Guys: Your Cellphone Is Hurting Your Sperm

By Dr. Mercola

Four in 10 US homes are cell-phone only, meaning they’ve ditched their landlines entirely.1 This is twice the rate in 2009, and a sign of just how integrated cell-phone use is in our culture.

Among certain demographics, the reliance on cell phones as the only household phone is even higher. For instance, more than 65 percent of adults aged 25-29 live in households with only cell phones, along with nearly 60 percent of 30- to 34-year-olds.

The convenience comes at a price, however, especially if you’re planning to have children, or already have them.

Cell Phones Worsen Sperm Quality

A systematic review and meta-analysis looked into the impact of low-level electromagnetic radiation (EMR) – the type emitted by cell phones – on sperm quality, both in the lab and among male patients at fertility clinics.

Their analysis of 10 such studies showed that exposure to EMR from cell phones lowered sperm motility by 8 percent and sperm viability by 9 percent.2 Previous studies have also found that cell phone radiation can affect men's sperm count, and the quality and motility of their sperm. One such study, published in PLOS Onefound:3

"RF-EMR in both the power density and frequency range of mobile phones enhances mitochondrial reactive oxygen species generation by human spermatozoa, decreasing the motility and vitality of these cells while stimulating DNA base adduct formation and, ultimately DNA fragmentation.

These findings have clear implications for the safety of extensive mobile phone use by males of reproductive age, potentially affecting both their fertility and the health and wellbeing of their offspring."

During the 2013 discussion “Cell Phones & Wi-Fi – Are Children, Fetuses and Fertility at Risk?,” leading experts from top universities further reported:4

“There is a direct relationship between duration of cell phone use and sperm count decline. Sperm count is reduced by half in men who carry cell phones in their pants pockets for four hours per day. The motility of the sperm is also impaired.

The testicular barrier, that protects sperm, is the most sensitive of tissues in the body, and is 100x more absorbent. Besides sperm count and function, the mitochondrial DNA of sperm are damaged 3x more if exposed to cell phone radiation.

…DNA mutations have been linked more to damage on the male side in research from Iceland, the assumption being that male sperm is more vulnerable than female eggs, which are more protected. Mutations increase with the age of the father, and more autism and schizophrenia increase with the age of the father.”

The data suggest men who plan to father children, in particular, may want to reconsider carrying their cell phones on their belts or in their pocket, in close proximity to their reproductive organs. In addition, both men and women have a number of other sensitive organs in that general area, including your liver, kidneys, colon, and bladder—all of which are susceptible to radiation.

Expert Environmental Health Researchers Warns of Wireless Radiation and Cancer Connection

Download Interview Transcript

Dr. Devra Davis, one of the most well-respected and credentialed researchers on the dangers of cell phones, and founder and president of Environmental Health Trust, warned at the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) meeting that Wi-Fi use might cause cancer.

In particular, Dr. Davis warned about the risks to pregnant women and their unborn children, noting that prenatal animal studies have shown exposure to radiation from cell phones:

• Altered DNA
• Altered brain metabolism
• Compromised spinal cords
• Affected learning abilities

Children’s brains contain more liquid than adults’, which impacts the amount of radiation absorbed (children absorb far more). Among teens who use cell phones from a young age, the risk of brain cancer is about four to five times higher than that of teens who didn’t use cellphones.

Dr. Davis also warned about the increased cancer risks to those who live near cell towers, and even the potential dangers of having Wi-Fi in schools. She said:

“We should not rely on proof in a form of death or a disease before taking action… we should rather look at evidence that shows the risks. We now have strong evidence that shows wireless radiation is a possible carcinogen, if not a definite carcinogen.

…A number of well-designed studies indicate that cellphone use increases cancer risk. Cellphones change the brain. Antennas for cellphones are continually searching for signals to send and receive information. The body or brain absorbs about half the radiation emitted from the phone at any time.”

Dr. Davis compared the radiation from cell phones to the radiation from a microwave oven, noting that power level is the only difference. That being said, it’s not an issue of heating per se.

Non-Thermal Biological Health Effects of Cell Phones Exposed

The SAR ("Specific Absorption Rate") value is a measure of the maximum tested power of the cell phone and its potential for heating tissues. The SAR rating itself is nothing new. In fact, the SAR values of phones have been available for some time, typically listed in fine print somewhere in your owner's manual, on the manufacturer's website, and in the FCC's databases.

But the SAR level only measures the power density of a phone, estimating the radiation penetration into the head using a plexiglass head of a simulated 200-pound man. This is just an estimate, and it is only an estimate of one of the components of risk from cell phones – the heat.

It does not gauge the risk from the frequencies of the cell phone, the erratic pulsing and modulation of the signals, or the magnetic fields from batteries, which is sorely needed, since it’s now apparent that cell phones and Wi-Fi trigger changes even without heating tissues.

According to Martin Pall, professor emeritus of biochemistry and basic medical sciences at Washington State University, more than 20,000 publications in the scientific literature show significant biological effects at exposures well within safety standards, including about 4,000 that discuss non-thermal effects.5

Unfortunately, both US and international safety standards are based only on the notion that low-frequency electromagnetic radiation and microwave radiation induce harm by heating.

Dr. Pall found, however, that 23 studies have shown that microwave and other low-frequency EMFs act by activating voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCCs)6 with “most biological effects being due to elevated intracellular calcium, consequent nitric oxide (NO) elevation, and either peroxynitrite or NO signaling.” He reported on a “whole serious of biological changes” that may be produced by microwave exposures via VGCC activation, including:

Oxidative stress	Single and double-stranded breaks in cellular DNA	Blood-brain barrier breakdown
Greatly depressed melatonin levels and sleep disruption	Cancer	Male and female infertility
Immune dysfunction	Neurological dysfunction	Cardiac dysfunction

Impaired Fertility Is Only the Tip of the Iceberg

What experts in the area of the biological effects of electromagnetic frequencies and wireless technologies are finding is that there's virtually no doubt that cell phones and related gadgets are capable of causing not only cancer but also contributing to a wide variety of other conditions, from depression and diabetes to heart irregularities and impaired fertility. Researchers have now identified numerous mechanisms of harm, which explain how electromagnetic fields impact your cells and damage your DNA.

