Stressors

Stress is normal and natural. It is the bodies physical and mental response to an event that makes you feel primordially threatened. We are designed to feel stress to benefit us. It helps us stay focused, motivated, and alert and can help save your life in emergency situations. Stress is kind of like our body and mind motivating itself to work hard and stay focused. Too much stress can be harmful, though. Your body can begin responding to an overload of stress in way that impacts health in a negative way.

Stressors are chemical or biological agents, environmental conditions, external stimuli, or events that induce stress on an organism. An infinitely wide range of things can be considered stressors depending on the organism and it's circumstances. When an organism becomes stressed, many things begin to happen within the body, including chemical, mental, physical responses.

Within the physical body, stressors can produce mechanical stresses on pretty much anything and everything, including the skin, bones, ligaments, tendons, muscles, and nerves. Tissue failure can occur in extreme cases and chronic pain in less severe cases. Metabolism often slows, leading to decreased tissue repair. The less time the body has to recover between stressors, the more likely the body is to have physical symptoms.

Mental health and function is also affected. Stressors can cause stimulation of the hypothalamus, which causes the pituitary gland and adrenal cortex to secrete various stress hormones, which then travel through the blood stream to the organs that are designed to respond to these specific hormones. The glands, heart, and intestines receive these hormones and use the information to process the well-known flight-or-fight response.

Drugs can also be considered stressors, and fall into the category of chemical stressors. Various drugs cause stress to different parts of the body, but in general, drugs stress the heart, brain, and nervous system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stressor

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/stress_signs.htm

The Natural Ingredient, Castoreum

Both the male and female North American beaver anally secrete castoreum, a yellowish substance that happens to claim the warm, inviting scent of vanilla. The substance, which has the consistency of molasses, is utilized to mark their territories. The substance is extracted from the beaver's castor sac scent glands, which are located near the anus. After extraction, it is processed with rubbing alcohol and obtains a very strong musky aroma, caused by the high fiber diet of the beavers. The close proximity of the glands to the anus means contamination consisting of anal secretions and urine is common. 

The Food and Drug Administration classifies castoreum as an GRAS additive, meaning it is "generally recognized as safe." Castoreum has been being added to our food disguised as "natural flavoring" for decades now. While it is natural, and the International journal of Toxicology announced that the consumption of castoreum posed no single health threat to the human body, I don't think most people imagine it means having anal secretions in their cereal. It is mainly used as a substitute vanilla in foods and beverages, but it is also used in raspberry and strawberry flavoring, and flavoring for schnapps. Real vanilla is used more commonly, though, at about 2.6 million pounds annually in the U.S. Annual industry consumption for castoreum is just above 300 pounds. Castoreum can also be used for flavoring and odor of cigarettes. The individual annual consumption of the extract is approximately .000081 mg/kg/day. 

Beaver populations were at risk during the 19th century due to the demand for castoreum sac's, and getting a beaver to emit castoreum is not easy. A beaver's anal glands must be milked in order to extract the fluid. 

The following are the types of foods you can find castoreum in:

Reported Uses PPM (parts per million) (FEMA* 1994):

Food Category	Usual	Max
Alcoholic Beverages	79.59	93.69
Baked Goods	62.28	68.47
Gelatins, Puddings	43.58	47.34
Soft Candy	37.28	44.10
Frozen Dairy	24.39	26.26
Nonalcoholic Beverages	24.21	29.77
Hard Candy	24.17	24.17
Chewing Gum	18.60	42.09

Fukushima - contaminated for 16 million years

The Fukushima nuclear disaster began on March 11, 2011, and the end seems to be nowhere in sight.  It was caused by the impact of a tsunami that resulted in 18,000 dead and a meltdown of three six nuclear reactors at Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.. This poses an extreme threat to our water supply, food supply, and our ecosystems, a threat much larger than any media outlet will admit. At the time of the meltdown, tens of thousands were forced to evacuate. Only recently did TEPCO (Tokyo Electronic Power company), who has been monitoring the plant, admit that the reactors were still in fact leaking harmful radiation into the Pacific Ocean.


TEPCO Company admitted that soil samples at the Fukushima plant are showing up with other high level readings of cesium-137, tritium, and strontium-90. Tokyo confirmed that levels of cancer-causing cesium-134 are showing up in groundwater at rates 90-11- times higher than before the meltdown. The high levels of cesium-134 show that the destruction has only just begun, as the Pacific Ocean will more increasingly begin to act as a sponge to the nuclear radiation.


