[Medicalnewscommentaries] IMVA - Bees - Biological Geiger Counters - March 5, 20

[Guest guest]

Bees - Biological Geiger Counters

International Medical Veritas Association

 

 

Approximately one-third of the typical American’s diet

(primarily the healthiest part) is directly or indirectly

the result of honey bee pollination.

 

 

On their travels, they transfer pollen from plant to plant, flower to flower,

fertilizing the blossoms and allowing them to set fruit. This ancient

partnership of pollinator and plant is essential to life as we know it.

One-third of

the food we eat comes from crops that need animal pollinators, a role often

filled by bees but sometimes by butterflies, beetles, birds, or bats.

 

 

The New York Times and other major media sources have recently published

scary articles about a catastrophe in the making, about a disaster that will

soon

have a direct impact on our collective stomachs. In 24 states throughout the

country, beekeepers are getting the shock of their lives seeing hundreds of

millions of their bees literally disappearing. Beekeepers go out to open their

hives and find them empty. Bees are flying off in search of pollen and nectar

and simply not returning to their homes, they vanish without a trace.

Researchers say the bees are dying in the fields, perhaps becoming exhausted or

simply

disoriented and eventually falling victim to the cold. Researchers have labeled

this affliction “colony collapse disorder.â€

 

Farmers across North America have been blitzing their fields with millions of

tons of herbicides and pesticides for decades. And since the mid to late

1990's massive numbers of genetically engineered crops have been planted.

Greg Ciola

 

Greg Ciola wrote in his book GMOs, Beware of the Coming Food Apocalypse, “In

one German study done at the University of Jena they tested bees on a field of

genetically engineered rapeseed (canola). The bees were released onto the

crop and then took the pollen back to their hive and fed it to young bees. When

scientists analyzed the bacteria in the gut of the young bees they discovered

that it contained the same gene traits as those of the modified crops. This

study is very alarming because bees are one of the most important insects to

mankind. From bees we get honey, pollen, royal jelly, propolis, and bees wax.

Irrespective of GM crops, there is already great concern in America over the

health of the honeybee. American apiaries have been dealing with many other

problems over the last few years. They can’t be too pleased to know that

altered

genes from rapeseed can now be transferred to the bee. Just think how many

honeybees in America are now pollinating on genetically modified rapeseed!

Better

yet, how many honeybees are now pollinating on all genetically modified crops?

When bees start dying off, it’s only a matter of time before men does too!â€

 

Safe pastures where bees can forage without being poisoned by pesticides are

becoming increasingly rare.

 

In the UK, there have been " a few but significant examples " of what experts

call the " Marie Celeste phenomenon " - colonies abandoning hives altogether

leaving no evidence of what caused their disappearance. Greece, Italy, Poland,

Portugal, and Spain have also had their bouts with “colony collapse

disorder.â€

 

More than 90 crops in North America rely on honeybees to transport pollen

from flower to flower, effecting fertilization and allowing production of fruit

and seed. The amazing versatility of the species is worth an estimated $14

billion a year to the United States economy.

 

Honey bees are responsible for approximately one third of the United States

crop pollination including almonds, peaches, soybeans, apples, pears, pumpkins,

cucumbers, cherries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries.

Investigators are exploring a range of theories, including viruses, a fungus and

poor bee

nutrition. They are also studying a group of pesticides that were banned in

some European countries to see if these are somehow affecting the bees’ innate

ability to find their way back home. It has been noted that to give bees energy

while they are pollinating, beekeepers now feed them protein supplements and

a liquid mix of sucrose and corn syrup.

 

There are no tell-tale bee corpses

inside colonies or out in front of hives,

where bees typically deposit their dead nest mates.

 

 

Experts are speculating that it may be the consequence of a new infection, or

of several diseases simultaneously, leading to a fatally compromised immune

system. It is also possible that severe stress brought on by crowding,

inadequate nutrition or perhaps the combined effects of prophylactic antibiotics

and

miticides sprayed by beekeepers to ward off infections. Another particularly

sad possibility is that accidental exposure to a new pesticide may cause

non-lethal behavioral changes that interfere with the ability of honeybees to

orient

and navigate; brain-damaged foraging bees may simply get lost on their way

home and starve to death away from the hive.

