Day: 08/12/2014

Google builds cable under Pacific

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California coastline

The cable will connect the US west coast with Japan

Google and five other large companies are teaming up to build a cable under the Pacific Ocean that will deliver incredibly fast internet speeds.

The cable, dubbed Faster, will connect the US with Japan and cost about $300m (£179m; 225m euros), the consortium said.

The trans-Pacific fibre cable would deliver speeds of 60 terabytes per second – enough to send more than 2,000 uncompressed HD films a second.

The cable will be operational by 2016.

Google is working with a host of Asian telecoms giants – China Mobile, China Telecom, Global Transit, KDDI, and SingTel.

‘One of longest routes in world’

“Faster is one of a few hundred submarine telecommunications cables connecting various parts of the world,” said Woohyong Choi, chairman of the consortium’s executive committee. “These cables collectively form an important infrastructure that helps run global internet and communications.

“The Faster cable system has the largest design capacity ever built on the trans-Pacific route, which is one of the longest routes in the world.”

The cable will connect Chikura and Shima in Japan to the major hubs on the west coast of the US – Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle.

Submarine cables are integral to the structure of how the world wide web works. In 2008, communications between Europe, the Middle East, and Asia were seriously disrupted after submarine cables were severed near the Alexandria cable station in Egypt. Sixty-five percent of net traffic to India was down at the time.

And KDDI, Japan’s second-largest telecoms operator, had to do extensive work to repair undersea cables damaged in the massive 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Google already offers high-speed internet access directly in the US through its Fiber service, with speeds of 1Gbps in cities like Austin, Texas, and Kansas City, Kansas.

But the speeds from the new Faster cable far surpass anything consumers can access in most of the US and Europe, though internet speeds are generally much faster in Asia – South Korea wants to see citizens equipped with 1Gbps connections by 2017, for example.

The fastest widely-available speed of broadband in the UK is 152mbps. There are 1,000 megabits in one gigabit – and 1,000 gigabits in one terabit – of data transmitted.

Untested Ebola drugs ‘can be used’

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Liberian nurses remove a victim of Ebola near Monrovia, Liberia, 8 August 2014

The outbreak has killed over 1,000 people

Untested drugs can be used to treat patients infected with the Ebola virus, the World Health Organization says.

The WHO said it was ethical in light of the scale of the outbreak and high number of deaths – more than 1,000 people have died in West Africa.

The statement was made after its medical experts met in Switzerland on Monday to discuss the issue.

But officials warned there were very limited supplies of potential treatments.

Dr Marie-Paule Kieny from the WHO said that there has been “unanimous agreement” among experts

The WHO said where experimental treatments are used there must be informed consent and the results of the treatment collected and shared.

In a statement, it said: “In the particular circumstances of this outbreak, and provided certain conditions are met, the panel reached consensus that it is ethical to offer unproven interventions with as yet unknown efficacy and adverse effects, as potential treatment or prevention.”

But the organisation conceded there were still many questions to be answered including how data could be gathered effectively while the focus remained on providing good medical care.

It was also unclear where the funding for the treatment would come from.

Last week the WHO declared the Ebola outbreak was a global health emergency.

Map: Ebola in West Africa

The move came as Liberia said it was getting an experimental drug, Zmapp, after requests to the US government.

But the WHO said there were only 12 doses.

Zmapp has been used on two US aid workers who have shown signs of improvement, although it is not certain what role the medication played in this.

A Roman Catholic priest, infected with Ebola in Liberia, who died after returning home to Spain is also thought to have been given the drug.

However, the drug has only been tested on monkeys and has not yet been evaluated for safety in humans.

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What drugs exist currently ?

There a handful of drugs that have been shown to work well in animals.

One is Zmapp – the drug requested by the Liberian government. This contains a cocktail of antibodies that attack proteins on the surface of the virus.

Only one drug has moved onto early safety testing in humans. Known as TKM-Ebola this interrupts the genetic code of the virus and prevents it from making disease causing proteins.

The drug was trialled in healthy volunteers at the beginning of 2014 but the American medicines regulator asked for further safety information. The manufacturer says human studies may soon resume.

Another option would be to use serum from individuals who have survived the virus – this is a part of the blood that may contain particles able to neutralise the virus.

Vaccines to protect against acquiring the disease have also been shown to work in primates. American authorities are considering fast-tracking their development and say they could be in use in 2016. Trials are likely to start soon according to the WHO.

But experts warn ultimately the only way to be sure a drug or vaccine is effective is to see if it works in countries affected by Ebola.

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There is no cure for Ebola, which has infected at least 1,779 people since the outbreak was first reported in Guinea in February.

‘Hard place’

The Liberian government said it was aware of the risks associated with Zmapp, but the alternative was to allow many more people to die.

“The alternative for not testing this is death, a certain death,” Information Minister Lewis Brown told the BBC.

“This is not even the rock and the hard place for us.

“We think those who have been infected should be given the chance to have that tested on them if they give their consent to do so.

“We know there may be risks associated with it,” the minister added, “but choosing a risk and choosing dying I am sure many would prefer to see that risk happen”.

Ebola’s initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external haemorrhaging from areas like eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure. Patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.

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Ebola virus disease (EVD)

Coloured transmission electron micro graph of a single Ebola virus, the cause of Ebola fever
  • Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
  • Fatality rate can reach 90% – but the current outbreak is about 55%
  • Incubation period is two to 21 days
  • There is no vaccine or cure
  • Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery
  • Fruit bats are considered to be virus’ natural host

Chemical used by Colgate Total toothpaste to fight off gum disease is linked to cancer .

