Health & Fitness

In his April 2, 2021, article,¹ “Vaccine Passports and the Recalibration of Social Ethics,” screenwriter Tom Moran opines on how vaccine passports “undermine one of the most fundamental rights in a civilized society: autonomy over one’s own body.”

You’re now being bombarded with propaganda disguised as “news” telling you, either directly or insinuatingly, that getting vaccinated is a patriotic duty, and refusal is selfish and immoral at best, or an act of domestic terrorism at worst. However, as noted by Moran:

“The failure to participate in a noble act is not immoral. To put it another way, giving blood saves lives. Failing to give blood is not murder.”

Indeed, this is particularly true in the case of COVID-19 “vaccines,” seeing how the sole benefit reaped is that you might suffer milder side effects if or when you get infected with SARS-CoV-2. Perhaps it’ll prevent a more serious case requiring hospitalization, but the shots do not make you immune; you can still get infected, and they do not prevent you from spreading the virus if you’re infected.

Should We Demand Personal Sacrifice ‘for the Greater Good’?

Since the vaccinated individual is the only one getting any conceivable benefit, getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is clearly not about saving other people’s lives. Some insist that if enough people get vaccinated, herd immunity will develop and the virus will peter out, but no one explains how this is supposed to work since the shot doesn’t prevent infection or spread.

But even if that best-case scenario were true, the choice to gamble your health by taking an experimental gene intervention must remain a personal one, made with full informed consent, which is nearly impossible due to the censorship of anything but complimentary information on the vaccine. For some, the potential benefit might be worth the risk. For others, the potential risks may far outweigh the potential benefit. We’re not all the same.

“If you have a rare blood type, your blood is even more valuable to society than someone else’s — but this does not mean you have a moral, social or legal obligation to protect other people by donating,” Moran writes.

“The right of the individual to choose is more important than the ‘greater good’ of society. We have always known this. That is why giving blood is voluntary. This is why there is no punishment for abstaining. This is why there is no reward for participating, other than receiving a sticker and biscuit. Any form of coercion would be morally reprehensible.

Autonomy over one’s own body is absolute — one of the most fundamental rights in a civilized society. So important is this autonomy that it even extends beyond our own death. Our organs may only be harvested for life-saving transplants with our prior consent. Becoming an organ donor (another good thing to do) was, until very recently, an opt-in system. Again, there is no reward for participating and no punishment for abstaining.

Any medical intervention that is for the benefit of society, with no conceivable benefit for the individual, must always be voluntary. The rights, freedoms or opportunities conferred on an individual in society should never be contingent on participation in such an act.”

Moran asks you to consider the theoretical situation of having to donate blood in order to get tickets for a Broadway show, or show your organ donor card to get into a restaurant. What if you had to donate bone marrow in order to gain the privilege of attending a sporting event?

The fact that the right of an individual to assess personal risk, and to prioritize their own quality of life is now being derided as something heinous is a dangerous and inhumane development. The idea that your physical body belongs to the state, and that you have no right to make your own decisions about what is to be done to it, is nothing short of slavery.

Vaccine Passports Eliminate Basic Human Rights

While the mainstream narrative is that vaccine passports are the best way to eradicate the pandemic and your “path to freedom,”² they are neither. Again, the “vaccines” are not designed to prevent infection, only lessen symptoms, and if rights you had before are now removed, how can it be a path to freedom? This narrative requires some kind of double-think straight out of “1984.”

No, as Zuzana Janosova-Den Boer warns in her article ”I Survived Communism — Are You Ready for Your Turn?”³ signs point to a place diametrically opposed to freedom. Den Boer emigrated from Czechoslovakia to Canada, and in her article, she details the “all-too familiar signs of the same propaganda” starting to permeate her adopted country.

Interestingly, the article was written in January 2019, a year before COVID-19 ushered in authoritarianism for all to see. She recounts a statement by a professor lecturing on “scientific communism” in her native Czechoslovakia.

“It was scientifically proven that communism is the only social-economic system providing the masses with justice and equality — 100% of scientists agree on this. The topic is not up for debate!” he said. However, “Science is not about consensus; ideology is,” Den Boer says.

The New ‘Green Communism’

While there are plenty of parallels between COVID-19 pandemic responses and communism, Den Boer’s 2019 article highlights the reincarnation of communism under the banner of environmentalism. Her commentary is more easily understood today than even two years ago, as the reality of the Great Reset is now becoming more widely known.

Part and parcel of that “reset” is the introduction of an energy-based economy and “sustainable development.” What many fail to realize is that this pleasant-sounding verbiage hides some rather nasty plans because the technocrats, whose plans these are intend to enslave mankind under the guise of protecting the environment. This is hardly a trade-off most people would voluntarily agree to. Den Boer writes:⁴

“In March of 2007, the website WorldNetDaily published an article entitled ‘Environmentalism is new communism.’ In it, the former Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, stated: ‘It becomes evident that, while discussing climate, we are not witnessing a clash of views about the environment, but a clash of views about human freedom.’

He goes on to describe environmentalism as ‘the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity.’ Klaus has also written a book: ‘Blue planet in green shackles,’ in which he states ‘communism and environmentalism have the same roots; they both suppress freedom.’

He also warns that any brand of environmentalism calling for centralized planning of the economy under the slogan of ‘protecting nature’ is nothing less than a reincarnation of communism — new communism …

Since I received my own vaccination of communist propaganda, during the first 27 years of my life, I … am immune to this disease. If someone is trying to ‘save me’ against my will, I’m instantly wary and ready to fight back — if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.

So try to imagine how I feel, now as a Canadian, when I see the same tactics and hear the same phrases I saw and heard for years under communism, only this time in English!”

Trick of the Trade: Deception

“Communism can be characterized by a single word,” Den Boer says, and that word is “deception.” Real intentions are never disclosed. A range of slogans and programs may be presented, but they all have a singular goal, and that is “totalitarian enslavement.”

She points out that communism has been subverting the environmentalist movement since the 1970s, as it was then recognized as a field ripe for sowing its ideology. In 1972, then-chairman of the Communist Party USA, Gus Hall, published a book called “Ecology,” in which he stated that:⁵

“Human society cannot basically stop the destruction of the environment under capitalism. Socialism is the only structure that makes it possible … We must be the organizers, the leaders of these movements.”

