Caustic Commentary, Winter 2020

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Sally Fallon Morell takes on the Diet Dictocrats

COVID VERSUS THE FLU

We have consistently stated that the illness called Covid-19 is not just a bad case of the flu, but something completely different and far more serious. A study published December 15, 2020 in the British Medical Journal confirms this view. Researchers compared hospitalized flu patients 2017-2019 with Covid patients February 1 through June 17, 2020. Among those hospitalized with either Covid-19 or the flu, those with coronavirus were nearly five times more likely to die than those with influenza. Those with Covid-19 had an increased risk of acute kidney and liver damage, as well as heart disorders, stroke, severe septic shock, low blood pressure and excessive blood clotting. A surprising finding was a higher risk of developing diabetes among Covid-19 patients—nine more cases per one hundred people. The Covid-19 patients most at risk for death were those seventy-five years and older, who had pre-existing conditions (BMJ 2020;371:m4677). Not surprising: a study published in the journal PeerJ (October 1, 2020) found a higher death rate in older people who had the flu vaccination and no significant differences in illness rate due to lockdown or mandatory masks (The Spectator, December 18, 2020).

COMBATTING VACCINE HESITANCY

In one of the largest public education campaigns in history, the Ad Council and the COVID Collaborative have invested fifty million dollars to “educate the American public about the safety and efficacy of new Covid-19 vaccines,” with a particular focus on reducing vaccine hesitancy in the Afri­can American and Hispanic communities. A recent survey conducted by the COVID Collaborative found that only 14 percent of African Americans and 34 percent of Latinos trust the vaccine. According to Michelle A. Williams, Dean of the Faculty, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a co-founder of the Collaborative, “It’s not having a vaccine that saves lives, it’s people actually getting vaccinated. For that to happen, we need to understand why so many are hesitant and help overcome that.” In other words, browbeat the understandably skeptical minorities into overcoming their better judgment. According to Professor Howard Koh, health professionals will play a key role in persuading the public that vaccines are safe; unfortunately doctors and nurses are getting “confused messaging about safe vaccine development.” According to Koh, it is crucial “for companies developing vaccines to publish full results from clinical trials as soon as possible to persuade physicians that the vaccine is safe” (Chicago Tribune, November 26, 2020). Of course, if the vaccines are so safe, they would have published the full trial results weeks ago.

STILLBIRTH RATE RISES DURING PANDEMIC

A significant rise in stillbirths worldwide since the corona­virus “pandemic” began has experts worried. Based on data from more than twenty thousand women in India, stillbirths increased from fourteen per thousand to twenty-one by the end of May, a rise of 50 percent. Birth data from a large London hospital indicate a fourfold increase in the incidence of stillbirths. Public health officials are blaming the increase on “disruptions in health care,” such as lack of prenatal visits to physicians, but we can think of other reasons: hypoxia due to mask wearing; domestic abuse due to lockdowns; and exposure to fifth-generation wireless (realclearscience.com, September 16, 2020).

NO SCHOOL FOR YOUR KIDS

State governments have denied an education to sixty million American children during the past six months. And for no reason. Public health officials admitted that kids are better off in school. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in late November we should “close the bars and keep the schools open.” According to an April study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, children “. . . develop only mild symptoms and typically recover in two weeks.” In New Jersey, a state with a high number of “cases,” not a single school-age child has died of Covid-19. Teachers under the age of fifty have a 99.98 percent survival rate; under age seventy the rate is 99.5 percent (www.bitchute.com/video/DQVZGtIJqHR2/). Meanwhile parents who still have jobs are coping with working and homeschooling simultaneously, and many children have fallen behind in reading and math due to Covid closures.

