Archive for September, 2005

Thinking About GMOs

Sunday, September 18th, 2005

I have been thinking about what to write about in this blog all day. This week the Natural Solutions Foundation did 15 radio shows on Codex and the Eat Smart, Eat Safe Buy-cott. Most of the shows were call-in shows and I have told who-knows-how-many people about Codex? 1 million? 10 million? 25 million? I have no way of knowing.

So I am full up to the eyeballs with facts and particulars about GMOs and Codex protocols and procedures and so on. Instead of giving you more facts and figures, I thought that I would share two quotes which capture the issues with precision and beauty and one which is breathtaking in its arrogance and inaccuracy (“Fair and Balanced”?). We’ll go back to the hard facts and statistics tomorrow. But I believe that when we make our choices, move through life with clarity and let our minds and hearts reverberate to truth, it is useful to have more than facts.

Eileen Dannemann, President of the National Coalition of Organized Women has this to say about GMOs:

“The Genetic engineering of the nation and world’s seeds is the broadest and single most offensive stroke of aggressive and covert manipulation against womankind in the history of humanity. Biotech’s “terminator” and “exorcist” technologies seek to sterilize the reproductive value of Mother Nature Herself. To sterilize the reproductive nature of seeds is a violation of a principal law of nature, the Law of Abundance. The only outcome that can result from this kind of trend in thinking is scarcity. After being chemicalized, cauterized and sterilized, errant man dares to implant genetically manipulated, foreign life forms into Her womb. What can She yield? Any good woman would recoil at such an offense and have a spontaneous abortion. We are looking towards an imminent agricultural collapse and a global agricultural holocaust as long as Congress supports the economic plan for the United States to own the world food supply.”

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation Technique, was aware of Biotechnology’s dangers and he offered a specific warning about it:

“Tell those who eat genetically engineered foods that their lives have been severely shortened. So tell them to meditate with the little time they have left on the planet”

And, now for something completely different: 3 of America’s leading scientists, Vernon Cardwell (ASA President), Ronald Phillips (CSSA President), Donald Sparks (SSSA President) have circulated among US scientists the following [astonishing] statement:

“Many biotechnology detractors gain public support for their cause through the use of misinformation and emotional appeals… In short, biotechnology, this incredibly powerful and valuable tool with seemingly limitless potential to resolve health problems, increase crop yields, and treat diseases, is at risk of serious setbacks.”

And, indeed, consumer opposition has lead to the cancellation of field trials of GMOs in England, the abandonment of Monsanto’s GMO wheat (when Japan and the EU threatened a boycott of US wheat, given that they buy 45% of all of our wheat) and over 3000 GMO free zones (2 in California).

In fact, the Biotech Bullies are encountering strong opposition from consumers. That’s you and me!

The Eat Safe, Eat Smart Buy-Cott needs your help to push them off the map. I am in the process of designing a web site for the campaign and need information on products.

We know that organic foods are GMO free. We also know that many supplement and food manufacturers are sourcing GMO materials for their products. We need to know who they are.

Here is what I would like you to do: email the companies that make the things that you like and use (including herbs and supplements) and ask them to provide information about the presence or absence of GMO materials in their products. Get it in writing! Once you have that email, please forward it to me at info@healthfreedomusa.org and I will make sure that the information is added to the site so that other people can make healthy choices based on that data, too.

If a company states that their products are GMO free, we will list them on the Eat Safe, Eat Smart Buy-Cott site. If not, we will mention that they did not provide that assurance. It is my hope that with your help we will quickly be able to provide a great deal of vitally important information to anyone who needs it.

Oh, one more thing: We have reached $7698 on day 18 of our fund raising drive! We have recieved large gifts and small ones and we are better than 3/4 of the way there in our goal to raise $10,000. But we are not there yet! Won’t you become part of the Freedom 400 and donate $25 or more to make sure that we can continute to work for your health and your health freedom?

We are depending on you.

Yours in health and freedom from GMOs,
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director

Pharma-cide at the Movies

Saturday, September 17th, 2005

Big Pharma can be a great friend or a terrifying enemy. It depends whether you play ball with it or not. If you are a Drug Or Compound Trade Optomizing Responder ( a”DOCTOR“) Big Pharma loves you because you are an open spigot dispensing highly profitable (and largely unnecessary) drugs for things that don’t respond very well to them. And those drugs may not be the safe (!), effective (!) and necessary (!) compounds magnificent advertising, purchased “research” and carefully manipulated press lead you to think that they are.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I know that drugs have a place in medicine. When something goes wrong on a short term, crisis basis, you want a short-term, crisis response and drugs are very good for short, sharp interventions. Anesthesia, drugs to get the heart pumping properly, drugs to stop seizures, drugs to treat brain hemorrhages, acute asthma and other “Right NOW!” situations are near miraculous when they are used properly. But that’s not where the money is for the Big Pharma. So that’s not where their energy is, and not where the action is.