 

 

Honeybees contribute to our food chain in more ways

than any other animal species.

They are vital to alfalfa and clover,

which is processed into hay to feed beef and dairy cattle.

 

The public does not recognize the magnitude of the threat that these

mysterious events present but we should be more than alarmed. Scientists have

been

observing how one species after another is disappearing from our planet but

never

before has one with such a direct bearing on food production been threatened.

Extinction of a species doesn't just affect the group that disappears - it

tends to alter much more.

 

Earth's biodiversity is being overtaken by a mass extinction which, if

allowed to proceed unchecked, could well eliminate between one quarter and one

half

of all species.

Norman Myers

 

Bees do make excellent biological geiger counters. They are especially

valuable perennial mobile biomonitors of the local environment. Foraging honey

bees

fly and crawl into flowers and inspect many substrates and openings. As such,

they come in contact with naturally-occurring materials in the environment as

well as manmade pollutants including heavy metals and pesticides. Pollen and

these exotic materials stick to their hairy bodies and are carried back to the

nest cavity where they often become incorporated into the beeswax, pollen and

honey stores. Thus, with their wide foraging range and collecting activities,

they are natural monitoring agents for investigating the ebb and flow of

floral resources and toxic substances within the environment. At least one

researcher has effectively used honey bees to collect pollutants including heavy

metals, radionuclides and pesticides, which are concentrated within their nests

and

can be subsequently analyzed using modern chemical analytical

instrumentation.

This reporting of “colony collapse disorder (CCD)†is a very interesting

lesson in science. Either scientists have lost their ability to think

intuitively[ii] or the media is again demonstrating its dishonesty by refusing

to publish

essential but unpopular information that threatens incoming advertising

dollars. Though it is not reasonable to assume that any single factor is

responsible, it is a glaring error to omit from the equation the rising tide of

mercury

on the land, water and air to which both we and honey bees are exposed. Most

beekeepers affected by CCD report that they use antibiotics and miticides in

their colonies, though the lack of uniformity as to which particular chemicals

are used makes it seem unlikely that any single such chemical is involved. Yet

when one chemical weakens a biological system, another can come in with a

killer blow.

The decline of honeybee populations has brought the agricultural community to

the brink of a pollination crisis.

Scientists have already studied mercury levels in the head, abdomen and

thorax of bees (Apis mellifera) from 20 bee populations coming from industrially

contaminated areas with a dominant load of mercury (10 populations) as well as

from uncontaminated areas. The following mercury levels were found in bees from

the contaminated area: heads 0.029-0.385 mg/kg, thorax 0.028-0.595 mg/kg and

abdomen 0.083-2.255 mg/kg. Mercury levels in samples from uncontaminated areas

ranged from 0.004 to 0.024 mg/kg in the heads, from 0.004 to 0.008 mg/kg in

the thorax and from 0.008 to 0.020 mg/kg in the abdomen. In honey samples from

the contaminated and uncontaminated areas mercury levels ranged from 0.050 to

0.212 mg/kg and from 0.001 to 0.003 mg/kg, respectively.[iii] Researchers have

also demonstrated heavy metal accumulation in honey suggested that honey may

be useful for assessing the presence of environmental contaminants.[iv]

Because of their experimental traceability, recently sequenced genome and

well-understood biology, honey bees are an ideal model system for integrating

molecular, genetic, physiological and socio-biological perspectives to advance

our understanding of converging environmental stresses. Honey bees have the

highest rates of flight muscle metabolism and power output ever recorded in the

animal kingdom. Researchers believe that it is likely that changes in muscle

gene expression, biochemistry, metabolism and functional capacity may be driven

primarily by behavior as opposed to age, as is the case for changes in honey

bee brains.[v] Even at low levels of exposure, mercury can permanently damage

the brain and nervous system and cause behavioral changes in people. Mercury is

a harsh neurological poison that affects neurological tissues throughout the

animal kingdom and it is very possible that it is affecting the sensitive

brains of honey bees.

When gilial progenitor stem cells in the brain were exposed to 5 to 6 parts

per billion (ppb) of mercury,

these cells stop dividing and simply shut down!

