article 100

What Causes Diabetes: Genes or Environment?
Is diabetes more likely to be caused by your genes or your environment? A study from the University of Wisconsin shows that Pima Indians in America are more than five times more likely to develop diabetes than their relatives in Mexico (Diabetes Care, August 2006). Pima Indians in Arizona have been shown by DNA typing to be very closely related to Pima Indians in the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico. However, only 8.9 percent of Mexican Pimas developed diabetes, compared to 38 percent of those in the United States.
Obesity is a major risk factor for diabetes, but both populations were similarly obese. About eight percent of the Pima men and 20 percent the Pima women suffered from obesity. However, the Mexican Pimas were far more active than the American ones and ate far fewer refined carbohydrates. This study show that diabetes is more an environmental disease than just a genetic one. Your genes determine how you respond to the environment. Since this study agrees with hundreds of others, everyone should exercise and limit refined carbohydrates such as flour and sugar, whether or not there is a family history of diabetes.
Another recent study shows that the best predictor of diabetes is a test called Hemoglobin A1C (HBA1C), which measures the amount of sugar stuck on cell membranes. At the American Diabetes Association meeting in June 2006, Dr. Peter Baginsky of Santa Rosa, California showed that HBA1C can be used not only to identify people who already have diabetes, but also as a screening test to predict which people are likely to develop diabetes in the future. This allows doctors to treat pre-diabetes before people suffer their heart attacks, strokes and other side effects that can be the first sign that the person has diabetes.
He also showed that people who have HBA1Cs above 5.8 have a 92 percent chance of being diabetic as determined by a fasting glucose tolerance test. The HBA1C test does not require fasting and can be done with only one draw of blood, while the glucose tolerance test takes seven. It is less expensive and has the potential to save a lot of lives by getting diabetics into treatment earlier.

article 99

Type 2 Diabetes: Does Popping Pills Really Control It?
Discovering you have type 2 diabetes is a life-changing experience. It can be a life-change that is good or it can be disastrous. And popping pills to control your diabetes may not be the answer, but, it's up to you. Let me explain...
The majority of newly diagnosed people have type 2 diabetes. Lifestyle is believed to contribute hugely to the development of this type of diabetes; the wrong lifestyle for your body. Eating the wrong foods - and often too much; a sedentary lifestyle - too much sitting around at a desk, watching TV or sitting at a computer or just general inactivity all contributes. Your body loses the battle to keep your blood-sugars at a safe level for you and you develop insulin resistance; type 2 diabetes.
Drastic life-saving changes are needed. So what do we do? 'Pop a pill' and carry on (almost) as before. Sure you might make some token changes, like not eating so many cakes, sweets and biscuits. Or you might cut down on the sugary drinks.
But, for the vast majority of us, that's about as far as it goes.
And that's not good news for our health.
How do I know this?
Because I have type 2 diabetes - diagnosed in 1982.
But I wasn't particularly overweight and I did have a reasonable amount of physical activity in my daily life. So I followed the (then) current expert thinking on the 'ideal diabetic diet', which included a high proportion of high-complex-carbohydrate foods, such as potato, bread and pasta. I didn't make the connection between this type of diet and my constant high blood-sugars.
So I popped the pills prescribed and avoided the obvious sugar-laden enemies; cakes, sweets and sugary treats.
So where's the problem?
The problem is the constant underlying, grinding effect of continuing the wrong lifestyle and eating habits and the consequences it generates. My condition very gradually, almost insidiously, got worse. Yet I was following the eating guidelines I'd been given.
You see, taking drugs to control your diabetes, instead of changing your eating pattern and lifestyle can create an extreme yo-yo effect on your blood-sugars. It did for me. I ranged from a high of 17.6 mmol/l to 2.8 mmol/l (the safe range is between 4mmol/l and 7mmol/l).
And I had no idea of what was happening between my own blood testing sessions - but the overall effect on my HbA1C was not good. Keeping within the 'safe range', for me, was a nigh-on impossibility.
But that was OK, as my overall condition got worse I was prescribed more medication to try to keep my HbA1c levels in control - more pills! Until I reached the stage where the only way forward, if I was to continue using medication to control my sugar-levels, was to go onto insulin injections.
That's when I decided to take proper control of my type 2 diabetes and find out more about it and what it was doing to me.
THAT WAS SCARY I can tell you!! I found out about all the other health risks my diabetes was opening me up to. Serious risks I didn't know about, because I hadn't taken much interest other than 'I need to pop a pill to control it'. Risks such as heart disease; kidney failure; neuropathy (nerve-end damage); retinopathy (eye-damage) and more made me realise how important it is to understand as much as possible about diabetes. (That's why I set up my website; www.your-diabetes.com)
What to do? Well I decided it was safer, healthier and more sensible to change my lifestyle and eating pattern and reduce my reliance on pills. Instead of using drugs to control my type 2 diabetes I decided to do it in a natural and healthy way.
I've changed my meal contents - I now follow a low-carbohydrate diet. Yes, it took a bit of getting used to at first, until I'd got it sorted in my head what I could eat safely - after all you don't break the eating habits of a lifetime overnight. But it's not a difficult eating style to follow and there's plenty of help and advice available (you can read more about exactly how I did it in the complimentary 86-page PDF guide on my website - see below).
My medication? I've gone from popping 5 pills a day to just 2. And I'm working on reducing that even further. More importantly, my blood-sugars are now consistently within the safe range - my current average test reading is 5.9mmol/l. I'm just waiting to see what my HbA1C levels are at my next check-up.
My advice to you? If you have type 2 diabetes decide NOW - would you rather pop pills and have your health gradually degraded? Or would you rather take control of your diabetes and live a longer, fuller, healthier life?*
I know which I chose.

article 98

Can Diabetes and Eating Fruit Go Together?
Diabetes is one of the most dreaded diseases of the current generation. While for some, diabetes may not be as frightening as cancer or brain damage, it can indeed be a grave condition that could affect one's life entirely. Such is why those who have diabetes cannot be too careful to adjust their lifestyles to keep the symptoms of the disease manageable. Some people even go too careful that they believe that they have to leave out so much of the things they enjoy in life such as eating sweet food. However, such is not entirely the case. Diabetic people can still take pleasure in certain foods to keep their sweet cravings at bay. One way of doing this is by eating fruits Mother Nature's sweet gift to people.
In general, eating fruits can be good for people because fruits are great sources of many essential vitamins, minerals, fiber, and other nutrients that provide a lot of benefits to one's health. However, diabetics might be concerned whether fruits can increase their blood sugar levels or not. The quick answer to that is a simple yes. Fruit, like any other food that contains sugar does increase one's blood sugar. Moreover, fruit can increase blood sugar as fast and as high as other types of food with the same amount of sugar. But does this mean that a diabetic patient has to avoid eating fruits in the same manner as avoiding candy? Not entirely.
Missing out on fruits is not a good idea for diabetics, or any other person. The many benefits that fruits give are very important. Compared to cakes, candy, and other sugar-rich foods, the calories provided by fruits are not empty. Add to this the fact that the concentration of sugar in most fruits is not as high as those in sugar-laded food items, thus eating a piece of apple would not increase blood sugar as much as eating a slice of chocolate cake. The key here is moderation. Of course one would expect to have a great rise in blood sugar after eating a basketful of grapes, but who can eat that big amount of fruits in one sitting? The truth is, one can only eat so much amount of fruits because they can provide satisfaction quicker than sugary snacks.
People are also not created equal. One's reaction to a certain type of food might be different from another's response. Thus, it might take two bananas to increase the blood sugar significantly for one person, but for another guy, the same increase might happen after just eating one banana. The responsibility of the diabetic patient therefore is to find out how his or her body responds to the fruits being eaten. This can be done by monitoring one's blood sugar levels.
When monitoring one's sugar levels, it is important to be honest regarding the serving sizes one consumes. A very large apple may not count as just one serving, thus it is important to honestly judge whatever amount is taken in. One can then have a blood sugar level test an hour or two after eating fruit to see how high or low the fruit has increased the glucose in the blood. Monitoring is very important for one to know how the body gets fruits in. Once a good understanding regarding the relationship of fruits with one's glucose levels, one can then have pretty much a good knowledge of how little or how big fruit servings should be.
Diabetics can indeed eat fruit, and eating fruits may be a great way for them not only to meet the body's nutritive requirements, but also to manage those sweet cravings. By knowing how the body reacts to the fruits one consumes, one would certainly know how best to enjoy fruits, making help one enjoy life as well.

article 97

Denial at Diabetes: Long-term Health Effects
Most people, when diagnosed with diabetes, go through at least one period of denial. Denial is a time when you do not believe that your diabetes will truly affect you. It is a time when you feel exempt from reality: surely, not me! Denial at a diabetes diagnosis is fairly common, and a normal part of dealing with the news. It is longstanding denial that can be dangerous to your health.
People choose denial for a variety of reasons. In some cases, it might seem easiest to ignore the problem so it will go away. In other cases, a person will be scared of the responsibility that diabetes brings. This might even occur later in their life when they get diabetes fatigue or burnout from caring for a condition day in and day out.
You might be in denial about your diabetes if you find yourself rationalizing things. When you rationalize, you try to make something seem like it is okay or fine. You might say to yourself, one bite wont hurt, or I can miss one day of exercise. The reality is that these are just the things that can hurt you when you have diabetes, and they can lead to more fluctuations in your blood sugar, which in turn can lead to complications from your diabetes.
There are a few areas that diabetics are most likely to rationalize about. The two major points are diet and exercise. Without maintaining a healthy diet and exercise schedule, diabetics can put themselves at severe risk. Diabetics in denial can also avoid proper self-monitoring for blood glucose levels. You might feel that you no longer need to test your blood sugar because you will just know what your level is at by how you feel. Although you will get more adept at gauging your blood sugar independently, you can never stop testing, because many other factors influence the way you feel. You wouldnt want your blood glucose to spike because you confused the beginnings of a cold with low blood sugar.
People with diabetes might also smoke and think that it will not affect their lives. The truth of the matter is that smoking will kill you if you have diabetes or not. If you have diabetes, it will increase your chance of complications. Just one puff is too much.
If you are in denial, you might think that your type 2 diabetes is not serious. If you feel that taking pills is less serious than injecting insulin, you might be right. This, however, is not a reason to neglect yourself, because not properly managing your type 2 diabetes can lead to insulin dependence.
Managing diabetes is a time consuming process. You need to check your feet for complications, as well as go to the doctors office more often. You might be jealous of your friends and family because they have much less responsibility for their health. This is not productive for you. Remember that taking care of your diabetes is actually time that you spend taking care of you. You can even reward yourself for positive diabetes management habits. Perhaps if you are diligent with your diet, exercise, and self-monitoring of blood glucose for a month, you will reward yourself with a massage, or a new shirt, or a new book.
There will be periods when you feel that managing your diabetes is out of your reach and not possible. This is not the case. You can manage your diabetes, and you can cope with it.
Write down your diabetes-related goals in a workbook. Having your goals written down will help you to achieve them. Chart your progress towards these goals. Often, the simple fact of knowing that you will write down your food at the end of the day makes you eat healthier so that you feel good about yourself when you write it down.
Tell your friends and family about your diabetes. Explain to them that encouraging you to go off your diet and exercise is not helpful, and help them understand the consequences that can occur. If your friends and family know about your diabetes, they will be able to help you stick to your healthy habits.
You can get over periods of denial about diabetes. Your diabetes management will help prevent complications and will allow you to lead a long and fulfilling life.

