Many people have felt the sudden and uncontrollable urge to eat a certain food. These urges --known as cravings-- are very common, especially during pregnancy. During this time, the mother's body undergoes a series of physiological and behavioral changes to create a favorable environment for the embryo's development. However, the frequent consumption of tasty and high calorie foods -- derived from the cravings -- contributes to weight gain and obesity in pregnancy, which can have negative effects on the baby's health.
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Teens who are stopped by the police are more likely to report greater disengagement from school the next day, and racial and ethnic minority youth reported more invasive police encounters than white youth, according to new research.
from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/eSy3tAR
A new study confirmed a risk score, based on a map of genetic variants known to affect blood pressure, successfully identified people with Type 2 diabetes who are at increased risk for heart attack or stroke. Genetic risk scores, like the one examined in this study, may help identify risk very early in the disease process and indicate the need for more intensive prevention efforts, such as healthy lifestyle changes among people with Type 2 diabetes.
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Findings from a phase 1 trial show that an experimental 'gene silencing' therapy reduced blood levels of lipoprotein(a), a key driver of heart disease risk, by up to 98%.
from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/qwcZlgK
More Americans weighed in as obese during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic than in the previous year. A new study presents evidence from a large, nationally representative survey that documents this trend and helps to explain behavior changes that led to widespread weight gain in 2020.
from Top Health News -- ScienceDaily https://ift.tt/rp42Zql
U.S. federal law prohibits the use “official resources,” such as federal funds or one’s job title, for private gain, be it your own gain or someone you know. A recent investigation has unveiled evidence showing Dennis Carroll, former director of the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Pandemic Threat Program, may have done just that. As reported by investigative journalist Paul Thacker:1
“While at USAID, Dennis Carroll oversaw a federal program called PREDICT, from which funds were used to launch another organization called the Global Virome Project. After leaving USAID, Carroll then became chair of the Global Virome Project’s board.
‘It would appear that Dennis Carroll violated federal law that prohibits the use of official resources for private gain or for that of persons or organizations with which he is associated personally,’ Craig Holman of Public Citizen said when shown emails2 made public by the nonprofit US Right to Know.
‘Official resources — including government means of communications, government-funded travel or even the use of one’s official title — may not be used to promote private interests, such as the Global Virome Project.’”
U.S. Right to Know (USRTK) obtained the incriminating documents3 through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. According to USRTK,4 it appears Carroll first designed the PREDICT program as a proof of concept for the Global Virome Project, and while he was receiving six-figure paychecks ($166,500 in 2019) from the USAID, he then founded, promoted and raised funds for the Global Virome Project, in some instances using USAID funding to do so.
Goals of the PREDICT Program and Global Virus Project
The USAID PREDICT program involved identifying viruses with pandemic potential. Contractors funded through this program have included the EcoHealth Alliance, headed by Peter Daszak who, incidentally, in the last year has also gotten into hot water over potential violations of law.
According to Thacker, in early March 2022, Congressional members sent a letter to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), asking the agency to investigate EcoHealth for potential “contract irregularities and anonymous private donations, in violation of federal statute.”
The Global Virome Project was launched to hunt down and catalogue previously unknown viruses around the globe. According to USRTK, the Global Virome Project is currently trying to obtain $1.2 billion to fund the collection and identification of more than 1 million viruses from wildlife, with the goal of predicting which ones might evolve to infect humans.
Virus Researcher May Have Siphoned Taxpayer Funds
As detailed by USRTK and Thacker, USAID appears to have funded overseas travel to promote and fundraise for the Global Virome Project using PREDICT program monies — all while Carroll was still heading the USAID.
What’s more, emails suggest Carroll may have used his position as USAID director of pandemic threats to build credibility for the controversial Virome Project and get it off the ground. As just one example, in an August 2017 fundraising pitch, one of the Global Virome Project board members stated that the idea for the project was “championed by the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats Division.”5
Based on the emails obtained, it appears the USAID Pandemic Threats Division, under Carroll’s direction, funneled at least $270,969 to the Global Virome Project.6 However, it could potentially be hundreds of thousands of dollars more.
One email states that the Virome Project’s budget was overdrawn by $118,000, and that a $116,000 unobligated subaward earmarked for Columbia University was offsetting the overdraft.
That email also referenced a $341,000 subaward that would be given to Metabiota for a cost-benefit analysis once “the balance of our Y5 [year 5] obligation is received from USAID, but please let me know if this is unacceptable, and I’ll see what can possibly be done (creative accounting required).”7
Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics called the evidence “troubling,” as Carroll’s use of a USAID email address is prohibited if the Global Virome Project is not a government project, but his own.8 Kedric Payne, senior director of ethics with the watchdog group Campaign Legal Center, also commented, telling USRTK:9
“The law is clear that officials cannot use government resources to benefit themselves or prospective employers. If Carroll was involved in decisions benefitting GVP while he was at USAID, it is likely that he needed approval from the agency’s ethics officials. The public has a right to know if their public officials comply with conflict of interest laws.”
Similarly, Scott Amey, general counsel for another watchdog group called the Project on Government Oversight, stated, “There’s [sic] numerous conflict of interest laws that should be investigated here to ensure that Carroll didn’t violate the laws on the books.”10
Carroll’s Work on the Two Projects Overlapped for Years
While Carroll has publicly stated that he founded the Global Virome Project after he retired from USAID, this does not appear to be the case. While it’s still unclear when Carroll actually retired from USAID, the Los Angeles Times reported that PREDICT was shut down in September 2019, and according to The New York Times, Carroll retired when PREDICT shut down.
In February 2020, several news outlets reported that Carroll had stepped in as chair of the Global Virome Project.11 However, USRTK claims12 the emails show Carroll’s work on the Virome Project began in March 2017, and “indicate that Carroll’s work as USAID’s leader in viral surveillance and as the chair of the Global Virome Project overlapped for years.”
“Carroll organized calls and meetings on the project’s work with other co-founders, sought donations and helped refine fundraising pitches, pushed favorable messages in the press, and consulted on its application for tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service — all while still working for USAID,” USRTK reports.13
Public Citizen’s Craig Holman told Thacker:14
“Whether or not Carrol is currently receiving lucrative compensation as chair of the Project is beside the point. [He] can still be held liable, even though he has left federal service. The Inspector General’s office should investigate whether the law was broken and, upon finding probable cause, refer the case to the Department of Justice for prosecution.”
On a side note, the FOIA documents also reveal a connection to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in China. It appears the USAID PREDICT program funded laboratory equipment for the WIV through grants to the EcoHealth Alliance.
Of course, we also know that EcoHealth Alliance funneled funding from the National Institutes of Health to the WIV by subcontracting research to them. According to USRTK, Shi Zhengli, a top coronavirus researcher at the WIV, not only worked with PREDICT but was also slated to work with the Global Virome Project.
In one March 2019 email from Daszak to someone at USAID (the recipient’s name has been redacted), Daszak notes that lawyers had flagged the overlap in Carroll’s role at USAID and the Virome Project as potentially problematic, and had suggested changes to a board of directors’ letter.
The details of what were changed have been redacted, but Daszak’s comment seems to imply that they’re aware that what they’re doing is not quite right. Daszak wrote: “I realize this isn’t the language you wanted, but it’s safer for us at this sensitive point where we still receive USAID funding ... for GVP related activities.”15
Lofty Goals That Have Resulted in Nothing
While Carroll has described the Global Virome Project as “the beginning of the end of the pandemic era,”16 critics have pointed out that the premise behind it brings more risk than reward. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota told USRTK:
“If I thought there was a kind of ‘viral smoke alarm,’ I would invest everything imaginable in that, but this project doesn’t give us that ... Deep knowledge about Zika and Nipah has still not led to proven vaccines against them ...
Show me one thing they’ve done that has made a difference, where they could even make a case that they supposedly prevented a pandemic. Which one did they prevent? Did they find anything that helped us with this coronavirus?”
Other critics include University of Sydney evolutionary biologist and virologist Edward C. Holmes, University of Edinburgh virologist Andrew Rambaut and Scripps Research virologist Kristian G. Andersen. In a 2018 Nature article17 titled “Pandemics: Spend on Surveillance, Not Prediction,” the trio wrote that the Global Virome Project is unlikely to predict or prevent future pandemics because animal viruses rarely cause epidemics in humans:
“Around 250 human viruses have been described, and only a small subset of these have caused major epidemics this century. Advocates of prediction also argue that it will be possible to anticipate how likely a virus is to emerge in people on the basis of its sequence, and by using knowledge of how it interacts with cells (obtained, for instance, by studying the virus in human cell cultures). This is misguided.”
Curious Biden-China-Ukraine Connections
Other curious connections that are emerging from this story revolve around Metabiota, which was a core partner of the USAID PREDICT project, and later contracted to perform a cost-benefit analysis for the Global Virome Project. As detailed by the Daily Expose:18
• One of Metabiota’s investors is Rosemont Seneca,19 an investment fund co-managed by Hunter Biden.20
In an exclusive report,21 the Daily Mail recently reported that evidence found on Hunter’s laptop confirms that he helped secure “millions in funding” for Metabiota, a U.S. contractor in Ukraine “specializing in deadly pathogen research,” which is what the Russian government on March 24, 2022, had claimed during a press conference.
• Neil Callahan is a cofounder of Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners, and he not only sits on Metabiota’s board of advisers, he also cofounded Pilot Growth Management, which is Metabiota’s primary investor.
• Another Metabiota funder is In-Q-Tel, a CIA venture capital firm that specializes in high-tech investments that support or benefit the intelligence capacity of U.S. intelligence agencies.
• Metabiota is also funded by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to operate biolabs in Ukraine.
The founder of Metabiota, Nathan Wolfe, also has ties to the World Economic Forum (WEF), which is driving The Great Reset agenda. He’s a WEF Young Global Leader graduate and was awarded the WEF’s Technology Pioneer award in 2021.
Wolfe has served on the EcoHealth Alliance’s editorial board since 2004. In 2017, he cowrote a study on coronaviruses in bats together with Daszak (EcoHealth). Wolfe has also received more than $20 million in research grants from Google, NIH, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others.
According to the Daily Expose, Wolfe also has ties to deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. In his 2012 book, “The Viral Storm,” Wolfe thanked friends for their support, including Epstein and Boris Nikolic. Nikolic, a biotech venture capitalist, was named “back-up executor” in Epstein’s will.
Take Action
There are many things here that we, the American people, need to get to the bottom of, starting with the misuse of taxpayer funds. To that end, if you live in the U.S., I would suggest you contact members of Congress and ask them to investigate22 the potential unlawful actions of Carroll during his time at USAID.
The U.S. Congress has the power to conduct investigations into potential criminal conduct, and if malfeasance is found, they can then refer the matter to the Department of Justice for investigation and prosecution, if appropriate.23 To find out who your Congressman is, and their contact information, see USA.gov.
Emodin, a compound found in Chinese rhubarb (Rheum palmatum), may help prevent colon cancer,1 confirming one of its ancient uses as an anticancer remedy in China. As a revered medicinal herb in traditional Chinese medicine, Chinese rhubarb, also known as rhei or dahuang,2 has long been prized for its antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and antifibrotic properties.
One of its most powerful compounds — emodin — is a natural anthraquinone with demonstrated antitumorigenic properties. Past studies in mice have shown, for instance, that emodin safely reduced mammary tumorigenesis and was beneficial for colorectal cancer.3 New research also found that emodin may be an “effective primary therapy against the onset of genetic and chemically induced sporadic colorectal cancer.”4
Majority of Colorectal Cancer Cases Related to Diet
Aside from skin cancer, colorectal cancer is the third most common type of cancer in the U.S., as well as the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths.5 Lifestyle factors, including dietary choices, play a role in the occurrence and progression of colorectal cancer,6 with only an estimated 20% of cases caused by genetic factors, and the remainder due to environmental factors.
Up to 70% of colorectal cancer (CRC) cases are believed to be related to diet, leading researchers with the University of South Carolina School of Medicine to state:7
“As such, bioactive food components offer exciting possibilities for chemoprevention due to their potential to target many factors associated with the development and progression of CRC. Furthermore, the ability of bioactive food components to elicit tumoricidal effects without displaying the high toxicity exhibited by standard pharmacological interventions may translate to improved quality of life and survival in patients with cancer.”
Citing a “critical need” for studies that both establish the efficacy of bioactive food compounds as well as reveal the mechanisms of action behind their benefits, the team set out to uncover emodin’s potential to combat colorectal cancer.
Rhubarb Compound Emodin Fights Colorectal Cancer
Using a genetic model of intestinal cancer and a chemically induced model of colorectal cancer in mice, the researchers administered emodin to the animals three times a week for 11 weeks. In both cases, emodin reduced polyp count and size.8 Polyps are growths on the inner lining of the colon that can turn into cancer.
In addition, mice that received emodin had lower pro-tumor macrophages — immune cells that may promote tumorigenesis.9 Overall, the researchers concluded that emodin is an “effective primary therapy” against the onset of colorectal cancer, noting:10
“We established that emodin reduces the M2-like protumorigenic macrophages in the tumor microenvironment. Furthermore, we provide evidence that emodin may be acting to antagonize the P2X7 receptor within the bone tissue and consequently decrease the activation of proinflammatory cells, which may have implications for recruitment of cells to the tumor microenvironment.”
Emodin Reduces Breast Cancer Metastasis
In addition to colorectal cancer, emodin also shows promise for other types of cancer due to its ability to block tumor-promoting interactions between cancer cells and macrophages. This alters the tumor microenvironment, ameliorating its immunosuppressive state.11
In 2020, University of South Carolina School of Medicine researchers again looked into the cancer-fighting properties of emodin, noting that they previously found it inhibited breast tumor growth in mice.12
In a study published in the journal Theranostics, they revealed that administering emodin to mice prior to surgery to remove breast tumors stopped the cancer from metastasizing and recurring in the lungs after surgery.
Emodin successfully suppressed epithelial mesenchymal-transition and cancer stem cell formation, and researchers noted, “Our study provides evidence suggesting that emodin harbors the potential for clinical development as a new effective and safe agent to halt metastatic recurrence of breast cancer.”13
Another 2020 study found, similarly, that emodin may be a useful therapy for triple negative breast cancer because it inhibits angiogenesis by targeting vascular endothelial growth factor A transcription.14 A 2016 review of emodin also broke down its anticancer activities, noting:15
Emodin induces apoptosis and significantly inhibited the cell growth of four bladder cancer cell lines
Emodin is antimetastasis and has inhibited the proliferation and invasion of breast cancer cells when administered in combination with curcumin
Emodin may reverse multidrug resistance, which is a significant obstacle to cancer treatment, and “inhibits cell growth in several types of cancer cells and regulates genes and proteins related to the control of cell apoptosis, cell invasion, metastasis and cell cycle arrest”
Interest in emodin’s anticancer effects has increased in recent years, and a 2021 review published in Cancers touted its benefits, as well as potential toxicity, including hepatotoxicity and reproductive toxicity. Because of this, they noted that more research is needed to determine optimal dosages to maximize benefits and reduce potential toxicity. Still, they noted:16
“Emodin has been suggested to be effective for cancer management, principally in digestive system cancers (like pancreatic cancer) by modulating multiple molecular targets included in tumor growth, angiogenesis, invasion, and metastasis according to in vivo or in vitro experimental models. In current years’ investigations, emodin was shown to have anticancer activity in different cancer types …”
Emodin Protects Against Multiple Chronic Diseases
Emodin, which is found not only in Chinese rhubarb but also in aloe vera, giant knotweed, the herb Polygonum multiflorum (tuber fleeceflower) and Polygonum cuspidatum (Japanese knotweed), has impressive therapeutic properties beyond its anticancer effects, which include:17,18
Anti-inflammatory
Antioxidant
Antibacterial
Antivirus
Anti-diabetes
Immunosuppressive
Osteogenesis promotion
Anti-osteoporotic
Anti-allergic
Hepatoprotective
Given these fundamental properties, researchers wrote in the Chinese Journal of Natural Medicines, “emodin is expected to become an effective preventive and therapeutic drug of cancer, myocardial infarction, atherosclerosis, diabetes, acute pancreatitis, asthma, periodontitis, fatty livers and neurodegenerative diseases.”19
The neuroprotective effects of emodin and other rhubarb anthraquinones, including chrysophanol, rhein, physcion and danthron, are also well established. Such compounds have a therapeutic effect on central nervous system diseases, such as:20
Cerebral ischemic stroke
Intracerebral hemorrhage
Traumatic brain injury
Brain tumor
Alzheimer’s disease
Depression
With a more than 2,000-year history of use in traditional Chinese medicine,21 emodin is also known for laxative effects, has a wide range of actions on the immune system and may be useful in supporting bone health and preventing osteoporosis.
Emodin for Spike Protein Detox
If you’ve had COVID-19 or received a COVID-19 injection, you may have dangerous spike proteins circulating in your body. While spike protein is naturally found in SARS-CoV-2, no matter the variant, it’s also produced in your body when you receive a COVID-19 shot. In its native form in SARS-CoV-2, the spike protein is responsible for the pathologies of the viral infection.
In its wild form it’s known to open the blood-brain barrier, cause cell damage (cytotoxicity) and, Dr. Robert Malone, the inventor of the mRNA and DNA vaccine core platform technology,22 said, it “is active in manipulating the biology of the cells that coat the inside of your blood vessels — vascular endothelial cells, in part through its interaction with ACE2, which controls contraction in the blood vessels, blood pressure and other things.”23
It’s also been revealed that the spike protein on its own is enough to cause inflammation and damage to the vascular system, even independent of a virus.24 The World Council for Health (WCH), a worldwide coalition of health-focused organizations and civil society groups that seek to broaden public health knowledge, has released a spike protein detox guide,25 and emodin is a featured spike protein inhibitor, which means it inhibits the binding of the spike protein to human cells.
Interestingly, emodin also has antiviral properties and was found to inhibit the SARS-CoV coronavirus. In 2016, researchers noted:26
“[E]modin significantly blocked the S [spike] protein and ACE2 interactions in a dose-dependent manner and inhibited the infectivity of S protein-pseudotyped retrovirus to Vero E6 cells. The results suggested that emodin might be considered as a potential lead therapeutic agent in the treatment of SARS.
… these results suggest that emodin might be a potent viral inhibitor with a broad spectrum of antiviral activities, indicating that emodin might act as an antiviral drug by blocking virus infection and replication in a time-dependent and concentration-dependent manner.”
A Warning About Oxalates in Rhubarb
While emodin is primarily found in Chinese rhubarb, anthraquinones are also found in Rheum rhabarbarum — the tart rhubarb that’s popular for cooking. While rhubarb has many health benefits, such as being an excellent source of vegetable nitrates, which turn into beneficial nitric oxide, it’s also high in potentially toxic phytochemicals known as oxalates.
As noted by Dr. Paul Saladino, a certified functional medicine practitioner through the Institute for Functional Medicine, “You could get really sick from the oxalates in rhubarb, for example. We're aware that some plants are so toxic that they're frankly poisonous. We could die [if we eat them]. Basically, every plant in nature is part of a delicate balance, a delicate exchange system with other animals.”27
You can mediate against oxalate toxicity by adding about 500 milligrams of powdered calcium citrate or magnesium citrate — which bind to oxalate and allow it to pass unabsorbed through your digestive tract — to, for instance, a rhubarb-containing smoothie (or a green smoothie, as many vegetables contain high levels of oxalates). But if you’re consuming rhubarb in supplement form, it’s important to ensure that the oxalates have been removed.
