Thursday, November 6, 2008

Melamine contamination source....

It seems that melamine is not really added to the milk, but to the feed for animals. Melamine seems to be used as a contimination masking agent in animal feed. When impurities (mostly dirt) are added without melamine, protein tests can catch it. Adding melamine allows the "quality inspections" to pass, whether they are Chinese or American quality tests. The melamine seems to pass through the fluid paths of the body and doing a number on the kidneys in the process. Cows should have had this problem a long time ago, assuming that they have a similar physiology as human beings. The first time the problem was officially noticed was in dogs though.

Added later: As usual, the Chinese government is hanging some scapegoats. Continued vigilance will be needed to eliminate this and other forms of food contamination.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Melamine warning for milk chocolate in US...

Sherwood Brand Pirate's Gold Milk Chocolate coins are being recalled due to the fact that they contain Melamine, the ingredient in milk products that has caused many infant and dog deaths in China. These candies are sold at Costco and other bulk and dollar stores. Please make sure to check your child(ren)'s Halloween candy and DO NOT LET THEM EAT THE PIRATE COINS (the ones wrapped in shiny gold foil).

Monday, September 29, 2008

Yummy...life is a box of melamine laced chocolates!!

Here comes more melamine, now in the guise of chocolate. Fortunately, valentine's day is far away. But halloween is not! If you have a sweet tooth, please give your kidneys a thought.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Melamine, melamine everywhere...say bye bye to your kidney...

Thanks to China, pets all over the world got to eat Melamine. Now it is the time for human population. Expect these chinese babies to show up in orphanages soon, so have their kidneys checked if you are adopting from the Communist nation of China. You can be sure that the Chinese will unload these "damaged" human beings to other countries. Ofcourse you cannot have these tests done in China, so consult local doctors for precautions during the flight as it can be quite stressful on the damaged kidneys.

Apparently melamine mimics proteins in tests, so they add it to bypass FDA and other similar organizations. When it comes to food, the contamination dangers are very high. The more backward the country, the higher the probability of contamination. So beware of "high quality organic foods" from these countries.

Friday, July 11, 2008

What is the common factor between a group of doctors and a bad cop?

They are both extremely biased. They will care only for their own "kind". Here is AMA apologizing to African American Doctors. Everybody does this; a Caucasian doctor will get similar treatment in downtown Chicago. If you watch Dr.House, imagine him to be a bunch of doctors. A Caucasian bunch one day, an African American bunch another day, a Chinese bunch another day and so on.

So the doctor you get to see is actually determined by all these boards. They will put all possible obstacles in front of the undesired skin color or religious affiliation, which will be different flavors for different regions. They will respectfully ask the undesirable to look for nurses jobs. Or screw them up during referrals. Or ask US citizen minorities to take English tests with sentences like "Jim is a six year old boy" and Questions like "How old is Jim?". Since time is money for doctors and these Test of English as a Foreign Language tests essentially delay the doctor from getting certified, these non US born doctors move on, typically to low paying rural areas in some other state or county. Where they end up encountering patients that get angry that a non-US born doctor is treating them. Talk about irony.

This does work out well for rural areas as these doctors are typically very talented. If a doctors life was based on pure merit, these doctors would be in the top hospitals in big cities. But they are not; partly perpetrated and encouraged by patients too. The urban patient gets as upset as a rural patient psychologically and the value of the placebo effect is pretty high for treatment purposes (This works against you for major diseases though. Cancer pains will return again at a different focal point).

So remember the rule: A bunch of doctors equal one bad cop. Do not let them bunch up to decide what is right for you. Their bad side comes out when they band together. And if you happen to be a doctor that is naive enough to not know this; well, now you know.

Monday, June 30, 2008

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Autism Spectrum Disorder - Mitochondrial disorder discussion on June 29, 2008 at Indianapolis

In it's own medically quite fast way, the discussions related to the link between Mitochondrial Disorders and Autism Spectrum Disorders are gaining traction. There is meeting to discuss the same at the UMDF conference in Indianapolis on June 29. As I had posted earlier, this is a natural conclusion of limit theorem and this is the only known case of a particular disease causing an autism spectrum disorder as opposed to "no reason" that usually accompanies autism. So this is definitely something worth a discussion.

Meanwhile, a research team in Korea has found another possible triggerchemical in the brain that can cause Autism Spectrum Disorders. This is the area in the brain that carries out primitive emotions.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

The cause of food shortage.

