As hard as it is to believe, until fairly recently medical doctors insisted that tiny babies did not feel pain. Even now some doctors and nurses do not want to administer painkillers to babies, saying they don’t need them.

But mounting evidence, indicates that babies do feel pain. Monitoring their blood pressure and other indicators shows that they do. (Not to mention that it is just common sense!)

Furthermore, it is now know that experiencing extreme or chronic pain in infancy affects people in later on in life. Although they do not consciously remember pain in infancy. Babies who have experienced painful medical conditions go on to have greater sensitivity to pain in later life. They also are more prone to other conditions such as attention deficit disorder.

Even now very little is known about what painkillers to use for babies. All the research conducted on anesthesia has been done with adults.

Doctors, nurses and parents worry about treating babies with morphine and methadone, which are the normal treatments for adults in cases of acute pain. Sadly they often refuse to administer painkillers to babies who clearly need them.

Furthermore, in the past it was very difficult to tell when babies are in pain. They can’t talk, and they cry for many other reasons. It is still not easy, but in recent years some progress has been made.

New research nowadays is providing hope for a solution. Computer face recognition may soon make it possible to have computers monitor babies visually 24 hours a day to make sure they are not in pain. That is especially important for premature babies who often are subjected to repeated painful treatments.

Already some progress has been made, and the prospects look good.

For years we have been told that soy is the new wonder food. Better for us than meat, milk, and a host of other foods.

The Dark Side of Soy

Authors Sally Fallon and Mary Enig, PhD, have investigated the available medical research findings and discovered that we have been dangerously, horrifyingly wrong. Soy is bad for us! And very, very bad for our babies!

You can read their complete article “Soy, the Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food at http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/darkside.html. Meanwhile, here is a quick summary.

Even a Little Bit Hurts

New research shows that eating soy even a couple of times a week can suppress the thyroid, causing Alzheimer’s-like symptoms in younger people. In very sensitive people, even the small amount of soy flour that is in bread can cause problems.

Medical research shows that if you are taking thyroid medication, even a tiny bit of soy can cancel it out. Soy has long been known to cause thyroid enlargement in women and children. If medical researchers knew that, why were we not told?

How Much Is Too Much Soy?

If you think you never eat soy products, think again. Soy is in much of our food. Start reading labels in the grocery store, and try to find a loaf of bread that does not contain soy flour. Good luck!

Here are some of the common foods that contain soy, typical quantities, and how many milligrams of soy each contains:

Bread with added soy flour, 2 slices 4 mg
Meatless chicken nuggets, 1/2 cup 15 mg
Soy hot dog 15 mg
Soymilk, 8-ounce glass 20 mg
Miso, 1/4 cup 21 mg
Tofu, 1/2 cup 28 mg
Soy cheese, 1/2 cup 31 mg
Soymilk skin or film , cooked, 1/2 cup 51 mg
Tempeh, cooked, 1/2 cup 53 mg
Soybean chips , 1/2 cup 54 mg
Revival soy-based meal replacement, 1 serving 160 mg

Is it Alzheimer’s, or Is it Soy?

Symptoms of severely low thyroid include mental symptoms similar to Alzheimer’s disease, such as memory loss, confusion, slowness, paranoid depression and even hallucinations. Other symptoms of low thyroid (hypothyroidism) include fatigue, loss of hair, difficulties at menopause, digestive problems, constipation, infertility, brittle bones, and heart disease.

Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies Caused by Soy

Part of the problem with soy is caused by phytoestrogens, plant substances that mimic estrogen. But there are other problems. One is phytic acid which blocks the absorption of zinc. You need zinc for your brain to work properly.

And there is more: Modern processed soy foods have high levels of MSG, fluoride and aluminum, which are toxic to the nervous system. And food processing creates at least two kinds of carcinogens: lysinealanines and nitrosamines.

Soy products also contain certain enzymes that make it difficult to absorb protein and that irritate the digestive tract.

Even rats that were fed soy protein isolates (which are in many foods) became deficient in vitamins E, K, D and B12 and in the minerals calcium, magnesium, zinc and many others.

Asians Actually Do Not Eat Much Soy

Soy enthusiasts say that soy is a staple food in Asia, but that is not true. Asians use soy only as a condiment.

People in China average only two teaspoons of soy a day. People in Japan average about 1/4 cup of soy a day, but they also eat large quantities of seaweed, which is very high in iodine. That somewhat protects them from the negative effects of soy.

But that is not the worst. Americans often eat much more soy than Asians, because it is hidden in so many foods. It is even in baby formula. At the rate at which many Americans eat soy, it can cause hormone disruption in women and developmental problems in children.

Bad for Babies

Even worse, infants who are given only soy-based baby formula are taking in 4 to 11 more soy than most adults in proportion to their body weigth. Babies who are fed soy-based formula have been found to have 13,000 to 22,000 times more isoflavones in their blood than babies fed milk-based formula.

In fact, a New Zealand toxicologist, Dr. Mike Fitzpatrick, estimates that a baby that is fed only soy formula is getting the equivalent in phytoestrogen of five birth control pills per day—or more.

Are you wondering if Asians give their babies soy-based baby formula? Well, they don’t. They use cow milk or buffalo milk instead.

What We Thought We Knew Was Wrong

For awhile, researchers thought that premature development of menstuation and sex characteristics in children was caused by meat. Well, the evidence is in. The actual culprit seems to be soy-based baby formula.

New research links soy baby formula learning disabilities, extreme emotional behavior, depression, asthma, immune system problems, pituitary insufficiency, thyroid disorders and irritable bowel syndrome.

News of Soy Effects Repressed by Researchers?

But here is what is really scary: Some researchers have suppressed the negative findings about soy because they were assured by the soy industry that soy was perfectly safe!

What to Do if You Are Hurt by Soy Products

Consumer groups in Canada and New Zealand are working to ban soy infant formula. The law firm of Johnston Lawrence in New Zealand is collecting the names of victims for a class action lawsuit in New Zealand. They will then follow up in the US.

If you believe your child has been hurt by soy infant formula, or if you have suffered thyroid problems from ingesting soy, write to PO Box 1213, DX SP 20004, Wellington, New Zealand or roger@johnlaw.co.nz and tell them your story.

In America the Weston A. Price Foundation is working to have soy baby formula taken off the market. If you think your child may have been harmed by soy baby formula, write to the following congressmen, and send a copy of the letter to the Weston A. Price Foundation:

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA)
United States Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee
328A Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT)
Senate Subcommittee on Health Care of the Finance Committee
Caucus of Complementary and Alternative Health Care
219 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Dan Burton (R-IN)
Chairman, House Committee on Government Reform
Caucus of Complementary and Alternative Health Care
2157 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
Caucus of Complementary and Alternative Health Care
U.S. House of Representatives
1730 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Weston A. Price Foundation
PMB 106-380 4200 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016

Reference Sources

www.csa.com/hottopics/thyroid/oview.html
soyonlineservice.co.nz
www.westonaprice.org

Who Are Sally Fallon and Mary Enig?

Sally Fallon is the author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, with Mary G. Enig, PhD (NewTrends Publishing 877-707-1776). She is the founding president of the Weston A. Price Foundation (www.westonaprice.org) and founder of A Campaign for Real Milk (www.realmilk.com).

Mary Enig, PhD is the author of Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol (Bethesda Press 301-680-8600). She is President of the Maryland Nutritionists Association and Vice President of the Weston A Price Foundation, Washington, DC.

Hypnosis has been a controversial topic in many circles since the 18th century. What it is and how it works have been misunderstood and sometimes hotly debated for centuries. Hypnotists are often portrayed on movies and TV as mind-control masters who can compel their subjects to do bizarre or horrible things against their own will.

In the 20th century, though, hypnosis gradually came into its own as a technique for psychotherapists to help patients recall traumatic incidents that were continuing to affect their lives. Often, recalling the origin of a mental problem helped the patient deal with the issues involved.

Physicians and dentists learned that hypnosis could be used to ease pain and even allow patients to endure otherwise painful procedures without the use of anesthetics.

Then law enforcement officials jumped into the act, using hypnosis to coax testimony from forgetful witnesses. That led to still more controversy when it was discovered that witnesses could easily, even accidentally, be led to “remember” things that never happened. That meant hypnosis was not a reliable tool for coaching witnesses for court testimony.

With all that going on, there were still those in the medical establishment who did not believe hypnosis was useful, or perhaps even real. Now, after all these years, the verdict of medical research is in: “Hypnosis works. We don’t know why.”

Childhood bone cancer is a devastating and tragic disease. Despite the state of the art in current cancer treatment, bone cancer in children results in amputation for 80% of young patients.

But now there is hope. Promising new medical research in Britain, conducted on dogs (which suffer from a similar form of bone cancer) shows that it may soon be possible to use stem cells to cure bone cancer in children.

Spinal cord injuries in lab animals can now be treated with nano (microscopic) technologies that can improve healing and even reverse paralysis, according to researchers. Paralyzed mice have had full movement restored in only six weeks.

The U.S. government has spent over a billion dollars on nanotechnology research. The research is controversial, because not enough is known about side effects and what can happen if the tiny molecules escape into the environment.

However, the research results look promising. If treatment with nanotechnology proves equally successful on humans, many people who are now paralyzed could soon be able to lead normal lives again.

Medical researchers in the United Kingdom have reportedly developed a way to create artificial nerves from fatty stem cells to replace the damaged nerves in injured limbs and organs.

That is great news for patients suffering from many kinds of nerve damage. Eventually it could lead to reversal of spinal cord damage, allowing paraplegics and quadraplegics full use of their limbs again. Meanwhile, it will be several years before the new procedures are approved for use on humans. It may be several more years before the treatments are available in most of the United States and other parts of the world.

You’ve probably heard or read that eating less can help you live longer. I had, too, but never with a good explanation of just why that would be. It turns out that medical researchers didn’t really know why, but now they think they do.

As the news story explained, it is not enough just to eat less. Starving yourself will not work. You have to lower your calorie intake but keep the same level of nutrients.

The only way I know of to do that (assuming you don’t live on junk food) is to take vitamins and other nutritional supplements. How about you?