One such expert is Dr. Martin Blank, PhD, one of the most experienced researchers of the cellular and molecular effects of electromagnetic fields in the US. He gave an informative speech at the Commonwealth Club of California program, "The Health Effects of Electromagnetic Fields," co-sponsored by ElectromagneticHealth.org. In it, he explained why your DNA, with its “coil of coils” structure, is especially vulnerable to electromagnetic fields of all kinds. As described in the International Journal of Radiation Biology, April 2011, DNA possesses the two structural characteristics of fractal antennas: electronic conduction, and self-symmetry.7

These properties contribute to greater reactivity of DNA to electromagnetic fields than other tissues, making the long-term consequences of repeated microwave exposures to our genetic material of great concern. Dr. Blank is adamant when he says that there is evidence of harm, and that the harm can be significant. He also points out that the science showing harmful effects has been peer-reviewed, published, and that the results have been replicated, evaluated and "judged by scientists capable of judging it."

An analysis of the range of known mechanisms of action, including DNA effects, was published in November 2010 in "Non-Thermal Effects and Mechanisms of Interaction Between Electromagnetic Fields and Living Matter.”8 Furthermore, the mobile industry's own research in the 13-country Interphone study showed a 40 percent increased risk of brain cancer from 1,640 or more hours of cell phone use,9 and independent Swedish research published in 2007 showed a 540 percent increased risk of brain cancer from greater than 2,000 hours of cell phone use.10

Get Your Cell Phone Out of Your Pocket – And Other Smart Cell Phone Tips

Around the world, many countries are already adopting the Precautionary Principle regarding cell phone use. Russian officials have issued the recommendation that all children under the age of 18 should avoid using cell phones entirely. The UK, Israel, Belgium, Germany, India, France, and Finland also urge citizens to err on the side of caution with respect to their children's use of cell phones. Cell phone dangers will one day likely be as well-known as tobacco dangers, but there's going to be a window when people are extremely vulnerable.

And that window is right now. Children are especially vulnerable to damage from cell phone radiation and should not use them at all (or only for very limited amounts). Men and women who want to have healthy children need to take special precautions to protect their reproductive organs and should not keep phones in their front pockets or close to their abdomens. In the US, public warnings are not yet commonplace, but it's still important to protect yourself – and your children. There is plenty of science showing harm to warrant taking action now, and here’s how:11

• Children should not play with radiating cell phones. Young children should not use cell phones except in an emergency. While you can put the phone in “airplane mode,” which disconnects it from Wi-Fi and the Internet, the cell phone still emits magnetic fields from the battery, which have also been shown to have equally important biological consequences. In no cases should children sleep with cell phones, and extreme caution is advised for pregnant women or women hoping to conceive due to the profound long-term impact of environmental factors.
• Limit or eliminate Wi-Fi exposures. If you have a Wi-Fi router, make sure your router is a low-power version, not in a high-use area and keep it turned off as much as possible. Consider putting it on a timer so it is only available during certain hours, and never during sleeping hours.
• Schools should not have Wi-Fi. Cabled/wired connections do not pose the same risks. If there is Wi-Fi, again, it should be limited to the time when the Wi-Fi is specifically needed and not be operating at other times. Ideally, classrooms, school libraries, and gyms should be Wi-Fi-free.
• Resume using landline phones whenever possible. Get rid of your portable phone and use your landline. At the very least, don’t keep your cell phone in your bedroom while you sleep. Be aware even landline phones emit magnetic fields from the speaker, and sensitive people can sometimes feel them, especially on long calls and particularly when using trim phones. Old-fashioned desk phone earpieces offer a greater distance between the speaker and your ear that can make a meaningful difference.
• Keep your cell phone away from your body. Avoid keeping it in your pocket or on your belt. If you’re pregnant, keep your cell phone away from your belly. Keep your phone at the other end of the room or on the seat of the car. Use texting more than talking. A cell phone case for the iPhone is available that filters out a significant portion of radiation (but by no means all the power and frequencies, and other biologically disruptive signal characteristics also remain). There are several options for shielded cell phone cases and holsters at www.EMFSafetyStore.com.
• Use a wired earpiece or headphones with cell phones. Like with landline phones, some people are impacted by the magnetic fields from the speaker in the ear buds, so choose a model with the greatest distance from your ear, or use air tube technology with no electronics near your ear.
• Use caution using your cell phone in your car. Signals bounce around inside your vehicle, and your head is the antenna.
• Opt-out of new utility meters called “smart meters.” Prevent smart meters from being installed in your home whenever possible.
• Avoid using wireless baby monitors, as they all operate on microwave frequency. Look for the old wired monitors.
• Know your exposures. You or your community can purchase an RF meter for about $500 to measure RF in homes, schools, churches, etc. See www.EMFSafetyStore.com.
• Support labeling laws that require cell phone manufacturers to list radiation levels in an obvious place on the packaging and at the retailer.

Long-Term Use of Proton Pump Inhibitors and Other Antacids Can Cause Vitamin B12 Deficiency

Acid reflux is an extremely common health problem, affecting as many as 50 percent of Americans. Other terms used for this condition are gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) or peptic ulcer disease.

Symptoms of acid reflux, or GERD, include heartburn, wheezing, tightness in your throat, or a feeling that food is stuck in your throat.

Typically, acid reflux is believed to be caused by excessive stomach acid production. However, this "conventional wisdom" has been shown to be incorrect, and widely used drugs to treat acid reflux may take an unsuspected toll on your health.

Aloe vera juice can be helpful for reflux, ideally made from home grown aloe with leaves that are 18 inches long before harvesting. Species that produce thick leaves are best. Aloe has many benefits including high amounts of an immune stimulating polysaccharide, especially mannose which has been shown to induce white blood cells to secrete interferon, tumor necrosis factor and beneficial cytokines. 

The benefits come from the inner gel of the plant, not the outer leaf. The inner gel can be combined with a lime or lemon, and blended with a hand blender to make it more palatable when drinking.  Aloe can also be beneficial for burns.
   

Widely Used Antacids Can Cause Vitamin B12 Deficiency

According to one recent study, long-term use of proton pump inhibitors such as Prilosec, Prevacid, and Nexium (“the purple pill”)—drugs that suppress the amount of gastric acid your stomach produces—is associated with vitamin B12 deficiency.

