Modi hails toilet 'milestone' as India marks Gandhi's 150th

Yahoo – AFP, Premal Balan with Aishwarya Kumar and Abhaya Srivastava in New Delhi, October 2, 2019

Experts say millions still lack access to a toilet, and that because of old habits many
of the tens of millions of new facilities that have been built are not even being used
(AFP Photo/Prakash SINGH)

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday declared the country of 1.3 billion people free of open defecation, and turned his sights towards eradicating single-use plastic next.

Modi -- whose claim has been challenged by experts -- made his ambitious "latrines for all" pledge when he first took office in 2014 and his announcement late Wednesday coincided with the 150th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, an icon not just for Indian independence but also sanitation.

"In 60 months, 600 million people have been given access to toilets, more than 110 million toilets have been built," Modi said in a speech to 20,000 village chiefs in western Ahmedabad city in his and Gandhi's home state of Gujarat.

"The women of our country no longer have to wait for darkness to descend. Innocent lives of young children are being saved... the expense on healthcare has come down," Modi added, calling the achievement a significant milestone for the vast developing country.

However, despite huge progress, experts have expressed scepticism about his bold claim, saying millions still lack access to a toilet, and that because of old habits many of the new facilities that have been built are not being used.

Modi acknowledged that challenges remained, saying "we have to continue the journey to make India clean. We have to make this change in behaviour permanent".

"We have to make sure that the toilets are used for the purpose for which they have been built. People who are still left out must be connected to (them)."

Plastic-free ambitions

Modi, who stormed to a second term in office in May, also pledged to embark on another major project -- to eradicate the country of single-use plastic.

"Plastic is a big danger to health, environment and cleanliness. We must achieve the target of making India plastic free by 2022," he said, reiterating a recent promise.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's claim that India is "open-defecation free" has been 

questioned by experts, who cite data from rural as well as urban areas (AFP Photo/

Prakash SINGH)

While some states have already banned the use of such plastics, enforcement of the rules has been lax.

"I know that the use of plastic bags has already come down. Millions of households have taken a decision not to use single-use plastics," he said.

"This will benefit the environment. Roads and sewers won't get blocked. Cattle and marine life would be saved."

Toilet claim doubts

Modi's claim that India is "open-defecation free" has been questioned by experts, who cite data from rural as well as urban areas.

"Latrine ownership increased from about 35 percent to about 70 percent... That did accelerate the reduction of open defecation," said Sangita Vyas from the Research Institute for Compassionate Economics (RICE).

"But in December 2018 we estimated about half of people in the states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan still defecated in the open," she told AFP.

She doubts the shortfall has been made up since. Those four states are home to more than 450 million people.

For instance across from Modi's office, on the other side of New Delhi, Vijaya relieved herself next to the tracks near Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station early in the morning.

"There is no toilet (where we live). We all go out in the open," she told AFP.

"We have been here for years and nobody has constructed a toilet, despite our repeated pleas," Kaveri, a domestic helper, said in her nearby home in the poor neighbourhood of Barapullah.

"We go out in the public and it's not safe, but what do we do?" said the mother-of-three.

Many of the toilets that have been constructed are often locked, used for storage, or some other purpose.

Cultural barriers, engrained habits or a lack of knowledge about sanitation also create barriers to more widespread usage.

"If you're going to change the behaviour of rural folk on a sustainable, long term, permanent basis, the only way you're going to be able to do it would be by first focusing on behaviour change," Santosh Mehrotra, a development economist at Jawaharlal Nehru University, told AFP.

Air pollution linked to higher risk of dementia: study

Yahoo – AFP, September 19, 2018

Chemicals cast off by tail-pipe pollution such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and soot are
known to boost the risk for heart disease, stroke and respiratory problems (AFP
Photo/Ina Fassbender)

Paris (AFP) - Urban air pollution, mostly from vehicles, is associated with an increased risk of dementia, according to research published Wednesday.

The link remained even after heavy drinking, smoking and other well established risk factors for dementia were ruled out, the researchers reported in medical journal BMJ Open.

Worldwide, about seven percent of people over 65 suffer from Alzheimer's or some form of dementia, a percentage that rises to 40 percent above the age of 85.

The number afflicted worldwide is expected to nearly triple by 2050, posing a huge challenge to healthcare systems.

"Primary prevention of all dementia is a major global public health concern for the coming decades," the researchers wrote.

Chemicals cast off by tailpipe pollution such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and soot are known to boost the risk for heart disease, stroke and respiratory problems, especially asthma.

But whether they also make Alzheimer's and other kinds of dementia more likely has remained unclear.

To find out more, a team of researchers led by Iain Carey of the University of London's Population Health Research Institute combed through health records for 131,000 people living in Greater London who, in 2004, were aged 50 to 79.

None showed signs of dementia when the study began.

Based on residential addresses, the scientists estimated yearly exposure to both NO2 and fine particulates known as PM2.5, and then tracked the health of the participants over a seven-year period.

During that time, nearly 2,200 patients -- 1.7 percent of the total -- were diagnosed with dementia.

The fifth of these patients living in the most heavily polluted areas were 40 percent more likely to be afflicted than the fifth residing in areas with the least NO2 and PM2.5.