What some people forget is that our water system is one of the most interconnected systems on the planet, next to air. When part of our water system is contaminated, the contamination often does not stay confined to man-made invisible boundaries, such as the Pacific Coast. Everything is connected on this astounding planet, and contaminations, especially of the radioactive nature, find their way to destinations far beyond their origin. The water supply not only supplies drinking water for humans and animals, it irrigates crops. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) admitted in a public health statement that when the supply is contaminated, it influences everything.

This iodine-129 that's being leaked into the oceans enters the air from sea sprays and iodine gases. Now another one of our vital systems is contaminated with a substance with a 16 million year half life. The iodine in the air can combine with any number of particles in the air, including water, and can enter the soil, surface water, or vegetation when they fall as rain over land  Iodine is able to remain unbroken in the environment is because it combines with organic material in the soil. Any plant growing in this soil will grow with it inside them, including corn. Since 99% of all the farmed animals raised and slaughtered in the United States come from CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations), which feed cows corn (even though they are not genetically designed to eat corn), that means that almost all of our meat supply will have this iodine contamination of the soil if the contamination reaches our food supply on land.

The entire West Coast food supply is currently contaminated, and will be for endless generations. This contamination is likely to spread expansively, if something is not done. We are entering a new way of life that includes higher rates of illness, disease, and mortality. 


Earlier predictions of the outcome of the length of this disaster were lenient compared to what we are beginning to realize. Because of a long-lived radionuclide called iodine-129, which has an incredible half-life of 16 million years, the nightmare of Fukushima is only beginning for the ecosystems of planet Earth. The U.S. National Library of Medicine reported in June 2011 that iodine-129 had significantly elevated concentrations in surface water offshore Fukushima. Since then, not much has been heard in mainstream media about the ongoing spread of radiation.


So why aren't we hearing about this in the media?

People always talk about what is happening right now, and often fail to discuss the future and the end result of events that pertain to our environmental contamination. The human race is not above nature, but we are nature. What is composed of and what comes from, must be. Every being on this planet is not only apart of planet Earth, but apart of this incredible universe. Humans are the only species that display self-destructive behavior, and if we do not find a way to work with our ecosystems, resources, and wildlife, it will surely lead to the destruction of the human race, and I can guarantee you that life will go on without us. 


Farm Forward calculation based on U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2002 Census of Agriculture, June 2004; and ibid

http://www.naturalnews.com/041200_Fukushima_radiation_poisoning_contaminated_food.html#ixzz2y8AQNzMd

Atrazine and what you should know - a lecture with Dr. Tyrone Hayes

Dr. Tyrone Hayes always had an interest in amphibians, even as a small boy growing up in Columbia, South Carolina. When he got accepted into Harvard, his interest soared. Soon he was conducting his own research, which eventually led to his discovering of the affect that atrazine, a chemical used in agriculture, has on amphibians.

The chemical, considered toxic, is used in agriculture as an herbicide. It leaks into the environment on a daily basis, including our water supply. The effect was first discovered in amphibians, but has since been proven to affect every invertebrate it has been tested with. Atrazine promotes excess estrogen production, causing male amphibians to become hermaphrodites. This sometimes even reaches their brains, causing them to think and act as if they are female. They begin to produce eggs instead of sperm in their testes. When tested on rats, the grandchildren of the rats had severe birth defects and were infertile. The effects will last for generations. Because atrazine promotes estrogen production, it also promotes cancer cell growth as well, in male and females. This just scratches the surface of the severity of the effects atrazine has on living things.

Although nobody can do a lab test with humans, there is a proven linkage between atrazine levels in urine and sperm counts in men. The higher the levels, the more likely a man is to be sterile. How are humans receiving this chemical? Our water supply.

When Hayes first began his research, he was being funded by the company that produced atrazine, Syngenta. When his research led him to the discoveries above, they immediately pulled his funding, and began a campaign to discredit him (in a very childish and devoid of moralistic manner, might I add).

Dr. Hayes mentioned something in his lecture that I discussed in my last blog: the level of control and conflict of interest that exists in positions of power that regulate things of this sort. He mentioned specifically the position of the head of the FDA, who is a former VP for Monsanto. 

Syngenta also produces a medication for the treatment of cancer that stops excess estrogen production, the opposite of what atrazine, also their product, does. This is a common theme in the pharmaceutical industry, also known as Big Pharma, and it is yet another method of control. Another example of this is Monsanto, who keeps us constantly sick with GMO's and produces medication to treat us. Some believe that the treatment for cancer is out there, but has not been revealed because then Big Pharma wouldn't be able to make millions off cancer treatment. There is mounding evidence that proves that cannabis oil attacks cancer cells, safely and rapidly.

With all that we know about corruption in our government and corporations (which are essentially one in the same), this is not hard for me to believe.

Fluoride in our water - Seeing the Matrix

My awakening began with food. As soon as I did some of my own research and realized that milk, the delicious dairy drink that I had been told over and over (and over and over) was great for me, was actually not all that great for me, the ball began rolling. Everything is connected, and once you open up your eyes, it becomes so easy to see.


Water Fluoridation 
The truth about fluoride in our water systems is not what we have been taught. The fluoride that we have put our trust in to "whiten our teeth" all these years, is not the natural occurring fluoride, it does not whiten our teeth, and it is killing us.

The natural form of mineral fluoride is called Apatite. That's what is found in your teeth and in nature, and is even needed by the body in very trace amounts. The substance put in our water system, our life source, is sodium fluoride, a highly toxic chemical by-product of aluminum, steel, cement, phosphate, and nuclear weapons manufacturing. The combination of two highly toxic waste chemicals, you'd think that it would be highly toxic as well, and it is. It has a toxicity rating higher than lead. But as of December 7, 1992, the EPA Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for fluoride was 250 times the permissible level of lead, at 4.0 ppm. The MCL for lead is .015 ppm. So, what does sodium fluoride do?

Sodium Fluoride causes.... 

• hyperactivity and/or lethargy
• arthritis
• lowered thyroid function
• lowered IQ (there may be a connection between fluoride in water and increased cases of Autism)
• dementia (connection between fluoride and Alzheimer's) 
• disrupted immune system
• genetic damage
• cell death
• brain damage
• cancers
• deactivated essential enzymes
• lower life span.
• calcified pineal gland
• osteoporosis, dental fluorisis, and brittle bones

Yes, brittle bones. The US Public Health service reported that fluoride makes dental enamel more porous and bones more brittle. The fluoride in our water, that we have so trusted to help our teeth, is in reality, hurting them greatly.

What makes fluoride even more dangerous is that it accumulates in the body. About half of each day's intake will be retained in calcified tissues, like bones, teeth, and the pineal gland. The average retention of 2 mg/day will result in skeletal fluroisis after 40 years, according to The National Academy Of Sciences (NAS) in 1977. Remember when you almost did that trick to your friend where you replace the Oreo cream with toothpaste, then someone said, "Can't you die from eating toothpaste?" Yeah, you can.... because of the fluoride. Half a tube of toothpaste can kill a child.


So, why is this deadly poison put into our water system? 
Before the public was tricked into believing it was okay to have this toxic chemical dumped into our water supply, the aluminum and nuclear industries were having problems disposing of their waste products. Now, we act as a toxic dumping grounds for these companies, ingesting it and putting it back into our environment. These companies make quite a big profit off this as well. 

We know the Nazis used water fluoridation to in order to keep the population more docile and submissive, as sodium fluoride affects a part of the brain that is connected with self-defense. 

So... is this just about making a profit off of a chemical substance and, however immoral, has no relation to anything else whatsoever? Or is it something more, something bigger, something possibly more sinister? I believe in the latter. Why? Because my entire life I have been taught by the people I trusted most that water fluoridation was good for me, but they were just doing what they had been told. The truth is that sodium fluoride is a deadly poison, and we are FORCED to consume it each and every day. If they can lie about such a fundamental thing for decades, why should I believe anything else they say? How is that source still credible?


Why would they lie to us? "They" being the government, the media, and essentially anyone with enough money or power to influence the masses. It makes you wonder what else they are lying about. Many people are beginning to wake up to the fact that 9/11 was an inside job, as the evidence is astounding.


