Lose Them Pounds

In their race to vaccinate the entire U.S. adult population, health officials are urging everyone to get a COVID shot, regardless of whether or not they’ve already been infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and spending billions of dollars in taxpayer funded propaganda to convince people to get the vaccine.
This is an important distinction, however, with at least one scientist warning the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that “clear and present danger” exists for those who have had COVID-19 and subsequently get vaccinated.
That scientist — Dr. Hooman Noorchashm, a cardiac surgeon and patient advocate — warned the FDA that prescreening for SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins may reduce the risk of injuries and deaths following vaccination, as the vaccine may trigger an adverse immune response in those who have already been infected with the virus.1
Unfortunately, health agencies continue to assert that everyone should get vaccinated, even if they’ve already acquired natural immunity via previous infection.
CDC: Get Vaccinated Even if You’ve Had COVID

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention admits that it’s rare to get sick again if you’ve already had COVID-19. Despite this, they say those who have recovered from COVID-19 should still get vaccinated:2

“You should be vaccinated regardless of whether you already had COVID-19. That’s because experts do not yet know how long you are protected from getting sick again after recovering from COVID-19. Even if you have already recovered from COVID-19, it is possible — although rare — that you could be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 again.”

Your immune system is designed to work in response to exposure to an infectious agent. Upon recovery, you’re typically immune to that infectious agent. This is why, for instance, proof of prior diagnosis with chickenpox, measles and mumps is allowed instead of vaccination to enter most U.S. public schools3 — once you’ve had the disease and recovered, you’re immune.
If you’ve had COVID-19, you have some level of immunity against the virus. It’s unknown how long it lasts, just as it’s unknown how long protection from the vaccine lasts. According to the Public Health Agency of Sweden:4

“If you have had COVID-19, you have some protection against reinfection. This means that you are less likely to become infected and seriously ill, and less likely to infect others if you are exposed to the virus again.

Over time, the protection that you get after an infection wanes and there is an increased risk of getting infected again. At present, we estimate that the protection after having had COVID-19 lasts at least six months from the time of infection.”

People With Prior COVID Have More Vaccination Side Effects

An international survey of 2,002 people who had received a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine found that people who had previously had COVID-19 experienced “significantly increased incidence and severity” of side effects after the COVID-19 vaccine.5 Those who had previously had COVID-19 had a greater risk of experiencing any side effect, along with the following, specifically:

Fever
Breathlessness

Flu-like illness
Fatigue

Local reactions
Severe side effects leading to hospital care

The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were linked to a higher incidence of side effects compared to the viral vector-based COVID-19 vaccines, but the mRNA side effects tended to be milder, local reactions. Systemic reactions, such as anaphylaxis, flu-like illness and breathlessness, were more likely to occur with the viral vector COVID-19 vaccines.
According to the researchers, the findings should prompt health officials to reevaluate their vaccination recommendations for people who’ve had COVID-19:6

“People with prior COVID-19 exposure were largely excluded from the vaccine trials and, as a result, the safety and reactogenicity of the vaccines in this population have not been previously fully evaluated. For the first time, this study demonstrates a significant association between prior COVID19 infection and a significantly higher incidence and severity of self-reported side effects after vaccination for COVID-19.

Consistently, compared to the first dose of the vaccine, we found an increased incidence and severity of self-reported side effects after the second dose, when recipients had been previously exposed to viral antigen.

In view of the rapidly accumulating data demonstrating that COVID-19 survivors generally have adequate natural immunity for at least 6 months, it may be appropriate to re-evaluate the recommendation for immediate vaccination of this group.”

Surgeon Warns of Immunological Dangers, Blood Clots

Noorchashm has written multiple letters to the FDA, warning them that people should be screened for SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins prior to COVID-19 vaccination. Without such screening, he wrote in one letter to the FDA, “this indiscriminate vaccination is a clear and present danger to a subset of the already infected.”7
He describes the case of 32-year-old Benjamin Goodman of New York, who died within one day of receiving the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. “There will be many more in the coming months as we carelessly and indiscriminately vaccinate the already infected, millions a day … It is a near certainty,” he continued.8 At issue are viral antigens that remain in the body after a person is naturally infected.
The immune response reactivated by the COVID-19 vaccine may trigger inflammation in tissues where the viral antigens are present. The inner lining of blood vessels, the lungs and the brain may be particularly at risk of such inflammation and damage.9 According to Noorchashm:10

“Most pertinently, when viral antigens are present in the vascular endothelium, and especially in elderly and frail with cardiovascular disease, the antigen specific immune response incited by the vaccine is almost certain to do damage to the vascular endothelium.

Such vaccine directed endothelial inflammation is certain to cause blood clot formation with the potential for major thromboembolic complications, at least in a subset of such patients. If a majority of younger more robust patients might tolerate such vascular injury from a vaccine immune response, many elderly and frail patients with cardiovascular disease will not.”

What’s more, Noorchashm quotes one of his previous medical school professors, who said, “the eyes do not see what the mind does not know.” In the case of a vaccine-induced antigen specific immune response, which may trigger thromboembolic complications 10 to 20 days after vaccination, including in those who may already be elderly and frail, the reaction isn’t likely to be registered as a vaccine-related adverse event.
Immediately Delay Vaccination for These Key Groups

In his repeated letters to the FDA, Noorchashm suggests that the FDA “immediately and at the very minimum” delay COVID-19 vaccination for people with symptomatic or asymptomatic COVID-19 infections, as well as those who have recently recovered from the virus.
Because so many cases are asymptomatic, he recommends clinicians “actively screen as many patients with high cardiovascular risk as is reasonably possible, in order to detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2, prior to vaccinating them.”11 As it stands, Noorchashm points out that by ignoring what he believes to be an imminent risk for a sizable minority of people, the FDA’s credibility, and that of the mass vaccination campaign in general, is at grave risk:12

“Can you imagine if the public, without having received any real warning from FDA, becomes aware of an increasing number of such vascular/thromboembolic complications? What do you suppose will happen to the level of ‘vaccine hesitancy’ then?

And, what kind of accountability do you think the public will demand from our experts and federal regulators — especially if they knew, or should have known, that this immunological danger might exist?

The aim of benefiting the majority of our public and saving the nation from this pandemic by quick and aggressive vaccination is an ethically sound one — but where we know of real or likely risks of harm and mortality, we ought to mitigate the risks to those in potential harm’s way.

So doing is the only reasonable, ethical, and likely legal option you can pursue as public health regulators — for in America, we no longer sacrifice the lives of minority subsets of people for the benefit of the majority.”

At least 62 cases of myocarditis, or heart inflammation, in people who received the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine are being investigated by the Israel Health Ministry. Most of the cases occurred in men under the age of 30 who were in good health, and two deaths have been reported as a result.13,14
No Proof of Efficacy in People Who’ve Had COVID-19

In a high-profile report issued by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, 15 scientists stated that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine had “consistent high efficacy” of 92% or more among people with evidence of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection.15
But according to Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky, “That sentence is wrong. There is no efficacy demonstrated in the Pfizer trial among participants with evidence of previous SARS-CoV-2 infections and actually there’s no proof in the Moderna trial either.”16 In France, the health body la Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) does not recommend routinely vaccinating those who have already recovered from COVID-19, stating:17

“At this stage, there is no need to systematically vaccinate people who have already developed a symptomatic form of Covid-19 unless they wish to do so following a decision shared with the doctor and within a minimum period of time. 3 months from the onset of symptoms.”

When Massie realized that vaccination didn’t change the risk of infection among people who’ve had COVID-19, he was alarmed and contacted the CDC directly, recording his calls.
“It [the CDC report] says the exact opposite of what the data says. They’re giving people the impression that this vaccine will save your life, or save you from suffering, even if you’ve already had the virus and recovered, which has not been demonstrated in either the Pfizer or the Moderna trial,” Massey says in a “Full Measure” report.18
CDC Allows Misinformation to Continue

Massie spoke with multiple officials on numerous occasions, who acknowledged the misinformation and implied that it would be fixed.19,20 It wasn’t until Massie’s final call with the CDC, to deputy director Dr. Anne Schuchat, that it was acknowledged that a correction was necessary.
“As you note correctly, there is not sufficient analysis to show that in the subset of only the people with prior infection, there’s efficacy. So, you’re correct that that sentence is wrong and that we need to make a correction of it. I apologize for the delay,” Schuchat said. January 29, 2021, the CDC did finally issue a correction, which reads:21

“Consistent high efficacy (?92%) was observed across age, sex, race, and ethnicity categories and among persons with underlying medical conditions. Efficacy was similarly high in a secondary analysis including participants both with or without evidence of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection.”

Instead of fixing the error, Massie believes the wording just phrases the mistake in a different way and still misleadingly suggests vaccination is effective for those previously infected.22 Meanwhile, increasing numbers of breakthrough COVID-19 cases among the fully vaccinated are being reported, which the CDC has been reporting.
As of April 26, 2021, there have been 9,245 reported cases of COVID-19 in fully vaccinated individuals, including 132 deaths.23 Note this is not total deaths from the vaccine, which is rapidly approaching 4,000.
However, May 14, 2021, the CDC announced it will no longer report breakthrough cases unless they involve hospitalization or death,24 which will obscure the actual number of breakthrough cases occurring, artificially driving down rates and making the vaccines appear to be more effective.
The CDC also changed recommendations on PCR tests for the fully vaccinated, which will further drive down the appearance of breakthrough cases by making them less likely to “test positive.”
PCR tests recommended by the WHO used to be set to 45 cycle thresholds (CTs),25 yet the scientific consensus has long been that anything over 35 CTs renders the test useless,26 as the accuracy will be extremely low, with false positives artificially driving up case numbers.
In April 2021, the CDC recommended the CT be lowered to 28, but only for people who are fully vaccinated.27 Under this guidance, someone with a CT of 30 would not be considered to have COVID-19 if they were fully vaccinated, but if they were not, then their test would be “positive.” 
This is beyond obvious that they are rigging the system to create data that fit their fake narrative, which is pushing the entire population to get a vaccine they don’t need, will harm or kill them and which will generate tens of billions of dollars in annual recurring revenue for the drug companies.
In return, the drug companies have no legal risk for any complications, adverse effects or deaths and are given billions of dollars in free advertising from the U.S. taxpayers to get this dangerous gene therapy.
The Big Lie — Natural Infection Isn’t Adequate

Why is it that the media continue to promote the fake narrative that natural immunity — the type acquired by getting infected by and recovering from a virus — isn’t as powerful or long-lasting as vaccine-acquired immunity?28,29 Do you think it might be to support vaccine sales?
Did they forget that COVID-19 vaccines aren’t intended to be a long-term solution, and have NEVER been shown to provide immunity benefits? The original warp speed test only showed reduced symptoms.
Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla exacerbated this charade by stating that not only will people need a third booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine within 12 months of being fully vaccinated, but annual vaccination will probably be necessary.30
Robust natural immunity has been demonstrated, however, for at least eight months after infection in more than 95% of people who have recovered from COVID-19.31,32 A Nature study also demonstrated robust natural immunity in people who recovered from SARS and SARS-CoV-2.33
There continue to be many unanswered questions surrounding COVID-19 vaccines, many of which most of the public has never heard of, such as imprinting and Th2 immunopathology. If you choose to get a COVID-19 vaccine, you’re participating in a giant experiment, acting as a guinea pig to see what will ultimately bear out.
That being said, if you or someone you love have received a COVID-19 vaccine and are experiencing side effects, be sure to report it. Children’s Health Defense (CHD) is calling on all who have suffered a side effect from a COVID-19 vaccine to do three things:34

If you live in the U.S., file a report on VAERS
Report the injury on VaxxTracker.com, which is a nongovernmental adverse event tracker (you can file anonymously if you like)
Report the injury on the CHD website

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/05/24/delay-vaccination-for-people-with-covid-19-infections.aspx

When you visit your physician, you hope to be given unbiased information that will best support your health — nothing less, nothing more. If a physician is unable to speak freely, this independent relationship between doctor and patient ceases to exist. In the past, illegal marketing, gifts and bribes from drug companies were frontrunners in eroding doctors’ integrity — and patients’ trust in them.

Now, with censorship in the name of COVID-19 ramping up to unprecedented levels, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO), which regulates the practice of medicine in Ontario, has issued a statement prohibiting physicians from making comments or providing advice that goes against the official narrative.

Actor Clifton Duncan shared the Orwellian message on Twitter, urging his followers to “Read this. Now. And then share it as much as you can.”1 Because, equally as disturbing as the notion of publicly dictating to physicians what they’re allowed to say, is the fact that, as Duncan said, the statement has a glaring omission, “The health and well-being of the patient.”2

CPSO Warns Physicians Not to Speak Their Minds

According to CPSO, physicians in isolated incidents have been spreading “blatant misinformation” via social media, which is undermining “public health measures meant to protect all of us.” To explain, the CPSO released their “Statement on Public Health Misinformation” on April 30, 2021, which reads:3

“The College is aware and concerned about the increase of misinformation circulating on social media and other platforms regarding physicians who are publicly contradicting public health orders and recommendations.

Physicians hold a unique position of trust with the public and have a professional responsibility to not communicate anti-vaccine, anti-masking, anti-distancing and anti-lockdown statements and/or promoting unsupported, unproven treatments for COVID-19.

Physicians must not make comments or provide advice that encourages the public to act contrary to public health orders and recommendations. Physicians who put the public at risk may face an investigation by the CPSO and disciplinary action, when warranted.

When offering opinions, physicians must be guided by the law, regulatory standards, and the code of ethics and professional conduct. The information shared must not be misleading or deceptive and must be supported by available evidence and science.”

While threatening physicians with investigation and disciplinary action should they speak out regarding the many inconsistencies and questions surrounding pandemic lockdowns, masks and COVID-19 vaccines, CPSO had the gall to add that it’s not intending to stifle healthy public debate about how to “best address aspects of the pandemic.” “Rather, our focus is on addressing those arguments that reject scientific evidence and seek to rouse emotions over reason,” it added.4

But clearly, CPSO has already outlined which “arguments that reject scientific evidence” it’s referring to: anything “anti-vaccine, anti-masking, anti-distancing and anti-lockdown,” which is better described as anything that dares question the official COVID propaganda narrative.