Participants who took proton pump inhibitors for more than two years had a 65 percent increased risk of vitamin B12 deficiency, which can lead to a number of troublesome ailments, including:

• Anemia
• Nerve damage
• Psychiatric problems
• Dementia

Higher dosages were associated with greater risk. As explained by senior researcher Dr. Douglas Corley, a gastroenterologist at Kaiser Permanente:

“These types of antacids can cause a deficiency in vitamin B12 because the same cell that makes stomach acid also makes a little protein that helps vitamin B12 be absorbed.”

Vegans Also at Greater Risk of Vitamin B12 Deficiency

For all the benefits of a plant-based diet, there are some considerations to keep in mind, and B12 deficiency is a major one. The few plant foods that contain B12 (such as sea vegetables, fermented foods like tempeh, and algae like spirulina) are B12 analogs—substances that block the uptake of true B12. Hence, your body’s need for the nutrient can actually increase when you eat these foods.

This is why B12 deficiency is of particular concern for vegans, who abstain from animal products. It’s important to realize that vitamin B12 is found almost exclusively in animal tissues, which vegans and strict vegetarians do not typically eat. This includes:

Beef and beef liver	Lamb
Snapper	Venison
Salmon	Shrimp
Scallops	Poultry and eggs

Even though vitamin B12 is water-soluble, it doesn't exit your body quickly in your urine like other water-soluble vitamins. Instead, B12 is stored in your liver, kidneys, and other body tissues. As a result, a deficiency may not show itself until up to seven years later. So please, don’t take initial lack of symptoms as a sign that your vegan diet is supplying you with sufficient amounts of B12. Your health may suffer as a result.

As discussed by Dr. Michael Greger in the video below, if you’re on a plant-based diet and don’t get enough vitamin B12, your serum level of the homocysteine—a compound known to damage your arteries—can rise and counteract the benefits otherwise reaped from a diet high in vegetables.

Suggestions for Boosting Your Vitamin B12 Intake

Another argument often used by vegans is that your body produces vitamin B12 from intestinal bacteria, making dietary sources unnecessary. While it’s true that your body does produce B12 in this way, it’s not really available for absorption by your body...

So, if you’re vegan, I strongly recommend modifying your diet to make sure you’re getting enough vitamin B12. If you’re open to it, I would suggest adding some animal foods into your diet, as B12 is available in its natural form only in animal food sources. This doesn’t necessarily have to be meat -- eggs and dairy are options also. Top foods to include are:

• Wild-caught Alaskan salmon
• Raw milk
• Organic free-range eggs

If you do consume animal products, then consider adding these foods that are even higher in vitamin B12:

• Grass-fed beef and beef liver
• Organic, free-range chicken

If you’re not willing to budge on eating animal products, you’d be well-advised to take a B12 supplement. Actually, even if you do eat animal foods, a supplement can be beneficial if your body's ability to absorb the vitamin from food is compromised, which is especially prevalent as you age.

When you get older, the lining of your stomach gradually loses its ability to produce hydrochloric acid (the stomach acid suppressed by proton pump inhibitors), which releases vitamin B12 from your food. If you’re over 50, it’s safe to assume you are not absorbing vitamin B12 at an optimal level.

However, just because you are over 50, it doesn’t mean you are deficient, it only means your risk increases. If you are eating a healthy diet, you can easily maintain healthy levels. 

The only way to know is to get your blood tested. As I am fast approaching 60, my levels were actually above normal at 1382 and I don’t take any vitamin B12 supplements. Normal ranges of B12 are 200-1100 pg/ml. Even though the lower level of normal is 200, if you are below 600, you might be suffering from B12 deficiency.

There is one problem with supplementation however, and it’s related to the poor absorbability of oral vitamin B12 supplements. Vitamin B12 is the largest vitamin molecule known. Because of its large size, it is not easily absorbed passively like most supplements. Because of this, many, if not most oral B12 supplements are grossly ineffective.

That said, B12 supplements are exceptionally safe, with virtually no known side effects. Just avoid oral B12 supplements as they will not be readily absorbed. Injections or a sublingual (under your tongue) spray work far better, as they allow the large B12 molecule to be absorbed directly into your blood stream.

How Vitamin B12 Deficiency Can Wreck Your Health

As your vitamin B12 levels start to falter, some of the initial signs will often include mood changes, such as lack of motivation or feelings of apathy. Low levels can also lead to mental fogginess, memory troubles, muscle weakness, and -- one of the hallmark signs -- fatigue. Vitamin B12 is fittingly known as the energy vitamin, and your body requires it for a number of vital functions, including energy production, as well as:

Proper digestion, food absorption, iron use, carbohydrate and fat metabolism	Healthy nervous system function	Promotion of normal nerve growth and development
Help with regulation of the formation of red blood cells	Cell formation and longevity	Proper circulation
Adrenal hormone production	Healthy immune system function	Support of female reproductive health and pregnancy
Feelings of well-being and mood regulation	Mental clarity, concentration, memory function	Physical, emotional, and mental energy

Recent research also suggests low vitamin B12 status may increase the risk for bone fractures in older men. This risk remained even after taking into account other important factors such as smoking, vitamin D status, and calcium intake. According to medicinenet.com:

“Men in the group with the lowest B-12 levels were about 70 percent more likely to have suffered a fracture than others in the study. This increased risk was primarily due to fractures in the lumbar spine, where there was an up to 120 percent greater chance of fractures.” [Emphasis mine]

Over time, if long-term, chronic B12 deficiency can also lead to other serious conditions, including:

• Depression
• Dementia and Alzheimer’s
• Female fertility and childbearing problems
• Heart disease and cancer

B12 Deficiency Can Mimic Psychiatric Problems

As discussed by Dr. Kelly Brogan, MD in the video below, vitamin B12 deficiency can also cause a range of neurological disturbances that mimic serious mental illness. In a recent article she wrote:

“One of the most remarkable papers I have read in the psychiatric literature was about a 57 year old woman who was treated with months of an antipsychotic and antidepressant, and given two rounds of electroconvulsive treatment before anyone bothered to check her B12 level.

Her symptoms were years in the making with tearfulness, anxiety, movement abnormalities, constipation, lethargy, and ultimately perceptual disturbances (hearing her name called) and the ultimate in severe psychiatric pathology: catatonia. Despite her inpatient treatment, she remained suicidal, depressed, and lethargic. Within two months of identifying her deficiency, and subsequent B12 treatment, she reverted to her baseline of 14 years previous, and remained that way for 4 years until the publication of the report (with no other treatment).

