Indigenous cultures have used traditional herbal medicine for the treatment and prevention of diseases for thousands of years.1 The bioactive compounds found in medicinal plants have gone on to become primary points of research for drug therapies2 and have been replicated in the lab by Big Pharma.3
Holy basil, or tulsi, (Ocimum sanctum) is a medicinal herb favored in Ayurvedic medicine because of the vast health benefits it offers.4 It has been widely used in Southeast Asia and today is making a name for itself in Western medicine.
Tulsi is a powerful adaptogenic herb with known antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antioxidant properties. There are several products utilizing tulsi available on the market today, including tea, extract and essential oil.5
Holy basil is a flowering plant in the mint family. It is sacred in Hinduism because of its association with Lord Vishnu, one of the principal deities of the religion6 In addition to medicinal uses, tulsi is also widely grown and used as a culinary herb.7 The peppery mint flavor strengthens and concentrates during cooking. Outside of its native region, it is considered an invasive species.
Tulsi can grow up to 5 feet in the intense heat of India but normally reaches up to only 2 feet in more temperate areas.8 It is a short-lived perennial shrub or annual plant depending on the region. By comparison, sweet basil is a popular culinary herb that grows in many areas and can be cultivated indoors. Although they are from the same genus, they are distinctly different in taste and appearance.9
Tulsi May Help Lower Risk of Diabetes and High Blood Pressure
Diabetes increases your risk of high blood pressure10 and vice versa.11 There is evidence that holy basil influences blood glucose and may help reduce high blood pressure.
In 1996, researchers studied the effect of holy basil on the blood glucose of albino rats.12 Their results indicated that administration of holy basil could reduce blood glucose after fasting and eating. Reduction in urine glucose levels followed the same trend.
These results are similar to those found in the many years of using holy basil in ayurvedic interventions for diabetes. A review of ayurvedic literature13 revealed many studies in which the practice of using holy basil included treatment for diabetes, hepatitis, cardiovascular diseases and infectious diseases.
More recently, scientists reviewed several plants with antidiabetic potential and bioactive compounds, including holy basil.14 The leaves of the plant contain eugenol, ursolic acid, carvacrol and linalool. Tulsi is also rich in vitamins, minerals, chlorophyll and other phytonutrients, including flavonoids, saponins and triterpenoids.
The leaves are reported to stimulate insulin secretion and reduce the serum levels of cortisol and glucose in an animal model.15 It also demonstrated a dose-dependent hypoglycemic effect in another animal study.16 In a database search of human studies,17 results showed tulsi was effective at reducing fasting blood glucose and reduced cholesterol levels in patients over 40 years without changing the overall lipid profile.
Holy basil has anti-inflammatory properties, which may help to reduce blood pressure.18 One study19 in 2016 showed holy basil and cloves could reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressure in an animal model when compared against the control group.
Tulsi May Help the Appearance of Skin and Teeth
Tulsi can benefit the skin in several ways.20 It can help reduce eczema and psoriasis and treat staph infections on the skin. The essential oil has antifungal and antibacterial activity.
As mentioned, the leaves have ursolic acid, a favorite of the cosmetic industry as it helps to remove wrinkles and improve elasticity. Ayurvedic medicine uses tulsi in a topical application with black pepper to treat ringworm and as a paste on the skin to help reduce irritation of insect bites.
Within ayurvedic medicine practice21 tulsi is called the “incomparable one,” “mother medicine of nature,” and the “queen of herbs.” The reference is to the wide range of health benefits practitioners have found. This includes the treatment of skin diseases, ringworm and a variety of other health conditions affecting the respiratory, digestive, circulatory and neurological systems.
Holy basil extract may also help the appearance of your teeth and gums. In one study22 published in 2014, researchers compared a mouthwash made of holy basil against sterile water and chlorhexidine. They found the holy basil extract inhibited periodontal pathogens at various concentrations with the same effectiveness as chlorhexidine.
The researchers suggest that the antiplaque effect may have prophylactic benefits. However, ayurvedic practitioners warn against chewing the leaves.23 The leaves contain high amounts of mercury and iron which are released when you chew them.
They are also highly acidic. Practitioners recommend starting your day with two to three fresh leaves on an empty stomach. However, on a daily basis, this can cause discoloration and abnormal wear and tear on the tooth enamel.
Protects Against Infections
A review in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine24 called tulsi an “herb for all reasons,” noting that it’s effective against “a range of human and animal pathogens” with broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity, even suggesting it may be considered for a hand sanitizer, water purifier or for wound healing.
Tulsi is also one of the herbs in Ayush Kwath, an Ayurvedic herbal formula recommended by the government of India to boost immunity and combat COVID-19.25 At the conclusion of a literature review of Ayush Kwath, the researchers suggested that:
“Ayush Kwath due to its immune-modulatory, antiviral, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-platelet, anti-atherosclerotic, hepato-protective, reno-protective properties; seems to be effective in immuno-regulation for controlling viral infections like COVID-19.”
Writing in a published paper in Nature Plants in 2017, researchers suggest26 “While the plant kingdom continues to serve as an important source for chemical entities supporting drug discovery, the rich traditions of herbal medicine developed by trial and error on human subjects over thousands of years contain invaluable biomedical information just waiting to be uncovered using modern scientific approaches.”