Ofcourse the major cause of food shortage is population. But that is too much of a simple explanation and people are now looking at reasons for the shortage, including the growing middle class in India that is apparently eating more now. India and China are easy targets for the US; they are scared of blaming Ethanol and losing blue state votes in the next presidential elections.

There is some sense in this theory; the more developed a country becomes, the more heavier it's people and it's food plate get. So in that sense, the fat person cannot blame anyone else that just joined the club. The McDonalds and Pizza huts are doing their part in these countries to bloat up the digestive tracts of these people and the resultant binge that the developed countries are all too well aware of.

The real culprit is actually our convoluted desire to protect the world while devouring it with a passion unseen in history. So we drive our SUVs with corn oil rather than using public transportation. Using potential food as oil and livestock feed ties these supply chains together and triggers additional food crisis. Use of Ethanol as a fuel works out great for US farmers that produce corn, but is not so good for Sorghum(Jowar) eating people around the world. Why? Because land used for growing Sorghum is now being used to make corn as it fetches a higher price. Good old economics driven by the need to produce a feel good fuel called ethanol.

The solution to the high prices and food shortage is to eliminate competition for resources that go after human food. These currently happen to be livestock and bio friendly fuel (and export, an economic and politicial activity).

So if you go vegetarian and use public transportation, you will eventually end up reducing food price in some bizzare part of the world and end up with a few more pennies or paisas in your pocket. Ofcourse the cow farmer and corn farmer is not going to be much happy about it.

The meat lover in you is probably objecting to this idea vehemently. Just be prepared to shell out more for meat. Plus the eco vegetarian will end up driving meat prices down, if the idea ever catches up. The idea does have potential, a lot of baby boomer flower powerettes happen to be eco vegetarian.

Going vegetarian for new folks can be tiresome and there can be health risks; make sure that you eat pulses so that your protein intake remains at recommended levels. And be prepared for the pangs of desire if you are an eco-vegetarian and do not have any spiritual component to your vegetarianism! We promise to look away if you go for the occasional indulgence!

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Enemy medicine....

There are some speculations now that the Heparin contamination was intentional and done deliberately for the 13 countries that received the contaminated Heparin. This is a shocking revelation and will scare people from buying products from countries that are not really friends. In a way, deliberate contamination is an act of war against innocent citizens of another country.

This is similar to cops never buying food that they cannot see visually being prepared. The juvelines at the counter have typically encountered cops before and they see the food preparation as an opportunity to pass on some body fluids to the cops. This makes cops a great fan of doughnuts, Subway and Quiznos.

So China has a lot of explaining to do now. I wonder how many such abuses happen with other food items and medicines that come from other countries.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Genetic discrimination for insurance banned in US...

There is now a bill officially banning genetic discrimination. But insurance carriers and their legal teams have long found a way around this by claiming that you already have the illness. So it is still a good idea not to share any genetic testing results with insurance carriers whenever possible. This is especially true during the times when you are applying for insurance.

One of the things you have to be careful about in these cases is over the counter medications that you might be taking to offset the effect of any future genetic illness. Make sure that this information is not entered into any doctor's record. Talk to the doctor if you wish, but make it absolutely clear to the doctor that the over the counter medication cannot be documented in his records in any way. These OTC medications are one way insurance underwriters are sniffing out potential genetic issues. They will quote you exorbitant rates based on the vitamins or antioxidants you might be taking. There is no rule indicating that OTC drug information has to be available to insurers; make sure that it is not available to them.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Irresponsible research regarding child gender...

There was a recent flurry of activity regarding research that correlated the mothers eating habits to the sex of the child. The researchers were hopefully aware of the fact that male sperm decides the sex of the child.

This is very irresponsible research. Female foeticide is being perpetrated in many parts of the world. Now people will have a new tool to further humiliate females for producing a female child.

The only plus point of this research is that conceiving females in India and China will get to eat a healthy breakfast.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Mitochondrial disorder, autism, vaccine tie up found....

Finally, we have some research which indicates that some of the kids who had an autism diagnosis were later on found to have a mitochondrial disorder too. This ties back to my article from a few days ago. Here is a real bad interpretation of the results; these kids can have other serious issues in addition to muscle weakness. Mitochondrial disorders are a beast in itself, so much so that the parent may not even be concerned about autism when dealing with mito complications.

Mitochondrial disorder is an asymmetric disease; it means that if you have the disorder in your muscles, it does not necessarily mean a disorder in the brain and vice versa. So unless you are performing brain biopsies or some similarly invasive procedure, there is no way to know if you will have a vaccine injury or not. Let us see what the scientific community comes up with to detect brain mitochondrial disorders. From what we have seen for mitochondrial disorders at this point in time, muscle is the only convenient place to check for the disorder and there are a lot of negative results even though other mitochondrial disorder markers are present.

Ideas to prevent infanticide and foeticide in India and China....

Spread the word and make sure that your voice is heard and these ideas are implemented.

- Free education for women upto college and even post graduate education in government run institutions (Similar plans are being implemented in many states in India)
- Indian and Chinese males should stand up to their own moms and dads when they start chirping about unwanted female children.
- Come down hard on eve teasing and harassment activities in states that practice infanticide. The harassment arises out of the same attitude that causes infanticide down the line. A few "good boys" will end up behind bars, but it will be a better lesson than reminding them that their sisters and mothers are women too. That carrot approach does not seem to be working well anyway.
- Create a feminine movement so that women feel a sisterhood towards each other and stand up for a woman in a neighboring house rather than turn a blind eye.
- Refuse marriage of women into households or be very careful of families that have only male children or a very high percentage of males. Chances are high that they did you know what. Again, a few innocents will be in needless trouble, but sometimes poisonous and normal snakes look alike and it is better to get out a stick and protect your own daughters and sisters.
- Do not provide any government incentives to families that have only males. Again the bad snake good snake logic applies. But that is OK. Consider it payback for all the dead female children.
- Provide extra incentives for families that have more than one girl child. This will help correct the gender balance in a few years.
- If you have a female child, rub it in other peoples faces by educating her and providing her the same opportunities as a male child. This is the one thing that makes female killing folks look foolish and dumb.
- Encourage marriage of males to educated women. A lot of mother-in-laws are scared of educated women as they cannot practice infanticide in those cases.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Small victories...

The fight against autism is usually a series of small victories from a parent standpoint. Here is a snippet from an old House MD episode "Lines in the Sand" (Episode 4 in Season 3).



Parents of autistic children are acutely aware of their child's potential and fight hard to find ways to express that potential. The outside world is typically skeptical and does not have the same opinion.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Rotavirus vaccine...cure deadlier than problem?...

Just another example of the crazy world of vaccines targeted toward young kids in the US. Rotavirus vaccines are being introduced now. It is accepted that Rotavirus does not cause deaths, only severe illness. However the vaccine itself seems to have rumblings of deadly or more severe complications.

The 120 or more dollars per vaccine out of US coffers, either government or parent, is a powerful lure for these drug companies, almost along the lines of Viagra. A vaccine in the third world country would give them pennies. But apply some lobbying grease into political parties and candidates and your child will have to take a newly formulated vaccine as a mandatory vaccine or else he will not be allowed to set foot in a school campus. Try doing that to workers coming in to this country, legal and illegal. In many ways, the US populace is a captive audience of big pharma, in the same way a US driving licence makes it easier for cops to ticket you and pull up your driving records. Both big pharma and the cops know that the dollars will eventually show up, thanks to your US "privileges".

Expect this vaccine to show up in the mandatory list for your kid soon.

An interesting point though. Pediatricians and doctors hate vaccinations as insurance stiffs them and does not pay much. So the pediatricians will try to stuff in as many vaccine injections as possible in a single visit. If your child is adopted from Russia, too bad. He might get ten or more vaccines on a single day. Do not allow that! It is a recipe for enormous danger and a very high probability of autism. Make sure that your busy peditrician does not recommend such a step. Work with them and the nurses and come up with a plan to space them out, whether they are oral or injection form.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Recent Autism vaccine link and the limit theorem...

Did the recent news about the link between vaccines and autism leave you confused? On the one hand, we had the vaccine board compensating the parents. On the other hand, everybody, including the CDC, Mitochondrial Disease Foundation and many other organizations started tempering expectations.

Here is a link to the one sided limit theorem. If you look at the graph there, what we have proof for right now is that if a kid has mitochondrial disorder, he or she will be pushed from one red dot to the other(normal to autism) if provided with multiple vaccines at the same time. The spin for now is essentially that someone has to be really close to the red dot to be pushed over to the other red dot.