If this is not a wakeup call to the average psychiatric prescriber, I’m not sure what is. Much of what we attribute to serotonin and dopamine ‘deficiencies’ melts away under the investigative eye of personalized medicine that seeks to identify hormonal, nutritional, and immune imbalances that can ‘look’ psychiatric in nature.”

Got Acid Reflux? Beware of How You Treat It...

To return to where we started, it’s important to understand that acid reflux is NOT due to having too much acid in your stomach; rather, it's a condition related more commonly to hiatal hernia – a condition in which the acid comes out of your stomach, which is where it's designed to be confined to. After food passes through your esophagus into your stomach, a muscular valve called the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) closes, preventing food or acid from moving back up.

Gastroesophageal reflux occurs when the LES relaxes inappropriately, allowing acid from your stomach to flow (reflux) backward into your esophagus. In the early 80s, Dr. Barry Marshall, an Australian physician, discovered that an organism calledhelicobacter pylori (initially called campylobacter) causes a chronic low-level inflammation of your stomach lining, which is largely responsible for producing many of the symptoms of acid reflux.

One of the explanations for why suppressing stomach acid is so ineffective—and there are over 16,000 articles in the medical literature attesting to this—is that when you decrease the amount of acid in your stomach, you suppress your body's ability to kill the helicobacter bacteria.

So suppressing stomach acid production tends to just worsen and perpetuate the condition... And, as you can see, it may also deteriorate your health by promoting vitamin B12 deficiency. Ultimately, the answer to heartburn and acid indigestion is to restore your natural gastric balance and function. Not only is it useful for optimal gut function but it is crucial for your long-term health, as your gut flora can increase your absorption of nutrients by 50 percent and create useful B vitamins and vitamin K2. It is very clear from reviewing the literature that you can't be healthy until your gut flora is optimized.

Sometimes a mechanical adjustment of your lower esophageal sphincter can also correct a hiatal hernia. A number of chiropractors can perform this adjustment and have provided permanent relief from this condition in a large number of cases.

Protect Your Health—Optimize Your Gut Health and B12 Status

If you suffer from recurring heart burn or acid reflux, one of the first things you'll want to do is to make sure you're consuming enough beneficial bacteria (probiotics). This will help balance your intestinal microflora, which can help eliminate helicobacter bacteria naturally. It will also aid in proper digestion and assimilation of your food. Ideally, you'll want to get your beneficial bacteria from traditionally fermented foods. Fermented vegetables are a palatable choice for most people.

Next, if you’re a long-term user of a proton pump inhibitor, be aware that your vitamin B12 status may have become more drastically compromised and needs to be addressed. Ideally, you’d want to include animal foods rich in vitamin B12, but if you believe you need a supplement, your best bet is either an injectable B12, which is considered the gold standard, or a sublingual spray. The sublinguals tend to be just as effective as the injectable versions. They’re also more convenient, not to mention less painful to use.

Whichever option you choose—animal foods or a high-quality spray mist supplement—I recommend you begin consuming it immediately if you’re a vegan. Doing so could help you circumvent serious health problems looming in your future.

Article by Dr Mercola

Girl Suffers Narcolepsy after Gardasil Vaccine: U.S. Doctors are Figuring Out that Gardasil Can Cause Autoimmune Disorders

Health Impact News Editor Comments:

While the mainstream media continues to state that the Gardasil vaccine is “safe” with no controversy, stories like this one continue to pour in. In the story below, we see that doctors who treated this girl clearly link the Gardasil vaccine to narcolepsy, and they are beginning to figure out that Gardasil “has been known to cause autoimmune disorders.”

The damage Gardasil has done in the lives of young women are widely being reported in the media outside the U.S., but those reports are mostly censored out of the U.S. media. When Katie Couric recently dared to interview some of those damaged from Gardasil, she was viciously attacked by the mainstream media and forced to apologize.

Narcolepsy and Cataplexy after Gardasil?

by Mom from Florida
SaneVax, Inc.

My daughter hates it when I speak about the new medical conditions she has been suffering through since being vaccinated with Gardasil so I have chosen to remain anonymous to help keep the peace. I chose to give her this vaccine in an effort to help protect her. I struggle with that decision every day.

She had just finished a great soccer season. She had turned 13 already and like always time had slipped away from us. I was a month or 2 late on getting her annual check-up. Her pediatrician had been discussing the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, with me since she turned 11 years old. I put it off and put it off and then finally agreed to move forward with the injections we thought would protect her from cervical cancer.

Within a month or so, I started to notice changes with her. I even mentioned to people that all she ever wants to eat was junk food. It was like a switch was flipped in her body. She was an easy kid that loved food and always ate all sorts of foods including her vegetables. She traded in all of her good eating habits and frantically searched for junk food in the cabinets. I caught her eating leftover holiday candy that was months old and never thrown away; and boxes of cake mix by the spoonful and never mixing it into a batter or baking it. She would eat the whole box of dry mix…… in one sitting! She would take cocoa powder and mix it with sugar and melt it into syrup and eat it by the spoonful.

She suddenly had a new love for pasta. She wanted it day and night. Bizarre food behaviors that I had never seen exhibited before became the norm. She was always stick figure skinny and I would mention to her you better watch what you are doing all that is going to catch up with you.

While this was going on I also noticed that she would sit around the house a lot. She was always active in sports or horseback riding and now she would just sit on the couch. She never walked around the house – she always used to run through the hallways. This all stopped.

She also became emotionally hypersensitive, crying over the most minor of things. She would burst into tears if she didn’t like what I was making for dinner or couldn’t find something to wear.  I mentioned this to people but just chalked it up to changing hormones and her now being a teenager. This behavior went on for a while.

She then developed insomnia. She kept saying, “Mom, I’m not sleeping at night.”

She would come home from school and take naps. I would let her nap because I knew she wasn’t sleeping at night.  I then started to exercise with her thinking that maybe her body is just not tired and that’s why she couldn’t sleep. It didn’t help. She could barely muster up the energy to walk around
the block.

After about 4-6 weeks of trying different relaxation techniques to help her get some sleep, and with things getting worse, I took her to the pediatrician. It had been almost a year since her prior visit. She had gained 30 pounds. I knew she had put on weight, but she wore it well and I never imagined it to be that amount. Even the doctor questioned how could this be right?