GOOD ADVICE

The Weston A. Price Foundation suggests cod liver oil and fermented foods as important parts of a healthy diet; and we have consistently warned the public to avoid taking toxic statin drugs. Turns out that this is especially good advice in the coronavirus era. Preliminary data from Norway suggest that cod liver oil users may have a reduced risk of contracting Covid-19 and less severe disease outcomes if they are infect­ed (sciencenorway.no, November 10, 2020). The researchers credit vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids in cod liver oil, but cod liver oil is also an excellent source of vitamin A. The participants in the study group will receive the Moller’s brand of cod liver oil, a brand that is fairly high in vitamin A. A European study suggests that coronavirus mortality rates are lower in countries where diets are rich in fermented vegetables. In Europe the death rate in Italy, France and the UK has been very high compared with the Balkans and Nordic countries. Although many factors can explain the discrepancy, researchers found that only fermented vegetables consumption had a significant impact on mortality rate by country. For each gram per day increase in the average national consumption of fermented vegetables, the risk for Covid-19 mortality fell by 35 percent (news-medical.net, July 8, 2020). Finally, in a study published in October, 2020, researchers found that routine statin treat­ment is significantly associated with increased mortality in diabetic patients hospitalized for Covid-19 (pubmed.ncbi. nlm.nih.gov/33091555/). Higher coronavirus mortality is another condition that should be added to the warning list for statins like Zocor—which is already nineteen pages long and all in fine print!

VITAMIN K2 AND LUNG FUNCTION

Vitamin K2 plays an important role in lung function because it helps activate elastin, the protein responsible for lung tissue flexibility. Constantly expanding and contracting, the lungs must be very flexible to do their job. When vitamin K2 is lacking, elastin becomes stiff and fibrous, making breath­ing and oxygen exchange more difficult. In a recent study, researchers determined vitamin K status in one hundred twenty-three people hospitalized with Covid-19 and those in a healthy control group; they found that low vitamin K status was highly associated with severity of symptoms, and could even be a factor in determining who contracts Covid in the first place (www.preprints.org/manuscript/202004.0457/v1). The best sources of K2 are poultry liver and fat, aged cheese, egg yolks and butter, all preferably from grass-fed animals. Just another reason to enjoy a Wise Traditions diet during these difficult times.

FINALLY!

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has spent the last twenty years holding public discussions on the safety of dental amalgam (mercury-containing) fillings. At long last, the agency has come up with guidelines that recognize the potential adverse health effects of mercury exposure, identify­ing seven groups that should not receive mercury fillings: pregnant women; women plan­ning to become pregnant; nurs­ing women and their newborns and infants; children, especially those younger than six years of age; people with pre-existing neurological disease; people with impaired kidney function; and those with known heightened sensitivity to mercury. The guidelines did not go as far as activists had hoped; they did not result in an outright ban on amalgam fillings. But these guidelines are a step in the right direction. The FDA did not recommend anyone removing or replacing existing amalgams unless it is considered “medically necessary” and warned that removal of intact amalgam fillings “may result in a temporary increase in exposure of mercury vapor released during the removal process” (www.fda.gov/medical-devices/ dental-devices/dental-amalgam-fillings).

SHAMELESS

Formula companies are shameless in the ways they exploit medical situations to their advantage, and the coronavirus situation is no exception. For example, in April, Danone of India facilitated a YouTube channel called VoiceofExperts that advised women with Covid-19 to maintain a distance of at least six feet from their infants and to stop breastfeeding until free of fever for more than seventy-two hours, free of other symptoms for at least seven days, and had two negative PCR results. . . a suggestion that would result in the mom quitting breastfeeding altogether. After complaints, Danone removed the video but the channel still exists. During the pandemic, many companies have donated milk powder to communities in Canada, India, Italy, Pakistan, the Philip­pines and the UK, violating both national laws and the WHO code. And in a recent online survey of over one thousand mothers who had recently breastfed in the UK, 80 percent reported contact from formula companies, typically on social media, even though this violates the WHO code (Lancet October 8, 2020).