But my question to everyone is, how do you know in advance if someone is close to the red dot? Maybe a mito kid is more obvious as they have other physical symptoms. What if only the brain mitochondria is having a dysfunction? Due to the nature of mitochondrial cell division, each body part tends to have different mitochondria. So having normal muscle mitochondria is no guarantee for normal brain mitochondria. In fact, mito experts do a lot of hand wringing even after a positive muscle biopsy as there is no guarantee as to what the next affected organ would be.

Taken to the extreme, should we be doing brain biopsies for mitochondrial disorders checks before vaccines, given that 1 in 150 of new born kids have autism? Or should we just go by the good old luck of the draw? Which mitochondrial mutations should we be checking for? Or should we worry about even the slightest mutation and play it safe? These are questions that need to be answered rather than asking people to look the other way and not worry about an autism-mitochondrial disorder link.

So mathematically, you have to keep looking in there. We have just found the one sided limit; it is time to dig deep and identify all the things that push kids towards the dots. For example, if mitochondrial disorders are the "edge of the cliff", where is the research regarding action on both sides of the cliff and research to ensure that the disease progression is tracked well before we end up in a "over the cliff" situation? The research dollars for mito disorders have to be definitely increased.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Get involved in politics to keep it centered....

Ever wondered why politicians seem to be "in their own world" and not worried too much about their constituents? The answer lies in what is known as PAC or Political Action Committees. Organizations and "concerned individuals" form these groups and create tons of financing for the candidates. This is really easy money in exchange for some not so obvious favors down the line. Since money equates to getting elected, politicians can get reelected just by listening to a few PAC and they can send people complaints straight to the shredder. For example, recently reelected Dennis Kucinich gets elected in Cleveland mostly from money out of California donors, so his lack of concern for Cleveland and his wierd global agenda is totally understandable. (or maybe it's his hippie wife)

That does not mean that people are saints either. They tend to get out their check only for people that share their point of hatred, not their point of view. A case in point is Mr.King from Western Iowa, who is elected with more public money, but has some real extreme viewpoints about people that do not share similar traits with him. The biography does not do him justice; he will rant and rave about "immigrants" and non-English speaking foreigners at every available opportunity.

So it seems that politicians can get their money only in two ways; get it quietly from an organizational PAC, or indulge in hate mongering and get money from people and ideological PACs that share similar hateful points of view. Ideological PACs are especially troublesome for rare disease families as they intrude into treatment options available in the name of personal and moral ethics. Politicians gladly fuel the flames as the money starts pouring in. They do not have to think much in this regard, they just follow the money trial. Pure genetic diseases tend to have a genetic cure; ideological PACs get into the act and block out many potential advances. Fortunately, South Koreans are catching on and progressing the necessary research.

Find out how your area politician get his election money by going to the "Home" tab after clicking the link below. Find out if he or she is a corporate puppy or a "hater" or a PAC money free real politician. And take a pledge yourself, even if you do not mind a corporate puppy or a hater. You make the choice.

Change Congress

Politics tend to play out on the edges and it is difficult to get it to center without active involvement by citizens of that particular country.

Friday, March 7, 2008

How to avoid autism?

Here is the link to an article where the government conceded a "vaccine injury" and will compensate the parents. The mother was a nurse and a lawyer, so this was a unique combination that helped document evidence and win the case. Other autism parents may not be as fortunate, even if they know the link for sure in their hearts.

Since 1 in 150 industrialized nation babies have an autism spectrum disorder, it pays to be paranoid and take precautions. Taking conscientious care and providing for the education of an autistic child runs into tens of thousand of dollars a year, so the paranoia is justified on the economic front alone. Morally, it is not your fault and it is not your genes; it is the industrialized, chemical nations we live in. Here are some condensed precautions from all the blogs and news articles out there. You cannot wait for scientific proof; there are no visible signs of autism onset and that emboldens people that deny the link.

