Health & Fitness

If you've been seeing a bunch of your favourite celebs posting about ovaries in your feed this week, it's for good reason.

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Fibromyalgia, characterized by chronic, widespread pain is an often-debilitating condition that primarily affects women. While as many as 10 million Americans have fibromyalgia, its cause remains a mystery.

Brain scans of fibromyalgia patients have offered hard evidence that the pain they experience is indeed real — mainly because their threshold for tolerating pain impulses is substantially lower than that of most individuals. But the mechanism causing this lowered pain threshold is still unknown.

Some experts, such as Dr. Frederick Wolfe, the director of the National Databank for Rheumatic Diseases and the lead author of the 1990 paper that first defined fibromyalgia's diagnostic guidelines, believe fibromyalgia is mainly a physical response to mental and emotional stress.

But while stress and emotions may indeed play an important role, more recent research shows fibromyalgia patients tend to have severe inflammation in their body, including their nervous system and brain.

Signs and Symptoms of Fibromyalgia

Diagnosis can be a challenge, but the updated case definitions of fibromyalgia, issued in 2010 and later simplified in 2012, claim to correctly diagnose about 83 percent of cases.¹ Originally, the condition was thought to be a peripheral musculoskeletal disease. Today, fibromyalgia has become increasingly recognized as a neurobiological problem causing central pain sensitization.

Unfortunately, there are currently no laboratory tests available for diagnosing fibromyalgia, so physicians primarily depend on patient histories, reported symptoms and physical exam findings. Classic symptoms of this condition include:

Conventional treatment typically involves some form of pain medication, and perhaps psychotropic drugs like antidepressants. I don't recommend either as they fail to address the cause of your problem. Many fibromyalgia sufferers also do not respond to conventional painkillers, which can set in motion a vicious circle of overmedicating on these dangerous drugs.

Brain Inflammation — Another Hallmark of Fibromyalgia

Using PET imaging, a recent investigation² by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden revealed the presence of widespread brain inflammation in patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia.^3,4

Earlier research⁵ conducted at Karolinska Institutet also discovered high concentrations of cytokines (inflammatory proteins) in the cerebrospinal fluid, suggesting fibromyalgia patients have inflammation in their nervous system as well.⁶

The team at Massachusetts General Hospital, meanwhile, has previously shown that neural inflammation, and glial cell (immune cells) activation specifically, plays a role in chronic back pain. Animal studies have also offered evidence for the hypothesis that glial cell activation can be a cause of chronic pain in general.⁷

Here, they found that when glial cells in the cerebral cortex were activated, the more aggressive the activation, the greater the fatigue experienced by the patient. As reported by Medical Life Sciences:⁸

"The current study first assessed fibromyalgia symptoms in patients using a questionnaire. A PET tracer was then used, that is, a radioactive marker which binds a specific protein called translocator protein (TSPO) that is expressed at levels much above the normal in activated glial cells, namely, astrocytes and microglia …

[G]lial activation was found to be present at significantly higher levels in multiple brain areas in patients who had fibromyalgia than in controls. Glial cell activation causes inflammatory chemicals to be released, which cause the pain pathways to be more sensitive to pain, and promote fatigue …

One area showing higher TSPO binding in direct proportion to the self-reported level of fatigue was the cingulate gyrus, an area of the brain linked to emotional processing. Previous research has reported that this area is inflamed in chronic fatigue syndrome."

Brain Inflammation Linked to Loss of Brain Cells

In related news, German researchers investigating inflammation mechanisms in the brain have found that as mice get older and regulation of inflammatory responses become increasingly impaired, they start losing brain cells.⁹

Interestingly, the cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1), which produces the "high" in response to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in marijuana, also helps regulate inflammatory reactions in your brain. In short, chronic brain inflammation is in part driven by the CB1 receptors' failure to respond. To understand how this works, you need to know a little bit about how microglial cells work.

Microglial cells are specialized immune cells found in your central nervous system, including your spinal cord and brain. These immune cells respond to bacteria and are responsible for clearing out malfunctioning nerve cells. They also signal and recruit other immune cells when needed and trigger the inflammatory response when necessary.

Problems arise when the inflammatory response becomes dysregulated and overactive. In the brain, the inflammation can easily damage healthy brain tissue. The "brake signal" that instructs glial cells to stop their inflammatory activity is endocannabinoids, and the endocannabinoids work by binding to certain receptors, including CB1 and cannabinoid receptor type 2 (CB2).

Immune Cells Communicate and Influence Inflammatory Response Using Endocannabinoids

Curiously, microglial cells have virtually no CB1 and very few CB2 receptors, yet they still react to endocannabinoids. The present study was designed to investigate this puzzling riddle. As it turns out, there's a type of neuron that does contain a large number of CB1 receptors, and it appears that it is the CB1 receptors on these specific neurons that control microglial cell activity.

In other words, it appears microglial cells do not communicate with nerve cells directly; rather, they release endocannabinoids, which then bind to CB1 receptors found in nearby neurons. These neurons in turn communicate directly with other nerve cells. So, the brain's immune response is regulated in an indirect manner rather than a direct one.

Now, what happens with age is that your natural production of endocannabinoids decreases, which then leads to impaired immune response regulation and chronic inflammation. As noted by coauthor Dr. Andras Bilkei-Gorzo:¹⁰

"Since the neuronal CB1 receptors are no longer sufficiently activated, the glial cells are almost constantly in inflammatory mode. More regulatory neurons die as a result, so the immune response is less regulated and may become free-running."

Earlier research¹¹ by this same team found that THC can help restore cognitive function in older brains, and the current study also hints at THC-containing cannabis may have valuable neuroprotective benefits in older people by quelling brain inflammation and preventing loss of brain cells. As the study was done on mice, further research is needed to confirm that the same mechanisms apply to humans, but it's compelling nonetheless.