These cells are absolutely crucial in building the brain in infancy and

beyond.

Professor Mark Noble

University

of Rochester NY

Power plants are the largest unregulated source of mercury emissions,

releasing 48 tons of mercury into the air annually in the United States alone.

Oil,

fertilizers, pesticides and the countless other chemicals, byproducts and

debris that enter our water, air and land continually afflict species worldwide

and

produce damaging, long-lasting effects. Mercury is however one of the most

prevalent and powerful poisons, and it manages to infiltrate everything.

Mercury pollution is making its way into nearly every habitat in the U.S.,

exposing countless species of wildlife to potentially harmful levels of this

neurological toxin.

“From songbirds to alligators, turtles to bats, eagles to otters, mercury is

accumulating in nearly every corner of the food chain,†says Catherine Bowes,

Northeast Program Manager for the National Wildlife Federation and principal

author of a recent report on the issue. “This report paints a compelling

picture of mercury contamination in the U.S., and many more species are at risk

than

we previously thought. Fish, long thought to be the key species affected by

mercury, are just the tip of the iceberg.â€

Global decline of amphibians has been a hot issue in recent years among both

the scientists who study them and the general public.

A paper by University of Georgia researchers in Environmental Toxicology and

Chemistry

suggests that atmospheric deposition of mercury in aquatic habitats has the

potential to have significant impacts on amphibians in the larval stage of

development.[vi]

The National Wildlife Federation report, Poisoning Wildlife: The Reality of

Mercury Pollution, is a compilation of over 65 published studies finding

elevated levels of mercury in a wide range of wildlife species. The report

highlights mercury levels in fish, mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians

living in

freshwater, marine, and forest habitats from across the country. The

accumulation of mercury in fish has been well-understood for years, leading 46

states in

the U.S. to issue consumption advisories warning people to limit or avoid

eating certain species of fish. However, scientists have recently discovered

that

mercury accumulates in forest soils, indicating that wildlife that lives and

feeds outside aquatic habitats are also at risk of exposure to mercury.

“Scientific understanding of the extent of mercury contamination in wildlife

has expanded significantly in recent years,†says Dr. David Evers of the

Biodiversity Research Institute, wildlife toxicologist and leading researcher in

this field. “We are finding mercury accumulation in far more species, and at

much higher levels, than we previously thought was occurring. This poses a very

real threat to the health of many wildlife populations, some of which are

highly endangered.â€

The scientific studies compiled in the report show mercury in a wide variety

of species:

Freshwater Fish:

Brook Trout, Walleye, Yellow Perch, Rainbow Trout, Northern Perch,

Largemouth Bass

Birds in Aquatic Habitats:

Bald Eagle, Great Egret, Wood Stork, Northern Shoveler, Common Loon,

Red-winged Blackbird, White Ibis, Common Tern, Belted Kingfisher

Birds in Forest Habitats:

Wood Thrush, Red-eyed Vireo, Louisiana Waterthrush, Bicknell’s Thrush,

Carolina Wren, Prothonotary Warbler

Mammals:

Florida Panther, Indiana Bat, Mink, River Otter, Raccoon

Reptiles, Amphibians, Invertebrates:

Two-lined Salamander, Snapping Turtle, Crayfish, American Alligator, Bullfrog

Marine Life:

Tiger Shark, Sperm Whale, Striped Bass, Loggerhead Sea Turtle, Narwhal,

Polar Bear, Beluga Whale, Ringed Seal

It is understandable that those who are at the helm of our system do not want

to create a massive scare by creating an association between a disaster in

agriculture (via the collapse in bee colonies) and the tremendous rise in

mercury that the government is trying to suppress. This book, The Rising Tide of

Mercury and Other Toxic Chemicals, (coming at the end of 2007 from IMVA

Publications), will clearly demonstrate the threat of mercury which is now

taking on

gigantic proportions, and how virtually no one is effectively dealing with the

crisis. What good is it for Europe to eliminate the use of mercury from the

continent when it is being spilled into the environment in huge amounts by the

United States, China and India? Mercury circles the globe just as radiation from

nuclear accidents and the use of deleted uranium weapons does.

