Day: 01/29/2019
The 5 Causes of Suffering According to Buddhism and the Ultimate Way to Overcome Them
We all encounter mental roadblocks in life. To feelings of self-doubt to anxiety and depression, mental hindrances can be extremely tough to deal with.
However, we’re not the first human beings that suffered from such obstacles.
Buddhist monks and philosophers have studied and practiced the art of freeing the mind from these negative emotions that tie us to what they call the Wheel of Suffering.
They found 5 common hindrances to the mind.
We’ve gone through each of them below and we’ve also discussed how we can actually go about overcoming these obstacles for a peaceful and happy life.
1) The Mental Hindrance of Desire for Sensing.
What is it:
The hindrance of sensory desire is latching onto thoughts or feelings based on the pleasures of the five senses.
Buddhist master Traleg Kyabgon explains it best:
“This term alludes to the mind’s tendency to latch on to something that attracts it–a thought, a visual object, or a particular emotion. When we allow the mind to indulge in such attractions, we lose our concentration. So we need to apply mindfulness and be aware of how the mind operates; we don’t necessarily have to suppress all these things arising in the mind, but we should take notice of them and see how the mind behaves, how it automatically grabs onto this and that.”
How to overcome it:
To overcome the hindrance of sensory desire, the meditator must use mindfulness and acknowledge the hindrance. Then they must observe the hindrance and experience it fully. Once experienced fully, the meditator must contemplate the impermanence of the pleasant desire. Buddhist master Ajahn Brahmavamso emphasizes the technique for letting go of concern for the body and five senses completely:
“In meditation, one transcends sensory desire for the period by letting go of concern for this body and its five sense activity. Some imagine that the five senses are there to serve and protect the body, but the truth is that the body is there to serve the five senses as they play in the world ever seeking delight. Indeed, the Lord Buddha once said, “The five senses ARE the world” and to leave the world, to enjoy the other worldly bliss of Jhana, one must give up for a time ALL concern for the body and its five senses.”
2) The Mental Hindrance of Aversion and Ill-Will.
What is it:
This involves latching onto thoughts or feelings based on hostility, anger, resentment, bitterness etc.
Ajahn Brahmavamso states:
“Ill will refers to the desire to punish, hurt or destroy. It includes sheer hatred of a person, or even a situation, and it can generate so much energy that it is both seductive and addictive. At the time, it always appears justified for such is its power that it easily corrupts our ability to judge fairly. It also includes ill will towards oneself, otherwise known as guilt, which denies oneself any possibility of happiness. In meditation, ill will can appear as dislike towards the meditation object itself, rejecting it so that one’s attention is forced to wander elsewhere.”
How to overcome it:
According to Ajahn Brahmavamso, meditation on loving-kindness is crucial:
“Ill will is overcome by applying Metta, loving kindness. When it is ill will towards a person, Metta teaches one to see more in that person than all that which hurts you, to understand why that person hurt you (often because they were hurting intensely themselves), and encourages one to put aside one’s own pain to look with compassion on the other.”
3) The Mental Hindrance of Lethargy and Laziness.
What is it:
This is characterized as a morbid state of lacking energy and desire for wholesome activity.
Ajahn Brahmavamso states:
“Sloth and torpor refers to that heaviness of body and dullness of mind which drag one down into disabling inertia and thick depression. […] In meditation, it causes weak and intermittent mindfulness which can even lead to falling asleep in meditation without even realising it!”
How to overcome it:
To overcome laziness, we need to use our energy sources. Ajahn Brahmavamso says:
“Sloth and torpor is overcome by rousing energy. Energy is always available but few know how to turn on the switch, as it were. Setting a goal, a reasonable goal, is a wise and effective way to generate energy, as is deliberately developing interest in the task at hand. A young child has a natural interest, and consequent energy, because its world is so new. Thus, if one can learn to look at one’s life, or one’s meditation, with a ‘beginner’s mind’ one can see ever new angles and fresh possibilities which keep one distant from sloth and torpor, alive and energetic.”
4) The Mental Hindrance of Restlessness and Regret.