Den Boer writes:⁶

“This idea was incorporated into the U.S. Green Party program in 1989 (the same year soviet communism collapsed), in which the fictitious threats of ‘global warming’ and ‘climate change’ are used to scare the public into believing humanity must “save the planet”:

‘This urgency, along with other Green issues and themes it interrelates, makes confronting the greenhouse [effect] a powerful organizing tool … Survival is highly motivating, and may help us to build a mass movement that will lead to large-scale political and societal change in a very short time …

First of all, we [must] inform the public that the crisis is more immediate and severe than [they] are being told, [that] its implications are too great to wait for the universal scientific confirmation that only eco-catastrophe would establish.’”

What the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) promotes is not climate science, but socialist ideology, Den Boer insists, citing as evidence comments made by Ottmar Georg Edenhofer, former co-chair of the IPCC Working Group III, who in a 2010 interview⁷ stated that climate issues are about economics, and that “One must explicitly say: We de facto redistribute the world’s wealth due to climate politics.”

Three Stages of Communism

Den Boer goes on to describe the three primary stages of communist propaganda methodology. Stage 1 is about creating polarization and demoralizing the public through divide-and-conquer tactics. Idealists are primary targets, as they are easily manipulated with emotionally charged propaganda. “Recognizing how essential these people are to the success of his revolution, Lenin referred to them as ‘useful idiots,’” Den Boer writes.

Next is destabilization, where the basic values of society are targeted and twisted, primarily through the educational system. “New communism is based on all the old communist ideological principles and beliefs, but uses environmentalism as its agent of change, to completely alter the core values of western democracy and destabilize (demoralize) society,” she says.

Stage 3 is revolution, which typically occurs after majority support has been gained, through whatever means. If the revolution is won, democratic elections are abolished, and members of opposing parties are executed. Private businesses are seized and nationalized.

“Key supporters who now finally realize how they have been manipulated and exploited (i.e. useful idiots who are no longer useful) are either jailed or executed, to prevent the formation of any dissident movements.

All other useful idiots, having fulfilled their purpose of bringing communists to power, are now either enslaved into the new ideology, or disposed of in a variety of prescribed ways.

A new privileged elite of communist party leaders is now formed … Leaders of every key institution or organization: company, hospital, police, school, etc. are now replaced by an official member of the communist party. Competence, ability or fitness for the job is no longer relevant or required; the only prerequisite is loyalty to the party.”

While supporters believe socialism and communism will bring equality and prosperity to all, the economic consequences are always the complete opposite: Poverty. But why? Den Boer explains it thus:

“People always spend their own money more carefully than someone else’s. Capitalism is about efficiency. Private businesses must spend their capital very carefully. They cannot afford to make investments in their business, unless they are sure it will be worth it …

In a centrally planned economy, all production is controlled by government. The revenue required to operate the government and the economy is obtained through taxation. Because a centrally planned economy is not subject to the laws of supply and demand, financial goals become meaningless, since there are no penalties for not achieving them.

Thus, long-term government plans are never fulfilled and financial goals are replaced by imaginary production quotas. The result is profligate waste and inefficiency on a monumental scale.

Communism institutes mandatory employment with pre-determined duties and salaries. The problem is lack of goods and services. Even if you have money, you will have few opportunities to spend it for your own benefit.”

Socialism Versus Communism

Den Boer goes on to stress that while socialism and communism both seek to abolish private business and turn resources into “publicly owned” resources, they are strictly controlled by the government, not the people.

Socialism is implemented first, at which time wealth is distributed according to productivity. Communism is the second stage, at which time wealth is distributed according to individual need. However, individual needs are determined by the government, not the individual.

“Remember the key word: deception? Socialism equals communism. Any political party or organization that advocates socialism is advocating communism,” De Boer writes.⁸

So, what is life under communism like? For full details, I recommend reading De Boer’s article in its entirety, but to start, you can always expect a shortage of basic goods, necessitating waiting in line for staples such as milk, meat and eggs.

Inevitable side effects of such shortages are theft, corruption and bribery, which become systemic. De Boer warns that to function, you have to be prepared to enter the right networks and pay bribes for everything, be it schooling, timely health care, government permits, clothing or car repairs. Here are a few other examples:

But here’s the best part: there’s no guarantee you will ever receive an apartment, car, garage, daycare, recreation, or anything else you might want. If there is any record (ever) of your non-compliance with communist ideology, you will receive nothing …

Communism results in the poverty of an entire society. By comparison, free-market capitalism has lifted the highest number of people out of poverty in human history.”

Fear Keeps It All Together

What prevents communist society from collapsing into anarchy and freedom revolution is fear. The threat of arrest, interrogation, torture and incarceration in an insane asylum is your constant companion. Informants are plentiful, as providing incriminating information about another can be used as currency for personal privileges.

Signs are all around us now, indicating that we are well on our way toward socialism/communism, although I believe a more technically correct term for the governance being introduced is technocracy, as detailed in “The Pressing Dangers of Technocracy” and “Technocracy and the Great Reset.”

Global technocratic governance has all the hallmarks of socialism and communism, but there are some key differences, starting with the fact that it is heavily reliant on technological surveillance, data mining and social engineering through technological means.

The end result is that the kind of bribery De Boer describes would be next to impossible due to moment-by-moment surveillance, and snitches would be superfluous, as surveillance technology would catch everything you say and do automatically. The threat level, and therefore fear level, are therefore also bound to be much higher than in any previous communist regime. Freedom would truly be near-nonexistent.

Universities Roll Out Daily COVID Checks

Already, basic personal freedoms are being stripped from us at breakneck speed. For example, Cornell University recently announced⁹ students returning to Ithaca, Geneva and Cornell Tech campuses this fall must be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Compliance will be ensured through the school’s COVID-19 Proof of Vaccination Tool, into which students will need to register their vaccination status. Students can claim a medical or religious exemption, although specifics on what will be accepted are not included in the announcement.

Depending on the overall vaccination level at the campus, students and staff may be required to wear masks and/or use online education options to limit classroom density. But that’s not all.

