[rael-science] Fasting Mice Overcome Harmful Effects of a High-fat Diet

วันเสาร์ที่ 30 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2555

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The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org
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Source: http://www.alnmag.com/news/fasting-mice-overcome-harmful-effects-high-fat-diet

Fasting Mice Overcome Harmful Effects of a High-fat Diet

News Posted: May 21, 2012

It turns out that when we eat may be as important as what we eat. Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have found that regular eating times and extending the daily fasting period may override the adverse health effects of a high-fat diet and prevent obesity, diabetes and liver disease in mice.

In a paper published in Cell Metabolism, scientists from Salk's Regulatory Biology Laboratory reported that mice limited to eating during an 8-hour period are healthier than mice that eat freely throughout the day, regardless of the quality and content of their diet. The study sought to determine whether obesity and metabolic diseases result from a high-fat diet or from disruption of metabolic cycles.

"It's a dogma that a high-fat diet leads to obesity and that we should eat frequently when we are awake," says Satchidananda Panda, an associate professor in the Regulatory Biology Laboratory and senior author of the paper. "Our findings, however, suggest that regular eating times and fasting for a significant number of hours a day might be beneficial to our health."

Panda's team fed two sets of mice, which shared the same genes, gender and age, a diet comprising 60 percent of its calories from fat (like eating potato chips and ice-cream for all your meals). One group of mice could eat whenever they wanted, consuming half their food at night (mice are primarily nocturnal) and nibbling throughout the rest of the day. The other group was restricted to eating for only eight hours every night; in essence, fasting for about 16 hours a day. Two control groups ate a standard diet comprising about 13 percent of calories from fat under similar conditions.

After 100 days, the mice who ate fatty food frequently throughout the day gained weight and developed high cholesterol, high blood glucose, liver damage and diminished motor control, while the mice in the time-restricted feeding group weighed 28 percent less and showed no adverse health effects despite consuming the same amount of calories from the same fatty food. Further, the time-restricted mice outperformed the ad lib eaters and those on a normal diet when given an exercise test.

"This was a surprising result," says Megumi Hatori, a postdoctoral researcher in Panda's laboratory and a first author of the study. "For the last 50 years, we have been told to reduce our calories from fat and to eat smaller meals and snacks throughout the day. We found, however, that fasting time is important. By eating in a time-restricted fashion, you can still resist the damaging effects of a high-fat diet, and we did not find any adverse effects of time-restricted eating when eating healthy food."

Hatori cautioned that people should not jump to the conclusion that eating lots of unhealthy food is alright as long as we fast. "What we showed is under daily fasting the body can fight unhealthy food to a significant extent," she says. "But there are bound to be limits."

Obesity is a major health challenge in many developed countries, reaching global pandemic proportions. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one-third of American adults and 17 percent of youth are obese. Obesity increases the risk of a number of health conditions including: high blood pressure, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes. Lifestyle modifications, including eating a healthy diet and daily exercise, are first-line interventions in the fight against obesity. The Salk study suggests another option for preventing obesity by preserving natural feeding rhythms without altering dietary intake.

Scientists have long assumed that the cause of diet-induced obesity in mice is nutritional; however, the Salk findings suggest that the spreading of caloric intake through the day may contribute, as well, by perturbing metabolic pathways governed by the circadian clock and nutrient sensors.

The Salk study found the body stores fat while eating and starts to burn fat and breakdown cholesterol into beneficial bile acids only after a few hours of fasting. When eating frequently, the body continues to make and store fat, ballooning fat cells and liver cells, which can result in liver damage. Under such conditions the liver also continues to make glucose, which raises blood sugar levels. Time-restricted feeding, on the other hand, reduces production of free fat, glucose and cholesterol and makes better use of them. It cuts down fat storage and turns on fat burning mechanisms when the animals undergo daily fasting, thereby keeping the liver cells healthy and reducing overall body fat.

The daily feeding-fasting cycle activates liver enzymes that breakdown cholesterol into bile acids, spurring the metabolism of brown fat — a type of "good fat" in our body that converts extra calories to heat. Thus the body literally burns fat during fasting. The liver also shuts down glucose production for several hours, which helps lower blood glucose. The extra glucose that would have ended up in the blood — high blood sugar is a hallmark of diabetes — is instead used to build molecules that repair damaged cells and make new DNA. This helps prevent chronic inflammation, which has been implicated in the development of a number of diseases, including heart disease, cancer, stroke and Alzheimer's. Under the time-restricted feeding schedule studied by Panda's lab, such low-grade inflammation was also reduced.

"Implicit in our findings," says Panda, "is that the control of energy metabolism is a finely-tuned process that involves an intricate network of signaling and genetic pathways, including nutrient sensing mechanisms and the circadian system. Time-restricted feeding acts on these interwoven networks and moves their state toward that of a normal feeding rhythm."

Amir Zarrinpar, a co-first author on the paper from the Univ. of California San Diego, says it was encouraging that a simple increase in daily fasting time prevented weight gain and the onset of disease. "Otherwise, this could have been only partly achieved with a number of different pills and with adverse side effects," he says.

The multimillion-dollar question is what these findings mean for humans. Public health surveys on nutrition have focused on both the quality and quantity of diet, but they have inherent flaws such as sampling bias, response bias and recall errors that make the results questionable. Thus, says Panda, with the current data it is difficult to connect when we eat, what we eat with how much weight we gain.

"The take-home message," says Panda, "is that eating at regular times during the day and overnight fasting may prove to be beneficial, but, we will have to wait for human studies to prove this."

The good news, he adds, is that most successful human lifestyle interventions were first tested in mice, so he and his team are hopeful their findings will follow suit. If following a time-restricted eating schedule can prevent weight gain by 10 to 20 percent, it will be a simple and effective lifestyle intervention to contain the obesity epidemic.

Other researchers on the study were Christopher Vollmers, Amir Zarrinpar, Luciano DiTacchio, Shubhroz Gill, Mathias Leblanc, Amandine Chaix, Matthew Joens and James A.J. Fitzpatrick, from the Salk Institute; and Eric Bushong and Mark Ellisman, of the Univ. of California, San Diego.

Source: the Salk Institute

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"Ethics" is simply a last-gasp attempt by deist conservatives and
orthodox dogmatics to keep humanity in ignorance and obscurantism,
through the well tried fermentation of fear, the fear of science and
new technologies.

There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history,
it is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations.

On the contrary, let us embrace Science and the new technologies
unfettered, for it is these which will liberate mankind from the
myth of god, and free us from our age old fears, from disease,
death and the sweat of labour.

Rael
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[rael-science] Sunscreen use actually causes cancer

วันศุกร์ที่ 29 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2555

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The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org
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http://www.foodandthought.com/?p=1654

Sunscreen use actually causes cancer

I’ve been saying this for years. Now the research is finally coming out to prove it: sunscreen use actually causes cancer, according to comprehensive new research published in the U.K.

There are two primary reasons why sunscreen causes cancer. First, and most importantly, the use of sunscreen blocks the skin from absorbing the sun’s rays. That’s what it’s supposed to do, right? Yes, but in doing so, it also blocks the creation of all-essential vitamin D, the nutrient that the human body desperately needs to prevent as many as 25 chronic diseases. Notably: prostate cancer, breast cancer, osteoporosis, schizophrenia and heart disease.

It turns out that most people living in the Northern hemisphere (which probably includes you) are chronically deficient in vitamin D. By wearing sunscreen, they’re depriving their bodies of perhaps the single most important nutrient they need to stay healthy.

The second reason sunscreen causes cancer is because it contains toxic chemicals in the form of artificial fragrance, chemical colors and petroleum products used as fillers and stabilizers. These chemicals are absorbed through the skin where they enter the blood stream and wreak havoc on the immune system. Artificial fragrances, just by themselves, may contain dozens of carconigenic chemicals that damage the liver, the heart, and even promote systemic cancer.

Of course, the sunscreen manufacturers continue to deny all this while propagating the ridiculous myth that, “There’s no such thing as a healthy tan.” In reality, there’s no such thing as a healthy pale person! A tan is a bonafide sign of good health, and a deep tan actually protects you from cancer.

All this has come out in this comprehensive new research report entitled, “Sunlight Robbery.” To summarize the findings of the report,“To ensure optimum levels of vitamin D and optimum health people in the UK need to sun bathe whenever they can wearing as few clothes as possible while taking care not to burn.Vitamin D obtained from food provides only about 10% of our needs.”

Well said. So much for the myth that sunshine is somehow bad for you.

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WARNING FROM RAEL: For those who don't use their intelligence at its
full capacity, the label "selected by RAEL" on some articles does not
mean that I agree with their content or support it. "Selected by RAEL"
means that I believe it is important for the people of this planet to
know about what people think or do, even when what they think or do is
completely stupid and against our philosophy. When I selected articles
in the past about stupid Christian fundamentalists in America praying
for rain, I am sure no Rael-Science reader was stupid enough to believe
that I was supporting praying to change the weather. So, when I select
articles which are in favor of drugs, anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish, racist,
revisionist, or inciting hatred against any group or religion, or any
other stupid article, it does not mean that I support them. It just
means that it is important for all human beings to know about them.
Common sense, which is usually very good among our readers, is good
enough to understand that. When, like in the recent articles on drug
decriminalization, it is necessary to make it clearer, I add a comment,
which in this case was very clear: I support decriminalizing all drugs,
as it is stupid to throw depressed and sad people (as only depressed and
sad people use drugs) in prison and ruin their life with a criminal
record. That does not mean that there is any change to the Message which
says clearly that we must not use any drug except for medical purposes.
The same applies to the freedom of expression which must be absolute.
That does not mean again of course that I agree with anti-Jews,
anti-Semites, racists of any kind or anti-Raelians. But by knowing your
enemies or the enemies of your values, you are better equipped to fight
them. With love and respect of course, and with the wonderful sentence
of the French philosopher Voltaire in mind: "I disapprove of what you
say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".

[rael-science] Scientists Turn DNA into Hard Drives

วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 28 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2555

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The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org
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Source: http://www.biotechniques.com/news/biotechniquesNews/biotechniques-330807.html

Scientists Turn DNA into Hard Drives

05/21/2012

Jesse Jenkins

To record biological events in living cells, synthetic biologist Drew Endy and his team have created the first rewriteable DNA-based memory module.

When we talk about data storage, it’s usually in terms of bits, hard drives, and servers. But recently researchers have been looking into a new storage device: DNA. The idea is that DNA could record cellular events that trigger aging, cancer, and other developmental processes. So far, however, scientists have only created limited single-write technology.

The RAD module, driven by set-and-reset input signals, modifies a part of DNA within microbes that determines how the one-celled organisms will fluoresce under ultraviolet light. The microbes glow red or green depending upon the orientation of the section of DNA. Source: PNAS

But now researchers from Stanford University have now engineered the first rewriteable DNA-based memory module called the recombinase addressable data (RAD) module, which provides up to one bit of data storage within living cells. The module has the capability to write, erase, and rewrite data to record repetitive events like cell division. In contrast, previous single-write DNA-based data storage systems can only address linear data.

“Think of a CD that you can only write onto once… you fill up space really quickly,” said study author Jerome Bonnet, a post-doc in Drew Endy’s Stanford lab. “But we came up with a way where we can write and rewrite as many times as we want, and we haven’t seen any change in performance.”

To create the module, Bonnet and his co-authors needed to reliably flip a DNA sequence’s genetic orientation between two states repeatedly. In one state, the sequence would express a green fluorescent protein; in the other, a red fluorescent protein. To switch between the two states, the team relied on the synthesis of two proteins: integrase and excisionase. In their system, integrase would invert the DNA sequence; the presence of both proteins would reset the modules to its original orientation.

But these two proteins are highly volatile when placed within the same cell, so many of the initial designs failed. “This kind of stoichiometry inside a living cell is very tricky,” said co-author Pakpoom Subsoontorn, a graduate student at Stanford. “We needed to have precise control over how much we had of each protein to get to the correct state.”

After three years of optimizing the design, the team found the right balance of those two proteins. In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (1), the team described their RAD memory element, which is capable of passive information storage in the absence of heterologous gene expression for more than 100 cell divisions.

Now, while the team is exploring other enzymes to improve the efficiency of their method, their next big target is increase the storage capability of the module to 8 bits, or 1 byte.

“If you want to use this kind of memory to keep track of the events inside a living cell for a study in aging for example, the scale or number of the events that you are tracking is normally 50-200 events. We would need about 8 bits of data storage to record that,” said Subsoontorn.

References

Bonnet J., P. Subsoontorn, and D. Endy. 2012. Rewritable digital data storage in live cells via engineered control of recombination directionality. PNAS [published online May 21, 2012]

[rael-science] Gene Therapy Effective Against Aging in Mice

วันพุธที่ 27 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2555

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Gene Therapy Effective Against Aging in Mice

News Posted: May 16, 2012

A number of studies have shown that it is possible to lengthen the average life of individuals of many species, including mammals, by acting on specific genes. To date, however, this has meant altering the animals' genes permanently from the embryonic stage — an approach impracticable in humans. Researchers at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), led by its director María Blasco, have proved that mouse lifespan can be extended by the application in adult life of a single treatment acting directly on the animal's genes. And they have done so using gene therapy, a strategy never before employed to combat ageing. The therapy has been found to be safe and effective in mice.

The results are published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine. The CNIO team, in collaboration with Eduard Ayuso and Fátima Bosch of the Centre of Animal Biotechnology and Gene Therapy at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), treated adult (one-year-old) and aged (two-year-old) mice, with the gene therapy delivering a "rejuvenating" effect in both cases, according to the authors.

Mice treated at the age of one lived longer by 24 percent on average, and those treated at the age of two, by 13 percent. The therapy, furthermore, produced an appreciable improvement in the animals' health, delaying the onset of age-related diseases — like osteoporosis and insulin resistance — and achieving improved readings on ageing indicators like neuromuscular coordination.

The gene therapy utilized consisted of treating the animals with a DNA-modified virus, the viral genes having been replaced by those of the telomerase enzyme, with a key role in ageing. Telomerase repairs the extremes of chromosomes, known as telomeres, and in doing so slows the cell's and therefore the body's biological clock. When the animal is infected, the virus acts as a vehicle depositing the telomerase gene in the cells.

This study "shows that it is possible to develop a telomerase-based anti-ageing gene therapy without increasing the incidence of cancer", the authors affirm. "Aged organisms accumulate damage in their DNA due to telomere shortening, [this study] finds that a gene therapy based on telomerase production can repair or delay this kind of damage", they add.

'Resetting' the biological clock
Telomeres are the caps that protect the end of chromosomes, but they cannot do so indefinitely: each time the cell divides the telomeres get shorter, until they are so short that they lose all functionality. The cell, as a result, stops dividing and ages or dies. Telomerase gets round this by preventing telomeres from shortening or even rebuilding them. What it does, in essence, is stop or reset the cell's biological clock.

But in most cells the telomerase gene is only active before birth; the cells of an adult organism, with few exceptions, have no telomerase. The exceptions in question are adult stem cells and cancer cells, which divide limitlessly and are therefore immortal — in fact several studies have shown that telomerase expression is the key to the immortality of tumour cells.

It is precisely this risk of promoting tumor development that has set back the investigation of telomerase-based anti-ageing therapies.

In 2007, Blasco's group proved that it was feasible to prolong the lives of transgenic mice, whose genome had been permanently altered at the embryonic stage, by causing their cells to express telomerase and, also, extra copies of cancer-resistant genes. These animals live 40 percent longer than is normal and do not develop cancer.

The mice subjected to the gene therapy now under test are likewise free of cancer. Researchers believe this is because the therapy begins when the animals are adult so do not have time to accumulate sufficient number of aberrant divisions for tumors to appear.

Also important is the kind of virus employed to carry the telomerase gene to the cells. The authors selected demonstrably safe viruses that have been successfully used in gene therapy treatment of haemophilia and eye disease. Specifically, they are non-replicating viruses derived from others that are non-pathogenic in humans.

This study is viewed primarily as "a proof-of-principle that telomerase gene therapy is a feasible and generally safe approach to improve healthspan and treat disorders associated with short telomeres", state Virginia Boccardi (Second Univ. of Naples) and Utz Herbig (New Jersey Medical School-Univ. Hospital Cancer Centre) in a commentary published in the same journal.

Although this therapy may not find application as an anti-ageing treatment in humans, in the short term at least, it could open up a new treatment option for ailments linked with the presence in tissue of abnormally short telomeres, as in some cases of human pulmonary fibrosis.

More healthy years
As Blasco says, "ageing is not currently regarded as a disease, but researchers tend increasingly to view it as the common origin of conditions like insulin resistance or cardiovascular disease, whose incidence rises with age. In treating cell ageing, we could prevent these diseases".

With regard to the therapy under testing, Bosch explains, "Because the vector we use expresses the target gene (telomerase) over a long period, we were able to apply a single treatment. This might be the only practical solution for an anti-ageing therapy, since other strategies would require the drug to be administered over the patient's lifetime, multiplying the risk of adverse effects".

Source: Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO)

[rael-science] The latest entrant to the space race is... Egypt!19-year-old student invents futuristic 'warp drive' for satellites

วันจันทร์ที่ 25 มิถุนายน พ.ศ. 2555

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The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2148877/The-latest-entrant-space-race--Egypt-19-year-old-student-invents-futuristic-warp-drive-satellites.html

The latest entrant to the space race is... Egypt!19-year-old student invents futuristic 'warp drive' for satellites

Two mirrors used to generate power using weird quantum physics
Leapfrogs Nasa research into same subject
19-year-old Egyptian hopes to test her invention on future space missions

PUBLISHED: 17:55 GMT, 23 May 2012 | UPDATED: 17:55 GMT, 23 May 2012

A 19-year-old Egyptian university student called Aisha Mustafa has invented a futuristic propulsion system for spacecraft.

The invention 'leapfrogs' Nasa research, and uses a hi-tech quantum effect to drive satellites through space, rather than ordinary rocket engines.

Mustafa's invention generates energy using the Casimir-Polder force, an obscure quantum effect using two surfaces and objects in a vacuum.

Mustafa's invention generates energy using the Casimir-Polder force, an obscure quantum effect using two surfaces and objects in a vacuum

Mustafa says she hopes to test her invention on future space missions

The force is described as an 'invisible rubber band' between bulky objects and atoms that arises from the ever-present random fluctuation of microscopic electric fields in empty space.

The fluctuations get stronger near a surface, and an isolated neutral atom nearby feels the force as a 'pull'.

Mustafa's drive isn't exactly Warp Factor Ten material, but it provides enough energy for satellites to maneouvre gracefully through space.

Instead of using nuclear reactors or jets, Mustafa's satellites could generate drive using the panels.

Nasa had researched a similar idea using the Casimir-Polder force - with the idea of generating it around a 'sail' floating in space.

Mustafa's drive isn't exactly Warp Factor Ten material, but it provides enough energy for satellites to maneouvre gracefully through space

She has patented her invention Egyptian Academy of scientific Research and Technology (ASRT).

The 19-year-old says she aims to test her invention in future space missions.

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[rael-science] Protecting Your Family from Fukushima Radiation and Other Health Threats

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The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.strike-the-root.com/protecting-your-family-from-fukushima-radiation-and-other-health-threats

Protecting Your Family from Fukushima Radiation and Other Health Threats

Column by Glen Allport, posted on May 22, 2012

Health

Column by Glen Allport.

Exclusive to STR

My previous column – Timeline of a World-Killing Paradigm Shift – describes our current situation, including the dead-serious threat that the Fukushima disaster poses to the entire planet, and how we got here. In this column, I will describe things we can do to protect ourselves and our loved ones from at least some of the harm coming our way.

Yes: There really are things we can do to reduce the risk of cancer and other health problems not only from radiation, but from many of the other toxins and stresses so common in the modern world. A great many studies, peer-reviewed articles in medical and scientific journals, and other sources of information tell us that we don't have to just "hope for the best" when faced with radiation exposure or other assaults on our health. For one example (of literally thousands I could cite), the British Journal of Radiology published Rationale for using multiple antioxidants in protecting humans against low doses of ionizing radiation in 2005 (with 85 references). It includes, among other things, the following information:

Vitamin A and NAC (N-acetyl-L-Cysteine) "may be effective against radiation-induced carcinogenesis"

Alpha-lipoic acid "lowered lipid peroxidation among children chronically exposed to low doses of radiation in the area contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear accident"

β-carotene (beta-carotene) "reduced cellular damage in the above population of children"

"A combination of vitamin E and α-lipoic acid (alpha lipoic acid) was more effective than the individual agents"

"β-carotene also protected against radiation-induced mucositis during radiation therapy of cancer of the head and neck"

"A combination of dietary antioxidants was more effective in protecting normal tissue during radiation therapy than the individual agents"

But that article barely scratches the surface. Another example: The same day my "Timeline" column ran, STR guest editor Serenity posted a link to a piece on the power of curcumin to protect against breast cancer and other diseases. There are actually thousands of studies now showing curcumin to be among the most powerful and broad-spectrum supplements you can take – and you can take it in your food, of course, especially if you enjoy Indian cuisine. If you aren't already familiar with curcumin's protective effects, you will be stunned if you take the time to read up on the topic. Here's an article from the Life Extension Foundation on Curcumin's Anti-Cancer Effects from a decade ago, and here's another from March 2011. Lots of references in each case.

Most of the hugely expensive and often highly toxic anti-cancer drugs your doctor might prescribe are nowhere near as effective as curcumin (or turmeric, the spice from which curcumin is extracted). And— again, unlike most drugs – curcumin fights cancer at every stage and via multiple mechanisms. Side effects? Curcumin's "side effects" include improved joint health (our family doctor told me last week that he was taking curcumin for that exact reason), cardiovascular benefits, inflammation-quenching power, and many other good things. Curcumin has been used safely for thousands of years by millions of people, unlike Big Pharma's wonder drugs. Caveat: yes, of course you can take enough curcumin to cause problems (and those with bile duct obstructions should use it with caution, for instance) but compared to the safety level of almost any patented drug you can name – well, there IS no comparison.

None of this is Internet rumor or other foolishness: All of it comes straight from peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals, based on actual science. None of it is NEW information, either, so naturally your doctor and the medical establishment generally, with help from the major media, have been putting this information out there for people to use, especially given the realistic concerns about radiation exposure throughout the Northern Hemisphere from the Fukushima disaster. You HAVE been hearing from your doctor and from the media about how these natural, low-cost, non-prescription supplements can prevent cancer and generally improve your health, right?

No? I am shocked, I tell you, shocked. All the more so because even the good news above is only the start of what you might do to protect yourself.

There are dozens of foods and supplements that protect DNA against harm not only from radiation but from other assaults, and which benefit health in other ways. Here again, these benefits are confirmed (and in many cases were discovered in the first place) by thousands of scientific studies published in peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals over a period of decades. Big Pharma, the medical cartel, and their handmaidens at the FDA have been – shall we say – reluctant to share this information with the public – in fact, they are working hard to make most of these supplements either prescription-only or flatly unavailable – but as the X-Files used to remind us every week, the truth IS out there, and for now, at least, the supplements are also.

Last June, The Life Extension Foundation – mentioned above, and one of the best free, general-audience sources of health information (and of supplements) on the web – published a piece titled Optimize Your Internal Defenses Against Radiation Exposure, and it is worth reading. This isn't slapdash pseudo-reporting: the piece includes 149 endnotes, mostly citations for studies and articles at medical and scientific journals. LEF has been concerned about radiation for decades, partly because they believe CAT scans, ordinary X-rays, and other medical sources of radiation are seriously over-used and are exposing Americans to needless harm. Below, a short excerpt covering just three of the many foods and supplements discussed in the article:

"Polyphenols are versatile molecules found in plants. They act across a range of biomolecular pathways in the body, including favorable modification of gene expression that protects tissues from ionizing radiation.35,36

"Resveratrol, quercetin, and green tea polyphenols rank among the best-studied and most potent radioprotectants in this class. Resveratrol is both a radioprotector in healthy tissue and also has antitumor activity.37,38 In animal models, resveratrol has been shown to protect chromosomes from radiation-induced damage.39 Its antioxidant properties prevent radiation toxicity to animal liver and small intestines, two tissues most immediately sensitive to radiation’s ill effects.40

"Quercetin and its related compounds protect lipids and proteins from otherwise-lethal doses of gamma radiation, again largely through their antioxidant properties.41 Quercetin and other polyphenols not only provide chromosomal radioprotection, but also shield mitochondrial DNA from radiation-induced oxidant damage.42 Quercetin also ameliorates biochemical changes in human white blood cells following radiation exposure.43

"The polyphenol epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), derived from green tea, also protects animals from whole-body radiation, blocking lipid oxidation and prolonging life span.44 Green tea extracts can protect rapidly reproducing cells in the intestine and hair follicles from the damaging effects of radiation therapy, a form of radiation exposure far more intense than typical computed tomography (CT) doses—and one that more closely resembles the immediate effects of exposure to a nuclear plant disaster.45,46"

LEF has previously published articles (here's one) on how to reduce your risk (if, for instance, you will be undergoing a CAT scan) and the 2011 article linked in the previous paragraph pulls much of that information into a single, fairly short look at the topic. You'll find plenty of other material on the protective effects of various foods and supplements both at the LEF site and at many other places on the web. I strongly recommend you take this situation seriously and at the least, do the simple and fairly inexpensive things that can improve the odds for you and your family. Careful diet and supplement use is one of the primary tools you might consider to protect against environmental health threats in general.

I'll not spend 20 pages recapping the information in the above-linked articles here, but I will repeat the link forOptimize Your Internal Defenses Against Radiation Exposure because it is a readable, concise, and yet fairly thorough introduction to the topic. And if you do nothing else, stock up now on potassium iodide tablets to protect your thyroid in the event of another major, concentrated release of radioactive fallout, because availability at your local store could be iffy an hour or two after the next nuclear disaster is reported.

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Another simple thing you can do is filter the air inside your home or office. Electrostatic and HEPA filters will remove tiny particles from the air so that your lungs don't have to. With microscopic, often nano-sized particles of depleted uranium, of fallout from Fukushima, and of other toxins, radioactive and otherwise, invisibly contaminating our air, removing what we can of this garbage from the places we spend the most time every day makes perfect sense. Inexpensive electrostatic filters for your central heating/air conditioning system are available (Amazon product link); unlike HEPA filters, these can generally be cleaned and reused indefinitely; also, they don't add any noise to your home. Naturally, you can spend more and get even more effective systems.

What else can you do? Stay out of the rain, for one thing – at least when a particularly heavy batch of fallout is overhead. In fact, during those times, try not to go outside at all, regardless of the weather. How would you know when an especially dense batch of fallout is likely in the air? You can't always know, frankly, but Rense.com, Energy News, and other sites that frequently link to such news items are worth visiting often (you know better than to trust the corporate media to tell you such things, surely – if it's something that can be hidden, it probably will be).

Eating organic, or at least eating "healthy food" in general, is another good primary tactic to promote overall health, but note that most food is grown outdoors and thus gets exposed to the very fallout we are trying to avoid. Seafood is healthy in many ways (omega-3 fatty acids have great health benefits and most of us are deficient) but radiation and other toxins bio-accumulate, and as a carnivore at the very top of the food chain, I am sufficiently concerned about toxins from the BP Gulf of Mexico situation, from the vast and continuing contamination of the Pacific by the Fukushima power plants, and from the thousand other toxins from the million other sources that end up in the oceans (and from there, concentrated in the fish and shellfish) that I've given up eating seafood altogether – and Ilike seafood. You've got to choose your own dangers, and this particular one has moved beyond my comfort level. I do, on the other hand, take distilled fish oil supplements.

You can grow fruits and vegetables in your own house or apartment, and if you do, then you'll at least know what you are getting – and the plants (and the soil they grow in) won't be getting regular doses of fallout. A greenhouse would be useful also, for similar reasons. Earthbox systems (another Amazon product link, but note that you can easily build your own) will help you grow astonishing amounts of food in a remarkably small space in your living room, on your porch, or almost anywhere. Here's a suggested planting schedule (well, for Florida) from the people who created the Earthbox.

- - - - -

I'll end with perhaps the most obvious and surely the most costly and extreme method of reducing your exposure to radioactive fallout: get out of the path of Fukushima's ongoing rain of death by moving to the Southern Hemisphere.

What? Did I just suggest "moving to the Southern Hemisphere"? Yes, and I'm not the only one with that idea. Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen recommends you get out of the Northern Hemisphere immediately if Fukushima's #4 fuel pool (which is listing) falls over or otherwise loses its cooling water. Should that happen(Arnie Gundersen interview 5-12-2012, includes video – I recommend watching at least the first seven or ten minutes), most or all of Japan would become uninhabitable and the amount of cesium and other radioactive elements released into the air would be more, Gundersen says, than the fallout from all 800 or so nuclear test detonations of the 1940s, ‘50s, and ‘60s – but all at once. (Dr. Chris Busby says the true number of cancer deaths from that testing was roughly 60 million – including a 30% increase in cancer fatalities in the nations where the testing was actually done. These are not the commonly-accepted figures [which are bad enough], but Gundersen is supportive of Busby; see the three videos here for more information).

Loss of cooling water at the #4 fuel pool would also mean the Fukushima site would have to be evacuated by all personnel, leaving the OTHER fuel pools there unattended and vulnerable. Imagine how peachy it would be for allof these massive stashes of irradiated fuel to be on fire at one time. Gundersen isn't the only one concerned; to name just one further example, physicist Michio Kaku, popular author of the upbeat Physics of the Future, is equally horrified by what is happening and at what might happen at Fukushima.

Moving from the Northern Hemisphere really is, I am sorry to say, probably the single most effective thing you could do to reduce your exposure to the growing load of fallout already in the air from all sources (not to mention, for Americans, the benefit of distancing oneself from the ever-tightening U.S. police state). If a major uptick in the Fukushima disaster occurs, getting out of the Northern Hemisphere may suddenly be the only option with a realistic chance of keeping you healthy for the long-term. It isn't that the Southern Hemisphere is getting none of this fallout and of radioactive and chemical contamination of the ocean and the seafood harvested from the ocean – it is, but considerably less. Over time, the load in the Southern Hemisphere will rise, even if it never reaches the levels of the North. But lower levels are safer than higher levels, and for now the Southern Hemisphere is getting much less of what you'd want to avoid. It will likely be safer for a very long time than the North. That's the consensus view, anyway, and it does seem sensible.

For most of us, moving from the Northern Hemisphere means moving thousands of miles away to another country and possibly to a place with a different native language. Financial and other costs make such a move a serious hardship for most people.

Still, it may be worth considering – especially if your family includes young children or if YOU are in your twenties or thirties. Cancer generally takes years or decades to develop; if you are in your 60s or 70s now, there's a good chance you'll die from something else before a newly-initiated bone cancer, say, does you in. But for an eight-year-old, whose cells are rapidly dividing and who has another 70 years or so of life expectancy, any malignancy begun now will almost surely have time to grow into a painful and life-threatening problem. It can't be said often enough: the young, including the unborn, infants, and growing children of any age, are even more vulnerable to this onslaught of radioactive and other toxins than the rest of us.

That's a terrible thing for any parent to hear, I know, but a bit of research on your part will confirm that it's true. Here's Japan Writers' Group Gets Eye-Opener in Chernobyl for instance, in which we learn that "The Institute of Endocrinology and Metabolism in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev told the delegation that only 2.5 percent of children, who had been exposed to radiation prenatally, were diagnosed as healthy at the age of 7."

Conclusion

The situation at Fukushima is far worse than people are being told, and there are more than 400 OTHER nuclear plants active in the world, none of them much safer than the GE-designed plant at Fukushima. All are producing huge quantities of radioactive spent fuel, and many experts fear this spent fuel, which is often stored outside of serious containment, more than the reactors themselves. Fukushima itself (in particular, the spent-fuel pool for reactor #4) remains a very serious global danger and, even without further failures or major new releases, continues to pump radiation into the environment.

That's the bad news, which the corporate media and governments worldwide have been soft-pedaling since the Fukushima disaster began more than a year ago. For that matter, they've been soft-pedaling the dangers and the documented harm from nuclear energy, from nuclear bomb testing, and from depleted uranium and other radioactive pollution in the environment right from the beginning.

Oddly, and just as shamefully, the establishment has ALSO been quiet about the GOOD news, which is that you really CAN do things to protect yourself from cancer or other disease caused by this onslaught of radioactive pollution in the environment. Until Big Pharma has a patented, high-profit drug approved by the FDA for this purpose, you can expect the medical cartel, the FDA itself, and the corporate media to continue ignoring the many (often free or inexpensive) things that you can do to dramatically reduce your risk for developing cancer or other diseases or conditions from the chemical and radioactive pollution in the environment. None of this means you can prevent, with 100% certainty, such disease or other harm – that isn't how the world works. But you really don'thave to be as helpless and vulnerable as the establishment apparently wants you to be.

Read up on your options and be proactive in protecting yourself and your family. That's my approach, anyway, and I can't imagine why you wouldn't want to do the same.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Copyright Text

WARNING FROM RAEL: For those who don't use their intelligence at its
full capacity, the label "selected by RAEL" on some articles does not
mean that I agree with their content or support it. "Selected by RAEL"
means that I believe it is important for the people of this planet to
know about what people think or do, even when what they think or do is
completely stupid and against our philosophy. When I selected articles
in the past about stupid Christian fundamentalists in America praying
for rain, I am sure no Rael-Science reader was stupid enough to
believe that I was supporting praying to change the weather. So, when
I select articles which are in favor of drugs, anti-semitic,
anti-Jewish, racist, revisionist, or inciting hatred against any group
or religion, or any other stupid article, it does not mean that I
support them. It just means that it is important for all human beings
to know about them. Common sense, which is usually very good among our
readers, is good enough to understand that. When, like in the recent
articles on drug decriminalization, it is necessary to make it
clearer, I add a comment, which in this case was very clear: I support
decriminalizing all drugs, as it is stupid to throw depressed and sad
people (as only depressed and sad people use drugs) in prison and ruin
their life with a criminal record. That does not mean that there is
any change to the Message which says clearly that we must not use any
drug except for medical purposes. The same applies to the freedom of
expression which must be absolute. That does not mean again of course
that I agree with anti-Jews, antisemites, racists of any kind or
anti-Raelians. But by knowing your enemies or the enemies of your
values, you are better equipped to fight them. With love and respect
of course, and with the wonderful sentence of the French philosopher
Voltaire in mind: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to
the death your right to say it".

The Elohim Sound

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