What is it:
This refers to the mind being agitated and unable to settle down. Ajahn Brahmavamso explains it best:
“Restlessness [uddhacca] refers to a mind which is like a monkey, always swinging on to the next branch, never able to stay long with anything. It is caused by the fault-finding state of mind which cannot be satisfied with things as they are, and so has to move on to the promise of something better, forever just beyond. […] Remorse [kukkucca] refers to a specific type of restlessness which is the kammic effect of one’s misdeeds.”
How to overcome it:
Gil Fronsdal says it’s about understanding what makes you restless and accepting it and taking action:
“[There are] a variety of ways to engage restlessness, be present for it. […] [One is] learning, reflecting, meditating and contemplating what the nature of restlessness is. […] There might be a really good cause for you to be restless. […] Maybe you haven’t paid your taxes in ten years. […] [In this case] you don’t need meditation, you need to pay your taxes. You don’t use meditation to run away from the real issues of your life. […] Sometimes what’s needed is to really look and understand are there root causes for being restless.”
5) The Mental Hindrance of Doubt and Uncertainty.
What is it:
This involves self-doubt and not truly understanding oneself.
Ajahn Brahmavamso states:
“Doubt refers to the disturbing inner questions at a time when one should be silently moving deeper. Doubt can question one’s own ability “Can I do This?”, or question the method “Is this the right way?”, or even question the meaning “What is this?”. It should be remembered that such questions are obstacles to meditation because they are asked at the wrong time and thus become an intrusion, obscuring one’s clarity.”
How to overcome it:
According to Ajahn Brahmavamso, this is overcome by having clear instructions and a way to move forward. He says:
“Such doubt is overcome by gathering clear instructions, having a good map, so that one can recognise the subtle landmarks in the unfamiliar territory of deep meditation and so know which way to go. Doubt in one’s ability is overcome by nurturing self-confidence with a good teacher. A meditation teacher is like a coach who convinces the sports team that they can succeed.”
Frailty a Risk Factor for Dementia
Frailty is associated with a higher risk of both Alzheimer’s disease and its crippling symptoms, a new study shows.
“By reducing an individual’s physiological reserve, frailty could trigger the clinical expression of dementia when it might remain asymptomatic in someone who is not frail,” said study leader Dr. Kenneth Rockwood, a professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada.
“This indicates that a ‘frail brain‘ might be more susceptible to neurological problems like dementia as it is less able to cope with the pathological burden,” he added.
The study included 456 adults in Illinois, aged 59 and older, who did not have Alzheimer’s when first enrolled in the Rush Memory and Aging Project. They underwent annual assessments of their mental and physical health, and their brains were examined after they died.
By their last assessment, 53 percent of the participants had been diagnosed with possible or probable Alzheimer’s disease.
For the physical assessments, the researchers created a frailty index using 41 components, including fatigue, joint and heart problems, osteoporosis, mobility and meal preparation abilities.
Overall, 8 percent of the participants had significant Alzheimer’s disease-related brain changes without having been diagnosed with dementia, and 11 percent had Alzheimer’s but little evidence of disease-related brain changes.
Those with higher levels of frailty were more likely to have both Alzheimer’s disease-related brain changes and symptoms of dementia, while others with substantial brain changes, but who were not frail, had fewer symptoms of the disease.
After adjusting for age, sex and education, the researchers concluded that frailty and Alzheimer’s disease-related brain changes independently contribute to dementia, though they could not prove that frailty caused Alzheimer’s and its symptoms.
The investigators also said there was a significant association between frailty and Alzheimer’s-related brain changes after they excluded activities of daily living from the frailty index and adjusted for other risk factors such as stroke, heart failure, high blood pressure and diabetes.
The study was published Jan. 17 in The Lancet Neurology journal.
“This is an enormous step in the right direction for Alzheimer’s research,” Rockwood said in a journal news release. “Our findings suggest that the expression of dementia symptoms results from several causes, and Alzheimer’s disease-related brain changes are likely to be only one factor in a whole cascade of events that lead to clinical symptoms.”
