Olympics Norovirus Cover Up? VIRUS Linked To Contaminated Water Blamed On BACTERIA

The 194 staff members and volunteers sickened by the norovirus at the Winter Olympics in South Korea now know what caused their violent infection. Contaminated water used in food preparation is said to be the blame for horrible vomiting spells many have experienced.

According to the KCDC (Korea Centers for Disease Control), the norovirus has been found in 94 people linked to the Horeb Odaesan Youth Training Center, including those who ate food from the center but don’t live there, The Los Angeles Times reported.  Analysis of the center’s water discovered fecal coliform bacteria.  That seems infinitely strange, considering the norovirus is a virus, not a bacteria. They are different and it is worth noting that the mainstream media doesn’t seem to notice or may be covering up something up.

Fecal coliform by themselves are usually not pathogenic; they are indicator organisms, which means they may indicate the presence of other pathogenic bacteria. Pathogens are typically present in such small amounts it is impractical monitor them directly.

Note: Some strains of Escherichia coli, which are a type of fecal coliform, can cause intestinal illness. One such strain is E. coli O157:H7, which is found in the digestive tract of cattle. –Water Research Center

This begs the question: are health and government officials, with the assistance of their weaponized mainstream media, trying to cover up an E.Coli outbreak at the Winter Olympics? A better explanation is needed since this one makes little sense.

“After the training center stopped providing meals, requested frequent hand washing, and promoted the use of hand sanitizer, “the norovirus infection reduced considerably,” the KCDC said in a statement. No athletes have succumbed to the infection yet, but the illness has spread from the Pyeongchang area to Gangneung, the coastal city hosting several indoor events at the Games.

The norovirus is a viral infection which causes the sudden and severe onset of diarrhea and vomiting; symptoms which begin within 12-48 of exposure and can be painful. The virus is highly contagious and commonly spread through food or water that is contaminated during preparation or contaminated surfaces. You can also be infected through close contact with an infected person. Most people will cover without treatment in three days, however, hospitalization can occur if victims are infants or elderly. –SHTFPlan

Although the virus spread rapidly initially, now that health officials have discovered the cause of the outbreak, containment can begin.

Organizers said this viral infection is particularly bad. Of the 1,200 guards removed from duty, 41 had suffered a sudden onset of vomiting and diarrhea on Sunday and all had been taken to a hospital. The outbreak comes just days before the opening of South Korea’s 2018 Winter Olympics on Thursday.-SHTFPlan

The noroVIRUS is being blamed on a bacteria. Let that sink in for a moment and ponder why many no longer trust mainstream media or government officials.

Does It Matter How Late We Eat?

Some may reason that it shouldn’t matter how late we eat just as long as the calories we consume are within range of what our bodies need. However, eating late affects the body in a different way than eating a larger meal at mid-day. Calories that are consumed at night are usually not processed as efficiently as those during the day.

Think about it, unless you work the night shift, most people’s activities wind down as the day does. Settling in after dinner isn’t uncommon. Unfortunately, if we lie down after a huge meal, it can be a strain and lead to a feeling of lethargy in the morning. Disrupted sleep is also common when the body is working hard to digest what was eaten recently.

Meat takes longer than any other food item to digest. I recommend avoiding eating meat late at night, as it tends to stay in the digestive tract longer than grains, fruits, or vegetables.

Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine believe the late evening and early morning hours are the time for cleansing and healing the body from the day before.

If we are using the body’s energy to digest food (which should have occurred during the active day-time hours), we are not giving the body that precious cleansing time that it needs to help fight off disease, as well as help heal ourselves naturally.

Research Into Late Night Eating

Studies by Dr. Louis J. Aronne, director of a weight control program for the Weill Cornell Medical Center, have shown that people who eat late, eat more than they would during a day-time meal ^[1].

Furthermore, these studies found a link between larger evening meals and an increase in triglyceride levels associated with diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and overall weight gain ^[2].

When triglyceride levels are high, our body thinks it needs to store fat from excessive night-time eating for later use. Eating large meals at night, in essence, informs the body that there will be a shortage of food soon and it should store fat!

Some people find they are able to eat healthy meals during the day, but crave sweets and heavier foods at night. Often times this involves an emotional component to eating, perhaps even a minor one. Are you stressed? Exhausted? What emotional comfort are you seeking from large amounts of late night food? Try taking a warm bath with essential oils to comfort yourself.

Tips to Avoid Eating Late At Night

• Eat a moderate breakfast and a heavier lunch.


• Have a larger dinner before 6 PM.


• When you feel like eating late at night, drink a cup of warm lemon water or an herbal tea with raw honey. Hot liquids are soothing and warming.