The use of traditional herbal medicine for the treatment of respiratory ailments has taken on renewed interest during the pandemic. Herbal medicine is a powerful arsenal in the prevention and treatment of respiratory ailments like colds, flu and COVID-19. In China, herbal treatment is recommended for children and adults with COVID-19,27 and interest in traditional remedies are growing in the U.S. as well.
Herbs are unique in that they contain multiple beneficial components that work synergistically to promote wellness. Tulsi is believed to help alleviate various bacterial infections, including urinary tract infections,28 dermal infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus and other bacteria29 and respiratory tract infections like pneumonia.30
May Ease Stress, Anxiety and Boost Cognitive Function
Following the pandemic, more than 80% of people surveyed report they had emotions associated with prolonged stress. The report from the American Psychological Association31 in February 2021 revealed higher levels of stress than in previous years and many surveyed also reported feeling anxious, sad and angry.
The American Psychological Association's chief executive officer warned that, “Without addressing stress as part of a national recovery plan, we will be dealing with the mental health fallout from this pandemic for years to come.”32
One of the symptoms of high levels of stress is drug use. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention33 reports there were an estimated 100,306 drug overdose deaths in the 12-month period ending April 2021. This represents a 28.5% increase in the same number of deaths during the same period the year before.
One study34 isolated extracts from holy basil, which were tested in an animal model in which acute stress was induced using biochemical changes. Several of the compounds showed promising antistress effects when used independently as they normalized the serum hyperglycemia, corticosterone, creatinine kinase and adrenal hypertrophy that occurs in high-stress situations.
A second study35 tested tulsi against generalized anxiety disorders, in a group of 35 participants with an average age of 38.4 years. The results showed that the treatment significantly attenuated the anxiety disorders and the correlating stress and depression. The researchers concluded that holy basil could be a useful treatment and a “promising anxiolytic agent in the near future.”
Stress disorders can increase the risk of developing dementia by nearly threefold. The association was found to be more pronounced in men than women, except in women who had post-traumatic stress disorder.36,37
Interestingly, one animal study38 showed holy basil could help manage cognitive dysfunction that was induced in animals, therefore improving their cognitive function in those taking the intervention. In a human study,39 researchers looked at the effect tulsi would have on cognition and stress when 300 mg capsules of leaf extract were administered over 30 days.
The researchers compared the intervention group against a placebo group, measuring reaction time and error rates in testing, as well as salivary cortisol and using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. They found those taking the leaf extract had potential cognitive enhancing properties.
Impressive Herb but Not a Magic Bullet
It's important to remember that while holy basil has an impressive list of health benefits, it is not a magic bullet. Overall, you cannot depend on one supplement or one herb alone to maintain your health and wellness. It is just as important to implement other lifestyle strategies to support your health.
These include optimizing your diet, getting regular exercise, minimizing your exposure to environmental toxins and getting quality sleep each night. There are several precautions you should take if you are considering using holy basil as a supplement.
There are little to no studies evaluating holy basil supplementation’s safety during pregnancy; while holy basil may look beneficial for your health, there is no clear indication whether it's safe for your unborn child. Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding should not use holy basil.40
Additionally, there have been two animal studies that suggest using it in large amounts could negatively affect fertility. A review of the effects on humans published in 202041 found that large amounts of holy basil may trigger liver damage, nausea, diarrhea and rapid heart rate.
Herbs also have biologically active compounds, such as ursolic acid or eugenol in tulsi, that can react with compounds in other supplements or drugs. Since it can be complex to work with herbs, you’ll get your best results working with a knowledgeable natural health care practitioner who can guide you on the appropriate solutions for your circumstances.
As many as half a million Australians are suffering from constant tinnitus, with farmers, automotive workers, transport drivers, construction workers and other trades people at the greatest risk, a national survey has found.
from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/Wa2FdYU
In a new study, researchers show a correlation between vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19 severity and mortality. The study is among the first to analyze vitamin D levels prior to infection, which facilitates a more accurate assessment than during hospitalization, when levels may be lower secondary to the viral illness.
from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/qNKfkBW
This article was previously published January 17, 2018, and has been updated with new information.
A 2021 survey1 indicates that 80% of Americans are using supplements — a drastic increase from the 52% reported in a 2012 JAMA report,2 a statistic that had remained stable since 1999. While at that time the use of multivitamins had decreased somewhat, from 37 to 31 percent, the new survey indicates that 75% of supplement users now use multivitamins. The use of vitamin D and omega-3 supplements have continued to rise through all these years as well.
In 2012 vitamin D use jumped from just over 5% to 19%, and fish oil supplements increased from just over 1% to 12%. In 2021, however, a whopping 52% of Americans were taking vitamin D, with zinc and vitamin C also being popular, at 22% and 40%, respectively.
Some of the other more popular supplements are probiotics, omega-3, multivitamins, vitamin C, turmeric, calcium and magnesium.3 In all, Americans spent an estimated $21 billion on nutritional supplements in 2015.4 By 2019, that number had doubled to $42.6 billion.5
While dietary supplements are generally safe, when and how you take them — such as with or without food, or before or after exercise6 — can make a difference both in terms of safety and effectiveness. Certain supplements may also be contraindicated for certain health conditions or if you're taking a particular drug. Following, you'll find helpful guidance on the use of common supplements.