article 96

Mommy Might Have Diabetes
Maternal diabetes or gestational diabetes occurs when a pregnancy is complicated by diabetes. Statistics show that 95% of mothers with diabetes depend highly on insulin. It also indicates diabetes can occur on different levels. One is when the mother is already diabetic even before the baby inside her was conceived. Another is when the mother develops diabetes while she is pregnant. When this happens, this is what is called gestational or maternal diabetes. Now some mothers stay diabetic even when they have already delivered their child but there are those who will later on become normal again.
Gestational diabetes occurs because the hormones during the pregnancy period were reduced due to the mother's dependence on insulin. Too much dependence on insulin can lead to an increase in blood sugar. Two to three percent soon-to-be mothers are affected by gestational diabetes.
Most of the time, these are mothers who
- have a family history of type 2 diabetes
- are older than the average maternal age. It's more risky the older the woman becomes
- are African-Americans, North American and Hispanics. These people have more chances getting gestational diabetes
- also experienced getting maternal diabetes before when they were also pregnant with another child
- have given birth to a child who weighed more than the average 9 pounds.
The point is any woman can get it. Be they old or young, Caucasian or Asian, there's no specific target. But the factors mentioned above show that these are the women who are most likely to have the disease. Gestational diabetes hits these women in the later stages of their pregnancy when the baby is already developed inside them.
There's no way to know for sure whether the woman is already experiencing gestational diabetes. But if she is always thirsty and always peeing, always tired, dizzy and vomits, has yeast infection and blurry vision, you must have a doctor tend to her.
Gestational diabetes normally occurs during the 24th until the 28th week of the pregnancy state. If the mother eats properly and exercises whenever she can, then the occurrence of maternal diabetes can be regulated and lessened. But if it is already there, then gestational diabetes may be treated with insulin.
Contemporary cases of gestational diabetes occurrence also show that not only does a mother's age have an effect but also the father's age. The older the father is, then the more possibility for the mom to have gestational diabetes when carrying the child.
It also shows that when the mother has an eating disorder or is not taking care of herself properly, then there's more chance for her to get maternal diabetes. Substance abuse and smoking are also risk factors that will not only harm the mother but the child as well.
The effects of incurring gestational diabetes during pregnancy is that the mother will most likely undergo a caesarian delivery. In worse cases, the baby has to be delivered earlier than the normal nine months and will have to be incubated instead. That's why gestational diabetes, when it occurs or has the possibility to occur, must be taken seriously.
Managing the proper lifestyle, exercising properly and regularly and taking in the right diet results to the safety of both mother and child during the pregnancy stage. There wouldn't be a problem with the hormones and gestational diabetes has less possibility of occurring.

article 95

Give Some Time To The American Diabetes Association
At a certain point in time, people come to realize that their lives can only gain meaning when they discover their true calling, through which they are able to help others. Life can not be solely defined by accumulation of wealth or achievement of self-motivated objectives. The full and true meaning of life can only be experienced by individuals when they finally realize that selflessness is the only thing that can make them happy.
Why Become a Volunteer for the American Diabetes Association?
We're not saying that being a volunteer for the American Diabetes Association will be more fulfilling than being a volunteer for another non-profit foundation. We're merely suggesting that you join the American Diabetes Association if you've had loved ones suffering from diabetes, and you had felt helpless because you're unable to make them feel better.
Also, if you have no preferences when it comes to what field or for what purpose would you like to be a volunteer in, you should then consider seriously joining the American Diabetes Association. Being a part of this organization will not only improve the quality of lives around you but yours as well.
A Brief History of the American Diabetes Association
The association's mission-vision is simple: cure, care, and commitment. The ADA made a lifelong commitment to providing care to diabetic individuals and finding an effective and permanent cure for the disease. The ADA extends its assistance not only to people diagnosed with diabetes but also to the generous and caring individuals who have freely given their time and love to attend to people with diabetes.
Founded n 1940, the American Diabetes Association is the organization with the most significant contribution in diabetic research next to the U.S. government, having donated over $200M already throughout the years. Its presence has been widely established across the United States with over 800 communities.
Why Is It Important to Help People with Diabetes
Shocking as this may be, diabetes actually kills more people every year than the mortality rate of AIDS and breast cancer combined. If early warnings and symptoms are not given the necessary attention and care, diabetes can lead to various medical complications, some of which are life-threatening. It has been estimated that approximately seven percent of the U.S. population are diabetic. Unfortunately, about one-third of this or around 6.2 million of these individuals continue with their lives without being aware of the dangerous state of their health.
The Responsibilities of Volunteers for the American Diabetes Association
An ADA volunteer has three primary responsibilities:
Extending Care - It's every volunteer's goal to provide as much care as possible, and of the best quality, to people diagnosed with diabetes
Eliminate Discrimination - Volunteers of the ADA strive to improve the outlook of society towards individuals with diabetes by getting rid of prejudices and misassumptions about the disease.
Social Involvement - Volunteers are not afraid to take a stand against any law-giving body or authority if the rights of diabetic patient are violated or if funding for diabetic research becomes insufficient
How to Become a Volunteer for the American Diabetes Association
The first thing you must do is register to become a Diabetes Advocate. You may do this online or better yet, find the nearest American Diabetes Association branch near your home and register there. Also, you can help the ADA simply by increasing people's awareness of the symptoms and risks of diabetes. Warning one person about diabetes is already one life saved.

article 94

Breastfeeding Mommies Equals No Diabetes
"Breast milk is still best for babies under two years," the pediatrician says. And a mother must believe it because not only is it advisable for her child's health, it also lessens the chance of her getting diabetes.
Women who breastfeed have less chances of suffering from diabetes. A study conducted by the World Health Organization shows that more than 1.5 million babies die because they are not breast-fed. These are babies from third world countries. Their mothers' health are also in jeopardy that they don't have enough nutrition or milk in their bodies to save neither themselves nor their babies.
These social workers who educate mothers often travel to the developing countries such as Nigeria and teach them the proper way to care for themselves and their infants. Good parenting at a young age would also result to the proper mental development of their baby.
That's why people must be educated when it comes to how important breastfeeding is for the infant and the mother. Not only is this beneficial for the baby's health, it will also have a good effect on the emotional aspect of the mother-child relationship. Breastfeeding is an early form of mother-child bonding that could occur at this young stage of the baby's life.
Some mothers prefer pumping their milk to a machine because it hurts them when the child bites into their nipples. That must not be the case. It takes some getting use to. Breastfeeding will give the child the nurture, the love and the care that she deserves to have. Activists on the situation are suggesting a movement to a decree that announces neglect on mothers who stop breastfeeding their children who are less than two years old.
There are some mothers who rush on to their daily activities that they prefer the bottle-feeding than breast-feeding. This often applies to a high-powered career woman. As much as possible, she must also fit into her schedule the time for her child.
Some mothers believe that the good thing about bottled milk is that it has water and breast milk has less. However, breast milk also has water. The water contained in breast milk is in fact healthier for the infant than water that us adults drink. Notice also that babies sleep better after they are breast-fed than after they are bottle-fed.
Breast milk prevents diarrhea. Diarrhea is a disease that often attacks babies. Developing countries lose a lot of their newly-borns to this disease.
Breast milk also helps the child grow properly making him less prone to infections. The child will also be more intelligent because his being breast-fed allowed his brain to develop better.
As for the women, there is a link to diabetes and breast-feedings. Women who engage in breast-feeding their child will not have diabetes. While they're feeding their babies, they are lactating. Therefore, the hormones they release in this process protects her against anemia and cancer.
To sum it up, breast-feed your child. Not only will you and your child be healthier, you will also have bonding time together. It helps to start training your child now at a young age because there's a lot of room for improvement and development. Also, the mother has something to benefit from this practice. She wouldn't have diabetes.
If scheduling is the problem, it's all about time management. When your child is about to go to college and off to an Ivy League school, you know your hard work paid off.

article 93

Use Berberine and Get Rid of Diabetes
The quest for an effective and lifelong cure for diabetes is still ongoing. Although there has been significant advancement and improvement in providing a medicinal solution for the disease, such treatments are still unable to stop diabetes from taking one life after the other every year.
At the present, the best hope people has is the detection of signs and symptoms of the disease as early as possible in order to thoroughly manage diabetes while it still hasn't affected much of an individual's health. One such way is by using berberine.
What is Berberine?
With a bright yellow color, berberine can be easily found unlike other herbs. Mostly, it can be obtained through Chinese herbs such as phellodendron and coptis. Originally used as a dye, berberine has been discovered to have certain ingredients that may be effective in treating diabetes. Berberine can be also found in the Japanese plant barberry. Nowadays, berberine is a common ingredient in herbal medicine used for treating intestinal disorders.
In 1995, a study in China was conducted in order to discover if berberine had curative benefits for diabetes. It was only by fortuitous circumstances that the researchers have found out that berberine can also cause blood glucose levels to decrease when used to treat diabetic individuals with diarrhea.
Berberine has also been found by other studies able to help individuals lose weight. Another possible benefit of berberine is the lack of side effects, although this claim requires further proof. Individuals with Type II Diabetes should be glad to hear this as many of them are unable to tolerate present treatments for their condition.
One particular kind of berberine, or alkaloid berberine to be specific, is being presently investigated regarding its therapeutic components. Recent studies have found proof of alkaloid berberine being able to successfully treat hypoglycemia. An abnormally low level of blood sugar or hypoglycemia is a somewhat common side-effect of several diabetic medications.
What You Should Know about Diabetes
If you already know you've diabetes, the news about berberine has surely made your day. On the other hand, if you aren't sure if you have diabetes or not, you should schedule an appointment as soon as possible with your physician. Diabetes is the type of disease that grows uglier the longer it's ignored.
The first thing you should be aware about is its symptoms:
Liquid In, Liquid Out - Do you notice that you're urinating more often than usual? Are you feeling more thirty than usual? If so, you should know that such feelings are considered indications of diabetes.
Weight - Do you feel hungry all the time? Do you seem to be losing weight for no reason at all? Such occurrences are also considered as warning signs of diabetes.
Bad Mood - Do you feel easily tired? Were you once good-natured but became easily irritated all of the sudden? If you're not suffering from PMS or heartbreak, it's possible that you already have diabetes.
Causes of Diabetes
Lots of people believe that eating too much sweets or sugary foods is the main cause of diabetes. This claim however has been proven false. Sweets can lead to obesity, however, and obesity can lead to Type II diabetes.
No one really knows for sure why some people become diabetic while some do not. That's why all of us are at risk and it's in our interests to have a general check-up regularly. Forearmed, after all, is forewarned.