Understanding frailty could help predict and prevent dementia, Dr. Francesco Panza, from the University of Bari Aldo Moro in Italy, wrote in an accompanying editorial.
Blood Test Might Show Early Warning of Alzheimer’s
Leaky blood vessels in the brain may be an early sign of Alzheimer’s disease, researchers say.
They followed 161 older adults for five years and found that those with the most severe memory declines had the greatest leakage in their brain’s blood vessels, regardless of whether the Alzheimer’s-related proteins amyloid and tau were present.
The findings could help with earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and suggest a new drug target for slowing down or preventing the disease, according to the researchers from the University of Southern California.
“The fact that we’re seeing the blood vessels leaking, independent of tau and independent of amyloid, when people have cognitive [mental] impairment on a mild level, suggests it could be a totally separate process or a very early process,” said study senior author Dr. Berislav Zlokovic. He is director of the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute at the university’s Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles.
“That was surprising, that this blood-brain barrier breakdown is occurring independently,” Zlokovic added in a university news release.
The blood-brain barrier prevents harmful substances from reaching brain tissue. In some people, this barrier weakens with age.
“If the blood-brain barrier is not working properly, then there is the potential for damage,” explained study co-author Arthur Toga, who is director of the Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute at Keck.
“It suggests the vessels aren’t properly providing the nutrients and blood flow that the neurons need. And you have the possibility of toxic proteins getting in,” Toga said.
“The results were really kind of eye-opening,” said study first author Daniel Nation, an assistant professor of psychology. “It didn’t matter whether people had amyloid or tau pathology; they still had cognitive impairment.”
The findings were published recently in the journal Nature Medicine.
The next step in this research is to determine how soon mental decline occurs after damage to brain blood vessels.
The number of Americans with Alzheimer’s is expected to nearly triple to about 14 million by 2060, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Are You a Risk-Taker? It Might Lie in Your Genes
Do you shy away from risky business or cast caution aside and go for it?
Either way, your answer could come from your DNA.
Scientists have identified more than 100 genetic variants linked with risk-taking, according to a groundbreaking new study.
“Genetic variants that are associated with overall risk tolerance — a measure based on self-reports about individuals’ tendencies to take risks in general — tend to also be associated with more speeding, drinking, tobacco and cannabis consumption, and with riskier investments and sexual behavior,” said the study’s corresponding author Jonathan Beauchamp. He’s an assistant professor of economics at the University of Toronto, Canada.
“We also found shared genetic influences on overall risk tolerance and several personality traits and neuropsychiatric traits — including ADHD [attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder], bipolar disorder and schizophrenia,” he added in a university news release.
While individual effects of each of the 124 identified genetic variants in 99 separate regions of the genome are small, their combined impact can be significant, the researchers explained.
“The most important variant explains only 0.02 percent of the variation in overall risk tolerance across individuals. However, the variants’ effects can be combined to account for greater variation in risk tolerance,” Beauchamp said.
His team created a “polygenic score” that rates the combined effects of 1 million genetic variants and accounts for about 1.6 percent of differences in risk tolerance from person to person.
“I expect it to be useful in social science studies,” Beauchamp said. “For instance, the score can be used to study how genetic factors interact with environmental variables to affect risk tolerance and risky behaviors.”
But the score can’t meaningfully predict a particular person’s tolerance for risk or risk-taking behavior, according to the authors of the study published Jan. 14 in the journal Nature Genetics.
The study — one of the largest ever — included genetic information from more than 1 million people with European ancestry, the researchers said.
The investigators found no evidence to support previously reported links between risk tolerance and certain genes, such as those associated with dopamine or serotonin, neurochemicals involved in the processing of rewards and mood regulation.
Instead, the new findings suggest that the neurochemicals glutamate and GABA contribute to individual differences in risk tolerance. Both are important regulators of brain activity.
“Our results point to the role of specific brain regions — notably the prefrontal cortex, basal ganglia, and midbrain — that have previously been identified in neuroscientific studies on decision-making,” Beauchamp said.
“They conform with the expectation that variation in risk tolerance is influenced by thousands, if not millions, of genetic variants,” he concluded.