But to be marketed a drug must be approved by the FDAs of the world. And clinical trials are expensive, especially when they don’t come out right. And that’s where John Le Carre’s brilliant novel and Fernando Mierelles’ brilliant adaptation of “The Constant Gardener” comes in.

It is a masterfully told, visually stunning tale of ordinary men and women dealing with extraordinary events in exotic places to create a graphic, chilling and vitally important film. The story is simple, the events complex and the moral clear. Based on a true story, “The Constant Gardener“chronicles a web of complicity and avarice which engulfs and murders a decent couple (along with unwitting experimental subjects) but cannot kill the truth.

“The Constant Gardner” lays bare Big Pharma’s clinical drug trial protocols which force dangerous, untested drugs onto unsuspecting Africans. Falsified documentation makes it appear that these drugs are safe leading to FDA and other national agency approvals, global distribution and immense profits.

This is a movie every one who cares about truth and health freedom should see. In fact, this movie is so important that I want you to see it as my guest. Here’s how: Eileen Dannemann, the Director of the National Coalition of Organized Women (NCOW) has arranged with the film’s producer to make free tickets available to everyone who is willing to pass out flyers about the film and its vitally important message!

To get your free tickets and download the flyers, print at least 100 copies of the movie-goers’ flyer (the fist one) , Tessa Lives, http://tinyurl.com/agf7m, and fax copies of the second flier to your Congressmen and women, http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ .

Next, get your free ticket, http://tinyurl.com/cu83h, and take your 100 (or more) fliers with you to the theater. Hand them out to people who are leaving the theater (who are usually somber and quiet as they absorb what they have just witnessed and learned). It is a wonderful time to give them information. Ask them to take action and hand them the flier.

If you want to do more to make sure that the vital message of this powerful film reverberates throughout our society, visit The Progressive Convergence site, http://tinyurl.com/7wv2u. You will find press releases and other material you can distribute.

In fact, why not take these fliers to a Health Freedom Meetup in your area. If there isn’t one yet, I suggest you become the organizer and use the site and your email network, health food store, etc., to let people know that your local Meetup will be gathering at the time and location of your choice on a particular date. Pass out the Tessa Lives flyer and suggest that others at the meeting share the message at the theater playing “The Constant Gardener” in your neighborhood. Of course, there’s lot’s more to talk about at the meetup and, if you let me know that you are organizing it, I will provide material for your meeting which will help organize it.

I urge you to see this outstanding film. We are deeply fortunate that we have this vehicle for education and truth created by such outstanding talents.

Yours in health, freedom and art in the cause of truth,
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director

Eat Safe, Eat Smart! Say “No” to GMOs

Thursday, September 15th, 2005

The US wants Codex to make our policy of allowing the unlabeled use of Genetically Modified Organisms (known as “GMOs” or “Frankenfoods”) worldwide. Let’s take a quick look at the dangers of supposedly safe Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) for us and explore GMOs a little further and how to protect yourself and your loved ones from GMO’s insidious and emerging dangers.

Let me be clear right up front: to me as a doctor and a scientist, the scientific evidence is nowhere near compelling that GMOs are safe. They are tested only inside the confines of the companies that create and market them who can suppress whatever evidence they don’t like. Scientists who question the official dogma of their safety (despite the facts) are punished by loss of career and reputation even if they are right — especially if they are right!

Dr. Alpad Pusztai has a hard name to pronounce but an easy message to remember: GMOs cause damage to every organ in the body when eaten either by the animals we eat or by us directly. He is one of the most respected scientists in the EU and, although corporate forces have risen up in wrath because of his brave and bold willingness to speak freely about what others are eager to hide, Dr. Pusztai’s science is impeccable.

He has shown that genetically-manipulated foods, when fed to animals in reasonable amounts, causes very gradual total body organ and immune system damage.

But wait, there’s more! Do a Google search on “GMO Dangers” and you will meet up with respected scientists from genetics, medicine, epidemiology, bioethics, ecology, sociology, agronomy and just about every other relevant science telling you why GMO foods are a really, really dangerous technology if you want to live a long and healthy life.

In the US, GMOs may be released into the environment without any identification or proof of their safety whatsoever. While enthusiastic advocates of GMOs abound, scientists who are not tied to industry have a great many serious problems with genetically modified plants, animals, insects, trees, flowers, etc. It is important to remember that GMOs are not tested for safety before marketing in the US. Regulation by the FDA involves only a voluntary certification program which says that the GMO in question exhibits “substantial equivalence” (it looks like, tastes like, smells like, cooks like the unmodified organism).