On-campus students must also log into and complete an online health screen “prior to their arrival each day” using the Daily Check tool.¹⁰ Basically, each and every day before entering campus grounds, you have to confirm that you are symptom-free and have not had a recent exposure to a symptomatic person. This health check must also be performed on weekends.

Reeducation for Students Not Wearing Masks

While Cornell’s seven-day-a-week health check may seem extreme enough, students at Clearwater High School in Florida face even more nightmarish conditions. There, students caught without masks will be placed into “reeducation” to train them on the importance of mask wearing for public health. The Clearwater High School advisory on face coverings reads:¹¹

“The wearing of a face covering is a public health issue. Students who do not wear a mask when it is required (or refuse to do so), should first be reeducated on the importance of wearing a mask. If after reeducation occurs, they still do not comply, the student’s administrator should be contacted.”

One would think that socially-minded health officials would refrain from using authoritarian terms like “reeducation” in a situation like this, and the fact that they don’t can easily be taken as a sign that COVID-19 restrictions really are about the implementation of a public control system. Children, in such a system, need to be indoctrinated, and indoctrination is precisely what this advisory is announcing will take place.

Tracking Passports Was the Plan All Along

I’ve written many articles, at this point, detailing “dress rehearsals” and various globalist plans that show our current responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have been the plan all along. Different papers describe a variety of catastrophic scenarios that might facilitate the rollout of a global technocratic system.

It just so happens that COVID-19 fit the bill, allowing these globalists to implement a variety of different agendas and control systems all at once, including lockdowns resulting in the “natural” destruction of private businesses and increased surveillance and data mining in the form of COVID tracking apps and, now, vaccine passports.

As reported by The Guardian, vaccine passports were planned long before the idea was ever brought up publicly:¹²

“A government-commissioned report in December examined how COVID certificates could be used to decide whether people should be allowed into sports events, pubs and other crowded spaces, months before ministers publicly confirmed the plan.

A document prepared for NHS test and trace and seen by the Guardian shows that the research also looked into whether certificates could be made a condition of entry for family events such as weddings or even small casual gatherings.

The report, dated 17 December, was prepared by staff working for Zühlke Engineering, a Swiss-based consultancy that has worked closely on the UK’s COVID contact-tracing app, and has a number of staff embedded within the test-and-trace team.”

Implementing Vaccine Requirement Through Deception

While both U.S. and U.K. government officials have denied that mandates for vaccine passports will be implemented at the federal level, it’s important to realize what they’re actually doing here. Remember De Boer’s key word for communism: “Deception.” Government leaders in democratically-run countries know the constitution forbids them from requiring health passports as a condition for engaging in normal social functions.

What they’re doing instead, is encouraging and putting the onus on private companies to require them. The end result is the same, but the government cannot be accused of circumventing the U.S. Constitution.

The hope is that enough private companies will require vaccine passports that will essentially make them mandatory if anyone wishes to engage in normal activities, likely as fundamental as shopping in a grocery for food. People will essentially have no choice but to comply.

So far, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Texas Gov. Greg Abbot and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds¹³ have stepped up to the plate and are issuing executive orders and writing state laws to ban state requirements for vaccine passports and/or bar private companies from requiring customers to prove their vaccination status. They wisely recognize that these certificates will infringe on their constituents’ right to life itself.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s ban on vaccine passports is limited to state government entities,¹⁴ and lawmakers in Tennessee are reportedly considering legislation to ban requirements for vaccine certificates as well.¹⁵ Hopefully, more state leaders will see these passports for what they really are — a totalitarian control mechanism — and will pursue legislation to forbid private companies and government entities from requiring them.

We clearly have some major challenges in front of us, but I remain highly confident that we will succeed in stopping this insane power grab and move towards slavery. So, alert everyone who trusts your judgment and encourage them to get their heads out of the sand and recognize that they are being fed pure propaganda, the primary goal of which is not to liberate them from the virus but ultimately to enslave them to the state.

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Drinking water safety is not often top of mind unless it has made the news, like the lead crisis in Flint, Michigan.¹ However, the level of contamination in U.S. tap water is very concerning, whether your water supply is from the municipal water system or a well. Just because it looks clear and seems to taste normal does not mean it's safe or pure.

A recent survey analysis of water supplies across the U.S. found what other studies have also found — it's brimming with toxic chemicals.² Test results from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) on 50,000 water utilities in 50 states also found 267 different contaminants out of 500 they tested for.³

One of the problems with the water supply is an aging infrastructure that may be “nearing the end” of its useful life.⁴ Water pollution from fire-fighting chemicals,⁵ agrichemicals,⁶ drugs and nerve toxins produced by freshwater cyanobacteria⁷ add an additional toxic load to the water supply.

Because your body is mostly water, you require a constant supply of pure water to fuel your filtration system and ensure your body is free of toxins. Your blood, kidneys and liver all require a good source of clean water to detoxify from the toxic exposure it meets every day.

But, as a recent collaborative water survey from Consumer Reports⁸ and The Guardian⁹ has demonstrated, the water supply is in desperate need of detoxification.

Toxic Chemicals Found in Drinking Water Across the US

The team from Consumer Reports and The Guardian¹⁰ asked readers for help investigating the nation's drinking water supply and more than 6,000 people held up their hands to be counted.

Statisticians from Consumer Reports whittled the group down to 120 households that represented a cross-section of each of the EPA’s 10 jurisdictional regions. Within each region, the team chose a mix of locations in which they tested the water for multiple different contaminants.

The analysis showed that 118 of the 120 water samples collected had high levels of PFAS or arsenic as well as detectable levels of lead. The group acknowledged that the study had some limitations since water quality was tested in one day, which may not demonstrate the overall quality supplied throughout the system.¹¹

According to the report from Consumer Reports, the challenges are not technological. In other words, they believe filtration systems exist that can clean the water of contaminants and “yet they are not being used uniformly by community water systems.”¹²

Although the deputy director of Public Works in New Britain, Connecticut, told Consumer Reports that a single sample may not be representative of the overall toxic exposure, EPA spokesperson Andrea Drinkard said that “93% of the population supplied by community water systems gets water that meets ‘all health-based standards all of the time.’”¹³

Drinking water contamination is a crisis. According to an analysis published in The Guardian¹⁴ in February 2021, more than 140,000 water systems in the U.S. are affected. The same analysis demonstrated that clean drinking water is not distributed equally since systems that service rural counties and poor areas have a higher likelihood of violations.