These 4 common beliefs are destroying your life. Here’s how to change them.
When we evaluate the little things that make our day a little less perfect, we usually turn to external factors like someone else’s tardiness. Or traffic. Or how long it takes for your food to order at your favorite restaurant.
In reality, these things exist by themselves. Traffic is always going to be there and what’s really annoying you isn’t the traffic itself but how it’s affecting you.
Specifically, how it’s affecting your perception of time. This is more true of someone’s tardiness. You expect them to be on time and when they aren’t, you get incredibly annoyed.
This psychological tendency is readily explained by Epictetus who said: “People are not disturbed, but by the views they take of them.”
Traffic is a universal element. It’s always going to exist, even if we don’t want it to.
So it’s still puzzling why people get pissed off at traffic even though they have been traveling the same road for years and years on end.
You know you’re bound to get in stuck in traffic so why are you spending so much energy getting annoyed by it?
A lot of this frustration lies in our inherent mindset.
A psychologist named Albert Ellis summed up the top four mindsets we have that can inhibit the way we interact with the world.
He says what we think of the world causes a huge part of the unhappiness and disdain we feel on a daily basis. It’s problematic because these thoughts aren’t conscious. They lurk within our minds and affect our consciousness.
Don’t know what they are? Well, this article is about pointing them out:
1) “I’m like this because of my past”
Yes, you have been wronged in the past. Yes, you have been under some sort of traumatic incident but that doesn’t mean it should define who you become in the future.
Let’s say you were bullied when you were 12 years old, had no friends, and were made to feel completely useless.
A lot of people tend to use this event in their life as a loop to continue their current trajectory.
The only problem is, you’re not 12 anymore. You’re in your 20s, 30s, 40s, or even 50s as an adult who should be able to recognize the role of agency in his or her life.
Past problems should be exactly what they are: left in the past. There’s no wrong in acknowledging it but living by it, shaping your life around it is the least progressive way of dealing with these things.
2) “Perfection is Key”
This isn’t exactly a subtle mindset since a lot of people like to declare that they are perfectionists in one way or another.
The sneaky part about this mindset, though, is that we expect that we are perfect. Sure, we make mistakes and we acknowledge that we aren’t perfect. Or at least, that’s what we like to say.
When things get awry, we tend to get disappointed in ourselves and create a big fuss over what should have beens and could have beens.
If we truly, deeply realized that perfection shouldn’t be our guiding light in everything we do, our approach in life wouldn’t be so tense all the time.
3) “Anxiety Eases The Journey”
Worrying about things is fine, and we’re pretty open about that too. But there comes a time when worrying becomes a drug, so much so that we can’t help but be anxious about a possibly insignificant event in our lives.
It’s hard to catch ourselves and will our minds to stop worrying. Ellis believes that worrying is an odd habit that encourages people to keep thinking because it subconsciously makes us feel better.
We think that by obsessively dreading an event or a responsibility, we are preparing ourselves for the better.
By replaying the same upsetting scenario in our heads, we are getting our minds acquainted with the stress.
Instead of spending 24 hours worrying, why not allocate 30 to 45 minutes to do nothing but worry?
This study acknowledges that moderated anxiety can actually be a healthy way of releasing stress.
As a solution, the experts are suggesting that people should schedule their worrying. This way, they can let off some steam without expending a lot of time and energy on it.
4) “This Shouldn’t Happen”
The traffic scenario is perhaps best explained by this mindset. Although we recognize that traffic is a part of our lives and will inevitably add a couple of hours to our daily travel, we still get pissed when it does happen.
The reason? Because a little voice in our heads tell us that this shouldn’t be happening to us.
Whenever something inconvenient comes our way, our reaction is to be pissed. The inconvenience is rooted in our subtle belief that these interruptions shouldn’t happen to us.
We could acknowledge that the world isn’t a fair place but we can’t help but hope that the world would be fair to us.
That’s not to say you should settle on what life throws at you. By all means, do what you can to improve your situation. The point is to know the difference between a circumstance and just plain coincidence so that you may pick your battles accordingly.
