.

It starts with the infant’s immune system being unnecessarily weakened by inappropriate antibiotics from over-protective parents and from doctors rightfully fearful of litigation and from drug companies hungry for a profit.

Back to the environment

The human body has about 10 trillion cells and 100 trillion bacteria, most in the gut. Antibiotics are relatively un-selective in the bacteria they kill. So when you take a full course of antibiotics, you severely weaken your immune system since the gut is such a large part of the immune system.

There are about 300 species of beneficial bacteria, or probiotics, in the gut which are necessary for many life functions, including complete digestion, absorption of vitamins and nutrients, and countering potentially pathological bacteria.

It can take months for the body to rebuild its normal bacteria.

The pervasiveness of antibiotics throughout the world from pills, food, and the animals we eat has promoted the survival of resistant bacteria. Scientists have found antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the bodies of African tribesmen who live in total isolation from civilization, with no access to drugs.

In the 60 years since their introduction, virtually everyone has developed some degree of immunity to antibiotics. The mutant, drug resistant strains are now normal. The more we take antibiotics, the more we destroy the older non-resistant strains. All that’s left is the mutant strains.

The National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, and the World Health Organization agree on one idea: antibiotic resistance will be the number one health challenge of the 21st century. Infections with no cure will be the area in which we will see the greatest increase in the death rate.

One hidden source of antibiotics is food. There are no reliable numbers, but it’s estimated that up to 75% of the antibiotics produced in this country, which totals 50 million pounds per annum, according to federal statistics, are given to animals like poultry and cattle. 80% of animal antibiotics are given to promote growth, not health. Antibiotics are also used extensively on fruit trees and other plants, and even in fish hatcheries. Food processing does not destroy the antibiotics. When we take them in with the food, many of these animal antibiotics are still strong enough to have an effect on our body’s bacteria. This further complicates the problem of resistance. Today people may be resistant to antibiotics they never even got from the doctor.

The animal antibiotics are getting stronger all the time. According to the Journal of the South American Veterinary Association, 1996, a recent antibiotic called salinomycin was given to a herd of cattle. The drug killed 10% of the cattle from heart failure!

Even the FDA has known about the spillover of antibiotics from animals to humans for a long time. As far back as 1976, FDA Commissioner Donald Kennedy was publicly campaigning to ban antibiotics from animal feed. (New Eng J Med, 9 Sep 1976) Lobbying from the drug companies won out, and high dosages in livestock continue to the present time.

Part 4 Part 6

In just 50 years antibiotics are well on their way to becoming obsolete. And the reason is that nature adapts faster than we can innovate. Antibiotics first came out as a nearly miraculous cure for common infections. But little thought was ever given to two key questions:

1. Why do some people get infections and others do not?
2. How will infectious agents respond to antibiotics over time?

The history of antibiotics and the antibiotic-age that they ushered in involves several historical figures, some famous, some not so famous. Men like Pasteur, Bechamp, Koch, Bernard, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Fleming, all had a hand in it.

Whenever there is an outbreak of disease there are always people that never get sick and sick people that don’t die. So why is that? The answer is nutrition. But unfortunately modern medicine and nutrition researchers don’t see it that way. And this is the core of a long brewing controversy in science.

In France during the 1870s, three scientists were conducting experiments with yeast, and the newly discovered micro-organisms called bacteria. All were conducting similar research and there was a great deal of borrowing in the competition for novel discoveries. There were two french men, Louis Pasteur, Antoine Bechamp, and a German, Robert Koch. These individuals worked independently and each knew that he was onto a whole new area of human discovery, and the race was on to influence the medical world and make a fortune.

Pasteur won the race of politics and influence and today students memorize that Louis Pasteur “discovered” the Germ Theory. Not only is this inaccurate, but Germ Theory itself is unsubstantiated even today. Pasteur himself, recanted the theory and admitted that his rivals had been right, and that it was not the germ that caused the disease, but rather the environment in which the germ was found.

The Germ Theory

Germ Theory states that there are separate diseases and that each disease is caused by a particular micro-organism. It is the job of science to find the right drug or vaccine that would selectively kill off the offending bug without killing the patient.

Sounds like a good idea at first. But nature is a moving target–both the infectious agent and host.

Bacteria and viruses are “environment-specific.” That’s why some people get the flu and others do not and why some die and some do not. That’s why some doctors and nurses are immune to disease even though they’re surrounded by it day in and day out.

Deepak Chopra tells a story where the influenza virus was isolated and implanted directly onto the mucous membranes of a group of subjects, with only 12% of them getting the flu. If it was the germ and not the environment (subject), then more people should have gotten sick. Instead what happened is that 88% of the subjects were able to fight off the virus.

The Germ Theory is weak and Pasteur knew it, hence the death bed confession. But Pasteur had a gift for self-promotion. He would never let his research keep him from an opportunity to address royalty or a medical society at a prestigious university.

He was well published, frequently quoted, and given practically every honorary title and chair in Europe. The record establishes fairly clearly that Pasteur “borrowed” research for some of his most famous discoveries, and then capitalized on his celebrity of being there first.

Before his death, Pasteur left instruction not to release over 10,000 pages of lab notes after his death. It wasn’t until 1975, after the death of his grandson, that the secret notes were finally made public. Professor Geison, a historian from Princeton, made a thorough study of the papers. He presented his findings to The American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston in 1993. Dr. Geison concluded that Pasteur published a great deal of fraudulent data and was guilty of multiple counts of scientific misconduct, violating rules of medicine, science, and ethics.

Both Koch and Pasteur were motivated by money and fame. In the race for an anthrax vaccine, not only did Pasteur not test it on animals before using human subjects; it was also established that Pasteur actually stole the formula from Toussaint, a colleague. Toussaint died a few months later of a nervous breakdown after being unable to prove his claim at the time.

Part 2

Antoine Bechamp

In 1932 a booked titled “Bechamp or Pasteur?” was published under the name E. Douglas Hume. Hume was actually a woman who had to ghostwrite under a male name to get her book published. Hume wrote about Antoine Bechamp, a contemporary of Pasteur. Bechamp was department chair at the University at Lille, France and the most respected professor and researcher at the time.

Bechamp was a talented and committed researcher who cared more for what was going on in the lab than awards, politics or personal appearances. He worked nearly everyday of his life until his death at age 93. Bechamp reasoned that it was not the pathogens that caused disease, but rather the condition in which pathogens lived. Disease happens when an imbalance causes some of pathologen (bacteria, viruses, yeast) to take over. What causes the imbalance? Poor nutrition, overloaded or weak immune system, stress. This seems like such a simple idea, but it is the fundamental question of the whole controversyto this day. Even Pasteur, agreed that pathogens do not cause disease alone. Dr. Price was convinced that the change from traditional diets high in vitamin A and D to “foods of commerce” was a significant factor in the rise of TB rates.

