8 Conspiracy Theories About Health That The Mainstream Media Has Been Forced To Admit Are Actually True

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Who knows more about health - the mainstream media or those that believe in "conspiracy theories"? Well, the truth is that time after time after time those in the "alternative media" and those who believe in "conspiracy theories" have been proven to be far ahead of those in the mainstream media when it comes to matters of health. Sadly, the mainstream media receives so much funding and so many advertising dollars from the pharmaceutical industry, the medical industry, the big chemical companies and the health insurance industry that they are extremely cautious to report any information that would be harmful to any of them. So for years, the mainstream media generally refused to talk about the dangers posed by things such as fluoride, aspartame, prescription drugs, genetically modified crops and cell phones. But now the alternative media has been making so much noise about many of these health issues for so long that the mainstream media has been forced to acknowledge that some of these "conspiracy theories" about health are actually true.

Not that the mainstream media is all of a sudden turning their backs on the financial giants that are pumping billions of dollars into them. But the truth is that we are starting to see just a little bit more honest reporting about health issues from the mainstream media these days.

The following are 8 conspiracy theories about health that the mainstream media has been forced to admit are actually true....

#1 High Levels Of Fluoride In Our Drinking Water Is Bad - Amazingly, the U.S. federal government has now come out and is lowering the "recommended amount" of fluoride in our drinking water for the first time in 50 years. Of course it would be great if they just banned fluoride in our drinking water altogether, but for the government to even admit that high levels of fluoride could be a problem is a huge step. In a recent article on CNN, it was reported that the federal government is now saying that high levels of fluoride in the water has now officially been linked with fluorosis....

The Department of Health and Human Services and Environmental Protection Agency are proposing the change because of an increase in fluorosis -- a condition that causes spotting and streaking on children's teeth.

#2 Once We Allowed Genetically Modified Crops To Be Used They Would Spread Everywhere - For years, many of us have been trying to warn people that genetically modified crops are incredibly dangerous. Now, a very prominent newspaper in the UK is admitting that a very specific insecticide that is grown inside of genetically modified corn is rapidly getting into the water of the surrounding environment....

The insecticide is the product of a bacterial gene inserted into GM maize and other cereal crops to protect them against insects such as the European corn borer beetle. Scientists have detected the insecticide in a significant number of streams draining the great corn belt of the American mid-West.

#3 There Are Pharmaceutical Drugs And Cancer Causing Chemicals In Our Drinking Water - Over the past couple of years, the mainstream media has actually begun reporting on all of the nasty things that are now showing up in our water. For example, do you remember a highly carcinogenic chemical known as "hexavalent chromium" that was made famous by the movie Erin Brockovich? Well, just a few weeks ago the Washington Post reported that high levels of it has been found in the drinking water of 31 U.S. cities....

An environmental group that analyzed the drinking water in 35 cities across the United States, including Bethesda and Washington, found that most contained hexavalent chromium, a probable carcinogen that was made famous by the film "Erin Brockovich."

But not only is there hexavalent chromium in our drinking water, the truth is that there are thousands of other chemicals and prescription drugs in our water supply as a Time Magazine article from a few months ago described....

All told, there are about 3,000 prescription pharmaceuticals in use in the U.S. and thousands more over-the-counter drugs, not to mention creams and ointments we smear on and then shower off. "Between cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and other sources," says John Spatz, commissioner of Chicago's department of water management, "there are 80,000 potential combinations of chemicals." It's impossible to keep our drinking supply safe from a gusher like that.

#4 Cell Phones Are Linked To Cancer - The mainstream media is not quite ready to come out and openly declare that cell phones cause cancer, but at least now they are beginning to report on the results of some very disturbing studies that seem to suggest a link between the two. For example, just consider the following sentence from one recent CNN article....

At the highest exposure levels -- using a mobile phone half an hour a day over a 10-year period -- the study found a 40 percent increased risk of glioma brain tumors.

#5 Bisphenol -A (BPA) Is Linked To Male Infertility - For years, many "conspiracy theorists" have been yelling and screaming that a chemical known as bisphenol-A that is found in thousands of plastic products is actually really, really bad for us. Well, now some in the mainstream media are starting to jump on board. Back in October, one of the largest UK newspapers published an article entitled "Bisphenol-A now linked to male infertility" which made the following unequivocal statement about the dangers of BPA....

Bisphenol-A (BPA), known as the "gender bending" chemical because of its connection to male impotence, has now been shown to decrease sperm mobility and quality.