It is very possible that the honey bees are being affected in advance of

other species in a massive way but it has already been demonstrated by

scientists

that humans, especially children, are also being seriously affected

neurologically by mercury in the air. (See Chapter on Mercury in the Air and

rising

rates of autism.) The United States is being hit simultaneously by two

increasing

waves of mercury pollution: one could be responsible for triggering the

collapse in bee populations, and the other long-standing issue of constant large

tonnage being released each and every day.

The increasing occurrence and intensity of wildfires due to climate change is

worsening mercury pollution in North America according to a new study from

researchers at Michigan State University, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the

National Center for Atmospheric Research, and the Canadian Forest Service.

Wildfires are releasing mercury long since sequestered in Northern wetlands and

will without doubt add to health problems in both humans and animals.

Industry puts out more than carbon monoxide into the air, tons of mercury are

put out into the air each and everyday.

A 2002 study from the University of Santa Cruz, California illuminates the

mechanisms of a second pathway where mercury is increasing. This study found

that mercury from coal emissions in China ends up in rainwater on the California

coast.[vii] Atmospheric mercury travels around the globe as a gas and must be

oxidized into charged ions that will attach themselves to water molecules

before they are washed out as rain. Ozone, abundant in industrial and urban

smog,

plays a key role in this oxidative process. When the gaseous mercury blows

into San Francisco Bay from Asia, the local smog is there waiting to " enrich " it

and set in motion the process of introducing more mercury into the food chain

via rain onto surface waters. With China and India putting up new dirty coal

fired plants at a furious rate it is literally raining mercury in the United

States and all over the world. By 2020, the United States will emit almost

one-fifth more gases that lead to global warming than it did in 2000, increasing

the risks of drought and scarce water supplies, and of course, though no one is

talking about it, mercury emissions will continue to rise.

Scientists from the University of Quebec who have been studying the Amazon

basin since 1992, measured riverbank sediments for mercury levels in small

increasing increments and discovered that the most recent sediments contained

1.5

to 3 times the amount of mercury compared to those of 40 years earlier. The

timing of the mercury increases fits well with the huge colonization of the area

initiated during the 1960s by Brazil's National Institute of Colonization and

Agrarian Reform. Through this program, tens of thousands of families relocated

from the poorer regions of northeastern Brazil to the Amazon basin. Most of

these families turned to farming, and cleared more than 2.5 million hectares of

Amazon forest using " slash and burn " methods. While most people are aware of

the perils of deforestation in terms of global warming and depletion of

protective ozone, only now are scientists beginning to understand that the

consequent erosion of soils contributes to worldwide mercury contamination.

" When you

have forest cover, this mercury is extremely stable in the soils, " explains one

of the researchers. " There is hardly any release to the aquatic ecosystem.

The mercury is bound to clay, organic matter, humic acids, and so on. " [viii]

Without the forest cover, exposed soil is washed into waterways as regularly as

it rains. Once in contact with bacteria in the rivers, inorganic mercury is

converted to methyl mercury and thereby introduced into the food chain.

Mercury continues to appear in places and via means that scientists could not

have predicted. Two studies in the March 15, 2002 issue of Environmental

Science and Technology describe the phenomenon of " mercury sunrise, " an event

first described in 1998 in the Arctic north. During a span of only five months

during the polar spring each year, the northern-most coast of Alaska receives

more than twice the amount of mercury that would usually fall during an entire

year on the northeastern coast of the US. This phenomenon also occurs on the

southern polar region, and researchers estimate that as much as a hundred tons

of

mercury are dumped on both poles annually.[ix]

It has been clear since the infamous 1950s case of women in Minimata, Japan

who gave birth to children with severe birth defects because of mercury-tainted

fish in their diet, that exposure to high levels of mercury can be harmful.

Subsequent studies have revealed that even low-level mercury exposure threatens

normal development of the fetus. Problems with vision, hearing, language and

motor skills are typical of mercury-related neurological damage. Some recent

studies indicate that men with elevated mercury levels may suffer more heart

attacks. Animal studies suggest that low-level mercury exposure produces

autoimmune diseases and other immune system anomalies.[x] The mercury is there

but

the recent publicity about this issue is centered on how safe it is to eat

mercury contaminated fish!