The Control System 
90% of media is owned by 6 Corporations: GE, News-Corp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, and CBS.
Where there is money, there is corruption, and these corporations have billions. They control what we see and how we see it. They are funded greatly by advertising, so in this way, the advertisers (the ones that are not directly affiliated with these corporations already) control what we see as well. They can censor and manipulate news stories if it does not benefit their interests, or puts them in a bad light. For example, the media greatly ignored and did not do proper reporting during the BP oil spill of 2010. Their news stories often minimized the actual destruction or ignored the issue completely. This can be seen daily in our mainstream media.

So, they control the media. They control the government in essentially the same way. Political Action Committees, such as Citizens United, say that corporations qualify as people, therefore, there is no limit to how much corporations can spend on campaigns. When you go into that ballot box, it is your vote against the corporations. They fund whomever they believe will keep their best interests at top priority, however unethical they may be. If a politician will not promote or pass legislation that favors the corporation, they will not fund them. Without money, you have no campaign. Without a campaign, you have no chance at winning an election. Not to mention, these corporations put their own people into political power to guarantee the best results for them. An example of this would be Supreme Court Justice Thomas, who served as a corporate lawyer for Monsanto in the 1970s. Another example, while not technically a political position, but appointed by President Obama, would be Michael Taylor. Taylor is a senior adviser for the FDA as of 2009 and a former vice president for Monsanto. Monsanto, the agricultural multinational corporation at the forefront of genetically modified foods, has had heavy resistance in Europe. Six European countries have banned the cultivation of genetically modified maize. It's still 100% legal in the States.

Another huge part of the control system is "the system" itself. We have been taught that things are and are supposed to be one way and one way only throughout our entire lives, mainly through the education system. We are taught to shut up, sit down, memorize facts, and regurgitate them when it's time. We are not taught to think creatively or to question authority, rules, or "the way things are". We force young children to sit in chairs for hours on end, and when they cannot do so, we classify them as "irregular," drugging them with harmful chemicals to keep them more docile and easier to control. But it's okay, because they have ADD or ADHD. I always found a problem with this. How does a child grow into their own shape when you are constantly pushing them into a box? Our system does not truly support growth in all aspects of mind, body, and soul. In school, we are taught that if we do well enough, we can hopefully one day go to college, get a degree, and make a bunch of money so we can have lots of nice things. In reality, you are just being brainwashed and trained to be an economic slave. You go to college, get a degree, and are in debt for years to come. You spend years paying off the debt for school, but soon find yourself paying mortgages, car payments, and endless bills. It doesn't stop. You don't go to college, you get a job out of high school that pays minimum wage, and you spend the rest of your life simply trying to make ends meet.
It should be noted that the first place I heard that water fluoridation was good for me was in the school system.

You will always be a slave to the dollar, no matter what. Our society, through media (are you connecting any dots yet?), has taught us that money is what will make us happy. Advertisments tell us that if only you can get a little bit more money, you can buy that other thing that will make you even more happy! Then you get the thing that  is supposed to make you happy, but it doesn't, so you buy another thing that is supposed to make you more happy. You watch Keeping Up With The Kardashians and MTV Cribs, and they have all those nice things. Certainly that would make you happy. You are always spending, always consuming. Our consumer culture is flawed at its core, and I do not believe it is a coincidence.

One thing they cannot control is the weather. Only god can control the weather. Right?
Wrong. The government has been manipulating the weather for over a decade. Ever see these lines in the sky?


They aren't clouds. Not natural ones anyway. 


These are not flight patterns. These chemicals are being deliberately sprayed like a grid system over cities and towns. I won't get into this too much, but I encourage you to do your own research! Think of it like this: Chemtrails are kind of like crop dusting, except you are the crop!


So... if so few people are controlling the nation through media, food production, debt, education, and government and legislation, could water fluoridation just be another especially sinister method of control? In the case that this is all true, everything we have ever known about what we think we know is false. We are living in the matrix, people just need to take the red pill.

Don't take my word for it though! Do your own research! Be involved, be active, be awake! 

http://www.naturalnews.com/028849_fluoride_dangers.html

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/salud/salud_fluor05.htm

http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/monsanto-petition-tells-obama-cease-fda-ties-to-monsanto/2012/01/30/gIQAA9dZcQ_blog.html

MAC Swimming Championships

Swimmers wake up at 5 am, practice 24 hours a week, sacrifice social events, and push their bodies to the absolute limit all year, all for just two championship meets a year. In college swimming, one of those meets is your conference championship, in my case, the MAC championship. 

I left for MAC's with my team on a Tuesday, two days before the meet started. The morning of our 10 am departure, we were required to go to the pool anytime before we left and do a loosen up swim, consisting of a 500. The rest of that day was dedicated to travel. Once we arrived in Geneva, Ohio, we went straight to the SPIRE Institute for our first warm-up swim in the competition pool. After another quick loosen up, we headed to the hotel for dinner and bed. The next day was uneventful, including mostly relaxing, more loosen up swims, meals, and sleep. 

Competition began on Thursday with prelims for the 50 free, 500 free, and 200 IM. I swam the 50 freestyle and was .09 slower than my personal record. We had three girls make it to finals that night: Laurin Williams (500 freestyle), Rachel Stearns (200 IM) and Myriah Ariza-Balter (200 IM). Williams was in the A final heat of the 200, while both of our swimmers in the 200 IM were in the B final. The 500 was an incredible race, and while Williams was the defending champion in the event, she got 4th. Even though she didn't go a best time, I think she was just happy that she tried her best and that she was done with that event forever, as she was a senior. Stearns and Ariza-Balter did well, both going best times. I swam on the 200 free relay in finals, which was extremely fun. Relays are always the best part of championship meets because you are swimming as a team and for your team, so there is even more energy and enthusiasm from the teams and audience. It gets crazy!!

The next day was extremely fun to watch. We had several swims during finals, and sophomore Addy Ferguson won both the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke. She also qualified for NCAA's in both events, broke her own 100 backstroke MAC and school record, and broke the 100 fly MAC record! 

Saturday I swam the 100 freestyle and the 100 freestyle on the 400 free relay. The relay, again, was insane! When you swim in finals, you get to "walk-out" from a ready room and past all the teams up to the blocks to music. It gets you super pumped up and ready to go, but there were technical difficulties after our 400 free relay's walk-out, so we ended up having to wait behind the blocks for about five minutes before we could begin the race. It was a little difficult to stay focused, but we kept each pumped up while we waited. That night, we had a second place finish in the mile by Laurin Williams, which was really exciting! 

We ended up getting 6th at the meet, which is the lowest we had gotten in 30 years. Not everyone did as well as we would have liked, but we did the best we could given our situation. Our coach was fired at the beginning of the season, so that made things difficult from the beginning. We were definitely the team that had the most fun at the meet! We will be getting a new coach for the spring season and moving forward, and I think everyone is really excited! Her name is Rachel Komisarz and she was the assistant coach for Louisville; she's also a former Olympic gold and silver medalist. She played a huge part in building the No. 13 program at Louisville, so she will definitely be good for this program, which has a rich history and tradition of excellence. 

What are arboviral diseases?

ARBOVIRAL DISEASES

Arboviral diseases are spread by the bite of an infected arthropod, such as a mosquito or tick. 

Caused by an arbovirus, symptoms are usually mild, occur 3-15 days after exposure, and last 3 or 4 days. They include headache, fever, fatigue, muscle aches, and swollen lymph nodes. Severe infections are marked by a rapid progression, headache, high fever, disorientation, tremors, convulsions, paralysis, coma or death. Infections occur most often in the warmer months because that's when mosquitos and ticks are active.

Most arboviral infections are spread by infected mosquitos, although only a few types of mosquitoes have the capability to transfer the disease and only a fraction of those will be carrying the virus. Person-to-person transmission of the arbovirus is rare. It can occur through blood transfusions or organ transplantation if the virus is present in the donor's blood or organs. Mother-to-child transmission is also rare, but can occur in infected pregnant or breastfeeding women. Infected needle exposure can also transmit the disease.

The young and the old seem to be most susceptible to these diseases, although people across all age spectrums have contracted them.