article 92

Obesity and Diabetes Have Vaccines
As much as possible, when a child is still young or in his toddler age, which is eighteen months to four, parents try their best to not spoil them or give in to their demands. These demands are usually sweets and snacks in between meals. That is because if they continue to give in, then when the child goes to school, or worse, attends middle school, he may be overweight.
Losing weight is a hard thing to do. Obesity is a common problem among Americans. When one is obese, he has less self-confidence and self-esteem than the average weighed Joe and Jane. A research study done by "The Insider" correspondent Vanessa Minnillo shows that obese people receive condescending and disgusted looks from pedestrians. Imagine the effect this has on them.
When one is determined to lose weight, he does his best to eat less and to work out more. But there are those who are unfortunate because it is in their genes, thus making it harder for them to shed the excess pounds. Some engage in diet such as Watsons and South Beach. Now this is a huge step for them. If some people love playing video games, there are people who love to eat.
Just as there are people who have diabetes. They cannot avoid not having it - it's in their genes. It's how they were built. Children with diabetes are the more unfortunate because normally, you'd want to give them candies and chocolates. Because they're diabetic, they cannot have, or at least have as much, as they'd want to - compared to other kids.
Nowadays, there could be a possible solution for yo-yo diet or what is known to be the loss and gain of weight. This new vaccine aids in regulating the energy balance within the body. It has been tested on mature male rats. They ate normally but they gain less weight. When these findings turn out to be successful, then there is a possible confirmation of its effect. A vaccine that helps obese people to regulate their weight can come into conception.
What the vaccine does is that it slows down the weight gain. Because of the ghrelin that is found in the substance, the bloodstream in the brain is stimulated and retains the stored energy as fat.
Reason why doctors are looking for something to regulate the increasing number of obese people is that a person who is obese has more chances of getting other diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart problems. Not to mention depression that could be resulted from low self-esteem, low self-confidence and self-disgust.
As for diabetes, in 2001, scientists have already developed a drug that would stop the destruction of the pancreas in the immune system. In layman's terms, this drug lessens the fast pace of the type I diabetes. The good thing about this is that it gives them a longer time to live. The drug is injected within six months. There are no side effects even tot his date.
With the type II diabetes, there is less luck to coming up with a vaccine. Research is still ongoing to come up with a vaccine that could lessen the risk of diabetic people. Diabetes attacks slowly but surely.
However, young children who have received the vaccine, those aged seven to sixteen showed progress. From there, the research goes on.
Right now, scientists are working on mice. They inject an antigen that would combat the protein HSP60 which attributes to the degradation of a person's health when he or she has diabetes.
In due time, who knows? Maybe there will be a cure.

article 91

Chronic Gum Disease and Diabetes
Most individuals are already aware that diabetes can lead to chronic gum or periodontal disease. Recent studies however have revealed that the relationship between the two is like a double-edged sword, since it goes both ways; apparently, diabetes can also be born from chronic gum disease.
Basic Facts about Chronic Gum Disease
When an individual has been diagnosed of having chronic gum disease, this means that his gums and the bones that bind his teeth to its proper position are infected. If left untreated, chronic gum disease will make chewing extremely difficult or worse, lead to loss or removal of teeth.
Basic Facts about Diabetes
Is it true that diabetes is primarily caused by eating too much of sweet foods? No! There's still no known and accurate cause for diabetes so everyone is at risk. Substantially proven generalizations however have been made regarding diabetic individuals. People who are overweight, for instance, are more prone to having diabetes.
Who's at Risk?
Diabetics who smoke and diabetics who love sweets are the most at risk of having chronic gum disease as well.
The Process of Chronic Gum Disease: From A to Z
If oral hygiene is neglected, that's the first step to having chronic gum disease. Germs that accrue over the time will cause our gums to redden, swell, and even bleed when you start brushing your teeth once more. When this happens, you're suffering from gingivitis - a precursor of chronic gum disease.
Gingivitis however will disappear eventually if you don't shirk up your duties to your mouth and teeth. If you don't, things become more complicated and you get nearer to having chronic gum disease.
Accrued dirt becomes plaque; when plaque becomes hard, your teeth and gums get infected until there's not enough bones to hold your teeth in place. The result: an emergency trip to the dentist and several of your teeth pulled out.
The Bad Thing about Chronic Gum Disease
There are no warning signs. When you start feeling hurt and uncomfortable about it, it's usually too late because no amount of brushing of teeth or flossing will be able to rescue your teeth. Only the scary dentist has the power to salvage what's left of your teeth.
Possible Treatments for Chronic Gum Disease
Teeth Cleaning - If the damage isn't too serious, your dentist might be able to repair damaged roots and allow you to retain your teeth. Teeth cleaning will also help in removing accrued germs stuck within and in between your teeth. Your dentist may also request you to take an antibiotic or use a suggested brand of mouthwash to give your teeth added protection.
Surgery - If the wounds are fatal, gum surgery may be the only option. Worse, even if damaged teeth have been successfully removed, your gums may have been too infected to allow you to use dentals or fake teeth.
Other Possible Dental Diseases Related to Diabetes
Chronic gum disease is not the only thing that diabetics have to worry about. If they don't brush and floss their teeth regularly, they risk suffering from any of the following conditions:
Cavities - Choosing the right food can significantly reduce the risk of teeth developing cavities.
Thrush - Diabetics are especially prone to having this condition because the fungus that causes this affection flourishes in glucose-rich parts.
Dry Mouth - People who are unaware they have diabetes usually have dry mouths, which can consequently lead to other dental diseases.
You can save yourself from chronic gum disease and diabetes simply by eating well and eating right then brushing your teeth right after!

article 90

Importance of Body Care and Diet in AyurvedaAyurvedic contains the detail instructions about body care and personal hygiene. Chewing of various spices and nuts is recommended for the clarity of voices, a pleasing taste, and fresh smells in the mouth, gargling with sesame oil be said to enhance the strength of the jaws. Sesames oil also gives depth to the voice and even results in the face becoming plump. Regularly oiling of the hair and the ears, and the periodic oil massages are a part of the normal recommended body care. Massage makes the physique smooth, strong, and charming, and prevents the onslaught of age. Scents and garlands of flowers are said to spread fragrance in the body, and enhance longevity and charm.
An India psychiatrist was surprised to find the following description of a tongue scraper, the like of which he had not seen in use in any other country.
Tongue scrapers which, should be curved and sharp edge, are to be made of metals like gold, silver, copper, tin and brass. The dirt deposited at the root of the tongue obstructs expiration and give rise to a foul smell: so the tongue should be scraped regularly.
Where as the diet is concerned, ayurveda provides the general description of food that promotes health and other, which should be avoided. It say that the food that should be allowed to the patients accordingly to the nature of the malady, and those which should be banned. Some medicines are to be taken with certain specific foods such as buttermilk. Certain drugs and formulations are administered to the patient in conjunction with certain food, falling which; the drugs do not have any curative effect.
Both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food is discussed in ayurveda. Non-vegetarian diets are particularly recommended in diseases like consumption where the wasting of flesh is evident.

article 89

The Magic of Diabetes Shopping Tours
A diabetic shopping tour is one of the best ways to educate people suffering from diabetes on how to properly shop for their food. This knowledge is integral to being able to sort through the mess of too many consumer goods that seem to be healthy but are actually hazardous to those suffering from the condition.
For those suffering from diabetes, being able to maintain a healthy lifestyle is surely a very big challenge. While diabetes does not really limit person's abilities and functions, it does percent a great hazard to health if not taken care of. If one is not able to maintain a proper diet, take medications on time, and keep vigil on one's insulin levels, this person could look healthy one minute, and turn deadly sick the next.
Diabetes doesn't sound like a gruesome illness; however, it has been the cause of many deaths and disabilities. Those suffering from diabetes have also been known to suffer from loss of appendages due to gangrene and the inability to heal quickly from cuts and scrapes.
This makes watching out for hazards to injury and one a very big part of a diabetic person's life. Aside from this, one other very important item for a diabetic person to look out for is his or her diet. Unfortunately, in this mass consumer world, finding food that is healthy and suitable for diabetic people is doubly hard.
Since there are too many hidden ingredients, and too many refined products out on the market, most of the things sold at supermarkets pose a hazard for people suffering from this condition. That is why it becomes very important to be able not to just know the proper diet of a diabetic person, but to be able to learn how to shop for these things in a real world supermarket environment.
Knowing your diet is not enough
It isn't enough just to know what the recommended foods for you to eat as a diabetic are. More importantly, knowing how to shop at supermarkets for these kinds of foods is tantamount to your health.
How can a diabetic shopping tour help you?
1. They teach you to look beyond the package. The problem with most goods available at supermarkets today is that they sometimes make false claims about their ingredients. They will also advertise the health benefits of their products but if you read their disclaimers hard enough you'll find out that they are not actually healthy at all.
One technique they will teach you is to look for those tiny asterisks that follow most health claims. If they see a health claim with an asterisk go directly to the fine print and read a hard for any qualifiers to the claim.
2. Shopping tours also teach you how to shop smartly. A good diabetic shopping tour will teach you how to avoid foodstuffs that can injure your health and how to find those other foodstuffs that will help you maintain a healthy diet. Most shopping tours will also recommend meals that can be made out of these foodstuffs.
They also have your budget in mind; they would educate you on how to budget your groceries so that you get the most out of your money for each trip to make the grocers.
Conclusion
In the end, the shopping tour against diabetes is probably one of the most important seminars a diabetic person can attend. Not only would it teach them how to stay healthy with a healthy diet, it will also teach them how to discern which products are actually bad for their health.