#6 Prescription Drugs Kill Large Numbers Of Americans Every Single Year - For years, alternative health practitioners and "conspiracy theorists" have been asserting that bad reactions to prescription drugs are one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Well, the mainstream media is starting to catch up. A recent Vanity Fair article entitled "Deadly Medicine" began with the following statement....

Prescription drugs kill some 200,000 Americans every year. Will that number go up, now that most clinical trials are conducted overseas—on sick Russians, homeless Poles, and slum-dwelling Chinese—in places where regulation is virtually nonexistent, the F.D.A. doesn’t reach, and “mistakes” can end up in pauper’s graves?

#7 Aspartame Is Not Good For Our Health - Many mainstream news outlets are beginning to wake up to the fact that the artificial sweetener aspartame may not actually be healthy for us. This past summer, the Huffington Post (which is usually very "mainstream") allowed Dr. Joseph Mercola to author an article about aspartame that began with the following absolutely stunning paragraph....

Aspartame is the most controversial food additive in history, and its approval for use in food was the most contested in FDA history. In the end, the artificial sweetener was approved, not on scientific grounds, but rather because of strong political and financial pressure. After all, aspartame was previously listed by the Pentagon as a biochemical warfare agent!

#8 Many Among The Global Elite (Such As Ted Turner) Want To Institute A Global One-Child Policy And Want To Reduce The World Population For The Good Of The Environment - Many Americans have a really, really hard time believing that some of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the world actually want to institute a global one-child policy and are obsessed with reducing the population of the earth. But sadly, as I have written about previously, this is very, very real. The following is how one major Canadian newspaper summarized public remarks that Ted Turner recently made about the global population....

Mr. Turner – a long-time advocate of population control – said the environmental stress on the Earth requires radical solutions, suggesting countries should follow China’s lead in instituting a one-child policy to reduce global population over time. He added that fertility rights could be sold so that poor people could profit from their decision not to reproduce.

Sadly, on other health issues the mainstream media continues to push the establishment agenda very strongly. For example, the mainstream media is absolutely rabid about defending the safety of vaccines.

But hopefully as the alternative media continues to tell the truth about these various health issues it will cause the American public to demand more balanced reporting from the mainstream media.

After all, it is only the health of millions upon millions of Americans that is at stake. When it comes to matters of life and death, you would think that it would not be too much to ask for a little honest reporting.

Government To Reduce Fluoride Levels in Drinking Water Because Too Much Fluoride Can Cause Health Problems

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a reduction in allowable fluoride levels in U.S. drinking water:

HHS’ proposed recommendation of 0.7 milligrams of fluoride per liter of water replaces the current recommended range of 0.7 to 1.2 milligrams. This updated recommendation is based on recent EPA and HHS scientific assessments to balance the benefits of preventing tooth decay while limiting any unwanted health effects.

As AP notes:

A scientific report five years ago said that people who consume a lifetime of too much fluoride — an amount over EPA's limit of 4 milligrams — can lead to crippling bone abnormalities and brittleness.

That and other research issued Friday by the EPA about health effects of fluoride are sure to re-energize groups that still oppose adding it to water supplies.

***

In March, 2006, the National Academy of Sciences released a report recommending that the EPA lower its maximum standard for fluoride in drinking water to below 4 milligrams. The report warned severe fluorosis could occur at 2 milligrams. Also, a majority of the report's authors said a lifetime of drinking water with fluoride at 4 milligrams or higher could raise the risk of broken bones.

Late last year, lawyers for the Fluoride Action Network, Beyond Pesticides, and Environmental Working Group threatened legal action if the EPA did not lower its ceiling on fluoride.

In Europe, fluoride is rarely added to water supplies. In Britain, only about 10 percent of the population has fluoridated water. It's been a controversial issue there, with critics arguing people shouldn't be forced to have "medical treatment" forced on them.

Some scientists also have found that fluoride can cause damage to children's liver and kidneys, and to other parts of the body as well.

Here is the 2006 National Academy of Science report discussed above. The report reviews the scientific studies which have been performed on fluoride, and concludes:

It is apparent that fluorides have the ability to interfere with the functions of the brain and the body by direct and indirect means. (bottom of page 222).

The NAS report also notes that fluoride may actually impair intelligence, and that more testing should be done in this regard.

Indeed, studies from around the world continue to find that exposure to sodium fluoride - especially in the very young - lowers IQ. See this and this. The same is true for rats exposed to fluoride. See this and this. And see the studies listed here.

Dr. Vyvyan Howard - a PhD fetal pathologist, who is a professor of developmental toxico-pathology at the University of Liverpool and University of Ulster, president of the International Society of Doctors for the Environment and former president of the Royal Microscopical Society and the International Society for Stereology, and general editor of the Journal of Microscopy - said in a 2008 Canadian television interview (short, worthwhile video at the link) that studies done in several countries show that children’s IQ are likely to be lower in high natural water fluoride areas.

He said that these studies are plausible because fluoride is known to affect the thyroid hormone which affects intelligence and fluoride is also a known neurotoxicant. Such studies have not been conducted in countries that artificially fluoridate the water such as the US, UK and Canada, but should be, he said.

And as the International Business Times noted last month on the newest Chinese study on fluoride:

Exposure to fluoride may lower children's intelligence, says a study published in Environmental Health Perspectives, a publication of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Fluoride is added to 70 percent of U.S. public drinking water supplies.

***

About 28 percent of the children in the low-fluoride area scored as bright, normal or higher intelligence compared to only 8 percent in the "high" fluoride area of Wamaio.

In the high-fluoride city, 15 percent had scores indicating mental retardation and only 6 percent in the low-fluoride city. The authors of the study eliminated both lead exposure and iodine deficiency as possible causes for the lowered IQs.

One scientist - Jennifer Luke - alleged in a 2001 scientific article that fluoride accumulates in the brain (specifically, in the structure of the pineal gland) morethan it accumulates in our bones. In other words, she implies that fluoride may accumulate more in the brain than in the teeth, doing more harm than good (here'sLuke's 1997 PhD dissertation on the topic.)

The 2006 National Academy of Sciences report corroborates some of Luke's allegations:

As with other calcifying tissues, the pineal gland can accumulate fluoride (Luke 1997, 2001). Fluoride has been shown to be present in the pineal glands of older people (14-875 mg of fluoride per kg of gland in persons aged 72-100 years), with the fluoride concentrations being positively related to the calcium concentrations in the pineal gland, but not to the bone fluoride, suggesting that pineal fluoride is not necessarily a function of cumulative fluoride exposure of the individual (Luke 1997, 2001). Fluoride has not been measured in the pineal glands of children or young adults, nor has there been any investigation of the relationship between pineal fluoride concentrations and either recent or cumulative fluoride intakes.

Donald Miller - cardiac surgeon and Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington - alleges:

Fluoride disrupts enzymes (by altering their hydrogen bonds) and prevents them from doing their job of making proteins, collagen in particular, the structural protein for bone and teeth, ligaments, tendons, and muscles. It damages DNA repair enzymes and inhibits the enzyme acetylcholinesterase in the brain, which is involved in transmitting signals along nerve cells. All cells in the body depend on enzymes. Consequently, fluoride can have widespread deleterious effects in multiple organ systems.

***

Studies show that the rates of bone cancer are substantially higher in fluoridated areas, particularly in boys. [See this.] Other cancers, of the head and neck, GI tract, pancreas, and lungs, have a 10 percent higher incidence. Fluoride affects the thyroid gland and causes hypothyroidism, which is also an increasingly frequent disorder in the US. Other studies show that high levels of fluoride in drinking water are associated with birth defects and early infant mortality.

Fluoride also damages the brain, both directly and indirectly. Rats given fluoridated water at a dose of 4 ppm develop symptoms resembling attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. High concentrations of fluoride accumulate in the pineal gland, which produces serotonin and melatonin. Young girls who drink fluoridated water reach puberty six months earlier than those who drink unfluoridated water, which is thought to be a result of reduced melatonin production. People with Alzheimer's disease have high levels of aluminum in their brains. Fluoride combines with aluminum in drinking water and takes it through the blood-brain barrier into the brain. Dr. Russell Blaylock, MD, a neurosurgeon, spells out in chilling detail the danger fluoride poses to one's brain and health in general in his book Health and Nutrition Secrets that can Save Your Life (2002).

Time Magazine notes:

What has also changed is how much toxicologists know about the harmful effects of fluoride compounds. Ingested in high doses, fluoride is indisputably toxic; it was once commonly used in rat poison. Hydrogen fluoride is regulated as a hazardous pollutant in emissions from chemical plants and has been linked to respiratory illness. Even in toothpaste, sodium fluoride is a health concern. In 1997 the Food and Drug Administration toughened the warning on every tube to read, "If more than used for brushing is accidentally swallowed, get medical help or contact a poison-control center right away."

And see PhD chemist Joel Kauffman's review of fluoride in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.

Note: While the U.S. is reducing fluoride levels in water, some have proposed adding it to salt and to milk. For example, as the International Dental Journalreported in 2005:

Alternatives to automatic fluoridation by means of water fluoridation aresalt fluoridation [and] milk fluoridation ... and the WHO Oral Health Programme is currently undertaking evaluation of demonstration projects in several countries.

(page 358).

Untested Type of Fluoride Used in the Overwhelming Majority of U.S. Water Supplies

Dartmouth University wrote in 2001:

In a recent article in the journal NeuroToxicology, a research team led by Roger D. Masters, Dartmouth College Research Professor and Nelson A. Rockefeller Professor of Government Emeritus, reports evidence that public drinking water treated with sodium silicofluoride or fluosilicic acid, known as silicofluorides (SiFs), is linked to higher uptake of lead in children.

Sodium fluoride, first added to public drinking water in 1945, is now used in less than 10% of fluoridation systems nationwide, according to the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) 1992 Fluoridation Census. Instead, SiF's are now used to treat drinking water delivered to 140 million people. While sodium fluoride was tested on animals and approved for human consumption, the same cannot be said for SiFs.

Masters and his collaborator Myron J. Coplan, a consulting chemical engineer, formerly Vice President of Albany International Corporation, led the team that has now studied the blood lead levels in over 400,000 children in three different samples. In each case, they found a significant link between SiF-treated water and elevated blood lead levels.

"We should stop using silicofluorides in our public water supply until we know what they do," said Masters. Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency have told Masters and Coplan that the EPA has no information on health effects of chronic ingestion of SiF-treated water.

***

Also requiring further examination is German research that shows SiFs inhibit cholinesterase, an enzyme that plays an important role in regulating neurotransmitters.

"If SiFs are cholinesterase inhibitors, this means that SiFs have effects like the chemical agents linked to Gulf War Syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome and other puzzling conditions that plague millions of Americans," said Masters. "We need a better understanding of how SiFs behave chemically and physiologically."

Here is Masters' scientific paper on SiFs (also called "fluosilicic acid" and "fluorosilicic acid").

Where does this compound come from?

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Toxicology Program, reported in 2001:

Sodium hexafluorosilicate is produced by treating fluorosilicic acid with sodium hydroxide, sodium carbonate, or sodium chloride; alkalinity is adjusted to avoid the release of the fluoride. Fluorosilicic acid is mainly produced as a byproduct of the manufacture of phosphate fertilizers where phosphate rock is treated with sulfuric acid.

***
The major use of sodium hexafluorosilicate and fluorosilicic acid is as fluoridation agents for drinking water.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey:

An estimated 40,000 tons of fluorosilicic acid (equivalent to about 70,000 tons of 92%
fluorspar) was recovered from phosphoric acid plants processing phosphate rock. Fluorosilicic acid was used primarily in water fluoridation, either directly or after processing into sodium silicofluoride.

The USGS also noted in a 2000 report:

Fluorosilicic acid is a byproduct of the phosphate fertilizer industry and is not manufactured for itself alone ...

In other words, even though neither the EPA or any other government agency has studied the effects of long-term ingestion of fluorosilicic acid, it is being used instead of sodium fluoride because it is cheaper.

As Edward Urbansky from the EPA's Office of Research and Development, National Risk management Research Laboratory, Water Supply and Water Resources Division wrote in 2002:

The most common fluoridating agents used by American waterworks are sodium fluoride (NaF), hexafluorosilicic acid (H2SiF6), and sodium hexafluorosilicate
(Na2SiF6) as shown in Figure 1.14 Although 25% of the utilities reported using NaF, this corresponds to only 9.2% of the U.S. population drinking fluoride-supplemented tap water. ... The cost savings in using fluorosilicates result in large systems using those additives instead.

***

In the United States, the primary sources of fluoridating agents are rocky mineral deposits containing mixtures of fluorite and apatite; the fluoridating agent itself is produced as a byproduct of phosphate fertilizer manufacture.

***
The EPA is aware of papers positing links between fluoridation agents and lead in the bloodstream or challenging the accepted chemistry. To truly investigate such hypotheses, better chemical knowledge of the speciation is required.