Since multivitamins contain an array of both water- and fat-soluble vitamins, and in some cases minerals as well, it's generally recommended you take half of your daily dose in the morning, with breakfast, and the other half with your main meal (dinner for most people, or lunch if you're intermittently fasting). While you may not notice any ill effects if you take it on an empty stomach, taking your multivitamins with food is a safer bet overall.7
Both B vitamins and nonliposomal vitamin C may cause stomach upset and nausea when taken on an empty stomach, for example, and fat-soluble vitamins will do you little good unless you take them with a small amount of fat, such as an egg or half an avocado. Avoid going overboard on the fat, however, as too much grease can interfere with the absorption of water-based vitamins.
When taking individual vitamins and minerals, you may need to pay attention not only to the timing of them, but also their combination with other supplements you're taking, and their ideal ratios. For example:
• Fat-soluble vitamin K2 is best taken with your largest meal that contains fat. This could be during the day or at your evening meal. Calcium can be taken during the day but magnesium is best taken at night, without food.
Unfortunately, the ideal ratio of vitamin K2 to D is still undetermined, so there are no hard and fast rules here. Some experts suggest 200 micrograms of vitamin K2 per day will meet the needs of the "average" healthy person, but if you're taking high-dose vitamin D, you'll need a bit more.8
While K2 is nontoxic, people who are taking vitamin K antagonists, i.e., drugs that reduce blood clotting by reducing the action of vitamin K, are advised to avoid vitamin K2 (MK-7) supplements.
• Zinc, on the other hand, should not be taken with a calcium and/or iron supplement, as these may hinder your body's absorption of zinc.
• Similarly, avoid taking calcium or vitamin E with iron, as these nutrients interfere with iron absorption. Iron is also best taken on an empty stomach, either in the midmorning or midafternoon.9
• Magnesium, which is one of the most important minerals to supplement with as most all of us are deficient, helps your body relax, is best taken in the evening, and can be taken with or without food. If you're also taking calcium, take these two together.
If you exercise regularly, consider taking your calcium and magnesium in a ratio of one part calcium to two parts magnesium with your pre-workout meal.10 While the ideal ratio of magnesium to calcium is thought to be 1-to-1, most people get far more calcium than magnesium from their diet; hence, your need for supplemental magnesium may be two to three times greater than calcium.
• Oral B12, which tends to be poorly absorbed no matter what, is best taken on an empty stomach to optimize absorption. This is less of an issue if you are using a sublingual form of B12. B12 may interact with a variety of medications,11 including those for bone loss, cancer, gout, high blood pressure and acid indigestion, such as H2 blockers and proton pump inhibitors, so check for contraindications before you start taking it on a regular basis.
Timing of Fats and Fiber Supplements
Fiber may inhibit your body's absorption of fat, so most fiber supplements, including "green" supplements like powdered spirulina and kelp, are best taken separately from any fatty acid supplements you may be taking. If you're working out, remember that fiber supplements will slow the movement of food through your stomach and intestines.
For this reason, fiber is best taken at least three or four hours before exercise or competition. Alternatively, take it toward the end of the day. Whole husk psyllium, which is an excellent fiber supplement, is ideally taken two hours after a meal with a full glass of water.
As for omega-3 supplements such as fish or krill oil, these could potentially cause indigestion if taken immediately before a workout, so consider taking them with breakfast, along with any multivitamin you may be taking. Also keep in mind that krill oil supplements are contraindicated for those allergic to shellfish, and neither fish nor krill oil should be taken if you have a blood coagulation disorder or are on anticoagulant medication.
Timing of Enzymes and Probiotics
Enzymes such as bromelain, papain, trypsin and others are used not only as digestive aids, but also for enhancing muscle recovery and decreasing inflammation. Depending on your aim, you'll need to alter the timing. When taken with a meal, they will improve your digestion. For muscle enhancement and/or anti-inflammatory effects, you'll want to take them on an empty stomach post-workout, either in the morning or afternoon.
Probiotics help improve your gut microbiome by supplying beneficial bacteria. They are best taken on an empty stomach, two to three hours before your first meal, or after your final meal for the day. Also remember that to reap the benefits from a probiotic supplement, you need to reduce your intake of processed foods and sugar. Otherwise, you're essentially just throwing your money away.
On the Timing of Antioxidants
As a general rule, antioxidant supplements such as resveratrol, astaxanthin, vitamin E and ubiquinol (the reduced version of Coenzyme Q10) are fat-soluble and best taken with a fatty meal. Ubiquinol is best taken in divided doses with a fatty meal, while vitamin E and astaxanthin can be taken once a day with a fatty meal to increase absorption. Resveratrol-containing supplements can be taken on an empty stomach.
If you're an athlete, or work out regularly, several studies have shown that taking antioxidant supplements immediately before exercising has the curious effect of decreasing insulin sensitivity. It also hampers your body's ability to defend itself against oxidative damage. As noted by nutritionist and fitness coach Ben Greenfield:12
"By shutting down the body's need to for natural antioxidant activity that helps adapt to stress and respond to exercise, antioxidant consumption in high doses of a single isolated antioxidant (like vitamin C or vitamin E) could potentially blunt the workout benefit.
For this reason, antioxidant beverages and capsules should be A) full spectrum … and B) consumed only in moderation, and not as a consistent part of the pre-workout or during workout nutrition protocol. Take-Away Message: Take antioxidants with a pre-race meal, and only before very difficult workouts. Otherwise, limit antioxidants to low to moderate intake only, and attempt to consume as far as possible from an exercise session."
Do You Really Need All the Supplements You're Taking?
As a general rule, the better and more wholesome your diet, the fewer supplements you will need. Eating real food, ideally organically grown to avoid pesticide exposure, is really the most appropriate way to ensure you're getting all the nutrients your body needs.