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  • Colgate Total contains triclosan, which has been linked to cancer and growth malformations in animals
  • The toothpaste was approved by the FDA in 1997 – but the toxicology summary reveals the FDA used company-backed evidence to approve it
  • The documents were released earlier this year after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit last year

A chemical that has been linked to cancer cell growth is being used by millions of Americans in toothpaste every day, it has emerged.

The company behind Colgate Total insists that triclosan, which it uses to stave off gum disease, is safe to use because the toothpaste was approved in 1997 by the Food and Drug Administration.

But the toxicology documents used by the FDA to approve the toothpaste were only released early this year after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit last year – and reveal the agency relied upon company-backed science to reach its conclusion, Bloomberg News reported.

The 35-page report reveals the FDA had concerns that triclosan could increase the risk of cancer – but Colgate said the chemical was only problematic in large doses.

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Concerns: Colgate Total toothpaste, pictured, contains a chemical called triclosan, which it uses to stave off gum disease - but studies have suggested it could harm animal growth

Concerns: Colgate Total toothpaste, pictured, contains a chemical called triclosan, which it uses to stave off gum disease – but studies have suggested it could harm animal growth

Healthy or harmful?: A chemical that has been linked to cancer cell growth is being used by millions of Americans in toothpaste every day

Healthy or harmful?: A chemical that has been linked to cancer cell growth is being used by millions of Americans in toothpaste every day

But evidence available at the time, as well as newer studies, show there are indeed concerns with the chemical – including premature births and underdeveloped bones in animals.

‘The recently released pages, taken alongside new research on triclosan, raise questions about whether the agency did appropriate due diligence in approving Total 17 years ago,’ scientists told Bloomberg.

 In 2010, a student linked triclosan, which has commonly been used to reduce bacteria contamination, to reduced fertility in mice and a 2013 study linked it to lowered sperm production in rats.

And a study from 2003 found triclosan in the urine of 75 per cent of 2,517 Americans – including children – who were tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Total lairs: The company behind Colgate Total insists that the ingredient triclosan was approved by the FDA but it has emerged that the agency relied upon company-backed science to reach its conclusion

Total lairs: The company behind Colgate Total insists that the ingredient triclosan was approved by the FDA but it has emerged that the agency relied upon company-backed science to reach its conclusion

Dr.E on Choosing The Right Toothpaste

Despite evidence – including pages in the report showing how tests found fetal bone malformations in mice and rats – Colgate deemed the results irrelevant because they were conducted on animals.

‘We have created a system where we are testing these chemicals out on the human population,’ scientist Thomas Zoeller told Bloomberg. ‘I love the idea they are all safe. But when we have studies on animals that suggest otherwise, I think we’re taking a huge risk.’

‘I love the idea they are all safe – but when we have studies on animals that suggest otherwise, I think we’re taking a huge risk’

Dr Thomas Zoeller

Still, Colgate said that the 35 pages do not prove the chemical is harmful to humans and said that its safety is proved by more than 80 clinical studies of 19,000 people.

‘In the nearly 18 years that Colgate Total has been on the market in the U.S., there has been no signal of a safety issue from adverse-event reports,’ spokesman Thomas DiPiazza told Bloomberg.

He added that, while the FDA had been worried about the chemical’s carcinogenicity, a study in 1997 found it did not pose a cancer risk for humans.

Colgate said it has no plans to reformulate Total toothpaste.

The FDA said on its website that triclosan is ‘not known’ to be dangerous to humans – but the results found in animals has given them enough of a reason to run tests again.

Drug regulators are now reviewing the dangers of the chemical, but they will only re-visit the approval of Total if they find a great enough reason to.

In a sign of the concern over the chemical, Minnesota lawmakers banned the chemical in May. Avon and Johnson & Johnson have also announced plans to cut the chemical from its products.

In 2010, the European Union banned triclosan in materials that come into contact with food.

 

How to Treat Back Pain Without Dangerous Drugs

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Story at-a-glance

  • Back pain is a prevalent problem in the United States, with at least 31 million Americans experiencing low back pain at any given time.
  • Sports injuries are common causes of back pain. But there are other factors that increase your risk of this condition, such as poorposture, obesity, poor physical conditioning and inactivity, psychological and emotional stress, and silent diseases like osteoporosis.
  • Prolonged sitting and poor posture put you at risk of not only chronic back pain, but other health issues as well, such as weight gain,obesity, joint problems, and other diseases.
  • Prescription drugs for back pain are saddled with severe, even life threatening side effects. NSAIDs, one of the most commonly prescribed painkillers in the market, put you at a two- to four-fold higher risk of heart attack, stroke, as well as a variety of other health problems.
  • There are many safe and effective alternatives to prescription and over-the-counter painkillers, and while they may require some patience for them to work, the improvements they generate are often longer lasting. Some of the effective strategies I recommend include chiropractic care, yoga, massage, exercises for back pain, and Neuro-Structural Integration Technique (NST).

Back pain is a common health issue today that affects at least eight out of 10 people. It is a prevalent problem among Americans. In fact, statistics from the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) reveal that at least 31 million Americans experience lower back pain at any given time.

The ACA report also says that:

  • One-half of all working Americans admit to having back pain symptoms each year.
  • Back pain is one of the most common reasons for missed work. In fact, it is the second most common reason for visits to the doctor’s office (next to upper-respiratory infections).
  • As many as 75 to 85 percent of the population will experience a back problem at some time in their lives. In most cases, this pain is mechanical in nature – it is NOT caused by a serious medical condition, such as inflammatory arthritis or fracture.