I encourage you to do a little research on Pasteur, you will discover the following:

• Pasteur had background no in medicine or physiology; he was trained as a chemist
• Pasteur likely created the disease known as “hydrophobia,” rather than found a cure for it.
• Pasteur started the horrific practise of vivisection. Still in use today, it is responsible for much needless suffering of animals.
• Pasteur was directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people inoculated with his unproven vaccines, and indirectly for thousands more when disease was introduced by other unproven procedures developed by Pasteur.
• Pasteur was more a merchant than a scientist, with his frequent reporting of false test findings and fraudulent data, which always had two purposes: self-promotion and profiteering from the sale of drugs and vaccines that were often made mandatory by legislators.
• Pasteur’s methods of treatment actually killed Alexander, the King of Greece, for a disease he did not even have.
• Pasteur frequently avoided working on naturally diseased subjects, instead he introduced the idea of inducing sickness by giving disease injections into healthy subjects.

As for his Germ Theory, there was a great deal of opposition to it among many researchers of the time.

In a lecture given in London 1911, M.L. Leverson, MD stated:

“The entire fabric of the germ theory of disease rests upon assumptions which not only have not been proved, but which are incapable of proof, and many of them can be proved to be the reverse of truth. The basic one of these unproven assumptions, wholly due to Pasteur, is the hypothesis that all the so-called infectious and contagious disorders are caused by germs.”

Rudolf Virchow,the discoverer of the cell theory, with respect to the Germ Theory, commented:

“Germs seek their natural habitat – diseased tissue – rather than being the cause of diseased tissue.”

Virchow thought that the presence of germs identified a tissue as diseased, and was not the cause of disease. A weakened or diseased tissue was a target for pathogens, providing a hospitable environment in which they can thrive. Quite different from germs having caused the weakened tissue in the first place.

Bechamp graphically showed the same idea when an amputated arm was brought into his lab. The patient’s elbow had developed gangrene within eight hours after a sever blow, amputation was the only option to save the patient. Bechamp began to examine the severed limb using his microscope. To his amazement he found no bacteria in the gangrenous tissue. After a few hours bacteria began to appear, where initially there were none. Bechamp’s associate, Professor Estor, remarked “Bacteria cannot be the cause of gangrene; they are the effects of it.”

Robert Koch

Robert Koch was racing against Pasteur to find the cause of anthrax, which was killing great numbers of cattle in Europe at the time. He took blood from the diseased cattle and isolated bacteria from it and injected mice with the bacteria. Of the mice that died, Koch cultured their blood and compared it to the original bacteria from the cattle. His postulates are still memorized by medical students the world over as the foundation of the Germ Theory:

1. The organism must be present in every case
2. Must be isolated
3. Must cause the disease in a healthy host
4. Must be isolated again

Each postulate has been proven false, both at the time and even today, but his postulates are still basic tenets of the Germ Theory “religion”. Both anthrax vaccines that Koch and Pasteur developed were near total failures, thousands of sheep all over Europe were killed as part of the “experiment”. Both Koch and Pasteur did everything possible to alter and cover up the results of these failures.

Strike two

Koch developed the first vaccine for tuberculosis, using his postulates. The vaccine was called “tuberculin”. In Berlin, 2000 patients were inoculated with tuberculin. They died at a higher rate than TB patients who hadn’t been treated at all. Tuberculin simply did not work.

Even more upsetting to Koch was the revelation that the Prussian government had made an exclusive agreement with Koch to sell tuberculin and share the profits. This was a political disaster for the Prussian government and a huge blow to Koch’s reputation. It was also an embarrassment for the cause of scientific medicine when the prestige of the scientific method suddenly suffered this failure. Koch never recovered his credibility and today is only remembered for his “Postulates.” However Koch helped arrange the marriage of science and marketing, for which divorce does not appear likely any time soon, especially at present.

Part 1 Part 3

Pasteur Wins

Pasteur’s ideas become the foundation of organized medicine more because of politics than science. But the main driver was pharmaceutical economics.

Pasteur was decorated by the Emperor Napoleon early in his career. This blessing from on high secured his position as the preeminent scientist of his day. Despite having no credentials at all in medicine or physiology he now had a license to steal so to speak.

Scientists at the time were grappling with mankind’s first look at fundamental questions about the nature of living matter.

• What makes something alive or dead?
• Where does the life force come from?
• Why do things rot, ferment, or decompose?
• Is there something in the air, or something inside the organism that has these effects?
• What effects can man-made chemicals have?

For the first time in history, we were beginning to answer these questions. Many discoveries were being made about these fundamental questions, but in fits amnd starts.

It was a great time for an opportunist like Pasteur to take advantage of the general uncertainty and lack of understanding. He could claim that he understood all the issues involved, and that he had thought of the answers first. Pasteur played both sides of an issue he didn’t understand, and then later, he would only quote the parts of his earlier writing that supported the later finding, always claiming that he had thought of it first.

The problem was that only scientists understood the complexities of these emerging ideas. The press, governments and the royal courts only knew that something important was going on. Though they didn’t know what, they would act as though they did. A huckster like Pasteur was the perfect frontman for these powerful elites. Power and politics never change. The same process that imprisoned Galileo for writing that the earth went around the sun, the elite’s eternal attempt to control the minds of the commoners, were the processes that cast Pasteur, into a position he did not deserve–the trailblazer in the science of modern biomedicine.

Like so many other things, a discovery doesn’t catch on until the commercial aspects of that discovery have been worked out. Howard Hencke, in his 1995 book The Germ Theory: A Deliberate Aberration, notes that it was critical for the new medical industry.

“… to indoctrinate the public in the Western world with the belief that the salvation from all, especially physical ailments, lay outside the individual’s system and responsibility, because it was caused by external factors…and that chemical remedies (drugs) will keep him free from disease, independent of his own vigilant responsibility.”

This is a marketing process.

Hume writes in Pasteur or Bechamp?:

“Had it not been for the mass selling of vaccines, Pasteur’s germ theory of disease would have collapsed into obscurity.”
- E. Douglas Hume

17 years before Pasteur, Florence Nightengale, the most famous nurse in history, said this:

“Diseases are not individuals arranged in classes like cats and dogs, but conditions growing out of one another. The specific disease is the grand refuge of the weak, uncultured, unstable minds, such as now rule in the medical profession. There are no specific diseases; there are specific disease conditions.”
F.N. 1860

The Doubters

From the beginning, the notoin of piercing the skin with a needle for any reason was suspect. Even more so was injecting novel proteins and chemical into what was supposed to be the inviolable environment of the circulatory system. Injections are a complete violation of natural laws.