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Diabetes and Kidney Diseases: A Harmful Combination
Diseases are among the most unfortunate realities in human life. Illnesses are dreaded as they can cause not only inconveniences but even impairments in a persons lifestyle. The pain and suffering one has to endure because of some ailment is hardly describable, add to this the distress and misery experienced by ones family, friends, and loved ones. What could be more devastating than a dreaded disease other than the combination of two or more diseases? And this was just what some Australian doctors have discovered - the combination of diabetes and kidney diseases.
August 6, 2006, Google News - a recent research in Australia has just discovered that one out of two patients diagnosed with Type II Diabetes also suffer a type of chronic diseases in the kidneys, and the figures may be even higher than what has been observed, doctors feared. Blood samples from four thousand diabetic patients were tested by the Baker Heart Research Institute and the results showed that though the patients were seemingly fine except for their diabetes, they had underlying kidney conditions that remained undetected for years. This has pushed Australian doctors and health institutes to perform mandatory tests to screen kidney diseases among Type II Diabetes patients, according to a following report by Yahoo! News. The tests recommended include not only simple urine tests, but more extensive blood tests.
Type II Diabetes is a disorder in a persons metabolic function that manifests in the resistance to and the deficiency in insulin, it is also characterized by hyperglycemia. Currently, the disease has no cure. It has been observed to be increasing greatly in the developed countries, the rest of the world is also following suit in the coming years that its rapid growth has already been considered as a form of epidemic. Unlike in Type I diabetes, there is not much inclination to develop ketoacidosis (the accumulation of acid in the blood due to the breaking down of fat) in Type II diabetes. But the two types of diabetes could cause disability in several vital organs, particularly in the cardiovascular system due to the multifaceted changes in metabolism occurring.
The kidneys are the organs that are responsible for filtering wastes in the blood. The bean-shaped organs come in pairs and perform the vital function of removing wastes from the body in the form of urine. Kidneys also keep the balance in many of the bodys conditions including the concentration of acids and bases, the volume of blood plasma, blood pressure. Kidneys also secrete certain important hormones for normal function. Great dangers arise when the kidneys grow awry. Without the kidney functioning well, body wastes may reach toxic levels, causing poisoning and great impairments and the bodys many functions. Advanced onsets of kidney diseases may create the need for dialysis filtering blood painstakingly outside the body, or the need for the kidney transplants.
Clearly, both conditions of diabetes and kidney disease are dangerous, if not fatal to ones health. The combination of these two illnesses could be even more hazardous considering the grave symptoms they cause. Curing both diseases is still rather difficult nowadays if not unfeasible. Such is why prevention is always seen as the best cure. But for those who already have one of the two conditions, early detection for the other is the next best thing. Perhaps developments for cures and treatments may be available in the near future, but for now, patients would have to deal with the diseases according to current accessible therapies.

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NewsTarget) HIV patients may have an effective weapon to lengthen their lives, thanks to selenium. Taking a selenium supplement daily appears to keep HIV at bay and also strengthen the immune system, according to research by the University of Miami.
In a double-blind study of 262 HIV patients divided between patients receiving the supplements and placebos, the patients who received 200 micrograms of high-selenium yeast each day fought the disease much better. When each patient was given a comprehensive medical exam at the end of the study 9 months later, the ones who took selenium daily had a lower amount of the HIV virus in their bloodstream and better immune cell counts compared to those who hadn't.
"It's no surprise that selenium is finally getting the credit it deserves as a potent antiviral mineral," said Mike Adams, author of "The Seven Laws of Nutrition."
"In fact, combined with other natural antiviral medicines, HIV can be completely controlled without medications at all," Adams said. "The people of the world have been completely hoodwinked by the pharmaceutical companies into thinking there are no natural treatments for HIV, but in fact there are dozens."
The reason selenium may help people with HIV live longer is its antioxidant properies: it may help reverse damage that the disease does to the immune system. However, that does not make it a substitute for the antiretroviral therapy medications used to fight HIV, the researchers concluded.
The increased intake of selenium, while observed in other studies as having a positive effect in lowering mortality rates for people with lung, prostate and colorectal cancer, also may increase the risk of skin cancer, some studies have found. The verdict among scientists is not complete whether selenium is useful for cancer prevention.
With these initial findings, doctors have urged that more research be done to find out whether selenium is an effective tool in slowing down the effects of HIV.

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Health officials in Lawrenceville, Georgia have arrested and jailed Francisco Santos, a teenager who tried to walk out of a hospital and go home after being diagnosed with TB (tuberculosis). Instead of allowing him to leave the hospital, health authorities arrested and jailed the teen, throwing him in into a 15 x 20 foot isolation chamber and not allowing him to leave until he submitted to chemical treatments pushed by doctors at the hospital. Francisco is being described as "...a threat to public safety" due to his tuberculosis.
Francisco's plight is the latest episode in a growing number of "gunpoint medicine" episodes where individuals are being arrested at gunpoint and thrown into jails or detainment centers until they submit to treatment with pharmaceuticals, chemotherapy, radiation or surgery. NewsTarget has covered other cases of gunpoint medicine, including:
• Katie Wernecke, a teenage cancer patient who was kidnapped by Texas authorities and forced to submit to chemotherapy. Her parents were arrested and subjected to actions by Child Protective Services, who took Katie away. This all happened because Katie's parents refused to subject their daughter to chemotherapy and wanted to pursue safer, more natural holistic medical therapies.
• Abraham Cherrix, a 16-year old cancer patient who also refused a second round of chemotherapy after the first round nearly killed him. His doctor was outraged that Abraham would refuse chemotherapy and called Child Protective Services who had Abraham's parents arrested at gunpoint. CPS then took over joint custody of the child and attempted to force the teen to submit to barbaric cancer treatments like radiation and chemotherapy.
In this latest example of Gunpoint Medicine, 17-year old Francisco Santos is now being held against his will and will apparently be incarcerated for as long as doctors believe he is a threat to the safety of others. He's also being told he cannot leave until he takes medication.
Patients, or Prisoners?As these cases of Gunpoint Medicine clearly demonstrate, you now surrender your rights when you walk into a hospital. You are not a patient; you are a prisoner. And if the medical authorities, in their own opinion, perceive you as resisting their authority, they can have you arrested on the spot, without a court order, without a trial, and even when you pose no threat to others (such as having cancer). These medical arrests are taking place in clear violation of both the Fourth Amendment (protection from unreasonable search and seizure) and Fifth Amendment (due process) of the U.S. Bill of Rights.
Just as worrisome, law enforcement authorities are supporting these tyrannical actions of doctors, effectively providing firepower to what can only be called the "tyranny branch" of modern medicine. Any system of medicine that requires firearms to motivate patients is, in my opinion, more a system of control than a system of healing. Whatever happened to, "First, do no harm?"
Remember this the next time you enter a hospital or clinic: By subjecting yourself to the false authority of a doctor, you are in effect surrendering your freedoms and shall only be allowed to leave the hospital or clinic by the grace of the physician! If they decide that, for whatever reason, you should not be allowed to leave the hospital, you may be arrested at gunpoint and thrown into jail for an indefinite period of time until you agree to undergo their toxic -- even deadly -- treatments.
But isn't Santos contagious?Skeptics of this assessment will point out that Santos has a contagious form of TB and is a genuine threat to society. Therefore, the thinking goes, medical authorities are justified in locking him up against his will, without a trial or court order.
That's a fascinating bit of delusional thinking. If you believe that, then you must also believe that health authorities should round up all AIDS patients and throw them into detention camps "for the safety of the public." After all, if you believe that TB is a disease that's dangerous enough to lock people away for having, then why not AIDS? Why not HPV, Hepatitis, or any upper respiratory illness that might pose a health hazard to some senior citizen? Once you cross the line of arresting people against their will for showing symptoms of one particular contagious disease, then you have to follow through and arrest everyone with similarly dangerous diseases.
Of course, if that happened, half the country would be behind bars, because the truth is that there are people everywhere who carry infectious germs. Simply walking through any airport exposes you to countless strains of bacteria, fungi and viruses that might pose a risk to your health.
And how about all the dangerous elderly drivers doped up on medication? I've seen some crazy Alzheimer's patients operating vehicles who should never be allowed to drive and are a clear threat to the safety of other drivers. Why aren't these people being locked up for the safety of the public? (I'm not saying they should be, but if you're going to be consistent here, locking up TB patients means locking up all kinds of other people...)
The gunpoint approach that has been invoked to imprison Santos is a demonstration of modern medical madness. The mainstream media has stirred the people into a frenzy over freewheeling lawyer Andrew Speaker and his TB infection, and now health authorities are so paranoid about being blamed for allowing a TB patient to walk free that they would rather trample on Santos' rights than expose themselves to professional risk. Apparently, the only requirement for locking someone up who shows symptoms of an infectious disease is that the particular disease has received a lot of mention in the press and the public is now scared silly over it.
Can you imagine the outcry if medical authorities started locking up AIDS patients? Don't dismiss this idea: It could be next. Any tyrannical health system that can stick a gun in the face of a teenage boy with TB and throw him in prison is perfectly capable of sticking a gun in the face of an AIDS patient and locking them away, too. Today it's TB, tomorrow it could be HIV. (Just wait for the "AIDS camps" to become official U.S. policy...)
Enjoy your freedom? Don't visit doctorsAll this explains why I continue to encourage people to avoid doctors altogether. It's much better to take care of your health through exercise, strong nutritional habits, superfoods consumption and outright avoidance of toxic chemicals. Stay healthy and you won't need to see a doctor... ever! (I've known many people who have never seen a doctor in their entire lives, and yet are extremely healthy and long-lived.) I don't visit doctors, and I foresee no need to ever visit one unless I suffer some sort of accident or acute injury.
If you value your freedom, stay as far away from conventional doctors as possible. As you've seen here, they can have you locked up at their discretion, even without a shred of evidence that you're really dangerous to others.
Tuberculosis mythsThis "highly infectious form of TB," for example, is largely a medical myth. Allow me to explain: The bacterium certainly does exist, and it can be passed through the air, but the most important point that still escapes the understanding of conventional medical authorities is that vitamin D prevents TB infections. The only people susceptible to TB infectious are those who are chronically deficient in vitamin D! That includes people who don't get enough sunlight (or who have been brainwashed into using sunscreen all the time) and who eat atrocious diets lacking in vitamin D sources like fish oils. The problem with TB is not simply the person walking around with the bacteria, it's the people who are in such poor nutritional health that they're practically begging to be infected by something.
This is why TB is now an epidemic in the UK, by the way: There's very little sunlight at that latitude, and more than 80 percent of UK citizens are vitamin D deficient. (It also explains the ongoing problems with dental health and bone fractures in the UK, but that's a different story...)
An incredible double standardWhat's all this about doctors pretending to "protect the public" anyway? They claim to be locking up Santos in order to protect the health of the public, and yet they'll send patients home by the thousands with prescriptions for toxic pharmaceuticals that harm everyone! FDA-approved prescription drugs are now the 4th leading cause of death in the United States (tuberculosis isn't even close). I suppose if we were to really take steps to protect the general public, we should actually be locking up the drug-pushing doctors! They are right now killing far more patients than any infectious disease.
Think about it: Oncologists openly push dangerous chemotherapy drugs that cause permanent damage to the brain, heart, liver and kidneys, even while insisting that patients take no vitamins, superfoods or nutritional supplements to protect their healthy cells during the chemo treatments. General Practitioners send patients home with prescriptions for dangerous COX-2 inhibitor drugs, diabetes drugs, statin drugs and psychotropic drugs that kill, at minimum, tens of thousands of Americans every year through heart attacks, strokes, liver failure and suicides. Where is the call to protect the public from these dangerous chemicals that are causing casualty numbers resembling a world war?
Where is the effort to protect the public from all the dangerous cancer-causing food additives like sodium nitrite? Hydrogenated oils? Chemical preservatives and sweeteners? With the American population more diseased than ever before in the history of human civilization, and drug companies inundating the people with deadly chemicals, I find it astounding that health authorities would see one teenager with TB as such a huge threat that they have to arrest him at gunpoint. Doesn't this seem a bit strange to you?
If guns are to be drawn at all, they should be drawn during the arrest of corrupt FDA officials, evil Big Pharma operatives and unethical food company CEOs who are knowingly killing hundreds of thousands of Americans each year with their highly-profitable chemicals, additives and medicines. Francisco Santos is not a threat to your health, but modern medicine certainly is! And the FDA is without question a threat to your health and safety. In previous stories on this site, I've documented how the FDA is far more dangerous to Americans than any terrorist threat.
Take your meds or go to jail!Our nation's health authorities have gone mad. They're all focused on the wrong things, and they've managed to get the public frenzied up about all the wrong things, too. They've got people scared silly about antioxidants, believing that vitamins will kill them (but that pharmaceuticals will save them!).
They've also managed to get people to believe that infectious diseases are caused SOLELY by the presence of the virus or bacterium -- an idea that's utter nonsense. An infectious agent is only a threat when the body is suppressed enough to be susceptible to infection. The real cause of an infection is just as much a weakened immune system as it is the presence of the virus, yet conventional medicine focuses solely on the presence of the virus and dismisses the role of the immune system in preventing infection.
I say we should Free Santos! He is no more of a threat to public health than your typical doctor, and no patient should be imprisoned by hospital authorities simply for having an infection of a disease that doesn't even pose a threat to healthy individuals.
The alternative is to turn the U.S. into a medical police state, where anybody with a cough is arrested at gunpoint, and AIDS patients are thrown into detainment camps, and anybody who refuses "treatment" with synthetic chemicals gets thrown into jail. Imagine being arrested for not taking your statin drugs, antidepressants or blood thinners. Big Pharma is trying to create a society where "treatment" with drugs is mandatory, and anyone who refuses to take their chemicals will be considered a criminal. Parents are already being arrested for not subjecting their children to chemotherapy or giving in to ADHD drugs. If this trend continues, it won't be long before anyone who rejects vaccinations, drugs and psychiatric medications will be considered a criminal (or terrorist). Parents, be warned: The State is out to medicate your child, and if you resist, you may have your children taken away!
In a nation where so many people claim we're sending soldiers off to war in order to "fight for our freedoms," I find it astounding that patients in hospitals are being treated like Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Personally, I think Santos should sue the hospital and local law enforcement authorities for violating his civil liberties. What, exactly, is his crime anyway? If being sick is a crime, then practically this entire nation should be locked up, because we're the most diseased population in the modern world.

