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Household Chemicals Causing Obesity

Bunt, Waschmittel, Flaschen, Waschmaschine, Plastik

(Dr. Mercola) Using satellite data, the Health Effects Institute found that 95 percent of the world is breathing polluted air.¹ Their statistics are based on outdoor sources of pollution, including transportation vehicles, industrial activity and coal power plants. Although these numbers are considerable, they are likely conservative and do not account for small particulate pollution in your home.

Over the past 50 years the number of soaps and detergents have grown at an amazing rate as manufacturers work to meet the demands of consumers looking for quick, fragrant solutions to a dirty problem.² However, using these chemical household cleaners as seldom as once a week come with significant health risks.

For example, one recent study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine³ demonstrated weekly exposure to chemical cleaning solutions increases your risk of lung damage from fine particulate air pollution.

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Disinfectants and Detergents Increase Your Child’s Risk of Obesity

Another study⁴ has linked exposure to cleaning products in early childhood to an increased risk of obesity. According to research published in 2013,⁵ 20 percent of American deaths are associated with obesity, and the younger you are, the greater the influence on your mortality. Since 1980, childhood obesity rates have tripled in the U.S. and the rate of obese teens has quadrupled.

In this study, the researchers evaluated the gut flora of more than 750 babies between the ages of 3 and 4 months who were part of the Canadian Health Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) cohort. Fecal samples were collected at the start and end of the study to evaluate the type and number of bacteria.

During the study, researchers asked parents how often cleaning products were used and confirmed these answers with a visit to the residence. Reassessment was done at age 1 and 3 years, including a measurement of the child’s weight.⁶ The data revealed a change in the child’s gut microbiota, which differed depending upon the cleaning products used in the home.

For instance, children exposed to disinfectants had higher levels of Lachnospiraceae bacteria while levels of Haemophilus dropped. Children who lived in homes where eco-friendly products were used had lower levels of Enterobacteriaceae.

When the child’s weight was measured at the end of the study, those in contact with disinfectants had higher BMI scores, whereas homes where eco-friendly products were used experienced an inverse trend. The researchers controlled for a wide range of other potential factors affecting changes in gut bacteria, such as vaginal or cesarean birth, breastfeeding and exposure to antibiotics.⁷

While there was no evidence that gut microbiome changes caused the reduction in obesity risk, the analysis showed exposure to detergents and disinfectants did increase the risk.⁸ Lead author and pediatric professor at the University of Alberta, Anita Kozyrskyj, commented on the results:⁹

“A possible explanation is that mothers who used eco-friendly products during pregnancy had more nutritious diets and a healthier pregnancy.

As a result, their healthy microbiome was passed on to their newborns, leading to both a lower chance of their infants having lower levels of Enterobacteriaceae three to four months later and becoming overweight. When infants are implicated, changing the composition of microbiota at a critical time of development may affect the immune system.”

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The High Cost of Obesity

In December 2011, severe obesity was included as a qualifying disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act, raising the cost to society as a whole. Data collected from thousands of Canadians has also confirmed obesity surpasses smoking in terms of creating ill-health, and Dutch researchers have predicted obesity and inactivity will overtake smoking as a leading cause of cancer deaths.

One study¹⁰ reviewed data from more than 170 countries measuring health effects associated with body mass index (BMI) and found 12 percent of adults, globally, are obese. When those who are overweight but not obese are included, the global rate is nearly 30 percent. This echoes previous studies and suggests there are now more overweight people than there are underweight ones.¹¹

Many who are obese develop Type 2 diabetes, a condition caused by insulin and leptin resistance. Those with Type 2 diabetes are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, stroke, heart attack and negative health conditions associated with damage to microvasculature, including blindness and kidney disease.

Obesity also increases your risk of developing gallstones, crystal-like deposits created inside your gallbladder.¹² The stones may be made from cholesterol in individuals who are obese, and the size can vary from a grain of sand to the size of a golf ball. While they don’t always cause symptoms, if they block the pancreatic duct you may experience noticeable pain lasting several hours.

A study published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging has also found structural changes in the brains of overweight individuals typically seen in far older people.¹³ The researchers discovered those who are overweight had accelerated loss of the brain’s white matter, and calculated the volume lost in an overweight 50-year-old was comparable to the same volume lost in a slim 60-year-old.