That’s it. That’s the full extent of our government’s involvement with GMO plants and crops. Fish, herd animals and other organisms (including GMOs modified to produce vaccines and drugs) are regulated just a bit more but human health (to say nothing at all of environmental health) appears to not be a government concern.

It needs to be your concern, though. In the US (and the rest of the world if the US has its way with the Codex Committee on Biotechnology), unless you buy organic produce, foods and grass fed, free range meat, you WILL be eating GMOs since the US is the world leader in GMO crops (63% of the world’s GMO crops are gown here).

If your diet includes corn, soy products, canola oil, wheat, potatoes, beets, papayas, sweet potatoes and a host of other foods you are eating unstable genetic material which can, despite industry assurance, make its way into your body and brain with unknown consequences.

Why should you care?

Because if the food you eat exhibits “substantial equivalence” you cannot tell if it is real food or GMO food. And there is every reason to believe that this transgenic food may seriously harm you and your family over time. We know it harms the environment.

Dr. Terje Traavik (Norwegian Institute of Gene Ecology), investigating mysterious lethal syndromes where GMO crops were being grown, said blood tests showed the villagers had developed antibodies to the genetically inserted pesticide [in the crops]. Traavik’s studies show that a virus promoter—which controls the genetic message—was unexpectedly found intact in human cells.

Dr. Traavik’s team also found that genetically engineered viruses used in the GM process combined with natural viruses to create new hybrid viruses with unpredictable characteristics, and that these hybrid viruses could cause new diseases.

Don’t you think it is prudent to avoid these unstable, untested and unsafe foods? So do I.

Suppose you could find out what foods had GMOs in them and which ones didn’t. Wouldn’t you want to avoid eating the ones that might be dangerous? Food should not have life-threatening consequences!

Here are the basic rules for avoiding GMO foods:
1. Eat organic whenever possible. It’s worth the extra money because you probably will save it in co-pays on hospital bills and drugs later: healthy people don’t need drugs.
2. Buy products from GMO free companies (there are a lot of them).
3. Avoid products from companies using GMOs (like Lumen Foods and Boca Burgers)
4. Ask companies whose foods you eat about their GMO policy. Go to their corporate sites and send them an email. Let me know what they say and we will share the information. (Email me at info@healthfreedomusa.org)
5. Avoid anything with canola oil. Nearly all of it is genetically modified and treated with toxic chemicals
6. Avoid soy, corn and wheat (and things made from them) unless they are organic
7. Purchase only free range, organically fed animal protein i.e., beef, milk, veal, ostrich, turkey, chicken, eggs, etc.)
8. Limit your fish to wild-caught, never farmed, sources.

Does this sound like a boycott? Close. I call it a “buy-cott”, a positive action by consumers to protect their health and support the market for health foods so farmers and producers will have an incentive to keep producing wholesome food.

Please send me your ideas and strategies for this buy-cott. Buying what you know is good for you and your family is another way for you to take your own power, authority and decision-making into your own hands.

Yours in health and freedom from dangerous foods,
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director

And Now, A Word From Our President

Wednesday, September 14th, 2005

Today’s Blog comes to you from the Natural Solutions Foundation President, Major General Albert N. Stubblebine III (US Army, Ret.)

Hello. 300 years before Christ (or thereabouts) Sun Tzu wrote the greatest treatise on winning a war ever written. He said there are only a few Principles of War: follow them and you win, violate them and you loose.

The first is Mass: numbers will carry the day. The more of us who communicate our position, the stronger each one of us becomes since we have grass roots support by people who vote, lots of people who vote. Another Principle is Offense . You never, never win a war by sitting on your hands and accepting the pabulum of inane responses by people who are supposedly responsible to you for their actions.

I know that many of you are writing to your Congressmen and women, http://tinyurl.com/c5jmw, and receiving empty, meaningless or even irrelevant letters in return. This is not acceptable. Democracy demands dialogue. Like you, I wrote to my Congressional Delegation and, like some of you, I received an absolutely empty letter in return. Please let me know who the Congressmen and women are who are abusing our trust in this way and the Natural Solutions Foundation will publish a list of those non-communicators.

I had written to my Representatives urging their strong opposition to Susan Davis’ disastrous HR 3156 because it represents a potential danger of massive proportion to the health and health freedom to the population of the United States. Of course, there are other major threats, too. SA 1379, attached to the Defense Spending Bill, is a serious threat to our health and nutrient access as well. As it happened, the letter I received was about HR 3156. It might just as well have been about any of the other bills we urge you to oppose.

In this case, I received an email back thanking me and telling me that HR 3156 was in Committee and “I will take your views into account when considering this bill”. There was no substantive information or indication of a position on the issues in the reply I received. Not acceptable!