EPA Balances Cost Against Health When Setting Arsenic Levels

One of the factors new homeowners don't often consider is the purity of their tap water supply. Consumer Reports¹⁵ learned one of the participants in the study, Sandy and Scott Phillips from Texas, had built a custom home in a new development just north of Austin. After moving in they invested thousands in a reverse osmosis and water softening system to take care of the unusual odor in the water.

What the couple learned from a survey was their water supply was high in multiple chemicals, including arsenic. Arsenic is a heavy metal that's naturally present in groundwater and highly toxic.¹⁶ The greatest public health threat from arsenic is when it is used in drinking water, food preparation and irrigation of food crops.

Long-term exposure increases the risk of several forms of cancer, including skin, lung and bladder cancers.¹⁷ Other research has suggested there is an association with neurological effects, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and reproductive disorders.

The health impact of low-level exposure to arsenic does not occur immediately but happens over a long period of time.¹⁸ Exposure to arsenic can also reduce children's IQ and increase the risk of skin discoloration and lesions. Arsenic can get into the drinking water supply from industrial processes and runoff from agricultural and mining concerns.¹⁹

The general manager for the Texas couple's water supplier told Consumer Reports that it “has complied with all federal and state minimum contaminant level standards for arsenic and lead for many years.”²⁰ He also commented that the results from the Consumer Report survey conflicted with their records.

The acceptable level set by the EPA for arsenic in drinking water in 1942 had been 50 parts per billion (ppb).²¹ The level was reduced to 10 ppb in 2001, which was an amount the EPA felt would help water system operators balance the cost of filtering the water against health challenges.²²

Yet, this level is still more than triple the 3-ppb level at which experts, including scientists at Consumer Reports²³ and the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC),²⁴ have long insisted it should be limited.

Nearly every water sample tested had measurable amounts of arsenic. A 2017 NRDC²⁵ study noted that the EPA had set a maximum contaminant level for arsenic at zero since no level is safe. However, it set the enforceable level at 10 ppb, which continues to present a “substantial cancer risk.”

The same report²⁶ showed there were 573 water systems across the U.S. that were delivering water with excessive arsenic to over 1.8 million people. One study²⁷ found exposure to arsenic at 5 ppb or greater in the drinking water lowered IQ scores in children approximately five to six points in most cognitive areas, including working memory, verbal comprehension and perceptual reasoning.

EPA: Wait Until 10% of Homes Have High Lead Levels

Survey results from the Phillips’ home in Texas also revealed their unfiltered water had 5.8 ppb of lead. In this instance, cost again has taken precedence over the potential health effects on consumers. Consumer Reports notes that while the EPA recognizes there is no safe exposure to lead, they do not require utility services to lower lead levels until 10% of the homes sampled in the area exceed 15 ppb.²⁸

In the same NRDC report that surveyed violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the researchers found there were 5,367 water systems that were allowing high levels of lead and copper into the water system that affected over 18 million consumers.²⁹

It wasn't until 1986 that using lead pipes to connect the water main in the street to buildings was banned. However, many of the previous water systems are still in use, affecting up to an estimated 6 million homes and businesses across the U.S.³⁰

Many of the health effects from lead exposure are well-known,³¹ including kidney and brain damage, anemia, weakness, neurological damage to a developing baby, lower IQ in children, and infertility in men and women.

Yet, despite the overwhelming costs to the community and individuals from exposure to lead, the EPA has not made significant changes to the maximum acceptable exposure levels for lead and many other toxins found in the drinking water supply.

The NRDC notes,³² “Weaknesses in the current Lead and Copper Rule, and numerous deficiencies in other EPA drinking water rules, require strengthening changes for the sake of public health.”

PFAS Are Forever Chemicals Found in Drinking Water

It may sometimes look like alphabet soup when scientists begin writing about perfluorinated chemicals, historically abbreviated PFC. To reduce confusion, the EPA made the move to use “PFAS” to refer to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances that describe the chemicals, which are sometimes referred to as “The Teflon Chemicals”³³ or “forever chemicals.”³⁴

PFASs make products water-, oil-, grease- and stain-resistant and are also found in firefighting foam. PFOS and PFOA are two PFAS chemicals that were voluntarily phased out by manufacturers.³⁵ However, while they are no longer manufactured in the U.S., the EPA reveals “phased out” doesn’t mean “not being used.”³⁶

The recent water survey confirmed the ubiquitous nature of PFAS in the water supply, finding 117 of the 120 water samples taken contained the chemical. Instead of enforceable legal limits, the EPA has established voluntary limits for PFOA and PFOS at 70 parts per trillion (ppt), which many experts believe is far too high.³⁷

Harvard Environmental health expert Philippe Grandjean, Ph.D., believes research evidence suggests a lower limit of 1 ppt. The threshold is also supported by the Environmental Working Group and Consumer Reports chief scientific officer.

PFOA, commonly called C8, had been dumped from a plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia, beginning in the 1950s. The C8 Science Panel³⁸ assessed the links between exposure and several health conditions, finding probable links to high cholesterol levels, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, several types of cancer and pregnancy-induced high blood pressure.

The report from the NRDC³⁹ did not include PFAS chemicals as they are not regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Instead, the EPA issued a health advisory establishing unenforceable levels that “inform” officials and water utilities of a level that may be safe.

An analysis published by the EWG⁴⁰ showed there were 2,337 sites in 49 states with known PFAS contamination. Unfortunately, while evidence continues to mount demonstrating forever chemicals are hazardous, the EPA is unwilling to protect consumer health. According to the EWG, the EPA:⁴¹

“... recently released a so-called PFAS action plan,⁴² but it is woefully inadequate. The EPA plan will not address ongoing sources of PFAS pollution, will not clean up legacy pollution and will not even require reporting of toxic PFAS releases.”