Are You Living an Inflammatory Lifestyle?

Your diet can either promote or decrease inflammation. For example, foods that increase the inflammatory response in your body include:

• Sugar, especially processed corn syrup
• Synthetically produced trans fats
• Processed vegetable and seed oils, high in oxidized omega-6 fat
• Processed meats
• Refined carbohydrates

Meanwhile, marine-based omega-3 fats have powerful anti-inflammatory effects, and are crucial for healthy brain function in general. Antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables are also important for controlling inflammation, as is optimizing your vitamin D to a level of 60 to 80 ng/mL, ideally through sensible sun exposure.

In addition to anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting properties, vitamin D receptors appear in a wide variety of brain tissue, and researchers believe optimal vitamin D levels may enhance important chemicals in your brain and protect brain cells by increasing the effectiveness of glial cells that help nurse damaged neurons back to health.

A number of ubiquitous chemicals have also been implicated in inflammation, so if you struggle with fibromyalgia you'd be wise to take a close look at your choice of foods, household and personal care products. As mentioned earlier, getting enough high-quality sleep is another key treatment component for fibromyalgia.

Ketogenic Diet Massively Decreases Brain Inflammation

Research¹² published last year suggests ketogenic diets — which are high in healthy fats and low in net carbs — are a particularly powerful ally for suppressing brain inflammation, as ketones are powerful HDAC (histone deacetylase inhibitors) that suppress the primary NF-κB inflammatory pathway.

As explained by Medical Xpress,¹³ the defining moment of the study¹⁴ came when the team "identified a pivotal protein that links the diet to inflammatory genes, which, if blocked, could mirror the anti-inflammatory effects of ketogenic diets."

A ketogenic diet changes the way your body uses energy, converting your body from burning carbohydrates for energy to burning fat as your primary source of fuel. When your body is able to burn fat, your liver creates ketones, which burn more efficiently than carbs, thus creating far less reactive oxygen species and secondary free radicals that can damage your cellular and mitochondrial cell membranes, proteins and DNA.

Animals (rats) used in this study were found to have reduced inflammation when the researchers used a molecule called 2-deoxyglucose (2DG) to block glucose metabolism and induce a ketogenic state, similar to what would occur if you followed a ketogenic diet. By doing this, inflammation was brought down to levels near those found in controls.

Suppressing Inflammation Improves Pain

Senior study author Dr. Raymond Swanson, a professor of neurology at UCSF and chief of the neurology service at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, commented on the results, saying:

"I was most surprised by the magnitude of this effect, because I thought ketogenic diets might help just a little bit. But when we got these big effects with 2DG, I thought wow, there's really something here.

The team further found that reduced glucose metabolism lowered a key barometer of energy metabolism — the NADH/NAD+ ratio — which in turn activated a protein called CtBP that acts to suppress activity of inflammatory genes."

The study also pointed out that a ketogenic diet may relieve pain via several mechanisms, similar to the ways it's known to help epilepsy.

"Like seizures, chronic pain is thought to involve increased excitability of neurons; for pain, this can involve peripheral and/or central neurons. Thus, there is some similarity of the underlying biology," the authors stated, adding:

"A major research focus should be on how metabolic interventions such as a ketogenic diet can ameliorate common, comorbid and difficult-to-treat conditions such as pain and inflammation."¹⁵

Cyclical Ketosis for Optimal Health

Eating a ketogenic diet doesn't have to be complicated or painful. My book "Fat for Fuel" presents a complete Mitochondrial Metabolic Therapy (MMT) program, complemented by an online course created in collaboration with nutritionist Miriam Kalamian, who specializes in nutritional ketosis.

The course, which consists of seven comprehensive lessons, teaches you the keys to fighting chronic disease and optimizing your health and longevity. In summary, the MMT diet is a cyclical ketogenic diet, high in healthy fats and fiber, low in net carbs with a moderate amount of protein.

The cyclical component is important, as long-term continuous ketosis has drawbacks that may actually undermine your health and longevity. One of the primary reasons to cycle in and out of ketosis is because the "metabolic magic" in the mitochondria actually occurs during the refeeding phase, not during the starvation phase.

Ideally, once you have established ketosis you cycle healthy carbs back in to about 100 to 150 grams on days when you do strength training. MMT has a number of really important health benefits, and may just be the U-turn you've been searching for if you're struggling with a chronic health condition. You can learn more by following the hyperlinks provided in the text above.

Address Emotional Contributors

Since fibromyalgia is a chronic condition, it becomes emotionally challenging in addition to the physical challenges it imposes on your life. Having a game plan to deal with your emotional well-being is especially important if you suffer from any chronic disease.

If you have fibromyalgia, you might be able to trace it back to a triggering event, or you might not. Any traumatic experience has the potential to linger in your mind for a lifetime. You can have the perfect diet, the perfect exercise routine, and an ideal life; but if you have lingering unresolved emotional issues, you can still become very sick.

A tool that can help release this emotional sludge is the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). If you are a regular reader of my newsletter, this won't be an unfamiliar term to you. EFT is a form of bioenergetic normalization. If you have fibromyalgia, this is something that is going to be extremely helpful. You can do this yourself, at home, and it takes just a few minutes to learn. For a demonstration, see the video above.

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Chronic pain is a pervasive issue and fibromyalgia is a very common form. It is a chronic condition whose symptoms include muscle and tissue pain, fatigue, depression, and sleep disturbances.

Recent data suggests that central sensitization, in which neurons in your spinal cord become sensitized by inflammation or cell damage, may be involved in the way fibromyalgia sufferers process pain.

Certain chemicals in the foods you eat may trigger the release of neurotransmitters that heighten this sensitivity.

Although there have been only a handful of studies on diet and fibromyalgia, the following eating rules can’t hurt, and may help, when dealing with chronic pain.