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(NewsTarget) The developing world sees more deaths from diarrhoea than AIDS, or malaria annually. And yet, many people have been lead to believe these diseases are the true killers in places like Africa. AIDS is a devastating disease, and can take years to slowly kill someone, but a bad case of diarrhoea for a child that is chronically malnourished can kill in days.
According to UNICEF and the World Health Organization, the number of children that die from diarrhoea reaches 2.2 million a year. Malaria kills over one million, 1.1 million children under 15 in Africa are living with HIV, and a total of 4 million in the world for children under 15 are living with the retrovirus. A total of 610,000 deaths from AIDS occur in children annually. These numbers are staggering – but worst of all, a case of diarrhoea can be solved very simply through rehydration. This involves dissolving a sugar based product and salt in water, and giving this to the child.
Granted, the water used to make this mixture must be clean. But cleaning water, thanks to an invention that costs $5 as reported in a previous Newstarget article, can be an inexpensive while saving lives. As reported in a Science Daily article, a simple “biosand” filter, which are concrete containers that hold gravel and sand, have been shown to reduce the cases of diarrhoea by up to 40%. The researchers wanted some verifiable proof that the biosand filters did the job, so they studied a few Dominican Republic villages and came up with very good results which can easily be adopted in many poor countries.
Many health practitioners would not recommend using refined white sugar, and would recommend honey products instead for the rehydration mixture. Dried honey could be substituted in these mixtures giving many additional health benefits, besides rehydrating the child.
Honey has anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal properties, and is a natural humectant (attracts and retains moisture). Liquid honey never goes bad when left on the self and can be used topically as an antiseptic. And if that wasn’t enough, daily consumption of honey raises blood levels of protective antioxidant compounds in humans. This is according to research presented at the 227th meeting of the American Chemical Society in Anaheim, CA, March 28, 2004.
In addition to honey, a high quality sea salt, or rock crystal salt, would increase the health benefit of the rehydration mixture. Halite, or rock sat, is the mineral form of sodium chloride, your typical table salt, usually highly refined and stripped of trace minerals. By adding this high quality salt to the rehydration mixture, these malnourished, dehydrated children, would be getting extra minerals along with the desperately needed electrolytes.
There has been other, natural, advances to help combat deadly, bacteria induced diarrhoea in children. Scienc Daily reports that ginger can be added to the arsenal. An extract of ginger blocked the toxin responsible for diarrhoea caused by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (E. coli), in studies using lab mice by Chien-Yun Hsiang and colleagues.
What can we do to raise awareness of this issue that is the easiest, and yet most deadly, problem for developing world children? Contact the Red Cross, UNICEF, World Health Organization, or your congressman, and spread the word to your friends and family. Many people will wear a pin or bracelet for AIDS, but a simple glass of water, with honey, sea salt and ginger could save more children’s lives this year.

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Suzanne Starr's statement that "a physician, who was retired from the military, got children from the mountains of Colorado for experiments." She says she was one of those children and that she was the victim of experiments involving environmental deprivation to the point of forced psychosis, spin programming, injections, rape and frequent electroshock and mind control sessions. "I have fought self-destructive programmed messages to kill myself, and I know what a programmed message is, and I don’t act on them," she tells the advisory committee of the experiments' long-lasting effects, even in her adulthood (Goliszek).
President Clinton publicly apologizes to the thousands of people who were victims of MKULTRA and other mind-control experimental programs (Sharav).
President Clinton appoints the National Bioethics Advisory Committee (Sharav).
Justice Edward Greenfield of the New York State Supreme Court rules that parents do not have the right to volunteer their mentally incapacitated children for non-therapeutic medical research studies and that no mentally incapacitated person whatsoever can be used in a medical experiment without informed consent (Sharav).
(1996)Professor Adil E. Shamoo of the University of Maryland and the organization Citizens for Responsible Care and Research sends a written testimony on the unethical use of veterans in medical research to the U.S. Senate's Committee on Governmental Affairs, stating: "This type of research is on-going nationwide in medical centers and VA hospitals supported by tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers money. These experiments are high risk and are abusive, causing not only physical and psychic harm to the most vulnerable groups but also degrading our society’s system of basic human values. Probably tens of thousands of patients are being subjected to such experiments" ("Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D.").
The Department of Defense admits that Gulf War soldiers were exposed to chemical agents; however, 33 percent of all military personnel afflicted with Gulf War Syndrome never left the United States during the war, discrediting the popular mainstream belief that these symptoms are a result of exposure to Iraqi chemical weapons (Merritte, et al.).
President Clinton issues a formal apology to the subjects of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and their families (Sharav).
(1997)In an experiment sponsored by the U.S. government, researchers withhold medical treatment from HIV-positive African-American pregnant women, giving them a placebo rather than AIDS medication (Sharav).
On Sept. 18, victims of unethical medical experiments at major U.S. research centers, including the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) testify before the National Bioethics Advisory Committee (Sharav).
(1999)Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D. testifies on "The Unethical Use of Human Beings in High-Risk Research Experiments" before the U.S. House of Representatives' House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, alerting the House on the use of American veterans in VA Hospitals as human guinea pigs and calling for national reforms ("Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D.").
Doctors at the University of Pennsylvania inject 18-year-old Jesse Gelsinger with an experimental gene therapy as part of an FDA-approved clinical trial. He dies four days later and his father suspects that he was not fully informed of the experiment's risk (Goliszek)
During a clinical trial investigating the effectiveness of Propulsid for infant acid reflux, nine-month-old Gage Stevens dies at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh (Sharav).
(2000)The U.S. Air Force and rocket maker Lockheed Martin sponsor a Loma Linda University study that pays 100 Californians $1,000 to eat a dose of perchlorate -- a toxic component of rocket fuel that causes cancer, damages the thyroid gland and hinders normal development in children and fetuses -- every day for six months. The dose eaten by the test subjects is 83 times the safe dose of perchlorate set by the State of California, which has perchlorate in some of its drinking water. This Loma Linda study is the first large-scale study to use human subjects to test the harmful effects of a water pollutant and is "inherently unethical," according to Environmental Working Group research director Richard Wiles (Goliszek, Envirnomental Working Group).
(2001)On its website, the FDA admits that its policy to include healthy children in human experiments "has led to an increasing number of proposals for studies of safety and pharmacokinetics, including those in children who do not have the condition for which the drug is intended" (Goliszek).
In Higgins and Grimes v. Kennedy Krieger Institute The Maryland Court of Appeals makes a landmark decision regarding the use of children as test subjects, prohibiting non-therapeutic experimentation on children on the basis of "best interest of the individual child" (Sharav).
(2002)President George W. Bush signs the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (BPCA), offering pharmaceutical companies six-month exclusivity in exchange for running clinical drug trials on children. This will of course increase the number of children used as human test subjects (Hammer Breslow).
(2003)Two-year-old Michael Daddio of Delaware dies of congestive heart failure. After his death, his parents learn that doctors had performed an experimental surgery on him when he was five months old, rather than using the established surgical method of repairing his congenital heart defect that the parents had been told would be performed. The established procedure has a 90- to 95-percent success rate, whereas the inventor of the procedure performed on baby Daddio would later be fired from his hospital in 2004 (Willen and Evans, "Parents of Babies Who Died in Delaware Tests Weren't Warned").
(2004)In his BBC documentary "Guinea Pig Kids" and BBC News article of the same name, reporter Jamie Doran reveals that children involved in the New York City foster care system were unwitting human subjects in experimental AIDS drug trials from 1988 to, in his belief, present times (Doran).
(2005)In response to the BBC documentary and article "Guinea Pig Kids", the New York City Administration of Children's Services (ACS) sends out an Apr. 22 press release admitting that foster care children were used in experimental AIDS drug trials, but says that the last trial took place in 2001 and thus the trials are not continuing, as BBC reporter Jamie Doran claims. The ACS gives the extent and statistics of the experimental drug trials, based on its own records, and contracts the Vera Institute of Justice to conduct "an independent review of ACS policy and practice regarding the enrollment of HIV-positive children in foster care in clinical drug trials during the late 1980s and 1990s" (New York City ACS).
Bloomberg releases a series of reports suggesting that SFBC, the largest experimental drug testing center of its time, exploits immigrant and other low-income test subjects and runs tests with limited credibility due to violations of both the FDA's and SFBC's own testing guidelines (Bloomberg).
In October 2005, the American Chemistry Council gave the EPA $2.1 million to study how children ranging from infancy to three years old ingest, inhale or absorb chemicals. Like IG Farben was for the German pharmaceutical companies of Nazi Germany, the American Chemistry Council acts much like a front group for chemical industry bigwigs like Bayer (which was incidentally also a member of IG Farben), BP, Chevron, Dow, DuPont, Exxon, Honeywell, 3M, Monsanto and Procter & Gamble. Studies have already proven that the chemicals made by these companies have long-term effects on children and adults. A short, two-year study like CHEERS would of course fail to reveal these long-term effects and the American Chemistry Council could then publicize these findings as "proof" that its chemicals were safe.
2006 - 2007Merck begins pushing U.S. states to mandate the vaccination of teenage girls with Gardasil, a vaccine they claim prevents HPV, a sexually-transmitted virus. In February 2007, Texas Gov. Rick Perry -- who was revealed to have financial ties with Merck, the vaccine manufacturer -- mandates the vaccine in teenage girls (see http://www.newstarget.com/021572.html ). A key Merck lobbyist named Mike Toomey, it turned out, had served as Gov. Rick Perry's chief of staff.
The Texas decision to mandate the vaccine was a notable and troubling milestone in public health policy because it is the first time a vaccine is mandated for a disease that cannot be contracted through casual contact in public schools. It also invoked "gunpoint medicine," or the threat of arrest at gunpoint for not agreeing to receive state-mandated injections.
The Gardasil vaccinations remain a grand medical experiment being performed on children because it is not yet known what the long-term side effects of the vaccination will be, nor whether the vaccinations will actually lower rates of cervical cancer as intended.
2007Maryland's governor and public health officials, fed up with the unwillingness of over 2,000 parents to have their children vaccinated, invoke gunpoint medicine yet again by threatening the parents with arrest and up to 30 days of imprisonment if they don't submit their children to state-mandated vaccinations. The children and parents are later rounded up at a county courthouse, guarded by attack dogs and security personnel, while a district Judge oversees the mass injection of schoolchildren with vaccines that contain toxic mercury. (See http://www.newstarget.com/022242.html )
Present day: New Jersey mandates the mass vaccination of all children with four different vaccines, stripping away the health freedoms of parents and unleashing a mass medical experiment that exploits the bodies of children and enriches pharmaceutical companies while criminalizing parents who refuse to participate.
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Sauter, Daniel. Guide to MS 83 [Planned Parenthood of San Antonio and South Central Texas Records, 1931 - 1999]. University of Texas Library. Apr. 2001.
"Testimony of Adil E. Shamoo, Ph.D." News from the Joint Hearing on Suspension of Medical Research at West Los Angeles and Sepulveda VA Medical Facilities and Informed Consent and Patient Safety in VA Medical Research. 21 Apr. 1999.
University of New Hampshire. "Chronology of Cases Involving Unethical Treatment of Human Subjects." Responsible Conduct of Research.
University of Virginia Health System Health Sciences Library. "Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study." 2004.
U.S. Department of Energy. "Chapter 8: Postwar TBI-Effects Experimentation: Continued Reliance on Sick Patients in Place of Healthy "Normals." Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE) Final Report.
Veterans Health Administration. Project 112/Project SHAD. May 26, 2005.