Vegetarians and vegans, who may think they're eating the best diet possible, are perhaps among the few who actually have to pay really close attention to their nutritional needs, as many important nutrients are only found in animal foods.
The animal-based omega-3 fats DHA and EPA are just one example. B12 is another really important one that vegans forgo, which can wreak havoc on your health. Over time, chronic B12 deficiency can lead to serious, irreversible conditions, including depression, dementia, neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions, fertility problems, heart disease and cancer — all the things a vegan diet is thought to prevent.
That said, dietary supplements can be quite beneficial if you know or suspect you might have a particular deficiency, and/or if you're trying to address a particular health problem. Just keep in mind that the more supplements you take, the more complicated it gets to get it right. Are you taking each one at the most appropriate time and in the correct combination — and in the proper ratio — with other nutrients?
Eating a whole food diet circumvents most of these issues, as your body knows exactly what to do with the nutrients it obtains from food, regardless of the hour or combination (although a case can be made for food combinations and ideal meal times as well). If you're taking handfuls of supplements but still eat mostly processed foods, make this the year you start making changes.
That said, to ensure you're getting the most from the supplements you do take, make a list, and check the best timing and combination of each one. While I've given you a few examples above, you'll find more examples in the infographics provided at the beginning of this article, and below.
Today, I’m pleased to bring you two guests — finance guru Catherine Austin Fitts, whom I’ve interviewed before, and Aleks Svetski, editor of The Bitcoin Times magazine and host of “The Wake Up Podcast.” During dinner at an event in Miami, Florida, Svetski helped me understand why Bitcoin not only stands out head and neck above all the other cryptocurrencies, but is in direct opposition to them all.
I’ve strongly believed Bitcoin will be an important tool to get out from under the financial tyranny we’re in, where central banks are essentially robbing everyone blind.
Fitts, president of the Solari Report, disagrees. She knows the financial system inside and out, having spent decades exposing corruption and fraud, both within the banking industry and government, and she believes there are far better ways than investing our hard-earned money in cryptocurrencies, as the globalists have already inserted a number of control mechanisms within the cryptocurrency system.
Regardless of which side of the fence you’re on, you’re bound to learn something from this conversation. If you’ve dismissed Bitcoin as a passing fad, Svetski’s expertise may assuage your concerns. On the other hand, if you’ve been banking on Bitcoin being the answer to the impending financial crash, Fitts may inspire you to rethink how you protect your wealth.
Our Only Choice: Being Controlled or Being Free
If you want to understand what’s happening to our financial system, I encourage you to listen to this three-hour interview. I cannot cover all the details covered in this article, so to get the whole story, please set aside the time to listen to the whole interview, or read through the 95-page transcript.
Thanks to this theft by the central bankers, the American retirement (including health care benefits) and social welfare system are not adequately funded, leaving millions of aging Americans with diminished or no Social Security or Medicaid/Medicare benefits.
The primary reason for the theft, however, is to reengineer the U.S. government and political system as a whole. In short, the globalists’ plan is to take over the government by centrally controlling our economy, and then declare everyone who was promised health care and retirement as expendable.
According to Fitts, if we allow this financial coup to continue and consolidate, Bitcoin and the Bitcoin community may help pull that coup off. As explained by Fitts, slavery is the most profitable business in investment history. Digital technology now allows Mr. Global to return to a legalized form of slavery on a global scale. The theft that is underway is ultimately intended to control people.
“Mr. Global wants a culled, reengineered population,” she says. “He is going for the people because that is what has the most value, along with the other living things on the planet — including the planet itself. All value begins and ends with living intelligence and life whether it is expressed in financial and transaction tools or not.
Mr. Global has created scores of mechanisms to persuade people to sell out [other] people using fiat currency — pump and dump, pump and dump. Dealing with it is sufficiently frustrating and has us all trying to create workarounds.”
A Different Kind of ‘Reset’ Is Required
Fitts is convinced that the best, and perhaps only way out, of this situation is to deal with the secret governance system that is impacting and frustrating all of us and take action to ensure that we do not allow an all-digital financial system to go into place. If we believe Bitcoin is the optimal form of digital system, the problem is not Bitcoin: The problem is if it is part of an only-digital system.
Fitts also underscores that currencies cannot work without the underlying economy being in balance. That means we need to invest in the real assets we need to stay alive and free, things like local food production, local businesses or a personal water well.
She stresses that keeping cash is important — that we mustn’t enter into a wholly digital financial system, especially one monopolized by central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and private crypto, which are in combination designed to strip us of both national and individual sovereignty.3
While Svetski agrees on some points, he still believes Bitcoin can be part of the answer,4 and that the focus should be on building a new financial system in such a way that it cannot be co-opted by anyone. The question, of course, is how.
As explained by Fitts, addressing taxation5 is perhaps the most important part of the puzzle. We also need to a) prevent vaccine passports and digital ID wallets and related blockchains from being implemented, as they are an integral part of the control system Mr. Global is trying to erect, and b) figure out how to get the money back that was stolen.
“There is $21 trillion missing from the U.S. government — we have no way of knowing what the real number is in terms of cash and credit. It could be smaller or bigger,” she says.
“I believe a successful transition requires both preventing the control grid from coming into place, and clawing back the money that has been illegally taken. A ‘reset’ in which the takers get to keep their winnings is a different world than one in which the equivalent value is returned.”
Can Bitcoin Safeguard Our Freedom?
