Matters Scientific

A thoughtful piece with a bottom line with which I agree.  Quote: "It is enormously to the credit of Fr. Georges Lemaitre that he stood up to sustain the independence of science and religion. Lemaitre had an enduring confidence that both science and religion are complementary pathways to knowledge, but scientific theories can stand or fall on their own, and don't need religion to referee. As Albert Einstein said, "Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind."   More recently (1987), Pope John Paul II stated their complementary relationship very cogently: “Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish.”   Greater thinkers than I are comfortable with this.  Why can't the rest of us embrace it, too?  http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/03/science_religion_and_the_big_bang_theory.html

This scientist offers interesting insights as to the psychological make-up and motivations of some of her fellow scientists.  Quote: "As we see in this abbreviated presentation of examples, there is evidence that humans tend to see themselves as the causes of a great many natural-world disruptions, which allows applications of political pressures imposing behavioral control on humanity. I suggest we may be looking at a kind of infantile egoism extending into individual and collective maturity and throughout our species; human agency as causative should accordingly be looked upon with skepticism. The view seems to be that if it were not for human activity, the natural world would not change much, and certainly not much for the worse. When challenged with specifics on such matters, most people would be quick to acknowledge that there are indeed other engines of destruction, but there is a default tendency to blame people and the things they make and do first. Any other possible causes are generally evaluated later -- not only after human agency has been ruled out, but also after media attention on the matter in question has faded."    http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/03/infantile_egoism_and_environmental_science.html 

The FDA resumes one of its questionable activities. Quote: "The Food and Drug Administration has decided it's time (yet again) to go after small farmers for using manure as fertilizer (link is external):  "The FDA is planning to conduct a risk assessment to determine how much consumer health is put at risk by the use of raw manure as fertilizer in growing crops covered by the final [Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)] Produce Safety rule, and what can be done to help prevent people from getting sick," the agency detailed (link is external). "Before starting the assessment, the agency wants the help of stakeholders in the produce industry, the animal agriculture industry, academia and members of the public in developing the model for this work."  The question I have is where are all the reports of the dangers of this practice.  Better yet where is the public outcry regarding the practice?  It is just more government meddling in things it has no business doing.  To them it is all about sustaining their control over everything.  People are unable to think or do anything without government imposing itself on us.    http://responseaction.com/Article/fdas-war-onmanure? 

Big pharma is spending millions to get us to take their medicines.  Their profit margins must be enormous if they can afford to pay huge fines, make large pay outs to patients they have harmed, and expensive medical advertisements in magazines and on TV and radio along with the costs associated with making certain we take our drugs, for our benefit of course.  Americans are notoriously over medicated but big pharma wants us to take more anyway. They need the money.  Quote: "Industry giants like Merck, Pfizer, and Sanofi, along with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, are backing a lobbying campaign to allow all manner of programs that would help push drugs on patients, from calling them directly, to using pharmacists as go-betweens.  Big Pharma will stop at nothing to make sure it keeps its power hold on the global economy. The worldwide market for pharmaceuticals topped $1 trillion in sales in 2014. The world’s 10 largest drug companies generated $429.4 billion of that revenue.  Five of the top 10 companies are headquartered in the US: Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Abbot Laboratories, Merck and Eli Lilly. Over 1,100 paid lobbyists make sure your government is doing this industry’s bidding as well."   http://naturalsociety.com/big-pharmas-spending-promote-drugs-reaches-high-6243/

Government deception is a very real threat to many Americans.  Quote: "In 2016, with health care costs on the rise and drug prices a political issue, why would any governmental body want to create 86 million more sick people?  Unfortunately, that is what the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has done by promoting the existence of a condition called "pre-diabetes."  Last month, they launched a website named doIhaveprediabetes.org, and tens of millions of people who take the survey will find that they do.  There is just one problem: it doesn't exist."   Quote: "Proponents argue that studies have begun to appear that support the existence of pre-diabetes, but that is not at all different from what we have seen in the past with papers on red wine, açaí berries, chocolate, and numerous other fad health beliefs.  When it comes to health, it is possible to create a "ghost army," where numerous poorly done studies all together claim to look like "weight of evidence."  Making medical decisions based on those is not good science or health policy."http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/03/the_cdc_is_trying_to_make_86_million_americans_sick_.html  

Are you okay with glyphosate?  If you live in Germany you almost have to be.  Quote: "A new study shows that 99.6% of Germans are contaminated with the herbicide glyphosate, writes Nicole Sagener. The news comes as the EU puts off a crucial decision on whether to re-authorise the chemical, described by IARC as 'probably carcinogenic', until 2031."  Monsanto's deadly reach is worldwide and our government and its crony capitalist partners are its number one enablers.http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2987365/almost_all_germans_contaminated_with_glyphosate.html  

How about this item?  Two quotes: "You don’t just eat Monsanto’s GMO junk and their carcinogenic pesticide “Roundup” (glyphosate). You could be taking it in from personal hygiene products!  What am I saying? The shocking fact is that Monsanto’s chemicals make their way into 85% of personal hygiene cotton products, INCLUDING TAMPONS! Ladies, beware."  And, "It is up to you to educate yourself about what you put on and into your body and the possible effects.  Biochemical industry cartels, like Monsanto, Dow, BASF, Bayer, Syngenta and DuPont, are the new Black Death. They now control almost ALL the world’s food and whenever laws are passed to rein them in, they simply pack up and open for business in a new territory. They act above the law. They corrupt and destroy governments they don’t like. Democracy? Don’t make me laugh… "     http://alternative-doctor.com/body-stuff/gmo-cotton/?