Public health gains

Because the study was based on after-the-fact analysis rather than a clinical trial in an experimental setting, no firm conclusions can be drawn as to cause-and-effect, the authors cautioned.

But the findings strongly suggest that the chemical byproducts of burning diesel and petrol can damage brain function.

"Traffic-related air pollution has been linked to poorer cognitive development in young children," the study noted.

And even if the impact of air pollution remains relatively modest, they added, "the public health gains would be significant if it emerged that curbing exposure might delay progression of dementia."

The study was welcomed by experts who reviewed it before publication.

"There is a growing body of evidence of the link between air pollution and brain health, including dementia and Alzheimer's," said Martie Van Tongeren, a professor of occupational and environmental health at the University of Manchester.

"This adds to it."

Kevin McConway of the Open University praised the study but noted that it only estimated exposure to pollutants at home, and did not account for NO2 and PM2.5 levels at or near places of work, or the amount of time spent away from home.

In September 2015, the US Environmental Protection Agency revealed that German car manufacturer VW has installed so-called "defeat devices" in its cars to cheat in emissions tests.

The European Environment Agency estimates that more than 400,000 people in Europe's urban areas die prematurely every year due to outdoor air pollution.

Related Articles:

"The Biggest Filter" - July 18-19, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“..  The Biggest Filter that Hinders Truth is Your Biased Knowledge

The biggest filter of humanity, the one that keeps Humans from actual truth, believe it or not, is called knowledge. We speak of that which humanity perceives currently as knowledge. That which you do not know is, therefore, future knowledge. Now, every single scientist understands the difference - every single one - for they know what is coming is going to teach them what they don't know yet. This is part of the scientific process. Even so, they take what they know, or think they know, and completely let it temper the experiments for what they don't know. They base the future on what they know or believe, even though they know better!

A medical doctor will look in the past and he'll remember being taught about a time when humans would report to the barbershop for healing. That's when they would actually bleed people for healing. By the way, that's the reason for the barber pole having the red stripe on it - it's the tradition of barbers doing the bleeding. So back then, you went to get healed in the barbershop by being bled! This, of course, led to many deaths because there was no understanding of germs, sterilization or today's common sense. Doctors know this, and they laugh at how far you all have come from this. So doctors absolutely know that what is coming will someday be actually laughable, yet they are also absolutely and completely closed to what it might be. They just think it will be an advancement of what they currently know.  ….”

“..  Medicine - Where It's Going

I want to show you some other areas to consider. There are several categories that we'd like to talk about, but they're not in a specific order except for the last one. So let's talk about medicine. What is future medicine going to look like?

The most elegant predictions of medicine fall short of what's really coming. What you have today is a high-tech approach to designer chemistry. Now, since the body is made up of chemistry, it makes sense to look at this chemistry and work with it. It makes total sense to discover how it reacts to disease and then design cures with more chemistry. It's absolutely normal what you have done, but it's going to reach an end very soon. Because the future of medicine is physics, dear ones, not chemistry.

You're going to start understanding and developing new medical physics. You will discover that medi-physics is going to literally speak to cellular structure and give it instructions, without one chemical involved. There's always a reaction to chemistry, isn't there? There's always a side effect. When you push one thing, something else reacts, doesn't it? How do you like it so far? Your most elegant chemical designs, the ones that are helping with the worst diseases on the planet, all have side effects - and some of those side effects are death! I say to you, how do you like it so far?

Does it really seem elegant to you? Or perhaps it's just a more sophisticated way of bleeding in the barbershop? Dear ones, that's how you're going to look at it someday! You're going to slap your heads and say, "Remember the day when we did everything with chemistry and drugs?"

Right now, these kinds of changes have already started in several areas. There are discoveries being made that are healing some of the most heart-breaking diseases you have. I reveal one, because it's not a secret. I will always give you information that is either being worked on or has been postulated through free choice on this planet. That is the guideline of channelling. We can't give it to you. You've got to develop it yourself. However, we can put you in an energy that has a faster discovery potential - that is to say, discoveries become more obvious.

Alzheimer's is heart breaking. There are millions on this planet who develop this condition, more all the time. You're living longer and a plaque-like material that literally obfuscates your memory within the brain is becoming more common. It clings to certain parts of your brain, encrusting and restricting it, imprisoning the Human's ability to remember and eventually process information at all. The result is death, slow death. It's caused by your environment, a fact which will be discovered eventually. Your long-lived Ancients didn't have it.

It's going to be cured with physics. Your science is starting to find out that the plaque-like substance has a resonance that allows it to be weakened with sound. High-frequency sound, tuned to a certain frequency and amplitude, will cause the sheaths to weaken, dissolve, and come off. There's a lot of research to do yet, but it's a Eureka! moment - realizing that physics alone, without chemistry, can change the structure of biology. This is with no side effects whatsoever. It's coming, it's coming.