1. Avoid vaccines AT ALL COSTS during pregnancy. All vaccines have legal disclaimers against pregnant women injections. Go ahead and believe them. If the fine print has the word, "pregnant woman", do not take the medication.
2. Mercury in Vaccines were removed "officially" in 2001. But the inventory is still floating around and causes CDC folks to be real defensive answering questions about vaccines. Ask, ask, ask details about the vaccine. Some states such as California have mandates against this. The vaccines merely get dumped in the other states or countries.
3. Do not take flu vaccines while pregnant. They officially contain mercury right now. Plus it has "pregnant women" in fine print.
4. Be very paranoid while vaccinating kids. Space out the vaccines one at a time, even if it means increased copay and annoyed doctors and nurses. (Link to an image containing an alternate vaccination schedule. Notice the jamming of vaccines at the 2-6 month stage in the original schedule) It's not their kid anyway. Autism is essentially a phenomenon in which the brain goes into a state of shock and awe, akin to being chased by lions (or pick whatever scares you; many of them. Can you think of anything else? You just "experienced" autism). The brain is totally focused on the "danger" and not aware of anything else. Putting in multiple mercury filled vaccines seems to convince the brain that the end is near. It goes into survival mode as a result, as it thinks that normal social intelligence is an unnecessary thing to be doing at that point in time. The brain itself gets injured and abused during vaccinations and acts so as to "protect the life in us".
5. Join associations that oppose mercury in vaccines. Mercury is dangerous in tuna and broken eco friendly mercury bulbs. It is much more potent and lethal in vaccines and flu vaccines. Maybe future generations will bear the fruits of your labor. Vaccines are a national security interest item; expect government spin that you are being too paranoid. (Note how they say "almost all vaccines"; those mean little federal corporate ladder climbers!)
6. Do not introduce mercury into your house. Say bye bye to your beloved eco friendly mercury lamps and to mercury thermometers. Take them to the eco hazard dump site, their rightful place.
7. Do not come into physical contact with liquid cloth detergents and other detergents. These are monster chemicals. When pregnant, pass the chore to non pregnant folks.
8. Read the fine print on any medication. A yeast infection after 4 weeks of the last period can mean that you are pregnant too. Take the pregnancy test before you reach for powerful and dangerous yeast killing chemicals.
9. Do your research even if your doctor is an expert. They follow procedures; you want to reduce the chances of a baby with autism disorders. The agendas are not necessarily aligned.
10. There are a lot of medications that have warnings for breatfeeding moms. These have to be taken seriously. A pregnant/nursing mom has to essentially turn into a "fine print" reader, so keep your reading glasses handy.
11. Added by viewer feedback: Breastfeed your baby as long as you can. Whey proteins in a tin can transported in hot stuffy trucks can wait till your child hits his or her teens, and wants to endure sports activities. Breast milk's physical properties and the psychological aspects of breast feeding hold off many disorders. So keep it going as long as you can. Keep breast feeding even after the infant goes on formulas. Work and careers are not valid excuses; breast pumps are available.
12. If your doctor advices bed rest to avoid having a pre-term labor, take the advice very seriously. Preterm babies have higher probability of Autism Spectrum disorders. Take Family Medical Leave right away and hit the bed. And do not try to squeeze in chores that require driving while you are on bed rest. That is the whole point of bed rest.
13. A male precaution: Make sure that fresh sperm gets used for potential baby making activities. Research indicates that old sperm tends to repair itself and that translates to missing or incorrect genetic material along the DNA strand of your child. Hint: Older than a day is old. Similar stuff happens with maternal eggs and they can do nothing about it, but the male can.

Autism was great for humankind in a world where they became dinners for lions and hyenas and the brain was freelancing in a hopeless situation from a survival standpoint. Unfortunately, modern chemicals, preservatives and toxins trigger the same reaction in young kids and damage them for life.

So there it is. These precautions are worth taking for avoiding autism and other disorders in your future bundle of joy. There are other ideas out there, but they are too radical to fit into normal lives; this list seems to be the most sensible.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Smoking allowed in adult films...

Moral admonitions are not going to stop smoking on the Indian Screens. Plus there is an element of freedom of expression.

The punishment has to be economical. Make all films that have smoking scenes to be an Adult film. That will keep a key demographic out of theaters and put a rein on the "creative" instincts of artists. Wallets are the least common demonitors here, not morality.

Ofcourse stars can do whatever they want in public, including smoking. The health minister has a habit of targeting North Indians, he would hesitate to say that about South Indian stars.

Monday, January 7, 2008

What causes autism?

Autism has been increasing all over the world. It is being attributed to "better diagnosis", but that is a doubtful claim. It just means that the agent has not been found. It is probably something really common in the new world we live in. Gluten, Caseine, MSG are some of the commonly identified agents. They seems to viciously attack a sick body, but have never proven to debilitate a strong body. Hopefully the link to the bad agent will be made someday soon.

In the meantime, spin doctors should take a rest on this issue. Any time a food additive receives attention, these folks come in and start messing around with their "I don't know nothing, but it's not this" attitude. Cigars, unsafe cars, celebrex; the list is endless. But there are billions of dollars to be made while these thick skinned individuals are doing their dance. So I guess it will keep going on.