Chronic back pain has become such a debilitating problem – and it’s costly, too. According to the ACA, Americans spend at least 50 billion dollars each year on back pain—and that’s just for the more easily identified costs!

I cannot stress enough that preventing or treating disease is possible without the intervention of medications. The same is true for back pain. You only need to address the root cause of the problem by changing your lifestyle and the way you eat and move.

Below is a discussion of the potential causes of back pain, my recommendations for back pain treatment, and how you can alleviate this problem without putting any additional burden on your health.

What Are the Common Causes of Back Pain?

Accidents and sports injuries are the most common causes of chronic back pain. But sometimes, even simple activities or movements – like bending over to pick up an object from the floor – can trigger pain.

There are also a number of other factors that can increase your risk of back pain, such as:

Poor posture Poor physical conditioning facilitated by inactivity Internal disease, such as kidney stones, infections, blood clots
Obesity – According to a study posted in theJournal of American Epidemiology, overweight and obese people had a higher prevalence of low back pain than non-overweight individuals.1 Psychological/emotional stress Osteoporosis or bone loss (as measured by the Z-score and not the young adult-based T-score)

 

Sedentary Lifestyle Puts You at Risk of Back Pain – and Much More

There is one common denominator among most patients who suffer from severe cases of chronic pain: sedentary lifestyle. A majority of back, neck, and other muscle pains are related to imbalanced distribution of force throughout your body, which is created by working or staying in unnatural positions for extended periods. Prolonged sitting and poor posture are major risk factors of not only back pain, but also of weight gain, obesity, joint problems, nerve problems like carpal tunnel syndrome, and other debilitating diseases. In fact, prolonged sitting – along with smoking and obesity – is now an important risk factor for chronic disease!

An analysis of 18 studies showed the value of reduced sitting. It was found that people who sat for the longest periods of time were twice as likely to develop heart disease or diabetes, compared to those who sat the least. This proves that being physically active is great not only for your back, but also for your overall health. In fact, reducing your sitting time may even prolong your life. One study published in the British Medical Journal found that reducing the average time you spend sitting to less than three hours per day may increase your life expectancy by two years (the average American today spends 4.5 to five hours per day on a chair or sofa).2So if you have chronic back pain, it is critical that you evaluate your lifestyle and whether or not you’re getting enough exercise. Failing to exercise, and moving your body enough in general, may be the main reason why you’re suffering from this condition.

The Price You Pay for Poor Emotional Health

There’s increasing evidence that back pain and other types of pain may be exacerbated by psychological or emotional issues. It is my experience that emotional health and your ability to effectively address your stress is an essential component for optimal health, and can have a major influence on whether or not you’re effectively eliminating your pain.

If you have any underlying emotional issues and unresolved trauma, it can profoundly influence your health, particularly in terms of physical pain. A 2004 study on back pain supports this theory. Its researchers followed 100 patients over the course of four years. All of the patients, who were back pain-free at the start of the study underwent psychological tests. Afterwards, the researchers compared which of the participants remained pain-free and which ones developed back pain.

According to the results, the people who scored poorly on the psychological tests were three times more likely to report having experienced back pain by the end of the study.

Many health experts from various fields of medicine agree that emotional and psychological trauma has severe effects on a person’s risk of acquiring chronic pain. One example is Dr. John Sarno, a psychiatrist who uses mind-body techniques to treat patients with severe low back pain. He specializes in helping individuals who already had surgery for low back pain but did not get any relief.

This is one tough group of patients – yet Dr. Sarno has a greater than 80 percent success rate! He uses techniques like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), an acupuncture-like technique that stimulates meridian points throughout your body. Read more about EFT. Sadly, many people dismiss these types of treatment strategies simply because they seem “too simple to be effective.” Unfortunately, they believe that in order to get back pain relief, they need to undergo radical treatment or take medications.

The Dangers of Drugs for Back Pain Treatment

Back Pain MedicationsConventional health care practitioners are quick to prescribe medications like non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), acetaminophen, and even opioids for chronic pain. But even if these medications can provide immediate back pain relief, their effect is only temporary – the pain will come back sooner or later and in some cases will cause hyperalgesia, or increased sensitivity to pain!

What’s more, medications touted to provide back pain relief are saddled with severe side effects. For example, NSAIDs, one of the most commonly prescribed drugs on the market, not only put you at a two- to four-fold higher risk of heart attack, stroke, and other cardiovascular problems, but may also cause:

  • Severe gastrointestinal problems, like digestive tract bleeding
  • Increased blood pressure
  • Kidney problems

Be mindful that these life-threatening side effects of painkillers are not restricted to prescription NSAIDs like Celebrex, but may also come from over-the-counter drugs like aspirin, Advil, and Motrin.

Opioid painkillers like OxyContin, which are also commonly prescribed for back pain relief, also have a highly addictive nature. In fact, opioids are among the most commonly abused prescription drugs today, and are a leading contributor to the increasing rates of fatal prescription drug overdoses. This is why back pain is now one of the primary reasons why so many American adults get addicted to painkillers.

The bottom line is that painkillers always come with risks. Unfortunately, if you consult your conventional physician about your chronic back pain, he will often prescribe a long-term treatment plan that may include anti-inflammatory drugs, muscle relaxants and possibly other types of pain medication or even anti-seizure drugs – a poisonous chemical cocktail that will put your health at severe risk!

Is Your Physician Prescribing This Expensive But Dangerous Drug for Back Pain?

Big Pharma recently began promoting Humira, an expensive drug with a price tag of nearly 20,000 dollars a year. Humira is touted to help treat ankylosing spondylitis, a chronic inflammatory disease of the axial skeleton, which includes the spine. It is outrageous how drug companies promote this dangerous drug for an exceedingly rare cause of low back pain – one that is only responsible for less than a tenth of a tenth of one percent of low back pain! What’s more, Humira may cause severe side effects, such as:

    • Tuberculosis

Back Pain X-Ray

  • Serious infections
  • Increased risk of lymphoma and other cancers
  • Hepatitis B infection
  • Allergic reactions
  • Liver, nervous system, and blood problems
  • Heart failure
  • Immune reactions, such as lupus-like syndrome
  • Psoriasis

This is just the short list; Humira may have even more damaging effects on your health only to emerge later through post-marketing surveillance in exposed populations who are being forced to act as living guinea pigs.

Cut Your Risk of Back Pain Right from the Start!

As with any health condition or disease, preventing back pain is better than trying to cure it after it has set in, and may be too late. So even if you’re not experiencing back pain symptoms, I would recommend you follow these simple tips:

  1. Always stretch before any strenuous physical activity. In fact, I strongly advise you to engage in a regular stretching program. My favorite is active isolated stretching (AIS), developed by Aaron Mattes. It’s completely different from the traditional type of stretching, and is a great way to get flexibility back into your system.
  2. Do not slouch when standing or sitting.
  3. If you spend most of your time sitting, pay careful attention to consciously sucking in your belly and rotating your pelvis slightly up. At the same time, you should keep your head back, with your ears over your shoulders and your shoulder blades pinched. This posture will keep your spine in proper alignment. Do this every hour you’re sitting, holding the muscles tight for several minutes.
  4. Sit in chairs or car seats with good lumbar support.
  5. Switch your sitting positions often. I would also recommend periodically walking around or gently stretching your muscles to relieve tension.
  6. Avoid bending over without supporting your back.
  7. Wear comfortable, low-heeled shoes. Women should also refrain from wearing heels all the time.
  8. Sleep on your side to reduce any curve in your spine. You should also sleep on a firm surface.
  9. When weight-lifting using your legs, always keep your back straight.
  10. Maintain an optimal weight.
  11. Quit smoking. Smoking reduces blood flow to your lower spine, causing the spinal discs to degenerate.
  12. Get enough vitamin D from sun exposure daily, as vitamin D helps keep your bones, including your spine, strong.
  13. Drink plenty of water to enhance the height of your intervertebral disks. Since your body is composed mostly of water, staying hydrated will keep you fluid and reduce stiffness.

How to Relieve Back Pain Naturally

If you are already suffering from chronic back pain or pain of any kind, you should understand that there are many safe and effective alternatives to prescription and over-the-counter painkillers, though they may require some patience. Here are some strategies I highly recommend:

Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic Care for Back PainOne of the best tactics to help treat back pain is to see a qualified chiropractor. I am an avid supporter of the chiropractic philosophy, which puts great emphasis on your body’s innate healing wisdom and does not rely on “Band-Aids” like drugs and surgery.

The problem is that a lot of people ignore chiropractic care, thinking that it’s just “pushing bones into place.” However, there’s a whole lot more to chiropractic care. In fact, one of the basic foundations of this health system is “vitalism” – recognizing that the human body has an innate healing intelligence or ‘life force’ that guides and directs your body’s healing process.

Qualified chiropractic, osteopathic, and naturopathic physicians are reliable, as they have received extensive training in the management of musculoskeletal disorders during their course of graduate healthcare training, which lasts between four to six years. These health experts have comprehensive training in musculoskeletal management.

Many studies have confirmed that chiropractic management is much safer and less expensive than allopathic medical treatments, especially when used for low-back pain treatment.

What’s more, researchers have also found that chiropractic adjustments may affect the chemistry of biological processes on a cellular level. Chiropractic care can affect the basic physiological processes that profoundly influence oxidative stress, immune function and DNA repair. This means that aside from addressing any immediate spinal misalignment that might cause back pain, chiropractic care can also help address, prevent and treat deeper dysfunctions in your body.

Exercises for Back Pain

Adapting an exercise program can help compensate for long hours of being sedentary, a risk factor of back pain. Exercise and being physically active help strengthen the muscles of your spine. One of the best back pain exercises I recommend isFoundation Training, created by chiropractor Dr. Eric Goodman. He developed it to address his own chronic back pain.

Foundation Training exercises are simple but powerful structural movements that help strengthen and realign your body posture and address the root cause of lower back pain, which is related to weakness and imbalance among your posterior chain of muscles that are caused by a sedentary lifestyle and too much sitting.

Foundation Training focuses on your core – the part of your body connected to your pelvis, whether above or below it. These include your hamstrings, glutes, and adductor muscles. Foundation Training teaches all these muscles to work together through integrated chains of movement, which is how you’re structurally designed to move, as opposed to compartmentalized movements like crunches.

Every exercise included in Foundation Training lengthens the front of your body, which is over-tightened, and strengthens the back of your body, helping you stand tall and move with grace and flexibility.

Anyone who wants to do Foundation Training must learn “The Founder,” the key basic exercise. The Founder disperses your weight through the posterior chains, helping to reinforce proper movement while strengthening the entire back of your body. This excellent exercise can help reverse the effects of frequent and prolonged sitting that may lead to back pain. To learn how to do the Founder,

To help address back pain caused by excessive sitting, I also recommend Egoscue Exercises, a series of stretches and special exercises that help restore your muscular balance and skeletal alignment. I often spend at least one hour or more doing an Egoscue exercise called “The Tower.” It’s simple – you only need to lie on the floor and allow your pelvis and thoracic spine to relax. I found this exercise tremendously helpful for treating my chronic low back pain, which is now gone.

You should also include high-intensity sessions in your exercise routine, although you only need to do these once or twice a week at the most. You should also include exercises that not only challenge your body intensely, but also promote muscle strength, balance, and flexibility. Remember to build up your abdominals to avoid back pain. And, as mentioned above, always do some stretching and warm-ups before engaging in strenuous physical activity.

Remember, though, that just because you exercise regularly doesn’t mean that you can justify your long hours spent sitting. In fact, even if you’re fairly physically active, you may still succumb to back pain and other health problems if you spend most of your day behind a desk or on the couch. This phenomenon is called the “active couch potato effect.” In order to avoid this, you must make it a habit to break the pattern of sitting as frequently as possible. Dr. Goodman says:

“Stand up throughout the day to stretch your body appropriately, the way it is meant to be stretched. The simple act of standing as tall as possible for a minute or two will help break the pattern of sitting, as long as you repeat it frequently. Be sure that while standing you take full deep breaths to expand your torso as well. We often have very shallow breath while we sit, counter that with big deep breaths as often as you can throughout the day.

My opinion is that people should not go longer than 30 minutes in a chair without standing, deep breathing, walking and stretching. If you think I am crazy for asking that much of you, then I suggest you not go longer than 20 minutes.”

Study Warns of Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea.

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Story at-a-glance

  • Gonorrhea is increasingly becoming resistant to available drug treatments, and as such may soon pose a major public health threat, according to a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report
  • The World Health Organization (WHO) already recognizes drug-resistant gonorrhea as “an emergency,” with several countries, including Australia, France, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, experiencing increasing infections
  • Gonorrhea is one of 18 drug-resistant superbugs identified as “urgent, serious and concerning threats” to humankind
  • Agricultural uses of antibiotics account for about 80 percent of all antibiotic use in the US; this low-dosage usage is implicated as a major contributor to the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria
  • Each year, two million American adults and children become infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and at least 23,000 of them die as a result

Cases of the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea have been on the decline in the US since the 1970s. However, a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hints that this might not be the case for long.

Gonorrhea is increasingly becoming resistant to available drug treatments, and as such may soon pose a major public health threat. Antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea first emerged when I was in medical school in the late 1970s. By the 1980s, the antibiotics penicillin and tetracycline were no longer effective against it.

Next, gonorrhea resistant to fluoroquinolone antibiotics emerged, leaving only one class of antibiotic drugs, cephalosporins, left to treat it. Now, as you might suspect, gonorrhea is fast becoming resistant to cephalosporins – the last available antibiotics to treat it.

Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea May Soon Be a Major Public Health Threat

Gonorrhea infects about 820,000 people each year in the US. Although it often causes no symptoms, it may initially cause painful urination or discharge from thevagina or penis.

It used to be easy to cure gonorrhea with antibiotics, but increasing drug-resistant strains are changing the game, making this one STD that could put you at risk of permanent health damage. If left untreated, or if unable to be treated due to drug resistance, gonorrhea can cause pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) in women, leading to:1

  • Formation of scar tissue that blocks fallopian tubes
  • Ectopic pregnancy
  • Infertility
  • Long-term pelvic and abdominal pain

In men, gonorrhea may cause pain in the tubes attached to the testicles or lead to sterility. In rare cases, gonorrhea may also infect your blood or joints, which may be life threatening.

The World Health Organization (WHO) already recognizes drug-resistantgonorrheaas “an emergency,” with several countries, including Australia, France, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, experiencing increasing infections. As the CDC reported, if cephalosporin-resistant gonorrhea begins to spread in the US, it’s likely to increase incidence rates significantly.2

According to the CDC report, there are two reasons for the likely increased incidence. First, people may stay infected longer, which increases the chances of spreading it to others. Second, and even more worrisome, they noted that drug-resistant gonorrhea may have mutated to infect people even more easily:

“Mutational changes in the organism that conferred resistance or co-occurred with resistance determinants might have supported gonococcal transmission,” the CDC noted.

The Last Remaining Treatment Option

Because of rising resistance, the CDC has changed the treatment recommendations for gonorrhea to a dual therapy involving an injectable cephalosporin and a second antimicrobial drug, given simultaneously. They describe this as “the only remaining recommended first-line treatment option for gonorrhea.”

Although cases of cephalosporin-resistant gonorrhea have not yet shown up in the US, it is already circulating in Japan and Europe — a similar trend to what happened when the last widespread resistance developed.

So as the CDC reported, it’s likely that even cephalosporins will soon become ineffective against gonorrhea. According to the CDC:3

“Neisseria gonorrhoeae has been remarkably adept at acquiring and maintaining resistance to antimicrobial drugs used for treatment, such as penicillin, tetracyclines, and fluoroquinolones (e.g., ciprofloxacin). After first spreading in Hawaii and California during the late 1990s and early 2000s, ciprofloxacin-resistant gonococcal strains became increasingly prevalent in the United States during the 2000s.

By 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) no longer recommended ciprofloxacin or other fluoroquinolones for treatment of gonorrhea, which make the cephalosporins cefixime or ceftriaxone the only remaining recommended treatment option

…the possible emergence and spread of cephalosporin resistance could eventually threaten the effectiveness of this regimen and pose a major public health challenge.”

Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea Is One of 18 Emerging Superbugs Threatening Humankind

If the idea of drug-resistant gonorrhea concerns you, you’ll be equally alarmed to know there are many other resistant organisms “walking” among us. But, unlike gonorrhea, which is transmitted primarily through sexual contact, other drug-resistant pathogens are spread more readily – through contaminated food, water, or even dust particles.

The majority of the highly dangerous bacteria are in the Gram-negative category, because that variety has body armor that makes it extremely tough. Some forms are now exhibiting “panresistance”—meaning, resistance to absolutely every antibiotic in existence. In the CDC’s report “Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, 2013,” the following 18 superbugs are identified as “urgent, serious and concerning threats” to humankind:4

What is a zapper and what does it do?

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The zapper is a device invented by Dr. Clark. It kills parasites, bacteria, viruses, molds and fungi electrically. Viruses and bacteria disappear in three minutes; tapeworm stages, flukes, roundworms in five; and mites in seven. A battery-operated, positive offset with a very low voltage from 5 to 10 volts is sufficient. It kills parasites and bacteria wherever the current reaches them. But it does not reach the eyes, the appendix, the testes, the inner ear bones. The current travels along the stomach or intestinal wall, not through its content. It does not reach into the gallstones or into the living cells. The current does not pass uniformly through the body. With regular zapping, the current passes mainly through our liquids, i. e our lymphatic and vascular system, a small fraction reaches every organ and tissue of our body. Blood and lymph are the most important locations to zap.

Buying a zapper

Parasites can be killed with a very low voltage. But only if the voltage is 100% POSITIVE OFFSET and if the voltage is varied up and down repeatedly. If the varying voltage becomes NEGATIVE, even momentarily, it supports and maintains their lives. The above picture of the zapper output on an oscilloscope illustrates the varied square wave voltage which stops at 0.25 Volt and therefore does not go below the 0 volt.

What are the benefits by applying a positive offset?

If the voltage is applied in pulses, to produce a “square” wave, it will affect many parasites at once so that the rate of pulsing, called frequency is not critical. Even though these tiny animals undoubtedly have a “mortal frequency” ( a frequency that kills), this rate does not need to be known or used when a square wave of electricity, totally positive, is used.

Why did Dr. Clark pick a frequency of about 30 KHz (30,000 cycles per second) for the zapper?

When a high frequency ac voltage was applied to a human, using hand electrodes, and the current flow measured, it could be seen that the higher the frequency, the greater the current.

At about 30,000 cycles per second the current begins to decline, showing the resistance is increasing.
The application of a 30 KHz frequency at a voltage of about 5 volts, can be felt by all parts of the body. A probe from a frequency counter picks up this frequency at any location. But some locations have a much weaker signal than others. The current is evidently not uniform through the body.

Persons with an inflammation in the body can often “feel” the zapper at that location, suggesting it is a path of low resistance, too, for the 30 KHz zapper current. Inflamed areas are negatively charged regions. Negative charges would be pulled toward the positive electrode of the zapper in 30,000 little jerks per second.

Therefore a frequency of about 30 KHz (30,000 cycles per second) was chosen for the zapper, since it maximizes the current with regular zapping. But other frequencies may prove to have special value asresearch progresses.

Side effects

There are no side effects, since the zapper is energized by a 9-volt battery. This is too small a voltage to harm you. In her book: “The Prevention of all Cancers“, Dr. Clark states that she has seen no effects on blood pressare, mental alertness, or body temperature. It has never produced pain, although it has often stopped pain instantly.

Only if you are pregnant or wearing a pacemaker, you should not zap, for these situations have not been explored yet. Children as young as eight months have been zapped with no noticeable il effects. For them, you should weigh the possible benefits against the unknown risks.

Benefits of zapping

The removal of parasites, bacteria, viruses, and fungus.

A positive electrical force that pulses up and down also energizes the white blood cells to go on an all-out attack on the enemies: parasites, toxins, bacteria, everything in spite of their five immunity blockers: benzene, PCBs, metals, dyes and asbestos. For a time the WBCs turn into Super-WBCs. That is why Dr. Clark recommends eight hours of zapping daily for the sick until they are well.

Obstacles of zapping

When an organ is saturated with a liquid insulator, such as PCBs, benzene, motor oil and wheel bearing grease, they do not let the current pass through the skin or into an organ easily. Cancer victims are particularly full of insulators.

How to overcome this obstacle:

Plate-zapping can overcome this insulation obstacle.

Different zapping methods

Regular zapping with “standard” program

Regular zapping is frequency-INDEPENDENT

A first seven-minute zapping is followed by an intermission, lasting 20 to 30 minutes. During this time, bacteria and viruses are released from the dying parasites and start to invade you instead. Each parasite has its own bacterial and viral escapees. The second seven-minute session is intended to kill these newly released viruses and bacteria. Again, viruses are released, this time from the dying bacteria. The third session kills the last viruses released. A fourth and fifth session may be very beneficial too, to eliminate “prion protein” streaming from killed Salmonella bacteria.

Regular zapping with “duration” program

An hour of continuous zapping. Since the more the very sick persons zapped, the better they became, it may be possible to zap continually till well; that is, non-stop all day for a week or more.

Frequency zapping

Every living thing has its own frequency. Frequency zapping is frequency-DEPENDENT. Based on homeopathic principles, the pathogen’s frequency is used. In this way, this way of zapping aims for a specific frequency or frequencies.

Frequency zapping kills a range of parasites clustered around the frequency chosen and at more locations.

 

Differences and benefits of the various zapping methods

Regular zapping:

Frequency-INDEPENDENT. Any positively offset frequency kills all bacteria, viruses and parasites simultaneously given sufficient voltage (5 to 10 volts), a duration of seven minutes and a frequency from 10 Hz to 500,000 Hz).

Passes mainly through the liquids of our body, the lymphatic and blood system

Some organs are unreachable

Frequency zapping:

Frequency-DEPENDENT
Targeted way of zapper
It can enter internal organs more readily

Do not zap if you wear a pacemaker or if pregnant

Plate Zapping

It is a targeted way of zapping and reaches specific organs electrically, with a significant effect. A new kind of zapping that can overcome the obstacle of grease insulation. Plate-zapping is a specific way to zap preferably one organ at a time.

Throughout the day, the organ with a tumor should be plate-zapped in various ways: combined with arteries, combined with veins, combined with white blood cells, each for 20 minutes. These zaps are followed with zaps to clear blood, lymph and the white blood cells themselves. And the kidneys are zapped to keep them from clogging repeatedly with the heavy metals and greases they are handling. Twenty-minute zaps can be kept up for eight hours or more. alt

For example, with the sample of liver placed in the pathway between you and your zapper, the current has an instant effect on the white blood cells of your liver. Instantly they are energized and begin to eat the PCBs, the benzene, the heavy metals, the dyes, and the malonic acid in your liver. They even eat wheel bearing grease

Like a fairy godmother that has waved her wand, all toxins are quickly taken out of the liver tissue and imprisoned in the liver white blood cells. If they have been fed themselves they can unload all this into the urine. Then they continue to eat toxins without zapper help. Gradually, conductivity returns.

Fifteen capsules (about 5 or 6 grams) of mixed enzyme powders can digest the dead matter coming from four hours of zapping. Eight hours require two such doses. More is better.

In advanced cancer nothing less than eight hours of zapping daily can catch up and exceed the rate of spread of disease. Zap eight hours daily until you are well. There are reports from victims who zapped without stopping for a whole month; symptoms cam and went while they cleaned up their environment and suddenly the disease was gone.

For programs for plate-zapping go here:

How often should the zapper be used?

The healthy:

Zapping once a day is now a common routine for many persons.

The ill:

For the ill, zapping all day, continuously, for a month or more has often brought significant improvement.

 

(From the “Prevention of all Cancers” pages 475 to 478, 83, The Syncrometer Science Laboratory Manual, page 139, 140, 81; )

 

NASA’S FUEL-LESS SPACE DRIVE MMAY ACTUALLY WORK.

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NASA last week presented an “impossible” fuel-less Space Drive, a microwave thruster that may actually work.

Wired UK explains the work of an American scientist, Guido Fetta, who claims to have built a propellant-less thruster, based on the EmDrive.

Inventor Roger Sawyer created the ‘Emdrive’ concept. Credit EmDrive

The new drive uses microwave technology to convert electrical energy directly into thrust.

Thrust is produced by the amplification of the radiation pressure of an electromagnetic wave propagated through a resonant waveguide assembly. No propellant is used in the conversion process.

NASA said, gave Fetta’s design, that has small differences from EmDrive, their stamp of approval after testing his drive.

Now according to io9 CalTech physicist Sean Carroll, said:

The business about “quantum vacuum virtual plasma” (the physics of which they “won’t address” in this paper) is complete bullshit. There is a quantum vacuum, but it’s nothing like a plasma. [The researchers] hook up a gizmo with all sorts of electromagnetic fields fluctuating around, then claim to measure an extremely tiny thrust (about the weight of a single grain of sand), which occurs even for the test article that wasn’t supposed to produce any thrust at all.

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Source: Worldlesstech via Wired

Vaccine alternative protects mice against malaria.

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A study led by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers found that injecting a vaccine-like compound into mice was effective in protecting them from malaria. The findings suggest a potential new path toward the elusive goal of malaria immunization.

Lab mice

Mice, injected with a virus genetically altered to help the rodents create an antibody designed to fight the parasite, produced high levels of the anti-malaria antibody. The approach, known as Vector immunoprophylaxis, or VIP, has shown promise in HIV studies but has never been tested with malaria, for which no licensed vaccine exists.

A report on the research appears online Aug. 11 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Malaria is one of the world’s deadliestinfectious diseases, killing as many as 1 million people per year, the majority of them children in Africa. Malaria patients get the disease from infected mosquitoes. Of the four types of malaria that affect humans, the parasite Plasmodium falciparum is the most lethal, responsible for the majority of malaria cases. Antimalarial treatments and mosquito habitat modification have contributed to a decline in malaria mortality. But the number of cases remains high, and stemming them is a top global health priority.

In their study, researchers used a virus containing genes that were encoded to produce an antibody targeted to inhibit P. falciparum infection. Up to 70 percent of the mice injected with the VIP were protected from malaria-infected mosquito bites. In a subset of mice that produced higher levels of serum , the protection was 100 percent. The mice were tested a year after receiving a single injection of the virus and were shown to still produce high levels of the protective antibody.

“We need better ways to fight malaria and our research suggests this could be a promising approach,” notes study leader Gary Ketner, PhD, a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

There is a fine line between a vaccine and a VIP injection. One key difference: a VIP injection is formulated to produce a specific antibody. VIP technology bypasses the requirement of the host to make its own immune response against malaria, which is what occurs with a vaccine. Instead VIP provides the protective antibody gene, giving the host the tools to target the . “The body is actually producing a malaria-neutralizing antibody,” says Ketner. “Instead of playing defense, the host is playing offense.”

“Our idea was to find a way for each individual to create a long-lasting response against malaria,” says Cailin Deal, PhD, who helped lead the research while completing her doctorate at the School.

One advantage of this targeted approach over a traditional vaccine, the researchers note, is that the body might be able to continue to produce the antibody. With a vaccine, the natural immune response wanes over time, sometimes losing the ability to continue to resist infection, which would require follow-up booster shots. This can be challenging for people living in remote and or rural areas where malaria is prevalent buthealth care access limited. Any immunization protocol that involved one injection would be preferable.

“It’s dose dependent,” adds Deal. “Of course we don’t know what the human dosage would be, but it’s conceivable that the right dosage could completely protect against malaria.”

“Vectored antibody gene delivery protects against Plasmodium falciparum sporozoite challenge in mice” was written by Cailin Deal, Alejandro B. Balazs, Diego A. Espinosa, Fidel Zavala, David Baltimore and Gary Ketner.

Effect of Bisphosphonate Use on Risk of Postmenopausal Breast Cancer.

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Results From the Randomized Clinical Trials of Alendronate and Zoledronic Acid.

Importance  Studies have shown that bisphosphonates may have antitumor and antimetastatic properties. Recently, observational studies have suggested a possible protective effect of bisphosphonates on breast cancer, but the effect of bisphosphonate use on risk of breast cancer has not been tested in randomized trials.

Objective  To assess the relationship of postmenopausal breast cancer incidence and bisphosphonate use using data from 2 randomized (1:1), double-blind, placebo-controlled trials.

Design, Setting, and Participants  The Fracture Intervention Trial (FIT) randomly assigned 6459 women aged 55 to 81 years to alendronate or placebo for a mean follow-up of 3.8 years. The Health Outcomes and Reduced Incidence With Zoledronic Acid Once Yearly–Pivotal Fracture Trial (HORIZON-PFT) randomly assigned 7765 women aged 65 to 89 years to annual intravenous zoledronic acid or placebo for a mean follow-up of 2.8 years. Data were collected at clinical centers in the United States (FIT and HORIZON-PFT) and in Asia and the Pacific, Europe, North America, and South America (HORIZON-PFT). Women, in either study, with recurrent breast cancer or who reported a history of breast cancer were excluded from analyses. In each trial, a blinded review was conducted of each cancer adverse event report to verify incident invasive breast cancer cases. The primary analysis compared events in the active vs placebo group using a log-rank test.

Intervention  Alendronate vs placebo (FIT) or zoledronic acid vs placebo (HORIZON-PFT).

Main Outcomes and Measures  Hazard ratio for incident breast cancer in the bisphosphonate treatment group compared to the placebo group.

Results  There was no significant difference in the rate of breast cancer in FIT: 1.5% (n = 46) in the placebo group and 1.8% (n = 57) in the alendronate group (hazard ratio [HR], 1.24 [95% CI, 0.84-1.83]). In HORIZON-PFT, there was also no significant difference: 0.8% (n = 29) in the placebo group and 0.9% (n = 33) in the zoledronic acid group (HR, 1.15 [95% CI, 0.70-1.89]). There was also no significant difference when the data from FIT and HORIZON-PFT were pooled (HR, 1.20 [95% CI, 0.89-1.63]).

Conclusions and Relevance  These 2 randomized clinical trials do not support the findings from observational research. Contrary to the results from observational studies, we found that 3 to 4 years of bisphosphonate treatment did not decrease the risk of invasive postmenopausal breast cancer.

“Doctors Excited by New Cancer Treatment”

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Most existing cancer drugs and treatments are poisons, designed to attack and hopefully kill cancer cells, or at least slow their growth.

But most of these treatments attack not just cancer cells, but healthy cells, too. Thus, people taking the drugs too often suffer horrible side effects on top of whatever havoc the cancer itself is already wreaking. They become thin and weak. They lose their hair and their color.

But now, the next revolution in cancer therapy may have arrived.

It’s called “molecularly targeted therapy.” The treatment consists of drugs designed at the molecular level of the cell to specifically attack and kill only the cancer cells of a specific type of cancer. And they are tailor-made to recognize specific molecules unique to specific cancers.

The model drug leading the way is Glivec, also known as STI571. It is active against a relatively rare form of leukemia — chronic myeloid leukemia, or CML — characterized by excessive overproduction of white blood cells.

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"Doctors Excited by New Cancer Treatment" Most existing cancer drugs and treatments are poisons, designed to attack and hopefully kill cancer cells, or at least slow their growth. But most of these treatments attack not just cancer cells, but healthy cells, too. Thus, people taking the drugs too often suffer horrible side effects on top of whatever havoc the cancer itself is already wreaking. They become thin and weak. They lose their hair and their color. But now, the next revolution in cancer therapy may have arrived. It’s called “molecularly targeted therapy.” The treatment consists of drugs designed at the molecular level of the cell to specifically attack and kill only the cancer cells of a specific type of cancer. And they are tailor-made to recognize specific molecules unique to specific cancers. The model drug leading the way is Glivec, also known as STI571. It is active against a relatively rare form of leukemia — chronic myeloid leukemia, or CML — characterized by excessive overproduction of white blood cells. #VUHCUPDATES