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Think U.S. health authorities have never conducted outrageous medical experiments on children, women, minorities, homosexuals and inmates? Think again: This timeline, originally put together by Dani Veracity (a NewsTarget reporter), has been edited and updated with recent vaccination experimentation programs in Maryland and New Jersey. Here's what's really happening in the United States when it comes to exploiting the public for medical experimentation:
(1845 - 1849) J. Marion Sims, later hailed as the "father of gynecology," performs medical experiments on enslaved African women without anesthesia. These women would usually die of infection soon after surgery. Based on his belief that the movement of newborns' skull bones during protracted births causes trismus, he also uses a shoemaker's awl, a pointed tool shoemakers use to make holes in leather, to practice moving the skull bones of babies born to enslaved mothers (Brinker).
(1895)New York pediatrician Henry Heiman infects a 4-year-old boy whom he calls "an idiot with chronic epilepsy" with gonorrhea as part of a medical experiment ("Human Experimentation: Before the Nazi Era and After").
(1896)Dr. Arthur Wentworth turns 29 children at Boston's Children's Hospital into human guinea pigs when he performs spinal taps on them, just to test whether the procedure is harmful (Sharav).
(1906)Harvard professor Dr. Richard Strong infects prisoners in the Philippines with cholera to study the disease; 13 of them die. He compensates survivors with cigars and cigarettes. During the Nuremberg Trials, Nazi doctors cite this study to justify their own medical experiments (Greger, Sharav).
(1911)Dr. Hideyo Noguchi of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research publishes data on injecting an inactive syphilis preparation into the skin of 146 hospital patients and normal children in an attempt to develop a skin test for syphilis. Later, in 1913, several of these children's parents sue Dr. Noguchi for allegedly infecting their children with syphilis ("Reviews and Notes: History of Medicine: Subjected to Science: Human Experimentation in America before the Second World War").
(1913)Medical experimenters "test" 15 children at the children's home St. Vincent's House in Philadelphia with tuberculin, resulting in permanent blindness in some of the children. Though the Pennsylvania House of Representatives records the incident, the researchers are not punished for the experiments ("Human Experimentation: Before the Nazi Era and After").
(1915)Dr. Joseph Goldberger, under order of the U.S. Public Health Office, produces Pellagra, a debilitating disease that affects the central nervous system, in 12 Mississippi inmates to try to find a cure for the disease. One test subject later says that he had been through "a thousand hells." In 1935, after millions die from the disease, the director of the U.S Public Health Office would finally admit that officials had known that it was caused by a niacin deficiency for some time, but did nothing about it because it mostly affected poor African-Americans. During the Nuremberg Trials, Nazi doctors used this study to try to justify their medical experiments on concentration camp inmates (Greger; Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).
(1932)(1932-1972) The U.S. Public Health Service in Tuskegee, Ala. diagnoses 400 poor, black sharecroppers with syphilis but never tells them of their illness nor treats them; instead researchers use the men as human guinea pigs to follow the symptoms and progression of the disease. They all eventually die from syphilis and their families are never told that they could have been treated (Goliszek, University of Virginia Health System Health Sciences Library).
(1939)In order to test his theory on the roots of stuttering, prominent speech pathologist Dr. Wendell Johnson performs his famous "Monster Experiment" on 22 children at the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home in Davenport. Dr. Johnson and his graduate students put the children under intense psychological pressure, causing them to switch from speaking normally to stuttering heavily. At the time, some of the students reportedly warn Dr. Johnson that, "in the aftermath of World War II, observers might draw comparisons to Nazi experiments on human subjects, which could destroy his career" (Alliance for Human Research Protection).
(1941)Dr. William C. Black infects a 12-month-old baby with herpes as part of a medical experiment. At the time, the editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine, Francis Payton Rous, calls it "an abuse of power, an infringement of the rights of an individual, and not excusable because the illness which followed had implications for science" (Sharav).
An article in a 1941 issue of Archives of Pediatrics describes medical studies of the severe gum disease Vincent's angina in which doctors transmit the disease from sick children to healthy children with oral swabs (Goliszek).
Researchers give 800 poverty-stricken pregnant women at a Vanderbilt University prenatal clinic "cocktails" including radioactive iron in order to determine the iron requirements of pregnant women (Pacchioli).
(1942)The Chemical Warfare Service begins mustard gas and lewisite experiments on 4,000 members of the U.S. military. Some test subjects don't realize they are volunteering for chemical exposure experiments, like 17-year-old Nathan Schnurman, who in 1944 thinks he is only volunteering to test "U.S. Navy summer clothes" (Goliszek).
Merck Pharmaceuticals President George Merck is named director of the War Research Service (WRS), an agency designed to oversee the establishment of a biological warfare program (Goliszek).
(1944 - 1946) A captain in the medical corps addresses an April 1944 memo to Col. Stanford Warren, head of the Manhattan Project's Medical Section, expressing his concerns about atom bomb component fluoride's central nervous system (CNS) effects and asking for animal research to be done to determine the extent of these effects: "Clinical evidence suggests that uranium hexafluoride may have a rather marked central nervous system effect ... It seems most likely that the F [code for fluoride] component rather than the T [code for uranium] is the causative factor ... Since work with these compounds is essential, it will be necessary to know in advance what mental effects may occur after exposure." The following year, the Manhattan Project would begin human-based studies on fluoride's effects (Griffiths and Bryson).
The Manhattan Project medical team, led by the now infamous University of Rochester radiologist Col. Safford Warren, injects plutonium into patients at the University's teaching hospital, Strong Memorial (Burton Report).
(1945)Continuing the Manhattan Project, researchers inject plutonium into three patients at the University of Chicago's Billings Hospital (Sharav).
The U.S. State Department, Army intelligence and the CIA begin Operation Paperclip, offering Nazi scientists immunity and secret identities in exchange for work on top-secret government projects on aerodynamics and chemical warfare medicine in the United States ("Project Paperclip").
(1945 - 1955) In Newburgh, N.Y., researchers linked to the Manhattan Project begin the most extensive American study ever done on the health effects of fluoridating public drinking water (Griffiths and Bryson).
(1946)Continuing the Newburg study of 1945, the Manhattan Project commissions the University of Rochester to study fluoride's effects on animals and humans in a project codenamed "Program F." With the help of the New York State Health Department, Program F researchers secretly collect and analyze blood and tissue samples from Newburg residents. The studies are sponsored by the Atomic Energy Commission and take place at the University of Rochester Medical Center's Strong Memorial Hospital (Griffiths and Bryson).
(1946 - 1947) University of Rochester researchers inject four male and two female human test subjects with uranium-234 and uranium-235 in dosages ranging from 6.4 to 70.7 micrograms per one kilogram of body weight in order to study how much uranium they could tolerate before their kidneys become damaged (Goliszek).
Six male employees of a Chicago metallurgical laboratory are given water contaminated with plutonium-239 to drink so that researchers can learn how plutonium is absorbed into the digestive tract (Goliszek).
Researchers begin using patients in VA hospitals as test subjects for human medical experiments, cleverly worded as "investigations" or "observations" in medical study reports to avoid negative connotations and bad publicity (Sharav).
The American public finally learns of the biowarfare experiments being done at Fort Detrick from a report released by the War Department (Goliszek).
(1947)Col. E.E. Kirkpatrick of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) issues a top-secret document (707075) dated Jan. 8. In it, he writes that "certain radioactive substances are being prepared for intravenous administration to human subjects as a part of the work of the contract" (Goliszek).
A secret AEC document dated April 17 reads, "It is desired that no document be released which refers to experiments with humans that might have an adverse reaction on public opinion or result in legal suits," revealing that the U.S. government was aware of the health risks its nuclear tests posed to military personnel conducting the tests or nearby civilians (Goliszek).
The CIA begins studying LSD's potential as a weapon by using military and civilian test subjects for experiments without their consent or even knowledge. Eventually, these LSD studies will evolve into the MKULTRA program in 1953 (Sharav).
(1947 - 1953) The U.S. Navy begins Project Chatter to identify and test so-called "truth serums," such as those used by the Soviet Union to interrogate spies. Mescaline and the central nervous system depressant scopolamine are among the many drugs tested on human subjects (Goliszek).
(1948)Based on the secret studies performed on Newburgh, N.Y. residents beginning in 1945, Project F researchers publish a report in the August 1948 edition of the Journal of the American Dental Association, detailing fluoride's health dangers. The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) quickly censors it for "national security" reasons (Griffiths and Bryson).
(1950)(1950 - 1953) The U.S. Army releases chemical clouds over six American and Canadian cities. Residents in Winnipeg, Canada, where a highly toxic chemical called cadmium is dropped, subsequently experience high rates of respiratory illnesses (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).
In order to determine how susceptible an American city could be to biological attack, the U.S. Navy sprays a cloud of Bacillus globigii bacteria from ships over the San Francisco shoreline. According to monitoring devices situated throughout the city to test the extent of infection, the eight thousand residents of San Francisco inhale five thousand or more bacteria particles, many becoming sick with pneumonia-like symptoms (Goliszek).
Dr. Joseph Strokes of the University of Pennsylvania infects 200 female prisoners with viral hepatitis to study the disease (Sharav).
Doctors at the Cleveland City Hospital study changes in cerebral blood flow by injecting test subjects with spinal anesthesia, inserting needles in their jugular veins and brachial arteries, tilting their heads down and, after massive blood loss causes paralysis and fainting, measuring their blood pressure. They often perform this experiment multiple times on the same subject (Goliszek).
