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.
from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2PXqHtp
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.
from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3gcSxfL
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.
from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/3uTtO4h
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 findings1,2,3,4 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.
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.”
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 cancer18,19,20 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.
Engineers have created a tiny wireless implant that can provide real-time measurements of tissue oxygen levels deep underneath the skin. The device, which is smaller than the average ladybug and powered by ultrasound waves, could help doctors monitor the health of transplanted organs or tissue and provide an early warning of potential transplant failure.
from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/2Qnhbzq