The loss may be related to an increased inflammatory response, but the exact reason remains undetermined. Higher amounts of body fat can contribute to various forms of cancer. While the connection isn’t clear, doctors believe low-level inflammation caused by obesity can gradually damage DNA over time, leading to cancer. The following types of cancer have been linked to obesity:

Endometrial cancer	Esophageal adenocarcinoma
Breast cancer	Gastric cardia cancer
Liver cancer	Kidney cancer
Pancreatic cancer	Colorectal cancer

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Strong Link Between Gut Microbiome and Weight

The importance of the human gut microbiome to health is only beginning to be explored. Several studies have described the structure and capacity of the microbiome in a healthy state and a variety of disease states.¹⁴ Ongoing efforts to characterize the function and mechanism continue to provide a better understanding of the role gut microbiome plays in health and disease.

The gut microbiome changes quickly during the first year or two of life and is shaped by breast milk, the environment and other factors. However, the number and type of bacteria tends to stabilize by the time you are 3 years old.¹⁵ That said, exposure to antibiotics, cleaning supplies, stress, processed foods and medications can all impact the health of your gut microbiome.

The bacteria have been linked to how people respond to medications, and it’s been suggested it may be linked with how well you sleep. Weight management is another area of health affected by the type of bacteria living in your gut. Your gut microbes influence appetite, inflammation and efficiency of metabolizing, and have a significant impact on your immune system.

Data from a Danish study¹⁶ revealed your gut microbiome may be responsible for how much weight you can lose and under what circumstances. The study’s coauthor, Arne Astrup, Ph.D., explained:¹⁷

“Human intestinal bacteria have been linked to the increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity, and scientists have started to investigate whether the intestinal bacteria can play a role in the treatment of overweight.

But it is only now that we have a breakthrough demonstrating that certain bacterial species play a decisive role in weight regulation and weight loss.”

In studies comparing intestinal bacteria in obese and lean individuals, researchers found lean individuals had a rich community of microbes brimming with many species, but obese individuals had a less diverse group of microbiota.¹⁸

Although documenting the differences does not indicate discrepancies are responsible for obesity, further research in animal studies¹⁹ and the featured study indicate changes in gut microbiome may hold a significant clue to weight management.

For example, in one small study,²⁰ calorie restriction and physical activity was found to impact the composition of the gut microbiome. The goal of the study was to determine the influence of a treatment program on the gut microbiome, finding those in the high weight loss group experienced a greater change in total bacterial growth and diversity than those in the low weight loss group.

Weekly Use of Chemical Cleaners Comparable to Pack-a-Day Smoking

As mentioned earlier, exposure to cleaning solutions as seldom as once a week may accelerate decline in lung function, as demonstrated by research from the University of Bergen in Norway.²¹ The researchers found once-weekly use of cleaning solutions for 20 years produced damage to lung tissue equivalent to smoking 20 cigarettes a day for 10 to 12 years.

The researchers used data from over 6,000 participants whose average age was 34 at the time of enrollment in the study. After 20 years of follow-up, women who used commercial cleaning solutions experienced reductions in lung function, measured by forced expiratory volume and forced vital capacity, at a much faster rate than those who used them less frequently or not at all.

Nontoxic Cleaners Safer for You and the Environment

The average American worker spends nearly one hour on housework daily.²² However, there’s a misconception that in order to get a truly clean home, you have to put on rubber gloves and spray harsh chemicals.

One of the primary reasons to regularly clean is to remove many of the toxic chemicals accumulating in house dust, including flame retardants and phthalates.²³ However using commercial sprays, wipes and scrubs actually introduces more toxins into your environment.

If you’ve ever felt sick, dizzy or gotten a headache after cleaning your home with typical supplies, it’s likely because of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Long-term use of these chemicals can damage your liver, kidneys, central nervous system and even cause cancer.²⁴

After testing 25 household products, including air fresheners and all-purpose cleaners, researchers found the average product contains 17 VOCs.²⁵ Products with fragrances are particularly problematic and studies reveal nearly 35 percent of Americans have had health problems when exposed to them.²⁶

Meanwhile, a typical professional cleaning product will contain more than a 132 different chemicals, among them fragrances, surfactants, phosphates, detergents and more.

If you are ready to switch to nontoxic, efficient and effective cleaners, discover how you may create your own at home using most of what you already have in your cabinets in my previous article, “Keep a Clean House with Nontoxic Cleaners.”