Part of the globalists’ plan is to gain control of ALL resources, and they’ve made great strides toward that during the last two years. The question is, how do we get out of this situation and reclaim those resources?
As mentioned, while I’ve been convinced that Bitcoin, a decentralized digital currency, was a major part of that answer, Fitts has some very pertinent concerns that we need to digest and fully understand. We also need to understand what money actually is, and what an ideal currency would actually look like and how it would function. All of these issues are reviewed in this discussion.
“In 2017, I did a very long and serious due diligence into Bitcoin,” Fitts says, “and I had two baskets of concerns, one related to whether or not the Bitcoin exchanges in the industry were doing a responsible job of communicating with potential investors.
I'm an investment adviser and there's a world of regulation about how you make sure that an investor has full and fair disclosure. It's the equivalent of informed consent, in financial terms. You want to make sure the investor knows what it is, and what their risks are, and that they are prepared to manage both the risks and the investment, the custodian issues, before they buy.”
The cryptocurrency market is currently a nonregulated space, which can give rise to the absence of best practices in education and disclosure as well as fraud. Another concern is whether or not Bitcoin will increase our freedom or simply facilitate our enslavement by a secret system of governance by “Mr. Global.” Fitts continues:
“What I've said is that it is absolutely important that we have a financial system and a currency system that is not 100% digital. So, where I think the current leadership and central bankers are going with the ‘Going Direct Reset’ is they’re trying to get a 100% digital control grid and literally end currencies as we know it.
They want to move us to, on the smart grid, a transaction system where they have 100% control. I call it the covert social credit system. They've been building that control system for centuries. But since the advent of digital technology, they've been building it much more intensively, and much more invasively.
They have three primary lines of control. One is financial carrots and sticks. One is the telecommunications and media alignment, it's surveillance, mind control, propaganda and education. And then the third line is covert operations, which can be regulatory enforcement, taxation or it can be, literally, covert physical intervention.
So, you have these three lines and they're coordinated. But whether they say they're controlling assets or they're controlling currencies, they really control people. They control everything through people. And if you look at some of the regulatory proposals now for crypto, that's how they're going to do it. They're going to do it by controlling the people in their businesses.
Anybody who wants freedom wants transparency in and around what's really going on in our world, and they want to be not controlled. If we permit a 100% digital controlled transaction system of any kind, we will concede control. Literally, it's the end of human liberty in the West.
For everyone who's interested in building a better digital transaction system — and I would argue that the current digital transaction system could be made infinitely better than it is now — it's inherent ... to address how we are going to get this technology working for us, but not allow it to control us.
And again, I don't think the control will be controlling the technology. I think the control will be of the people using the technology. It will come through the people, because that's how the control grid has been built.
So, I don't see how we permit an all-digital transaction system and continue to have freedom, as long as the primary hardware and energy in and around the system, as well as the people, are controlled by a secret central governance system.”
‘Holy Grails’ of Technological Invention to Ensure Freedom
Svetski replies:
“Yes, I agree with you, wholeheartedly. Did you ever read the ‘Cypherpunk‘s Manifesto’6written by Tim May in the ‘90s? The basic summation of that is, as the world becomes more technologically adept, technology trends toward concentration.
In that trend, we could end up with a world in which we have total panopticon surveillance and control of people's money. So ... we need to use encryption to maintain private communication. If you don't have private communication, you can't speak freely. Right? First Amendment.
That was sort of holy grail No. 1. Holy grail No. 2 was an independent monetary system. We need a money that is independent of a state, and unable to be censored, controlled, et cetera. Because if we end up with that, then who cares if we have free speech? You don't have free action.
I mean, you see it in Australia. The government makes up a fake law so they can fine you for not wearing a fake mask. And then if you don't pay your fake fine, they just take the fake money out of your fake bank account, without your consent. So, whoever issues and controls the money basically has the ultimate power. If I'm the issuer of the money, I can do whatever I want, basically.”
The Central Banking Warfare Model
A caveat to that, Fitts says, is the central banking warfare model. On the one hand, they can print money. On the other, they can also force people to use that money through military intervention. “That’s part of where the liquidity comes from, so you have to have both,” she says. In other words, they must be able to print with impunity and kill with impunity in order to maintain complete control of the system.
Svetski agrees, pointing out that these two control powers feed on and strengthen each other. He believes the monopoly on money is the easier of the two to defeat, though, “because what ends up happening is that when the monopoly on money can't fund the monopoly on violence, things start to fall apart relatively quickly. So, if we had to pull a thread somewhere so that the shit-show unravels, that's where we may have the strategic opportunity.”
Svetski also agrees that the Bitcoin exchanges are a disaster. “We all say that you should take your money off exchanges as soon as possible and hold your Bitcoin in your own custody, as soon as possible,” he says, “because then that moves supply out of these casinos, basically.”
“We're totally aligned with this idea that the last thing we want is issued money from any authority who has the capacity to build up enough economic power such that they can deploy political power, or violent power, in order to maintain economic power and create this situation we have today, which is, ‘I can print all the money I want and you can't do anything about it, because if you do, then I'm throwing you in jail.’”
Systematic Corruption Is a Core Problem
Fitts points out that the root problem isn’t necessarily the ability to create fiat currency. At its core, it’s the corruption of governance and the rule of law. And while we could create a well-functioning regulatory system for any currency, creating a government and judicial system free of corruption is far more difficult.