Can Artificial Intelligence Read X-Rays?
An artificial intelligence (AI) system can analyze chest X-rays and spot patients who should receive immediate care, researchers report.
The system could also reduce backlogs in hospitals someday. Chest X-rays account for 40 percent of all diagnostic imaging worldwide, and there can be large backlogs, according to the researchers.
“Currently, there are no systematic and automated ways to triage chest X-rays and bring those with critical and urgent findings to the top of the reporting pile,” explained study co-author Giovanni Montana. He is formerly of King’s College London and is now at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England.
Montana and his colleagues used more than 470,300 adult chest X-rays to develop an AI system that could identify unusual results.
The system’s performance in prioritizing X-rays was assessed in a simulation using a separate set of 15,887 chest X-rays. All identifying information was removed from the X-rays to protect patient privacy.
The system was highly accurate in distinguished abnormal from normal chest X-rays, researchers said. Simulations showed that with the AI system, critical findings received an expert radiologist opinion within an average of 2.7 days, compared with an average of 11.2 days in actual practice.
The study results were published Jan. 22 in the journal Radiology.
“The initial results reported here are exciting as they demonstrate that an AI system can be successfully trained using a very large database of routinely acquired radiologic data,” Montana said in a journal news release.
“With further clinical validation, this technology is expected to reduce a radiologist’s workload by a significant amount by detecting all the normal exams, so more time can be spent on those requiring more attention,” he added.
The researchers said the next step is to test a much larger number of X-rays and to conduct a multi-center study to assess the AI system’s performance.
How to make your own homemade water filter
Water is essential to survival, even more so than food. Even in the best of conditions, you probably won’t last more than 10 days without access to clean, drinking water, but you might be able to survive for four to six weeks without food. At the same time, it is important to either purify, filter, or sterilize your water before drinking it. While dehydration is a valid cause for concern, drinking unclean or contaminated water might just be worse, as this may expose you to waterborne bacteria or parasites. SHTF will really happen if this causes you to develop diarrhea, as you will lose even more of what little water you have left in your body. Secure your own supply of clean water by making your own DIY water filter. (h/t to MDCreekMore.com)
Before making your own homemade water filter, you should first be familiar with the proper terminology. Most people, including preppers, tend to use the words filtration, purification, and sterilization interchangeably. While there is some overlap between these terms when it comes to how many commercial filter units operate, these terms do not all mean the same thing.
Filtration involves the removal of solid matter and some emulsified liquids. Purification involves the removal of non-water substances, such as those in emulsions or solutions. Sterilization involves the elimination of harmful microbes. Some filter units may even include layers of activated charcoal to filter out solid matter and remove heavy metals. Also known as activated carbon, activated charcoal utilizes chemical adsorption to remove contaminants and impurities.
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How to build your own DIY water filter
Building your own homemade water filter is much more cost-efficient than buying a completely new one. A DIY water filter also allows you more freedom to customize your filter to better suit your personal needs and preferences. The process is so simple that it will only take you around 20 minutes to build your own water filter.
Items needed:
- 2 Black Berkey purification elements (or any other purification elements of your brand of choice)
- rubber washers
- wingnut fasteners
- 2 5-gallon food-grade buckets with lids
- food-grade spigot (preferably the size used for large water coolers)
- drill with 1/2- and 3/4-inch drill bits
Procedure:
- Take one of your food-grade buckets and drill two holes at the bottom using your drill and the 1/2-inch drill bit. These holes should be around four to six inches apart.
- Take the lid of that bucket and drill two holes through it using the drill and the 1/2-inch drill bit. Make sure these holes match up perfectly with the holes at the bottom of your bucket.
- Take the second bucket and measure a spot around two inches from the bottom on one side of the bucket. This will serve as the hole for your spigot, so make it so it doesn’t touch the bottom to avoid damage.
- Once you’ve found the right spot, drill a hole through the side of the second bucket using your 3/4-inch drill bit.
- Install your purification elements through the 1/2-inch holes that you drilled at the bottom of the first bucket.
- Carefully secure your purification elements using your rubber washers and wingnut fasteners. Make sure that you do not overtighten the nuts as this could damage your purification element and cause it to leak.
- To assemble your water filter, first take the bucket with the spigot. This will serve as your base.
- Next, place the lid 1/2-inch holes on top of the bucket with the spigot.
- On top of the lid, place the bucket with purification elements installed. Keep the holes aligned so that the tubes of the purification elements extend through the lid below it and into the lower bucket with the spigot.
- Pour water into the upper bucket. This water should drip down through the purification elements and collect in the lower bucket.
- Cover the upper bucket with the remaining lid.
- Whenever you feel thirsty, simply turn the spigot on and fill a glass with your clean, drinking water.
Learn other ways to secure your supply of clean water by going to CleanWater.news.
Sources include:
Here’s what research shows about the mental health benefits of ginger
Ginger is a natural anti-inflammatory that also offers other health benefits. In fact, the versatile plant can even help boost your mental health.
Ginger (Zingiber officinale) comes from the rhizome or root of a flowering plant native to China, but the spice can grow in any area that is warm and humid. Aside from its use as a natural remedy for digestive disorders, ginger can also be used to address arthritis, memory loss and dementia, and muscle aches and pains.
Thanks to scientific research, experts are beginning to understand how ginger works. To date, research has identified over 100 compounds in ginger. More than 50 of these are antioxidants, which is crucial to brain health since the organ is vulnerable to free radical damage.
Ginger is often used as an anti-inflammatory, making it a popular natural remedy for arthritis. The plant’s anti-inflammatory property can also help people with brain disorders like ADHD, Alzheimer’s, anxiety, brain fog, and depression, which are often associated with chronic inflammation of the brain. Experts believe that ginger’s anti-inflammatory effects on the brain are due to two unique compounds called 6-shogaol and 10-gingerol.
Like the Indian spice turmeric, ginger also has a compound called curcumin. This compound is a natural antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antiviral. Curcumin is a potent herbal brain supplement ingredient that can help address anxiety, brain aging, depression, and neurodegenerative diseases. (Related: What Happens To Your Body When You Start Eating Ginger Every Day.)
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Ginger for brain health
Your body is constantly under attack from oxidative stress. Oxygen in the body splits into single atoms with unpaired electrons, and electrons can often be found in pairs. These atoms, called free radicals, scavenge the body to find other electrons so they can become a pair. When these atoms are paired, they cause damage to cells, DNA, and proteins. Studies show that free radicals are linked to diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, atherosclerosis, cancer, and Parkinson’s, among others.
Your brain is prone to free radical damage since it requires a lot of oxygen. Free radicals are caused by common factors like:
- Air pollution
- Fried food
- Grilled meat
- Lack of sleep
- Radiation from your mobile phone and computer
- Stress
Antioxidants in ginger can also protect the brain from further damage and memory loss after a stroke.
Ginger increases the level of two of the most important brain chemicals: dopamine and serotonin. Depression is strongly associated with deficient levels of both chemicals.
Dopamine is called the “motivation molecule” because it helps you focus and be productive. Dopamine is also in charge of your pleasure-reward system. Meanwhile, serotonin is known as the “happiness molecule” because it helps sustain a positive mood.
The spice is traditionally used to treat memory loss and dementia and research has determined that ginger can help improve other cognitive functions besides memory. According to a study, healthy adults given dried ginger supplements showed improvements in attention, reaction time, and working memory.
People with diabetes also rely on ginger as a natural remedy because it can help control blood sugar, especially if you are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Ginger has antioxidants called gingerols that enhance insulin sensitivity and prevent certain neurological diabetic complications.
Ginger is an effective remedy that can minimize the pain of migraine headaches. The spice has similar effects to sumatriptan, a commonly prescribed migraine drug that narrows blood vessels to the brain. But unlike sumatriptan, which is associated with negative side effects, ginger can relieve migraines without any side effects.
Suggested ginger dosages
Ginger, which comes in many forms, can be used as a food and as a supplement. Ginger supplements are available as capsules, crystals, essential oils, extracts, loose powder, and tinctures.
A typical dose of ginger is one gram, and the best way to ingest this dose is by taking two ginger capsules. Most supplements contain at 500 milligrams (mg) per capsule.
Below are some ginger dosage equivalents:
- One teaspoon of fresh, grated ginger root
- Two droppers (or two milliliters [ml]) of liquid ginger extract
- Two pieces of crystallized ginger (about a one-inch square and 1/4 inch thick for each piece)
- Four cups of ginger tea (Make the tea by steeping two teaspoons of grated ginger in 32 ounces of water for five to 10 minutes.)
Possible ginger side effects and interactions
When consumed as a food, especially fresh, ginger is considered very safe with little to no side effects. However, when too much ginger is consumed in other forms, especially powdered ginger, it may cause side effects such as bloating, gas, heartburn, and nausea.
Ginger also functions as a blood thinner. Avoid taking it as a supplement if you take blood-thinning medication such as warfarin. If you take diabetes or high blood pressure medications, talk to a healthcare professional to determine adjustments to your medication if you want to take supplemental ginger.
Ginger is a versatile herbal remedy that can help relieve digestive upset, and it also offers various benefits for brain health and function. Add fresh ginger to your diet or take it as a supplement to enjoy its many benefits and improve both your physical and mental well-being.
Visit Healing.news to read more articles about ginger and other natural cures that can help improve your mental health.
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Top 10 facts about the vaccine industry that the dishonest, child-murdering media refuses to report
The mainstream media is largely funded by drug companies and vaccine manufacturers and demonstrates extreme conflicts of interest in reporting on vaccines. Perhaps that’s why dishonest media outlets refuse to report the following ten stunning facts about the vaccine industry that are all provably true.
FACT #1) Mercury is still used in vaccines, and the CDC openly admits it. There is NO safe level of mercury for injecting into a human child. Not even “trace” levels. There is NO evidence of safety for mercury at any dose whatsoever. Any doctor who says the level of mercury in a vaccine is “safe” to inject into a child is only demonstrating their outrageous ignorance of scientific facts.
Mercury is arguably the most neurotoxic element on the entire Table of Elements. It is used in vaccines for the convenience of the vaccine manufacturer at the expense of the safety of the child. Any doctor who injects mercury into a child — at any dose! — should be immediately stripped of their medical license.
See the list of studies on the neurotoxicity of mercury at SCIENCE.naturalnews.com, now the largest relational research resource for chemicals, health, nutrients and drugs.
Those study titles include:
Lactational exposure to inorganic mercury: evidence of Neurotoxic effects.
Neurotoxic action of inorganic Mercury injected in the intraventricular space of mouse cerebrum.
Neurotoxic effects in workers of the clinical thermometer manufacture plant.
Neurotoxic risk caused by stable and variable exposure to methylmercury from seafood.
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Additional FACT: There is no “safe” form of mercury as is often ridiculously claimed by vaccine pushers. Both ethyl and methyl mercury are extremely toxic to the human nervous system. Neither should, under ANY circumstances, be deliberately injected into a human child at any dose whatsoever.
FACT #2) Injecting any substance into the human body makes it orders of magnitude more potentially toxic because it bypasses the protections of the digestive tract or the respiratory system. Injecting mercury into a human being — at any dose — should be globally condemned as a criminal act. That it is currently considered an acceptable act in the field of medicine only condemns the true destructive nature of modern medicine. Under the vaccine doctrine, “First do no harm” has become “Poison children for profit.”
FACT #3) For decades, polio vaccines injected into tens of millions of people actually contained hidden cancer viruses (SV40 and others). This was openly admitted by a top Merck vaccine scientist named Hilleman. The CDC recently scrubbed its website of this information in a “revisionist history” purge. Up to 98 million Americans were exposed to hidden cancer viruses in polio vaccines. This is an historical fact. Read more at www.sv40foundation.org
FACT #4) Top virologists working for Merck have blown the whistle and gone public with shocking revelations that claim the company routinely fabricated lab results to claim a 95% efficacy rate of its mumps vaccine in order to continue receiving government contracts on a vaccine that didn’t work.