• If eating late is a habit of yours, you will have to break that habit. Start by reducing your portion sizes and choosing healthier meals.


• Trade in junk food, white sugar, processes foods and white flour for whole grains, soups, fruits and vegetables.


• Brush your teeth earlier! It may sound too simple, but some people find that if they just brush their teeth, they are less likely to indulge in late-night eating patterns.


• Turn off the TV. Studies have shown that television can subconsciously trigger desires for more food.


• Take a warm bath. Turn on some soothing music. Read a book. Create new night-time rituals that don’t involve heavy eating.


• Go on a brisk walk after dinner. Ayurvedic medicine says that we should eat no later than six o’ clock, and afterwards take a walk of at least 108 steps!

These are just some tips; please share your methods in the comments below!

References:

1. C. Claiborne Ray. Where do those late-night calories go? Chicago Tribune. 2008 March 04.


2. C. Claiborne Ray. Midnight meals. The New York Times. 2008 February 26.

The post Does It Matter How Late We Eat? appeared first on The Sleuth Journal.

Thoughts on Eating a Healthy Breakfast and Lunch

Whenever there is discussion of weight loss methods, “eat healthy!” is always a suggestion. My opinion is no exception. I’ve devoted several recent blog posts to discussions about weight loss and the importance of implementing healthy eating habits in order to achieve it. The key word is “habit” and it’s necessary to understand that it means “every day”. Healthy eating habits don’t come in the form of an occasional bottle of vegetable juice, a once-in-a-while banana, diet soda instead of regular, or gorging out on 100 calorie snack packs of cookies and chips.

Eating healthy means regularly consuming a significant amount of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, seeds, and nuts; organic is best. Pragmatically, that means when you’re at the grocery store, you should be spending most of your time in the produce section. Here’s a litmus test, when you’re unpacking your groceries, are you putting away raw staples or are you filling the pantry and freezer with boxed, bagged, processed, and packaged stuff? Don’t get me wrong, there are some great food companies that do make some great offerings. However, if you’re mostly relying on the frozen food aisle and its toxic partnership with your microwave for your dietary needs… there’s a good chance your diet has room to improve.

Breakfast

Are you eating boxed and frozen sausage sandwiches, or something similar, for breakfast? I understand they may be advertised on commercials that have a homey, country-morning feel and the packaging is nice and they come with that special apparatus that’s supposed to mask the subpar cooking ability of a microwave and they require little effort but… check out the nutritional label and ingredients list on that thing. Does it all sound natural? Is a frozen, processed sausage, processed cheese, not-home-made biscuit sandwich the nutritional cornerstone you should start your day with? Is it loaded with all the vitamins, nutrients, enzymes, and body system activators you need to be at your best… or is it just a food pellet? The same question can be asked of most cereal products, breakfast pastries, and just about everything on every drive through menu.

Instead, start the day with fruit. Blackberries in the morning are awesome, so are strawberries. Bananas are conveniently packaged, naturally! Smoothies and fresh juice are fantastic ways to easily consume fruits and vegetables and they’re really effective ways to work in some of the nutrient-dense, power foods, like kale or chia seeds, that maybe aren’t as palatable by themselves. Raw nuts are a great source of protein and healthy fats and a handful will go a long way in satiating your appetite. Ready to make a commitment? Put your money where your mouth is and invest in a juicer and blender to facilitate new habits.

Lunch

I’ve known a lot of people with busy jobs who go out to eat almost every day of the week. Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with going out to eat every day. If you can afford it, there are plenty of restaurants that serve high quality food in responsible portions and remove the raw-material purchasing burden from your shoulders. However, a consistent problem I’ve noticed is that most folks don’t go to the best restaurants and don’t always order the best options. One fast food sandwich turns into one more. The benefits of a spinach salad are negated by a pound of croutons and quart of creamy dressing. “I’ll have a water” turns into having a 32oz soft drink instead. Avoiding the optional bag of chips quickly mutates to deciding which artificial flavor of chips to get.

Instead, get organized, plan ahead, and bring your lunch. Many vegetables are great raw: carrots, celery, peppers, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, and cauliflower are just a few. Another piece of fruit, additional nuts or seeds are other great options. Even a homemade turkey and avocado sandwich on whole grain bread is great compared to most of the $5 fast food options out there. Imagine what your figure, and wallet, would look like after just one month if you planned ahead and brought simple, nutritionally sound lunches every day. Open your mind to new ideas about food. If you have a low-activity desk job, do you need a huge steak sandwich and curly fries for lunch? You might be surprised to understand (by doing) how far a couple handfuls of nuts or dried fruit will really go in terms of satisfying your appetite.