There are those working with fresh umbilical cord stem cells right now who are using pure physics to guide the stem cells to a specific destination in the body in order to repair failing systems. Dear ones, the future of health and healing is not through better chemistry, yet medicine is still waiting for better pills! Did you connect the dots and realize that all biology is physics based? There is magnetics, leverage, the energy of consciousness, electricity and much more within cellular structure. With physics alone, you can "tune in" to disease and destroy it! You can fine-tune your system with cooperative resonances and extend life with benevolent, physical assistance. Sixteen years ago, I told you this when I spoke of the Temple of Rejuvenation. I described the super-cooling needed to do it and the temperatures needed to work with it (-55C). This is physics!

Now, the false expectation of greater chemistry for the future is totally caused from the filter of knowledge. What you have and know then gives you your expectation of what is going to take place. It literally blocks you from seeing some of the potentials that you may have.  ….”

Cremation by water is environmentally safe, new research shows

DutchNews, June 29, 2018

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Resomation, or water cremation, an alternative to traditional burials or cremation by fire, is a safe alternative and there are no environmental reasons to reject it, according to research by the TNO scientific institute. 

The research was commissioned by Dutch funeral group Yarden, which wants the government to change the law to make resomation legal. 

Resomation is based on alkaline hydrolysis: the body is placed in a pressurised vessel that is then filled with a mixture of water and lye, and heated to around 160 degrees. The elevated pressure prevents the body boiling. Instead, the body is broken down into its chemical components, which takes upwards of three hours.

The process was patented in the US in 1888 and is legal in some US states and other countries but not in the Netherlands. 

The new TNO research states that the process can meet environmental demands, Yarden said on its website, adding that earlier TNO research showed resomation is less taxing on the environment than other forms of burial or cremation. 

A survey by Yarden showed that 23% of people would consider resomation as an alternative to traditional cremations. 

‘In some cultures and religions, cremation is not an option,’ said Yarden’s director of funeral arangments Sabrina Franken. ‘We see resomation as a mature, respectful and durable alternative. Water becomes the most important element, rather than fire or earth.’ 

10 things about death in the Netherlands 

Death and the Dutch, a museum devoted to funerals.

Non-stick chemicals common in fast food packaging: study

Yahoo – AFP, February 1, 2017

Burgers, fries, tacos and pastries come wrapped in grease-proof paper and boxes
that often contain non-stick chemicals that may be able to leach into food,
US researchers said (AFP Photo/SAUL LOEB)

Miami (AFP) - Burgers, fries, tacos and pastries come wrapped in grease-proof paper and boxes that often contain non-stick chemicals that may be able to leach into food, US researchers said Wednesday.

The study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters tested more than 400 samples from 27 fast food chains in the United States.

Almost half of paper wrappers and 20 percent of paperboard samples -- such as boxes for fries and pizza -- contained fluorine, a marker for highly fluorinated chemicals used in stain-resistant carpets, non-stick cookware and waterproof outdoor apparel.

"Wrappers for Tex-Mex food, desserts and breads were the most likely to contain fluorine," said the report.

The study did not show any specific harm to human health from exposure to these chemicals -- known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) -- in food wrappers.

But researchers warned that exposure to some PFASs has been associated with cancer, thyroid disease, immune suppression, low birth weight, and decreased fertility according to prior studies.

"These chemicals have been linked with numerous health problems, so it's concerning that people are potentially exposed to them in food," said lead author Laurel Schaider, an environmental chemist at the Silent Spring Institute.

"Children are especially at risk for health effects because their developing bodies are more vulnerable to toxic chemicals."

Six of the samples contained a long-chain PFAS called perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C8, even though several major US manufacturers agreed to stopping using C8 compounds in food packaging due to health hazards, after a 2011 US Food and Drug Administration review.

Researchers also detected some shorter-chain PFAS compounds, which have been increasingly used as replacements for the longer chain PFASs.

"The replacement compounds are equally persistent and have not been shown to be safe for human health," said co-author Arlene Blum, founder of the Green Science Policy Institute.

"That's why we need to reduce the use of the entire class of highly fluorinated compounds. The good news is there are non-fluorinated alternatives available."

About one in three American kids eat fast food every day.

The United States began phasing out certain PFASs in 2000, but other countries still produce them, and they tend to linger in the environment for long periods after being discarded in landfills.

Prior studies have shown that substances in food packaging can migrate into food.

Related Articles:

Kryon Q&A

(13) Question: Dear Kryon, I’m very concerned about the obesity epidemic, particularly in the U.S. Around me I see people getting bigger and more unhealthy, all for the sake of convenience and saving time. You mentioned at one point a famine, and I suspect the famine won’t be from a lack of food, but from an abundance of food that has no nutritional value.

I wonder how we can honor the Earth by eating nothing that comes straight from it? Of course this involves caring for the lands and oceans as part of a bigger issue and making that connection, too. Is this what it will finally take for people to switch to a healthier way of living?

Its amazing how detached people are from the food they eat. We don’t even honor our digestive processes, the way we combine foods. Whatever happened to nutrition? Atkins is no solution; there is no balance in it. Gastric bypass is all about quantity reduction, not quality increase. When will people make the direct connection between what/how they eat and their health? Is a change in diet and lifestyle part of the upcoming shift?

Answer: The shift has little to do with it. It’s a culture-specific problem and has to do with consciousness of health. Go study the cultures on your planet that have very few overweight Humans. Start with the Japanese. They have some of the same western work ethics and live in very sophisticated industrial-based environments. Yet they aren’t overweight. It’s about the core food groups and the combination of them.

(39) Question: Dear Kryon: I've noticed how many children are developing severe allergies to foods (my daughter included). When I've researched this, it seems that most of the allergies are essentially to seeds, grains, legumes, eggs, and dairy. I've noticed that these foods all hold the potential for life, or in the case of dairy, are essentially used to sustain the first stages of life in an animal's baby. My feeling is that because we're not releasing the life force within these foods (that is, sprouting, etc.), they're becoming harmful to us. I would like your impressions of this.

Answer: For thousands of years, these foods have worked for humanity. In these cases you speak about, the main culprit continues to be the way in which these foods are collected and processed. You won't find these allergies in third-world countries, and you won't find them within the children who work on farms, where they eat the foods directly. There will eventually have to come a day when you relax some of your efficiency attributes and go back to the way food was meant to be collected and eaten. And yes... there are effects from how the dairy animals are treated, too. Going back to some basics will help, and so will eliminating some of the procedures that supposedly create a "safer food." These procedures have instead made them begin to look like foreign food to the Human body.

(15) Question: Dear Kryon, please help us understand the increase of allergies. What can we do to heal this phenomenon?

Answer: Reduce the steps in your food chain, which are adding chemistry to fresh food.

Living close to major roads increases dementia risk: study

Yahoo – AFP, January 5, 2017

A study looked at six million adults between 2001 and 2012 and found those living
less than 50 metres (yards) from a busy road had a seven percent higher
incidence of dementia (AFP Photo/FRANCOIS GUILLOT)

London (AFP) - People living near major roads have a higher chance of developing dementia, according to a large-scale study published in British medical journal The Lancet on Thursday.

The research looked at six million adults living in Ontario, Canada between 2001 and 2012, and found that those living less than 50 metres (yards) from a busy road had a seven percent higher incidence of dementia.

The risk was four percent above normal for those living 50-100 metres from main roads and two percent higher among those 100-200 metres away.

There was no discernable elevated risk among people living more than 200 metres from a major route.

The study, led by Hong Chen from Public Health Ontario, found that long-term exposure to two common pollutants -- nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulates -- were associated with dementia but did not account for the full effect.

This suggested that other factors -- such as noise or other pollutants -- may play a contributing role.

The research did not establish any link between proximity to heavy traffic and other neurological conditions such as Parkinson's Disease or multiple sclerosis.

According to the World Health Organization, 47.5 million people worldwide have dementia -- a syndrome marked by deterioration in memory, thinking, behaviour and the ability to perform everyday activities.

Some 7.7 million new cases of dementia are reported every year, with Alzheimer's disease being the most common cause and contributing to 60–70% of cases.

Other causes of dementia include stroke and hypertension.

Pollution has long been suspected as playing a role in the development of Alzheimer's disease but no clear link had been established until now.

"Our study suggests that busy roads could be a source of environmental stressors that could give rise to the onset of dementia," Hong said.

"Increasing population growth and urbanisation has placed many people close to heavy traffic, and with widespread exposure to traffic and growing rates of dementia, even a modest effect from near-road exposure could pose a large public health burden."

Related Articles:

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Russian scientists find new way to repair DNA that may cure Alzheimer’s

Immune system link to Alzheimer's disease: US study
Alzheimer's study reveals new genes implicated in disease

Alzheimer's 'lost' memories may be recoverable: study

"The Biggest Filter" - July 18-19, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“..  The Biggest Filter that Hinders Truth is Your Biased Knowledge

The biggest filter of humanity, the one that keeps Humans from actual truth, believe it or not, is called knowledge. We speak of that which humanity perceives currently as knowledge. That which you do not know is, therefore, future knowledge. Now, every single scientist understands the difference - every single one - for they know what is coming is going to teach them what they don't know yet. This is part of the scientific process. Even so, they take what they know, or think they know, and completely let it temper the experiments for what they don't know. They base the future on what they know or believe, even though they know better!

A medical doctor will look in the past and he'll remember being taught about a time when humans would report to the barbershop for healing. That's when they would actually bleed people for healing. By the way, that's the reason for the barber pole having the red stripe on it - it's the tradition of barbers doing the bleeding. So back then, you went to get healed in the barbershop by being bled! This, of course, led to many deaths because there was no understanding of germs, sterilization or today's common sense. Doctors know this, and they laugh at how far you all have come from this. So doctors absolutely know that what is coming will someday be actually laughable, yet they are also absolutely and completely closed to what it might be. They just think it will be an advancement of what they currently know.  ….”

“..  Medicine - Where It's Going

I want to show you some other areas to consider. There are several categories that we'd like to talk about, but they're not in a specific order except for the last one. So let's talk about medicine. What is future medicine going to look like?

The most elegant predictions of medicine fall short of what's really coming. What you have today is a high-tech approach to designer chemistry. Now, since the body is made up of chemistry, it makes sense to look at this chemistry and work with it. It makes total sense to discover how it reacts to disease and then design cures with more chemistry. It's absolutely normal what you have done, but it's going to reach an end very soon. Because the future of medicine is physics, dear ones, not chemistry.

You're going to start understanding and developing new medical physics. You will discover that medi-physics is going to literally speak to cellular structure and give it instructions, without one chemical involved. There's always a reaction to chemistry, isn't there? There's always a side effect. When you push one thing, something else reacts, doesn't it? How do you like it so far? Your most elegant chemical designs, the ones that are helping with the worst diseases on the planet, all have side effects - and some of those side effects are death! I say to you, how do you like it so far?

Does it really seem elegant to you? Or perhaps it's just a more sophisticated way of bleeding in the barbershop? Dear ones, that's how you're going to look at it someday! You're going to slap your heads and say, "Remember the day when we did everything with chemistry and drugs?"

Right now, these kinds of changes have already started in several areas. There are discoveries being made that are healing some of the most heart-breaking diseases you have. I reveal one, because it's not a secret. I will always give you information that is either being worked on or has been postulated through free choice on this planet. That is the guideline of channelling. We can't give it to you. You've got to develop it yourself. However, we can put you in an energy that has a faster discovery potential - that is to say, discoveries become more obvious.

Alzheimer's is heart breaking. There are millions on this planet who develop this condition, more all the time. You're living longer and a plaque-like material that literally obfuscates your memory within the brain is becoming more common. It clings to certain parts of your brain, encrusting and restricting it, imprisoning the Human's ability to remember and eventually process information at all. The result is death, slow death. It's caused by your environment, a fact which will be discovered eventually. Your long-lived Ancients didn't have it.

It's going to be cured with physics. Your science is starting to find out that the plaque-like substance has a resonance that allows it to be weakened with sound. High-frequency sound, tuned to a certain frequency and amplitude, will cause the sheaths to weaken, dissolve, and come off. There's a lot of research to do yet, but it's a Eureka! moment - realizing that physics alone, without chemistry, can change the structure of biology. This is with no side effects whatsoever. It's coming, it's coming.

There are those working with fresh umbilical cord stem cells right now who are using pure physics to guide the stem cells to a specific destination in the body in order to repair failing systems. Dear ones, the future of health and healing is not through better chemistry, yet medicine is still waiting for better pills! Did you connect the dots and realize that all biology is physics based? There is magnetics, leverage, the energy of consciousness, electricity and much more within cellular structure. With physics alone, you can "tune in" to disease and destroy it! You can fine-tune your system with cooperative resonances and extend life with benevolent, physical assistance. Sixteen years ago, I told you this when I spoke of the Temple of Rejuvenation. I described the super-cooling needed to do it and the temperatures needed to work with it (-55C). This is physics!

Now, the false expectation of greater chemistry for the future is totally caused from the filter of knowledge. What you have and know then gives you your expectation of what is going to take place. It literally blocks you from seeing some of the potentials that you may have.  ….”


Kryon Q&A

Question (2004): Dearest Kryon: I've read the question and answer on people with diseases of the mind - for example, Alzheimers and dementia. But I have more questions. You say that people have chosen this path and that the lessons are for us. As I work with these people, I'm wondering if there is any stage where there could be a reversal of the condition, and if so, with what methods? The people in the hostel are so drugged up, and there's a mind-set with the authorities that no "alternate" therapies work - although they're using colored lights. (Sadly, the diversional therapist told me she doesn't know what color therapy is.)

From a spiritual point of view, what is the best way to work with these people - talk to them as though they were normal, or go along with their imaginings? I've been told that they need to be kept quiet, especially toward evening. However, I've found that with one woman who mostly paces saying very little, the more childlike I am (dancing and singing makes her happy), the more she talks. I could go on and on - could you please enlighten me further?

Answer: I will answer the second part first. Love those who are in this condition. Find out what makes them smile... and then make them smile. The best you can do in a facilitation of this condition is to somehow create joy. Even in their confusion they can laugh at situations and be creative. They'll also remember you better as the one who creates this emotion. Each is very different, but in general, try to find their "happy" button and push it as often as you can. They will remember that.

Right now you're perched upon some important discoveries that will be able to reverse these conditions to a large degree. But just as the paraplegic who regains their nerve connections must than relearn how to walk, suffering much pain, there will be this attribute with a regeneration of the mind. Even if new cells are created, they won't necessarily have the old memories, but they can be trained to be healthy and be ready for new memories.

So someday these will have the ability to halt the progress of the degeneration of cells that are being taken, and instead grow new pathways around them. Some will be able to "reconnect" to certain kinds of memories (like recognition) but will have to relearn what the association of recognition actually means. So history and events might have to be studied and relearned... sometimes even things like reading, also. The pain will be that the individual will regain mental health and will realize exactly what has happened.

Your stem-cell research is very important, and you're reaching a point where you'll be able to use birth cells that aren't embryonic, but every bit as potent for research... thereby sidestepping all moral issues. Look for this in the next few years. 

Declining sperm quality and diseases linked to environmental issues

DutchNews, September 21, 2016

More newborn boys have genital disorders and testicular cancer rates are rising due to environmental pollutants, a Dutch doctor has told NOS. 

Gert Dohle, a urologist at Erasmus Medical Centre, told the Radio 1 Journaal that the ‘most important causes are dangerous substances in the environment’. He is organising an international conference in Rotterdam on Tuesday on declining sperm quality in Western men.

 ‘If this trend continues, ultimately few couples will be able to have children naturally,’ he continued. ‘But that, fortunately, is still far away.’ 

He blamed plastic products such as baby bottles and containers used to heat microwave meals. Previously, it had been thought tight underpants and lifestyle aspects were responsible for poorer sperm but the theory has changed, with problems even visible in male foetuses. 

The AD reports that in the past 20 years, the average healthy man’s level of sperm has dropped by a third.

Toxic chemicals found in most outdoor gear: Greenpeace

Yahoo – AFP, January 25, 2016

Greenpeace said that hazardous chemicals were "widely present" in a range of
outdoor gear including brands like The North Face (AFP Photo/Eric Piermont)

Berlin (AFP) - Greenpeace said Monday that hazardous chemicals were "widely present" in a range of outdoor gear it tested, from clothing and footwear to backpacks, tents and sleeping bags

The environmental activist group said out of 40 products tested, only four were free of per- and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFCs).

The study showed that toxic chemicals are "still widely present in products by brands such as Jack Wolfskin, The North Face, Patagonia, Mammut, Norrona and Salewa, especially in the production of footwear, trousers, sleeping bags and some jackets," said the report.

PFCs are used to add waterproof and dirt-repellent finishes to outdoor apparel, but are hazardous to the environment and human health, said Greenpeace.

"Once released into the environment most PFCs break down very slowly. They can remain in the environment for many years after their release and are dispersed over the entire globe," the report said.

The pollutants have been found in secluded mountain lakes and snow, can accumulate in the livers of Arctic polar bears and be detected in human blood, the report said.

Greenpeace said studies had shown that some PFCs "can cause adverse impacts ... on the reproductive system and the immune system, as well as being potentially carcinogenic in animal tests".

The group said an independent laboratory had tested 11 jackets and eight trousers, seven pairs of shoes, eight backpacks, two tents, two sleeping bags, one climbing rope and one pair of gloves.

The four products that did not contain PFCs were jackets by Vaude and Jack Wolfskin, a backpack by Haglöfs and a pair of gloves by The North Face, said Greenpeace, adding that this showed it is possible to produce outdoor gear without PFCs.

The group urged all outdoor apparel companies to join its 'Detox My Fashion' campaign that aims to quickly remove hazardous chemicals from the entire manufacturing supply chain of the textiles industry.

"Phasing out PFCs by 2020, as some outdoor clothing brands aspire to do, is not ambitious enough," the group said.

"It is not acceptable that their products continue to release persistent and potentially hazardous chemicals into the environment for another five years."

Two-thirds of EU states to ban GM crop cultivation

The European Commission has announced 19 EU member states will be able to ban the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops. Environmental groups praised the news.

Deutsche Welle, 5 Nov 2015

The 19 EU member states will be able to ban GM cultivation on their territory after biotech and agriculture companies dropped objections on Thursday.

GM crops have faced resistance in Europe amid concern over their impact on health and the environment.

Previously, EU member states could only ban GM cultivation based on scientific evidence of health or environmental risks, but under new rules they will also be able to cite other reasons, including political considerations.

The decision comes after the Brussels - split between pro and anti-GM members -had, after years of negotiations, allowed individual member states to decide whether they would grow GM crops.

"The new approach allows member states to listen to the concerns of many European citizens and have the final say on whether or not GMOs can be cultivated on their territory," European Commission spokesman Enrico Brivio said.

The 19 countries include Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia.

Germany will also ban GM crops, but wants to allow for GM research. Denmark and Luxembourg want to ban four GM crops, while Belgium and Britain have asked for the ban to apply in only certain parts of their countries.

“Over the past 20 years, GM technology has only been taken up by a handful of countries for a handful of crops, so no wonder two thirds of Europe have decided to ban it," Greenpeace EU food policy director Franziska Achterberg said in a statement. "Where GM crops are grown, they lead to increased pesticide use and the entrenchment of industrial farming systems that in turn exacerbate hunger, malnutrition and climate change.”

Monsanto's maize strain MON 810 is currently the only GM crop approved for cultivation in the EU, where it is primarily crown in Spain and Portugal. Eight other approvals are pending.

Monsanto's Roundup Ready line of GM crops has been linked to the massive population decline of monarch butterflies in North America.

Nearly 85 percent of GM crops in the world are grown in four countries: the US, Brazil, Argentina and Canada.

The EU still imports GM products, but a proposal to make it easier to ban or restrict GM imports is still under consideration.

cw/rc (dpa)

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"The Biggest Filter" - July 18-19, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“..  Health

Normal good health is turning to simple physics for some of the simplest things. New kinds of foods are being grown with new physics, not chemistry. These will be physic-foods [Kryon name] that are not genetically altered or chemically altered, but benevolently enhanced by physics! This causes a new kind of super growth that can feed the planet in a way it's never been fed before. It will create food that is resistant to absolutely everything - insects, bacteria and disease - all through physics. Who thought of that? What you're expecting in the future regarding health is based upon the past. The big filter of past knowledge keeps you from thinking out of the box. You don't know what you don't know.  ….”

'Super-agers' study may reveal secrets to staying young

Yahoo – AFP, Kerry Sheridan, 3 Nov 2015

Regular exercise and a Mediterranean diet are known to help foster healthy

aging (AFP Photo/Federica Narancio)

Miami (AFP) - Mary Helen Abbott, 77, paints her lips bright pink, still smokes the occasional cigarette, keeps up on all the gossip at the retirement home and wears a short skirt to fitness class.

She giggles as the aerobics instructor shouts -- "Swagger! Like you are going to meet someone famous!" -- then she and a dozen seniors throw shoulders back, lift their knees high and strut around the exercise studio.

Abbott is what scientists refer to as a "super-ager," and she is taking part in a $3.2 million study that aims to uncover the secrets to staying sharp and healthy into old age.

While some hunt for medications to treat or prevent dementia, others, like University of Miami neuropsychologist David Loewenstein, are interested in why some people are spared altogether.

"I study Alzheimer's disease, but if we want to unlock the mysteries of the brain we also have to know why some people age successfully," said Loewenstein.

The five-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health is open to people age 63 to 100 who have not been diagnosed with dementia, and who are either in good mental shape or have early signs of memory failure, known as mild cognitive decline.

A man gardens at Florida's East Ridge retirement village, where many residents

 here are taking part in a University of Miami study that seeks to uncover the secrets

of healthy aging and staying sharp well into the 90s (AFP Photo/Federica Narancio)

Loewenstein is particularly intrigued with how some people seem to be able to fend off memory loss, whether by genetic, environmental or other means.

He cites studies involving autopsies on people 85 and above -- a population in which about one in three suffers from dementia.

Nearly another third of this age group have post-mortems that reveal significant hallmarks of dementia -- known as plaques and tangles in the brain -- but seemed just fine while alive.

"How can people function at these higher levels? Science has not been able to answer that," said Loewenstein.

"And that is what we are trying to figure out."

Staying busy

Of the 100 people enrolled in Loewenstein's study so far, more than 40 live at East Ridge, a retirement village that resembles a typical suburban neighborhood in south Florida, with wild peacocks roaming beneath the palm trees, people driving around the manicured grounds on golf carts, and rows of single-story homes divided into multiple apartment units.

Mary Helen Abbott, 77, is what scientists refer to as a "super-ager," and she is taking

 part in a $3.2 million study that aims to uncover the secrets to staying sharp and

healthy into old age (AFP Photo/Federica Narancio)

Such tranquility does not come cheap. Residents must pay $111,000 up front, then a monthly rent of $2,700 or more, depending on the size of their living space.

Soon after arriving seven years ago, Gwen North, a retired kindergarten teacher who appears decades younger than her age of 85, took on the responsibility of running the thrift store.

"I work probably six days a week," she said, happily.

At age 86, her husband Art is known as the go-to-guy around town -- perpetually ready to chat, share information, or fix electronics that have broken.

Art and Gwen have already taken memory tests and are giving samples of their spinal fluid so that it can be studied for the earliest biological markers of aging. They have even arranged to donate their brains for further study after they die.

'Exercise in a pill'

So what has kept them young?

"Staying busy. And good genes," said Gwen.

"Just working. And my wife," added Art.

It turns out, there is scientific data to back up their claims.

"We have known for a long time that people in the workforce are better than people out of work," said Laura Carstensen, founding director of the Stanford University Center on Longevity, addressing a forum on aging at the National Academy of Medicine last month in Washington.

With cases of dementia in the United States set to triple, reaching 132 million by 2050,

 some experts warn the disease could bankrupt major world economies and cripple

health systems (AFP Photo/Federica Narancio)

"Work -- paid or unpaid -- may improve cognitive functioning."

Regular exercise and a Mediterranean diet are also known to help foster healthy aging.

"Geriatricians I know say that if we could put exercise in a pill form it would be the most sought-after drug on the market," she said.

Social connections

Abbott confesses that prior to entering the retirement home, she was not doing so well. After her husband died, she lost weight and felt lonely.

"One of the big reasons I like being here is I got tired of eating by myself," said Abbott.

She clearly thrives on social contact. Now, she plays golf every Monday and rides the bus to church on weekends.

Abbott leads the welcoming committee and knows everyone, from the gay couple who just moved in, to the woman in her 90s who nearly died but is now lifting weights again in exercise class, to the woman with the raven hair who had a tryst with a doctor 20 years her senior, then married him, and has stayed married to him for some 40 years.

She recounts these vignettes without malice, exuding pure delight at knowing the details of others' lives.

"Epidemiological studies show that people with a lifetime of cognitively

 stimulating activities and social connections are much less at risk for cognitive

 decline as they age," says University of Miami neuropsychologist David 

Loewenstein (AFP Photo/Federica Narancio)

There's some science behind this, too.

"Epidemiological studies show that people with a lifetime of cognitively stimulating activities and social connections are much less at risk for cognitive decline as they age," said Loewenstein.

Economic burden

Of course, it is impossible to ignore the economics of healthy aging. Many of the residents at East Ridge are educated and white. They saved their earnings, invested well and benefited from the boom in real estate prices.

The poor are often more prone to the ravages of aging. Research also shows that African-Americans and Hispanics suffer disproportionately higher rates of dementia than the country's whites.

With cases of dementia in the United States set to triple, reaching 132 million by 2050, some experts warn the disease could bankrupt major world economies and cripple health systems.

But Carstensen believes society could also benefit from a new perspective, one that doesn't automatically conflate aging with illness.

Related Article:

"The Biggest Filter" - July 18-19, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“..  The Biggest Filter that Hinders Truth is Your Biased Knowledge

The biggest filter of humanity, the one that keeps Humans from actual truth, believe it or not, is called knowledge. We speak of that which humanity perceives currently as knowledge. That which you do not know is, therefore, future knowledge. Now, every single scientist understands the difference - every single one - for they know what is coming is going to teach them what they don't know yet. This is part of the scientific process. Even so, they take what they know, or think they know, and completely let it temper the experiments for what they don't know. They base the future on what they know or believe, even though they know better!

A medical doctor will look in the past and he'll remember being taught about a time when humans would report to the barbershop for healing. That's when they would actually bleed people for healing. By the way, that's the reason for the barber pole having the red stripe on it - it's the tradition of barbers doing the bleeding. So back then, you went to get healed in the barbershop by being bled! This, of course, led to many deaths because there was no understanding of germs, sterilization or today's common sense. Doctors know this, and they laugh at how far you all have come from this. So doctors absolutely know that what is coming will someday be actually laughable, yet they are also absolutely and completely closed to what it might be. They just think it will be an advancement of what they currently know.  ….”

“..  Medicine - Where It's Going

I want to show you some other areas to consider. There are several categories that we'd like to talk about, but they're not in a specific order except for the last one. So let's talk about medicine. What is future medicine going to look like?

The most elegant predictions of medicine fall short of what's really coming. What you have today is a high-tech approach to designer chemistry. Now, since the body is made up of chemistry, it makes sense to look at this chemistry and work with it. It makes total sense to discover how it reacts to disease and then design cures with more chemistry. It's absolutely normal what you have done, but it's going to reach an end very soon. Because the future of medicine is physics, dear ones, not chemistry.

You're going to start understanding and developing new medical physics. You will discover that medi-physics is going to literally speak to cellular structure and give it instructions, without one chemical involved. There's always a reaction to chemistry, isn't there? There's always a side effect. When you push one thing, something else reacts, doesn't it? How do you like it so far? Your most elegant chemical designs, the ones that are helping with the worst diseases on the planet, all have side effects - and some of those side effects are death! I say to you, how do you like it so far?

Does it really seem elegant to you? Or perhaps it's just a more sophisticated way of bleeding in the barbershop? Dear ones, that's how you're going to look at it someday! You're going to slap your heads and say, "Remember the day when we did everything with chemistry and drugs?"

Right now, these kinds of changes have already started in several areas. There are discoveries being made that are healing some of the most heart-breaking diseases you have. I reveal one, because it's not a secret. I will always give you information that is either being worked on or has been postulated through free choice on this planet. That is the guideline of channelling. We can't give it to you. You've got to develop it yourself. However, we can put you in an energy that has a faster discovery potential - that is to say, discoveries become more obvious.

Alzheimer's is heart breaking. There are millions on this planet who develop this condition, more all the time. You're living longer and a plaque-like material that literally obfuscates your memory within the brain is becoming more common. It clings to certain parts of your brain, encrusting and restricting it, imprisoning the Human's ability to remember and eventually process information at all. The result is death, slow death. It's caused by your environment, a fact which will be discovered eventually. Your long-lived Ancients didn't have it.

It's going to be cured with physics. Your science is starting to find out that the plaque-like substance has a resonance that allows it to be weakened with sound. High-frequency sound, tuned to a certain frequency and amplitude, will cause the sheaths to weaken, dissolve, and come off. There's a lot of research to do yet, but it's a Eureka! moment - realizing that physics alone, without chemistry, can change the structure of biology. This is with no side effects whatsoever. It's coming, it's coming.

There are those working with fresh umbilical cord stem cells right now who are using pure physics to guide the stem cells to a specific destination in the body in order to repair failing systems. Dear ones, the future of health and healing is not through better chemistry, yet medicine is still waiting for better pills! Did you connect the dots and realize that all biology is physics based? There is magnetics, leverage, the energy of consciousness, electricity and much more within cellular structure. With physics alone, you can "tune in" to disease and destroy it! You can fine-tune your system with cooperative resonances and extend life with benevolent, physical assistance. Sixteen years ago, I told you this when I spoke of the Temple of Rejuvenation. I described the super-cooling needed to do it and the temperatures needed to work with it (-55C). This is physics!

Now, the false expectation of greater chemistry for the future is totally caused from the filter of knowledge. What you have and know then gives you your expectation of what is going to take place. It literally blocks you from seeing some of the potentials that you may have.  ….”