See the False Claims document these scientists filed with the U.S. government here:
https://www.naturalnews.com/gallery/documents…
FACT #5) In nearly every outbreak you hear about these days, the majority of the children affected by the outbreak have already been vaccinated against the virus! For example, outbreaks of whooping cough routinely involve children who have already been vaccinated against whooping cough. This is yet more proof that vaccines do not confer real-world functional immunity.
FACT #6) The claimed history of vaccine “successes” against polio and other diseases is a pure fabrication. This is discussed and exposed in great detail in the powerful book, “Dissolving Illusions” by Dr. Suzanne Humphries. Click here to see the book at Amazon.com, or click here to visit the website (and view the charts).
As these charts show, measles was almost completely eradicated before the arrival of the measles vaccine. Why the decline? Mostly due to improvements in public hygiene and sanitation. It’s no exaggeration to say that good plumbing saves more lives than vaccines ever did.
FACT #7) The vaccine industry refuses to conduct scientific tests on the health outcomes of vaccinated children vs. unvaccinated children. Why? Because these test would no doubt show unvaccinated children to be healthier, smarter and far better off than vaccinated children in terms of behavioral disorders, allergies and even autoimmune disorders. Check the people you know: Don’t you routinely find that the most heavily-vaccinated kids are the ones who get sick all the time? Meanwhile, groups like the Amish who largely refuse to vaccinate their children have near-zero rates of autism.
FACT #8) The U.S. Supreme Court has already declared that the secret “vaccine court” is a higher power than the Supreme Court. The so-called “vaccine court” is granted extraordinary powers to operate utterly outside the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and completely outside the rules of due process and law.
The vaccine court itself — which isn’t even a court of law — is a violation of law and a violation of basic human rights. It must be abolished like Apartheid.
FACT #9) The mainstream media receives a significant portion of its revenues from the very same drug companies selling vaccines. This financial influence results in the media refusing to cover stories about vaccine-damaged children for fear of losing advertising revenues.
This is why the mainstream media frequently features guests and authors who ridiculously claim that all the vaccine damaged children across America do not exist or are “mere delusions” of their parents. These despicable vaccine apologists are intellectual bullies who, like Hitler’s minions, relish in aiding and abetting a real-life holocaust that’s harming millions of children around the globe.
FACT #10) The CDC openly admits that vaccines contain additives which are known to be potent neurotoxic chemicals. Those additives include:
• Mercury (still used as a preservative)
• Aluminum (used as an inflammatory adjuvant)
• Formaldehyde (used to “deactivate” live viruses)
• MSG / Monosodium Glutamate (used to caused immune system inflammation)
All of these substances are toxic to human biology when injected. All of them are still listed on the CDC website as vaccine additives. There is no rational doctor or scientist in the world who can say they believe injecting infants and children with mercury, formaldehyde, MSG and aluminum is somehow “safe,” yet doctors inject children with these substances every single day in the form of vaccines.
Doctors who inject children with vaccines are delusional. They are practicing a medical holocaust against humanity while fraudulently calling it “immunization.” For the record, vaccination does not equal immunization. Click here to see the book of the same title.
Corporate-controlled “science” isn’t real science at all
The real truth is that science never has a monopoly on facts, and science makes enormous mistakes (such as condoning smoking cigarettes) on a regular basis. Science is also for sale and easy corrupted by corporate interests.
Peer-reviewed science journals, too, are often little more than a collection of corporate-funded make-believe science tabloids. “It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines,” writes the former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, Marcia Angell.
“I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine,” she says in Drug Companies & Doctors: A Story of Corruption.
With that in mind, take a look at the similarities between Big Tobacco science lies and vaccine industry science lies:
Sources for this story include
http://www.dissolvingillusions.com/
http://www.sv40foundation.org/
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/additive…
https://www.naturalnews.com/036328_Merck_mump…
https://www.naturalnews.com/041897_MMR_vaccin…
https://naturalnews.com/vaccines.html
http://science.naturalnews.com
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