Filtered Water Is a Health Priority

If you choose bottled water instead of tap water, you may only be slightly better off, depending on where you live. The purity of bottled water has been in question since at least 2009 when the EWG released a scorecard showing most water brands failed to disclose contaminants contained in their water.⁴³

Another survey in 2011⁴⁴ revealed that 18% of bottled water did not show where the water came from and 32% did not disclose how the water was treated or the purity. In 2020, Consumer Reports⁴⁵ tested 47 bottled water brands for heavy metals and 30 PFAS chemicals.

They found PFAS was detectable in most of the noncarbonated water brands and in all but one of the carbonated waters. For an objective analysis of your water quality, consider consulting the Tap Water Database⁴⁶ created by the EWG. Unless you can verify the purity of your water, seriously consider installing a high-quality water filtration system.

Ideally, the water can be filtered at the point of entry and the point of use. This means adding a filter where the water enters the home and then again at the sink and shower. There are a variety of options that have benefits and drawbacks. You can read more about water filtration systems in “Properly Filter Your Water.”

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Pain. What is it and how should we classify it on a scale from one to 10? Here to help us is physiotherapy expert Dr Andrew Leaver.

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This week, Emily Ratajkowski made waves on social media after posting a video of her posing a month after giving birth to her first child. But the controversy was not justified, as it never is when discussing women’s bodies.

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Researchers have developed a new model for making short-term projections of daily COVID-19 cases that is accurate, reliable and easily used by public health officials and other organizations.

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Food waste and obesity are major problems in developed countries. They are both caused by an overabundance of food, but strategies to reduce one can inadvertently increase the other. A broader perspective can help identify ways to limit food waste while also promoting healthy nutrition, researchers suggest.

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Any future attempts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 should be focused on tackling close airborne transmission of the virus which is considered to be the primary route for its circulation, say experts in a new editorial.

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New research could help solve a major challenge in the deployment of certain COVID-19 vaccines worldwide -- the need for the vaccines to be kept at below-freezing temperatures during transport and storage. Researchers demonstrate a new, inexpensive technique that generates crystalline exoskeletons around delicate liposomes and other lipid nanoparticles and stabilizes them at room temperature.

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Despite a similar clinical presentation, people with severe asthma have strikingly distinct immune profiles, research shows. These findings can be used to develop new therapeutics and enhance precision medicine approaches to treating these patients.

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Good oral hygiene and regular dental care are the most important ways to reduce risk of a heart infection called infective endocarditis caused by bacteria in the mouth. There are four categories of heart patients considered to be at highest risk for adverse outcomes from infective endocarditis, and only these patients are recommended to receive preventive antibiotic treatment prior to invasive dental procedures.

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Biomedical engineers have developed a self-assembling nanomaterial that can help limit damage caused by inflammatory diseases by activating key cells in the immune system. In mouse models of psoriasis, the team showed that their nanofiber-based drug could effectively mitigate damaging inflammation as effectively as a gold-standard therapy.

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Current research on flexible electronics is paving the way for wireless sensors that can be worn on the body and collect a variety of medical data. But where do the data go? Without a similar flexible transmitting device, these sensors would require wired connections to transmit health data.

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We first reported on this issue with my interview with Francis Boyle over a year ago, which received well over one million views. Of course, our coverage was disparaged as fake news and removed from YouTube, but now one year later it appears the facts are confirming our speculations.

In the April 4, 2021, Sky News report above, award-winning investigations writer Sharri Markson summarizes the findings^1,2,3,4 of the World Health Organization’s investigative team, tasked with identifying the origin of SARS-CoV-2.

She blasts the report as a “PR exercise for China,” calling the team’s conclusion that one of the most likely origin theories was that the virus entered Wuhan in or on frozen food from overseas, “embarrassing.” As noted by Markson, even the director-general of the WHO ended up backpedaling in an effort to salvage the organization’s credibility.⁵

As reported by The Washington Post, March 30, 2021,⁶ the WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and 13 other world leaders have now joined the U.S. government in expressing “frustration with the level of access China granted an international mission to Wuhan.”

According to Ghebreyesus, the team “did not conduct an ‘extensive enough’ assessment of the possibility the virus was introduced to humans through a laboratory incident,” which will therefore necessitate additional studies with “more timely and comprehensive data sharing.”

NIH Has ‘Systematically Thwarted’ Oversight Efforts

I’ve previously detailed how the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, have funded gain-of-function research on coronaviruses. Several such grants were given to EcoHealth Alliance, which in turn subcontracted some of that research to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

EcoHealth Alliance is led by Dr. Peter Daszak, who is also on the WHO’s investigative team, and who has plenty of reasons to hide the truth, were the virus in fact from the WIV. In 2014, a federal moratorium was placed on gain-of-function research, which focuses on making pathogens more virulent and lethal, due to public safety concerns.

After the moratorium was lifted in 2017, a special review board, the Potential Pandemic Pathogens Control and Oversight, or P3CO Review Framework, was created within the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), to evaluate “whether grants that involve enhancing dangerous pathogens, such as coronaviruses, are worth the risks and that proper safeguards are in place,” Daily Caller reports.⁷

According to Rutgers University professor Richard Ebright, an NIH grant for research involving the modification of bat coronaviruses at the WIV was sneaked through because the NIAID failed to flag it for review.⁸ In other words, the WIV received federal funding from the NIAID without the research first receiving a green-light from the HHS review board. According to the Daily Caller:⁹

“The review framework split oversight responsibilities between two groups — the funding agency … and the P3CO Review Committee … The committee is responsible for recommending whether a research grant involving gain-of-function needs to include any additional risk mitigation measures … But the committee is kept in the dark on any grant until the funding agency flags one for its review …

Ebright said the offices of the director for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) — the subagency that funded EcoHealth — and the NIH have ‘systematically thwarted — indeed systematically nullified — the HHS P3CO Framework by declining to flag and forward proposals for review’ …

Had EcoHealth’s grant been subjected to P3CO review, an HHS panel would have independently evaluated the grant and, if necessary, recommended additional biocontainment measures to prevent potential lab leaks — or even recommended that the grant be denied entirely.”

Is the NIAID Telling the Truth?

An NIAID spokesperson told the Daily Caller that the grant in question had not been forwarded for review because it did not involve “the enhancement of the pathogenicity or transmissibility of the viruses studied.” The problem is that the P3CO Framework does not require the HHS review committee to double-check the determination of the funding agency, in this case the NIAID.