He recommended she take some vitamin melatonin to help her sleep and sent her in for her 2nd dose of Gardasil. She let out a blood curdling scream when they jabbed her – something she had never done before. She had always been one of the toughest kids I knew.  Typically, she would just suck it up.

After about a week with no success with the melatonin, I would catch her falling asleep constantly. She would take a 2 hour nap after school and would then go to bed at 9pm. She would start to tell me a story and her eyes would start to close and her words would become garbled. Her speech became so distorted it was like she was drunk or on heavy drugs. It would last for about a minute and would then just go away.

I wondered if she was doing drugs. A friend of mine said she’s not the type, there’s something else going on.

She developed a buckling in one of her knees and with her lack of activity I told her she probably just needed some strengthening exercises in her knee.

While sitting at family dinner one night she lifted her glass up and her hand started to tremble almost dropping the glass. She then got up and started walking to her room, her knees gave out and she grabbed onto the only thing she could, the wall. With her arms planted on the wall above her head she slid down the wall and collapsed on the floor. She laid there speechless for about a minute and then said she was so tired. I helped her to bed.

She slept until the next morning and got up and said she was still so tired. I let her stay home from school and sleep most of the day away thankful that she was finally getting some rest and maybe she could get over the insomnia.

The following morning she had another garbled speech eyes closing episode.  I packed her up and took her to Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital emergency room in Hollywood, FL. I described these episodes as almost seizure like. The ER doctor went through her history and got to the question of recent vaccines.

I snapped my finger and pointed at the doctor and screamed out GARDASIL!

The doctor looked at me and said, “I guarantee that has something to do with what’s going on.”

She spent 7 days in the hospital undergoing every test imaginable. They even wanted to remove her braces because they were causing interference on some of the tests. She kept having trouble with her knees buckling while in the hospital and having episodes of eyes closing and garbled speech. The episodes were getting worse.

She wouldn’t let me video tape her and the doctors were never around to witness this. By day 5, there was talk of a discharge without a diagnosis.  The doctors recommended my daughter stay home until some test results came back. I was told she would be discharged with a safety plan that included a walker and wearing a bike helmet around the house so she wouldn’t hit her head if she collapsed.

They sent in a 3rd neurologist. I told the doctor to sit here for an hour and WATCH my daughter. I said,

“If you discharge her, I will drive straight to Miami children’s hospital. I don’t care if they start repeating tests, she’s not going home! Especially with that ridiculous safety plan!”

Shortly after, my daughter had a full blown seizure-like episode in front of the doctor. The doctor questioned her a little more about her symptoms and diagnosed her with Narcolepsy with Cataplexy.

Narcolepsy is an autoimmune disease that causes your sleep/wake cycle to be disrupted. Cataplexy is a common symptom of Narcolepsy which causes loss of muscle tone resulting in her collapsing. Cataplexy also causes hypersensitivity to emotion which explained why she was previously bursting into tears over nothing.

The doctor started to discuss emotion induced cataplexy and my daughter stated when she laughs or gets upset she gets weak and her body gives out. She ordered a spinal tap and a blood test to confirm the diagnosis.

I asked the doctor if she thought this was related to Gardasil and she answered, “Absolutely.”

She was given immunoglobulin therapy (IVIG) as this has been known to help with auto-immune disorders and discharged on day 7.

People that I knew thought because she was discharged, then she must be better. The therapy did nothing. She was no better than the day I took her to the hospital. As a matter of fact, she was worse. She continued to collapse at home. I likened it to anaphylactic shock. After she would collapse and while lying on the ground unable to move, she would beg me to take her back to the hospital. I called the doctors and was told to give it a week. Nothing changed.

She had missed weeks of school at this point. I returned her to the neuro. As there is not a specific medicine for narcolepsy she was placed on ADHD medicine for performance enhancement during the day, and sleep medicine at night. Her insomnia still remains to this day.

The doctor had ruled out any incidence of contracting the strep virus or trauma with my daughter and started to explain how narcolepsy is induced. It takes a genetic predisposition and an environmental component to induce the disease. A hormone in her body has been depleted. It’s called orexin, it’s also known as hypocretin. Currently there is no medicinal method to restore this hormone in the body.

The spinal tap ultimately revealed there was a genetic disposition to the disease in her body and the blood test led to 100% confirmation of the disease. Many of my family members had never heard of the disease let alone knew any family members that ever had it.

The doctors point to the vaccine as the environmental factor triggering her conditions as all other sources were ruled out. They said to me the vaccine has been known to cause autoimmune disorders. Because she was having insomnia before the 2nd dose and wasn’t being treated by the doctors before the 2nd dose, they will only put in writing that her disease was enhanced by the 2nd dose of the vaccine.

But, they acknowledge that all her symptoms with exception of insomnia were brought to the forefront after the 2nd dose. Enhanced adverse reactions after the second and third injections seem to be a common occurrence with HPV vaccines and this is exactly what transpired with my daughter.

She lives her life on a vicious cycle of meds to keep her awake and meds to make her go to sleep. Struggling all the while as even with meds she is about 75% of the kid she once.

I have tried vitamins, holistic care, & chiropractic care, and nothing other than prescription meds have helped this child. Without medicine her symptoms have become debilitating. She can stay awake for only 2-3 hours a day and those aren’t quality hours. She can barely walk as she is exhausted or the cataplexy sets in and she collapses. Still to this day she has to nap during the day and when she laughs or gets mad her body gives out on her. She has learned to recognize how this feels though and catches herself before she collapses. She still craves junk food as we all do when we are exhausted. We reach for carbs in an effort to boost up the energy level.

Prior to this diagnosis she was a strong healthy kid with the exception of being born with a congenital cataract and sadly losing vision in one of her eyes. I feel as if lightning has now struck this poor child twice as she now struggles with life and with school as this is a very hard disease to manage.

One decision has changed her life. Hopefully not forever as Narcolepsy has ongoing research and I am hopeful that a cure will be in the works very soon. The doctors think 5-10 years.

Currently she is struggling in school and almost all of her activities that she used to be actively involved in have ceased.

Until there is a remedy I will continue to try and “fix her” as her life has been stolen away from her.