It should be noted, too, that in order to practice medicine in Ontario, physicians are required to be CPSO members. One of CPSO’s central responsibilities is in the area of investigations and discipline, as it responds to public complaints about Ontario physicians, referring them to a discipline committee “if necessary.”5

‘Unethical, Anti-Science and Deeply Disturbing’

Clapping back at CPSO’s blatant overreach, a group of Canadian physicians sent out a declaration to the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons at various provinces and territories across Canada, as well as to the public, describing CPSO’s statement as “unethical, anti-science and deeply disturbing.” They wrote:6

“As physicians, our primary duty of care is not to the CPSO or any other authority, but to our patients. When we became physicians, we pledged to put our patients first and that our ethical and professional duty is always first toward our patients. The CPSO statement orders us to violate our duty and pledge to our patients …”

Three primary reasons were given in the declaration that show why CPSO’s statement runs contrary to physicians’ oath to protect their patients above all else:7

1. Denial of the Scientific Method — Vigorous debate by those holding opposing views has been central to scientific progress throughout history. CPSO orders physicians to put scientific method aside and silences open debate. “Any major advance in science has been arrived at by practitioners vigorously questioning “official” narratives and following a different path in the pursuit of truth,” the declaration states.8

2. Violation of Physicians’ Pledge to Use Evidence-Based Medicine for Their Patients — Physicians pledge to seek out the best evidence-based science and advocate for it on their patients’ behalf, but CPSO asks physicians to violate this pledge and only express pro-lockdown views.
They write, “This tyrannical, anti-science CPSO directive is regarded by thousands of Canadian physicians and scientists as unsupported by science and as violating the first duty of care to our patients.”9

3. Violation of Duty of Informed Consent — Censoring health information of any kind, including vaccine information, violates the Nuremberg code,10 which states, “The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential,” and specifies that in order for the subject to be able to make an informed decision, “all inconveniences and hazards reasonably to be expected; and the effects upon his health or person which may possibly come from his participation” must be disclosed.

Informed consent simply isn’t possible if potential hazards and drawbacks are censored. The Nuremberg Code was drafted to prevent the horrific experiments performed on humans in Nazi concentration camps from ever occurring again, but CPSO is ordering physicians to “violate the sacred duty of informed consent.”11

‘A Watershed Moment in the Assault on Free Speech’

The declaration ends by telling CPSO to withdraw its April 30 statement, with which the physicians state they will never comply:12

“We physicians believe that with the CPSO statement of 30 April 2021, a watershed moment in the assault on free speech and scientific inquiry has been reached. By ordering physicians to be silent and follow only one narrative, or else face discipline and censure, the CPSO is asking us to violate our conscience, our professional ethics, the Nuremberg code and the scientific pursuit of truth.”

It’s encouraging to see pushback against tyrannical efforts. The Great Barrington Declaration (GBD), written by infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists, also highlighted grave concerns over lockdown measures implemented during the pandemic, and, as of May 20, 2021, had collected hundreds of thousands of signatures in support.13

The GBD authors, along with a team of academics, researchers and subject matter experts, are now publishing a regular analysis of the global impact of COVID-19 restrictions, called Collateral Global.14 The reality is lockdowns have caused a great deal of harm from delays in medical treatment and disrupted education to joblessness and drug overdoses.

Opioid overdose fatalities nearly doubled during the stay-at-home order in Cook County, Illinois, compared to a 100-week period in 2018 to 2019, rising from 23 deaths per week to 44, for instance.15

A survey of 2,000 U.S. adults also revealed that 1 in 6 Americans started therapy for the first time during 2020. Nearly half (45%) of the survey respondents confirmed that the reason they considered therapy was the COVID-19 pandemic.16 Meanwhile, serious questions remain, with evidence suggesting lockdowns weren’t effective.

Even the World Health Organization wrote in 2019 that during an influenza pandemic, quarantine of exposed individuals, entry and exit screening and border closure are “not recommended in any circumstance.”17

Likewise, in 2021 a study published in the European Journal of Clinical Investigation found no significant benefits on COVID-19 case growth in regions using more restrictive nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as mandatory stay?at?home and business closure orders (i.e., lockdowns).18

Data compiled by Pandemics ~ Data & Analytics (PANDA) also found no relationship between lockdowns and COVID-19 deaths per million people. The disease followed a trajectory of linear decline regardless of whether or not lockdowns were imposed. Yet, this is the type of information that CPSO is forbidding physicians from talking about with their patients.

AIER: ‘Nothing Short of Horrifying’

The American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) also spoke out against CPSO’s censoring of physicians, calling it “nothing short of horrifying” and adding:19

“Although there are certainly concerns about the spread of falsehoods and conspiracy theories in the age of Covid-19, this sort of broad censorship of speech from practicing medical professionals is not only an ethical sham but anti-science.

The practice of science is premised on the rigorous application of the scientific method which among other things requires falsifiability and debate. The move to silence doctors also flies in the face of liberal democracy — something that has been deteriorating around the world as both the public and private sector move to silence dissent.”

Equally disturbing is that CPSO’s move isn’t unique to Ontario. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia issued a similar warning to physicians, stating that they could be investigated and penalized if they say something against public health orders or official COVID-19 guidance.20 And it’s not only physicians who are being censored, either. Academics are also being punished for teaching outside of the COVID box.

Take professor Mark Crispin Miller, who has taught classes on mass persuasion and propaganda at the New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development for the last two decades.

After challenging students to investigate current propaganda narratives surrounding mask mandates, Miller was placed under conduct review for spreading “dangerous misinformation” — one of three key propaganda strategies used to suppress academic and scientific inquiry. Miller fought back, suing 19 of his department colleagues for libel after they signed a letter to the school dean demanding a review of Miller’s conduct.21

Censorship and Surveillance Go Hand in Hand

Big Tech censorship, which oftentimes filters out or blocks all but one viewpoint, is also pervasive, such that even your Google searches are canned. Many also aren’t aware that, while the internet is viewed as a tool to promote the dissemination of information, it was built by the government as a tool to spy on citizens.

If you’re interested in learning more about the little-known beginnings of the internet, I encourage you to read the book “Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet,” by Yasha Levine.22

Levine, an investigative journalist, reveals that the internet began in the Vietnam era and was used to spy on guerrilla fighters and antiwar protestors, “a military computer networking project that ultimately envisioned the creation of a global system of surveillance and prediction.” What’s more, the military surveillance objectives that underpinned the internet’s development are still in force today.23

The more data that Big Tech gathers, the more it gives them the unprecedented ability to predict the type of messaging triggers that will create the maximum amount of fear — and thus compliance.

A key solution will be decentralized platforms that not only virtually eliminate censorship but also foster privacy and free speech, the latter of which must also be fervently protected when it comes to discussions between you and your doctor.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/05/28/physicians-forbidden-from-questioning-official-health-guides.aspx

In this interview, return guest Stephanie Seneff, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at MIT for over five decades, discusses the COVID-19 vaccines. Since 2008, her primary focus has been glyphosate and sulfur, but in the last year, she took a deep-dive into the science of these novel injections and recently published an excellent paper1 on this topic.

“To have developed this incredibly new technology so quickly, and to skip so many steps in the process of evaluating [its safety], it’s an insanely reckless thing that they’ve done,” she says. “My instinct was that this is bad, and I needed to know [the truth].
So, I really dug into the research literature by the people who’ve developed these vaccines, and then more extensive research literature around those topics. And I don’t see how these vaccines can possibly be doing anything good. When you weigh the good against the bad, I can’t see how they could possibly be winning, from what I’ve seen.”

Significant Death Toll Will Rise in Months and Years to Come

Five months into the vaccination campaign, statistics tell a frightening story. Seneff cites research2 showing deaths are 14.6 times more frequent during the first 14 days after the first COVID injection among people over the age of 60, compared to those who aren’t vaccinated. That is extraordinary. You can read the full paper here.

Other data,3,4 reviewed in the video above, show that after COVID-19 vaccines were implemented, overall death rates have increased, with the exception of a few areas. Interestingly, Seneff believes she may have discovered why. It appears countries in which COVID-19 vaccines have not raised mortality rates are also not using glyphosate.

“I immediately suspected glyphosate when I started to see COVID-19,” Seneff says. “I’ve written a book on glyphosate called ‘Toxic Legacy,’ and I have an entire chapter in that book on the immune system. Glyphosate, I believe, is a train wreck for the innate immune system, and when your immune system is weak, your body has to overreact to the virus. It can’t kill the virus.
So, it ends up [causing] collateral damage and wrecking your tissues. You get into this cytokine storm kind of situation where you destroy your lungs and you can’t cope. It’s not really the virus. It’s the immune reaction to the virus that’s killing you, and that’s because your immune system is too weak. If you have a strong innate immune system, I believe you wouldn’t even get symptoms from COVID-19.
When you look at the statistics on which countries are hit hard and just can’t get ahead of this virus, they’re clearly the countries that use a lot of glyphosate and developing biofuels based on glyphosate-exposed plants. So, I think that’s a critical piece of the puzzle as well. Glyphosate is in the atmosphere … [and] people are breathing it. So now you’re getting a direct attack on the lungs immune system, which makes you very susceptible to COVID.”

Ultimately, Seneff believes, as I do, that the COVID-19 “vaccines” will end up killing far more people than the disease itself, and will in fact make the disease worse. Seneff cites a disturbing case history of a cancer patient in the U.K. who was treated for severe COVID-19 for 101 days.
The antibody cocktails they gave him didn’t work, and after his death, they concluded that the predominant SARS-CoV-2 variant in his body had a dozen different mutations in the spike protein. Somehow, his body figured out how to evade the antibodies, which is a critical piece of the puzzle.
“I think the vaccines are doing the same thing,” Seneff says, adding that, among the immune compromised, only 17% of vaccinated individuals actually produce antibodies.5 Surprisingly, these people may actually have drawn the short end of the stick. The antibodies may not work because their immune function is low, thereby allowing the virus to build resistance and mutate.

“I think you have a lot of immune compromised people in a country where glyphosate is destroying people’s immune system, and that gives tremendous opportunity for the virus to mutate. The vaccine is going to accelerate that process because we’re vaccinating immune compromised people left and right.”

COVID-19 Vaccines Are a Public Health Disaster
The typical unprecedented vaccine takes 12 years to develop, and of all the unprecedented vaccines in development, only 2% are projected to ever make it through phases 2 and 3 of clinical testing.

The COVID-19 vaccine was developed with Operation Warp Speed in less than one year, which makes it virtually impossible for this vaccine to be adequately tested for safety and efficacy.
Hundreds of millions of people are now being vaccinated around the world, based on nothing more than preliminary efficacy data. Disturbingly, while sudden death is one apparent side effect, the vast majority of side effects won’t be known until a decade or more from now.
Seneff predicts that in the next 10 to 15 years, we’ll see a sudden spike in prion diseases, autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative diseases at younger ages, and blood disorders such as blood clots, hemorrhaging, stroke and heart failure.

“It’s a nightmare,” she says. “And I can see how it can happen. Basically, the vaccine is so unbelievably unnatural, and it has a single-minded goal, which is to get your body to produce antibodies to the spike protein. The RNA has been manipulated. It’s not natural RNA because it has methyl-pseudouridine on it … And the goal is to keep it alive.
Normally, if you get injected with RNA, you have enzymes in your system, in your tissues, that will immediately break it down. Your body knows it must get rid of the RNA. What you do with the vaccine is you make sure [your body] can’t get at it …
Then there’s the lipid [that the RNA is encased in]. The lipids are very abnormal, very weird … They’re not natural but they have some cholesterol in there, probably to help it look like a natural LDL particle so that your cells will take it up. It’s not being taken up by the ACE2 receptor.
It’s not being taken up the same way that the virus is being taken up. It’s a totally different mechanism that brings it into all the cells. You’ve gone past all the mucosal membranes. Usually, a virus is going to come into the lungs or any kind of cavity where there’s a mucosal system that’s going to hit the virus first.
The virus [will trigger] your natural mucosal system to respond to it and clear it if you’re a healthy person, and that’s the end of it. [With the vaccine], we never get a chance to do that. You’re just getting it shot right into your muscle, past all the barriers and the muscle goes crazy … sending out all kinds of alarms.”

Understanding Your Immune System

As your cells start producing the viral spike proteins, your immune cells rally to mop up the proteins and dump them into your lymphatic system. This is why many report swollen lymph nodes under the arms. This is also a sign of breast cancer. The antibody response is part of your humoral immunity. You also have cellular immunity, which is part of your innate immune system.
Your innate immune system is very powerful. And, if you’re healthy, it can clear viruses without ever producing a single antibody. Antibodies are actually a second-tier effect when your innate immune system fails. The problem is your innate immune system is definitely going to fail if you get a COVID-19 shot, because it’s bypassing all of the areas where your innate immune system would be brought to bear.
Your body will essentially believe that the innate immune system has failed, which means it must bring in the backup cavalry. In essence, your body is now over-reacting to something that isn’t true. You’re not actually infected with a virus and your innate immune system has not failed, but your body is forced to respond as if both are true.
How COVID-19 Vaccine Circumvents Healthy Immune Responses

But there’s more. As explained by Seneff, the synthetic RNA in the mRNA vaccines contains a nucleotide called methyl-pseudouridine, which your body cannot break down, and the RNA is programmed to trigger maximum protein production. So, we’re looking at completely untested manipulation of RNA.
It is very important to recognize that this is a genetically engineered mRNA for the spike protein. It is in no way shape or form the same that SARS-CoV-2 produces. It’s been significantly altered to avoid being metabolized by your body. Additionally, the spike protein your body produces in response to the COVID-19 vaccine mRNA locks into your ACE2 receptor.
This is because the genetically engineered NEW spike protein has additional prolines inserted that prevent the receptors from properly closing, which then cause you to downregulate ACE2. That’s partially how you end up with problems such as pulmonary hypertension, ventricular heart failure and stroke.6,7
As noted in a 2020 paper,8 there’s a “pivotal link” between ACE2 deficiency and SARS-CoV-2 infection. People with ACE2 deficiency tend to be more prone to severe COVID-19. The spike protein suppresses ACE2,9 making the deficiency even worse. As it turns out, the vaccines essentially do the same thing.
How Long Might Effects Last?
As mentioned, RNA is highly perishable, so to get it past the enzymes that would normally break down free mRNA, it’s encased in a lipid nanoparticle combined with polyethylene glycol or PEG. The PEG helps protect the RNA from breaking down. The RNA can easily enter the cell via natural endocytosis pathways, taking advantage of the nanoparticle design made to look like an LDL particle.

They strategically chose a cationic lipid, meaning it’s positively charged. “Usually you have phospholipids in your membranes that are negatively charged,” Seneff explains. The problem with cationic lipids is they disturb the plasma membrane and cause an immune response.