Study Shows BPA Substitutes May Cause Same Health Issues As The Original

(The Conversation) The credibility of scientific findings hinges on their reproducibility. As a scientist, it is therefore disastrous when you are unable to replicate your own findings. Our laboratory has found itself in just this situation several times; in each instance, unintended environmental exposure distorted our data. Our first accidental foray into toxicology 20 years ago convinced us of the need to understand the reproductive effects of environmental chemical contaminants. The latest twist in our journey down that road adds a new dimension to an old concern, BPA.

Bisphenol A, or BPA, is a man-made chemical that has become a household word. It is a plasticizer used in such a wide range of consumer products that daily exposure is inevitable. People absorb BPA through our skin – from receipts and contamination of personal care products and water. We ingest it via contamination from plastic food containers, and food and beverage liners. We even inhale it as a contaminant in dust. Studies of this chemical number in the thousands, but whether BPA is hazardous to our health remains “controversial.” Here’s why: Although data from traditional toxicology testing provide little or no evidence of harm, independent investigators like us have reported effects induced by very low doses thought to be in the realm of human exposure.

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The implications of these low-dose effects for human health and reproduction captured media attention and increased consumer unease. In response, manufacturers introduced BPA replacements by producing structurally similar bisphenols. As a result, it no longer is simply BPA contaminating our environment but an ever-increasing array of bisphenols. Our recent studies of several replacements suggest effects on the production of eggs and sperm similar to those induced by BPA.

We stumbled into the BPA world 20 years ago when cages housing mice for our studies were damaged when inadvertently washed with a detergent intended for the floor. Unbeknownst to us the detergent caused BPA to leach out of the cages. We happened to be studying eggs from young females and saw an immediate increase in eggs with scrambled chromosomes that would give rise to chromosomally abnormal embryos. In the intervening 20 years, our studies and those of colleagues have described the effects of BPA exposure on the developing brain, heart, lung, prostate, mammary gland and other tissues, and our studies have described serious effects on the production of both eggs and sperm. Together these findings inflamed debate about the safety of BPA and resulted in the rapid appearance of “BPA free” products.

Remarkably, almost exactly 20 years after the BPA exposure of our mice, we recently found ourselves, once again, victim of an environmental contamination that halted our research. We were working to pinpoint the critical windows of BPA exposure when we noticed that something was interfering with our experiments. This time the effect was harder to run to ground: Again, it appeared to be due to cage damage, but the damage was milder, limited to a subset of cages, and the effect on our results was evident in some animals and not others.

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The major culprit this time was not BPA but the replacement bisphenol, BPS, leaching from damaged polysulfone caging. Knowing what it was didn’t make eliminating it easy. We tried several less expensive methods to solve the problem, but ultimately had to replace all the cages and water bottles in the facility. When we could resume our studies, we experimentally tested four common replacement bisphenols and found effects on sperm and egg production in our mice analogous to those that result from BPA exposure.

The possibility that exposure effects may span generations has been a growing concern. Our recent experience with accidental exposure allowed us to ask if BPS exposure effects persisted across generations, and if so, for how long. Our data suggest persistence of effects for up to three generations, with full recovery evident in great-grandsons.

Widespread use of BPA-like chemicals

Do we simply have bad lab karma? No, we think we have supersensory powers. The process of making eggs and sperm is tightly controlled by complex hormone signals. This makes it vulnerable to endocrine-disrupting chemicals like bisphenols – chemicals that can interfere with our body’s hormones. Bisphenol contaminants cause a seismic shift in our data, but it’s not that the research of others isn’t also affected, but most remain blissfully ignorant.

Importantly, our laboratory knew what data from unexposed animals should look like. What if we hadn’t? We would have misinterpreted our results. If we had been asking if BPA had an effect, background bisphenol contamination would have diminished it, causing us to conclude that BPA had little or no effect.

This isn’t merely hypothetical. BPA use is so prevalent in consumer products and routine laboratory materials (like mouse caging materials or culture flasks) that low-level contamination of unexposed control groups is increasingly difficult to avert. Data and conclusions from CLARITY-BPA, a large, ambitious collaborative study conducted by three U.S. agencies, are coming out now. CLARITY was launched to understand why findings from traditional toxicology studies of BPA and those of independent investigators differ. Animal contamination was evident in a pilot study, but the source could not be determined, and the CLARITY initiative proceeded.

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Given our experience, we have great concern about drawing any conclusions from CLARITY data because there is no way to determine the impact of low-level contamination.

The bisphenol story details the evolution of only one class of the endocrine-disrupting chemicals that are common contaminants in our lives. The ability of manufacturers to rapidly modify chemicals to produce structurally similar replacements undermines the ability of consumers to protect themselves from hazardous chemicals and federal efforts to regulate them.

As a canary whose research has been twice derailed by bisphenols, we feel the need to chirp loudly: These contaminants may not only affect our health, but also our ability to conduct meaningful studies of chemicals to determine if and how they impact on our health and the environment.

Patricia Hunt, Professor of Molecular Biosciences, Washington State University and Tegan Horan, Washington State University

Bob’s Red Mill Faces Class Action Lawsuit Over Glyphosate Weedkiller Contamination

Tractor spray fertilize green field with pesticide insecticide herbicide chemicals in agriculture field in evening sunlight. Farmer care plants.

(NaturalBlaze) Citing a recent report by the Environmental Working Group finding traces of the ‘known carcinogen’ glyphosate in Cheerios, Quaker Oats and other oat-based breakfast foods, plaintiffs Tamara Frankel and Natasha Paracha said Friday that Bob’s Red Mill knew its oat products contain or likely contain the chemical, but didn’t disclose it on the label.

Instead, they say, the Oregon-based company labeled the products with phrases such as “gluten free,” “wheat free” and “purity tested,” leading consumers to believe them to be healthy.

“Consumers have a reasonable expectation that material product information, such as the presence of a probable carcinogen like glyphosate, will be provided by a product manufacturer, especially when the manufacturer affirmatively identifies the health-related attributes of its products such as “Gluten Free”, “Whole Grain”, and “Friend of the Heart,” the complaint states, adding that the labeling amounts to “misleading half-truths.”

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Frankel and Paracha say Bob’s Red Mill had a duty to disclose the presence of glyphosate in its oats and that glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen, because consumers don’t have easy access to the information. They want a court order blocking the company from continuing to advertise the products as healthy.

They seek to certify classes of consumers in California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York and Washington. In the alternative, they seek to certify a California-only class.

Patricia Syverson with Bonnett, Fairbourn, Friedman & Balint in San Diego represents Frankel and Paracha.

In late August, it was also announced that General Mills is facing a potentially damaging class action lawsuit after a Florida woman accused it of engaging in deceptive business practices, by not alerting the public that their Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios cereals contain glyphosate.

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A 2016 testing project on glyphosate residues in popular American foods by Sustainable Pulse’s partner The Detox Project and Food Democracy Now! is one of the main pieces of evidence being used in the case, according to the court documents, after it found levels of glyphosate in both Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios as well as many other products.

This wave of class actions against food companies has caused many food brands to start seeking The Detox Project’s Glyphosate Free certification, according to their Director, Henry Rowlands; “The Detox Project has received a massive rise in enquiries from food brands regarding Glyphosate Residue Free certification, ranging from baby food to honey to supplement brands. So far we have 15 brands from around the world fully certified but over 50 brands have been in touch during the last week.”

The lawsuits against food brands also follow the landmark cancer trial verdict in San Francisco very closely, in which Monsanto was ordered by a jury to pay over USD $289 Million in total damages to the former school groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson, a California father who has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which was caused by Monsanto’s glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup.

Researchers Develop New Method To Inject Turmeric Compound Into Cancer Cells

Mainstream science is now openly trying to inject high-powered curcumin into tumors in order to kill cancer cells. But first they must solve the issue of insolubility…

Curcumin is the extract from turmeric that is studied for its effects on cancer and pain. Anecdotally, one person used high-powered curcumin to reverse their cancer after chemo failed. So it’s not whole turmeric that scientists would use, but its component curcumin.

Researchers think they have solved the problem of getting curcumin into the tumor to kill cancer stem cells and interestingly – they’re using platinum to do it. They think they have stumbled on an ideal anti-cancer drug.

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From University of Illinois College and Engineering:

In India and other countries in Southeast Asia, curcumin is often used as a spice in cooking, particularly chicken or fish. It is known for its therapeutic effect and as a way to kill germs present in raw meet. Recently, scientists have also discovered that curcumin, a naturally occurring substance isolated from the Curcuma long plant, to be an effective agent for killing cancer cells.

“Until now, however, curcumin is what we call in pharmaceutical science as a ‘false lead’ – it is therapeutic, but the full effect can’t be utilized because it’s poorly soluble in water,” noted Dipanjan Pan, an associate professor of bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who leads the Laboratory of Materials in Medicine.

“When you try to deliver a drug, it requires solubility in water, otherwise it won’t flow through the bloodstream,” added Santosh Misra, a post-doctoral researcher working with Pan.

Recently, however, Pan’s laboratory collaborated with Peter Stang, the editor-in-chief of the Journal of American Chemical Society, and Distinguished Professor of chemistry at the University of Utah on ways to be able to render curcumin soluble, deliver it to infected tumors, and kill cancer cells. The team has created a sophisticated metallocyclic complex using platinum that has not only enabled curcumin’s solubility, but whose synergy has proven 100 times more effective in treating various cancer types such as melanoma and breast cancer cells than using curcumin and platinum agents separately. They published their results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

“It’s a combination of clever chemistry and nanoprecipitation utilizing host guest chemistry,” Pan explained. “We know that a drug is going to bind to a certain ‘host molecule’ if the proper pocket is present. We have shown here that a pumpkin-shaped macrocyclic molecule Cucurbituril by virtue of its glycoluril monomeric linkages, that attracts curcumin, which gets bound and comes off once it gets delivered to the cell. That is the key to demonstrating the effectiveness of the therapy and in solving a long-standing problem with curcumin’s insolubility.”

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“In order to make it available to the system, it was necessary to put curcumin in a larger complex where it can be soluble in water,” Misra said. “This complex has a very unique ability to take on different forms of material — from a spherical nanoparticle to longer elongated threads of nanometer size. In both cases, curcumin is present in the system, which what is important for to its medicinal value.”

“We knew platinum is a commonly used cancer therapeutic agent in the clinic,” Pan said in explaining the road to discovery. “We wanted to exploit that property as well in addition to curcumin. Our results demonstrate that curcumin works completely in sync with platinum and exert synergistic effect to show remarkable anticancer properties.”

The team detailed a hierarchical approach to solubilize a hydrophobic anti-cancer drug, curcumin in water via a combination of coordination-driven self-assembly and host-guest interactions.

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Curcumin has shown to prevent the phosphorylation of STAT3, a well-known signaling pathway that triggers the growth of cancer cells and allows them to survive, in in vivo studies. The platinum-curcumin combination kills the cells by fragmenting its DNA.

Although the researchers have only tested the method in delivering curcumin, its contribution to cancer treatment will ultimately also come from the likelihood the method will work with other drugs as well.

“In cancer therapy, one of the measures that constrains a number of the drugs is their poor solubility,” Pan said. “Viability only becomes prominent when the drug becomes soluble in water. So, no matter how the drug is given, intravenously or orally, it needs to eventually be absorbed by the organs in the body.”

Pan’s team also hopes to prove that this method will be effective in killing cancer stem cells, in effect cancer’s root system.

“More and more it is becoming obvious that cancer stem cells are responsible for all these cancers to regrow,” Pan said. “Even if you are killing all the cells in the tumor, there would be a tiny population of cells with ‘stemness’ properties that could enable cancer cells to grow back and spread to other parts of the body. That is why even if a patient has been declared cancer free, doctors continue to monitor to see if cells regrow. However, if we can deliver therapy to cancer stem cells, we can prevent that from happening. As an ongoing research in our laboratory to find agents for stopping the growth of cancer stem cells, we will be looking into using these highly sophisticated self-assembled metallacycles for targeted therapies”

CONFIRMED: FL Shooter Prescribed Psychiatric Drugs Linked To Violent And Suicidal Behavior

(Free Thought Project) Jacksonville, FL — David Katz, was a 24-year-old male who lost his temper Sunday morning after losing a video game and began shooting up an e-sports tournament. He killed two innocent people and wounded 10 others before her turned the gun on himself and took his own life. Now, we have learned that Katz had been on the types of psychiatric medications known to cause violent thoughts and that are linked to many of the worst mass shootings in recent history.

According to family divorce records, Katz had been in and out of treatment for psychiatric issues since as early as the age of 12. According to a 2006 letter from the father’s attorney, as reported by CNN, Katz was prescribed a number of psychiatric medications, including an antipsychotic, and saw “a succession of psychiatrists.”

What’s more, a separate 2006 court filing states that a therapist said he had experienced a “psychiatric crisis” while prescribed these medications.

On top of the psychiatric crisis and the reported drug cocktail, CNN also obtained police records that show 26 calls for service to the police from the Katz family home in Columbia, Maryland, from 1993 to 2009, for issues ranging from “mental illness” to domestic disputes. At least two of those calls involved Katz arguing with his mother, though none of the reports provided to CNN show any physical violence. The Howard County Police Department declined to release the reports from a number of the incidents, citing statutory restrictions.

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David Katz’ past is eerily similar to that of Nikolas Cruz, except that his parents were both feds.

Both of Katz’ parents reportedly worked for the federal government according to a law enforcement source. Katz’ father, Richard Katz, is a NASA engineer employed at the Goddard Space Flight Center outside Washington, DC and his mother was listed as an employee of the Food and Drug Administration, according to CNN.

Since he was a child, Katz was prescribed a myriad of drugs including the antidepressant Lexapro, and Risperidone, sometimes used to treat schizophrenia.

There have been 20 drug regulatory agencies from seven different countries who’ve pointed out the dangerous side effects of Lexapro. The majority of the warning are for suicidal risk or suicidal behavior. Other side effects include, hostility or aggression, agitation, anxiety, mania or psychosis, irritability, and violence.

According to CNN, Katz’ father disputed the necessity of the drugs and a psychiatric evaluation sought by David’s mother, suggesting that his son instead “attend a support group for middle school students.” “Richard Katz has seen no evidence whatsoever of schizophrenia in David Katz,” a motion from his father’s lawyer said.

Despite the dozens of police reports stemming from Katz’ behavior, the laundry list of drugs he was taking to treat his “psychiatric crisis,” the fact that he was in treatment for psychiatric issues, and the fact that it was documented that he’d had multiple mental breakdowns involving the police, Katz submitted his fingerprints, underwent a background check, passed a firearms safety training course and legally purchased a 9mm handgun and a .45-caliber handgun in Maryland last month.

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As TFTP has reported on numerous occasions, the majority of mass shooters have links to psychological medications that carry serious warnings for side-effects on their labels.

Stephen Paddock, Omar Mateen, Gavin Long, Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, James Holmes, and Nikolas Cruz, all have one thing in common other than the mass murders they carried out. They were all reportedly taking prescription drugs which alter their state of mind and carry a host of negative side effects ranging from aggression and suicide to homicidal ideation.

There have been 150 studies in 17 countries on antidepressant-induced side effects. There have been 134 drug regulatory agency warnings from 11 countries and the EU warning about the dangerous side effects of antidepressants.

Despite this deadly laundry list of potential reactions to these medications, their use has skyrocketed by 400% since 1988. Coincidentally, as antidepressant use went up, so did mass shootings.

The website SSRIstories.org has been documenting the link between selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and violence. On the website is a collection of over 6,000 stories that have appeared in local media (newspapers, TV, scientific journals) in which prescription drugs were mentioned and in which the drugs may be linked to a variety of adverse outcomes including most of the mass shootings which have taken place on US soil.

As the Citizens Commission on Human Rights notes, before the late nineteen-eighties, mass shootings and acts of senseless violence were relatively unheard of. Prozac, the most well known SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) antidepressant, was not yet on the market. When Prozac did arrive, it was marketed as a panacea for depression which resulted in huge profits for its manufacturer Eli Lilly. Of course other drug companies had to create their own cash cow and followed suit by marketing their own SSRI antidepressants.

Subsequently, mass shootings and other violent incidents started to be reported. More often than not, the common denominator was that the shooters were on an antidepressant, or withdrawing from one. This is not about an isolated incident or two but numerous shootings.

The issue of psychotropic medication playing a role in mass shootings is not some conspiracy theory. It is very real and the drug manufacturers list these potentially deadly side effects on the very inserts of every one of these drugs. But the mainstream media and the government continue to ignore or suppress this information. Why is that?

It is no secret that the pharmaceutical industry wields immense control over the government and the media. It is their control which keeps any negative press about their dangerous products from airing. However, most people likely do not know the scope of this control.

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As Mike Papantonio, attorney and host of the international television show America’s Lawyer, explains, with the exception of CBS, every major media outlet in the United States shares at least one board member with at least one pharmaceutical company. To put that into perspective: These board members wake up, go to a meeting at Merck or Pfizer, then they have their driver take them over to a meeting with NBC to decide what kind of programming that network is going to air.

In the report below, Papantonio explains how the billions of dollars big pharma gives to mainstream media outlets every year is used to keep them subservient and complicit in covering up the slew of deadly side effects from their products.

How much longer will we allow these billion-dollar drug companies to control the narrative and not let this conversation take place? How many more mass shootings will take place before Americans wake up to this reality?

Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Agorist is also the Editor at Large at the Free Thought Project, where this article first appeared. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter, Steemit, and now on Facebook.