10 Reasons You Need Cholesterol

It was not until the mid 20th century that Americans started to fear saturated fat and cholesterol. Our grandparents ate lots of meat and butter, and they were pretty robust. In the early 1900’s most Americans had a hard time keeping weight on, while heart disease was almost non-existent. Compare that to the present day, where people are obsessed with low-fat diets and cutting cholesterol with little to show for it. This fat and cholesterol phobia has contributed to a national obesity rate of 35%, where one-third of all deaths are blamed on heart disease. Something just doesn’t add up…

Where did this fat phobia come from?

Dr. Ancel Keys performed research in the 1950’s, where he proposed that countries with a higher intake of saturated fat and cholesterol have increased rates of heart disease. The Seven Countries study had a lot academic critics, but it caught on like wildfire and was adopted by the public. What no one, including the US government and the American Heart Association, took into account was that he had left out data from the other 15 countries he surveyed, making his results useless. Our fear of saturated fat and cholesterol is based on a flawed study! 

10 Reasons You Need Cholesterol

During the past 50 years this fear of fat has taken hold, and rates of heart disease and obesity have skyrocketed, with no end in sight. Cholesterol is a natural healing substance that has many vital functions in the human body. If you are worried about cholesterol levels from a high fat diet, here are some reasons to put your mind at ease:

1. Cholesterol is a vital structural component of every human cell membrane and it aids in communication between cells. It’s a necessary component in making new, healthy cells, and it gives us the ability to heal from illness or injury.
2. Cholesterol helps reduce bloating by regulating the salt and water balance in the body.
3. Cholesterol is converted into bile in the liver, which helps us to digest fats. Many people who have been on a low-fat diet will have trouble with fat digestion.
4. You need cholesterol to make adrenal hormones, cortisol, and aldosterone, which help uscope with the stress of day-to-day living. A low-fat diet often does not supply enough substrate to make these hormones, which leads to adrenal fatigue, feelings of exhaustion, and belly fat storage.
5. UVB rays from the sun interact with the cholesterol in your skin to convert it to vitamin D. Cholesterol helps the absorption of Vitamin D, which is vital for proper immune function.
6. Many studies indicate that cholesterol may act as an antioxidant to heal free radial damage. The standard American diet (SAD) is full of oxidized vegetable oils and sugars, which are pro-oxidants. These non-foods wreak havoc on your cells and cause damage that contributes to heart disease. The body produces more cholesterol in response to these inflammatory foods in an attempt to heal the damage they cause in our blood vessels.
7. Cholesterol helps in the formation of your memories and is crucial for proper neurological function. People with low HDL cholesterol can have impaired memory and are at an increased risk of developing dementia later in life.
8. Elevated cholesterol is a sign that your body is making more to heal damaged cells. It is key to look for the true cause of the inflammation (ie: sugar, grains, vegetable oils), not kill the messenger by taking cholesterol medication with possibly dangerous side effects.
9. Many times a high cholesterol test is your body trying to send you an important message, so listen up! Healing cholesterol is often produced in excess when there is a lack of thyroid hormone and/or there is an autoimmune thyroid attack. Normalizing thyroid hormone levels can help balance cholesterol levels, as well as following a lower carb nutrient dense diet.
10. Cholesterol is very important for the communication between brain synapses, which make the feel good chemical serotonin. There have been many studies where people with abnormally low levels of cholesterol have tendencies toward violence or depression.

In Summary

Cholesterol is a building block for the steroid hormones which help control our moods, metabolism, inflammation, immune, and sexual functions. The human body needs cholesterol in order to function, and without it we would not survive. The liver will intuitively make more cholesterol when the diet does not provide enough.

Many studies have shown that low cholesterol is a bigger risk factor for heart disease and mortality than high cholesterol. Elderly people with low cholesterol died twice as often from a heart attack, when compared with elderly people with high cholesterol.

According to Dr. Mark Hyman, higher cholesterol predicts lower risk of death from heart disease.

When evaluating your own cholesterol levels do some critical thinking about what is best for you.Follow the money when your doctor advises you to take Statin drugs, and ask for some hard evidence on why they are recommending them for you.

Lifestyle interventions such as a low carb, Paleo diet can help people achieve optimal lipid panel markers, in a very short time, without any dangerous side effects. Use your best judgement when you hear how foods that kept our great grandparents healthy like grass-fed meat, raw cheese, and grass-fed butter, are to blame for new diseases.

The Deliberate Lies They Tell About Diabetes

By Dr. Mercola

There is a staggering amount of misinformation on diabetes, a growing epidemic that afflicts more than 26 million in the United States today. The sad truth is this: it could be your very OWN physician perpetuating this misinformation

Most diabetics find themselves in a black hole of helplessness, clueless about how to reverse their condition. The bigger concern is that more than half of those with Type 2 diabetes are NOT even aware they have diabetes.

Diabetes: Symptoms of an Epidemic

The latest diabetes statistics echo an increase in diabetes cases, both diagnosed and undiagnosed. By some estimates, diabetes has increased more than 700 percent in the last 50 years!

At least 26 million Americans are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and another 79 million are prediabetic.

What’s hidden behind medical smokescreen is that Type 2 diabetes is completely preventable. The cure lies in a true understanding of the underlying cause (which is impaired insulin and leptin sensitivity) and implementing simple, inexpensive lifestyle adjustments that spell phenomenal benefits to your health.

Type 1 Diabetes and Insulin Dependence

Also known as diabetes mellitus, type 2 diabetes is a chronic health condition traditionally characterized by elevated levels of glucose in your blood, or simply high blood sugar. Type 1 diabetes – dubbed “juvenile onset diabetes” – is the relatively uncommon type, affecting only about one in 250 Americans. Occurring in individuals younger than age 20, it has no known cure.

In Type 1 diabetes, your own immune system ravages the insulin-producing cells of your pancreas. The result is a loss of the hormone insulin. Type 1 diabetics need to be supplemented with insulin for the rest of their lives as failure to do will rapidly result in death. At the current time other than a pancreas transplant there is no known cure for type 1 diabetes.

Type 2 Diabetes: Virtually 100% Curable

The far more common form of diabetes is type 2, which affects 90 to 95 percent of diabetics. In this type, your body produces insulin but is unable to recognize and use it properly. It is considered an advanced stage of insulin resistance. Insulin resistance allows sugar to increase and cause of host of complications.

The signs of diabetes may all be there, but the often-overlooked fact is that Type 2 diabetes is completely preventable and nearly 100% curable.