But…

Life doesn’t exist in a vacuum of controlled variables and environments. It’s dynamic. Plans change, we run late, friends come over, priorities are shuffled, and sometimes the scenic route presents itself… and sometimes we should take it. What does this mean with regard to the foods you eat? It means the occasional brunch with friends is a good thing. It means accepting an invite with a new acquaintance to try a new restaurant has beneficial factors beyond fat gram content. It means having a dessert on your birthday. The infrequency of those exceptions are what make them special and they’re also made possible by having solid dietary habits the other 90% of the time- the less interesting times. I don’t know about you, but my Tuesday mornings are usually not that exciting and don’t warrant a sugary, fatty treat from Starbucks.

Formulate a plan (your grocery shopping list) and attack your daily-nutritional habits on purpose. If you’re not doing this already, I guarantee it can be one of the most empowering habits you can implement. If you are doing this, please weigh in and leave a comment below. Let us know how getting a handle on things has impacted your life.

Dinner is another ball of yarn that includes greater opportunities to be creative, to cook, and to enjoy fellowship of family and friends. We’ll talk more about that later.

California Senate Passes Bill Banning Drug Company Gifts to Doctors

On May 18, the California Senate passed a bill that would ban pharmaceutical companies from giving gifts to doctors. The Senate voted 23-13 in favor of sending the bill to the Assembly. [1]

For the bill, SB 790, California lawmakers used a similar 2009 Vermont law enacted in 2009 as a template.

If the bill is signed into law, doctors would no longer be able to receive perks, such as airline tickets and lavish meals, from drug companies. According to Sen. Mike McGuire, the bill would lower healthcare costs, in part because doctors who receive gifts are more likely to prescribe costly drugs. [2]

Drug companies unload more than $1.4 billion a year on California doctors in the hopes they will promote and prescribe their products, said McGuire, a Democrat who represents a district west of Sacramento.

McGuire said that in 2014, doctors in his state received more gifts and payments from pharmaceutical companies than in doctors any other state. [3]

Read: Need a Link Between Federal Reps and Drug Companies? Here it is

“While we have witnessed the cost of drugs rise over the past decade, industry profits have also grown significantly. We should be all standing for seniors and taxpayers to drive down the cost of prescription drugs.” [1]

According to a recent study by researchers at UC San Francisco, doctors who receive gifts from drug companies are 2 to 3 times more likely to prescribe name-brand drugs over cheaper, generic drugs. [2]

An even more recent study found that doctors at teaching hospitals are more likely to prescribe generic drugs when pharma reps are kept at bay.

Source: Pro Publica

Others have a different take on SB 790. State Sen. Ted Gaines argued that drug company gifts “provide the funding for research, for cures.”

He added:

“Why would we do anything to diminish the ability of pharma companies to be successful in providing these new products?” [3]

Senate minority leader Patricia Bates said the bill would discourage physicians from participating in clinical trials or restrict California’s access to experimental drugs.

However, the bill would still permit doctors to receive salaries for participating in clinical trials, and would allow for the payment of meals up to $250 per year for individual doctors.

The bill is headed to the state Assembly, the California lower Legislature, for consideration.

Sources:

[1] Associated Press

[2] Daily Health Post

[3] RT

Pro Publica

---

---

About Mike Barrett:
	Mike is the co-founder, editor, and researcher behind Natural Society. Studying the work of top natural health activists, and writing special reports for top 10 alternative health websites, Mike has written hundreds of articles and pages on how to obtain optimum wellness through natural health.

Study Finds Pharma Reps Influence Doctor Prescription Decisions

Doctors at teaching hospitals are more likely to prescribe generic drugs over name-brand ones when pharmaceutical sales representatives are kept at bay, a study published in JAMA shows. [1]

By comparison, doctors working in hospitals that don’t keep pharma sales reps on a short leash – freely accepting meals and gifts, and letting reps have free reign of the hospital – prescribed far more name-brand medications.

In other words, pharma reps know how to sweet-talk docs into choosing significantly more expensive drugs over cheaper generics.

Findings of the Study

For the teaching hospital study, researchers looked at 19 centers in 5 states that restricted visits by drug reps by:

• limiting access

• limiting gifts

• or punishing reps who broke the rules

The team compared prescriptions by 2,126 doctors at teaching hospitals with 24,593 of their peers with similar characteristics who did not limit reps’ access. The study also examined more than 16 million prescriptions in total, using data from CVS Caremark, a large pharmacy benefit manager.