According to Ebright, this is a loophole that can easily be misused. In this case, he strongly disagrees with the NIAID’s statement that the research didn’t involve gain-of-function research. The Daily Caller writes:¹⁰

“Ebright told the DCNF that NIAID was wrong to determine that the EcoHealth grant did not involve enhancing the transmissibility of Chinese bat-based coronaviruses.

He said the project’s abstract¹¹ for the 2019 fiscal year, which referenced ‘in vitro and in vivo infection experiments’ on coronaviruses, ‘unequivocally’ required risk-benefit review under the HHS P3CO Framework. Other scientists have said EcoHealth’s NIH-funded work in China involved gain-of-function research on bat-based coronaviruses.

‘It is hard to overemphasize that the central logic of this grant was to test the pandemic potential of SARS-related bat coronaviruses by making ones with pandemic potential, either through genetic engineering or passaging, or both,’ Drs. Jonathan Latham and Allison Wilson wrote¹² in June [2020].”

Rep. Scott Perry, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is now saying Fauci really needs to answer why his agency bypassed oversight for research done at the WIV, and intends to call Fauci in to testify. He’s pessimistic, however, about an open hearing actually taking place, as House Democrats are unlikely to support it. Perry told the Daily Caller:¹³

“When it comes to oversight of U.S. tax dollars headed to the Chinese Communist Party, Dr. Fauci seems like he’s literally whistling past the graveyard … We seem so cavalier about this approval paradigm for this funding, and the definitions seemingly allow you to drive a truck through them regarding what is gain-of-function research and what isn’t.

It seems to me this was done by design to allow this kind of research to be done in these kinds of places without any kind of scrutiny. And this is the result of that.”

Fauci’s ‘Criminal Violations’ Deserve Review

Fauci has more than one or two questions to answer, though, considering at least two lengthy reports have been issued detailing Fauci’s questionable research activities and attempts to mislead the public on a number of issues, including the benefits of hydroxychloroquine, the effectiveness of masks and the possibility of SARS-CoV-2 being a lab creation.

One report, “Dr. Fauci’s COVID-19 Treachery,”¹⁴ was written by Dr. Peter Breggin and published in October 2020. The other, a 205-page paper titled “The Fauci/COVID-19 Dossier,”¹⁵ was compiled by Dr. David E. Martin, in which he reviews “numerous criminal violations” by Fauci, the CDC and others, “that may be associated with the COVID-19 terrorism.” Here’s just a small sampling of paragraphs from Martin’s paper:

“Using the power of NIAID during the alleged pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci actively suppressed proven medical countermeasures used by, and validated in scientific proceedings, that offered alternatives to the products funded by his conspiring entities for which he had provided direct funding and for whom he would receive tangible and intangible benefit …

NIAID’s Director, Dr. Anthony Fauci is listed as an inventor on 8 granted U.S. patents. None of them are reported in NIAID, NIH, or GAO reports of active licensing despite the fact that Dr. Fauci reportedly was compelled to get paid for his interleukin-2 ‘invention’ …

Through non-competitive grant awards to UNC Chapel Hill’s Ralph Baric, to selection of the Bio-Safety Level 4 laboratory locations, to the setting of prices for Remdesivir and mRNA therapies from Moderna and Pfizer, NIAID, CDC, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have been involved in allocating Federal funds to conspiring parties without independent review.

Around March 12, 2020, in an effort to enrich their own economic interests by way of securing additional funding from both Federal and Foundation actors, the CDC and NIAID’s Dr. Fauci elected to suspend testing and classify COVID-19 by capricious symptom presentation alone.

Forcing the public to rely on The COVID Tracking Project — funded by the Bloomberg, Zuckerberg and Gates Foundation and presented by a media outlet — not a public health agency — Dr. Fauci used fraudulent testing technology (RT-PCR) to conflate ‘COVID cases’ with positive PCR tests in the living while insisting that COVID deaths be counted by symptoms alone.

This perpetuated a market demand for his desired vaccine agenda which was recited by him and his conspiring parties around the world until the present. Not surprisingly, this was necessitated by the apparent fall in cases that constituted Dr. Fauci’s and others’ criteria for depriving citizens of their 1st Amendment rights …

While Moderna enjoys hundreds of millions of dollars of funding allegiance and advocacy from Anthony Fauci and his NIAID, since its inception, it has been engaged in illegal patent activity and demonstrated contempt for U.S. Patent law. To make matters worse, the U.S. Government has given it financial backing in the face of undisclosed infringement risks potentially contributing to the very infringement for which they are indemnified.”

Many Were Aware of Lab Leak Threat Yet Did Nothing

The harsh reality is that any number of people, both in the U.S. and China, were aware that gain-of-function research on coronaviruses and other dangerous pathogens was taking place at the WIV, and that the lab had known safety lapses. Yet nothing appears to have been done to shore up security and prevent an outbreak.

As reported by the National Review¹⁶ in July 2020, American State Department officials who visited the WIV in 2018 wrote two separate memos — one in January and one in April — detailing safety concerns. This included “a shortage of the highly-trained technicians and investigators required to safely operate a [Biosafety Level] 4 laboratory and lack of clarity in related Chinese government policies and guidelines.”

“These memos do not prove that SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was caused by a laboratory accident,” the National Review wrote,¹⁷ “But they do dispel one of the less-plausible arguments against the lab-accident theory: That the Chinese scientists working at WIV were simply too professional and diligent to ever have an accident that released a contagious virus.”

Ironically, this is precisely the argument presented by the WHO’s corrupted investigative team. The team leader, Danish food safety and zoonosis scientist Ben Embarek, went on record saying that lab accidents are “extremely rare;” hence, it’s “very unlikely” that SARS-CoV-2 could have escaped from the WIV or any other lab¹⁸ — so much so, the team dismissed the possibility entirely and said it would no longer consider it.