Because it’s believed to be too difficult, people focus on workarounds, such as using distributive ledger technology to prevent counterfeiting and fraud, or a money system based on commodities like gold and silver.
“Those are both workarounds to avoid the issue of how do we create a great governance system, and then a culture and a covenant that we'll enforce?” she says.
“Traditionally, it's never been a good idea to make a commodity the backbone of your currency, because then your currency can swing around and get hiccupped for a lot of reasons that have nothing to do with its role as a currency. So, there's risk in that, but it's a workaround.
One of the things I think is the most important unanswered question before us is that we live on a planet where the governance system is secret ... How do we stay free in the face of a secret governance system, and can a digital currency make a difference?”
Svetski argued that Bitcoin is not merely another ‘technology’, but actually a model of voluntary consensus that anybody in the world can participate in, whose rules are entirely transparent.
He called it a form of “constitution in code” which, like math, cannot be changed or distorted like constitutions of the past that depend on the protection of man have been changed. Bitcoin’s integrity is rooted in the laws of math and thermodynamics, while all previous models of governance have their Achilles heel in the ‘word of man’.
Defining Money
Svetski defines money as the “language of value.” It’s a way to encode or assign and communicate value to the product of our labor. Fitts points out that one of the most critical ingredients that makes this communication of value work is having an integrity-based pricing mechanism.
“Civilization is basically a story of discovering better objects and better mechanisms for exchanging the product of our labor,” Svetski says. “Humanity is a story of finding better money, basically.
The thing that organically becomes money is the tool, the object that is fungible. As many of the units as possible should be the same. It is divisible. A cow, for example, is not a great form of money because if you only need a banana, what are you going to do, chop the cow's head off? It's not going to work.
It needs to be recognizable ... it needs to be portable and it needs to have some element of scarcity. You can't just create it out of thin air. It's the property of scarcity and unforgeable costliness that gives us debasement protection.”
In many cultures, gold was a cherished currency for the simple fact that there’s a limited supply and it’s not easily forged. Gold is not very portable or divisible, however, so as societies became more complex, fiat currencies (that governments declare as legal tender) like printed coins and paper bills emerged. With good governance, the fiat currency was still scarce, and it was protected from debasement by being difficult to forge.
The problem arises when governance becomes corrupt and the issuers of the currency start printing more, thereby diluting the value of the currency (i.e. inflation). As noted by Svetski, “No matter how excellent whatever money we're proposing to use, that is secondary to who controls it and who decides.”
You can have a perfect money system, but if the people who operate the system and those who use it are separate and independently controlled, it won't solve anything because corruption by the controllers of the currency is a root problem. As noted by Fitts, a sound currency would serve an economy where the people and the real assets are in balance.
Two Sources of Currency Debasement
Debasement of the currency occurs when the real economy gets out of balance and you try and make up for it by debasing or diluting the currency. That’s what we’re seeing right now. Corruption isn’t the sole problem here. “Debasement can come from the governance system trying to cheat, but it can also come from a real problem in the real asset economy,” Fitts says. And those are two different problems.
One is based on trying to please constituents (or fraud), and the other is a structural issue that needs to be resolved. The manifestation and the deterioration of the integrity of the money ends up the same, though, so they’re frequently assumed to have the same root cause.
Fitts believes that our current problem is not so much a currency problem but a secret governance system that is harvesting the planet of extraordinary amounts of resources. By doing so, they’re creating a massive drain on the real economy.
Creating a crypto asset outside the system to protect ourselves from that drain can only work for so long, because it doesn’t solve the problem that there’s a drain on the whole economy. The question is, can we bring transparency to what is happening and prevent a secret governance system from draining the economy of resources?
Transparency Is Key
Svetski argues that currency issued by any form of entity, be it a monarch, a state or a hidden Mr. Global will simply bring any system back to where we are now. Fitts believes the solution lies in creating a decentralised market economy based on aligning living and financial capital and incentivising peace rather than war, and a requirement for that is transparency.
To get to transparency, we must first break down the system of mind control set in place by the secret controllers through the use of modern technology. She believes the entrainment technologies, subliminal programming and various mind control influences are an effort to protect themselves from transparency.
And just how do we break through the mind control that keeps us dumbed down and unaware of how the system works and how it’s being drained? Fitts believes it will require us to identify how the mind control works, and then set ourselves free, one by one. “Control happens one person at a time. Financial harvesting happens one person at a time. And freedom happens one person at a time,” she says. Svetski agrees, adding:
“I did a post the other day on Twitter. It said, ‘You're very hard to control when you're healthy. You're very hard to manipulate when you're clear. And you're very hard to influence when you're sovereign.’ So I think we definitely agree in that case.
I think it’s very difficult to control the minds of sovereign individuals because not only do they fundamentally have a disdain for what I call fiat authority, which is nonorganic authority, but they are interested in living as individuals, not as a component in some homogenous collective, which is basically how the world wants us to live at the moment, which is ridiculous.”
How to Foment Resilient Communities
But how do we inspire the others to follow suit and become sovereign individuals? First, we need a critical mass of sovereign individuals in a place. Fitts notes:
“The currency needs to be in balance with the real assets — food, energy and shelter. Let’s pretend for a second, to make this simple, we're doing a community currency. How do we get the food, energy and shelter sufficiently independent and resilient in that place so that the currency can function?
You'd need a critical mass of people who are willing to do that so that they could outwit what satellites are going to do to stop them. So, I'll just talk for myself because I can't talk for everybody, but I think if you see where Mr. Global wants to take the system, you would do anything [to not go along].