However, that may also be a key reason for why they were used. Typically, conventional vaccines contain an aluminum adjuvant to initiate an immune response. Aluminum was not appropriate for the COVID-19 vaccines, but the cationic lipids serve a similar function spectacularly well.
Being extremely toxic to the cell membranes, the positively charged lipids trigger immune cells to rush in to aid the cells and mop up the spike protein now being produced, while also being the vehicle that allows the RNA to slip into the cells. Once inside the cell, the mRNA delivers the instructions to produce enormous amounts of spike proteins.
The really worrisome thing is there’s potential for it to become part of the DNA and then it will last forever. Stephanie Seneff, Ph.D.
Importantly, there’s no telling how long these instructions will persist. Manufacturers are guessing the synthetic RNA may survive in the human body for about six months, but we really don’t know if that’s true or not.
Again, the alterations they’ve done to the synthetic RNA are meant to prevent it from breaking down. It could be years or even decades that these spike proteins are being produced, and you will find out shortly why this is a really bad scenario.

“The really worrisome thing, which I talk about in the paper, is there’s potential for it to become integrated into your DNA,” Seneff says. “If that happens, it will last your entire lifetime, and you may pass this new genetic code on to your offspring.”

Tracing Spike Protein From Cells to Lymph to Spleen
As explained by Seneff, your immune cells mop up mRNA and spike protein and dump them into your lymphatic system. From there, they make their way into your spleen, where they can remain for quite a long time. 

“There are all these different immune cells that have different roles, but it’s the dendritic cells and the macrophages that are initially going into the muscle, picking up the mRNA, taking it over to the lymph system, traveling through the lymph system to the spleen and piling it up there. The spleen was the highest concentration of all the organs they looked at in animal studies. The liver was second.
It wasn’t the COVID-19 vaccine, but it was a messenger RNA vaccine. So, it was the same concept. The other vaccines, the ones that are based on a DNA vector, they also go to the spleen. I think they like it when they see that it’s going to the spleen because you have these germinal centers in the spleen that are focus groups for making antibodies.
So these dendritic cells are in these germinal centers in the spleen, and then they bring in the B-cells and T-cells, and those are the ones that make and perfect the antibodies, because you need to go through a whole training mode to get the antibiotics to be exactly matched to that particular spike protein. That happens predominantly in the spleen.”

Potential Vaccine Shedding Mechanism Revealed
Seneff also sheds light on the mysterious reports of unvaccinated individuals experiencing unusual bleeding symptoms after spending time in proximity to a newly vaccinated person. She believes this may be due to exosomes being released from the lungs.

“If you are a person who’s producing these exosomes from your spleen and shipping them out, there’s no reason why you can’t ship them out to the lungs. In fact, they’ve shown experimentally that those exosomes do get released from the lungs,” Seneff says.

So, to be clear, what’s being “shed” or spread by vaccinated individuals is the spike protein — which is itself toxic — not the SARS-CoV-2. So, it’s not an infection but rather the shedding of a toxic protein.

“If you’re breathing it in, you could be getting an increased risk, it seems to me. I mean, it sounds really farfetched, but it looks like it could happen, just from the logic of what goes on in biology. It could happen that you would breathe in these exosomes containing these misfolded prion proteins, which are not good for you, and exactly what happens when they go into the lungs, I don’t know. I have no idea.”

Can mRNA Vaccines Change Your DNA? That Is the Question

Getting back to the potential issue of gene editing, I’ve been accused of being scientifically ignorant for stating that COVID-19 vaccines are not vaccines but rather a form of gene therapy. But when you delve into the genetics and molecular biology of this vaccine you discover that they are in fact a form of a stealth gene editing tool that can change your DNA and integrate instructions to make even more spike proteins.
It’s counterintuitive because, typically, mRNA cannot be integrated directly into your genes because you need reverse transcriptase. Reverse transcriptase converts RNA back into DNA (reverse transcription). Seneff, however, discovered there’s a wide variety of reverse transcriptase systems already embedded in our DNA, which makes this possible. She explains:

“There was this long period of time in which we had the mantra that transcription is DNA to RNA to protein. That’s basic biology — DNA, RNA, protein. But then, in 1970, David Baltimore at MIT… discovered reverse transcriptase in retroviruses (RNA tumor viruses), which he won the Nobel Prize for.
It turns out, and I didn’t know this until I started digging into these vaccines, that we actually have plenty of reverse transcriptase in our own cells. We have plenty of it. And it’s these long interspersed nuclear elements (LINEs) and short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs) that are able to take our RNA back to DNA and to put that DNA back into the genome.”

LINEs and SINEs are sequences of nucleotides, pieces of DNA, and they make up a huge percentage of the genome. For example, LINE1 is 10% of your genome. Most of the time they’re inactive and scientists were puzzled about what they actually do. They’re rather strange, as they fold DNA backward and stick it back in different areas. For example, in people with Alzheimer’s, the amyloid beta protein gets duplicated all over the place in their genome.

“They get like a big fat genome with extra copies with different variations in those copies. And they do that through RNA,” Seneff says. “So, you have a mechanism for evolution. The primary mechanism, I would guess, is through taking the DNA, turning it into RNA, mutating the RNA because RNA mutates much more easily than DNA does, and then turning it back into DNA and sticking it back into the genome.”

In a nutshell, LINEs and SINEs appear to be activated when an alternative solution for a problem is needed. One such problem could be glyphosate exposure. When the body is too sick to function normally, it finds a way around the problem by mutating proteins. “It’s a process that we use to deal with environmental toxic chemicals that we’re confronted with generally,” Seneff says.
So, in summary, mRNA can be reverse transcribed and converted back to DNA by LINEs and SINEs in your body. This cloned DNA can then be integrated into your genome. In this way, it truly is genetic editing.
Are We Creating a Generation of Super-Spreaders?

What comes next is truly chilling. Seneff cites research10 showing that sperm has this ability to take exogenous mRNA, either from a virus or an mRNA vaccine, and reverse transcribe it into DNA and then produce plasmids that contain this cloned DNA. The sperm then releases these plasmids around the egg, which takes them up.
The egg hangs on to those plasmids and puts the new code into the cells of the growing fetus. Hypothetically, a man having been vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine could produce a child born with the genetic code to make the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.
This is not a good thing, because this means the child will not have antibodies against the spike protein. Since it’s part of their genetic code, it registers as one of their own proteins and their body won’t produce antibodies against it. If that child is exposed to SARS-CoV-2, their immune system won’t react at all. What happens next is anyone’s guess, but it’s bound to be severely problematic in one way or another.

“Exactly how sick they’ll get or whether they’ll get sick at all, I don’t know,” Seneff says, “but their immune system won’t react and they’ll be able to carry that virus for their entire life and then pass [that genomic trait] on down to their children …
Now, if I don’t react to [the virus] and I let it grow, what happens? Do I get sick? To what extent is the illness [COVID-19] the consequence of the immune response, rather than the virus itself? We don’t know that, really, but many say the real problem is the overactive immune response.
People are dying of the immune response to COVID, they’re not dying from the virus. The virus is not killing them. It’s the immune response to the virus that’s killing them. So, if you don’t have an immune response, what happens? Nobody knows.”

Even if such a child were to be unaffected by the virus, we could be looking at a serious problem, as they could turn into lifelong super-spreaders and a chronic hazard to everyone around them. At least that’s what happened in cows.
Seneff recounts a story of herds plagued by a viral diarrhea. They finally realized that “killer calves” were the problem. Calves were being born that had viral protein integrated into their genome. When exposed to the virus, these calves, unable to clear the virus naturally, then spread it to the adult cows, which got sick.

“I don’t see why the same thing couldn’t happen with COVID — that a baby could be born who has this humanized version of that protein, catches the [wild] virus and then it spreads it to the adult population,” Seneff says.

Such children would be true super-spreaders, and the indoctrination we’re currently seeing, where children are told their mere presence could pose a mortal risk to the people they love, would then turn into grim reality. The calves in question were euthanized to safeguard the rest of the herds. How would we address human equivalents?
Hopefully, this nightmare scenario will not occur, but it appears biologically possible, and that is the problem. The fact that the available science allows for this kind of speculation is reason enough to put the brakes on this vaccination campaign. We have no clue what the long-term consequences are. We don’t even know what the short-term consequences are, other than more vaccinated people are dying, collectively, compared to unvaccinated ones.
Spike Protein Appears Highly Problematic

A particularly fascinating part of Seneff’s paper addresses the toxicity of the spike protein. A key problem with all of these gene-based COVID-19 vaccines is that the spike protein itself appears toxic, and your body is now a spike protein-producing factory.

“Right. They have done studies where they only expose the [animal] to the spike protein, showing it was toxic in the brain and the blood vessels. So, it’s causing immune reactions all by itself that is damaging to the tissues.
It’s basically a toxic molecule, and I think it’s toxic possibly because of it being a prion protein …
I’m going to do more research on it. I don’t know enough yet, but it looks horrendous to me. I think it may be the most worrisome thing. There are two big things that are going to happen in the future.
They’re going to take time [to develop], so we’re not going to see it immediately. And, of course, we’re not going to blame the vaccine because rates will start going up for these horrible diseases and no one will link them to it.”

Why Spike Protein May Cause Serious Neurodegenerative Disease

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CKD), the human version of mad cow disease, is a prion disease. Other human forms of prion disease include Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS). “You have all these horrible neurodegenerative diseases and each one is tied to specific prion proteins,” Seneff says. The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein also appears to be a prion protein, although this has yet to be thoroughly verified.
Disturbingly, the spike protein produced by COVID-19 vaccines, due to the modifications made, may make it more of a prion than the spike protein in the actual virus, and a more effective one.

“Papers are showing that those germinal centers in the spleen … are a primary source of the prion proteins that eventually get taken up the vagus nerve and delivered to the brainstem nuclei. That’s how you can get Parkinson’s disease, for example …
There’s so much we need to learn, but it looks to me like it’s a setup here. They’re really inviting this kind of thing to happen with these vaccines, where they’re focusing on those germinal centers [because] those are the very same place where these prion proteins often get started.”

Why Long-Term Neurological Damage Is To Be Expected

In her paper, Seneff describes key characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that suggests it’s a prion:11

“Neurological symptoms associated with COVID-19, such as headache, nausea and dizziness, encephalitis and fatal brain blood clots are all indicators of damaging viral effects on the brain. Buzhdygan et al. (2020) proposed that primary human brain microvascular endothelial cells could cause these symptoms …
In an in vitro study of the blood-brain barrier, the S1 component of the spike protein promoted loss of barrier integrity, suggesting that the spike protein acting alone triggers a pro-inflammatory response in brain endothelial cells, which could explain the neurological consequences of the disease.
The implications of this observation are disturbing because the mRNA vaccines induce synthesis of the spike protein, which could theoretically act in a similar way to harm the brain. The spike protein generated endogenously by the vaccine could also negatively impact the male testes, as the ACE2 receptor is highly expressed in Leydig cells in the testes …
Prion diseases are a collection of neurodegenerative diseases that are induced through the misfolding of important bodily proteins, which form toxic oligomers that eventually precipitate out as fibrils causing widespread damage to neurons …
Furthermore, researchers have identified a signature motif linked to susceptibility to misfolding into toxic oligomers, called the glycine zipper motif … Prion proteins become toxic when the ?-helices misfold as ?-sheets, and the protein is then impaired in its ability to enter the membrane.
Glycines within the glycine zipper transmembrane motifs in the amyloid-? precursor protein (APP) play a central role in the misfolding of amyloid-? linked to Alzheimer’s disease. APP contains a total of four GxxxG motifs. When considering that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is a transmembrane protein, and that it contains five GxxxG motifs in its sequence,12 it becomes extremely plausible that it could behave as a prion.
One of the GxxxG sequences is present within its membrane fusion domain. Recall that the mRNA vaccines are designed with an altered sequence that replaces two adjacent amino acids in the fusion domain with a pair of prolines.
This is done intentionally in order to force the protein to remain in its open state and make it harder for it to fuse with the membrane. This seems to us like a dangerous step towards misfolding potentially leading to prion disease …
A paper published by J. Bart Classen (2021) proposed that the spike protein in the mRNA vaccines could cause prion-like diseases, in part through its ability to bind to many known proteins and induce their misfolding into potential prions.
Idrees and Kumar (2021) have proposed that the spike protein’s S1 component is prone to act as a functional amyloid and form toxic aggregates … and can ultimately lead to neurodegeneration.”

So, in summary, the take-home here is that COVID-19 vaccines, offered to hundreds of millions of people, are instruction sets for your body to make a toxic protein that will eventually wind up concentrated in your spleen, from where prion-like protein instructions will be sent out, leading to neurodegenerative diseases.
Vaccine Remedy May Be Worse Than the Disease
In her paper, Seneff goes into far more detail in her description of the spike protein as a metabolic poison. While I recommend reading Seneff’s paper in its entirety, I’ve extracted key sections below, starting with how the spike protein can trigger pathological damage leading to lung damage and heart and brain diseases:13

“The picture is now emerging that SARS-CoV-2 has serious effects on the vasculature in multiple organs, including the brain vasculature … In a series of papers, Yuichiro Suzuki in collaboration with other authors presented a strong argument that the spike protein by itself can cause a signaling response in the vasculature with potentially widespread consequences.
These authors observed that, in severe cases of COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 causes significant morphological changes to the pulmonary vasculature … Furthermore, they showed that exposure of cultured human pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein S1 subunit was sufficient to promote cell signaling without the rest of the virus components.
 Follow-on papers showed that the spike protein S1 subunit suppresses ACE2, causing a condition resembling pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a severe lung disease with very high mortality … The ‘in vivo studies’ they referred to … had shown that SARS coronavirus-induced lung injury was primarily due to inhibition of ACE2 by the SARS-CoV spike protein, causing a large increase in angiotensin-II.
Suzuki et al. (2021) went on to demonstrate experimentally that the S1 component of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, at a low concentration … activated the MEK/ERK/MAPK signaling pathway to promote cell growth. They speculated that these effects would not be restricted to the lung vasculature.
The signaling cascade triggered in the heart vasculature would cause coronary artery disease, and activation in the brain could lead to stroke. Systemic hypertension would also be predicted. They hypothesized that this ability of the spike protein to promote pulmonary arterial hypertension could predispose patients who recover from SARS-CoV-2 to later develop right ventricular heart failure.
Furthermore, they suggested that a similar effect could happen in response to the mRNA vaccines, and they warned of potential long-term consequences to both children and adults who received COVID-19 vaccines based on the spike protein.
An interesting study by Lei et. al. (2021) found that pseudovirus — spheres decorated with the SARS-CoV-2 S1 protein but lacking any viral DNA in their core — caused inflammation and damage in both the arteries and lungs of mice exposed intratracheally.
They then exposed healthy human endothelial cells to the same pseudovirus particles. Binding of these particles to endothelial ACE2 receptors led to mitochondrial damage and fragmentation in those endothelial cells, leading to the characteristic pathological changes in the associated tissue.
This study makes it clear that spike protein alone, unassociated with the rest of the viral genome, is sufficient to cause the endothelial damage associated with COVID-19. The implications for vaccines intended to cause cells to manufacture the spike protein are clear and are an obvious cause for concern.