Dr. D. Ewen Cameron, later of MKULTRA infamy due to his 1957 to1964 experiments on Canadians, publishes an article in the British Journal of Physical Medicine, in which he describes experiments that entail forcing schizophrenic patients at Manitoba's Brandon Mental Hospital to lie naked under 15- to 200-watt red lamps for up to eight hours per day. His other experiments include placing mental patients in an electric cage that overheats their internal body temperatures to 103 degrees Fahrenheit, and inducing comas by giving patients large injections of insulin (Goliszek).
(1951)The U.S. Army secretly contaminates the Norfolk Naval Supply Center in Virginia and Washington, D.C.'s National Airport with a strain of bacteria chosen because African-Americans were believed to be more susceptible to it than Caucasians. The experiment causes food poisoning, respiratory problems and blood poisoning (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).
(1951 - 1956) Under contract with the Air Force's School of Aviation Medicine (SAM), the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston begins studying the effects of radiation on cancer patients -- many of them members of minority groups or indigents, according to sources -- in order to determine both radiation's ability to treat cancer and the possible long-term radiation effects of pilots flying nuclear-powered planes. The study lasts until 1956, involving 263 cancer patients. Beginning in 1953, the subjects are required to sign a waiver form, but it still does not meet the informed consent guidelines established by the Wilson memo released that year. The TBI studies themselves would continue at four different institutions -- Baylor University College of Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, the U.S. Naval Hospital in Bethesda and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine -- until 1971 (U.S. Department of Energy, Goliszek).
American, Canadian and British military and intelligence officials gather a small group of eminent psychologists to a secret meeting at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal about Communist "thought-control techniques." They proposed a top-secret research program on behavior modification -- involving testing drugs, hypnosis, electroshock and lobotomies on humans (Barker).
(1952)At the famous Sloan-Kettering Institute, Chester M. Southam injects live cancer cells into prisoners at the Ohio State Prison to study the progression of the disease. Half of the prisoners in this National Institutes of Health-sponsored (NIH) study are black, awakening racial suspicions stemming from Tuskegee, which was also an NIH-sponsored study (Merritte, et al.).
(1953 - 1974) The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) sponsors iodine studies at the University of Iowa. In the first study, researchers give pregnant women 100 to 200 microcuries of iodine-131 and then study the women's aborted embryos in order to learn at what stage and to what extent radioactive iodine crosses the placental barrier. In the second study, researchers give 12 male and 13 female newborns under 36 hours old and weighing between 5.5 and 8.5 pounds iodine-131 either orally or via intramuscular injection, later measuring the concentration of iodine in the newborns' thyroid glands (Goliszek).
As part of an AEC study, researchers feed 28 healthy infants at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine iodine-131 through a gastric tube and then test concentration of iodine in the infants' thyroid glands 24 hours later (Goliszek).
(1953 - 1957) Eleven patients at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston are injected with uranium as part of the Manhattan Project (Sharav).
In an AEC-sponsored study at the University of Tennessee, researchers inject healthy two- to three-day-old newborns with approximately 60 rads of iodine-131 (Goliszek).
Newborn Daniel Burton becomes blind when physicians at Brooklyn Doctors Hospital perform an experimental high oxygen treatment for Retrolental Fibroplasia, a retinal disorder affecting premature infants, on him and other premature babies. The physicians perform the experimental treatment despite earlier studies showing that high oxygen levels cause blindness. Testimony in Burton v. Brooklyn Doctors Hospital (452 N.Y.S.2d875) later reveals that researchers continued to give Burton and other infants excess oxygen even after their eyes had swelled to dangerous levels (Goliszek, Sharav).
A 1953 article in Clinical Science describes a medical experiment in which researchers purposely blister the abdomens of 41 children, ranging in age from eight to 14, with cantharide in order to study how severely the substance irritates the skin (Goliszek).
The AEC performs a series of field tests known as "Green Run," dropping radiodine 131 and xenon 133 over the Hanford, Wash. site -- 500,000 acres encompassing three small towns (Hanford, White Bluffs and Richland) along the Columbia River (Sharav).
In an AEC-sponsored study to learn whether radioactive iodine affects premature babies differently from full-term babies, researchers at Harper Hospital in Detroit give oral doses of iodine-131 to 65 premature and full-term infants weighing between 2.1 and 5.5 pounds (Goliszek).
(1955 - 1957) In order to learn how cold weather affects human physiology, researchers give a total of 200 doses of iodine-131, a radioactive tracer that concentrates almost immediately in the thyroid gland, to 85 healthy Eskimos and 17 Athapascan Indians living in Alaska. They study the tracer within the body by blood, thyroid tissue, urine and saliva samples from the test subjects. Due to the language barrier, no one tells the test subjects what is being done to them, so there is no informed consent (Goliszek).
(1956 - 1957) U.S. Army covert biological weapons researchers release mosquitoes infected with yellow fever and dengue fever over Savannah, Ga., and Avon Park, Fla., to test the insects' ability to carry disease. After each test, Army agents pose as public health officials to test victims for effects and take pictures of the unwitting test subjects. These experiments result in a high incidence of fevers, respiratory distress, stillbirths, encephalitis and typhoid among the two cities' residents, as well as several deaths (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).
(1957)The U.S. military conducts Operation Plumbbob at the Nevada Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Operation Pumbbob consists of 29 nuclear detonations, eventually creating radiation expected to result in a total 32,000 cases of thyroid cancer among civilians in the area. Around 18,000 members of the U.S. military participate in Operation Pumbbob's Desert Rock VII and VIII, which are designed to see how the average foot soldier physiologically and mentally responds to a nuclear battlefield ("Operation Plumbbob", Goliszek).
(1957 - 1964) As part of MKULTRA, the CIA pays McGill University Department of Psychiatry founder Dr. D. Ewen Cameron $69,000 to perform LSD studies and potentially lethal experiments on Canadians being treated for minor disorders like post-partum depression and anxiety at the Allan Memorial Institute, which houses the Psychiatry Department of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal. The CIA encourages Dr. Cameron to fully explore his "psychic driving" concept of correcting madness through completely erasing one's memory and rewriting the psyche. These "driving" experiments involve putting human test subjects into drug-, electroshock- and sensory deprivation-induced vegetative states for up to three months, and then playing tape loops of noise or simple repetitive statements for weeks or months in order to "rewrite" the "erased" psyche. Dr. Cameron also gives human test subjects paralytic drugs and electroconvulsive therapy 30 to 40 times, as part of his experiments. Most of Dr. Cameron's test subjects suffer permanent damage as a result of his work (Goliszek, "Donald Ewan Cameron").
In order to study how blood flows through children's brains, researchers at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia perform the following experiment on healthy children, ranging in age from three to 11: They insert needles into each child's femoral artery (thigh) and jugular vein (neck), bringing the blood down from the brain. Then, they force each child to inhale a special gas through a facemask. In their subsequent Journal of Clinical Investigation article on this study, the researchers note that, in order to perform the experiment, they had to restrain some of the child test subjects by bandaging them to boards (Goliszek).
(1958)The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) drops radioactive materials over Point Hope, Alaska, home to the Inupiats, in a field test known under the codename "Project Chariot" (Sharav).
(1961)In response to the Nuremberg Trials, Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram begins his famous Obedience to Authority Study in order to answer his question "Could it be that (Adolf) Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?" Male test subjects, ranging in age from 20 to 40 and coming from all education backgrounds, are told to give "learners" electric shocks for every wrong answer the learners give in response to word pair questions. In reality, the learners are actors and are not receiving electric shocks, but what matters is that the test subjects do not know that. Astoundingly, they keep on following orders and continue to administer increasingly high levels of "shocks," even after the actor learners show obvious physical pain ("Milgram Experiment").
(1962)Researchers at the Laurel Children's Center in Maryland test experimental acne antibiotics on children and continue their tests even after half of the young test subjects develop severe liver damage because of the experimental medication (Goliszek).
The FDA begins requiring that a new pharmaceutical undergo three human clinical trials before it will approve it. From 1962 to 1980, pharmaceutical companies satisfy this requirement by running Phase I trials, which determine a drug's toxicity, on prison inmates, giving them small amounts of cash for compensation (Sharav).
(1963)Chester M. Southam, who injected Ohio State Prison inmates with live cancer cells in 1952, performs the same procedure on 22 senile, African-American female patients at the Brooklyn Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital in order to watch their immunological response. Southam tells the patients that they are receiving "some cells," but leaves out the fact that they are cancer cells. He claims he doesn't obtain informed consent from the patients because he does not want to frighten them by telling them what he is doing, but he nevertheless temporarily loses his medical license because of it. Ironically, he eventually becomes president of the American Cancer Society (Greger, Merritte, et al.).
Researchers at the University of Washington directly irradiate the testes of 232 prison inmates in order to determine radiation's effects on testicular function. When these inmates later leave prison and have children, at least four have babies born with birth defects. The exact number is unknown because researchers never follow up on the men to see the long-term effects of their experiment (Goliszek).
(1963 - 1966) New York University researcher Saul Krugman promises parents with mentally disabled children definite enrollment into the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, N.Y., a resident mental institution for mentally retarded children, in exchange for their signatures on a consent form for procedures presented as "vaccinations." In reality, the procedures involve deliberately infecting children with viral hepatitis by feeding them an extract made from the feces of infected patients, so that Krugman can study the course of viral hepatitis as well the effectiveness of a hepatitis vaccine (Hammer Breslow).