Patty Duke recently died of a medical condition known as Sepsis.  It is not something many of us know about.  The linked item was shared by Charles and everyone should read it.  It was news to him and to me.  What you learn could save your life or that of someone you know or love.   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/patty-duke-death-sepsis-awareness_us_56faf2b6e4b0a06d5803ef31  

Items like this really do make you wonder who and what to believe.  Quote: "The autism lobby is very vocal, and their intimidation of politicians -- especially in the center of the political spectrum, which is always most susceptible by manipulation from pseudoscience -- has been intense. But when a lobby is so hysterical, that is reason to question its motives and validity."  And, "Autism has become a poorly defined catchall dumping ground for children with various challenges. Some of these challenges are real; some are not. Some are hereditary, some result from environmental factors outside the control of parents, and large number of them perhaps are just the result of bad parenting."    http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/03/the_autism_racket.html  

The body needs cholesterol.  It has for a long time gotten a bad rap.  Quote: "The cholesterol-heart disease theory originated in the early 1950s when political pressure was put on the medical industry to find a cause for CVD, a problem that was becoming the top killer in the United States.  In 1964, the famous heart surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey of Houston reported that he and his colleagues studied 1,700 surgical patients and found no correlation between blood cholesterol levels and the extent of coronary artery disease seen during open heart surgery. This was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. ²  You should also know that about 50 percent of people hospitalized for heart attacks or undergoing CABG (coronary artery bypass graft) surgery have normal cholesterol levels."   http://easyhealthoptions.com/why-you-need-cholesterol/

About those Statin drugs.  Quote: "A revealing report, largely unreported by the news media, ignored by health regulatory agencies and physician groups, demands that guidelines for use of statin cholesterol-lowering drugs be reevaluated in light of newly analyzed science.  Researchers in Japan analyzed studies published after 2004-2005 when new regulations for how to conduct human clinical trials went into effect. [British Journal Obstetrics Gynecology 2007]  The new guidelines require all sponsors of drug trials to publish negative or inconclusive studies, not just positive studies; and they require full reporting of side effects."   https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/03/bill-sardi/tell-truth/

What you will read here borders on criminal or at least near criminal behavior.  Agribusiness, pharmaceuticals and the FDA place priorities of their business cohorts/donors when making decisions potentially impacting the public.  Quote: "One of the most natural actions in existence – a mother breastfeeding her child – is facing scrutiny not over the age-old breastfeed or bottle-feed debate, but rather something much more bizarre.  Medical experts are taking up issue with use of the wordnatural when describing the behavior, saying that the word could make people leery of other health-related topics like GMOs and vaccinations, which already face their fair share of resistance and pressures by those who consider them "unnatural."  Talk about a stretch. This has to be the most ridiculous over-analyzation of a word yet. Even worse is the fact that these experts are implying that the likes of vaccines and GMOs are natural, and that they actually think that calling breastfeeding "natural" will somehow interfere with the wonderful goodness that is getting a shot of mercury in your arm or eating health-destroying Frankenfoods."    http://www.naturalnews.com/053380_breastfeeding_natural_health_medical_monopolists.html

This is quite interesting.  But also disturbing in that the government and big pharma want to seize control over and subsequently profit from nature's biological bounty.  Quote: "In the sinister words in the Bloomberg article…“Efforts are under way to turn bacteria into regulated pharmaceutical products to treat illnesses of the gut, where the microbes reside.”  Nestle is in on the act too and last January invested $65 million in a Cambridge (MA)-based company, Seres Therapeutics Inc. Their aim is to develop a treatment for Clostridium difficile, which affects the digestive system. That follows early efforts to harness the microbiome’s benefits, which spawned probiotic foods and supplements as well as transplants of healthy bacteria."   And, "To therapeutically influence the microbiome long-term in humans is a big hurdle,” said Sander van Deventer, managing partner at venture-capital firm Forbion Capital Partners. “The microbiome is very stubborn. Everything we’ve done so far has only had a temporary effect.”That’s because you CANNOT change the microbiome without changing your diet. They just don’t get it. They think living microbes are just another kind of drug that wriggles under the microscope!"    http://alternative-doctor.com/cancer/microbiome-and-cancer/?

A good bit of common sense advice regarding the food we eat.    http://hotair.com/archives/2016/04/05/those-doctors-telling-you-to-drink-skim-milk-were-probably-wrong/?