Limit Sugar as Much as Possible. Increased insulin levels will typically dramatically worsen pain. So you will want to limit all sugars and this would typically include fresh fruit juices. Whole fresh fruit is the preferred method for consuming fruit products.

If you are overweight, have high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes, you will also want to limit grains as much as possible as they are metabolized very similarly to sugars. This would also include organic unprocessed grains. Wheat and gluten grains are the top ones to avoid.

Eat fresh foods. Eating a diet of fresh foods, devoid of preservatives and additives, may ease symptoms triggered by coexisting conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

It’s also a good idea to buy organic food when possible, as it’s best to avoid pesticides and chemicals. However, fresh is best. So if you have to choose between local, fresh, non-organic and organic but wilting – go with fresh, and clean properly.

Avoid caffeine. Fibromyalgia is believed to be linked to an imbalance of brain chemicals that control mood, and it is often linked with inadequate sleep and fatigue. The temptation is to artificially and temporarily eliminate feelings of fatigue with stimulants like caffeine, but this approach does more harm than good in the long run. Though caffeine provides an initial boost of energy, it is no substitute for sleep, and is likely to keep you awake.

Try avoiding nightshade vegetables. Nightshade vegetables like tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplant may trigger arthritis and pain conditions in some people.

Be Careful with Your Fats. Animal based omega-3 fats like DHA and EPA have been touted as a heart-healthy food, and they may help with pain, as well. They can help reduce inflammation and improve brain function. At the same time, you want to eliminate all trans fat and fried foods, as these will promote inflammation.

Use yeast sparingly. Consuming yeast may also contribute to the growth of yeast fungus, which can contribute to pain.

Avoid pasteurized dairy. Many fibromyalgia sufferers have trouble digesting milk and dairy products. However, many find that raw dairy products, especially from grass fed organic sources, are well tolerated.

Cut down on carbs. About 90 percent of fibromyalgia patients have low adrenal functioning, which affects metabolism of carbohydrates and may lead to hypoglycemia.

Avoid aspartame. The artificial sweetener found in some diet sodas and many sugar-free sweets is part of a chemical group called excitotoxins, which activate neurons that can increase your sensitivity to pain.

Avoid additives. Food additives such as monosodium glutamate (MSG) often cause trouble for pain patients. MSG is an excitatory neurotransmitter that may stimulate pain receptors; glutamate levels in spinal fluid have been shown to correlate with pain levels in fibromyalgia patients.

Stay away from junk food. Limit or eliminate fast food, candy, and vending-machine products. In addition to contributing to weight gain and the development of unhealthy eating habits, these diet-wreckers may also irritate your muscles, disrupt your sleep, and compromise your immune system.

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How and what you eat has radically changed over the past few decades with the all-consuming rise of the supermarket. But what price are you paying for this homogenized, cheap and convenient food? This video investigates how supermarkets have affected the food on your plate, and reveals the telltale signs that the food you buy may not have been grown in the way you think.

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Researchers have detected abnormalities in the brains of people with fibromyalgia, a chronic condition whose symptoms include muscle pain and fatigue.

Some researchers have suggested that the pain of fibromyalgia is the result of depression, but the new study suggests otherwise. The abnormalities were independent of anxiety and depression levels.

Researchers evaluated 20 women diagnosed with fibromyalgia and 10 healthy women without the condition who served as a control group. The researchers performed brain imaging called single photon emission computed tomography, or SPECT.

The imaging showed that women with the syndrome had "brain perfusion" -- blood flow abnormalities in their brains. The abnormalities were directly correlated with the severity of disease symptoms.

An increase in blood flow was found in the brain region known to discriminate pain intensity.

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Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Syndrome (EHS) is a condition in which people are highly sensitive to electromagnetic fields. In an area such as a wireless hotspot, they experience pain or other symptoms.

People with EHS experience a variety of symptoms including headache, fatigue, nausea, burning and itchy skin, and muscle aches. These symptoms are subjective and vary between individuals, which makes the condition difficult to study, and has left experts divided about the validity of such claims.

More than 30 studies have been conducted to determine what link the condition has to exposure to electromagnetic fields from sources such as radar dishes, mobile phone signals and, Wi-Fi hotspots.

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New research shows that people who experience big dips in blood sugar levels, several hours after eating, end up feeling hungrier and consuming hundreds more calories during the day than others.

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A new study linking spanking and child brain development shows spanking could alter a child's neural responses to their environment, in similar ways to a child experiencing more severe violence.

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What exactly happens when the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 infects a cell? New research paints a comprehensive picture of the viral infection process.

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Smoking cannabis when you're young may increase your risk of developing heart disease later, according to a recent study.

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Bisphenols contained in many everyday objects can impair important brain functions in humans, biologists warn. Their study shows that even small amounts of the plasticizers bisphenol A and bisphenol S disrupt the transmission of signals between nerve cells in the brains of fish. The researchers consider it very likely that similar interference can also occur in the brains of adult humans.

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A new source of energy expending brown fat cells has been uncovered by researchers, which they say points towards potential new therapeutic options for obesity.

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Many women 'risk' allowing natural grey hair to show in order to feel authentic, a new study shows.

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Humans cannot live on protein alone - even for the ancient indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest whose diet was once thought to be almost all salmon. Anthropologists argue such a protein-heavy diet would be unsustainable and document the many dietary solutions ancient Pacific Coast people in North America likely employed to avoid 'salmon starvation,' a toxic and potentially fatal condition brought on by eating too much lean protein.

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Researchers found that H. pylori bacterial strains with low expression of a small RNA molecule called HPnc4160 are more likely to adapt to living in the human stomach. Gastric cancer patients have lower levels of HPnc4160, as well as higher levels of pathogenic bacterial proteins, than individuals without cancer. This work provides crucial knowledge for the development of new treatments for chronic H. pylori infections and gastric cancer.