Commercial Vaccines Are Not as ‘Clean’ as Trial Vaccines

Seneff’s paper also highlights the unknown hazard of injecting fragmented RNA, found in greater quantity in the commercially manufactured Pfizer vaccine compared to the vaccine used in the initial trials:14

“The EMA Public Assessment Report … describes in detail a review of the [Pfizer] manufacturing process … One concerning revelation is the presence of ‘fragmented species’ of RNA in the injection solution. These are RNA fragments resulting from early termination of the process of transcription from the DNA template.
These fragments, if translated by the cell following injection, would generate incomplete spike proteins, again resulting in altered and unpredictable three-dimensional structure and a physiological impact that is at best neutral and at worst detrimental to cellular functioning.
There were considerably more of these fragmented forms of RNA found in the commercially manufactured products than in the products used in clinical trials. The latter were produced via a much more tightly controlled manufacturing process …
While we are not asserting that non-spike proteins generated from fragmented RNA would be misfolded or otherwise pathological, we believe they would at least contribute to the cellular stress that promotes prion-associated conformational changes in the spike protein that is present.”

More Information
Seneff and I cover a great deal more than I’ve covered in this article, including how the vaccines may trigger autoimmune problems by way of molecular mimicry. This includes things like celiac disease, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and lupus. So, if you have ANY interest in learning more about this vaccine I strongly suggest you watch the entire video.
We also discuss how the shots are causing idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a rare blood disorder in which you end up with blood clots, a drop in platelet count and hemorrhages, all at the same time.
Also, be sure to read through Seneff’s paper, “Worse Than The Disease: Reviewing Some Possible Unintended Consequences of mRNA Vaccines Against COVID-19,” published in the International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice and Research.15
How Can You Protect Yourself From the Vaccine or Exposure to Those That Were Vaccinated?

Indeed, that is the question of the day. We talked about shedding from the vaccine. Obviously, the vaccine does not classically shed virus particles but it can easily cause people to shed spike proteins, and it is these spike proteins that may cause just as much damage as the virus.
While Seneff’s paper didn’t delve deeply into solutions, it provides a major clue, which is that your body has the capacity to address many of these problems through a process called autophagy. This is the process of removal of damaged proteins in your body.
One effective strategy that will upregulate autophagy is periodic fasting or time-restricted eating. Most people eat more than 12 hours a day. Gradually lowering that to a six- to eight-hour window will radically improve your metabolic flexibility and decrease insulin resistance.
Another beneficial practice is sauna therapy, which upregulates heat shock proteins. I have discussed this extensively in previous articles. Heat shock proteins work by refolding proteins that are misfolded. They also tag damaged proteins and target them for removal.
Another vital strategy is to eliminate all processed vegetable oils (seed oils), which means eliminating virtually all processed foods as they are loaded with them. Seed oils will radically impair mitochondrial energy production, increase oxidative stress and damage your immune system. 
Seed oils also are likely to contain glyphosate, as it is heavily used on the crops that produce them. Obviously, it is important to avoid glyphosate contamination in all your food, which you can minimize by buying only certified organic foods.

Finally, you want to optimize your innate immune system and one of the best ways to do that is to get enough sun exposure, wearing in your bathing suit, to have your vitamin level reach 60 to 80 ng/ml (100 to 150 nmol/l).
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/05/23/stephanie-seneff-covid-vaccine.aspx

May 6, 2021, we received an email from Geoff Brumfiel, a senior editor and correspondent with NPR. According to NPR, “his reporting focuses on the intersection of science and national security,”1 but as soon as I read the subject line of the email — “The business of anti-vaccine propaganda” [sic] — it was clear that the line of questioning that would follow was not journalism but rather a PR piece for the pharmaceutical industry.

Indeed, Brumfiel’s email did not disappoint, nor did his resulting article, “For Some Anti-Vaccine Advocates, Misinformation Is Part of a Business.”2 True to form for NPR, the article presents a slanted view of vaccine safety advocates designed to disparage and discredit those who are speaking out against COVID propaganda.

Conveniently, Brumfiel included only one short segment from our emailed response to his questions, but neglected to mention NPR’s tight connections with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — and the hundreds of articles NPR has released that are highly favorable toward the Gates Foundation and the work it funds.3

Brumfiel’s Slanderous Allegations

Brumfiel included only a short segment of our email exchange in his NPR article, which was that I reject his “biased accusation of promoting misinformation.”4 This is true, but it helps to read it in context. The entire sentence was actually, “Dr. Mercola rejects your biased accusation of promoting misinformation, please provide your direct evidence to support your slanderous allegations.” Those allegations were made in Brumfiel’s email to us, which read:

“I’m a reporter with National Public Radio who’s working on a story about the business side of the antivaccine industry. The article describes how the current pandemic has provided an opportunity for people such as Dr. Mercola. By promoting misinformation about the coronavirus and vaccines, they are able to expand their reach and potentially their customer base.”

Yet, NPR’s smear piece shows what a real misinformation campaign looks like. A true journalist would not ask loaded questions with no relevance to his stated topic and no explanation as to how those questions might fit into his topic the way Brumfiel did. Those questions were:

“1. Can you provide me with any details about the size of Dr. Mercola’s businesses? And have they grown during the pandemic?

2. How does he respond to critics who say that he is using misinformation about vaccines to turn people away from conventional medicine and towards his brands and products?

3. Is he worried about being deplatformed by social media companies? Would that pose a financial challenge to him?”

Since Brumfiel did not include our response in his article, here it is for you to read in its entirety:

“Dr. Mercola owns a small business that employs 135 people in Cape Coral, Fl. The pharmaceutical industry and the propagandists that fund your organization with multi-millions are making tens of billions of dollars through this pandemic — with complete indemnification.5

NPR serves an important role in pushing the pharmaceutical agenda to promote mandatory vaccination with the help of Bill Gates’ funding. You are defending the world’s most powerful and corrupt industry, while attacking a small business that has been fighting against them and claiming concerns about the size and growth of Dr. Mercola’s business.

The pharmaceutical industry is the world’s most powerful industry, and Bill Gates is one of the world’s most powerful people.6,7,8 Standing up for what is right and defending free speech is more important than complying with any mass media campaign attacks or social media’s political agendas. Your line of questioning is not journalism, it’s just part of political bias and pharmaceutical propaganda.”

Gates Foundation Gave $17.5 Million to NPR

Mainstream media is increasingly being bought off by organizations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and as a result, the bought-and-paid-for press will only publish articles in their favor.

Writing in Columbia Journalism Review, Tim Schwab examined the recipients of nearly 20,000 Gates Foundation grants, finding more than $250 million had been given to major media companies, including BBC, NBC, Al Jazeera, ProPublica, National Journal, The Guardian and the Center for Investigative Reporting.9

Ironically, “The foundation even helped fund a 2016 report10 from the American Press Institute that was used to develop guidelines11 on how newsrooms can maintain editorial independence from philanthropic funders,” Schwab writes, adding, “Gates’s generosity appears to have helped foster an increasingly friendly media environment for the world’s most visible charity.”

And Gates’ donations come with strings attached. Those given to NPR were intended to target coverage of global health and education:12

“When Gates gives money to newsrooms, it restricts how the money is used — often for topics, like global health and education, on which the foundation works — which can help elevate its agenda in the news media.

For example, in 2015 Gates gave $383,000 to the Poynter Institute, a widely-cited authority on journalism ethics … earmarking the funds ‘to improve the accuracy in worldwide media of claims related to global health and development.’ Poynter senior vice president Kelly McBride said Gates’s money was passed on to media fact-checking sites …

Since 2000, the Gates Foundation has given NPR $17.5 million through 10 charitable grants — all of them earmarked for coverage of global health and education, specific issues on which Gates works …

Even when NPR publishes critical reporting on Gates, it can feel scripted. In February 2018, NPR ran a story headlined ‘Bill Gates Addresses ‘Tough Questions’ on Poverty and Power.’ The ‘tough questions’ NPR posed in this Q&A were mostly based on a list curated by Gates himself, which he previously answered in a letter posted to his foundation’s website.”

NPR’s Key Source Is a Digital Hate Group

Brumfiel’s primary reference for his NPR hit piece is none other than Imran Ahmed, who runs the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) — a progressive U.K.-based cancel-culture leader13 with extensive ties to government and global think tanks who has labeled people questioning the COVID-19 vaccine as “threats to national security.”

Ahmed has gone on record saying he considers anti-vaxxers “an extremist group that pose a national security risk,”14 and admits tracking and spying on 425 vaccine-related Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter accounts.15 CCDH is also partnered with HealthGuard, which is NewsGuard’s health-related service.16

NewsGuard, the self-ascribed arbiter of the trustworthiness of internet websites, is another threat to the free sharing of information. It claims to rate information as reliable or fake news, supplying you with a color-coded rating system next to Google and Bing searches, as well as on articles displayed on social media.

But NewsGuard is in itself fraught with conflicts of interest, as it’s largely funded by Publicis, a global communications giant that’s partnered with Big Pharma. NewsGuard previously classified Mercola.com as fake news because we reported the SARS-CoV-2 virus as potentially having been leaked from the biosafety level 4 (BSL4) laboratory in Wuhan City, China, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Since then, several members of the U.S. Congress have vowed to launch their own investigation to explore the lab accident theory.17

Publicis appears to be playing an important role in the global censorship of information relating to COVID-19, and Publicis Health admitted its involvement in this agenda in an April 2021 tweet, in which the they announced its partnership with NewsGuard, “to fight the ‘infodemic’ of misinformation about COVID-19 and its vaccines.”18

Publicis Health is dedicated to suppressing any information that hurts its Big Pharma clients, which include Lilly, Abbot, Roche, Amgen, Genentech, Celgene, Gilead, Biogen, AstraZeneca, Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline and Bayer, just to name a few. They’re now being sued by the Massachusetts attorney general for their role in creating Purdue’s deceptive marketing for OxyContin, which is described as the “crime of the century.”

NPR Spreads CCDH’s Hit List

The CCDH published a hit-list of 12 groups and individuals it wants Big Tech to bury, deplatform and ban for disseminating COVID-19 information that runs counter to status quo propaganda. NPR jumped right on the bandwagon in spreading this misinformation, with an article titled, “Just 12 People Are Behind Most Vaccine Hoaxes on Social Media, Research Shows.”19

Not surprisingly, Mercola.com is on that list, and a ramp-up of personal threats that cannot be defended against in a court of law recently forced me to delete many of the articles discussing alternative treatments for COVID-19 from my website. That article — ironically part of NPR’s special series on “untangling disinformation” — is in itself fraught with misinformation, most of it again being spread by one individual — Ahmed — and CCDH.

NPR praises Facebook for blatant censorship, with statements such as, “Facebook said it now limits the reach of posts that could discourage people from getting vaccinated, even if the messages don’t explicitly break its rules. But the cat-and-mouse game continues.”20 Then if you scroll to the bottom, you’ll see the editor’s note: “Facebook is among NPR’s financial supporters.”21

Media Is Getting Away With Blatant Lies

Digital dictatorship is escalating, and people are increasingly being conditioned to think it’s not only necessary for “misinformation” to be removed but that it’s the obligation of these essential information carriers to do so. Mercola.com is on the hit list and, as I already said, a ramp-up of personal threats that cannot be defended against in a court of law recently forced me to delete many of the articles discussing alternative treatments for COVID-19 from my website.

Censorship extremists have called this a victory, but it’s nothing of the sort. For instance, Coda Story published a false article May 7, 2021, claiming that “pressure from lawmakers and antidiscrimination groups” prompted me to remove COVID-19 content from Mercola.com, in order to “avoid social media ban.”22

The article quotes Ahmed (notice a pattern?) who states, “Joseph Mercola is a superspreader of anti-vaccine and COVID disinformation. The fact that he has said he will self-censor shows the impact of penalizing anti-vaccine propagandists.”23

I actually stopped maintaining an active Facebook page voluntarily in August 2019 due to the company’s habit of subverting users’ privacy. The idea that I am now self-censoring due to some form of unnamed penalty or to “avoid social media ban” is quite a stretch, and makes it clear that Ahmed did not read the article I published explaining my reasoning for removing select content.

It was also implied that I’m part of an “anti-science movement” — another lie that’s easily “fact-checked,” considering one of the driving forces behind Mercola.com is to share science-backed health information — including the science that not everyone wants you to hear.

It’s time to get the word out that if you want to see what a real misinformation campaign looks like, you need look no further than the mainstream media and social media, which are actively trying to restrict your access to the truth from websites like mine.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/05/26/npr-pharmaceutical-propaganda-disguised-as-journalism.aspx

Aside from being vital pollinators, bees produce a number of products that benefit human health. Honey1 is an obvious one, but there are others as well, such as royal jelly, a nutritious substance secreted by nurse bees as exclusive nourishment for the queen of the hive.
Recent research2,3,4,5 by Stanford University scientists found royalactin (also known as major royal jelly protein 1, or MRJP1), a protein found in royal jelly responsible for the queen’s massive growth, has the ability to keep embryonic stem cells pluripotent.
This initial finding could eventually lead to the development of drugs to boost stem cells in the human body, allowing for the regeneration of healthy tissue in damaged organs, be it your heart, eyes, skin or spinal cord.
They also identified a protein with similar qualities found in mammals, which they dubbed Regina — a nod to the queen bee for which royalactin is made — which like royalactin allows embryonic stem cells to maintain their naïve state. According to the authors:

“This reveals an important innate program for stem cell self-renewal with broad implications in understanding the molecular regulation of stem cell fate across species.”

Researchers Discover Innate Program for Stem Cell Self-Renewal

Embryonic stem cells are the product of the initial meeting of egg and sperm. Three days after fertilization of the egg, an inner cell mass can be isolated, and these are the embryonic stem cells that, if left alone, will grow into a fetus.
Stem cells are pluripotential, meaning that they have the ability to turn into any and every type of tissue to form an entire being, be it animal or human. Adult stem cells, in contrast, are multipotential, meaning they only have the ability to form subsets of tissue.
The problem researchers have is that embryonic stem cells have a tendency to differentiate into mature tissue cells of various kinds when grown in the lab, and in order to use the stem cells for research and/or therapies, they must be kept in their “naïve” state long enough. As explained by New Atlas:6

“With the ability to differentiate into all kinds of cells that serve specialized functions, like muscle cells, red blood cells or brain cells, embryonic stem cells have incredible potential. But growing them in the laboratory is difficult, because their natural inclination is to quickly outgrow their pluripotent state and become something else.

To preserve that pluripotency, scientists must add special molecules to the culture that inhibit that behavior. Wang and his team found that by adding royalactin instead, they could stop the embryonic stem cells from differentiating just as well.

In fact, they found that they were able to maintain the cells in their embryonic state for up to 20 generations in culture without the need for inhibitors.”

This was a complete surprise. Normally, scientists must use leukemia inhibitor factor to prevent the embryonic stem cells from differentiating when grown in culture. What they discovered is that royalactin performed the same function. The question is: How?
Royalactin-Like Protein in Mammals Inhibit Embryonic Stem Cell Differentiation

Mammals do not produce the royalactin protein, yet the royalactin activated a network of genes known to code proteins that allow the embryonic stem cells to maintain their pluripotency. To find the answer, the researchers searched scientific databases to identify human proteins with structures similar to that of royalactin.
What they found was a protein known as NHL repeat-containing-3 protein or NHLRC3, produced during the development of the mammalian (including human) embryo. They then duplicated the mouse experiment using NHLRC3, which was found to trigger a similar gene network as royalactin.
The end result was the same — the embryonic stem cells maintained their pluripotency in culture. Kevin Wang, assistant professor of dermatology and lead author of the study, commented on the results, saying:7

“It’s fascinating. Our experiments imply Regina is an important molecule governing pluripotency and the production of progenitor cells that give rise to the tissues of the embryo. We’ve connected something mythical to something real.”

Next, Wang and his team will investigate whether Regina — the mammalian equivalent of royalactin — has the ability to affect cell regeneration and wound healing in adult animals. And, as reported by New Atlas:8

“It could be used as another way to keep embryonic stem cells pluripotent in the lab, and could one day lead to the development of synthetic versions that deliver stocks of stem cells in the human body.

[T]hose kinds of drugs could be used for all kinds of things, from generating healthy tissue for damaged hearts, degenerating eyes, injured spinal cords and severe burns.”

What Is Royal Jelly and How Is It Made?

Royal jelly is a gelatinous, milky substance secreted by the hypopharyngeal and mandibular glands of worker honeybees between the sixth and twelfth days of their life,9 and is an essential food for the development of the queen bee. It’s a complex substance containing proteins (12 to 15 percent), sugars (10 to 12 percent), fat lipids (3 to 7 percent), along with a variety of amino acids, vitamins and minerals.10
Compared with the short-lived and infertile worker bees, the queen bee, which is exclusively fed royal jelly, is characterized by her extended lifespan and her well-developed gonads. Therefore, royal jelly has been long-used as a supplement for nutrition, antiaging or infertility.
The larva selected to become queen is fed royal jelly exclusively, while the rest of the larva receive royal jelly along with pollen and honey. Research11,12 reveals this exclusive royal jelly diet activates certain genes in the queen bee, allowing her to grow much larger and become such a prolific egg layer. The honey and beebread fed to worker bee larvae contains p-coumaric acid, and it’s the presence or absence of p-coumaric acid that determines the caste of the bee.
Larvae fed royal jelly to which p-coumaric acid had been added produced adults with reduced ovary development. “Thus, consuming royal jelly exclusively not only enriches the diet of the queen-destined larvae, but also may protect them from inhibitory effects of phytochemicals present in the honey and beebread fed to worker-destined larvae,” the researchers explain.13
Health Benefits of Royal Jelly

Folklore in Europe and Asia has it that royal jelly is a powerful rejuvenator capable of boosting longevity and fertility. It’s also been used to promote hair growth and minimize wrinkles. In Chinese medicine, royal jelly is revered as a substance that helps increase life expectancy, prevent disease and restore youth.
The fact that the protein Regina in mammals and humans appears to work like royalactin in royal jelly could possibly account for some of these benefits. Royal jelly also has antimicrobial benefits, courtesy of bee defensin-1, an antimicrobial peptide found in it. Because of components such as these, it’s fair to assume that royal jelly is in fact beneficial for humans.
That said, the idea that consuming royal jelly might somehow affect your stem cells is probably taking things too far. There’s no evidence of that — only that royalactin allows mammalian embryonic stem cells in an undifferentiated state in a lab environment.
Also keep in mind that it’s difficult to ensure potency and quality of royal jelly products on the market. Toxicology tests suggest most if not all honeys, for example, are tainted with the herbicide glyphosate, and the bee population has taken a hit around the world due to various pesticide exposures. If the bees have toxins in them, it’s feasible their royal jelly might be contaminated as well.
Still, the research was conducted by a very prestigious institution and published in a respectable journal, and they seem to believe there are possibilities here. Just realize that the focus is on Regina, the mammalian protein equivalent of royalactin, and not on royal jelly itself.
Health Benefits of Bee Propolis

Propolis is yet another bee product with health benefits, including immune-boosting properties and strengthening your body’s defenses against bacteria, viruses and other disease-causing organisms.
Propolis is used by bees to close openings in their beehives, which is why it is also referred to as “bee glue.” The materials are usually taken from leaves, bark, flower buds and other plant parts. These are then combined with bee saliva, wax and pollen, which are then adhered to the hive holes.
Studies suggest propolis also protects the bees from bacterial infections and possible external elements that may endanger the whole colony. In some cases, propolis may also be used to encase the carcasses of hive intruders to stop bacteria from spreading.14
Propolis has been used for years in folk medicine because of its proposed effect on various body systems, dating back to the time of the ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians.
In fact, Hippocrates notes that propolis is beneficial for promoting wound healing, both internal and external, while Pliny the Elder documents that propolis may be used to treat tumors, muscle pain and ulcers. This bee product was also documented in the Persian manuscripts as a remedy for various conditions, including eczema and rheumatism.15
Today, propolis is used in a wide variety of skin care products, including creams and extracts to promote wound healing and ease various types of infections. It is also available as a supplement, with people taking it on a regular basis to boost their immune system function.16
Another Bee Product, Propolis Has Flavonol With Health Benefits

Research also suggests a flavanol in propolis called galangin has anticancer effects on several cancers, including melanoma, hepatoma, leukemia and colon cancer.
In one such study,17 galangin was found to induce apoptosis (programmed cell death) in two types of colon cancer cells (HCT-15 and HT-29 specifically), and that the effect killed the cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner. According to the authors:

“We also determined that galangin increased the activation of caspase-3 and -9, and release of apoptosis inducing factor from the mitochondria into the cytoplasm by Western blot analysis.

In addition, galangin induced human colon cancer cell death through the alteration of mitochondria membrane potential and dysfunction. These results suggest that galangin induces apoptosis of HCT-15 and HT-29 human colon cancer cells and may prove useful in the development of therapeutic agents for human colon cancer.”

Galangin has also been shown to inhibit inflammation by regulating the nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-?B), PI3K/Akt and peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-? (PPAR ?) signaling in activated microglia in the brain and thus should improve or prevent Alzheimer’s.18 Additionally, galangin reduces insulin resistance by increasing the activity of hexokinase and pyruvate kinase, promoting glucose consumption and glycogen synthesis.19
Royal Jelly May Be Beneficial for Health, But Don’t Expect Miracles

In summary, while royal jelly has a number of health benefits, it’s premature to assume it can affect your stem cells directly. A number of studies done on royal jelly have focused on its potential effects on cancer, fertility and its role in testosterone production.
In one study,20 infertile men were given different dosages of royal jelly and honey to increase the production of testosterone. After three months, those given royal jelly had higher testosterone levels, improved sperm active motility and luteinizing hormone levels, thus showing the potential impact royal jelly can have on infertility in men.
In another study,21 royal jelly was found to reduce symptoms of mucositis in patients suffering from neck and head cancer. Mucositis refers to the inflammation of the digestive tract brought on by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Patients who were given royal jelly thrice a day showed a decreased occurrence of mucositis.
A recent study22 published in an obscure Chinese journal also suggests royal jelly has an antisenescence effect on human lung fibroblasts in cell cultures. Other studies have found royal jelly supplementation can improve menopausal symptoms23 and Type 2 diabetes outcomes.24,25
How to Identify a Quality Product
So, provided you can find a high-quality product (which can be expensive), it could be a valuable supplement in some instances. In terms of what to look for when shopping for a royal jelly product, here are a few pointers:

Fresh royal jelly is ideal if you can find it, but lyophilized royal jelly is also a good and more convenient option

To assess quality, look for 10-hydroxydecanoic acid (10-HDA) content. Most companies that care about quality will test their royal jelly for this. For fresh royal jelly the typical range is ~1.5 to 2.3 percent. For lyophilized royal jelly, it is ~4.5 to 6.6 percent

Look for organic royal jelly as it is less likely to contain antibiotics or be adulterated

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2018/12/17/royal-jelly-benefits.aspx

The older you get, the more important your muscle mass becomes. Not only are strong muscles a requirement for mobility, balance and the ability to live independently, but having reserve muscle mass will also increase your chances of survival1 when sick or hospitalized.

Muscle is lost far more easily and quicker than it’s built, so finding ways to continuously promote and maintain your muscle mass is really crucial, especially as you get older.
Age-related loss of muscle mass is known as sarcopenia, and if you don’t do anything to stop it you can expect to lose about 15% of your muscle mass between your 30s and your 80s.2 An estimated 10% to 25% of seniors under the age of 70 have sarcopenia and as many as half those over the age of 80 are impaired with it.3

In the lecture above, Brendan Egan, Ph.D., associate professor of sport and exercise physiology at the School of Health and Human Performance and the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology at Dublin City University in Ireland, reviews the latest research on exercise training for aging adults, which places a significant focus on building and maintaining muscle, and the nutritional components that can help optimize training results.
Muscle Strength and Function in Relation to Muscle Size
While it’s true that larger muscle is indicative of stronger, more functional muscle, it’s not a true 1-to-1 relationship. As noted by Egan, “you can have situations where you can gain back function without necessarily gaining muscle size.” To illustrate this point, Egan presents data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, which looked at leg strength and lean muscle mass.

While declines in muscle mass and strength are relatively well-synchronized in the 35- to 40-year-old group, strength dramatically drops off as you get into the 75-year-old and over groups, with 85-year-olds seeing dramatic declines in strength and function relative to the decline in muscles size.
Speed as a Measure of Functional Muscle Capacity
One way to measure functional capacity in older adults is gait (walking) speed, which is a strong predictor of life expectancy. Data suggest that if you have a walking speed of 1.6 meters (about 5.2 feet) per second (approximately 3.5 mph) at the age of 65, your life expectancy is another 32 years, meaning you may live into your late 90s.

Having a walking speed at or below the cutoff for sarcopenia, which is 0.8 meters (about 2.6 feet) per second, your life expectancy would be another 15 years, which means you’d be predicted to live to 80. At this speed, you would not be able to make it safely across a typical pedestrian crossing before the light changes to red.
Strength as a Predictor of Survival
Strength can also tell us a lot about an individual’s chances of survival. Egan presents data from a study in which people’s chest and leg press strength were measured to arrive at a composite score of whole body strength. The pattern is quite revealing, showing the strongest one-third of the population over 60 had a 50% lower death rate than the weakest.

Exercise guidelines recommend getting 150 minutes of aerobics exercise and two strength training sessions per week. As noted by Egan, you need both. It’s not just one or the other.

Research shows aerobic exercise in isolation reduces your all-cause mortality by 16% and strength training-only reduces it by 21%, whereas if you do both, you reduce your all-cause mortality by 29%.4 Disturbingly, U.K. data suggest only 36.2% of adults over the age of 30 meet aerobic guidelines, and a minuscule 3.4% meet strength training guidelines.

Part of the problem may be that many don’t want to go to the gym. But there’s little difference between doing gym-based strength training and doing bodyweight resistance training at home.
The Danger of Bedrest and Disuse Atrophy
As noted by Egan, enforced bedrest, such as acute hospitalization, can have a dramatic impact on your muscle mass. For example, a 2015 review5 in Extreme Physiology & Medicine notes you can lose 2.5% of your muscle mass in the first two weeks of bedrest. By Day 23, you can have lost up to 10% of your quadriceps muscle mass. As explained in this review:6

“Skeletal muscle mass is regulated by a balance between MPS [muscle protein synthesis] and MPB [muscle protein breakdown]. In a 70-kg human, approximately 280 g of protein is synthesized and degraded each day.
The two processes are linked … as facilitative or adaptive processes, whereby MPS facilitates (allows modulation of muscle mass) and MPB adapts (limiting said modulation).
When exposed to an anabolic stimulus, MPS rises. MPB rises too, but to a lesser amount, resulting in a net synthetic balance. In response to an anti-anabolic stimulus, MPS decreases and MPB decreases to a lesser degree, resulting in a net breakdown.
The interaction between critical illness and bed rest may result in greater muscle loss compared to bed rest alone. The musculoskeletal system is a highly plastic and adaptive system, responding quickly to changing demands. Relatively short periods of immobilization decrease MPS, with no effect on MPB.
Furthermore, this altered balance is relatively resistant to high dose amino acid delivery … Immobilization has significant effects on peripheral muscle aerobic capacity, contractility, insulin resistance and architecture.
Microvascular dysfunction occurring in severe sepsis is associated with immobilization and may have an additive effect on reducing MPS. In critically ill patients, MPS is reduced even with nutritional delivery, with increased MPB seen, leading to a net catabolic state and thus muscle wasting.”

Research7 has shown even healthy young subjects in their 20s can lose 3.1 pounds of muscle mass in a single week of bedrest. This is why it is so important to have a reserve in case you wind up in the hospital and lose this much muscle mass. It may take you the better part of a year to regain that muscle, as gaining muscle mass is hard work and many elderly fail to do so.
The loss of muscle mass also significantly decreases your insulin sensitivity. One of the reasons for this has to do with the fact that muscle tissue is a significant reservoir for the disposal of glucose. Your muscle tissue also produces cytokines and anti-inflammatory myokines that play an important role in health.
Concurrent Exercise Training

While three to five sessions of aerobic exercise and two or more strength sessions per week may sound like a lot, for many, the lack of time is a restricting factor. However, some of these sessions can be done together. “That’s called concurrent exercise training,” Egan says.
He goes on to cite research looking at time matched concurrent exercise in the elderly, 65 and older, where an aerobic training group and a strength training group were compared to a group that spent half of their session doing aerobic exercise and the other half doing resistance training. All groups spent the same overall time exercising (30 minutes, three times a week for 12 weeks).
In terms of leg strength, the concurrent training group had better responses to training than aerobic or strength training alone. There was little difference in lean body mass, meaning they didn’t necessarily bulk up, but they had a 50% increase in strength nonetheless. They also lost more body fat around the trunk area. In short, concurrent training appears to give you more bang for your buck.
Blood Flow Restriction Training

One of the reasons I’m so passionate about blood flow restriction (BFR) training is because it has the ability to prevent and widely treat sarcopenia like no other type of training.
There are several reasons why BFR is far superior to conventional types of resistance training in the elderly. Importantly, it allows you to use very light weights, which makes it suitable for the elderly and those who are already frail or recovering from an injury. And, since you’re using very light weights, you don’t damage the muscle and therefore don’t need to recover as long.

While most elderly cannot engage in high-intensity exercise or heavy weightlifting, even extraordinarily fit individuals in their 60s, 70s and 80s who can do conventional training will be limited in terms of the benefits they can achieve, thanks to decreased microcirculation. This is because your microcirculation tends to decrease with age.
With age, your capillary growth diminishes, and capillary blood flow is essential to supply blood to your muscle stem cells, specifically the fast twitch Type II muscle fiber stem cells. If they don’t have enough blood flow — even though they’re getting the signal from the conventional strength training — they’re not going to grow and you’re not going to get muscle hypertrophy and strength.
BFR, because of the local hypoxia that is created, stimulates hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF1a) and, secondarily, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which acts as “fertilizer” for your blood vessels. VEGF allows your stem cells to function the way they were designed to when they were younger.
What’s more, the hypoxia also triggers vascular endothelial growth factor, which enhances the capillarization of the muscle and likely the veins in the arteries as well. Building muscle and improving blood vessel function are related, which is why BFR offers such powerful stimulus for reversing sarcopenia.
In short, BFR has a systemic or crossover training effect. While you’re only restricting blood flow to your extremities, once you release the bands, the metabolic variables created by the hypoxia flow into your blood — lactate and VEGF being two of them — thereby spreading this “metabolic magic” throughout your entire system. To learn more, please see my special report, “What You Need to Know About BFR,” and “BFR Training for Muscle Mass Maintenance.”
Nutrition for Muscle Maintenance

It should come as no surprise that there is an important synergy between nutrition and exercise. When it comes to muscle building and maintenance, amino acids, the building blocks of protein, are of particular importance.
In the podcast above, Megan Hall, scientific director at Nourish Balance Thrive delves into this topic at greater depth and reviews the current recommended daily allowances of protein compared to the optimal levels needed to support muscle mass and strength in at various life stages.8
Research9 looking at post-prandial protein handling and amino acid absorption shows 55.3% of the dietary protein of a given meal is in circulation within five hours after eating, which significantly increases muscle protein synthesis.
Research10 suggests healthy young adult men “max out the protein synthesis signal from a given meal” at a dose of 0.24 grams of protein per kilogram of total bodyweight, or 0.25 grams of protein per kilogram of lean body mass.
The current U.S.-Canadian recommended dietary protein allowance is 0.8 g/kg/d (0,36/grams/pound/day), but healthy older adults may actually require about 1.20 g/kg/d or .55 grams/pound/day. According to this study:11

“Our data suggest that healthy older men are less sensitive to low protein intakes and require a greater relative protein intake, in a single meal, than young men to maximally stimulate postprandial rates of MPS [myofibrillar protein synthesis].
These results should be considered when developing nutritional solutions to maximize MPS for the maintenance or enhancement of muscle mass with advancing age.”

Amino acids also act as signaling molecules that trigger muscle growth. Leucine is a particularly potent signaling agent, although all of the amino acids are required to actually build the muscle. The richest source of leucine (which helps regulate the turnover of protein in your muscle), by far, is whey protein. In fact, it can be difficult to obtain sufficient amounts of leucine from other sources.

The typical requirement for leucine to maintain body protein is 1 to 3 grams daily. However, to optimize its anabolic pathway, research shows12 you need somewhere between 8 and 16 grams of leucine per day, in divided doses.13,14

To reach the 8-gram minimum, you’d have to eat nearly 15 eggs.15 Whey, on the other hand, contains about 10% leucine (10 grams of leucine per 100 grams of protein).16 So, 80 grams of whey protein will give you 8 grams of leucine.
Time-Restricted Eating Adds Benefits
One of the problems with Egan is that he’s not very literate on time-restricted eating. During the question and answer portion, an audience member asks him about it and he admits he hasn’t studied it.
This is important because restricting your eating window to six to eight hours, which means you’re fasting 14 to 18 hours each day, would make it far easier for each of the meals to be over the leucine threshold. It will also activate autophagy, which is another factor essential for optimal muscle growth.
Autophagy is a self-cleaning process in which your body digests damaged cells, which in turn encourages the proliferation of new, healthy cells. The harder your workout, the more autophagy you will activate.
So, I recommend fasting for as long as you can before your morning workout, and then, shortly thereafter, have your largest meal of the day with plenty of high-quality protein, making sure you get several grams of leucine and arginine, both of which are potent mTOR stimulators.
The mTOR pathway is an important key for protein synthesis and muscle building. As explained in David Sabatini’s excellent review paper “mTOR at the Nexus of Nutrition, Growth, Ageing and Disease,” published in Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology:17

“Over the past two and a half decades, mapping of the mTOR signaling landscape has revealed that mTOR controls biomass accumulation and metabolism by modulating key cellular processes, including protein synthesis and autophagy.
Given the pathway’s central role in maintaining cellular and physiological homeostasis, dysregulation of mTOR signaling has been implicated in metabolic disorders, neurodegeneration, cancer and ageing.”

In summary, fasting activates autophagy, allowing your body to clean out damaged subcellular parts. Exercising while fasted maximizes autophagy even further. In fact, exercising while you are fasting for more than 14 to 18 hours likely activates as much autophagy as if you were fasting for two to three days. It does this by increasing AMPK, increasing NAD+ and inhibiting mTOR.

Refeeding with protein after your fasted workout then activates mTOR, thus shutting down autophagy and starting the rebuilding process. These two processes need to be cyclically activated to optimize your health and avoid problems.
Muscle Health Is Central to an Active Lifestyle

As noted by Egan, “Hopefully I’ve convinced you that muscle health is central to active lifestyles. There’s been this increased awareness of muscle size, but I think we need to emphasize the idea about strength and function. These are the things that are easiest to change with the right type of training.”
In short, if you want to increase muscle size and strength, then there’s no getting around resistance training. It simply must be part of your exercise prescription, and concurrent training, where you’re combining aerobic and strength training in a given session is a time-efficient model.
BFR is also a particularly excellent way to ensure you’re getting effective strength training without the risks of conventional strength training using heavy weights, and is easy to combine with exercises such as walking and swimming. You simply wear the BFR bands while walking or exercising as normal.

Defy Aging by Improving Your Muscle Mass
In my February 2020 interview with Ben Greenfield, author of “Boundless: Upgrade Your Brain, Optimize Your Body & Defy Aging,” we discuss the importance of strength training and getting the appropriate amount of protein to build and maintain your muscle mass and optimize mitochondrial density and biogenesis.
In summary, Greenfield recommends a fitness program that includes the following types of exercise in order to target the main pathways involved in health and aging:

• High-intensity interval training once a week to boost mitochondrial density and biogenesis — Brief spurts of exercise followed by longer rest periods. Greenfield recommends a 3-to-1 or 4-to-1 rest-to-work ratio.

• Muscle endurance training two to three times a week to improve lactic acid tolerance — An example is the classic Tabata set, which has a 2-to-1 work-to-rest ratio.

• Longer training sessions twice a week to improve your VO2 max — To target and improve your VO2 max, you’ll want your training sessions to be longer, about four to six minutes in duration with four to six minutes of recovery in between, for a 1-to-1 work-to-rest ratio.

Examples include The New York Times’ seven-minute workout18 and bodyweight training done in a fast explosive manner or with a very light medicine ball, sandbag or kettle bells.

• Long walk once a week to improve your stamina — Greenfield recommends taking a 1.5- to three-hourlong walk, bike ride or paddle session — anything where your body is engaged in chronic repetitive motion for a long period of time — preferably in a fasted state. Alternatively, do 20 to 30 minutes of fasted cardio followed by a cold shower.

• Super-slow weight training once or twice a week to improve muscle strength — Alternatives include elastic band training systems and blood flow restriction (BFR) training. You can also combine BFR with super-slow training.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/03/14/skeletal-muscle-aging.aspx

I’ve previously discussed the synergy between magnesium and vitamin D, and the importance of vitamin D for optimal immune function and overall health — especially as it pertains to lowering your risk of COVID-19. Previous studies have also highlighted the role this duo plays in cognitive function among older adults, as well as overall mortality.
Vitamin D and Magnesium Protect Cognitive Health
One such study,1 “Association of Vitamin D and Magnesium Status with Cognitive Function in Older Adults: Results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011 to 2014,” points out that vitamin D not only protects neuronal structures and plays a role in neuronal calcium regulation, but also appears to impact your risk for neurodegeneration as you grow older.
Magnesium, meanwhile, aside from being required for converting vitamin D to its active form,2,3,4 also plays a role in cognitive health, and magnesium deficiency has been implicated in several neurological disorders.
Higher serum 25(OH)D levels were associated with reduced risk of low cognitive function in older adults, and this association appeared to be modified by the intake level of magnesium.
Using NHANES data from 2,984 participants over the age of 60, the researchers compared serum vitamin D status and dietary magnesium intake against cognitive function scores.
After adjusting for confounding factors, including total calorie consumption and magnesium intake, higher blood levels of vitamin D positively correlated with decreased odds of having a low cognitive function score on the Digit Symbol Substitution Test.
The same trend was found when they looked at vitamin D intake, rather than blood level. The correlation of higher vitamin D levels and better cognitive function was particularly strong among those whose magnesium intake was equal to or greater than 375 mg per day. According to the authors:5

“We found that higher serum 25(OH)D levels were associated with reduced risk of low cognitive function in older adults, and this association appeared to be modified by the intake level of magnesium.”

Magnesium Improves Brain Plasticity

While magnesium intake by itself did not appear to have an impact on cognitive function in the study above, other research has highlighted its role in healthy cognition.
Memory impairment occurs when the connections (synapses) between brain cells diminish. While many factors can come into play, magnesium is an important one. As noted by Dr. David Perlmutter, a neurologist and fellow of the American College of Nutrition:6

“It has now been discovered that magnesium is a critical player in the activation of nerve channels that are involved in synaptic plasticity. That means that magnesium is critical for the physiological events that are fundamental to the processes of learning and memory.”

A specific form of magnesium called magnesium threonate was in 2010 found to enhance “learning abilities, working memory, and short- and long-term memory in rats.”7 According to the authors, “Our findings suggest that an increase in brain magnesium enhances both short-term synaptic facilitation and long-term potentiation and improves learning and memory functions.”
COVID-19 Can Deprive Brain of Oxygen

While we’re on the topic of the brain, a July 1, 2020, article8 in The Washington Post reviewed findings from autopsies of COVID-19 patients. Surprisingly, Chinese researchers have reported9 that COVID-19 patients can exhibit a range of neurological manifestations.
A June 12, 2020, letter to the editor10 published in The New England Journal of Medicine also discusses the neuropathological features of COVID-19. As reported by The Washington Post:11

“Patients have reported a host of neurological impairments, including reduced ability to smell or taste, altered mental status, stroke, seizures — even delirium … In June, researchers in France reported that 84% of patients in intensive care had neurological problems, and a third were confused or disoriented at discharge.
… Also this month, those in the United Kingdom found that 57 of 125 coronavirus patients with a new neurological or psychiatric diagnosis had experienced a stroke due to a blood clot in the brain, and 39 had an altered mental state.
Based on such data and anecdotal reports, Isaac Solomon, a neuropathologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, set out to systematically investigate where the virus might be embedding itself in the brain.
He conducted autopsies of 18 consecutive deaths, taking slices of key areas: the cerebral cortex (the gray matter responsible for information processing), thalamus (modulates sensory inputs), basal ganglia (responsible for motor control) and others …”

Interestingly, while doctors and researchers initially suspected that brain inflammation was causing the neurological problems seen in some patients, Solomon’s autopsies found very little inflammation. Instead, these neurological manifestations appear to be the result of brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation.
Signs of oxygen deprivation were present both in patients who had spent a significant amount of time in intensive care, and those who died suddenly after a short but severe bout of illness. I believe this is likely due to increases in clotting in the brain microvasculature.
Solomon told The Washington Post he was “very surprised,” by the finding. It makes sense, though, considering COVID-19 patients have been found to be starved for oxygen. As reported by The Washington Post:12

“When the brain does not get enough oxygen, individual neurons die … To a certain extent, people’s brains can compensate, but at some point, the damage is so extensive that different functions start to degrade … The findings underscore the importance of getting people on supplementary oxygen quickly to prevent irreversible damage.”

Magnesium and Vitamin D Impact Mortality
Getting back to magnesium and vitamin D, previous research13 using NHANES data from 2001 through 2006 found the duo has a positive impact on overall mortality rates. This study also pointed out that magnesium “substantially reversed the resistance to vitamin D treatment in patients with magnesium-dependent vitamin-D-resistant rickets.”
The researchers hypothesized that magnesium supplementation increases your vitamin D level by activating more of it, and that your mortality risk might therefore be lowered by increasing magnesium intake. That is indeed what they found. According to the authors:

“High intake of total, dietary or supplemental magnesium was independently associated with significantly reduced risks of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency respectively. Intake of magnesium significantly interacted with intake of vitamin D in relation to risk of both vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency.
Additionally, the inverse association between total magnesium intake and vitamin D insufficiency primarily appeared among populations at high risk of vitamin insufficiency.
Furthermore, the associations of serum 25(OH)D with mortality, particularly due to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and colorectal cancer, were modified by magnesium intake, and the inverse associations were primarily present among those with magnesium intake above the median.
Our preliminary findings indicate it is possible that magnesium intake alone or its interaction with vitamin D intake may contribute to vitamin D status. The associations between serum 25(OH)D and risk of mortality may be modified by the intake level of magnesium.”

Magnesium Lowers Vitamin D Requirement by 146%
According to a scientific review14,15 published in 2018, as many as 50% of Americans taking vitamin D supplements may not get significant benefit as the vitamin D simply gets stored in its inactive form, and the reason for this is because they have insufficient magnesium levels.

Research published in 2013 also highlighted this issue, concluding that higher magnesium intake helps reduce your risk of vitamin D deficiency by activating more of it. As noted by the authors:16

“High intake of total, dietary or supplemental magnesium was independently associated with significantly reduced risks of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency respectively.
Intake of magnesium significantly interacted with intake of vitamin D in relation to risk of both vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency … Our preliminary findings indicate it is possible that magnesium intake alone or its interaction with vitamin D intake may contribute to vitamin D status.”

More recently, GrassrootsHealth concluded17 you need 146% more vitamin D to achieve a blood level of 40 ng/ml (100 nmol/L) if you do not take supplemental magnesium, compared to taking your vitamin D with at least 400 mg of magnesium per day.

The interplay between magnesium and vitamin D isn’t a one-way street, though. It goes both ways. Interestingly, while vitamin D improves magnesium absorption,18 taking large doses of vitamin D can also deplete magnesium.19 Again, the reason for that is because magnesium is required in the conversion of vitamin D into its active form.
Magnesium + Vitamin K Lowers Vitamin D Requirement Even More
Magnesium isn’t the only nutrient that can have a significant impact on your vitamin D status. GrassrootsHealth data further reveal you can lower your oral vitamin D requirement by a whopping 244% simply by adding magnesium and vitamin K2. As reported by GrassrootsHealth:20

“… 244% more supplemental vitamin D was needed for 50% of the population to achieve 40 ng/ml (100 nmol/L) for those not taking supplemental magnesium or vitamin K2 compared to those who usually took both supplemental magnesium and vitamin K2.”

How to Boost Your Magnesium Level
The recommended daily allowance for magnesium is around 310 mg to 420 mg per day depending on your age and sex,21 but many experts believe you may need anywhere from 600 mg to 900 mg per day.22

Personally, I believe many may benefit from amounts as high as 1 to 2 grams (1,000 to 2,000 mg) of elemental magnesium per day, as most of us have EMF exposures that simply cannot be mitigated, and the extra magnesium may help lower the damage from that exposure.

My personal recommendation is that unless you have kidney disease and are on dialysis, continually increase your magnesium dose until you have loose stools and then cut it back. You want the highest dose you can tolerate and still have normal bowel movements.

When it comes to oral supplementation, my personal preference is magnesium threonate, as it appears to be the most efficient at penetrating cell membranes, including your mitochondria and blood-brain barrier. But I am also fond of magnesium malate, magnesium citrate, and ionic magnesium from molecular hydrogen as each tablet has 80 mg of elemental magnesium.
Eat More Magnesium-Rich Foods
Last but not least, while you may still need magnesium supplementation (due to denatured soils), it would certainly be wise to try to get as much magnesium from your diet as possible. Dark-green leafy vegetables lead the pack when it comes to magnesium content, and juicing your greens is an excellent way to boost your intake. Foods with high magnesium levels include:23

Avocados
Swiss chard

Turnip greens

Beet greens

Herbs and spices such as coriander, chives, cumin seed, parsley, mustard seeds, fennel, basil and cloves

Broccoli

Brussel sprouts
Organic, raw grass fed yogurt and natto

Bok Choy
Romaine lettuce

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/07/16/magnesium-cognitive-function.aspx

Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin that can be found in some foods. The body uses it for certain functions, such as those required for bone metabolism, blood clotting and a variety of other cellular functions.1
Your body has a limited ability to store vitamin K, so it must be absorbed from your food or a supplement on a daily basis. It’s also recycled within your system, optimizing its benefits.2 Several different medications, such as antibiotics, weight loss drugs, cholesterol medications and the blood thinner warfarin, may interfere with its absorption, and therefore affect blood clotting.
Vitamin K is distributed throughout the body, including in your brain, heart, bones and liver.3 Since it’s broken down and excreted quickly it rarely reaches toxic levels in a way that happens with other fat-soluble vitamins.
Since the vitamin is crucial to several bodily functions, it’s not surprising to learn that if you don’t get enough every day, on a daily basis, you could be at risk for an earlier death.
Vitamin K Lowers Risk of Death in Older Adults

Recently, a paper was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by a team that investigated the vitamin K-dependent proteins that may affect atherosclerosis, which is the stiffness and calcification of the arterial vessels.4
The aim of the investigation was to determine if there was an association between circulating vitamin K, cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. The study was carried out at Tufts University and led by Kyla Shea, who commented:5

“The possibility that vitamin K is linked to heart disease and mortality is based on our knowledge about proteins in vascular tissue that require vitamin K to function. These proteins help prevent calcium from building up in artery walls, and without enough vitamin K, they are less functional.”

The researchers gathered data from three science databases, including the Framingham Offspring Study. The participants had circulating vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) measured, and each person either had some type of heart event or they died. There were 3,891 men and women with 858 heart events and 1,209 deaths over 13 years.
Interestingly, although vitamin K is associated with vascular health, the data did not show an association between low vitamin K and cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, there was a link between low levels and all-cause mortality. They found a 19% increased risk of all-cause mortality in those with the lowest serum levels of vitamin K.6
Since the study was observational, the scientists could not establish a causal link, yet the data fit with what we know about the function of vitamin K in the body. One-third of the participants in the study were not white, which allowed the researchers to theorize that the association is multi-ethnic.7 Dr. Daniel Weiner, nephrologist from Tufts Medical center, explained the association between stiff arteries and CVD:8

“Similar to when a rubber band dries out and loses its elasticity, when veins and arteries are calcified, blood pumps less efficiently, causing a variety of complications. That is why measuring risk of death, in a study such as this, may better capture the spectrum of events associated with worsening vascular health.”

Vitamin K: The Basics

There are two basic types of vitamin K.9 Vitamin K1 is found in green leafy vegetables and works through the liver to help maintain a healthy clotting system. This is the type researchers measured in the study. Vitamin K1 also helps reduce calcification in the blood vessels and assists your bones in retaining calcium.
Vitamin K2 (menaquinone) is produced by bacteria in your gut and can be found in some animal products and fermented foods, particularly cheese and natto. This is the one that helps activate vitamin D and move calcium out of the arterial system and into your bones and teeth.10
There are also several different forms of vitamin K2. They are named for the length of the chemical chain, beginning with the letter M for menaquinone. The two most important types are found in animal products and fermented foods. Most Western diets are deficient in both forms of vitamin K2.11
In one study, researchers sought to compare the effectiveness of giving supplements of these two types, MK-4 and MK-7, to healthy women. They “demonstrated that a nutritional dose of MK-7 is well absorbed in humans, and significantly increases serum MK-7 levels, whereas MK-4 had no effect on serum MK-4 levels.”12
More Benefits of Vitamin K

Vitamin K is integral to the body’s ability to coagulate, or clot, blood. These clotting factors are involved in a cascade of events that stop bleeding and are produced in the liver. Therefore, individuals with severe liver disease can have difficulty with vitamin K-dependent clotting and are at an increased risk for hemorrhage.13
As discussed previously, Vitamin K is also integral to moving calcium out of the arterial system and to preventing soft tissue calcification. This function is central to preventing osteoporosis and maintaining strong bone health.
Another benefit is a vitamin K-dependent protein, growth arrest specific gene 6 protein (Gas6), which was identified in 1993 and is found in the heart, kidneys, lungs and cartilage. It contributes to many cellular functions that may play a role in protecting an aging nervous system, and it appears to regulate vascular homeostasis.
Separate studies using vitamin K2 on cancer cells in the lab have demonstrated an apoptotic effect. In one study, researchers found vitamin K2 induced apoptosis in bladder cancer cells and in another, against triple negative breast cancer.14,15
Vitamin K2 and Magnesium Optimize Vitamin D Supplementation

The evidence that your serum vitamin D level is protective against COVID-19 and reduces the severity of the disease continues to grow. While your body produces vitamin D from the reaction to sunlight, many don’t get enough sun to raise their vitamin D levels above 30 ng/mL.
To reach this minimal goal, you may need a supplement. Yet, taking vitamin D3 supplements without magnesium and vitamin K2 may offer little effective protection and could increase your risk of atherosclerosis. Before you can determine how much supplementation is needed, you’ll want to test your current level. You can do this using a home kit through GrassrootsHealth.16
The kit is delivered to your home where you use a finger stick and send the kit back to the lab. Only you get the results of the test, which you can then input into the GrassrootsHealth calculator to determine the amount of supplement you’ll need to achieve your desired result.17
Vitamin D is important in the absorption and utilization of vitamin K2. In fact, a vitamin K deficiency may contribute to symptoms of “vitamin D toxicity.” In my interview with Dr. Kate Rheaume-Bleue, natural health physician and author of Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox, she talked about this challenge:18

“We don’t see symptoms of D toxicity very often but when we do those symptoms are inappropriate calcification. That’s a symptom of D toxicity and that is actually a lack of vitamin K2 that will cause that. K2 protects you against that toxicity quite simply.”

Added to this, I’ve written about the importance of vitamin K2 when you’re taking supplemental vitamin D3 to avoid excessive calcification in your arteries. Magnesium is also a crucial part of raising your vitamin D level as it is necessary for the activation of the vitamin.
Without sufficient amounts your body can’t properly use the vitamin you’re taking. Mohammed Razzaque is a professor of pathology at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Pennsylvania. He notes that without magnesium, vitamin D supplements may not be useful.19
To lower the risk of vitamin D deficiency it’s necessary to have optimal amounts of magnesium.20 According to one scientific review, as many as 50% of Americans who are taking vitamin D supplementation may not benefit, as it’s stored in the inactive form without sufficient levels of magnesium.21,22
The relationship is a two-way street. While vitamin D improves the absorption of magnesium, large doses of vitamin D may deplete magnesium.23,24 This is because large doses of vitamin D will require large doses of magnesium to convert it to the active form.
GrassrootsHealth published research that was based on data from nearly 3,000 people showing you must take 244% more vitamin D if you aren’t also taking a magnesium and vitamin K2 supplement.25 Practically speaking, this means when you take all three in combination you’ll need far less vitamin D to achieve a healthy level.
According to researchers, “those taking both supplemental magnesium and vitamin K2 have a higher vitamin D level for any given vitamin D intake amount than those taking either supplemental magnesium or vitamin K2 or neither.”26
Consider Supplementing With Magnesium and Vitamin K2

There are several forms of magnesium. In each form, the magnesium is bound to another molecule. Some forms have compounds that serve other functions in the body, as you’ll find in “NYC Doctor Highlights Importance of Vitamin D Optimization”:

Magnesium glycinate,27 a powder with low solubility. Glycine is an important amino acid and precursor for glutathione.
Ionic magnesium found in molecular hydrogen tablets. Each water-soluble tablet has about 80 mg of highly bioavailable unbound magnesium ions, which is about 20% of the recommended daily allowance.
Magnesium threonate28 is another excellent choice as it seems it can efficiently penetrate the blood-brain barrier.
Magnesium malate,29 which dissolves well in water. Malate is an intermediary in the Krebs cycle, so it likely contributes to ATP production.
Magnesium citrate30 also dissolves well and has a pleasant citric acid taste.

Since most people eating a Western diet are deficient in vitamin K2 and the vitamin is quickly used and excreted, it’s important to either change the foods you eat, or consider supplementation. As noted in the featured study, those with higher levels of vitamin K have a lower risk of death.
It can be difficult to tell if you’re getting enough vitamin K, as there’s no easy way to screen or test for vitamin K2 sufficiency. For more information about getting enough vitamin K, see “Spinach, Eggs and Gouda Cheese to Combat COVID?”
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/09/02/vitamin-k-and-elderly.aspx

Dr. Chris Knobbe, an ophthalmologist, is the founder and president of the Cure AMD Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to the prevention of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
AMD, a leading cause of blindness in the U.S. — and the third leading cause of blindness globally (after cataracts and glaucoma)1 — is said to be a disease associated with aging, but, in the presentation above, Knobbe asks, “Could age-related macular degeneration be a disease of processed food consumption?”
Nine years of research and investigation have led Knobbe to conclude that AMD is, indeed, being driven by nutrient deficiencies and toxicity caused by processed foods. This common denominator isn’t linked only to AMD, however — it’s also linked to chronic diseases of all kinds, including Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
The root of the problem lies in mitochondrial dysfunction, which is caused by the excessive consumption of a Westernized diet, including toxic industrially processed seed oils (incorrectly called “vegetable oils”), refined flour, refined added sugars and trans fats.
Chronic Metabolic and Degenerative Disease ‘Didn’t Exist’
According to Knobbe, chronic metabolic and degenerative disease “clearly didn’t exist 125 years ago,” at least not nearly to the extent they do today, citing a study by Dr. David Jones and colleagues, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2012.2 The study looked at the history of disease over the past 200 years, comparing the top 10 causes of death in the U.S. from 1900 to 2010.
In 1900, the top four causes of death were infectious in nature: pneumonia/influenza, tuberculosis, gastrointestinal infections and cardiac valvular disease. The latter is classified as heart disease, but, Knobbe says, “This wasn’t coronary artery type heart disease. This was cardiac valvular disease driven by syphilis, endocarditis and rheumatic fever … It was infectious still.”
By 2010, this had all changed, with chronic diseases replacing infectious diseases as the top killers. “Today, heart disease, cancer, stroke, COPD, Alzheimer’s disease, Type 2 diabetes, kidney disease, all chronic diseases account for seven of the top 10 causes of death.” In reviewing the data, Knobbe found that diabetes of any type was rare in the 19th century, but it increased 25-fold in a period of 80 years.
He also cites data that found the obesity rate in the 19th century was 1.2%. By 1960, it had already risen to 13% — an 11-fold increase — and continued to climb steadily to this day. “Obesity is on target to be 50% of adults obese in the United States by 2030, half obese,” Knobbe says. “So the increase looks something like … a 33-fold increase already in 115 years.” He continues:

“Again, you have to ask, you know, what accounts for this … All right, well, let’s go back to the dietary history now. So you’re going to see Westernized disease correlate to modernized diets. That’s the theme of this, essentially …
And I will submit to you that this has really been a global human experiment that began in 1866, it didn’t begin in 1980, you know, with our low-fat, low saturated-fat dietary guidelines, it began in the 19th century and nobody gave informed consent of us. Not one of us knew what we were getting into and most of us still don’t.”

Four Primary Processed Food Culprits

The four primary components that make up processed foods that are, in turn, contributing to chronic diseases like AMD are sugar, industrially processed seed oils, refined flour and trans fats. Knobbe says:

“ … Sugar has been in the food supply for hundreds of years, but between 1822 and 1999 sugar increased 17-fold … Cotton seed oil, the world’s first, highly polyunsaturated vegetable oil introduced right here in the good old US of A in 1866, the entire world, or at least 99.9-plus% of it had never seen a polyunsaturated vegetable oil, ever. All right, 1880 roller mill technology was introduced.
And in the United States, it was introduced in Minneapolis … roller mill gives us refined white, wheat flour, which is a nutrient deficient food. And then fourth, 1911, Proctor and gamble introduced Crisco. That’s trans fats, they’re hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils … by 2009, our own USDA reports that those four foods make up 63% of the American diet, 63%. That’s the recipe for disaster.”

As the consumption of processed foods rose, so too did chronic diseases. According to Knobbe, AMD was rare from 1851 to about 1930, but had reached epidemic proportions by the 1970s. As of 2020, 196 million people worldwide suffer from AMD.
“And what we always see is that the processed foods come first and then the AMD hits later,” Knobbe says. “It’s always this way. There’s a temporal relationship. It’s at least 30 years of this consumption, probably closer to 50. You know, these are chronic … diseases that take a long time to develop, right? There’s a dose response relationship … I believe if you look at all of our data, this becomes nearly a mathematical certainty that this relationship between food and macular degeneration exists.”

Knobbe also cites the work of Weston A. Price, the dentist who wrote the classic book “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.” In the 1900s, Price did extensive research on the link between oral health and physical diseases.

He was one of the major nutritional pioneers of all time, and his research revealed native tribes that still ate their traditional diet had nearly perfect teeth and were almost 100% free of tooth decay. But when these tribal populations were introduced to refined sugar and white flour, their health, and their perfect teeth, rapidly deteriorated. In many ways, Knobbe is the 21st century equivalent of Price.
Diet-Related Macular Degeneration

Download Interview Transcript

Knobbe believes “age-related” macular degeneration should be called diet-related macular degeneration instead, and states that out of all the components in processed foods, polyunsaturated vegetable oils are the greatest contributor. Comparing them to “biological poisons,” Knobbe notes that industrially processed seed oils are not only nutrient deficient but also pro-oxidative and proinflammatory:

“ … When vegetable oils are produced … oil seeds are crushed, heated, pressed. They go through about four or five heatings … then they go to a petroleum drive, hexane, solvent bath, right? And then it’s steamed, degummed … then they go through a chemical process of being alkalinized, bleached and deodorized before they go into this bottle and we think they’re healthy.
They’re extraordinarily oxidized. They’re toxic. Aldehydes in these, these are literally poison. These are extremely noxious agents, and … vegetable oils replaced animal fats.”

He cites the work of nutrition pioneer Elmer V. McCollum, who, in the early 20th century, fed rats diets enriched with either 5% cotton seed oil or 1.5% butterfat — “this is good butter,” Knobbe points out. “It’s coming from pasture-raised cattle grazing on grass, right? That’s all they had back then.”
Stark differences were observed among the rats, with the cottonseed oil group experiencing stunted growth, illness and shorter survival. The rats fed butterfat fared much better, growing to about twice the size of the other rats and living about twice as long. The fat-soluble vitamins A, D and K2 in the pastured butterfat were a likely factor in the marked health differences.
“We need them to maintain our health and prevent degenerative disease,” Knobbe says. “There’s absolutely no question in my mind — all the data supports this — that macular degeneration patients are vitamin A-, D- and K2-deficient.”
Knobbe cites data from native populations around the globe, including the Maasai tribe in Eastern Africa, inhabitants of Papua New Guinea and Tokelau in the South Pacific, which had very different diets with one major similarity: “In general … they have no refined sugar, no refined wheat, no processed foods, no vegetable oils.” They also have little or no macular degeneration.
Vegetable Oils Cause Mitochondrial Failure, Insulin Resistance

AMD is ultimately a disease process rooted in mitochondrial dysfunction and insulin resistance, and the catastrophic cascade of health declines are triggered by the long-term consumption of vegetable oils (omega-6) and other processed foods, Knobbe explains the complex process in his presentation:

“Here’s what excess omega-6 does in a Westernized diet: induces nutrient deficiencies, causes a catastrophic lipid peroxidation cascade, is what this does … This damages … a phospholipid called cardio lipid in the mitochondrial membranes. And this leads to electron transport chain failure … which causes mitochondrial failure and dysfunction.
And this leads first to reactive oxygen species, which feeds back into this peroxidation cascades. So, you’re filling up your fat cells and your mitochondrial membranes with omega-6, and these are going to peroxidize because of the fact that they are polyunsaturated.
All right, the next thing that happens is insulin resistance, which leads to metabolic syndrome, Type 2 diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. When the mitochondria fail, you get reduced fatty acid, beta oxidation, meaning you can’t burn these fats properly for fuel.
So now you’re … carb dependent and you’re heading for obesity. So, you’re feeling tired. You’re gaining weight. Your mitochondria are failing to burn fat for fuel … this is a powerful mechanism for obesity.
So, the energy failure at the cellular level leads to nuclear mitochondrial DNA mutations, and this leads to cancers. Three weeks on a high-PUFA diet causes heart failure in rats — three weeks. And this also leads to apoptosis and necrosis. And of course, that’s how you get disorders like AMD and Alzheimer’s.”

Knobbe has also been studying the toxic aldehydes that result from omega-6 fats. When you consume an omega-6 fat, it first reacts with a hydroxyl radical or peroxide radical, producing a lipid hydroperoxide.
This lipid hydroperoxide then rapidly degenerates into toxic aldehydes, of which there are hundreds, which in turn lead to cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, mutagenicity carcinogenicity and more, along with being obesogenic, at very low doses.
Ancestral Diet Key to AMD Prevention
According to Knobbe, there were only 50 cases of dietary blindness described across the globe between 1851 and 1930, some of which were likely other diseases. This skyrocketed to an estimated 196 million cases in 2020.3 Knobbe believes that by following an ancestral diet, rich in grass fed meat and poultry, pastured dairy, wild-caught fish, vegetables, nuts and seeds, the majority of AMD cases would disappear.

“Could modernized processed foods drive this disease? That’s the question. I mean, is it as simple as this, you know, could this difference be due to diet and diet alone?” Knobbe asked. “I will submit to you that everything I have found so far indicates that it is, and I can’t find anything that doesn’t support this concept.”
For more details, Knobbe discusses more of this eye-opening information in his book, “Ancestral Dietary Strategy to Prevent and Treat Macular Degeneration,” as well as via his website, on CureAMD.org. As Knobbe says:

“Today, about 534 people will go blind due to AMD. They’ve already lost vision in their first eye. They’ll lose vision in their second eye. And I think this is a travesty because I believe it’s all preventable. So, our mission at Cure AMD foundation is to prevent and treat AMD through ancestral dietary strategy advocacy. And we need more scientific research in order to convince all of us and our peers.”

Single Most Important Strategy You Can Implement

It is vital that you reduce your intake of industrially processed seed oils as much as you can. This means eliminating all of the following oils:

SoyCorn

CanolaSafflower

SunflowerPeanut

Olive and avocado oil should also be on the list as over 80% of these are adulterated. But even if they weren’t it simply isn’t worth it to have high levels of olive oil as it is loaded with the omega-6 fat called linoleic acid.
It will also be important to avoid nearly all processed foods as it is the rare processed food that does not include these toxic oils. Nearly every fast food restaurant is also guilty of using high levels of these toxic fats. This is why it is so important to prepare as much of your food as you can in your home so you can know what you are eating.
Most health “experts,” including many I have previously interviewed, simply do not understand how much more dangerous these oils are than sugar. These fats become embedded in your cell membranes and stay there for years wreaking havoc on your health.
This is one of the reasons why a high fat diet can be harmful. If it is loaded with these dangerous omega-6 fats it will make you metabolically unhealthy and radically increase your risk for nearly every chronic degenerative disease, like heart disease, cancer, diabetes and blindness.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/11/07/dr-chris-knobbe-macular-degeneration.aspx

Iron is an essential nutrient, integral to hundreds of biological functions including oxygen transport, DNA synthesis and energy metabolism. Almost every cell in your body contains iron.1 Plants, bacteria, animals and even cancer cells cannot survive without it.2,3
Plants use iron to make chlorophyll, while animals and humans need it to make hemoglobin, a protein in your red blood cells used to transport oxygen. Approximately 6% of the iron in your body is bound as a component to proteins and 25% is stored as ferritin.4
Having too much or too little can have serious consequences. Yet, what many people and physicians do not realize is that an excessive amount of iron is more common than having a deficiency.
Doctors may check for iron deficiency as it relates to anemia, but iron overload is a far more common problem. Adult men and non-menstruating women are at risk of having dangerously high levels of iron. When left untreated, excess iron can damage your organs and contribute to the development of heart disease, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.5
High Levels of Iron Linked to Shorter Life Span

Researchers have linked iron overload to several medical conditions, and now find that people age at different rates when they have excess amounts in the body. European scientists gathered data from an international database to test this theory.6
The set of data was equivalent to about 1.75 million lifespans.7 They looked at the total number of years lived (life span), the total number of years marked by good health (health span) and living to an old age (longevity).8 The researchers identified 10 loci in the genetic sample that appear to influence aging.
The majority of the loci were associated with cardiovascular disease. Based on statistical analysis, the data suggested “that genes involved in metabolizing iron in the blood are partly responsible for a healthy long life.”9
The new information is exciting as it suggests a modifiable pathway to explain biological aging and chronic disease rate differences among people. The researchers noted that high iron levels can reduce “the body’s ability to fight infection in older age,”10 which may be yet another reason that age is a factor in infectious disease severity.
As Paul Timmers from the University of Edinburgh says, the data also offer a reasonable explanation for the association between red meat and heart disease. While cholesterol has been blamed in the past, in a growing number of studies, no association has been found between cholesterol and heart disease.11 Timmers commented:12

“We are very excited by these findings as they strongly suggest that high levels of iron in the blood reduces our healthy years of life, and keeping these levels in check could prevent age-related damage. We speculate that our findings on iron metabolism might also start to explain why very high levels of iron-rich red meat in the diet has been linked to age-related conditions such as heart disease.”

Excess Iron Impairs Mitochondrial Function

Researchers have known since the mid-1990s that when iron is bound to a protein such as hemoglobin, it plays a part in cell metabolism and growth.13 But when it is free, it kicks off a reaction producing hydroxyl free radicals from hydrogen peroxide. This is one of the most damaging free radicals in the body and can cause severe mitochondrial dysfunction.
Hydroxyl free radicals damage cell membranes, protein and DNA. Other research has shown excessive iron promotes apoptosis and ferroptosis in cardiomyocytes.14 Apoptosis is the programmed cell death of diseased and worn-out cells and, as the name implies, ferroptosis refers to cell death that is specifically dependent on and regulated by iron.15
Your cardiomyocytes are the muscle cells in the heart that generate and control contractions.16 In short, this tells us that excess iron can impair heart function. These are two ways iron overload can lead to cardiomyopathy, which is a leading cause of death in patients with hemochromatosis.
Excess iron also affects blood pressure and other markers of cardiovascular disease, and glycemic control in individuals with metabolic syndrome. One study was done with 64 participants who had a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome.17 The participants were randomly assigned to two groups. In the first, they gave blood at the beginning of the study and again after 4 weeks.
Researchers regulated the amount of blood given and each person’s iron level. They measured systolic blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, plasma glucose and hemoglobin A1c. The group who gave blood showed a significant reduction in systolic blood pressure and had lower blood glucose levels, hemoglobin A1c and heart rate. There was no effect on insulin sensitivity.
In an earlier study, scientists removed blood in individuals who had chronic gout.18 Twelve participants with hyperuricemia gave blood over the course of 28 months to maintain their body at the lowest amount of iron stores possible, without inducing anemia. The data showed a marked reduction in the number and severity of gout attacks. Removing blood was also found to be safe and beneficial.
How Do High Iron Levels Build Up?

Men and non-menstruating women have a higher potential for iron buildup since the body has limited ways of excreting excess iron.19 With the genetic disorder hemochromatosis, the body accumulates excessive and damaging levels of iron.20 When this is left untreated it contributes to many of the disorders discussed above.
Hemochromatosis is a prevalent genetic condition in Americans. It takes two inherited genetic mutations, one from your mother and one from your father, to cause the disease. In one study, researchers estimated 40% to 70% of people with the defective genes will eventually have iron overload.21
It is also easy to get too much iron from your food, particularly when it’s “fortified” with iron. Iron is a common nutritional supplement found in many multivitamin and mineral supplements. Many processed foods are also fortified with iron.
For example, two servings of fortified breakfast cereal may give you as much as 44 milligrams (mg) of iron, rising dangerously close to the upper tolerance limit of 45 mg for adults.22 However, the upper tolerance limit is well over the recommended daily allowance, which is 8 mg for men and 18 mg for premenopausal women.23 It’s easy to see how you might consistently eat too much iron.
Another common cause for iron excess is the regular consumption of alcohol.24 Alcohol increases the amount of iron you absorb from your food. In other words, by drinking alcohol with foods that are high in iron, you will likely absorb more than you need.
Other contributing factors include using iron pots and pans, drinking well water high in iron, using multivitamins and mineral supplements together or eating processed foods.
You Can Help Severe Blood Shortages and Help Yourself

Routine blood donation may be one of the simplest and quickest ways to reduce your ferritin and iron overload. Blood donation may also save the life of someone else. The American Red Cross collects blood at both permanent and mobile locations. According to the organization, more than 80% of what they collect comes from blood drives on college campuses and at workplaces.
Unfortunately, one of the consequences of COVID-19 has been a reduction in the number of blood drives and blood donations across the U.S. This has led to a severe shortage.25 Chris Hrouda, who serves as president of the Red Cross Biomedical Services, expressed his concerns to a reporter from the Press Herald:26

“In our experience, the American public comes together to support those in need during times of shortage and that support is needed now more than ever during this unprecedented public health crisis. Unfortunately, when people stop donating blood, it forces doctors to make hard choices about patient care, which is why we need those who are healthy and well to roll up a sleeve and give the gift of life.

We know that people want to help, but they may be hesitant to visit a blood drive during this time. We want to assure the public that blood donation is a safe process, and we have put additional precautions in place at our blood drives and donation centers to protect all who come out.”

Blood donation is a safe and effective way of managing your iron stores and helping someone else. The Red Cross answers questions about your eligibility requirement on their website.27 They recommend that you wait at least eight weeks between donations so your body can completely restore your blood volume.
If you are unable to donate blood because of a health condition, consider therapeutic phlebotomy. While your blood won’t be used for a donation, they may do the procedure and then dispose of the blood.
If you can’t find a place in your community for the services, your insurance policy may pay for routine therapeutic phlebotomies with a doctor’s prescription.28 In either case, whether you donate the blood or it’s thrown out, the amount they take is the same.
To donate, you only need a blood donor card, a driver’s license or two forms of identification. People who are at least 17, weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health are eligible.
Yearly GGT and Iron Screening Tests Advisable

Another way to measure the impact of iron toxicity and the effect on mortality is the gamma glutamyl transpeptidase test, sometimes called gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT). GGT is a liver enzyme that is involved in the metabolism of glutathione and the transport of amino acids and peptides.
It can be used as a marker for excess free iron, and as an indicator of your risk of chronic kidney disease.29 Low levels of GGT tend to be protective against high levels of ferritin.
When both ferritin and GGT are high, you have a higher chance of having chronic health problems and/or early death. As with many lab tests, the normal references vary among the labs. Normal laboratory ranges are often far from ideal and those used for GGT may not be adequate for preventing disease.
As I’ve shared before, the range of ideal to “normal” GGT can be wide. To fully understand your risks, you’ll need both the ferritin and GGT levels tested. For more information on ferritin and GGT, including healthy ranges, see “Donate Blood: You May Be Saving Your Own Life.”
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/08/01/benefits-of-good-iron-levels.aspx