We are better dead than going to where Mr. Global intends to go. So that means there's nothing I will not do to stay out of Mr. Global's trap. It’s clear you have to rebuild a healthy, responsible economy, and you can't do it one person at a time.
Occasionally you'll see a phenomenal person who can go do it themselves, but, generally, our civilization depends on cooperation and specialization — community.
Ten percent of people are what I call Net Energy Plus; 80% are going to follow whoever's in charge, and then you've got 10% who are Net Energy Minus. The idea is that you keep the 10% Net Energy Minus in the corner, you get the 10% Net Energy Plus running things, and you get the 80% following them.
I think part of the key to a successful human society is that we have respect and love for all humans, but the Net Energy Minus has got to stay in the corner. When the 80% follow the 10% Net Energy Plus, the speed at which you can turn a company around [is tremendous]. It takes no time to turn it around, but you’ve got to get the 10% Minus in the corner. Put the 10% Plus in charge and it changes overnight.
The challenge that we have, and the problem I ran into when I was trying to do community development, is Mr. Global is great at finding the Net Energy Minus guys and having them do crazy things. So, the question is: How do we protect ourselves from that sabotage?
The Net Energy Minuses can be handled. The problem is handling them with Mr. Global's minions, who are very capable and very professional at recruiting them, managing them, financing them.
I grew up in a very poor neighborhood, and it didn't take long for Net Energy Plus people to find each other. Those leaders would just magically find each other, and they could control the neighborhood because if anybody misbehaved, they could cut off their money.
And then the government came in and made sure, whether by dealing the drugs or bringing in HUD subsidy, that they could subsidize the slugs. And then suddenly the Net Energy Plus people couldn't do slug management because they couldn’t stop the drug dealing and HUD subsidies.
Predator evasion for not just ourselves but the whole community, whether it's a network or a place, is where I've never seen us excel, and that's where I'd like to see us excel ... Good governance has to emerge from a covenant which is codified in formal law, but is embraced in a culture which does the primary enforcement.”
In Svetski’s model, the Net Energy Minus people are “the parasites, the jealous members of the masses or the failed remnants that instead of adding value to society try to extract whatever they can instead,” and the Net Energy Pluses are leaders and entrepreneurs. He weighs in:
“You mentioned, first of all, that transparency is important to counteract control. We need to build sovereign individuals in order to counteract mind control. We need to then take these sovereign individuals, enable them to build communities in order to become sovereign communities, such that they can better manage the delinquents and lead the 80% towards a better world.
You mentioned Mr. Global comes in like a wrecking ball and [destroys] it every single time, because that's what he's good at. He's a parasite. He just wants something for nothing, basically. ‘You guys work and I'll benefit.’
That's the version of the world that Mr. Global lives in, which doesn't align with the physical laws of the universe. That's just not how reality works, although Mr. Global thinks we can somehow structure the world in that way so that we can suck from the productive people and get something for nothing. Unfortunately, that sends the world on a path to hell, which is where we are now.”
Why We Must Refuse Vaccine Passports
One solution that is very clear is that we must do everything in our power to resist vaccine passports and other forms of patent systems’ control, as they are a foundational piece of the digital control grid being erected around us. Fitts explains:
“I'm watching a control grid snap into place. The Russians and Americans have made announcements about regulating crypto. In the EU, they're trying to morph the vaccine passport and now they're calling it a ‘private digital identity wallet,’ and the tax authorities are adding biometrics.
So, you're watching the financial system getting closer and closer to building a control grid, but that control grid is not so much control of the technology, money or cryptos as controlling the people. And it works right now. For the last 30 years, it works like a covert social credit system, but it's invisible; it's covert.
The covert operation lines are integrated and connected, but it hasn't been made overt. And one of the reasons it hasn't been made overt is they haven't been able to bring the U.S. Constitutions down, although they're trying. But at some point, they're making enough progress with the vaccine passports and the QR codes, that they're going to start snapping this thing into place, and that to me is what has to be stopped.”
Svetski, on the other hand, believes an incorruptible money like Bitcoin can play a central role in preventing or circumventing this control grid, because if the globalists can control your finances, they can dictate your actions:
“If your bank account is completely owned by me as an authority, and that same authority owns or controls what you say online ... and if you say something I don't like, and then I just turn off your money so then you can't travel anywhere, you can't eat, then I have the ultimate control over you ...
The most important part in the control grid is: If I can just turn off your money based on what you said, or who you hung around with, or who you're associated with, you have zero power as an individual. Zero. That's the holy grail of what they want. They want to introduce the CBDC, tie it to your vaccine passport, to your movement passport, and then it's game over.”
Reengineering Our Economy
Again, for all the details of this discussion, please listen to the interview in its entirety. In closing, Fitts argues that what we ultimately need is a complete reengineering of our economy into one that is built on health rather than disease, peace rather than war and transparency rather than secrecy, and the people must be in control of that economy. Economy built on disease, war and secrecy, controlled by a hidden cabal, is what leads us into a downward spiral in the first place.
“We have an economy that has a negative return on investment,” she says. “But if you reengineer the financial system, you align living capital and financial capital, and you run the economy to build health, the speed at which we could start to generate fantastic amounts of wealth that could begin to deal with some of our liabilities and obligations is fantastic.
They see that opportunity, too. And if you see what they're moving to do, they're just moving to do it with a very different framework that you and I might use to do it. But the wealth is there to be created ...