(1963 - 1971) Leading endocrinologist Dr. Carl Heller gives 67 prison inmates at Oregon State Prison in Salem $5 per month and $25 per testicular tissue biopsy in compensation for allowing him to perform irradiation experiments on their testes. If they receive vasectomies at the end of the study, the prisoners are given an extra $100 (Sharav, Goliszek).
Researchers inject a genetic compound called radioactive thymidine into the testicles of more than 100 Oregon State Penitentiary inmates to learn whether sperm production is affected by exposure to steroid hormones (Greger).
In a study published in Pediatrics, researchers at the University of California's Department of Pediatrics use 113 newborns ranging in age from one hour to three days old in a series of experiments used to study changes in blood pressure and blood flow. In one study, doctors insert a catheter through the newborns' umbilical arteries and into their aortas and then immerse the newborns' feet in ice water while recording aortic pressure. In another experiment, doctors strap 50 newborns to a circumcision board, tilt the table so that all the blood rushes to their heads and then measure their blood pressure (Goliszek).
(1964 - 1967) The Dow Chemical Company pays Professor Kligman $10,000 to learn how dioxin -- a highly toxic, carcinogenic component of Agent Orange -- and other herbicides affect human skin because workers at the chemical plant have been developing an acne-like condition called Chloracne and the company would like to know whether the chemicals they are handling are to blame. As part of the study, Professor Kligman applies roughly the amount of dioxin Dow employees are exposed to on the skin 60 prisoners, and is disappointed when the prisoners show no symptoms of Chloracne. In 1980 and 1981, the human guinea pigs used in this study would begin suing Professor Kligman for complications including lupus and psychological damage (Kaye).
(1965)As part of a test codenamed "Big Tom," the Department of Defense sprays Oahu, Hawaii's most heavily populated island, with Bacillus globigii in order to simulate an attack on an island complex. Bacillus globigii causes infections in people with weakened immune systems, but this was not known to scientists at the time (Goliszek, Martin).
(1966)U.S. Army scientists drop light bulbs filled with Bacillus subtilis through ventilation gates and into the New York City subway system, exposing more than one million civilians, including women and children, to the bacteria (Goliszek).
(1967)The CIA places a chemical in the drinking water supply of the FDA headquarters in Washington, D.C. to see whether it is possible to spike drinking water with LSD and other substances (Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).
In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers inject pregnant women with radioactive cortisol to see if the radioactive material will cross the placentas and affect the fetuses (Goliszek).
The U.S. Army pays Professor Kligman to apply skin-blistering chemicals to Holmesburg Prison inmates' faces and backs, so as to, in Professor Kligman's words, "learn how the skin protects itself against chronic assault from toxic chemicals, the so-called hardening process," information which would have both offensive and defensive applications for the U.S. military (Kaye).
Professor Kligman develops Retin-A as an acne cream (and eventually a wrinkle cream), turning him into a multi-millionaire (Kaye).
Researchers paralyze 64 prison inmates in California with a neuromuscular compound called succinylcholine, which produces suppressed breathing that feels similar to drowning. When five prisoners refuse to participate in the medical experiment, the prison's special treatment board gives researchers permission to inject the prisoners with the drug against their will (Greger).
(1968)Planned Parenthood of San Antonio and South Central Texas and the Southwest Foundation for Research and Education begin an oral contraceptive study on 70 poverty-stricken Mexican-American women, giving only half the oral contraceptives they think they are receiving and the other half a placebo. When the results of this study are released a few years later, it stirs tremendous controversy among Mexican-Americans (Sharav, Sauter).
(1969)Experimental drugs are tested on mentally disabled children in Milledgeville, Ga., without any institutional approval whatsoever (Sharav).
Judge Sam Steinfield's dissent in Strunk v. Strunk, 445 S.W.2d 145 marks the first time a judge has ever suggested that the Nuremberg Code be applied in American court cases (Sharav).
(1970)Under order from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which also sponsored the Tuskegee Experiment, the free childcare program at Johns Hopkins University collects blood samples from 7,000 African-American youth, telling their parents that they are checking for anemia but actually checking for an extra Y chromosome (XYY), believed to be a biological predisposition to crime. The program director, Digamber Borganokar, does this experiment without Johns Hopkins University's permission (Greger, Merritte, et al.).
(1971)Stanford University conducts the Stanford Prison Experiment on a group of college students in order to learn the psychology of prison life. Some students are given the role as prison guards, while the others are given the role of prisoners. After only six days, the proposed two-week study has to end because of its psychological effects on the participants. The "guards" had begun to act sadistic, while the "prisoners" started to show signs of depression and severe psychological stress (University of New Hampshire).
An article entitled "Viral Infections in Man Associated with Acquired Immunological Deficiency States" appears in Federation Proceedings. Dr. MacArthur and Fort Detrick's Special Operations Division have, at this point, been conducting mycoplasma research to create a synthetic immunosuppressive agent for about one year, again suggesting that this research may have produced HIV (Goliszek).
(1973)An Ad Hoc Advisory Panel issues its Final Report on the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, writing, "Society can no longer afford to leave the balancing of individual rights against scientific progress to the scientific community" (Sharav).
(1977)The National Urban League holds its National Conference on Human Experimentation, stating, "We don't want to kill science but we don't want science to kill, mangle and abuse us" (Sharav).
(1978)The CDC begins experimental hepatitis B vaccine trials in New York. Its ads for research subjects specifically ask for promiscuous homosexual men. Professor Wolf Szmuness of the Columbia University School of Public Health had made the vaccine's infective serum from the pooled blood serum of hepatitis-infected homosexuals and then developed it in chimpanzees, the only animal susceptible to hepatitis B, leading to the theory that HIV originated in chimpanzees before being transferred over to humans via this vaccine. A few months after 1,083 homosexual men receive the vaccine, New York physicians begin noticing cases of Kaposi's sarcoma, Mycoplasma penetrans and a new strain of herpes virus among New York's homosexual community -- diseases not usually seen among young, American men, but that would later be known as common opportunistic diseases associated with AIDS (Goliszek).
(1980)According to blood samples tested years later for HIV, 20 percent of all New York homosexual men who participated in the 1978 hepatitis B vaccine experiment are HIV-positive by this point (Goliszek).
The first AIDS case appears in San Francisco (Goliszek).
(1981)The CDC acknowledges that a disease known as AIDS exists and confirms 26 cases of the disease -- all in previously healthy homosexuals living in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles -- again supporting the speculation that AIDS originated from the hepatitis B experiments from 1978 and 1980 (Goliszek).
(1982)Thirty percent of the test subjects used in the CDC's hepatitis B vaccine experiment are HIV-positive by this point (Goliszek).
(1985)A former U.S. Army sergeant tries to sue the Army for using drugs on him in without his consent or even his knowledge in United States v. Stanley, 483 U.S. 669. Justice Antonin Scalia writes the decision, clearing the U.S. military from any liability in past, present or future medical experiments without informed consent (Merritte, et al..
(1987)Philadelphia resident Doris Jackson discovers that researchers have removed her son's brain post mortem for medical study. She later learns that the state of Pennsylvania has a doctrine of "implied consent," meaning that unless a patient signs a document stating otherwise, consent for organ removal is automatically implied (Merritte, et al.).
(1988)(1988 - 2001) The New York City Administration for Children's Services begins allowing foster care children living in about two dozen children's homes to be used in National Institutes of Health-sponsored (NIH) experimental AIDS drug trials. These children -- totaling 465 by the program's end -- experience serious side effects, including inability to walk, diarrhea, vomiting, swollen joints and cramps. Children's home employees are unaware that they are giving the HIV-infected children experimental drugs, rather than standard AIDS treatments (New York City ACS, Doran).
(1990)The United States sends 1.7 million members of the armed forces, 22 percent of whom are African-American, to the Persian Gulf for the Gulf War ("Desert Storm"). More than 400,000 of these soldiers are ordered to take an experimental nerve agent medication called pyridostigmine, which is later believed to be the cause of Gulf War Syndrome -- symptoms ranging from skin disorders, neurological disorders, incontinence, uncontrollable drooling and vision problems -- affecting Gulf War veterans (Goliszek; Merritte, et al.).
The CDC and Kaiser Pharmaceuticals of Southern California inject 1,500 six-month-old black and Hispanic babies in Los Angeles with an "experimental" measles vaccine that had never been licensed for use in the United States. Adding to the risk, children less than a year old may not have an adequate amount of myelin around their nerves, possibly resulting in impaired neural development because of the vaccine. The CDC later admits that parents were never informed that the vaccine being injected into their children was experimental (Goliszek).
The FDA allows the U.S. Department of Defense to waive the Nuremberg Code and use unapproved drugs and vaccines in Operation Desert Shield (Sharav).
(1992)Columbia University's New York State Psychiatric Institute and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine give 100 males -- mostly African-American and Hispanic, all between the ages of six and 10 and all the younger brothers of juvenile delinquents -- 10 milligrams of fenfluramine (fen-fen) per kilogram of body weight in order to test the theory that low serotonin levels are linked to violent or aggressive behavior. Parents of the participants received $125 each, including a $25 Toys 'R' Us gift certificate (Goliszek).
(1994)President Clinton appoints the Advisory Commission on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE), which finally reveals the horrific experiments conducted during the Cold War era in its ACHRE Report.
(1995)A 19-year-old University of Rochester student named Nicole Wan dies from participating in an MIT-sponsored experiment that tests airborne pollutant chemicals on humans. The experiment pays $150 to human test subjects (Sharav).
In the Mar. 15 President's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE), former human subjects, including those who were used in experiments as children, give sworn testimonies stating that they were subjected to radiation experiments and/or brainwashed, hypnotized, drugged, psychologically tortured, threatened and even raped during CIA experiments. These sworn statements include: