1 Soda/day, 10+ pounds/year... Gotta Give It Up!

Scientists have proved for the first time that fructose, a cheap form of sugar used in thousands of food products and soft drinks, can damage human metabolism and is fueling the obesity crisis.

Fructose, a sweetener usually derived from corn, can cause dangerous growths of fat cells around vital organs and is able to trigger the early stages of diabetes and heart disease.

Over 10 weeks, 16 volunteers on a controlled diet including high levels of fructose produced new fat cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs. They also showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease. Another group of volunteers on the same diet, but with glucose sugar replacing fructose, did not have these problems.

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Mom has to fight to avoid C-section

Even when it is not in a mother's best interests, C-sections are often the method of choice by hospitals for births. Despite a much increased risk of morbidity and mortality for mother and baby, C-sections simply give the doctors complete control of the delivery, allowing most aspects of the birth to be managed. Many hospitals require women to have a C-section for subsequent births after she's already had one, preventing her from attempting a vaginal birth. This is called VBAC = vaginal birth after cesarian. They site that there is an increased risk for the mother as the reason for this mandate, but reality often shows quite the opposite. Here is a story of how one mother choice to fight for her right to have the birth she desired.

(CNN) -- Seven months into her pregnancy with her fourth child, Joy Szabo's obstetrician gave her some news she didn't want to hear: Because she'd had a previous Caesarean section, the hospital where she planned to deliver was insisting she have another one.
Szabo wanted a vaginal delivery, and argued with hospital executives, but they stood firm: They refused to do vaginal births after Caesareans (VBACs) because they have a slightly higher risk for complications.
After they lost that fight, Szabo and her husband, Jeff, made an unusual decision. About three weeks before her due date, Szabo moved nearly six hours away from their home in Page, Arizona, to Phoenix to give birth at a hospital that does permit women to have VBACs.
In the end, the Szabos got the birth they wanted. On December 5, their son Marcus Anthony was born in Phoenix via an uncomplicated vaginal delivery, weighing seven pounds and 13 ounces.
"It was such an easy birth," Szabo says. "I was in the pains of labor for about four or five hours, then I pushed once, and he popped out."

For more info about VBACs, Birth, or just info on Natural childbirth, CLICK HERE.

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Pregnancy and Vaccines? Leading to miscarriages?

Pregnant women are considered among the high risk market for vaccines, including all the new H1N1 vaccines. However, there is absolutely NO SAFETY RESEARCH DONE on pregnant women and these vaccines. It says it directly in the package insert. It might seem self evident, but we must remember that whatever the mom takes in (food, drug, beverage) the baby gets as well. Also, we must understand that the vaccine given to an adult is much more than a vaccine given to a child. Henceforth, an unborn baby is experiencing the dosage from mom's shot that's intended for an adult (let's say 150 lbs, not 6 lbs.). Not all, but about half of the new H1N1 vaccines contain some level of mercury (you can see specifically which ones here... and amazingly several will give you a dose of mercury or aluminum that is several times the safety limit set forth by the EPA for human ingestion). That's a problem, not only for the person getting that vaccine, but also for a fetus that weighs anywhere between 1-7 lbs. More and more reports of miscarriages are coming out after getting an H1N1 vaccine. Read articles here and here.

Women: What about Mammograms?

If you didn't hear it, you missed a great discussion about the new guidelines regarding routine mammograms on "Up To Date" with Steve Kraske of the KC Star, on NPR. Click Here for link and podcast but you'll now need to go to the ARCHIVES to find it...

Did you know, that the overall use of mammography has only decreased deaths from breast cancer 2% ( this number had believed to be as high 30%). Even so, 2% is still many mom's and grandma's and aunt's. However, there is concern for safety of repeated mammograms -- "According to the Dept of Energy, a typical mammogram applies 25 times the radiation of a standard chest x-ray." I would wonder how long it would take a 40 year-old women w/out breast cancer getting annual mammograms to develop breast cancer as a result? 10 years, 20 years, even 30? And according to Dr. David Bouda, of Menora Medical Center (one of the guests on the show), many of the types of cancers that could be detected by mammography, are not life threatening, and by diagnosing and undergoing a biopsy, etc... can just cause more problems than needed.

New guidelines for breast cancer screening are causing quite the commotion since the announcement last week that women should hold off getting annual mammograms by a decade. The new guidelines also recommend against teaching women to do self breast exams.

Today Steve Kraske talks with Dr. David Bouda, Medical Director, Midwest Cancer Care at Menorah Medical Center and Dr. Elizabeth Campbell, an Obstetrician/Gynecologist with the Avera Women's Clinic in Mitchell, SD. We'll discuss the debate for and against the new guidelines, how the guidelines might affect insurance, and why public opinion is largely against the change.

CBS Reporter Blows the Lid Off the Swine Flu Media Hype and Hysteria

Sharyl Attkisson is a CBS News correspondent and investigative reporter. She’s covered Capitol Hill since February 2006 and has been a Washington-based correspondent there since January 1995. She was also part of the CBS news team that received the Edward Murrow Award in 2005 for overall excellence. Additionally, she received an Outstanding Investigative Journalism Emmy in 2002 for a series on the Red Cross.

In case you didn't realize it, Sharyl Attkisson is the investigative reporter behind the groundbreaking CBS News study that found H1N1 flu cases are NOT as prevalent as feared.

In fact, they’re barely on the radar screen.

How did this startling information come about, and why is the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) painting a different picture entirely? I spoke directly with Sharyl Attkisson to find out.

Jim Carrey,Jenny McCarthy Larry King Live Vaccine/Autism Discussion

Good Interview w/ Banksy [graffiti artist]

Here's a good interview * out of some magazine w/ graffiti artist, Banksy, from England. I've seen some of his work on the internet, and also in a coffee-table book. He's political, satirical, and very, very creative. Check his work out - just google Banksy.

*some relatively moderate usage of 4-letter dirty words (whatever that means)