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Researchers have discovered genetic risk factors for OCD that could help pave the way for earlier diagnosis and improved treatment for children and youth. Saliva samples from 5,000 kids were scanned and compared to responses using the Toronto Obsessive-Compulsive Scale. The team identified that those with a genetic variant in the gene PTPRD had a greater risk for obsessive-compulsive traits.

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Researchers have advanced a tumor-targeting and cell penetrating antibody that can deliver payloads to stimulate an immune response to help treat melanoma.

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A new probe into the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed correlations to six unhealthy eating behaviors, according to a new study.

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Researchers have developed a novel nanofiber production technique called 'centrifugal multispinning' that will open the door for the safe and cost-effective mass production of high-performance polymer nanofibers.

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Almost half of all recreational runners incur injuries, mostly relating to knees, calves or Achilles tendons, and the level of risk is equally high whatever your age, gender or running experience.

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Older adults with more harmful than healthy bacteria in their gums are more likely to have evidence for amyloid beta -- a key biomarker for Alzheimer's disease -- in their cerebrospinal fluid, according to new research. However, this imbalance in oral bacteria was not associated with another Alzheimer's biomarker called tau.

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The ability of HDL particles (commonly known as 'good' cholesterol) to reduce inflammation in the cells that line blood vessels may help predict who is more likely to develop a heart attack or other serious heart-related event. Gauging the anti-inflammatory capacity of HDL cholesterol may one day improve standard heart disease risk assessment.

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Respiratory disease increased by almost a quarter after the Holuhraun lava eruption in 2014-2015, one of Iceland's largest volcanic eruptions. Emissions returning in the days immediately following volcanic eruptions impact health and are not factored into responses to the public health threat caused by volcanoes. The study authors recommend government responses take these emissions into account.

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Scientists have found a new way to starve cancerous brain tumor cells of energy in order to prevent further growth.

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Early results from a new, pioneering chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapy trial found using a bilateral attack achieves a more robust defense and helps avoid relapse.

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Giving early-stage pancreatic cancer patients a CD40 immune-stimulating drug helped jumpstart a T cell attack to the notoriously stubborn tumor microenvironment before surgery and other treatments, according to a new study.

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The following sections are the foreword¹ Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote for my new book, “The Truth About COVID-19 — Exposing the Great Reset, Lockdowns, Vaccine Passports and the New Normal,” co-written with founder and director of the Organic Consumers Association, Ronnie Cummins.

In it, we investigate the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and how the technocratic elite are using the pandemic to erode liberty, freedom and democracy. We also review strategies that can help protect you against this infection, and what you can do to fight back against the technocratic takeover. While it won’t be available until April 29, 2021, you can preorder it on Amazon.

>>>>> Click Here <<<<<

Foreword to ‘The Truth About COVID-19’

Government technocrats, billionaire oligarchs, Big Pharma, Big Data, Big Media, the high-finance robber barons and the military industrial intelligence apparatus love pandemics for the same reasons they love wars and terrorist attacks. Catastrophic crises create opportunities of convenience to increase both power and wealth.

In her seminal book, “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism,” Naomi Klein chronicles how authoritarian demagogues, large corporations and wealthy plutocrats use mass disruptions to shift wealth upwards, obliterate the middle classes, abolish civil rights, privatize the commons and expand authoritarian controls.

A consummate insider, the former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel is known for his admonition that vested power structures should “never let a serious crisis go to waste.” But this treadworn strategy — to use crisis to inflame the public terror that paves the road to dictatorial power — has served as the central strategy of totalitarian systems for millennia.

The methodology is, in fact, formulaic, as Hitler’s Luftwaffe commander, Hermann Göring, explained during the Nazi war crimes trials at Nuremberg:

“It is always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it is a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament or a communist dictatorship.

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger. It works the same in any country.”

Fear Is Weaponized to Justify Blind Obedience

The Nazis pointed to the threats from Jews and Gypsies to justify the homicidal authoritarianism in the Third Reich. The dictatorial demagogue, Sen. Joseph McCarthy, and the House Unamerican Activities Committee warned against communist infiltration of the U.S. State Department and film industry to rationalize loyalty oaths and the blacklist.

Dick Cheney used the 911 attack to launch his “long war” against amorphous terrorism and the Patriot Act abridgments that laid the groundwork for the modern surveillance state. Now the medical cartel and its billionaire Big Tech accomplices have invoked the most potent, frightening and enduring enemy of all — the microbe.

And who can blame them? Increasing the wealth and power of the oligarchy is seldom a potent vessel for populism. Citizens accustomed to voting for their governments are unlikely to support policies that make the rich richer, increase political and social control by corporations, diminish democracy and reduce their civil rights.

So, demagogues must weaponize fear to justify their demands for blind obedience and to win public acquiescence for the demolition of civil and economic rights.

Without Freedom of Speech, Democracy Dies

Of course, the first casualty must always be freedom of speech. After stoking sufficient panic against the hobgoblin du jour, robber barons need to silence protest against their wealth and power-grabs.

In including free speech in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, James Madison argued that all our other liberties depend on this right. Any government that can hide its mischief has license to commit atrocities.

As soon as they get hold of the levers of authority, tyrants impose Orwellian censorship and begin gaslighting dissenters. But ultimately they seek to abolish all forms of creative thinking and self-expression.

They burn books, destroy art, kill writers, poets and intellectuals, outlaw gatherings and, at their worst, force oppressed minorities to wear masks that atomize any sense of community or solidarity and prevent the subtle, eloquent nonverbal communication for which God and evolution have equipped humans with 42 facial muscles. The most savage Middle Eastern theocracies mandate masks for women, whose legal status — not coincidentally — is as chattels.

The free flow of information and self-expression are oxygen and sunlight for representative democracy, which functions best with policies annealed in the boiling cauldron of public debate. It is axiomatic that without free speech, democracy withers.

The most iconic and revered monuments of democracy therefore include the Athenian Agora and Speakers’ Corner at Hyde Park. We can’t help feeling exhilaration about our noble experiment in self-government when we witness the boisterous, irreverent debates in the House of Commons, or watch Jimmy Stewart’s filibuster scene in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” — an enduring homage to the inseparable bond between debate and democracy.

To consolidate and fortify their power, dictatorships aim to replace those vital ingredients of self-rule — debate, self-expression, dissent and skepticism — with rigid authoritarian orthodoxies that function as secular surrogates for religion. These orthodoxies perform to abolish critical thinking and regiment populations in blind, unquestioning obedience to undeserving authorities.

Iatrarchy Is Doomed to Fail

Instead of citing scientific studies to justify mandates for masks, lockdowns and vaccines, our medical rulers cite WHO, CDC, FDA and NIH — captive agencies that are groveling sock puppets to the industries they regulate. Multiple federal and international investigations have documented the financial entanglements with pharmaceutical companies that have made these regulators cesspools of corruption.

Iatrarchy — meaning government by physicians — is a little-known term, perhaps because historical experiments with it have been catastrophic. The medical profession has not proven itself an energetic defender of democratic institutions or civil rights. Virtually every doctor in Germany took lead roles in the Third Reich’s project to eliminate mental defectives, homosexuals, handicapped citizens and Jews.

So many hundreds of German physicians participated in Hitler’s worst atrocities — including managing mass murder and unspeakable experiments at the death camps — that the allies had to stage separate “Medical Trials” at Nuremberg. Not a single prominent German doctor or medical association raised their voice in opposition to these projects.

So, it’s unsurprising that, instead of demanding blue-ribbon safety science and encouraging honest, open and responsible debate on the science, the badly compromised and newly empowered government health officials charged with managing the COVID-19 pandemic response collaborated with mainstream and social media to shut down discussion on key public health and civil rights questions.

They silenced and excommunicated heretics like Dr. Mercola who refused to genuflect to Pharma and treat unquestioning faith in zero-liability, shoddily-tested experimental vaccines as religious duty.

Our current iatrarchy’s rubric of “scientific consensus” is the contemporary iteration of the Spanish Inquisition. It is a fabricated dogma constructed by this corrupt cast of physician technocrats and their media collaborators to legitimize their claims to dangerous new powers.

The high priests of the modern Inquisition are Big Pharma’s network and cable news gasbags who preach rigid obedience to official diktats including lockdowns, social distancing and the moral rectitude of donning masks despite the absence of peer-reviewed science that convincingly shows that masks prevent COVID-19 transmission. The need for this sort of proof is gratuitous.

They counsel us to, instead, “trust the experts.” Such advice is both antidemocratic and antiscience. Science is dynamic. “Experts” frequently differ on scientific questions and their opinions can vary in accordance with the demands of politics, power and financial self-interest.

Nearly every lawsuit I have ever brought pitted highly credentialed experts from opposite sides against each other, with all of them swearing under oath to diametrically antithetical positions based on the same set of facts. Science is disagreement; the notion of scientific consensus is oxymoronic.

Corporate Kleptocracy

The modern intention of the totalitarian state is corporate kleptocracy — a construct that replaces democratic process with the arbitrary edicts of unelected technocrats. Invariably, their fiats invest multinational corporations with extraordinary power to monetize and control the most intimate parts of our lives, enrich billionaires, impoverish the masses and manage dissent with relentless surveillance and obedience training.

In 2020, led by Bill Gates, Silicon Valley applauded from the sidelines as powerful medical charlatans — applying the most pessimistic projections from discredited modeling and easily manipulated PCR testing and a menu of new protocols for coroners that appeared intended to inflate reporting of COVID-19 deaths — fanned pandemic panic and confined the world’s population under house arrest.

The suspension of due process, and notice, and comment rulemaking meant that none of the government prelates who ordained the quarantine had to first publicly calculate whether destroying the global economy, disrupting food and medical supplies, and throwing a billion humans into dire poverty and food insecurity would kill more people than it would save.

In America, their quarantine predictably shattered the nation’s once-booming economic engine, putting 58 million Americans out of work, and permanently bankrupting more than 100,000 small businesses, including 41,000 Black-owned businesses, some of which took three generations of investment to build.

These policies have also set into motion the inevitable dismantling of the social safety net that nurtured America’s envied middle class. Government officials have already begun liquidating the 100-year legacies of the New Deal, New Frontier, the Great Society and Obamacare to pay the accumulated quarantine debts. Say goodbye to school lunches, health care, WICS, Medicaid, Medicare, University scholarships, etc., etc., etc.

The Greatest Transfer of Wealth in Modern History

While obliterating the American middle class and dropping an additional 8% of Americans below the poverty line, the 2020 “COVID coup” transferred a trillion dollars of wealth to Big Technology, Big Data, Big Telecom, Big Finance, Big Media behemoths (Michael Bloomberg, Rupert Murdoch) and Silicon Valley internet titans like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Jack Dorsey.

It seems beyond coincidence that these men, who are cashing in on the poverty and misery caused by global lockdowns, are the same men whose companies actively censor critics of those policies.

The very internet companies that snookered us all with the promise of democratizing communications have created a world where it has become impermissible to speak ill of official pronouncements, and practically a crime to criticize pharmaceutical products.

The same Tech/Data and Telecom robber barons, now gorging themselves on the corpses of our obliterated middle class, are rapidly transforming America’s once-proud democracy into a censorship and surveillance police state over which they profit at every turn.

For example, this cabal used the lockdown to accelerate construction of their 5G network of satellites, antennae, biometric facial recognition and “track-and-trace” infrastructure that they, and their government and intelligence agency partners, will use to mine and monetize our data for free, compel obedience to arbitrary dictates and suppress dissent.

Their government/industry collaboration will use this system to manage the rage when Americans finally wake up to the fact that this outlaw gang has stolen our democracy, our civil rights, our country and way of life — while we huddled in orchestrated fear from a flu-like illness.

The Systematic Demolition of the US Constitution

Predictably our other constitutional guarantees lined up behind free speech at the gibbet. The imposition of censorship has masked this systematic demolition of our Constitution, including attacks on our freedoms of assembly (through social distancing and lockdown rules) and on freedom of worship (including abolishing religious exemptions and closing churches, while liquor stores remain open as “essential service”).

They’ve demolished our right to private property (the right to operate a business), due process (including the imposition of far-reaching restrictions against freedom of movement, education and association without rule making, public hearings, or economic and environmental impact statements), the 7th Amendment right to jury trials (in cases of vaccine injuries caused by corporate negligence), our rights to privacy and against illegal searches and seizures (warrantless tracking and tracing), and our right to have governments that don’t spy on us or retain our information for mischievous purposes.

Public Enemy No. 1

Silencing Dr. Mercola’s voice, of course, was the Medical Cabal’s early priority. For decades, Dr. Mercola has been among the most effective and influential advocates against the pharmaceutical paradigm. He was an eloquent, charismatic and knowledgeable critic of a corrupt system that has made Americans the world’s top consumer of pharmaceutical drugs. Americans pay the highest prices for drugs, and have the worst health outcomes among the top 75 nations.

Putting opiates — which kill 50,000 Americans annually — aside, pharmaceuticals are now the third biggest killer of Americans, after heart attacks and cancer. Like a prophet in the wilderness, Dr. Mercola has argued for years that good health does not come in a syringe or a pill, but from building strong immune systems.

He preaches that nutrition and exercise are the most effective medicines, and that public health officials ought to be pushing policies that discourage reliance on pharmaceutical products and that safeguard our food supplies from Big Food, Big Chemical and Big Ag. These predatory industries naturally consider Dr. Mercola to be Public Enemy No. 1.

How Big Pharma Controls the News

Big Pharma’s $9.6 billion annual advertising budget gives these unscrupulous companies control over our news and television outlets. Strong economic drivers (pharmaceutical companies are the biggest network advertisers) have long discouraged mainstream media outlets from criticizing vaccine manufacturers.

In 2014, a network president, Roger Ailes, told me he would fire any of his news show hosts who allowed me to talk about vaccine safety on air. “Our news division,” he explained, “gets up to 70% of ad revenues from pharma in nonelection years.”

Thus, pharmaceutical products were both the predicate and the punchline of the Cancel Culture. The Pharmedia long ago banned Dr. Mercola from the airwaves and newsprint while turning Wikipedia — which functions as Pharma’s newsletter and propaganda vehicle — into a mill for defamations against him and every other integrative and functional health physician.

At COVID’s outset, the social media robber barons — all with their own financial entanglements with Pharma — joined the campaign to silence Mercola by ejecting him from their platforms.

It’s a bad omen for democracy when citizens can no longer conduct civil, informed debates about critical policies that impact the vitality of our economy, public health, personal freedoms and constitutional rights.

Censorship is violence, and this systematic muzzling of debate — which proponents justify as a measure to curtail dangerous polarization — is actually fueling the polarization and extremism that the autocrats use to clamp down evermore draconian controls. We might recall, at this strange time in our history, my father’s friend, Edward R. Murrow’s warning:

“The right to dissent … is surely fundamental to the existence of a democratic society. That’s the right that went first in every nation that stumbled down the trail to totalitarianism.”

Commentary by Dr. Mercola

Not surprisingly, Amazon is being pressured to ban “The Truth About COVID-19 — Exposing the Great Reset, Lockdowns, Vaccine Passports and the New Normal,” or at bare minimum add some sort of warning label to it, under the auspice that it might make people rethink their decision to get vaccinated.²

Censorship has been a go-to strategy for all authoritarian regimes, and as detailed in “Vaccines Are the New ‘Purity Test’” and “IBM Colluded With Hitler, Now Makes Vaccine Passports,” we’ve entered an era where the absolute worst parts of history are being repeated under the cloak of public health.

In stark contrast to previous dictatorial regimes, however, the current takeover is a global phenomenon, not a national one. Citizens of every nation now face identical threats to freedom and liberty, and medical professionals and scientists around the world who are trying to shine a light on reality and truth are all facing the same censorship.

Globalist-Backed Group Pushes for Radical Censorship

While calls for censorship are coming from a wide variety of sources, including elected officials,^3,4,5 state attorneys general⁶ and media, one very vocal advocate for radical censorship is the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a tiny U.K.-based organization with anonymous funding that has taken to publishing hit lists of individuals it wants Big Tech to deplatform.⁷ Kennedy and I are both listed targets.

While more or less a one-man show, the CCDH, by way of its board members, has ties to globalist strongholds such as the Trilateral Commission, the Atlantic Council, the European Council of Foreign Relations, the CIA, Reuters and even Bill Gates. I reviewed these ties in “Pressure Mounts to Ban Dr. Mercola’s New Book From Amazon.”

The CCDH works with an equally obscure group called Anti-Vax Watch, which recently put on a demonstration outside the halls of Congress. Ironically, while the CCDH claims to be anti-extremism, you’d be hard-pressed to find a clearer example of actual extremism than this Anti-Vax Watch demonstration, illustrated in this Tweet.⁸

Government Officials Are Breaking Laws

As irksome as groups like the CCDH may be, the fact that government officials are openly calling for censorship are of far more serious concern. What they’re doing is illegal, and they ought to be well aware of this.

The fact that they’re blatantly ignoring the law of the land and are trying to wield the power of monopolistic Big Tech platforms for their own personal gain is disconcerting to say the least, as it clearly indicates an unabashed transition into totalitarianism. The First Amendment, which governs our freedom of speech, reads:⁹

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

The U.S. Constitution is the highest law, and it clearly spells out that members of Congress do not have the right to impose limitations on the freedom of speech or the press. They can disagree with what’s being said all they want, but they are not allowed to impose censorship on speech they don’t like.

It’s important to realize that the censorship they’re calling for (under the justification of protecting public health) is in fact a totalitarian iatrarchy strategy for which there is no reasonable justification.

Censoring vaccine information also violates the Nuremberg code,¹⁰ which states, “The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential,” and specifies that in order for the subject to be able to make an informed decision, “all inconveniences and hazards reasonably to be expected; and the effects upon his health or person which may possibly come from his participation” must be disclosed. Informed consent simply isn’t possible if potential hazards and drawbacks are censored.

All of these issues spurred me to write “The Truth About COVID-19 — Exposing the Great Reset, Lockdowns, Vaccine Passports and the New Normal,” which you can preorder on Amazon. This is a dangerous time in history, and the most important weapon of the day is information.

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Consistently including mushrooms in your dietary plan may offer unique health benefits, including helping to fight aging and prostate cancer.¹ Researchers from Penn State,² for instance, discovered that mushrooms are an abundant source of two excellent antioxidants, ergothioneine and glutathione.

Both antioxidants help inhibit oxidative stress and are considered important antiaging compounds. Researchers also recently identified one of the mechanisms the fungi use to interrupt and ultimately suppress the cell cycle of prostate cancer.

A mushroom is the umbrella-shaped fruiting body of a fungus that typically grows above ground. The seeds it produces are millions of microscopic spores that are carried by the wind or spread by animals. Once the spores have germinated in wood or soil, it sends out a network of rooting threads called mycelium that often persist for many years.³

The mycelium absorbs food by digesting the surrounding nutrients externally and then absorbing those nutrients. Although they are known as either mushrooms or toadstools, the term mushroom usually identifies those fungi that are edible and the term toadstool is often used to identify poisonous or inedible fungi.

Mushrooms belong to the Agaricaceae family and the most common mushroom found in your grocer’s is the white button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), which was the focus of the current research. Science is only beginning to tap into the vast natural medicine warehouse that exists in these fungi.

Scientists do not agree on how many species there might be. Estimations have ranged from 1.5 to 5.1 million different species.⁴ However, according to a paper in the American Society for Microbiology,⁵ in 2017 there were 120,000 identified species.

You may be familiar with some of the more exotic mushrooms like shiitake, crimini and Portobello at your local grocer’s. Yet, it is the inauspicious common white button mushroom that was the focus of this study against prostate cancer.

White Button Mushrooms Help Fight Prostate Tumor Growth

Human⁶ and animal⁷ studies have demonstrated that white button mushrooms have antiproliferative properties and help inhibit prostate tumor growth. In the current studies, researchers first sought to identify the mechanism white button mushroom extract uses to help reduce prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels in patients with prostate cancer.⁸

PSA is a protein made by the cells of prostate cancer, which can be measured in the blood of men with prostate cancer. In their first study,⁹ researchers led by Dr. Xiaoqiang Wang conducted a reverse translational study using androgen-dependent prostate cancer cell lines from a prostate tumor.

They found that white button mushroom extract could suppress dihydrogen testosterone-induced PSA and cell proliferation of the tumor cells in a dose-dependent manner.

Several analyses were performed, including immunofluorescence and RNA sequencing. The tests confirmed that the extract could suppress androgen response pathways and tumor growth and reduce PSA levels. In the second study,¹⁰ which was presented March 2021, at the Endocrine Society annual meeting, the same team took a deeper dive into the research using an animal model. In a press release, Wang said:¹¹

“Androgens, a type of male sex hormone, promote the growth of prostate cancer cells by binding to and activating the androgen receptor, a protein that is expressed in prostate cells. White button mushrooms appear to suppress the activity of the androgen receptor.”

The researchers implanted human prostate cancer cells into mice and found that the white button mushroom extract could suppress androgen receptor activity and that the mice treated with the extract for six days demonstrated significant suppression of tumor growth and a decrease in levels of PSA. Wang continued:¹²

“We found that white button mushrooms contain chemicals that can block the activity of the androgen receptor in mouse models, indicating this fungus can reduce PSA levels. While more research is needed, it’s possible that white button mushrooms could one day contribute to the prevention and treatment of prostate cancer.”

Nutritional Profile Likely Contributes to Health Benefits

Nearly 88% of the mushrooms that are grown are sold fresh in the U.S. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture,¹³ on average, people eat about 3 pounds of fresh mushrooms each year and 87% of those are grown domestically.

Mushrooms are also commonly used in some types of traditional medicine. Many of the health benefits are likely related to the high nutrient content found in the mushroom. Mushrooms provide essential minerals such as manganese, copper, zinc, selenium, calcium, magnesium and iron.¹⁴

When compared to their size and weight, they are a rich source of protein and fiber. They are high in potassium and sulfur, as well as many of the B vitamins, including riboflavin, niacin and pantothenic acid.¹⁵ Ergothioneine in mushrooms has a specific role in protecting DNA from oxidative damage and glutathione is important for the detoxification of heavy metals and other contaminants. As noted in The Guardian:¹⁶

"… [S]cientists think [ergothioneine and glutathione] may help to protect the body against the maladies of old age, such as cancer, coronary heart disease, and Alzheimer's disease."

In a press release following the publication of a paper in Food Chemistry, Robert Beelman, Professor Emeritus of food science and director of the Penn State Center for Plant and Mushroom Products for Health, said:¹⁷

"What we found is that, without a doubt, mushrooms are the highest dietary source of these two antioxidants taken together, and that some types are really packed with both of them.

There's a theory — the free radical theory of aging — that's been around for a long time that says when we oxidize our food to produce energy there's a number of free radicals that are produced that are side products of that action and many of these are quite toxic.

The body has mechanisms to control most of them, including ergothioneine and glutathione, but eventually enough accrue to cause damage, which has been associated with many of the diseases of aging, like cancer, coronary heart disease and Alzheimer's."

Interestingly, cooking the mushrooms does not appear to affect the compounds, including ergothioneine, which is heat stable.¹⁸ In one animal study,¹⁹ mice fed white button mushrooms demonstrated a rising number of Prevotella, a species of friendly gut bacteria.

White button mushrooms act as prebiotics that feed beneficial bacteria, which in turn produce short chain fatty acids that have been shown to affect glucose production. While eating a few button mushrooms is not going to have a significant effect on blood sugar levels, the long-term cumulative benefits of a diet high in a variety of prebiotic foods cannot be overstated.

Immunomodulation May Offer Support Against COVID-19

A study published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition²⁰ showed that eating less than 1 ounce of cooked shiitake mushrooms each day for four weeks boosted the participants’ T-cell levels, gut immunity and reduced inflammatory properties.

Other studies have also demonstrated that white button mushrooms may promote immune function by affecting the production of antiviral proteins.²¹ The laboratory-based study showed that white button mushrooms improve the maturity of dendritic cells released from the bone marrow.

Another showed how mushrooms could modify cytokines, specifically in a cancer cell model,²² and an animal study²³ suggested that white button mushrooms could “promote innate immunity against tumors and viruses through the enhancement of a key component, NK activity.”

In the current global climate in which many scientists are researching ways of naturally fighting viral infections, including COVID-19, a recent paper in the International Journal of Environment, Science and Technology²⁴ proposed the nutrients and active ingredients found in white button mushrooms may be a source of medicine to combat the novel coronavirus.

The study of coronaviruses in the past 30 years has demonstrated features of pathogenesis and biology like that exhibited by COVID-19. The authors expounded on the immunomodulatory, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of the mushroom, and concluded the mushroom:²⁵

“... might also provide sizable support towards COVID-19 because of high nutritional and medicinal properties. Consumption of WBM [white button mushroom] isn’t beneficial just in case of nourishment but also existing as anticancer, anti-cardiovascular diseases, anti-diabetes, antioxidant and antimicrobial.

Most of the investigation has proven that nutraceutical therapy may be a promising source of recent therapeutics against COVID-19 diseases. Furthermore, vitamins B treatment drastically withdrawn neutrophil intrusion into the lungs with an effective anti-inflammatory impact in the way of the ventilator-induced lung damage.”

As mentioned, in addition to the immunomodulatory effects, white button mushrooms are also rich in glutathione. One of the factors that differentiate people with mild or severe illness may be related to the ability to reduce hypercoagulability and the hyperimmune response that leads to a cytokine storm.

Glutathione is a powerful antioxidant your body uses to increase the effectiveness of other antioxidants, which has earned it the nickname “master antioxidant.”²⁶ N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is a precursor to glutathione and the focus of a trial announced by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in the treatment of COVID-19.²⁷

In early 2020, Russian scientist Dr. Alexey Polonikov published a paper²⁸ proposing glutathione plays a crucial role in the ability to respond to a COVID-19 infection. I discuss this further in “Glutathione Deficiency May Be Associated With COVID Severity.”

Mushrooms May Help Prevent Cognitive Decline

There are several strategies to help keep your cognitive function intact and eating mushrooms may be one of them. Mushrooms are widely available, relatively inexpensive, can be grown in your backyard and are suitable for a wide variety of uses in the kitchen. Adding them to your diet may be one of the simplest ways to help support your brain health.

Research published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease²⁹ found that adults who routinely ate two portions of mushrooms each week reduced their odds of mild cognitive impairment by 50%,³⁰ which was independent of confounding factors such as high blood pressure, heart disease, age, alcohol and cigarette consumption and physical activity.³¹

The team was from the National University of Singapore. The researchers defined a portion as three-quarters of a cup and two portions as approximately one-half of a plate. These were meant as guidelines since the results demonstrated that even a small portion of mushrooms each week could be beneficial.

Study author Lei Feng, assistant professor in the department of psychological medicine at NUS, said in a news release, "This correlation is surprising and encouraging. It seems that a commonly available single ingredient could have a dramatic effect on cognitive decline."³²

The researchers measured mild cognitive impairment using neurological tests, extensive interviews, physical measurements and dementia rating. The study was performed in Singapore where the six commonly consumed mushrooms include golden, shiitake, oyster, dried and canned mushrooms, and white button mushrooms.

Ultimately, the researchers believe the reason the participants who ate two servings of mushrooms each week had a reduction in mild cognitive impairment came down to ergothioneine, which is found in each of the varieties included in the study.³³

Choose Organic or Grow Your Own

While an afternoon searching for mushrooms may sound like fun, it's vital to recognize the need for caution. There are no simple rules to distinguish the difference between toxic and edible mushrooms. In more than 95% of the cases, amateur mushroom hunters have misidentified a poisonous mushroom.³⁴

The severity of the poisoning can vary, but the most toxic are from mushrooms containing Amanita phalloides.³⁵ There is no antidote for amatoxin poisoning, so it is essential if you have any reason to suspect someone has ingested an amatoxin containing mushroom you do not wait for symptoms but seek immediate emergency treatment.

There are some medications that may help lessen the severity of the poison,³⁶ but they are not always successful. The most famous of these lethal mushrooms is the death cap mushroom, which may kill more people each year than any other type of mushroom.³⁷

It's also important to choose organically grown mushrooms as the fungi easily absorb air and soil contaminants. Growing your own mushrooms is an excellent option and a far safer alternative than picking wild mushrooms.

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