Excessive thirst	Extreme hunger (even after eating)
Nausea and possible vomiting	Unusual gain weight or loss
Increased fatigue	Irritability
Blurred vision	Slow healing of wounds
Frequent infections (skin, urinary, vaginal)	Numbness or tingling in hands and/or feet

How They Got It All Wrong About Diabetes…

Diabetes is NOT a disease of blood sugar, but rather a disorder of insulin and leptin signaling. Mainstream medicine largely fails in treating diabetes – even worsens it – because it refuses to investigate and act on this underlying cause. Insulin sensitivity is key in this matter. Your pancreas secretes insulin into your bloodstream, lowering your glucose. Insulin is meant to control the lifespan in some organisms, but what is its true purpose in humans?

As Dr. Ron Rosedale explains in an article about the metabolic effects of insulin:

“Your doctor will say that it's to lower blood sugar, but I will tell you right now that that is a trivial side effect.Insulin's evolutionary purpose as is known right now, we are looking at other possibilities, is to store excess nutrients.

We come from a time of feast and famine when if we couldn't store the excess energy during times of feasting, we would not be here because all of our ancestors encountered famine. We are only here because our ancestors were able to store nutrients, which they were able to do because they were able to elevate their insulin in response to any elevation in energy that the organism encountered.

When your body notices that sugar is elevated, it is a sign that you've got more than you need; you're not burning it so it is accumulating in your blood. So insulin will be released to take that sugar and store it...”

Insulin regulation plays such as an integral role in your health and longevity, that elevated levels are not only symptoms of diabetes, but also heart disease, peripheral vascular disease, stroke, high blood pressure, cancer, and obesity.  

Diabetes and Leptin and Insulin Resistance

Leptin is a hormone produced in your fat cells. One of its primary roles is to regulate your appetite and body weight. It tells your brain when to eat, how much to eat, and when to stop eating, which is why it’s called the “satiety hormone.” It also tells your brain what to do with the energy it has.  

Not very long ago it was determined that mice without any leptin became very obese. Similarly when one becomes leptin resistant, that mimics leptin deficiency and it becomes very easy to rapidly gain weight.

Leptin is responsible for the accuracy of insulin signaling and for your insulin resistance. As Dr. Rosedale discussed in the excerpt above: when your blood sugar becomes elevated, insulin is released to direct the extra energy for storage. A small amount is stored as glycogen (a starch), while the majority is stored as fat, your main energy supply.

Thus, the primary role of insulin is NOT to lower your blood sugar, but to store the extra energy for future consumption. Its ability to lower your blood sugar is merely a “side effect” of this energy storage process.

“Treating” diabetes by merely concentrating on lowering blood sugar can be a dangerous approach, because it does not address in any way shape or form the actual issue of metabolic miscommunication.

Taking insulin can actually spell greater trouble for Type 2 diabetes patients, as it will worsen their leptin and insulin resistance over time. The only known way to reestablish proper leptin (and insulin) signaling is through your diet. This can have a more profound influence on your health than any known drug or modality of medical treatment.

Fructose: A Driving Force Behind the Diabetes and Obesity Epidemic

Dr. Johnson reviews this fascinating topic in the interview below that I did regarding the landmark book, The Fat Switch, which carefully explains how consuming fructose activates a powerful biological switch that causes use to gain weight. This is actually highly beneficial capability that allows many species, and early humans, to survive times of food scarcity and winter.

Unfortunately technology advancements has allowed food to be pervasively and easily available for most so this fat switch has lost its biological advantage and instead of helping many people live longer, it is actually working to their disadvantage and killing them prematurely.

You might be interested to know that “death by sugar” is not at all an exaggeration. The overwhelming amount of fructose in the standard American diet is a major factor in rise of diabetes rates in the country. While glucose is designed to be used by your body for energy (regular sugar is 50 percent glucose), fructose breaks down into a variety of toxins that can devastate your health.

The Fat Switch also documents many of the adverse effects of fructose such as:

• Elevates uric acid, which may lead to inflammation and a host of other diseases that include hypertension, kidney disease, and fatty liver.
• Leads to insulin resistance, an underlying factor in Type 2 diabetes, heart diseases, and many cancers.
• Tricks your body into gaining weight by deceiving your metabolism. Fructose doesn’t appropriately stimulate insulin, which, as a result, fails to suppress ghrelin (hunger hormone) and to stimulate leptin (satiety hormone).
• Rapidly leads to metabolic syndrome, or weight gain and abdominal obesity (beer belly), decreased HDL, increased LDL, elevated triglycerides, elevated blood sugar, and high blood pressure.
• Metabolizes like ethanol, causing toxic effects like non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLD).

Government Corn Subsidies Make the Problem Even Worse

Lawmakers whose campaigns are underwritten by agribusinesses use billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize the commodities that are the key ingredients of unhealthy food – corn, soybeans, wheat, etc. This manufactured price inequality helps junk food undersell nutritious food.

Corn, at the top of the list, raked in over $77 billion from the government between 1995 and 2010, and the subsidies have only been going up.

There's a common belief that healthy food is inherently more expensive, and thus can only be for the wealthy. But in fact, healthy food could easily be more affordable for everyone, if not for agribusiness CEOs, their lobbyists and the politicians in their pockets.

Is it a coincidence that the number one source of calories in the United States, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), is made from the most heavily subsidized crop -- corn?

I think not.

HFCS is pervasive and in many processed food items you would never expect, including diet foods and “enhanced” water products. Even most infant formulas contain the sugar equivalent of one can of Coca-Cola! Government subsidies have also allowed corn to become a staple in animal feeds, which means even animal-based foods like conventionally-raised meats are tainted or nutritionally altered by HFCS.

One of the effects of the farm bill is to create a negative feedback loop that perpetuates the highly profitable standard American diet. These junk-food subsidies make it much cheaper to buy a burger, fries and soda from a fast-food restaurant than it is to buy grass-fed beef and veggies. It's not that these foods necessarily cost more to grow or produce but is that the prices for the junk foods are being artificially reduced by the government.

The end result is a food culture that is a primary driver of diabetes and disease, rather than a primary driver of health!

According to one meta-analysis, drinking just ONE soda -- or other sweetened drink, including Vitamin Water -- per day can raise your risk of developing diabetes by 25 percent, compared to drinking just one sugary drink per month.