Normally everything is introduced into the bloodstream by going through the complexity of the digestive system or the mucous membranes. This is how nature protects the blood from external attack. There were literally hundreds of researchers opposing inoculation:

“The most serious disorders may be provoked by the injection of living organisms into the blood…into a medium not intended for them may provoke redoubtable manifestations of the gravest morbid phenomena.”
- Bechamp

Walter Hadwen, MD, in his book Microbes and War notes that the Boer war itself killed 86,000 men. With a 100% inoculation rate, there were an additional 96,000 casualties from disease alone!

Dr. Montais studied 21 cases of tetanus, each had received a Pasteurian inoculation. His conclusion, which appeared in the 23 Oct 1915 issue of the Lancet, was that in every case, the tetanus had been caused by the inoculation. Dr. Montais concluded that “Pasteur had created a new form of disease.”

Pasteur began the fashion of studying artificial disease conditions: “inducing sickness by morbid injections in human and animal subjects, instead of studying naturally diseased subjects.”

Pasteur also began the practise of vivisection and other horrific animal experiments. In the natural state, animalstypically have different diseases from humans. But even the animals bodies are different. For example most animals can produce ascorbic acid, humans cannot. When sick animals can produce up to 100x more ascorbic acid than normal.This one error has led us down a very costly and ultimately fruitless path. It seems a folly to hope to cure human disease by giving animals diseases they would never have gotten in nature, pretending such diseases are the same ones we get, then seeing which drugs cover up the animal’s symptoms. We incorrectly conclude that those same drugs will have the same effect in humans. Mistaken as that sounds, it’s pretty much how many prescription drugs have made their way to market since Pasteur’s time.

So with many major researchers eventually coming around to the above conclusions, how is it that st the start of the 21st century, organized medicine still acts as though the Germ Theory is carved in stone and all policy proceeds from this premise? And most people still believe it? The answer is out there, it’s not hidden, but it’s also not well known or much talked about. Fast forward to the 1880s and 1890s. The Industrial Revolution has created massive wealth, two figures towered over this era, wielding more power over science, industry, finance, and politics than possibly anyone else in history: Andrew Carnegie and J.D. Rockefeller.

The amount of control Carnegie and Rockefeller had over most aspects of American life is something to marvel at and appreciate, even to the present day. Much like today, change was occurring faster than the politicians could control it, and for the first time in our history, control was firmly in the private sector. Many things changed, but the rise of organized medicine has had profound effects on how everyone, doctors and patients, think about disease, treatment and being healthy itself.

Before 1880, most medicine was a mosaic of folk remedies, herbs, crude surgery and dentistry, more so than today, there was much quackery. For centuries leading up to this point, there had not been much change in the area of medicine. Superstition was as much a part of medicine as the actual remedies themselves. The use of leeches and bleeding was still common, the reason being to “let out the bad blood,’” which was in the same category with getting rid of evil spirits. Even trepanation, drilling holes in the skull, which had been around since the time of the Pharaohs, was still being performed.

In Renaissance Europe, barbers and surgeons actually were the same people, combining the services of shaving, pulling teeth and blood-letting. The origin of the red and white striped barber-pole is well-known: an enterprising barber/surgeon, having just bled a famous nobleman, proudly displayed a bloody white towel used in the procedure by wrapping it around a pole outside his establishment. In the 1700s, King Edward IV of England instituted a corporation of “barber-chirurgiens”(surgeons) who performed the above services. This lasted until 1800 when King George II separated barbers and surgeons into two separate professions.

Among their many enterprises, Carnegie and Rockefeller controlled the oil and coal industries. By 1900, they began to realize that these industries were producing mountains of waste every year. What if these chemical waste materials could somehow be turned to profit? Medicines, were the answers. But novel medicines never seen before. Medicines made from chemicals: Pharmaceuticals.

Part 2 Part 4

Turning waste into medicine

Turning chemical waste material into profit by selling it as medicines was not initially accepted. At the time, people took natural cures and occasionally consulted a doctor for something “serious.” The best way to gain general acceptance of these new waste-based medicines became obvious: standardize the education, training, and credentialing of medical doctors and then raise their economic status to a level where they would follow these insane policies. In 1900 doctors were the lowest paid professionals.

In 1904 Andrew Carnegie noted that workers in his factories made more money than most doctors. Working with Henry Pritchett, the president of MIT, Carnegie donated $10 million to set up the Carnegie Foundation. Originally it’s purpose was to be a pension fund for retiring professors. However, with money like that comes tremendous power. Carnegie used that power to control education. The name was changed to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and Pritchett expanded its original purpose to be “a great agency devoted to strengthening American education through scientific inquiry and policy studies.”

Whenever a billionaire tells you they’re going to devote themselves to something for your betterment, better check your wallet. The Foundation became very successful, controlling educational standards. It worked like this; to qualify for the pension system, an institution had to meet the standards set by the Foundation. In it’s first year, 52 of the 421 colleges who applied were accepted. Eventually the Foundation would go on to exert enormous control over all the best educational institutions.

The Flexner Report

The Carnegie Foundation hired a non-physician teacher named Alexander Flexner to travel across the country and “observe” medical education. In 1910 his landmark study, known as the Flexner Report, was published. Based on his recommendations, the Foundation expanded it’s control from being merely a pension plan for professors to an entirely new area: research funding.

Schools that met the Foundation’s standards from the Flexner Report were awarded research funds and endowments. Those that did not got no funding. This created an enormous incentive model for these institutions to play along. Thus, the titans of industry came to dictate the type of medical care that would flourish in America and starved out the competing types of care.

Natural methods of healing, used traditionally for centuries, suddenly fell out of favor simply because a more “scientific” approach started getting funding. “Coincidentally” those schools receiving the funding began disseminating information supporting the products of the new pharmaceutical industry. Big universities in the medical industry that rule today were all aligned with the Carnegie Foundation at that time, these include:

Case Western Reserve
Carnegie Institute of Chicago
University of North Carolina
University of Chicago
Johns Hopkins
Harvard School of Medicine

Jealous of the Carnegie Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation was established. Also utilizing the consultation of Abraham Flexner, the Rockefeller Foundation developed national standards for medical schools that were seeking “philanthropic” support. In 1904 there were 5747 medical doctors. Just 15 years later, after the Flexner Report, by 1919, there were only 2658. In that same 15 year period, the number of medical schools went from 162 to 81. The model had been proven, Rockefeller was deciding who was going to control what was medicine and what was not.

The reason so many schools closed was that schools had to be connected to a large university. The universities had to be linked to clinical departments that had laboratories and a university hospital. Using Rockefeller Funds, Flexner was able to develop a small group of elite, clinically oriented, medical schools. The raw materials for the new drugs were ready to go. All that was lacking was an academic power-base to legitimize their development and general use.

The system of education, funding, research and the organizing principles of medicine that persists today was created in less than a generation. This is why simple folk medicine, which had been around for centuries, was marginalized almost overnight.

Carnegie and Rockefeller were able gain control of organized medicine and turn it into a successful industry, with its focus on market growth. But the model has an inherent contradiction: an industry concerned with disease is not about to put itself out of business by curing a disease. This is why all these years, effective inexpensive non-pharmaceutical remedies, like nutrition, have been systematically suppressed. It’s just good business.

This model was the perfect environment for the flailing Germ Theory which was revived for a second run. Despite the fact that it had been repudiated by its creator, and most of his contemporaries, was of no concern and no longer mentioned in circles expecting next year’s funding. Germ Theory fit well with the new market-oriented paradigm of medicine: if germs are out there causing diseases, better find drugs to kill them.

Up into the 1920s, the burgeoning medical industry was gaining strength. It was aided by the declining incidence of infectious diseases due to improved sanitation and nutrition, for which medicine took credit. That is a story unto itself, “The Sanctity of Human Blood” is a good source.

The organized medicine was becoming stronger with each passing year, as new institutions were built and funding was given out for those research projects that had the best potential for future market value. Then the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 killed millions proving that the new “scientific” approach had a lot to learn about disease prevention. There was no cure, as the virus traveled around the world.

The as yet proven Germ Theory came to be accepted as policy largely because any opposition to it had little chance of being published. This is similar to how fake food producers attack the competition, except in this case the competition is denied a platform. None the less, a small group of scientists, aware that the work of Bechamp was a much more reasonable view of physical reality, continued to develop research in the direction that the environment played a key role in the cause of disease. Corporate “science” was up and running though, fueled by money from the new drug markets, but the scientific method had been abandoned. The Germ Theory was anointed as the underlying dogma of a new medical religion. Doctors like J.H. Tilden, MD, and others, were apparently not willing to convert:

“…doctors fight the imaginary foe without ceasing. The people are so saturated with the idea that disease must be fought to a finish that they are not satisfied with conservative treatment. Something must be done, even if they pay for it with their lives, as tens of thousands do every year. This willingness to die on the altar of medical superstition is one very great reason why no real improvement is made in fundamental medical science.”
- Toxemia Explained 1926

1926? Sounds like today.

The First Wonder Drug

However, in 1928 the Germ Theory got a huge boost that has lasted to the present. Dr. Alexander Fleming, a British scientist, was annoyed to discover that his cultures were being destroyed by a certain mold. Over the next 14 years, scientists in England and America worked successfully to isolate and test penicillin, but did not publish to keep the work secret. But in 1942 a fire at The Cocoanut Grove, Boston’s oldest nightclub, killed and injured hundreds of people. Penicillin was rushed to Boston in time to prevent infection from burns in hundreds of patients. The news got out, and the race was on to mass-produce penicillin. By 1944, Merck was producing enough to satisfy all the demand from the American military.

This single event, the commercialization of penicillin, did more to bring credibility to organized medicine than anything else in its history to that point. To be able to prevent infection was a nearly miraculous and compelling power. Countless people had died from infection down through the ages. And finally here was proof of the Germ Theory: these patients had died from bad bacteria, and when the bacteria are killed with penicillin, the patients live.

However, mother nature was to show that she does not deal in black and white.

Mother Nature Always Bats Last

Even in his early research of penicillin, Fleming knew very well that living things could change and adapt when exposed to stress. He knew the dangers of resistance from overuse of penicillin, and warned against such overuse from the start, here in an interview Fleming gave to the New York Times in 1945:

” The greatest possibility of evil in self-medication is the use of too-small doses, so that instead of clearing up infection the microbes are educated to resist penicillin…”

The oldest living things on earth are bacteria and viruses. They are billions of years old. They have persisted through every change in the environment that has ever occurred: hot, cold, wet, dry, high oxygen, no oxygen, earthquakes, volcanoes, glaciers – they’ve seen it all. And they’re still around. Millions of plant and animal species of have come and gone because they couldn’t adapt.

Now suddenly in the 1940s, we start mass production and administration of a substance into the human population: penicillin, a substance which kills all bacteria. And ever since it’s introduction, bacteria have been doing their best to survive by adapting. Exposed to antibiotics, if bacteria can change and survive, they are said to be drug-resistant. Superbugs.

Since the 1940s, many antibiotics have been developed and today there are about 160 types. The problem is that most are just slightly different versions of a few main types. And resistance to those main types has increased year by year.

Drug resistance is now one of the leading causes of deaths in the U.S. More than 70,000 people die each year from it, according to the National Institutes of Health. Most of these people acquired the infection while they were in a hospital being treated for something else, according to the May 1997 documentary “The Coming Plague”. No known antibiotics can help these patients, and they die.

A 1992 study by the CDC’s Institute of Medicine showed that mortality from infectious disease has risen 22% worldwide from 1980-1992.

We can see the steady increase in drug resistance as Staphylococcus adapt:

• 1946, about 88% of staf infections could be cured by penicillin.
• 1950, only 61% of staph infections could be killed by penicillin
• 1982, fewer than 10% of staph cases could be cured by penicillin.
• Today it is less than 5%.

Part 3 Part 5

Some serious sinus drainage had turned into a bought with bronchitis several weekends ago and I was terribly disturbed to realize that we had used all the canned chicken broth. (At this point I seriously do not recommend taking medicine to dry up the drainage from your sinus passages because it also dries out your lungs making coughing phlegm a really painful experience.)

All that aside,  I went to the store today and bought a 10 pound bag of leg quarters and have boiled them according to this recipe here. DO NOT leave the dill out of the recipe! (Benefits of dill) Initially the dill added a unique subtle flavor that I didn’t care for but it grew on me. I’ve toyed with the idea of adding tons of garlic to the broth. Currently, I have 7 quarts of chicken broth in the canner and would like to add another canner full to my shelves in the next week or two. It really helps you to rally after stomach bugs in particular since dill is antiviral.

The FM woke up feeling poorly this morning. A weekend of heavy cleaning was taking its toll on my nose and lungs. It was however a dark moon weekend, the perfect time to clean and de-clutter.

Did I reach into the medicine cabinet?  I did not.

I walked into my garden and plucked baby kale. I boiled a cup of water and dropped in a chicken bouillon along with a handful of baby kale. I added a good dose of black pepper and a half tsp of ground ginger.

I already feel better.

When you feel poorly, do you go straight to the medicine cabinet or opt for alternative therapy?

By Meghan Brown

The 80th anniversary of penicillin being discovered, is being celebrated today in Alexander Fleming’s birth place of Darvel, East Ayrshire.

Des Browne, MP for Kilmarnock and Loudon, has organised the event to commemorate Fleming’s medical work and his discovery, which has led to millions of lives being saved.

Alexander Fleming (6 August 1881- 11 March 1955) was a Scottish medic and bacteriologist who, by accident, discovered the antibiotic substance penicillin.

Fleming’s discovery came after he found mould on a number of samples he had been working on and noticed that no bacteria grew anywhere near the mould.

This mould was later identified as penicillium notatum, which was soon manufactured as a cure for infectious diseases such as tonsilitus, which commonly led to death before penicillin’s discovery.

Leading microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington is giving a memorial lecture today to an audience of secondary school students from East Ayrshire. Local residents will also be attending.

Following the lecture there will be an exhibition of stalls held by a number of organisations including theFleming Museum, the Society for General Microbiology and Lochfield Farm, Alexander Fleming’s birthplace.

Mr Browne said: “I am looking forward to being able to celebrate Fleming’s world changing achievement in our local community where he was born. 

“In the presence of such an eminent present day bacteriologist there is no way that this Friday the 13th will be unlucky.”

By Meghan Brown

The 80th anniversary of penicillin being discovered, is being celebrated today in Alexander Fleming’s birth place of Darvel, East Ayrshire.

Des Browne, MP for Kilmarnock and Loudon, has organised the event to commemorate Fleming’s medical work and his discovery, which has led to millions of lives being saved.

Alexander Fleming (6 August 1881- 11 March 1955) was a Scottish medic and bacteriologist who, by accident, discovered the antibiotic substance penicillin.

Fleming’s discovery came after he found mould on a number of samples he had been working on and noticed that no bacteria grew anywhere near the mould.

This mould was later identified as penicillium notatum, which was soon manufactured as a cure for infectious diseases such as tonsilitus, which commonly led to death before penicillin’s discovery.

Leading microbiologist Professor Hugh Pennington is giving a memorial lecture today to an audience of secondary school students from East Ayrshire. Local residents will also be attending.

Following the lecture there will be an exhibition of stalls held by a number of organisations including theFleming Museum, the Society for General Microbiology and Lochfield Farm, Alexander Fleming’s birthplace.

Mr Browne said: “I am looking forward to being able to celebrate Fleming’s world changing achievement in our local community where he was born. 

“In the presence of such an eminent present day bacteriologist there is no way that this Friday the 13th will be unlucky.”

1.  Blotches

2.  Does Your Child?

3.  A Shade Different

Not a Good Night. Poor old Son 1 aged 5y 1m came in at 0230, and I had very little sleep after that. I went downstairs at 4, and then got up at 6, with Son 1 pad-pad-padding down behind me.  One Wednesday Friend – the Booming Businesswoman – is away in South Africa, doing Very Well without the children. The other texted. Swimming?  Nah. Can’t really. I have Son 1 as well as Son 2 aged 2y 2m.  He’s off school with a sore throat.  She would go swimming, we decided, and we three would see her in the cafe afterwards.  I made lunch. I loaded the Big Pram into the car. I loaded all the bags into the car. At about 1015, for some reason I still can’t remember, I checked Son 1’s tummy. There was a rash.  Red.  Not even a rash, particularly. Just big blotches and patches of red.  Nah, not red. Pink. Too faint for red. Nope. Not faint. There. Inescapable.  And, come to think of it, if we’re honest, and not trying to make the least of something, it’s red. Red. At his neck. Under his ears. On his chest. On his tummy.  I kept peering at him. He kept protesting.

I got my Book out.  Rashes With Fever.  Does Your Child Have A Fever? Yes.  Is the rash red, widespread, and vanishes when pressed? Yes. Does Your Child Have A Sore Throat? Yes.  = Scarlet Fever. See Your Doctor.  I looked at Son 1.  I looked at The Rash. I looked at The Book.  I looked at The Rash. I rang the Doctor. The receptionist was vaguely interested. “There’s only emergency appointments left. Is it an emergency?” “Well… he’s got a sore throat, a fever and a rash, and I’d like him someone to look at him today.”  ”Four Fifteen. You’ll have to come and wait.” “That’s fine.”  “So it’s sore throat and fever? His symptoms?” “And The Rash. On his neck. And his body.”  “Could you please just excuse me.  I’m putting you on hold. ”  I tum ti tummed. “Sorry, I can’t get the Duty Doctor. Can he ring you back?”  Of course he can. He rang. ”Bring him in now, I’ll have a look at him between appointments.” 

“Open wide. Say Aaaah. He’s got white spots on his throat and palate. Rashes are hard… that could be viral.. or… what’s his highest temperature been?” “37.9.  And 38 last night, but that was when he was in bed with all his covers on so I didn’t think it counted. But I don’t really do temperatures. I’ve just been giving him Calpol and Ibuprofen to help him when he’s clearly too hot.”  “Over 38 is probably an infection.  What do you think it is? Scarlet Fever?”  ”Well,” I said. “I’ve got this Book. And it says fever, sore throat and rash = Scarlet Fever.  And we’ve been on holiday so he’s been on a plane. And we spent a lot of time in a Spa Bath, and I’ve read somewhere they’re high risk for Scarlet Fever… and… if you tell me it’s not, I’ll be happy.” “It’s not one of those where you take chances,” he said, swabbing Son 1’s cheek. “Usually, if there’s any doubt, you don’t give children antibiotics. Except for suspected Strep, when you do. ” The printer buzzed. ”No school till at least a day after the rash goes and his temperature is normal.  No mixing with other children till you’ve had a clear day.” “What about Son 2?” I asked. “Oh if he’s getting it, he’s got it. Ring on Friday for the Swab result.” Outside, I rang The Man. I told the people we’d been with over the last few days.  Only suspected, I said. Could still be viral. Yes, he did…er.. go red before my very eyes.   At home, the boys watched telly. I made tea.  Son 1 couldn’t eat any. At bedtime, I took off his top to put him in the shower.   His back was shiny, coated in the rash.  No white bits. And I’ve kind of hunted here and there for the right word to describe the shade.  Deep red?  Crimson?  Nah, a just  a few shades pinker.  Vermilion? A bit too orangey.  Scarlet.  Definitely scarlet.

By Yvette Martyn

Antibiotic resistance is on the rise

Antibiotics became resistant in a process very similar to Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest. Lots of bacteria populated inside a person, random mutations occured in the bacteria’s DNA and one day antibiotics were given and the random mutation lead to the bacteria being able to fight off the antibiotic.

Just like the giraffe with the long neck which reached the leafs enabling survival, this bacteria found a way to get around the process the antibiotic used to kill it.

Staphylococcus Aureus did it (hence the superbug MRSA, Methicillin Resistant staphylococcus Aureus). Methicillin is an antibiotic, one day the drug was given to a person with the infection which attacks skin and wounds and the bacteria fought it off.

So is MRSA incurable?
No, great big corporations exist in this world called drug companies and they find other antibiotics which can take the place of resistant drugs and fight off the resistant bacteria. In MRSA’s case we have good old Vancomycin. But they find them quite slowly hence the need to prevent antibiotic resistance.

How do we prevent antibiotic resistance?
If doctors give out too many antibiotics it increases the chance that those sneaky bacteria will find a way to stop the antibiotic killing them. For example some antibiotics kill bacteria by preventing the bug generating food in a specific pathway.

If a doctor gives lots of antibiotics out it’s increases the chance that one day a bug will exist which will find another way to generate food, the antibiotic won’t work and furthermore the “superbug” will multiply in that person and then be passed onto another person, etc, etc.

But the drug companies will find new antibiotics?
Wrong, drugs aren’t actually that easily found, hence why we continue to use Sir Alexander Fleming discovery, penicillin. Which was found all the way back in 1928.

But it’s just bacteria, right, not viruses like that swine flu?
Wrong, viruses can become resistant to antivirals too, this might mean if you’re young and healthy and catch swine flu, health care professionals could be unwilling to give you the antiviral medication.

Image: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The X-ray machine, which was discovered in 1895 by German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen and which revolutionized how doctors spot disease and injury, was named the most important scientific invention, in a poll marking the centenary of the Science Museum in London.

Almost 50,000 people took part in voting, either at the museum or online, on a selected list of ten discoveries and inventions from past centuries in science, technology and engineering.

Perhaps for its valuable contribution in the past, present and future, the X-ray discovery struck a chord with most voters. X-rays are now being used for security control measures at airports.

Katie Maggs, associate curator of medicine at the Science Museum, said that she was “pleasantly surprised” with the results, saying she “wondered whether the therapeutic benefit of penicillin might just edge in front — or perhaps the Apollo 10 capsule as visitors find space travel so inspirational as the ultimate test of technology.”

Voted top ten modern discoveries are the following:

1. X-ray Machine
2. Penicillin
3. DNA Double Helix
4. Apollo 10 Capsule
5. V2 Rocket Engine
6. Stephenson’s Rocket
7. Pilot ACE Computer
8. Steam Engine
9. Model T Ford
10. Electric Telegraph

I sure hope this is a terrible typographical error on the part of US News & World Report …

Women whose children had anencephaly, a fatal malformation of the skull and brain, were three times more likely to have taken sulfonamides, the study found. Sometimes called “sulfa drugs,” they are prescribed to women, primarily, for urinary tract and other infections.

I know I’ve taken this drug many times over the years, but not while pregnant. My three children, and one grandchild, were all born quite healthy. For this, I am blessed. For others, it is not so. Read on, if you can …

The [drugs] were also associated with multiple birth defects, including Anophthalmia and Microphthalmos (eye defects) and several congenital heart defects. Mothers whose children were born with a cleft lip or cleft palate were twice as likely to have taken [them], the study found.

This could cause a panic in the streets, imho!

And, the final kicker is that the CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) says pregnant women should not be “overly worried”.

“The most important message is that most commonly used antibiotics (Penicillin, Erythromycin, Cephalosporins & Quinolones) do not seem to be associated with the birth defects we studied,” Crider said.

FOR THE WHOLE STORY:

http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/11/02/cdc-study-links-2-antibiotics-to-birth-defects.html

At the risk of sounding like a Carlsberg advert, “The Journal of the Left-handed Biochemist doesn’t do award ceremonies, but if we did…” – what would be the winner of “Best Science programme” during the last 12 months?

In truth, I think it has been a bumper year for science programmes. There has been a tangible return to form at Horizon – the first three episodes of the current series, for example,  have all included significant coverage of molecular biology. There were commendable features to the mini-series Prof Regan’s Diet Clinic/Medicine Cabinet/Nursery/Health Spa (I have posted a separate review of Prof Regan’s Medicine Cabinet here) although it did let itself down at times by commiting some of the same mistakes it was accusing others of making. Pitched at a slightly different audience, it is also good to welcome Bang Goes the Theory to finally fill a gap in popular science coverage left empty since the demise of Tomorrow’s World around 2003.

The BBC Four War Beneath the Skin season in the late summer was consistently strong. Breaking the Mould: The Story of Penicillin helped to amend the traditional account of the birth of antibiotics as therapeutics and Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen recreated events surrounding the battle to protect Manchester from the 1918 influenza epidemic (it also gave them a chance to re-transmit Mutant Mouse and Superfly, documentaries on research using model organisms, from 2004).

My winner of the grand prize would be another programme from that season. Adam Rutherford’s Cell – a 3-part series The Hidden Kingdom, The Chemistry of Life and The Spark of Life – was outstanding. Of the three, it is The Chemistry of Life that is my outright favourite.

The programme tells the story of the identification of DNA as the molecule of inheritance. Beginning with Friedrich Miescher’s original isolation of DNA in 1868, and his amazing determination of its chemical composition, the episode reflects on the key experiments of Theodore Boveri, Thomas Hunt Morgan, Fred Griffith, Oswald Avery, Maurice Wilkins & Rosalind Franklin, James Watson & Francis Crick, culminating with Walter Gehring’s discovery and characterisation of homeobox genes in the 1980s and 1990s (more details can be seen in my notes on the programme, via this link).

The Chemistry of Life can serve as an excellent component of an introductory module on molecular biology for first year undergraduates. Important discoveries are laid out in an accurate yet engaging way. I particularly like the way that the episode naturally demonstrates the evolution of scientific ideas.

The programme has a certain ”yuk factor” that serves to keep it captivating for a youthful audience; description of Miescher’s isolation of pus from the sheets of wounded soldiers and footage of a transgenic Drosophila fly with eyes all over its body being two examples. The episode also has its lighter moments – Rutherford’s visit to the Bay of Naples includes him partaking of a local delicacy as he eats raw urchin gonad straight from the spine-encrusted shell. Later on he deliberately burns his arm with a hot spoon, but it is evident that it was rather hotter than he intended. Perhaps best of all, archive footage of Maurice Wilkins describing ‘MOWlecules’ with received pronunciation and his explanation that X-rays are “wavy” were reminiscent of the Mr Cholmondley-Warner sketches from the old Harry Enfield series.

Maurice Wilkins explains how X-ray can be used to study molecules

Having said that, the film would be a useful teaching resource for first year undergraduates, I think that you would want to include time to emphasise the main points and to put back some of the detail that has inevitably been skipped. For example, fuller description of the basis of Griffith’s experiments with smooth and rough strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae would be beneficial. It is a minor irritation that no on-screen captioning supports the introduction of dead scientists, so offering a class a sheet with the names of the individuals might help students to structure any notes they wished to take.

Do you think a different science programme is more worthy of the title “Best Science Programme of the year”? If so, how about using the comment facility to share your suggestions.

Ein Beispiel soll Sie überzeugen: Jeder kennt den Begriff „Penicillin“. Und die meisten wissen auch, dass es sich um ein Antibiotikum handelt. Ein Mittel also, das in der Lage ist, Bakterien abzutöten. Dass es sich dabei um einen Pilz handelt, wissen nur Wenige! Dabei hat Penicillin schon Millionen von Menschenleben gerettet!

 Zum vollständigen Artikel =>

Antibiotic resistance is a huge concern in healthcare, with strains of bacteria like MRSA especially troublesome. Despite our efforts, we cannot expect the issue of antibiotic resistance to ever go away completely. Instead, we have to consider ways to lessen its effect, says a new report. The American Academy of Microbiology report makes the point that we can’t expect to win a battle against trillions of microbes and the forces of evolution, but we can employ better ways of managing the inevitable.

The report outlines several suggestions that can reduce the threat of antibiotic resistance. For one, if we have better diagnostic tools available, patients can be treated more promptly with the correct antibiotics, reducing the amount of mis-prescribed medications. The scientists recommend more comprehensive surveillance to ensure we have accurate data on the spread of resistant bacteria. They also want more research into the role that ubiquitous antimicrobial agents found in household products like soap are playing in the rise of resistant strains. And they believe that more time and resources be spent trying to develop new antibiotics that will keep us one step ahead of the bacteria. These methods won’t solve the problem of antibiotic resistance, but they could give us our best chance of keeping it under control.

Read the report from the American Academy of Microbiology here.

I hear that the White House…

…is actually blaming Fox News for the ills of the country not caused by Bush. Apparently Fox News and the republicans are far too much of a force to reckon with for both the President and his congressional majorities. Do you think THAT is the message the White House is trying to send?

I doubt it. I think that, like my ex-husband and his insane 2nd wife who have been harassing me for over twenty years, the President feels he can only hold the Administration together by identifying a common enemy. Obama and his staff are pretty much of the school of politics that very few media types mention anymore, the politics of personal destruction. He just takes it a bit further and applies the destructive tactics to private companies, institutions and networks that don’t think a Nobel Peace Prize for a, so far, do nothing President is a no-brainer.

There was a time when the Nobel Prize was given for amazingly triumphant accomplishments. Alexander Flemming received the award…not for being a good guy and not for inspiring a love for microbiology in the young science community of his day. He received it by actually DOING something that had never been done before…he discovered penicillin. Can you imagine the lives saved by Flemming’s work? Everyone who’s life has ever been saved by an antibiotic can somehow trace their cure back to Flemming and his discoveries. Now THAT’S Nobel Prize material.

But I digress.

If you pay attention to any one person, an ex spouse, a bad cop or a President, sooner or later you begin to pick up on their personal behavior patterns. My ex used to be verbally abusive while I was crying…but as soon as I stopped crying and started getting angry…he would cave like the weak-spined bully that he was. Naturally, I just began to skip the crying part of the game and I went straight to being an acrimonious bitch. It saved a lot of time…and mascara.

I’ve been watching our President long enough to notice that whenever he meets resistance of any sort, whether it be in the form of poor poll numbers or thousands of protesting Americans, it seems as though he defaults to being nasty…just like I did. So, I can’t say it’s a bad thing, but I will say something that I wish the Obama Administration would learn to say, “It is what it is.”

I find that common sense usually will stifle any opposition I meet. If not, I agree to disagree and walk away. This is an example of the common sense of which I speak:

Q. Bill O’Reilly is a racist.

A. First of all, that’s a simple declaration, it needs to have facts to back it up. Saying that O’Reilly is racist doesn’t make him a racist anymore than crossing my arms and blinking delivers me a tall and handsome man. Secondly, if someone IS a racist…what do you care? This is a country that makes room for racism. If racists formed a union and suffered discrimination, the ACLU might even help them in a lawsuit against PUSH. They did it for Nazi’s because nazi-ism is allowed in this country. You don’t have to like it, you don’t even have to understand it. It just IS.

Your rights don’t begin until mine stop and if I were of the mind to be a racist, I have every right in the world to be one as long as I don’t tamper with YOUR rights. Therefore, the comment “Bill O’Reilly is a racist.” is not only a pointless, time wasting tactic, it’s also a sign of a person who can’t think up a serious argument for anything worthwhile.

America not only makes room for racists, it makes room for American citizens to form a network which they may use for practicing First Amendment rights. You don’t HAVE to like what they say. And of course, you have every right to start your own network.

If you wanted to fault someone, Obama COULD fault CNN for being so biased to the left that the right decided that they needed their own news network. But I sort of doubt that Obama, Clinton or Pelosi would say anything anti-CNN.

Now that the evil insurance companies have been demonized along with Fox News and the republican minority, I wonder who our next “common enemy” will be? The possibilities are endless. Here is a smattering of possible future Obama Demons:

1. The people who make Pringles
2. Richard Nixon
3. Starbucks
4. Nascar
5. First class airline passengers
6. Pharmacists
7. Limousine owners
8. Amtrak
9. Irish women who use less then a 30 SPF when tanning.
10. The wigs that Hasidic women wear after marriage.

If I wanted to, I could demonize anyone or anything on that list. I learned how in high school on the speech and debate team. I bet someone with more experience and education could be very successful demonizing anyone they felt the need to demonize. I absolutely CAN imagine our government creating an enemy out of anyone on that list. But, there are also people and organizations that would NEVER be demonized, no matter how bad they may get. Here are some of those entities:

1. NOW
2. Teachers
3. Nurses
4. Death row inmates as a whole
5. Local police departments
6. Florists
7. Obese people stuck in a bedroom
8. Nursing home residents
9. The turkey industry on Thanksgiving
10. Covens of witches

I think that list is pretty safe from hidden camera incidents and Presidential wrath.

Fox News is a perfect target, big enough that most people are aware of it and conservative enough to annoy liberals. Right now I feel the need to remind liberals that there is NO law criminalizing conservative thought.

If Obama wanted to set a precedent and stifle the free speech of the media, many liberals would applaud him. But, the precedent can easily fall back on liberals when a Republican majority pops up and stifles liberal thought. That’s what you call fair and balanced in it’s truest sense.

Garlic’s antibiotic action is very similar to Penicillin and just as effective if taken in large enough doses but only harmful bacteria is destroyed. The problem is when taking large doses is that Garlic also cleanses the system and you may end up with a stomach ache and/or diarrhea.

Garlic the Wonder Drug – Immune Influences For Health’s Sake
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Gloria_Ruffell]Gloria Ruffell

Garlic’s antibiotic action is very similar to Penicillin and just as effective if taken in large enough doses but only harmful bacteria is destroyed. The problem is when taking large doses is that Garlic also cleanses the system and you may end up with a stomach ache and/or diarrhea. But you will feel the better for it afterward.
Garlic stimulates the digestive tract and is used to kill various types of worms and parasites when taken as an enema or internally. It is a very good dewormer for pregnant horses however, some parasitic nuisances may take longer.

Crush about 4 cloves to activate the antibiotic properties and mix it with some red molasses. Feed this to the soon to be mommies twice a day for three days. Do not use conventional dewormers at the same time or the horse may slip the colt.

For Yeast Infection, blend 1 clove of Garlic or 2 Garlic gel caps in 1 pint of water strain and add one or more warm pints of water and use as a douche. Do this daily until the Yeast Infection is gone.

Garlic is especially good when used with Hawthorn and Cayenne as it strengthens the Heart. In combination with Cayenne, it lowers the blood pressure. In combination with Cayenne, Ginger, Ginseng, Goldenseal and Parsley, it is used to equalize the blood pressure.

Family: Amaryllidacae; other members include Onion, Chives and Shallots.

Vitamins and Minerals:Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Fluorine, Iodine, Phosphorus. Vitamin B1(Thiamin) the assimilation of Vitamin B1 is enhanced by the consumption of Garlic. Although present, the limited amount of Copper, Iron, Tin, Zinc, Potassium, Aluminum, Sulphur, Selenium and Germanium that is consumed per clove prevents these minerals from being a significant factor in our diet.

Genus and Species: Allium sativum

Also known as (aka):
Stinking Rose, Heal All, Russian Penicillin, Rustic’s or Poor Man’s Treacle
• Treacle Pronounced: trEE-kEl (with a long vowel sound for the EE and short sound for the E)
• Meaning: a medicinal compound formerly in wide use as a remedy against poison.

Parts Used: Bulb; Leaves; Seed

Used for:

Bulb: food flavoring, antibiotic, reduces blood pressure, controls acne, insect repellant and insect bites and stings reliever, weight loss as it dissolves fatty build up in the blood vessels, and;

digestive problems, asthma, rheumatic pain or rheumatism, cleanses cholesterol from the blood, kills various kinds of worms and parasites, blood purifier (thus repels and kills Vampires), relieves chronic respiratory ailments, infections, and;

arteriosclerosis, cancers, childhood diseases, circulation, colds, influenza, colitis, cramps, diaper rash, diarrhea, douche, ringworm, migraine headaches, clears nasal passages and sinus congestion, lowers a high fever, cleanses the liver, and;

strengthens the prostate gland, warts, ulcers, sexually transmitted diseases of various kinds, sore throat, athletes foot, hemorrhoids, skin disorders, gastritis, constipation, diabetes, anemia, heavy metal poisoning, epilepsy, diphtheria, and;

hypoglycemia, conjunctivitis, cold sores inside the mouth, herpes simplex 1 (cold sores outside the mouth), spinal meningitis and viruses.

Leaves: in salads or toppings for use the same way as chives or scallion leaves: stimulate appetite, food flavoring, garnish, mild laxative, aids digestion;

Seeds: steep in boiling water for 20 minutes for a soothing tonic.

For Chronic Bronchitis or other Lung afflictions, use baked Garlic or Onion [http://shepherds-purse-naturals.blogspot.com/2009/09/herbalistic-essentials-teabags.html]Poultices on the chest. Do not place a baked Garlic or Onion directly on the skin.

NOTE: With winter coming just around the corner; also see:

Other Shepherds Purse Naturals Herbal Formulas
• Swine Flu (H1N1) Buster
• Flushing Nasal Passages
• Mucous Forming Foods
• Herbal Chest Packs
• Immunity Builder
• Blood Purifier

A Place where Healing comes Naturally. Herbal Remedies for Healthy Choices and Better Living. What to know about Herbs and their Healing Qualities and Uses.

Home Gardening with Natural Herbs and Seed, Dehydrating Herb, Herb Recipes and more.

Learn how to make a difference in Your Life by using Alternatives to Conventional Medicine. Exclusive, easy to prepare, Herbal Combinations and Formulas By: [http://shepherds-purse-naturals.blogspot.com/2009/09/plague.html]Shepherds Purse Naturals

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gloria_Ruffell http://EzineArticles.com/?Garlic-the-Wonder-Drug—Immune-Influences-For-Healths-Sake&id=2925347

Nä, tydligen inte, utan något slags inflammation vid en äggstock.  I tisdags hade tydligen sänkan varit på 164 och det hade visat positivt på blåskatarr så jag fick penicillin mot det. Det hjälpte inte ett enda dugg för idag hade jag en sänka på 259… de var nära att lägga in mig. Men jag fick en dunderkur penicillin istället och ska komma tillbaka på lördag morgon så att de kan ta prover igen och se att det har vänt. Förhoppningsvis ska kroppen fatta att det är dags att sluta nu.

Har aldrig varit såhär sjuk förut. Skönt är det inte på något sätt alls. Dagarna går till att ligga i soffan och halvslumra.  Man kan ju ägna sig åt roligare saker. Jag tycker som att det hade varit ganska skönt om de hade upptäckt det här i tisdags istället så att jag kunde ha fått rätt penicillin då. Något första test visade att jag hade blåskatarr, en odling visade ingenting fick jag reda på idag… trodde som sagt var aldrig på att jag hade blåskatarr.

Men nu är det bara att vänta och hålla tummarna för att det här penicillinet hjälper! 2 sorter fick jag tom, tre tabletter om dagen av varje i 10 dagar. Hästdos ungefär.