Because mercury is everywhere -

in our water, foods, air, soil, vaccines and dental amalgam -

it needs to be factored into ALL disease etiologies.

Are we next? Will humans start to fall like the bees? It is very possible,

more likely than not, that top federal health officials have already previewed

the looming disaster but cruelly refuse to face the public with the truth. It

is either that or they are the most ignorant medical scientists in the

universe. Instead of warning humanity and directing the government’s efforts

to reduce

and even eliminate mercury, as the European Union is setting out to do with

earnest, health officials each and every year, at an increasingly frantic pace,

are warning of hundreds of millions of deaths from influenza and the bird

flu. Never once will you hear them quote research that indicates that mercury

toxicity increases the frequency and intensity of influenza symptoms and could

be

one of the root causes of death from the flu. We know that mercury is rising

in threatening concentrations, it is a scientific fact. Yet the United States

government is doing practically nothing to stop mercury pollution. To the

contrary, a hundred and fifty new coal fire plants are on the drawing board.

The unprecedented human pressure on the Earth's ecosystems threatens our

future as a species. We confront problems more intractable than any previous

generation, some of them at the moment apparently insoluble.

BBC News

Mercury is an inherent insanity in the medical and dental communities.

Doctors, dentists and health officials will not admit the dangers of mercury. If

a

physicist denied the basic laws of physics we would find that more than

ridiculous but we allow doctors and dentists to shame themselves in front of

medical

history every day. With what we might call intellectual barbarism or chemical

terrorism, they insist on exposing people and children to its dangers in

clinical practice. Thus the medical and dental professions cannot be trusted

with

anything when it comes to mercury and its dangers.

There is no way to ignore the fact that we all share one earth, one biosphere

in which our transgressions against nature, either from ignorance or greed or

malice, eventually affect us all.

Humanity is beset by stresses covering every aspect of reality. We do now,

and will continue to, receive signs and symptoms of massive but hidden forces in

motion that the public media will not report on. Finally there has been a

turn around when it comes to climate change. Unfortunately, with something as

huge as the weather, the information is coming too late for us to change the

course of destiny. With mercury it is much the same. Instead of decreasing

mercury

pollution, it is increasing through rapid expansion of the use of coal for

the creation of electricity.

Treatments for Mercury Toxicity

The BBC repots that hazardous chemicals are now found in the bodies of all

new-born babies, and an estimated one in four people worldwide are exposed to

unhealthy concentrations of air pollutants. But this vastly understates the

problem because it does not include the invisible almost radioactive cloud of

mercury that is virtually everywhere, even in the most pristine environments

thousands of miles distant from the nearest point of mercury pollution. When it

comes to mercury everyone is exposed and is at risk though in the southern

hemisphere we would expect to find much less exposure than in the industrial

north.

Instead of highly toxic vaccines containing even more mercury or drugs like

Tamiflu, the public needs to be given a crash course in mercury detoxification

and chelation. Again doctors fail us here, because they can only come up with

more toxic substances to get rid of other toxic substances and a dwindling

percentage of the population can afford these drugs and the doctors that

prescribe them. Fees are as high as $900 an hour for consultations with certain

doctors who specialize in this type of work. Because we live in a heavily

polluted

world, our exposure is not only constant but increasing year by year so there

is a need for safe non-toxic substances that we can use safely throughout our

lifetime. Instead of using toxic substances, we can use natural items that not

only sweep the chemical toxins from our bodies but also provide basic

nutrition that strengthens us in many ways.

According to the Marine Technology Society, brown seaweeds, such as kelp,

contain fucoidan and algin, which have been shown to remove lead, mercury,

cadmium, barium, tin and other heavy metals from tissues. Seaweeds also help

remove

radioactive isotopes from the body. Using seaweeds both as a condiment and at

least several times a week as a vegetable (so that you consume a half-cup

serving) is necessary for chelating action to take place.[xi] Iodine also

concentrates in seaweed and is another chelator of mercury. Ninety percent of

the

population is deficient in iodine.[xii],[xiii] Spirulina and chlorella have

also been used widely in this regard.