Diabetes Drugs Are NOT the Answer

The failure of conventional medicine to effectively prevent and treat diabetes is most evident in the dangerous drugs it promotes, foremost of which is Avandia. Avandia hit the market in 1999, after the mounting of a multimillion-dollar ad campaign that made it a blockbuster drug. By 2006, Avandia’s annual revenue was 3.2 million dollars.

Avandia sales, however, plummeted to 1.2 billion dollars in 2009, two years after a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine linked Avandia to a 43 percent increased risk of heart attack, along with a 64 percent higher risk of cardiovascular death (compared to patients treated with other methods).

But in a show of either bias or callousness, a committee of independent experts recommended that Avandia remain on the market despite the risks. An FDA oversight board voted 8 to 7 to accept the advice.  

Avandia works by making diabetes patients more sensitive to their own insulin in order to control blood sugar levels. It specifically reduces your blood sugar by raising the sensitivity of your liver, fat, and muscle cells to insulin.

In fact, most conventional Type 2 diabetes treatments use drugs that either raise insulin or lower blood sugar.

As I have already explained, the problem is that diabetes is NOT a disease of blood sugar. Focusing on the symptom of diabetes (which is elevated blood sugar) rather addressing the root cause is an exercise in futility and could even be downright dangerous. Nearly 100 percent of Type 2 diabetics can be successfully cured without drugs. You just might be surprised to know that you can eat, exercise, and live your way to recovery…

Effective Diabetes Diet and Lifestyle Tips

I’ve simplified the various effective ways to increase your insulin and leptin sensitivity – and prevent or reverse diabetes – into six easy, highly doable steps.

1. Exercise. Contrary to prevailing recommendations of shunning exercise during illness, staying fit is highly important in getting diabetes and other diseases under control. In fact, it is one of the fastest, most powerful ways to lower your insulin and leptin resistance. 
2. Eliminate grains and sugars, especially fructose. Conventional diabetes treatment has failed over the last 50 years partly because of its seriously flawed dietary principles. Eliminate ALL sugars and grains – even “healthful” ones like whole, organic, or sprouted grains – from your diet. Avoid breads, pasta, cereals, rice, potatoes, and corn (which is, in fact, a grain). Until your blood sugar gets under control, you may want to avoid fruits as well.
3. Get plenty of omega-3 fats from a high-quality, animal-based source.
4. Monitor your fasting insulin level. Every bit as important as your fasting blood sugar, your fasting insulin level should be between 2 and 4. The higher your level, the worse your insulin sensitivity is.
5. Get probiotics. Your gut is a living ecosystem of a multitude of bacteria. The more good bacteria you have, the stronger your immunity and the better your overall function will be. Optimize your gut flora by consuming fermented foods like natto, miso, kefir, raw organic cheese, and cultured vegetables. You may also take a high-quality probiotic supplement.

How Sun Exposure Can Help Treat and Prevent Diabetes

Have you been getting adequate sun exposure?

More and more studies come out confirming the power of vitamin D, a steroid hormone, to influence virtually every cell in your body. Receptors that respond to vitamin D have been found in nearly every type of human cell, from your bones to your brain. Recent research shows that women can help reduce their children’s risk of Type 1 diabetes by optimizing their vitamin D levels prior to and during pregnancy, as vitamin D has been shown to suppress certain cells of the immune system that may be a factor in the disease.

Studies published between 1990 and 2009 also revealed a significant link between high levels of vitamin D and a lowered risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, along with cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome. It will likely take decades before healthy policy catches up with what overwhelming scientific evidence has already revealed about the benefits of vitamin D, and before increased sunlight exposure becomes the norm. But you don’t have to take part in the waiting game – you can optimize your levels right NOW.

Ideally, you should regularly expose a large amount of your skin to healthy amounts of sunshine, preferably as close to solar noon as possible. Direct UV exposure translates to up to 20,000 units of vitamin D a day. You may also use a safe tanning bed or supplement with oral vitamin D3. If you choose to do the latter, have your vitamin D levels routinely tested by a proficient lab to see if you are within the therapeutic range. Follow age-appropriate vitamin D doses when supplementing.

VITAMIN D DOSE RECOMMENDATIONS
AGE	DOSAGE
Below 5	35 units per pound per day
Age 5 - 10	2500 units
Age 18 - 30	8000 units
Pregnant Women	8000 units
WARNING: There is no way to know if the above recommendations are correct. The ONLY way to know is to test your blood. You might need 4-5 times the amount recommended above. Ideally your blood level of 25 OH D should be 60ng/ml.

Don't Be a Diabetes Statistic – Take Control of Your Health

To summarize, type 2 diabetes is a fully preventable, reversible condition that arises from faulty leptin signaling and insulin resistance. Therefore, diabetes can be controlled or reversed by recovering your insulin and leptin sensitivities. The only known way to reestablish proper leptin and insulin signaling is through a proper diet and exercise. There is NO drug that can currently accomplish this, and I doubt if one will ever exist in the lifetime of anyone reading this!

A meta-analysis of 13 randomized controlled trials involving more than 33,000 people showed that drug treatment of type 2 diabetes is not only ineffective, it's dangerous. Treatment with glucose-lowering drugs actually showed the potential to increase your risk of death from heart-related and all other causes.

So please remember, your diet will make or break you if you're diabetic or pre-diabetic. Unfortunately, the conventional dietary recommendations for diabetics – that of a high complex carbohydrate, low saturated fat diet – is the exact opposite of what actually works.

High complex carbohydrates include legumes, potatoes, corn, rice and grain products. Aside from legumes, you actually want to AVOID all the rest to prevent insulin resistance. Nearly all type 2 diabetics need to swap out their grains and sugars for other foods, such as protein, green veggies and healthy sources of fat. You will want to take special care to eliminate fructose, which is far more detrimental than any other type of sugar.

Drinking just one sweetened drink a day can raise your diabetes risk by 25 percentcompared to drinking one sugary drink per month, so you really need to evaluate your diet and look for hidden sources of sugar and fructose. This also means avoiding most processed foods of all kinds, as they are loaded with fructose. You may even need to avoid fruits until your blood sugar is under control.

I strongly advise keeping your total fructose consumption below 25 grams per day. However, it would be wise for most people to limit fructose to 15 grams or less, as it is virtually guaranteed you will be getting "hidden" sources of fructose from just about any processed food you eat.