Arboviral diseases present in the United States include:

• West Nile virus
• California serogroup viruses
• Eastern equine encephalitis virus
• Western equine encephalitis virus
• St. Louis encephalitis virus

Ways to prevent arboviral infections:

• Use insect repellents outdoors in mosquito-heavy areas 
• NOTE: these do NOT have to be heavy-chemical repellents. Insect repellents with non-natural chemicals are not only harmful to the environment, but to your own health. Instead, try these:
• cinnamon oil (mosquitoes)
• lemon eucalyptus or regular eucalyptus oil (mosquitoes, ticks, and lice)
• citronella oil (mosquitoes and biting flies)
• castor oil (mosquitoes)
• orange oil (fleas)
• rose geranium (ticks and lice)
• Put screens over your windows and doors
• Remove containers that hold water and provide a breeding site for mosquitoes (e.g.) old tires

http://chemistry.about.com/od/healthbeautyprojects/a/naturalinsectrepellent.htm

http://www.vdh.state.va.us/epidemiology/dee/Vectorborne/arboviralInfections.htm

http://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/arboviral/fact_sheet.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/arbor/arbdet.htm

http://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/communicable/arboviraldiseases/Index.htm

Blogging vs. Exams - Which is more effective for learning material?

In my opinion, I feel that blogging is a much more effective way to retain information than by tediously taking notes and memorizing them before an exam. In my 15 years as a student, I have witnessed students time and time again cram the night before a test only to remember the information for a brief time and then promptly forget everything they studied. I've done this too many times I can remember. The reason we do this is not because we are lazy and procrastinators (not entirely, anyway), it's because we are given five or more courses at a time (in high school I had a 10 course load per semester) each with it's own readings and course work. Not only are we expected to keep up with all this work at once, but often times expected to be able to pick out the most important information on our own. Instead of learning the information, it becomes about memorizing it.

The problem lies within our education system itself. It doesn't teach you to think creatively or objectively. It teaches you to sit in a chair, be docile, not question any of the information you are learning, and then regurgitate the information when its time for the test. It teaches memorization and conformity. Some could argue this is brainwashing.

Blogging offers much more opportunity than this. It allows a student to do some research for themselves on the topic, taking all different sources and possible answers into account. It also allows for much better information retention in my opinion. For example, with my last blog, “Poison Squad,” I know for a fact that I retained more information on the topic whilst reading through different online articles over and over again, trying to translate the information into my own words, and proof reading it several times than I would have if I had looked at a slide for one minute on the topic and then come back to my notes three weeks later before an exam and tried to recall what I had learned.  

The Poison Squad

The Poison Squad, as it came to be known, was a human feeding experiment that took place in the basement of the Agriculture Department's former Bureau of Chemistry in 1902. The experiment was to feed twelve men food laced with various additives and poisons and monitor the results. All twelve men took oaths promising that for one year, they would only eat food prepared in the Poison Squad's kitchen. They also waived their right to sue the government for any damages to their health that resulted from these experiments, including death. 

The project was started by scientists from the Bureau of Chemistry, now the Food and Drug Administration. Headed by Chief Chemist Harvey W. Wiley, M.D.. His goal was to learn “whether preservatives should ever be used or not, and if so, what preservatives and in what quantities.” Furthermore, Wiley wanted to “investigate the character of food preservatives, coloring matters, and other substances added to foods, to determine their relation to digestion and to health, and to establish the principles which should guide their use."

Wiley himself was a food purist. Soon after being hired by the Agriculture Department, he began pushing for federal regulation of additives, but lobbyists from the packing and canning industries responded with backlash, shutting down every bill Wiley proposed. This was the reasoning behind the Poison Squad program; he wanted to showcase the physical costs of food additives. Wiley hoped that these trials would act as a springboard to widespread food regulation.

Wiley began with borax, one of the most common food preservatives at the time. Used to tighten up animal proteins, it would would give the impression of freshness, as well as artificially “fix” decomposing meat. For eight months, the twelve subjects ate it with every meal. The group concluded that the preservative caused headaches, stomachaches, and other digestive pains. Wiley soon moved on to test other common additives such as sulfuric acid, saltpeter, formaldehyde, and copper sulfate. Copper sulfate, a common pesticide today, was found to cause nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, liver damage, kidney damage, brain damage, and jaundice, among other things.

Even after demonstrating the vast negative effects on human health caused by additives, Wiley still faced an uphill battle against the powerful food lobby. Corruption at it's finest, the

Secretary of Agriculture concealed several of the Poison Squad’s reports, the one on benzoic acid only getting out because of a miscommunication between him and his secretary.

Wiley's efforts finally resulted in some success when Congress passed the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, although Teddy Roosevelt took full credit these acts.

Something to think about

It's important to note that not all additives in your food today have been tested in this way. In fact, many of them have not. Today's “farmers” hose our crops down with pesticides as they wear hazmat suits. While I realize that pesticides are technically (by FDA definition) not additives, if it is unsafe to be around these pesticides to the extent where hazmat suits are needed, it is really safe to put these chemicals in your body on a daily basis? Furthermore, no studies have been conducted on the long-term effects that genetically modified foods may have on the human body. These foods are required to be labeled in 64 countries, the United States absent from that list. In many cases, we do not know what the future holds in regards to side effects and health threats these additives, chemicals, and pesticides hold. Be wary of what you put in your body, for it may be killing you slowly.

Sources:

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/food-for-men/poison-squad

http://www.toxicology.org/gp/21_PoisonSquadFDA.pdf

John Snow

John Snow (March 15, 1813 – June 16, 1858) was an English physician during the mid 19^th century. He is best known for tracing the source of a cholera outbreak in Soho, London in 1854. He is considered by many to be one of the fathers of modern epidemiology and is also known as a trailblazer in the use of anesthesia.

Born in York, England, he grew up with eight siblings in a very poor neighborhood. He graduated from the University of London in December 1844. By 1850, he had been admitted to the Royal College of Physicians and had become a founding member of the Epidemiological Society of London.

Snow's groundbreaking work in the area of anesthetics, specifically ether and chloroform, allowed patients to undergo procedures without the pain that had previously been an unavoidable part of surgery and other procedures. His personal administration of chloroform to Queen Victrola when she gave birth to the last two of her nine children led to greater public acceptance of anesthesia.

The dominant theory behind the cause of cholera outbreaks before Snow's breakthrough was the miasma theory, which stated that diseases such as these were simply caused by “bad air,” as the germ theory of disease had not yet become a thought. Although Snow did not quite understand how the disease was transmitted, he began noting a link between the water supply and spread of disease. He first published this theory in 1949 in an essay titled On the Mode of Communication of Cholera.

The infamous Broad Street cholera outbreak occurred in 1954 in the Soho district of London. With the help of local residents, Snow was able to identify the source of the outbreak as a public water pump on Broad Street (now Broadwick Street). Even lacking sufficient hard evidence, he was able to persuade the local council to disable the well pump by removing the handle because of the constant link between disease and this water source that he had identified. This study by Snow resulting from his observations is considered a founding event in public health and the science of epidemiology.

Later discoveries revealed that this public well was dug a mere three feet from an old cesspit which was leaking fecal bacteria. 

Sources: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Snow_(physician)

http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow.html

What is Healthy People 2020?

The Healthy People program is a program that was put in place by the Department of Health and Social Services; it sets and tracks goals for public health and organizes them into topic areas, each representing an important public health area. The program began with goals in 1979, and have since had updated them for Healthy People 2000, Healthy People 2010, and now Healthy People 2020. 

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states on their website that this current edition, "includes approximately 1,200 objectives organized into 42 topic areas." Out of these objectives, 911 had established baseline data as well as goals for the future by December 2010.  Some objectives that have not yet been given goals are currently being monitored for informational purposes. The remaining objectives were considered developmental, as there were no baseline data for them.

As stated by the CDC, the DHHS has four main goals for Healthy People 2020:
1) "Attain high-quality, longer lives free of preventable disease, disability, injury, and premature death;
2) Achieve health equity, eliminate disparities, and improve the health of all groups;
3) Create social and physical environments that promote good health for all;
4) Promote quality of life, healthy development, and healthy behaviors across all life stages.”

You will find some important additions to Healthy People 2020, including a new Foundation section which, according to the CDC, “addresses several important health topics: General Health Status, Health-Related Quality of Life and Well-Being, Determinants of Health, and Disparities.”

Objectives new to Healthy People 2020 also include:

Adolescent Health

Blood Disorders and Blood Safety

Dementia, Including Alzheimer's Disease

Early and Middle Childhood

Genomics

Global Health

Healthcare-Associated Infections

Health-Related Quality of Life & Well-Being

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health

Older Adults

Preparedness

Sleep Health

Social Determinants of Health

More information on the Healthy People 2020 Topics and Objectives can be found at: http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topicsobjectives2020/default.aspx

Source: Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Healthy People 2020. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/healthy_people/hp2020.htm