Many of you have told us you are getting the same unacceptable letters from your Congressmen and women. The natural tendency is to throw up your hands in disgust and not write again. Wrong. That means that you have allowed yourself to be fobbed off by a meaningless letter and you accepted it. That is not how we win the battle and not how we win the war. Rather, what you need to do is go back to the email engine on our site, http://tinyurl.com/c5jmw, and write a letter demanding a real answer and telling your Congressman or woman that he or she works for you and needs your vote in the next electoral cycle. Therefore, you need a straight answer and a vigorous protection of your rights and interests in this electoral cycle. You can also remind your Congressperson that he/she needs to win the primary in order to secure re-election and that you are an active member of your community who will remember and share the interactions which you have with your Congressional Delegates. If you do not get straight answers to straight questions and get mealy-mouthed verbiage instead of straight talk, you will let other people know that this is not a trustworthy person to send to Congress again.

Corporate interests have declared war on Health and Health Freedom. This is a war that we must win! Inactivity won’t win it nor will allowing a ridiculous letter to pacify you.

Yours in health and freedom,
Major General Albert N. Stubblebine III
President

PS: Thanks for your outstanding email response demanding a Congressional Codex Briefing. More than 16,000 emails have been sent to Congress in the last two days by our supporters. Since Congress counts each one as the opinion of 13,000 voters, that’s a whole lot of people saying, “Protect our Health Freedom, Congressman!” Keep up the good work! ANS

15,795 Americans Are Not Wrong!

Monday, September 12th, 2005

WOW! You have touched my heart!

I bring you the problems and challenges in the Health Freedom struggle via radio shows, emails and blogs and you create the solution! Fifteen Thousand, Seven Hundred and Ninety Seven people have taken the time and the effort to tell Congress what is important to you, that you want a Congressional Hearing and you are very, very, VERY serious about protecting your health freedoms.

Now, multiply that number by the “correction factor” Congress applies to grass roots activities: every letter or fax = the voice of 13,000 people! You shared the opinions of 20, 233, 500 people with Congress. You told them that all of us want our health freedoms intact and that it is important to us to make sure that Congress knows enough about Codex to work hard to protect us from it. That’s what your voice can do when it is part of a full throated chorus of political opinion from us, not from the professional speech makers.

I told you that Health Freedom is expensive and asked you to help float the Natural Solutions Foundation financial boat since we have no other means of support. We said that we needed to raise $10,000 in thirty days. Today, on Day 18, your help and support has brought us $6385! Many of you understand how important this battle is to our very liberty itself. So you have joined the Health Freedom 400, by giving $25 or more to sustain the Natural Solutions Foundation. I offer each of you who has taken a stand for Health Freedom and health liberty a heartfelt and personal “Thank you!” To those of you still waiting to become part of this funding drive, right now would be a really, really good time to join the ranks of the Health Freedom 400. Please do not to wait for anymore time to pass before you click here to become a member of the Health Freedom 400, http://healthfreedomusa.org/donate.

Thank you for your enduring support!

I told you that we needed grassroots action to get Congress to the [then scheduled] Congressional Briefing next week. Just counting those of you who used this site to , email Congress, http://tinyurl.com/c5jmw, alone, by midday Saturday (9/10/05) you had contacted nearly every Congressional Office to urge your Congressmen and women to attend our Codex Briefing. That’s not counting people who used other sites, phones, etc!

When I told you two days ago that the Congressional Briefing had been pulled out from under our firmly planted shoes, and asked you to email Congress to urge them to hold a Congressional Codex Briefing, you did that, too! In fact, since 10 AM Saturday morning (9/10/05) when I announced the “change in plans” with an email telling you what had happened, you have gone back to the computer and made those (virtual) wires hum! I am thrilled to tell you that 15,795 of you have written to Congress that health freedom is extremely mportant to you!

That’s a lot of grass roots and every one makes the basis of our Health Freedom movement stronger.

And remember when I brought you the problem that health freedom supporters are everywhere but we needed to find one another so we could get together? I suggested we use meetup.com, http://healthfreedom.meetup.com, to help us do that? Well, we now have a Health Freedom meetups in Los Angeles, one in Croton on Hudson NY, one in Seattle WA, one in North Carolina and people waiting to join meetups near their homes in Pennsylvania, Long Island, etc. So if you are interested in meeting with others who care about health freedom, go to http://healthfreedom.meetup.com and organize a meetup or join one.

Set the time and the location to be convenient to you and then meetup. Email me at info.healthfreedomusa.org and let me know you are having a meetup and I will email you materials to help organize and streamline the meeting. Keep me posted! Let’s use meetup as our electronic appointment book to find and share this immense task with others who understand what is at stake!

I am deeply honored to be in this struggle with you all because you are so responsive and persistent that we CAN win our health freedom!

Yours in health and determined freedom,

Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director