My tactic has been to bring transparency and find out how to prototype decentralized economics that creates explosive new wealth. Where I keep falling down is I'm not able to get a critical mass of people to figure out how to protect themselves from the mind control and the sabotage ...
The challenge I've had with many people who are enthusiastic about Bitcoin and crypto is they don't see the control grid, and they don't see the danger of the control grid. And that results in them trying to talk individual and retail investors into doing things, oblivious to the dangers of the control grid.”
Svetski agrees about the roots of the problem, but he is still convinced Bitcoin is a central part of the answer:
“The problem is waste. The problem is secrecy. The antidote is some sort of transparency, a covenant amongst people ... I'm extraordinarily enthusiastic about Bitcoin and I'm extraordinarily pessimistic about crypto.
There is a universe of difference between the two for me. Crypto is exactly how we walk into the control group problem. Every single one of them is Mr. Global's attempt to discredit Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the only way to walk out of it. And I'll explain why.
Crypto is the most effective attack by Mr. Global on Bitcoin. All these monkeys running around screaming about crypto, all they're doing is they're walking right into the trap, which is the creation of a new currency that is controlled by a foundation, an institution, a group, a company, and creates a central point of leverage that Mr. Global can get access to.
And mark my words, I said this two years ago on a podcast and people thought I was crazy and it's happening right now with the World Economic Forum partnering with Ethereum Foundation.
I said, ‘Ethereum is going to be the best way for globalists to enact the central bank digital currency because they're going to do it under the guise of innovation.’ Every single coin other than Bitcoin is run or operated or issued or controlled by some single group. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is a constitution enforced by the individual. I'll explain it like this.
What makes Bitcoin special is that it's not a program, and it's not a technology. It is actually a set of rules, a constitution that we voluntarily opt into. When I'm a node operator of Bitcoin, for example, all I'm doing is I'm just running the software that is Bitcoin. And the software that is Bitcoin is just a series of rules: 21 million coins, divisible to eight decimal places, blocks every 10 minutes.
It's this set of transparent rules ... I can change the rules of Bitcoin if I want to. But what happens is that I'm immediately out of sync with everybody else, and I'm no longer on the Bitcoin network. I'm on something else. I'm on Bitcoin Aleks version, and then I have to convince everybody to move their economic mass, or their economic gravity off to me.
In doing that, I'm then going right back to the original problem that Bitcoin is solving, which is Bitcoin says, ‘Hey, money is the tool that we use to encode time and energy. Let's place it outside of anybody's potential control. Let's put it with the laws of gravity, thermodynamics, the speed of light. None of us can control those. They apply equally to all of us. Let's place money in that realm, then let's go and do other stuff.’
Bitcoin is not digital. Bitcoin is information. This is another layer that I wanted to illuminate. I could take a Bitcoin transaction, and I could write it on a piece of paper. I could write it in emojis, and I could post it to the other side of the world. And you could then broadcast the transaction. The only thing that makes Bitcoin digital is that the internet is just a useful communication medium.
Bitcoin transcends that because Bitcoin is purely just math and information. That's all it is. Bitcoin is the law of large numbers being used to associate private and public keys in a way that the public key cannot be reversed. And the holder of the private key is the private property owner of the Bitcoin associated with that key.”
Fitts counters, “Right, but you still come back to the same problem I said about if the control grid controls people, no matter how perfect you can make something like Bitcoin, it's simply not enough.” Svetski replies:
“It's not enough on its own, but it's the one thing that makes 99% of the difference. Because what it does is it does a couple of things simultaneously. No. 1, it gives us some money. I call Bitcoin free banking in gold in information form that anyone can run on a $100 piece of hardware at home.
Picture a world in which every bank is just a $100 node operating at home, running the Bitcoin network. And every single one of those nodes around the world are in sync.”
Fitts notes, “Right, but you need those people who can maintain themselves outside of the control grid. And they need to have the real assets to be able to do that and do that together.” Svetski replies:
“Totally, and this is why we need something like Bitcoin, because what it does is in its appreciation, it gives us the economic means to acquire the real assets; energy and food. Primarily, they're the two that we need in order to start to make ourselves sovereign across every other dimension.
Bitcoin's kind of the linchpin. If you can't do that, you'll never catch up to the other ones. But in doing so, we have the economic capacity to do so, and simultaneously. And this is where Bitcoin is simultaneously a defense mechanism and an attack mechanism.
Every dollar you put into Bitcoin is a dollar that is not in the existing system. And what happens is it starts to create a drain on the existing globalist form of money, which is predicated on the capacity of an institution to control it.”
Fitts disagrees, saying that’s not what she’s seen happening. What she’s noticed is that someone, likely the central bankers themselves, “primed the pump on Bitcoin,” basically, someone invested heavily into it to drive up the price. Where did that money come from? According to Svetski, the money came from millions of regular people who decided to swap their fiat currency for Bitcoin.
Fitts, however, is convinced that someone is artificially pumping up Bitcoin. She believes the central bankers or their owners are pumping Bitcoin in order to prototype options for their control grid and to attract retail investors into digital assets out of precious metals and real assets, making it easier and cheaper to establish centralized monopolies of real assets.
At the end of the day, it’s up to you to decide how you feel about Bitcoin. It certainly has strengths, but Fitts makes a good argument for understanding the control mechanisms and the risks of an all-digital financial system. Again, for more, please listen to the whole interview, as I’ve only skimmed over some of the highlights in this article. You can follow more of Svetski’s work at:
