The sunscreen myth

We live in AZ, my kids do not use sunscreen unless we are having a mid-day pool party where we will be in the sun for hours during the hottest time (between 10 am and 2 pm). If we are planning to be at a beach for hours, or a water park for hours then yes I do put an all natural sunscreen on them. Usually they are very thick and very white since I usually use one with pure zinc oxide. I have found that mixing it with pure coconut oil makes it rub in better. But I will not use the mainstream sunscreens because they are filled with toxins and dare I say, CANCER CAUSING chemicals. Seems kind of stupid to put chemicals on your skin that CAUSE cancer in an effort to PREVENT cancer. We were made to be in the sun. As far back as I can tell, the sun has been here. And this society today spends far less time in the sun as a whole than previous ones. So if you are wondering whether you really need that sunscreen slathered on the moment you walk out the door, here is a good read for you. And all this sunscreen prevents us from getting the vitamin D we NEED! Don't get me wrong, no one should end up like a lobster but a little sun each day is critical for us in my opinion. That doesn't mean that someone with an outdoor job should never put on sunscreen and get sunburned, that is not good. But, there are much safer sunscreen choices out there so that if you need the protection, you can get it without the toxins. So, HERE is the article then go get some sun after you finish reading it! :)

Sugar free raspberry coconut milk (frozen) yogurt

Well the heat is certainly here in the southwest. It is 97 degrees at 10:00 am and the kids wanted a snack. So, I whipped this up and it came out really good so I figured I would share.

Yesterday I made a batch of homemade coconut milk yogurt. I am not a fan of the commercial version, they have evaporated cane juice and some other ingredients that I don't like to give to my kids. I used the recipe from Julie Matthews' presentation at DAN! 2009 which goes a little something like this (although not verbatim so don't quote me on it!):

Take any nut milk (I used homemade coconut milk, thicker than usual which is 2 cups water, 1 cup shredded coconut without additives, blend and strain) and heat to 160 degrees. Let cool to at least 105 degrees. Whisk in a little less than 1/16 tsp GI Pro Health non dairy yogurt starter (recipe called for 16 ounce:1/16 tsp starter, I had about 13 ounces so I used just a tad less). Put in yogurt maker for at least 8 hours. Refridgerate at least 5 hours, preferrably overnight before serving.

So, this recipe makes good yogurts but mainly for smoothies and such because it does come out thin. That is why I tried to make the milk thicker. I started with a 1:1 ratio of coconut to water but that was a little too thick so we added another cup of water. It was still pretty thin when I looked at it this morning so I threw it in the blender with a couple of handfuls of frozen raspberries and two heaping spoonfuls of Stevia (yes, we like things sweet around here). What resulted was very similar to a frozen yogurt and very sweet and tasty with that wonderful coconut milk flavor! But, it has none of the additives, sugars, etc. that can be problematic for many kids on the spectrum. So, I hope you can use this recipe and enjoy!!

Homeopathy update

As I have mentioned before, we've been doing homeopathy with Pierre Fontaine since December. It is a very precise method and you don't always get the right remedy the first try, we sure didn't. And after a consult or follow up I feel a little like I have just done some sort of psychic channeling session. You really need to get inside of your child and understand how they feel, especially in regards to the issues you want to work on, so that the right remedy can be found. It can be a little surreal. But man, when it works, it WORKS!!!

Many of you know we've been doing Respen-A for about a year and a half. It has worked VERY well for my son but there are some things that I am not all that excited about. We had to stop or reduce some supplements that I really do find beneficial (Turmeric, D3, EFA's) because in higher doses it can negate the effects. I tended to push that envelope especially, for example, when my son came down with a cold and I dosed with high D3. And another thing I was not thrilled with was the high amounts of calcium carbonate that he had to take daily. For whatever reason, we have bowel issues with calcium and so my long term plan was to be off of it. But I feel that way about most things. I want to HEAL my child to the point where these things are not critical. And let me tell you, Respen-A was CRITICAL!

We took a Respen-A break a few months ago out of necessity. We ran out of the calcium! It was a mess. He was breaking down at school, was unable to complete the normal math worksheets they complete in class daily. In talking with his teacher, she noticed a big change. The day we resumed Respen-A was the day his ability to complete that worksheet resumed. Takeaway - Respen-A is critical right now.

At a recent consult with Pierre, I explained just what happens with M when he is not on Respen-A. He becomes a volatile, screaming, meltdown prone child. He is explosive and very emotional. So we went there. We came up with a remedy. Since then.....WOW!!! Within days we had comments at our IEP from the school SLP about him meeting goals that she JUST set for the upcoming year in regards to listening to peers and asking unprompted questions back and forth. We dosed Sat, Mon when she saw him (and coincidentally wrote the new goals for the upcoming year) he accomplished that! Eric and I looked at each other. Hmmmmm. She went on to say he was as "ON" as she had ever seen him. She has been seeing him for 2 years now. That week he came walking out with his peers, chatting and laughing together. He has started to want to know what my husband and I are talking about, very interested in our conversations now. He's picking up funny quotes from peers. For example, when shooting hoops and missing he now says "aaawwww, show me some love". His awareness is much better and he is showing much more compassion and empathy towards others. Anxiety and perseverations are down. Thankfully I don't have to have a play-by-play of what houses have satellite dishes or basketball hoops as we drive places anymore.

So, after a follow up with Dr. Woeller to review labs and our other supplements, I ran the idea of a Respen-A break by him, for the reasons I stated above. He was all for it. So, I waited until school was out. It has been 1 full week of no Respen-A and quite honestly we are STILL seeing gains. We dose our homeopathic remedy about once every 7 - 10 days, when we see the negatives creeping back in, we dose again. This last dose was 12 days ago!! Of course we still have issues to work on but I am thrilled that he hasn't turned into a complete mess after 1 week of no Respen-A!! Like with Respen-A, we have seen increased ability to tan with this new remedy. My son was casper the ghost, seriously. And in the AZ sun, an outdoor child, and no sunscreen, I am not sure how that was possible. Most sunscreens are filled with cancer causing chemicals and we NEED natural vitamin D for the sun. So, we go swim in the morning, do inside activities during the heat of the day, then swim in the afternoon/evening. But, my kids get plenty of sun and even though they never burn, my daughter looks like the Coppertone baby and my son has always stayed completely white. No tan lines....NONE. Odd. Well Respen-A gave us our first back of the neck tan. Evidence of cellular healing and enzyme processes now work, YAHOO. With this new remedy, sock tan line from shooting hoops on the black top at school! This first week of summer has also brought more tanning so far.

He is also going through a growth spurt which has been throwing his sensory system into a little chaos right now. But overall I could not be happier. We sat through the first summer movie on Thurs and it was my daughter who wanted to leave early. Now that was a first!! My son did great! He also has been wanting to read on his own. He has always loved being read to and his reading is coming along nicely. But, with his fear of failure, if he picked up a book and found a few words that he couldn't sound out, his frustration would get the best of him. Now he calmly sits there, reading what he can, asking us to help with words he can't. Woah! So we shall see what the next few weeks bring but I am very pleased with his continued recovery. He is missing his friends and asking for playdates, we have a couple of things lined up so far. A far cry from the child who avoided other children, instead spinning Tupperware lids for fun. On the last day of school his class did their last "community circle". That is where the kids sit in a big circle and whoever has the ball gets to speak. They can voice concerns, praise, gripes, etc. Many of the kids were saying things like "I hope everyone has a good summer". M spoke last and his was "I just love everyone in my class". Collective aaawwwww.

****NOTE - I firmly believe that had we tried homeopathy from the beginning it would have been an epic fail. I believe that some level of healing needs to happen. When we first started this journey, my son's body was overrun with bacteria (clostridia) and fungus (arabinose), he had severe gut and brain inflammation, he had lots of unaddressed food intolerances, etc. His body was just trying to "keep the wheels on" at that point. It took us 2 years of heavy biomed, testing, dietary changes, etc. until we got to a point where his body had healed enough to engage in this level of additional healing. Have you ever tried to offer a natural or holistic remedy to someone who uses a lot of pharmaceuticals, has a heavily processed diet, etc? Usually they don't work and the person walks away thinking it is all a bunch of hooey. When the body is flooded with toxins and is just trying to sort through that, I don't believe the healing powers can be initiated. So, I believe that homeopathy really is most effective when you have healed the body to a certain extent. But that is just my opinion on the subject!

Tears of an Autism mom

This was a great article by Jean Winegardner on why Autism moms cry so much. Well, I have heard that raising a child with Autism puts us into the category of PTSD survivors. And boy, I believe it! Everyday can be a barrage, emotionally from dealing with state service providers, sometimes contentious school districts, the contempt from our own families many times, physical assaults from our own child and maybe even more painful, the guilt we often put on ourselves about our child's disorder. There is stress on marriages, stress on family relationships, friendships (I have had my share of friends who just "don't get it") and even the stress on siblings. And this is a daily thing, no reprieve, many times Autism families cannot even get childcare for a much needed date night or just a few minutes away to themselves. And oh the sleep deprivation! If that doesn't bring you to your knees I don't know what will! This life is not for the faint of heart and yes, maybe we do cry a lot.

I tend to hold it together pretty well, and like in this article, I am a big fan of the car and behind sunglasses. I have walked out of my son's school in tears, rushing to get to the haven of my car. Early on, I remember sobbing in the car after leaving my almost 3 year old, screaming and crying for me. The guilt of leaving him even if he did "need" the early intervention ate at me. Really? Really is he better off in this scary environment with people who don't really understand or know him than at home where I know him best and can calm his inflammed sensory system?? This journey forces us to do what most do not.

And as my son has begun to recover, it hasn't made the tears any less frequent. I am still forced to see my child's deficits in black and white like most parents do not. I remember the report from the school psychologist years ago when my son was in preschool and his "cognitive ability and IQ range". Punch, right to the gut. And then you start thinking of their future. And then at a stop light the other day I remembered that and look at him now, with his peers, doing all of the same things academically and I do a little internal "F YOU!" to those standardized tests and ANYONE who wants to count out my child. If anything that fuels my drive even more to ensure the roadblocks are removed inside his body to enable him to flourish the way he was meant to.

But on the flip side, this journey certainly has enabled me to see every small achievement, which is HUGE to us, in ways that many don't. When you have a child years behind in development, the first time they tell you "NO" is a wonderful thing! Now when my kids fight I now understand what neurotypical families talk about. Hallaleujah!! For so many years my son was without words, without the interest in his sisters. Now he seems hell bent on annoying them....typical brother! Ha, I just said TYPICAL! The word that provokes much joy from Autism families. Because although we know our children are extraordinary, we still strive for typical.

HERE is Jean's article.

Mercury in HFCS

This is old news and I have blogged this before but worth reposting. If you haven't decided that this little gem, HFCS, needs to be out of your diet, maybe this will help push you over that edge. What they found is that many products with HFCS also have mercury contamination. And coincidentally many of these same products have two or three (or fifteen) other ingredients that shouldn't go into your body or that of your growing child. But what disturbs me about this particular article is this comment "The good news is that mercury-free HFCS ingredients exist. Food companies just need a good push to only use those ingredients". Uhmmmm, I don't consider that good news. Even without the mercury, HFCS should not be ingested. It is not good for us, it is NOT the same as regular sugar and our body does know the difference-regardless of how many ads tell us otherwise (ads that are funded by the Corn Refiners Association by the way). Sugar in general has many negative side effects, including depressing the immune system. Ever wonder why cold and flu season tends to hit right around Halloween and goes all through winter and the holidays?? I have a sneaky suspicion the increase in sweet treat consumption has a little something to do with that. So, here is the article to read for your self.

The impact of diet and lifestyle on prostate cancer - a case for epigenetics

Well to my fellow "warrior" moms and dads (those who are treating Autism and other medical conditions in their children through many biomedical treatment approaches) this will not be surprising. We see it everyday. We see a "genetic" disorder that is being improved through dietary changes, supplementation, detox, chelation, treating yeast and bacterial overgrowth in the gut, etc. But this is pretty exciting. Anyone who has gone to a conference talking about the biomedical approach to Autism has heard about epigentics and the issue with our increasingly toxic environment making heritable changes in our genes and of course the negative health consequences that brings. So, this is pretty exciting to have more of this research come out in the mainstream. Although it really shouldn't be THAT hard to digest that our way of life has more to do with our health than just our genes. Eating healthy, organic, nutrition filled foods, exercise and stress management is good, while eating heavily processed, nutritionally void foods, not exercising and not managing stress can have a negative impact. In a word "DUH". When we flood our body with nutrients and remove toxins, it does what it does best, flourish, thrive, grow and heal. That means increases in proper immune function and cellular turnover and the ability to fight disease and cancer is increased. When we bog it down with bad food and toxins, it has to work hard to process that, it brings down immune function, or even worse stimulates it because of the food that is eaten causing auto-immunity, and therefore things like cancer can gain a foothold. So here is the article from Reuters. Maybe we're not so crazy afterall ;)

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By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON Wed Jun 18, 2008 3:47pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Comprehensive lifestyle changes including a better diet and more exercise can lead not only to a better physique, but also to swift and dramatic changes at the genetic level, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

In a small study, the researchers tracked 30 men with low-risk prostate cancer who decided against conventional medical treatment such as surgery and radiation or hormone therapy.

The men underwent three months of major lifestyle changes, including eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and soy products, moderate exercise such as walking for half an hour a day, and an hour of daily stress management methods such as meditation.

As expected, they lost weight, lowered their blood pressure and saw other health improvements. But the researchers found more profound changes when they compared prostate biopsies taken before and after the lifestyle changes.

After the three months, the men had changes in activity in about 500 genes -- including 48 that were turned on and 453 genes that were turned off.

The activity of disease-preventing genes increased while a number of disease-promoting genes, including those involved in prostate cancer and breast cancer, shut down, according to the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The research was led by Dr. Dean Ornish, head of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, and a well-known author advocating lifestyle changes to improve health.

"It's an exciting finding because so often people say, 'Oh, it's all in my genes, what can I do?' Well, it turns out you may be able to do a lot," Ornish, who is also affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco, said in a telephone interview.

"'In just three months, I can change hundreds of my genes simply by changing what I eat and how I live?' That's pretty exciting," Ornish said. "The implications of our study are not limited to men with prostate cancer."

Ornish said the men avoided conventional medical treatment for prostate cancer for reasons separate from the study. But in making that decision, they allowed the researchers to look at biopsies in people with cancer before and after lifestyle changes.

"It gave us the opportunity to have an ethical reason for doing repeat biopsies in just a three-month period because they needed that anyway to look at their clinical changes (in their prostate cancer)," Ornish said.

(Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Xavier Briand)

B-12 deficiency

Below is a link to a blog article I read that I wanted to share. B-12 has done really amazing things for my son. When we started working with Dr. Woeller, injectible B-12 was the first therapy we implemented while we did labs and waited for them to be processed and reviewed to see where to go next. We saw changes in language and sleep patterns but also in eye contact and social connectedness. Like I said, he gets injectible but if you can't do injections but want B-12 in a good form, I use the Methyl Mate from New Beginnings but I switch out the top and use a nasal adapter. Research has shown that using B-12 nasally is almost as good as using an injection in terms of steady levels in the body. Sometimes we just have to get a little creative in our administration of things. I love my B-12 and use it almost daily (i.e. whenever my crazy schedule doesn't make me forget it!). So here is some additional info on B-12 and its importance, click HERE to read this article from Food Farm Health blog.

The Canary Party - Get behind it!

Now here's a party I can support!! Check them out HERE. Read their position paper below. It is about time!

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The Canary Party Position Paper
Friday, 27 May 2011 11:36


The time has come for a change. The mounting crisis in the health of children and other vulnerable groups has not only been ignored by medical authorities, it has been suppressed. As parents, citizens and advocates for the health of future generations, we must rise up to call attention to this crisis and take action to end it. In nominally democratic societies, which sadly are increasingly corrupted by the power of entrenched interests and the economy of influence that surrounds the medical industrial complex, we can most directly effect change by mobilizing for political action in order take action against these corrupt forces. It is time to come together to form The Canary Party.

This position paper addresses three questions surrounding the mission of

The Canary Party

1. What is the problem?

2. What is the solution?

3. What is to be done?



What is the problem?

In 19th century coalmines, canaries were used for the first time to detect the presence of poisonous gas accumulation deep in underground tunnels. Because their metabolisms run faster than humans, these small animals provided a crucial signal in dangerous times: the canaries would die from toxic gas releases before humans. Normally quite vocal, the silence of these songbirds was the signal of danger. Back then, miners whose lives depended on the absence of poisons paid close attention to the absence of the canary’s song. Today, as the rising power and spread of the medical industrial complex are taking an increasing toll on human health, we need to recognize the silenced canaries all around us.

What is this toll? Nothing less than a generation of sick, injured and dying children, children who are increasingly becoming young adults. American children are over vaccinated and over medicated, over fed, undernourished and have record levels of chronic illness and developmental delay.

As well, there is a direct toll of injured adults, especially those who serve in the military, subjected to an increased burden of inadequately tested, compulsory and even experimental vaccine exposures administered over a backdrop of multiple toxic exposures from prescription and over the counter medications, foods made from genetically modified organisms and laden with pesticides and preservatives, and tens of thousands of industrial compounds that did not exist a century ago.

In simplest terms, the medical industrial complex has launched a massive and uncontrolled experiment on a generation of Americans. In an unprecedented intervention in human immune development, this complex has succeeded in promoting an explosion in medical industry revenues and profits; this explosion has been accompanied, however, by an epidemic of death, disability and chronic disease, much of which can be traced directly to these medical and chemical exposures.

What is the medical industrial complex? It is no simple thing to describe, but our working definition is the partnership between the medical and pharmaceutical industry on one hand and the public health establishment on the other. This “public private partnership”--one which includes vaccine manufacturers like Merck and GlaxoSmithKline, associations of doctors like the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the British Medical Association, and government agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health—has steadfastly resisted the rising evidence of a crisis in human health, denying its existence, defending its prerogatives in the face of the crisis and pressing its own expansionist agenda in spite of widespread evidence that the medical model its members are advancing has failed consumers. The moral failing of this partnership agenda becomes all the more egregious as one reflects on the notion that the primary precept of medical ethics was once, “First, do no harm”.

The human toll of these experiments affects us all, but most visibly affects the vulnerable in our society, those who have the highest rate of exposure to this uncontrolled experimentation. These groups are modern day canaries and we must heed their silent suffering. They include

• Infants and children exposed to the most dramatic escalation in medical interventions and toxic exposures in human history, and subject to the new childhood epidemics of autism, ADHD, asthma, and food allergy,

o Autism now disables 1 in 100 American children, 1 in 60 boys

o Peanut allergies put the lives of nearly 2% of children at risk

o Asthma affects over 10% of American children, putting their lives at risk as well

• Child and adolescent victims of new experimental vaccines such as Gardasil

o Gardasil recipients have suffered close to 100 reported deaths

o Meanwhile, there are thousands of additional cases of serious adverse events and disability, many of them unreported, uninvestigated and suppressed

• Countless deaths and disabled victims in the soldiers and families of our armed forces

o Uncountable deaths and disabilities from the use of experimental vaccine adjuvants

o An epidemic of suicides (commonly blamed on post-traumatic stress disorder) haunts our service men and women, with large numbers of these suicides occurring among those never deployed in combat

• Adults and children suffering from the epidemic increases in auto-immune disease, disabling and potentially deadly conditions where the body’s own immune system turns against itself.

o Rising rates of celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome and colitis

o Epidemic rates of ALS, Lupus, Multiple Sclerosis, Addison’s Disease, Guillain-Barré, Graves’ and countless other disabling conditions

In the investigation and management of these and other modern–day plagues, our leading medical institutions have done more than merely fail us, their conduct lies at the root of the problem. Their agents have censored important science, manipulated data, intimidated honest scientists, and deceived the public. Worst of all, they have cloaked themselves in the mantle of science and “evidence-based medicine” as they have circled the wagons to defend their policies, profits and programs. In the meantime, their conduct and behavior is perpetuating one of the most egregious and systematic episodes of scientific denial in human history.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against this outcome half a century ago in his Farewell Address to the nation. In addition to citing the emergence of a military-industrial complex, he also cautioned that an unholy alliance of money, technology, and government power could corrupt public policy more broadly. “Scientific research,” he said, “could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.”

Today, despite Eisenhower’s warning, that reality is upon us, and its consequences are devastating. Public bureaucracies, professional associations and private corporations – groups whose interests and leaders are all but interchangeable -- have triggered a public health disaster that worsens by the day. Eisenhower’s early warning has emerged in full flower as the medical industrial complex.

Along the way, the press has also failed us. The rise of corporate media and the breathlessly predatory 24 hour news cycle has led most of the mainstream media to swallow the talking points of the medical industrial complex while it continues to accept the advertising expenditures of its corporate members. They hide behind the technical nature of the evidence and meekly accept the claims of the medical industry’s “experts.” Increasingly, media celebrities have joined the attack, leading the inquisition against courageous scientists while denying media access to the many compelling leaders of critical consumer groups.

Most important of all, our political institutions have been failing us, at least so far. No major political party or movement has taken up this complex of issues. The blame for this failure of political will is broadly distributed and largely explained by the triumph of ideology over evidence. In order for our movement to succeed, we must ask advocates to check their political biases at the door, find ways to connect with the most helpful impulses of larger-scale movements while recognizing the ideological obstacles to embracing our agenda for change.

• The progressive movement. In principle, progressives oppose Big Business and the corrupting influence of corporate money. At the same time, progressives embrace the concept of activist government and reflexively support areas in which “good government” can be defended as legitimate. Under this guise, progressives have actively promoted the expansion of the medical roles of Big Government and the expansion of the vaccination program, all in the interest of “progress.” Progressives gloss over the corrosive effect on government regulators of the “public-private partnerships” that pervade this expanding mandate.

• The conservative movement. By contrast, the conservative movement reflexively opposes the program and activities of Big Government but looks past the ambitions and technological agendas of Big Business. Despite widespread evidence of the failure of the pharmaceutical innovation model, conservatives have failed to recognize the necessity of regulatory vigilance in order to defend consumers from the rising risk of palliative medical intervention; they have simultaneously failed to recognize how the free market can break down when Big Business forges unholy alliances (“public-private partnerships”) with Big Government.

• The Green Party. A political movement dedicated to defending human populations against the excesses of industrial activity ought to be a natural ally of the victims of medical excess. Unfortunately, the environmental movement has narrowed its focus to the release of chemicals from industrial processes into the environment and has largely ignored the health effects of injecting toxic substances into vulnerable humans. Along the way, the environmental movement has allied itself with the progressive movement in its celebration of the effectiveness of regulatory intervention. Sadly, most “greens” have developed a blind spot when it comes to the silent canaries victimized by the medical industrial complex

• The Tea Party. Although the populist momentum captured by the Tea Party movement may prove receptive to the critique offered here, to date the movement’s motivating energy has stemmed more from concerns over the expanding economic footprint of Big Government than concerns over the health outcomes that have resulted from Big Government programs. Appropriately, the Tea Party has protested the rising intrusion of government in the issues that affect our lives and liberties; to date, however, the movement has been more concerned with reining in Big Government than the need for justice for the victims of expanded Big Government programs.

The unfettered march of the medical industrial complex is a threat to Western society as we know it: to the lives of children and those who serve and defend us in our armed forces, to our right to choose the medical procedures we receive and to our rights to participate in society if we dissent. This all must change.



What is the solution?

The first step toward political action is unity. As representatives of the silenced canaries, we can start by promoting a shared sense of identity. We have many advocates and impressive leaders, but our political movement is too often fragmented. Many different leaders pursue many different goals. This distributed model of advocacy is both a strength and a weakness. We can maintain our entrepreneurial spirit while also establishing a stronger sense of connection and shared identity.

Political power comes with numbers. And although the many potential constituencies coalesce within communities that provide their own strong and passionate cores, the problem we face is broader than any one of these communities. We can build a strong movement only by assembling the broadest possible base of support. There are many victims of the medical industrial complex who share similar concerns and sympathies and they are increasingly recognizing their shared concerns and interests.

In a broadly distributed movement of voluntary advocates, a command and control model of action will never serve. Rather than seeking compliance, we can concentrate our voice by coming together around a set of shared principles. We have seen the appeal of a principle-driven coalition in some of our political activity and can extend this approach to a platform in which we protest the corruption of our institutions while raising the alarm over the harm done to the canaries.

Refining our principles awaits the opportunity to meet, discuss and debate as a group, but defining them will surely involve this set of ideas: Awareness; Precaution; Safety; Choice; Freedom; Justice; Scientific Integrity; Compassion.

With the right statement of principles we can extend the reach of our efforts by forming a political party. This movement should appeal to a diverse constituency of advocates; it can and must be ecumenical with respect to political beliefs that don’t bear on our principles; by focusing on a limited set of principles, we can seek to influence the platforms of other leaders in political parties and movements; and although we may begin our efforts where our leaders reside, we must embrace a global vision in support for silenced canaries everywhere.

One source of strength in our movement is our broad base of advocates. We can exploit this strength by giving advocates the tools to begin engaging directly in the political and legislative process. Although our opponents have more resources to bring to bear at a national level and in the mainstream media, we can maximize our advantage if we extend our engagement to the broadest possible geographic base, including activities in Washington DC, all 50 states as well as county, city and local political and policy forums.

A broad based movement will help us in creating many occasions for victories including elections. These victories might be achieved through ballot questions, candidate questionnaires, legislative initiatives and even sponsoring candidates for office.

In addition to sponsoring our own agenda through the political process, the movement will also benefit from identifying high profile opponents of our agenda and taking the fight to them. Under the right circumstances, movements define themselves not only by what they stand for, but also whom they stand against.

In the long run, the solution to the problem of institutional corruption in the medical industrial complex will require wholesale shifts in policy, governance and representation in many areas. Part of our movement’s ultimate success will depend on our skill in laying out a detailed agenda for change and influencing the political process to implement those changes. This is a long-term process, one in which success may come slowly at first. Every journey, however, begins with the first step.



What is to be done?

The first steps of the journey require only a few simple steps. The first steps ahead of us are these.

1. Recruit and mobilize a core constituency. The leading groups from which this constituency might be drawn include, but are not limited to

• Parents and families of injured children

o Autism parents and high-functioning autistic individuals

o Peanut allergy parents and sufferers

o Parents of Gardasil victims

o Vaccine Injury Compensation Program participants, both winners and losers

• Adult victims of the medical industrial complex

• Military personnel and veterans

• Medical professionals and service providers who seek to provide an alternative to the failed approaches of the medical industrial complex

2. Hold a party convention, an occasion to convene a broad group of skilled and experienced advocates who can carry the Canary Party agenda forward.

3. Draft an initial platform, one based on principles around which broad agreement is strongest.

4. Develop a working vision of success and set goals and strategies to take the movement there.

5. Decide on a near term plan of action in order to generate early momentum and the maximum possible leverage for change. Possible action areas include

• Introducing local ballot questions

• Drafting questionnaires to submit to candidates for elective office in which they respond to The Canary Platform

• Designing and sponsoring legislative initiatives at the national, state and local level

• Fielding candidates for office, including local, state and national positions

• Engaging in impact litigation where and when the opportunity is deemed necessary and furthers the goals of the Canary Party.

• Beginning to meaningfully harvest, educate, and focus the current court of public opinion which legitimately questions the safety of vaccines and the schedule.

• Etc.



Early Signers:



Alison MacNeil, LICSW

Carol Stott, PhD, MSc (Epidemology), CSci, CPsychold

Dan Olmsted

Ginger Taylor, MS

Heather Fraser, MA

Jane Winans, MA

Jennifer Larson

Jerri Johnson

Jim Navarro

John Oller, PhD

Julie Obradovic, MA Ed

Kathryne Pirtle, MA

Laurette Janak

Leslie Phillips, MBA

Marian Greene

Mark Blaxill, MBA

Michael Belkin

Polly Tommy

Rebecca Estepp

Richard Rovet, RN, BSN, Capt. USAF (RET)

Sheri Tenpenny, DO, AOBNMM

Sylvia Pimentel

Cell phones and brain health

I think it was in one of the DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) conferences a few years ago where I sat and listened to the discussion about cell phone radiation and its impact on the brain. I remember seeing data on brain scans showing blood flood. We have this nifty thing called a blood brain barrier, which defined by Wikipedia is :

The blood–brain barrier (BBB) is a separation of circulating blood and the brain extracellular fluid (BECF) in the central nervous system (CNS). It occurs along all capillaries and consists of tight junctions around the capillaries that do not exist in normal circulation. Endothelial cells restrict the diffusion of microscopic objects (e.g. bacteria) and large or hydrophilic molecules into the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), while allowing the diffusion of small hydrophobic molecules (O2, hormones, CO2). Cells of the barrier actively transport metabolic products such as glucose across the barrier with specific proteins. This barrier also includes a thick basement membrane and astrocytic endfeet.

So just to be clear, the blood brain barrier is a very good thing as it keeps out harmful bacteria and certain neurotoxins. As I listened to this presentation, they discussed how in the research they monitored the flow of blood into the brain using dye. Clearly the areas of the brain were not dyed because of this blood brain barrier. Yet, when a cell phone was placed next to the head, low and behold, that area of the brain became penetrable. Ruh roh!! Since then, I have been much more conscious of using my plugged headset (no blue tooths for the similar reasons). And for my children, I do NOT let them talk on my cell phone unless it is through the speaker phone. Radiation is harmful (see my blog post on microwaving your food too!) and we should avoid it when at all possible. Technology may be changing but our body and the way it handles these things hasn't. Reducing our exposures to the bad things as much as we can is certainly the prudent way to stay healthier longer. And, if you want to learn more, just look at some of the disorders that can come from compromised blood brain barriers (hint, those include Alzheimer's and MS!). No one is saying throw away every single cell phone but certainly be aware of what you are holding next to your brain for hours.

Here is an article on the best and worst offenders, to read it, click HERE