An opinion piece in Civil Eats makes a convincingly argues that the enthusiasm behind “meatless meat” or “alternative proteins” must be checked, particularly when it comes to arguments regarding their benefit to the planet. According to Patrick Brown, the CEO of Impossible Foods, meat substitutes are “the last chance to save the planet.”

Author Philip Howard writes,

Firstly, the idea that these alternative proteins can save the planet is highly speculative. These claims are based on a narrow assessment of which products can deliver the most protein for the least CO2. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Products like the Impossible Burger and Beyond Burger source their ingredients from chemical-intensive (and therefore fossil fuel-intensive) monocultures and rely on heavy processing—all of which has major impacts on human health, biodiversity, and climate change.

Additionally, as Rob Verkerk, PhD, founder of ANH-International points out, some livestock farming systems, in particular those that are pasture-based, are already carbon net zero. These operations are worlds away from the concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, that are indeed responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. The point is, red meat isn’t the problem, the production system is.

There are also human health issues with lab-grown meat. We reported previously that some companies genetically engineer a compound, heme, that gives the “meat” the impression that it is “bleeding” like real meat. Has genetically engineered “heme” been tested for safety? No. But that hasn’t prevented the FDA from giving the green light in yet another capitulation to Big Food.

Read the full story.

The post Can Fake Meat Save the Planet? first appeared on Alliance for Natural Health USA - Protecting Natural Health.

Last week, I offered my top ten tips for beating spring allergies. This week, I’m arming you with the supplements you need to keep the sniffling, sneezing, and watery eyes at bay.

Most often when seasonal allergies strike, we reach for the Claritin or the Allegra, but you can save yourself a trip to the pharmacy with these natural allergy-busters:

1) QUERCETIN: Known to inhibit mast cells from releasing pro-inflammatory compounds that cause allergy symptoms. Dosage: 500 mg 3 times daily.

2) BROMELAIN: A proteolytic enzyme extracted from pineapple, it stops the allergic cascade and reduces swelling and edema of tissue. Dosage: 500 mg 3 times daily.

3) URTICA DIOICA (Stinging Nettle): Randomized, double-blind studies have shown it to be as effective as standard allergy medications. Dosage: 200 mg 3 times daily.

4) NAC (N-acetyl cysteine): In Europe, it’s a prescription medicine, used for reducing congestion and for thinning tenacious mucus. Dosage: 500 mg 3 times daily. (NOTE: A supplement called D-Hist, available via our online dispensary at Fullscript, conveniently combines all four of the previous ingredients, plus vitamin C.)

5) OMEGA-3 FISH OIL: EPA offers anti-inflammatory protection. Dosage: 1,000 mg 3 times daily.

6) VITAMIN C: Nature’s own antihistamine. Dosage: 500 mg 3 times daily.

7) VITAMIN D: Emerging research suggests a protective role of vitamin D against asthma, eczema, and other allergic conditions.

8) BUTTERBUR (Petadolex): Also a popular migraine remedy, good research supports its anti-leukotriene effects. European studies have shown it to be as effective as the popular allergy drug Zyrtec. Dosage: 50 mg 3 times daily.

9) PROBIOTICS: A recent study shows that a probiotic drink (Yakult) containing Lactobacillus casei relieves allergic symptoms. Restoring proper balance of bacteria in the GI tract helps to rein in over-exuberant immune responses.

10) PYCNOGENOL: One of the more well-studied of the natural bioflavonoids, this extract of French maritime pine bark was found to relieve allergic rhinitis symptoms. Dosage: 50-100 mg twice daily.

11) MSM (methylsulfonylmethane): May block allergic reactions at the tissue level. Dosage: 1 gram 3 times daily.

12) ADRENAL SUPPORT: Since the adrenals mediate the body’s resistance to allergic challenge, supporting cortisol production with licorice, pantothenic acid, adrenal cortical extract, ashwagandha and other adaptogens can relieve symptoms. Popular adrenal support supplements like Adren-All by Ortho Molecular contain various proportions of these and other ingredients.

13) TRANSFER FACTOR: Allergies exemplify imbalanced immune responses; Transfer Factor from colostrum restores normal TH1/TH2 ratios which enables the body to better distinguish between “friend” and “foe.” Dosage: 250-500 mg twice daily.

14) SULFORAPHANE: This potent derivative of broccoli or broccoli sprouts has been shown to counteract allergies worsened by air pollution.

15) APIGENIN: Found in parsley, celery, and certain spices, apigenin triggers the switching of the immune response to allergens toward a T-helper type 1 (Th1) profile.

16) LUTEOLIN: A strong histamine blocker, luteolin is found in the perilla plant. It may also have neuro-protective effects, which I discussed in a podcast with Dr. Theoharis Theoharides.

17) XLEAR: Bacteria and fungi that colonize the nasal passage and hide in biofilms are recognized as foreign invaders; their presence triggers chronic hyper-activation of the cells lining the respiratory tract. Xylitol in Xlear nasal spray inhibits microbes and dissolves biofilms, resulting in clearance of mucus.

18) SIMILISAN eye drops: A gentle homeopathic formula for itchy red eyes.

If possible, get a jump on allergies by starting supplementation early, before symptoms begin. With the right intervention, you can stop the allergic cascade before it gets out of control. Here’s to a healthy, allergy-free spring!

Read more from Dr. Hoffman’s Intelligent Medicine newsletter.

The post 18 supplements for Allergy Relief and Prevention first appeared on Alliance for Natural Health USA - Protecting Natural Health.

A new analysis found that US life expectancy has dropped for the second year in a row, by about six months in 2021, after falling by two years in 2020. This has driven overall US life expectancy to its lowest point in 25 years. This should spur a moment of reflection among policymakers and public health experts.

The pandemic is clearly the spark that ignited this powder keg, but we need to look beyond this surface level explanation. For starters, the government’s response to the pandemic cost hundreds of thousands of lives. In the early days, government health authorities ignored, censored, and attacked any treatment for COVID-19; all the focus was on self-isolating, masking, hand washing, and waiting for a vaccine to be developed. Front-line doctors successfully developed a protocol to treat COVID using repurposed drugs; the key was to treat early, and not to wait for the disease to progress to a stage where ventilation was needed. The government did nothing. Some estimate that 85 percent of COVID deaths could have been prevented had early treatment with repurposed drugs combined with supplements been widely adopted.

Perhaps the government was preoccupied with its massive censorship campaign against those who dared inform the public about the benefits of supplements like vitamin D, zinc, and quercetin for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. In the absence of alternative treatments, why not tell the public about immune-supporting supplements that are cheap and safe? Answer: Because they don’t make money for drug companies.

Finally, we need to ask the question about why we’re so susceptible to the virus in the first place, and the inevitable answer is that we are a profoundly sick nation. Half the population has at least one chronic condition, and almost a third have multiple chronic illness. There are many causes of the chronic disease epidemic:

• The way we grow our food means it is less nutritious than it once was, making us deficient in key nutrients and priming us to develop chronic diseases;
• Federal agencies like the EPA allow all sorts of toxic chemicals onto the market. We’re exposed to these toxins in the air, in our water, in consumer products, and in our food. The accumulation of these exposures is making us sick.
• Rather than treating the root cause of illness by addressing diet and lifestyle, mainstream medicine relies on pharmaceutical drugs which are expensive and often dangerous.

Importantly, all these trends, including the drop in life expectancy, disproportionately impact communities of color. This is unacceptable.

The status quo is clearly not working; in an age of incredible scientific advancement, our health is regressing. It’s time to embrace regenerative health for humans and the planet.

The post Life Expectancy Drops Again first appeared on Alliance for Natural Health USA - Protecting Natural Health.

On March 3, 2022, Moms Across America and a team of highly reputable scientists and experts met with the Pesticide Review Board of the US Environmental Protection Agency regarding the EPA’s review of glyphosate. The presenters intended to provide new evidence to support the revocation of glyphosate’s license. 

The Moms Across America presenters were: 

• Dr. Shanna Swan, author of Countdown and numerous papers on glyphosate
• Dr. Don Huber, Professor Emeritus of Perdue University, 50-year plant pathologist and glyphosate expert, and US Defense Military Consultant
• Dr. Zach Bush, Triple Board-certified physician and founder of Farmers Footprint
• Robin Mesnage Ph.D. Consultant to Kings College University
• Mary Lou McDonald LL.B. and President of Safe Food Matters
• Kelly Ryerson, board member of Moms Across America and reporter (aka Glyphosate Girl)
• Zen Honeycutt, Founding Executive Director of Moms Across America and author of Unstoppable.

Spanning three administrations, Moms Across America has met with the EPA four times. The meeting request was granted after Moms Across America mothers and supporters emailed the EPA regarding new studies implicating glyphosate as a causal factor in cancer and endocrine disruption.

Read the full article.

The post Will The EPA Take Action to Prevent the Human Race from Becoming an Endangered Species? first appeared on Alliance for Natural Health USA - Protecting Natural Health.

Half of the American population has a chronic disease, utilizing 86 percent of health care dollars. Oftentimes the blame is placed on those who are ill for their lifestyle choices. But the numbers tell a different story: as small farmers started getting squeezed out of food production and agriculture became dominated by a smaller number of huge agribusinesses, the quality of our food dropped precipitously. Less nutritious food meant Americans weren’t getting the nutrients they need, which has helped create an epidemic of chronic disease. Tackling the chronic disease epidemic isn’t only about adjusting individual choices, but also about attacking the cronyism at the root of our food policy that degrades our food, our health, and the planet.

Americans are deficient in many key nutrients

The following percentages of Americans do not meet government benchmarks for the corresponding nutrients:

*EAR is the amount of a nutrient that is estimated to meet the requirement for a specific criterion of adequacy of half of the healthy individuals of a specific age, sex, and life-stage.

Why are we nutrient deficient? The nutrient levels in food have decreased markedly over the years.

Consider the following charts showing the nutrient content of our food plummet when industrial agriculture started becoming the dominant way food was grown.

Selected Nutrients in 100g Broccoli

Vitamin A Levels in Selected Garden Vegetables, per 100g

Vitamin C Levels in Selected Garden Vegetables, mg per 100g

Calcium Levels in Selected Garden Vegetables, mg per 100g

Chart source: Alex Jack, America’s Vanishing Nutrients: Decline in Fruit and Vegetable Quality Poses Serious Health and Environmental Risks.

We reported recently on another analysis concluding that you would need to eat eight oranges today to get the same amount of vitamin A as our grandparents would have gotten from one.

Industrialized agriculture the cause of nutrient decline

The statistics above roughly correlate with the advent of industrialized agriculture. The chart below shows that the number of farms in the US decreased by 64.5% between 1950 and 1997, and the average farm size more than doubled.

Industrial farms are predominately monoculture, meaning they produce a single crop year after year. Corn and wheat absorb different minerals from the soil. Traditional farming understood this fact and rotated crops to avoid depletion. Industrial farms do not practice crop rotation, but instead rely on chemical inputs in the form of fertilizers and pesticides. Pesticide use increased 222% between 1960 and 1981, then decreased 18% from 1981 to 2008. But the damage had been done to our food. Pesticides damage the organisms that live in soil, which are crucial to the soil’s health and, of course, the plants that grow in the soil. Chemical fertilizers make plants grow faster and bigger, but not healthier.

This matters because a lack of nutrients in our food is making us sicker.

These trends correlate to chronic disease trends. Both obesity and diabetes have increased precipitously over time. The CDC estimates that diabetes rates increased 8-fold between 1958 and 2015. These rates have continued to increase in recent years. Obesity rates have also increased progressively over the last five decades: incidence rates of overweight have increased two-fold since the 1950’s and obesity rates have increased 3-fold. Today, 42 percent of US adults are obese. Part of the problem is the US’s heavy subsidization of crops used to make cheap junk food. People eat more and more while getting less nutrition from their food.

Other chronic diseases like coronary heart disease (CHD) and cancer have decreased over time, but this is misleading. Significant decreases in the percentage of Americans who regularly smoke cigarettes help explain a large portion of this trend. Between 1981 and 2000 CHD mortality decreased by half; the decline in smoking prevalence is estimated to explain about 43 percent of that decrease. Smoking is known to cause cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and immune problems.

Lack of micronutrients is linked with chronic disease.

Not getting the nutrients we need is priming many of us for chronic ailments.

• Lack of vitamin D is linked with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and heart failure.
• Studies show that individuals with higher vitamin C intake have a lower risk of a number of chronic diseases including heart disease, cancer, eye diseases, and neurodegenerative conditions.
• Vitamin A deficiency impairs our immune system.
• Low folate and other B vitamin intake is associated with increased risk of CHD.
• Vitamin E and lycopene decrease cancer risk.
• Vitamin D and calcium decrease occurrence of fractures.

It is our poor diet and food grown in nutrient depleted soil, in addition to our exposure to chemical toxins and pollutants, that has helped create an epidemic of chronic disease. Our healthcare system is overburdened trying to address these chronic ailments with pharmaceutical drugs that are dangerous, expensive, and often don’t work. At the same time, our food system relies on dangerous chemicals that degrade human health and prioritizes subsidizing mono crops like corn and wheat with low nutritional value. We need to shift to a regenerative approach to human health as well as agriculture. This means reducing toxic inputs into our soil, water and air, and increasing the availability of nutrient-dense foods. Healthy food can support a regenerative approach to healthcare where diet, proper supplementation, and the avoidance of toxins and pollutants address key sources of our chronic disease epidemic. Until we make this transition, we will continue to pay more and more for healthcare that doesn’t optimize our health.

The post Big Farms, Empty Food, Chronic Disease first appeared on Alliance for Natural Health USA - Protecting Natural Health.

So much is happening that sometimes we don’t take the time to step back and see the big picture. Let’s take a moment to look at the news over the past few weeks. We can see a significant shift in perspective: Big Ag and Big Pharma are being exposed for corrupt behavior, and people worldwide, including more and more media, are calling them out.

People have had enough. Exposure to this corruption is making a difference.

Read the full article.

The post Public Perception of Big Ag and Big Pharma Shifting first appeared on Alliance for Natural Health USA - Protecting Natural Health.

After decades of lobbying the National Organic Program, last Tuesday the USDA, at last, announced an Origin of Livestock Final Rule. It will require all certified organic dairy cows to be raised as organic from the last third of gestation. This will close a giant loophole that industrial “organic” dairies have been using to cut their costs by raising calves on conventional feed and then cycling them back into organic production for milking. If there is enforcement, the industrial dairies will be required to do what is simply a given for the real organic dairies.

Read more.

The post An Origin of Livestock Victory for Organic first appeared on Alliance for Natural Health USA - Protecting Natural Health.

Gordon Plaza in New Orleans is a sad example of the environmental injustice that can make us so sick. This was a housing subdivision that was built on top of a garbage dump in the 1970s that eventually became a Superfund site, but no one told the Black homeowners that were encouraged to move in. In the untreated soil, the EPA found 149 toxic contaminants, 49 of them linked to cancer. There were elevated levels of lead, dioxins, hydrocarbons, and arsenic. These chemicals can cause cancer, heart problems, reduced lung function, and developmental problems in children.

This is just one example. A Harvard study found that a small increase in soot air pollution is associated with a 15% increase in the COVID-19 death rate. Simultaneously, the EPA announced they were waving multiple environmental laws that reduce air pollution for the foreseeable future due to COVID-19. Air pollution increases the risk of chronic and acute respiratory diseases, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. While this pollution affects almost all of us, communities placed near the industrial plants that produce this pollution get it the worst; they are paying the steepest price for the government cronyism that allows industry to get away with this.

Read the full Washington Post article

The post A Toxic Nightmare in New Orleans first appeared on Alliance for Natural Health USA - Protecting Natural Health.

The ubiquity of plastics, particularly microplastics, and their effects on human health make this an issue of pressing public health concern, both in the developing world and in the industrialized world. Microplastics have been shown to accumulate in the lungs, increase cancer risk, cause inflammation and oxidative stress, and adversely affect the immune system. The economic power of those responsible for this pollution, and their influence over Congress and agencies like the EPA, will make curbing this pollution a steep uphill battle.

As with many public health issues, the worse effects of plastic and microplastic pollution are felt by lower socio-economic communities. A new Washington Post article details how in Kenya, for example, mosquitoes carry illnesses that sicken half of the coastal population. Students in Kenya found that mosquitoes were breeding in nests of plastic trash around their homes. Plastic takes hundreds of years to break down and is watertight, which is a perfect habitat for mosquitoes. Pathogenic bacteria are also known to make a home on microplastic particles, travelling thousands of miles across the ocean.

Recycling is only part of the solution. Less than 10 percent of plastic is recycled, partly because it is so cheap to produce new plastic.

There are several ways to reduce your exposure to plastics, though it will be impossible to eliminate your exposure completely. Cutting back our use of single-use plastics is crucial in the big picture to reduce plastics in the environment. Ten states have enacted state-wide plastic bag bans; more legislatures could be urged to follow suit. Other ways to address microplastics to protect our health include vacuuming regularly with HEPA filters to remove plastics from our living space. Some companies market air purifiers that purport to remove some microplastics from the air. Experts recommend drinking filtered tap water rather than bottled water, which tends to have far higher amounts of plastic contamination than tap water.

Read the full Washington Post article.

The post More Reason to Worry About Plastic Pollution first appeared on Alliance for Natural Health USA - Protecting Natural Health.

My first exposure to cronyism – by special interests such as big companies for financial benefit, was in 1996. In college, I learned about World Bank lending policies to poor countries in Africa that required, as a condition of loan money, farmers buy specific equipment from US companies. The equipment wasn’t appropriate for their type of farming, but these farmers were desperate, and the World Bank couched it as helping lesser developed countries modernize by adopting new practices.

The World Bank has almost 200 member countries. The U.S., Japan, China, Germany, and the U.K. have the most voting power. It supposedly aims loans at developing countries to help reduce poverty, but what I saw was a beneficial business opportunity for US corporations. The loans didn’t appear culturally appropriate or geared toward the long-term success of those in need. Indeed, the farmers ended up worse off, saddled with huge debts from the required purchases, and owning machinery they couldn’t use because inputs like gasoline were out of reach. 

The thing that stayed with me was this quasigovernmental organization purportedly operating to benefit lower income countries in need that instead controlled a process that created wealth for specific, pre-selected companies. I didn’t know at the time what cronyism was, nor did I know that it underlies all politics, abroad and at home, and that it impacts many areas of our lives including our health freedom. 

A few years later I again found myself in the classroom, in law school, and again discussing cronyism. This time the subject was the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a governmental agency responsible for protecting the public health. The subject was drug company liability, or rather the lack thereof, resulting from pharmaceutical industry influence over the FDA regulatory framework that governs drug approval, marketing, and sales.

Former FDA employee and whistle blower Dr. David Graham said it best, “the FDA is not able to adequately protect the American public. It’s more interested in protecting the interests of industry. It views industry as its client, and the client is someone whose interest you represent.” 

Through the “revolving door,” FDA employees are encouraged to do pharma’s bidding in exchange for cushy jobs when they enter the private sector. For example, in a review published in the BMJ Medical Journal, 27 percent of 55 FDA reviewers responsible for approving hematology-oncology drugs left the FDA to work for the industry they previously regulated.  That’s more than a quarter of those FDA employees! 

They also make big bucks. Curtis Wright, for example, the FDA director who oversaw the approval of OxyContin, left the FDA one year later to work for Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin. He received $400,000 in compensation his first year.

It gets worse. The FDA receives 45% of its operating budget directly from drug companies in the form of “user fees” (used for the approval of new drugs, biologics and devices), but 65% of the funding for human drug regulatory activities are derived from user fees. Drug companies might as well be signing the paychecks for those who help bring their drugs to market.

The fox is guarding the henhouse, yet Congress reauthorizes the program every five years. Why? In 2020, drug companies spent $314,590,301 lobbying Congress.

Like the World Bank, the FDA claims it is serving a public good, in this case protecting public health, but creating wealth for private companies appears their priority.

After law school, I worked in environmental, food, and human rights politics, and guess what I encountered in all three? The same cronyism I had seen with the World Bank and the FDA.

In all these areas, I noticed that no one was talking about the cronyism. The focus was generally on the issue at hand, like a “bad” drug company that secretly knew its drug was dangerous but continued to sell it anyway. The emphasis was on the actions of the bad actor, the drug company, rather than the regulators that looked the other way, even as scores of adverse events and deaths were reported. But no one asked, how could this have happened in the first instance? No one asked, why does the drug approval process continue to allow dangerous drugs into the market?  And no one sought to make any changes in the interest of protecting public health.

For example, there were 100,000 heart attacks and 55,000 deaths from the drug Vioxx. The FDA did nothing to protect the public, even as the numbers continued to climb.  Finally, Merck buckled from the pressure and pulled its own drug from the market.

Vioxx may be gone from the market, but the same cronyism that allowed the scandal to happen in the first instance remains today, and, according to the FDA’s adverse event database, last year alone there were 2,333,453 injures and 187,750 deaths reported from prescription medications.

Several years after law school, I developed a series of health conditions. This issue of cronyism that had followed and frustrated me for years suddenly became very personal, because I became someone who needed access to natural therapies to heal and to stay healthy.

I didn’t know it at first, because after the conventional medical system failed me, I couldn’t even find information about alternatives online. This is because it’s illegal for the companies that do the research to meaningfully educate people about the health benefits of natural health products. Likewise, natural health practitioners are hesitant to publish information about cutting edge therapies they’ve found clinically beneficial, out of fear that their state medical boards will charge them with practicing outside the “standard of care”, that is, using different therapies than conventional medical doctors.

Nevertheless, with persistence I learned how to heal with natural remedies. But many of these natural remedies, such as NAC, are now in jeopardy, and my continued access is threatened. I am asking, why?

Why would Congress seek to pass laws that will reduce access to safe supplements that people love? Why would the FDA seek to ban safe bioidentical hormones like estriol that women prefer? Why would the FDA create policies that will reduce access to important supplements that support health and homeopathic medicines that work well and without drug side effects? Because each of these modalities threatens drug company profits.

Looking back, it seems I was destined to end up at the Alliance for Natural Health, USA. I’ve been the Executive Director since 2008, and it’s given me the rare gift of aligning my passion with my profession. At ANH-USA, we ask, why? Why does our government promote the interests of big business to the detriment of our health and our freedom? And then we do something about it!

ANH-USA educational and political campaigns are designed to empower people to take back their health, and to change the political tide that threatens us all. We delve deep into individual, community-based, and political solutions, while identifying both the cradle of cronyism and the grave.

Please help spread the word about ANH-USA by posting this article on social media and sharing it with your friends. We need your help to build our grassroots movement into something that cannot be ignored by policymakers! Please share widely!

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