In an editorial accompanying the study, Charles Ornstein, from ProPublica, writes:

“Understanding the financial relationships between physicians and the drug industry is only 1 window into prescribing habits. It is just as important, if not more so, to understand how prescribing practices of physicians compare with their peers. Most physicians generally are not aware if their drug choices are similar to other physicians in their fields; there has been no definition of what constitutes ‘normal’ prescribing.” [2]

Read: Pharma Companies Spend 19x More on Marketing Than Research

Significant changes were found in 6 of the 8 drug classes studied at 9 of the 19 hospitals reviewed. The policies were enacted at various times from 2006-2011. Changes in prescribing started immediately and lasted from 12 to 36 months afterward, however. This led to an increase of up to 10% in physicians favoring cheaper generics over more expensive, name-brand drugs – a small, but significant number. [1] [3]

One thing the study didn’t examine was whether generic drugs were the more medically-sound approach. Privacy laws made it impossible to study that aspect. [3]

Furthermore, the fact that changes were found in 6 of the 8 drug classes does not prove that physicians made better choices without pharma reps influencing them, though it does appear that was the case.

Study leaders Ian Larkin and George Loewenstein, both economists, suggest that healthcare providers go the route taken by hospitals such as the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic, and California’s Kaiser group, which pay their doctors straight salaries. This would create a conflict-free environment where patients don’t have to worry that their doctors making decisions about their health based on money or gifts. [4]

After all, the “do no harm” snippet from the Hippocratic Oath should include patients’ ability to afford their medicine.

Sources:

[1] ProPublica

[2] The JAMA Network

[3] Newsweek

[4] Slate

---

---

About Julie Fidler:
	Julie Fidler is a freelance writer, legal blogger, and the author of Adventures in Holy Matrimony: For Better or the Absolute Worst. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two ridiculously spoiled cats. She occasionally pontificates on her blog.

Single Mother Of 6 Sells Food On Facebook … And Now Faces 1 Year In Jail

Image source: Mariza Ruelas

STOCKTON, Calif. — A single mother could be jailed for up to a year because she shared homemade meals through a Facebook food group.

Mariza Ruelas of Stockton was charged after a year-long investigation by county inspectors that ended with an undercover sting operation.

“It was just unreal that they were saying you could face up to a year in jail,” Reulas, a mother of six, told Fox 40 in Sacramento.

Reulas and others in the Stockton, California-area had been trading food, organizing potlucks and sharing recipes on the 209 Food Spot Facebook page for several years. Not all of the exchanges involved money, but some did.

“Somebody would be like, ‘Oh I don’t have anything to trade you but I would love to buy a plate,’” Reulas said.

Discover How To Become Invisible In Today’s Surveillance State!

Members of the 209 Food Spot page did not realize that San Joaquin County health inspectors were monitoring their activity.

In October 2015, an undercover investigator ordered a ceviche – a seafood dish — from Reulas. A few months later the mother of six received a summons for selling food and engaging in business without a permit – each a misdemeanor. The district attorney offered Reulas a plea deal that included three years of probation, a $235 fine and 80 hours of community service. She refused, saying she could not afford the fine and that she had only sold items once or twice a month. In fact, she and her children even cooked food for the homeless.

“The purpose wasn’t to sell food,” Ruelas told The Washington Post. “We wanted to bring something positive to our community.”

“They took the time to be investigating for over a year now. But they can’t solve all these unsolved murders?”

She “didn’t see any harm” in what she was doing.

“There wasn’t anybody selling it daily,” she said. “A lot of times, they were just getting back what they put into the ingredients.”

Reulas was not the only member of the food group to be charged, but the others accepted the plea.

Stockton has been dealing with a rise in violent crimes, including murders and robberies, over the past year, The Stockton Record reported.

San Joaquin County deputy district attorney Kelly McDaniel defended the investigation, saying the Facebook group was putting the public at danger and undercutting legal businesses, Fox 40 reported.

“I don’t write the laws, I enforce them. And the legislature has felt that this is a crime,” McDaniel said.

Ruelas, though, said it was not about making money.

“People are assuming that I was taking from other businesses,” Ruelas told The Washington Post. “It’s not something that I was trying to make a business out of.”

Reulas is worried about what will happen to her children if she goes to jail. She said her 17-year-old daughter, Mariyah, doesn’t like to hear her talk to reporters or attorneys. Her other children, including 6-year-old Justice, are also scared.

“He always asks … ‘Are you going to come back?’” Reulas said.

What is your reaction? Share it in the section below:

You’re Being Watched: 7 Sneaky Ways The Government Is Tracking Your Every Move. Read More Here.