Meanwhile, in the real world, biosafety incidents involving dangerous pathogens occur twice a week, on average, in the U.S. alone,^19,20 and virology labs accidentally released the original SARS virus on no less than four separate occasions.^21,22

Gain-of-Function Research Is the Real Threat

While government health officials would like you to believe that SARS-CoV-2 is one of the most serious threats to life on earth, the reality is that the gain-of-function research they fund is a far greater threat. It’s quite possible that the COVID-19 pandemic was the result of this kind of research, but even if it wasn’t, history tells us there will be another release, another leak, another accident. They happen far more frequently than people like to imagine.

Already, as detailed in “New Engineered Coronaviruses Are Under Development” and “Bioweapons Labs Get More NIH Funding for Deadly Research,” scientists are tinkering around with SARS-CoV-2, trying to see if they can make an even worse version. Meanwhile, the same establishment is drumming up panic in the streets, warning of new, more infectious and dangerous variants. Never do they tell you that they’re also busy creating them.

This hypocrisy must end. I firmly believe we need to ban gain-of-function research across the world. We do not need it. As noted by Marc Lipsitch in his 2018 review, “Why Do Exceptionally Dangerous Gain-of-Function Experiments in Influenza?”:²³

“While there are indisputably certain questions that can be answered only by gain-of-function experiments in highly pathogenic strains, these questions are narrow and unlikely to meaningfully advance public health goals such as vaccine production and pandemic prediction.

Alternative approaches to experimental influenza virology and characterization of existing strains are in general completely safe, higher throughput, more generalizable, and less costly than creation of PPP [potential pandemic pathogens] in the laboratory and can thereby better inform public health.

Indeed, virtually every finding of recent PPP experiments that has been cited for its public health value was predated by similar findings using safe methodologies.”

While the origin of SARS-CoV-2 remains to be conclusively proven, a paper²⁴ published in Nature in 2015 discussed how a “lab-made coronavirus related to SARS” capable of infecting human cells had stirred up debate as to whether or not this kind of research is worth the risks:

“Although the extent of any risk is difficult to assess, Simon Wain-Hobson, a virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, points out that the researchers have created a novel virus that ‘grows remarkably well’ in human cells. ‘If the virus escaped, nobody could predict the trajectory,’ he says.”

With 20/20 hindsight, we now have a much clearer idea of what the release of such a virus can do. We may chalk it up to luck that SARS-CoV-2 turned out to be orders of magnitude less lethal than initially suspected, although government containment measures have turned out to be devastating and deadly as well. If this kind of research is allowed to continue, the next time there’s a leak, we may not be as lucky.

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The human body is a complex organism that uses multiple essential vitamins, minerals and elements to maintain optimal health. While all are important, integrating appropriate levels of each creates an environment where the body can best care for itself. Selenium is one of those elements.

Selenium is important to health, including inhibiting RNA virus replication and mutations.¹ Based on the role that selenium pays in RNA virus replication, which can lead to severe tissue damage, the authors of one paper proposed that selenium deficiency or insufficiency may be an important factor in the development of severe acute respiratory syndrome from a COVID-19 infection.²

The mineral was discovered in 1817 by Jöns Jacob Berzelius.³ In manufacturing, selenium is added to glass, which can add a deep red color or bronze tint. It's also used to pigment paint, plastics and ceramics. Selenium may also be added to photocells, solar cells and photocopiers.

You may be most familiar with its addition to dandruff shampoo as it is toxic to the yeast-like fungus, malassezia, that causes dandruff.⁴ The amount of selenium found in food sources will depend on the selenium found in the soil. Plants accumulate inorganic selenites and selenates and convert them to organic forms.⁵

Selenium levels can be measured in several ways, including plasma and serum concentrations, urine excretion and analysis of hair and nails. By quantifying proteins that use selenium, such as glutathione-peroxidase and selenoprotein P, researchers can evaluate the functional measure of the selenium status.

Low Selenium May Induce Acute Respiratory Symptoms in COVID

The fuel you provide your body plays an important role in your health and wellness, including infectious disease progression.⁶ Selenium is an essential trace element and a component of more than two dozen proteins that are important to reproduction, antioxidant function and infection.⁷

Most selenium is consumed from food, yet in a natural environment, the trace element is distributed unevenly.⁸ A paper published in Environmental Research cited a World Health Organization report that found over 40 countries where the soil is deficient in selenium. Some of the lowest levels are found in New Zealand, Slovakia, Finland and sub-Saharan Africa.

Additionally, there is an extended area from Northeastern to South Central China, where it is estimated the daily intake of selenium may be as low as 10 micrograms (μg) to 17 μg, which is far below the recommended 55 μg of selenium per day. This is crucial since selenium plays an important role in antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and immune functions.

One selenoenzyme is glutathione peroxidase, which is an important catalyst in the conversion of glutathione, which in turn reduces damage from reactive oxygen species.⁹ When glutathione peroxidase is compromised, the downstream effect is an overproduction of cytokines that can induce a cytokine storm as seen in severe COVID-19 infections.

Selenium Level Is Associated With Rate of Survival

Selenium also influences other pathways that affect viral diseases. The Environmental Research authors note that HIV-1 infections are much higher in areas of Africa where the soil is deficient in selenium, and testing has revealed that Ebola infections are closely associated with individuals who are severely deficient in selenium.

Coxsackievirus is another RNA virus reviewed by the authors. Although it typically causes a mild illness, severe infections occur in areas of China where selenium is deficient. A severe illness also causes myocardial injury from Keshan disease.

Further research has shown that a selenium deficiency can change the morphology of the epithelial cells lining your respiratory tract, which in turn increases your susceptibility to viral infections.

During the first SARS outbreak in 2003, researchers found selenium deficiency was a significant reason that patients experienced atypical pneumonia. Animal studies also demonstrated that the survival rate was higher when selenium was present.

The authors suggest that each of these pathways influences an individual's reaction to a COVID-19 infection. The oxidative stress triggered by the RNA virus alters the cells’ defenses, including glutathione peroxidase. They theorized that supplementation during an active infection may help reduce damage to the endothelial cells.

Other studies have demonstrated a positive relationship between the survival rate for people with active COVID-19 infections in China and selenium levels measured in human hair.¹⁰ Similar results¹¹ were found in patients with COVID-19 in Germany, in which those who survived had higher levels than those who died from the infection.

An exploratory study¹² in India analyzed the blood serum levels of selenium in 60 patients, 30 of whom appeared healthy and 30 had confirmed COVID-19 infections. Those with lower levels of selenium were more likely to be infected.

In another paper,¹³ researchers theorized supplementation with sodium selenite may help prevent infection and strengthen the immune system. They also proposed using sodium selenite as an anticoagulant, following research demonstrating “the formation of microclots are a significant cause of death in patients with COVID-19.”¹⁴

Nutrients Important to Immune Health

As I discussed with James DiNicolantonio and Siim Land in “Simple Strategies That Will Improve Your Immunity,” your immune system is the first line of defense against infectious diseases. There are four top nutrients important to maintaining the function of your immune system, of which selenium is one.

Vitamin D may be the most important nutrient, however. According to DiNicolantonio, vitamin D activates more than 2,000 genes and helps the body produce powerful antimicrobial and antiviral peptides. To convert vitamin D into an active form your body also requires magnesium. This is also required for immune cell function. DiNicolantonio notes:¹⁵

“People who have genetically low magnesium in their natural killer (NK) cells and their CD8 T-killer cells … their immune system is down. They have chronic activation of Epstein-Barr, which 95% of us are infected with, and they're at a much higher risk of lymphoma.”

In DiNicolantonio’s and Land’s book, “The Immunity Fix: Strengthen Your Immune System, Fight Off Infections, Reverse Chronic Disease and Live a Healthier Life,” they discuss how being deficient in one nutrient can potentially raise the risk for immunodeficiency and why nutrient deficiencies may lead to many of the poor outcomes associated with COVID-19.

The other two important nutrients are zinc and selenium. Research has demonstrated that taking zinc at the onset of cold symptoms can cut the duration, but as DiNicolantonio points out, it must be taken correctly. He explains:¹⁶

“If you're using lozenges, you have to take it every two hours. You got to take it within 24 hours of symptom onset. You have to take about 18 milligrams per dose, and you have to get the total daily dose over 75 milligrams.”

About selenium, DiNicolantonio says:¹⁷

“If you look at other RNA viruses that are nonvirulent, like coxsackievirus, which can cause hand, foot and mouth [disease]. If you're deficient in selenium, that leads to Keshan disease, which is cardiomyopathy. So if you're deficient in selenium, that can take a nonvirulent RNA virus and make it virulent and cause induced cardiomyopathy, and you treat these patients by simply giving them selenium.

So I think selenium is a huge player not only from that perspective, but a lot of these studies have shown that most COVID patients are [vitamin] D deficient, selenium deficient, zinc deficient, vitamin C deficient.”

Mitigates Cancer Risk and Essential for Heart Health

In my interview with Mark Whitacre, he noted the relationship between exposure to free radical damage and cancer development. Selenium plays important and interrelated roles at the cellular level in the development of glutathione peroxidase and the protection against reactive oxygen species, both of which help reduce your risk of cancer.

Researchers have been studying the association between selenium and cancer^18,19,20 since the 1980s. Whitaker recounts his last year at Cornell University when a 10-year study began, evaluating supplementation with selenium and subsequent cancer development.²¹

Optimal cell functioning also depends on the amount of selenium and coenzyme Q10 available to the cells. In one interventional trial²² involving selenium and CoQ10 as a dietary supplement, 443 participants from rural Sweden demonstrated a reduction in cardiovascular mortality using selenium and CoQ10 supplements over four years.

The researchers then followed up 12 years later and found the original participants continued to experience a reduction in cardiovascular mortality, as well as a reduced risk of high blood pressure, impaired functional heart capacity, ischemic heart disease and diabetes.²³ The leaders cautioned this was a small study that should be used to generate hypotheses and not conclusions.

Another study²⁴ enrolled individuals with worsening symptoms of heart failure to evaluate serum concentrations of selenium. They found selenium deficiency was associated with a higher rate of their primary endpoint of all-cause mortality and hospitalization for heart failure and that the deficiency was “independently associated with impaired tolerance and a 50% higher mortality rate ...”²⁵

More Health Benefits Associated With Selenium

Researchers are increasingly recognizing that a selenium deficiency is linked as a health risk to several conditions. For example, in a study published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders,²⁶ researchers evaluated the correlation between dietary selenium and osteoporosis. The study began with 6,267 subjects and the researchers found there was a higher rate of osteoporosis in individuals who had lower levels of selenium.

These results were replicated in a second study²⁷ that evaluated selenium levels against bone mineral density. The results remain statistically significant when confounding factors were accounted for, such as body mass index, smoking, physical performance and medication use.

Science has recognized the importance of selenium to men’s fertility for many years. One study²⁸ showed supplementation could increase sperm motility in 56% of the intervention group who had low levels of selenium. More recent information shows it also plays a vital role in women’s fertility. One researcher from a study evaluating levels of selenium and reproduction commented:²⁹

"Our findings are important because they show that selenium and selenoproteins are at elevated levels in large, healthy ovarian follicles. We suspect they play a critical role as an antioxidant during the late stages of follicle development, helping to lead to a healthy environment for the egg.

Infertility is a significant problem in our society. Further research is needed to better understand how selenium levels could be optimized, helping to improve women's chances of conceiving. Too much selenium can also be toxic, so it isn't just a case of taking multiple supplements."

Consider Food Sources to Optimize Selenium Levels

In one study³⁰ of 491 elderly Danish individuals, researchers found supplementing with 300 μg of selenium over five years increased all-cause mortality rates, demonstrating the dangers of concluding that if a little is good, more is better. This approach can frequently backfire when it comes to supplements and even foods.

Although it is difficult to get too much selenium from foods, the same is not true for supplements. Selenium toxicity³¹ is a health risk that's linked to ingesting too much selenium that can trigger nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, irritability, fast heart rate and lung lesions. Chronic exposure can also lead to baldness, excessive tooth decay, lack of mental alertness, fatigue and weakness.

As a general rule, eating a variety of whole, unprocessed foods can help to naturally optimize your selenium levels, as well as other important nutrients. An excellent selenium food source³² is Brazil nuts, which average about 68 μg to 91 μg per nut. Other good food sources include pasture-raised organic chicken and turkey, sunflower seeds, pasture-raised organic eggs, mushrooms and sardines.

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