B12 DEFICIENCY AND COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT

In a systematic review, researchers from the University of Melbourne examined the associations between low vitamin B12 levels, neurodegenerative disease and cognitive impair­ment (International Psychogeriatrics 2010;24(4):541-556). They found that vitamin B12 levels in the subclinical low-normal range (less than 250 ρmol/L) are associated with Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and Parkinson’s disease. They found that outright vitamin B12 deficiency (less than 150 ρmol/L) is associated with cognitive impairment. Vegetarianism and use of metformin (a widely used drug to control symptoms of diabetes) contribute to depressed vitamin B12 levels and may independently increase the risk for cognitive impairment. They found that a small subset of dementias are reversible with vitamin B12 therapy and noted that this treatment is inexpensive and safe. Unfortunately, few patients incarcerated in our nursing homes are offered such beneficial treatment.

STARVATION DIET FOR CHILDREN

In light of what we know about vitamin B12, the fact that some groups are objecting to the new dietary guidelines for infants borders on the incredible. For the first time, the U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans include guidelines for children younger than two. While there is plenty to criticize in these guidelines —which recommend lots of whole grains without any caution on how they should be prepared, and which include lowfat dairy foods and no encouragement to provide youngsters with butter —at least they include red meat, poultry, seafood and eggs “to meet the needs for criti­cal nutrients for growth and development, particularly iron, zinc and choline.” In fact, one member of the Committee, Dr. Kathryn Dewey, specifically recommends chicken liver. But the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is not happy. “There isn’t scientific evidence to suggest somehow infants would be better off consuming meat, seafood, eggs and dairy,” says Susan Levin, a registered dietitian and the organization’s director of nutrition education. According to Levin, infants and toddlers can get iron from foods like fortified cereals, spinach and lentils (Wall Street Journal, October 13, 2020). Iron, zinc and choline aren’t the only nutrients that toddlers get from animal foods —there’s also vitamins A, D, K2, B6 and B12, and minerals like calcium, magnesium and iodine. A diet without animal foods is a fast track to cognitive impairment throughout life.

MYCOTOXINS

A survey of four hundred corn samples from five continents harvested in 2018-2019 discovered that 95 percent were contaminated with mycotoxins (toxins produced by fungus) (mycotoxinsite.com). Mycotoxins cause allergic reactions and can adversely affect the major organs, gut health, the brain and the respiratory system. The primary toxin infecting the corn was fumonisin, which can have carcinogenic and estrogenic effects. In addition to corn, rye, wheat, barley, coffee and chocolate are major sources of mycotoxins in ani­mal and human diets. Scientists attribute blame to unusually wet weather or poor drying and storage procedures, but we wonder whether poisons sprayed on crops and accumulating in the soil make our grains more prone to fungal infection.

HAVANA SYNDROME

First reported by U.S. embassy workers in Havana in 2016, people suffering from “Havana syndrome” com­plained of dizziness, fatigue, headaches and loss of hearing, memory and balance. U.S. diplomats in China and Russia have reported similar symptoms, often resulting in life-long disability. Reporting for the National Academies of Sci­ences, Engineering and Medicine, a committee of nineteen experts in medicine and other fields has concluded that the most plausible mechanism for the illness is “directed, pulsed radiofrequency energy,” a type of radiation that includes microwaves and wireless communications. The microwave radiation exposure levels to which the U.S. em­bassy employees were subjected were at least one hundred times less than the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) current limit—a limit that has now increased fourfold to accommodate higher radiation exposures from 5G devices and infrastructure compared to 4G. The list of symptoms is identical to the symptoms suffered in “long-haul” Covid-19 patients. According to a December 5 article published in the New York Times, the committee considered other causes, such as chemical exposures and infectious diseases, unlikely. The authors of the article err, however, in stating that the microwave energy from a cell phone is “continuous” and not “pulsed.” All wireless communications, including cell phones and Wi-Fi, are “pulsed.” It’s no wonder that we are seeing waves of illness follow the rollout of 5G millimeter wave technology, and it’s time to stop placing the blame on a wily infectious virus.

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