Several years ago a researcher studying a possible connection between chronic

bacterial infections and heavy metals in the body found that some patients

released mercury into their urine after eating Vietnamese soup containing

cilantro (Coriandrum sativum).[xiv] This effect has been replicated in other

studies, although scientists have not yet determined exactly which constituents

in

cilantro have mercury-chelating effects. As a preventive, then, cilantro can be

eaten, fresh and raw, as a regular part of the diet to orally chelate not only

mercury but lead and aluminum as well.

Several doctors have paid attention and have created chelation formulas that

are safe and effective to use without medical supervision. Dr. Georgiou, after

3 years of research settled on a golden triangle of natural chelation using

Chlorella Growth Factor, Cilantro leaf tincture and Homeopathic energized

cell-decimated chlorella vulgaris. He calls his product HMD (Heavy Metal Detox).

Dr. Allan Greenburg’s golden triangle uses cilantro, chlorella and ALA and

his formula provides important support substances: selenium, magnesium, zinc,

vitamin C, E, MSM (Methysulfonylmethane), NAC (N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine), L-Glutamine

and Taurine, which turns Chelorex into an effective and complete

nutritionally-driven chelation prescription tested for the removal of 16 toxic

metals.

This is crucial because the higher the level of intra-body toxins, the more that

an individual's detox nutrients are utilized, and the greater the likelihood

of adverse effects from toxins. (Important news for the medical community is

that Chelorex is now available in a liquid form and this is very good news for

children who are mercury toxic.)

The International Medical Veritas Association promotes the heavy use of

transdermal magnesium therapy as a crucial element in any detoxification and

chelation program. Experimentation with transdermal iodine therapy is now also

beginning. We have been heavily involved in creating awareness of childhood

immunization and the gigantic epidemic in autism and other neurological

disorders, so

we favor transdermal and liquid formulations that are much easier to

administer to children.

Mark Sircus Ac., OMD International Medical Veritas Association

http://www.imva.info

http://www.magnesiumforlife.com

Email: director

--

Bromenshenk, et al. 1995

[ii] Albert Einstein said, “I think with intuition.†Intuition is different

than conceptual or intellectual thought process as it is different from the

imaginative level of consciousness. It is a special perceptual ability to sense

from a distance, to literally feel the totality of a situation. See

HeartHealth by IMVA Publications available end of 2007/early 2008.

[iii] Toporcak J, Legath J, Kul'kova J. Univerzita veterinarskeho lekarstva,

Kosice.

[iv] Environ Monit Assess. 2005 Oct;109(1-3):181-7. Determination of heavy

metals in honey in Kahramanmaras City, Turkey.Erbilir F, Erdogrul O. Department

of Food Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Kahramanmaras

Sutcu Imam, Kahramanmaras, Turkey.

[v] J Exp Biol. 2005 Nov;208(Pt 22):4193-8. Muscle biochemistry and the

ontogeny of flight capacity during behavioral development in the honey bee, Apis

mellifera.Roberts SP, Elekonich MM. Department of Biological Sciences,

University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154-4004, USA.

[vi] http://www.uga.edu/aboutUGA/research-frogs.html

[vii] Mercury in California Rainwater Linked to Industrial Emissions in Asia;

Media Alerts Archive, December 19, 2002;

www.earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/2002/2002121911028.html

[viii] R.C.Willis, Mercury Rising: Deforestation and gold mining in the

Amazon basin cause the release of toxic metal, Today's Chemist at Work, March

2001,

vol. 10, No. 3, pp 30-36

[ix] T. Steele, " Mercury sunrise " effect found in Antarctica, EurekaAlert!;

www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-03/acs-sp031902.php

[x] N. Shute, Heavy Metal Fish, U.S. News & World Report, March 17, 2003

[xi] S. Weed, Healing Wise, Ash Tree Publishing, 1989, p.223.

[xii] Iodine; Why you need it, Why you can’t Live without it; David

Brownstein MD;

[xiii] Seaweed sold in the United States has a tremendous variation in the

amount of iodine content. In Japan, the average Japanese eats around 13.8 mg of

iodine per day with the vast majority of that iodine coming from seaweed that

has been specifically grown and cultured to maximize iodine trapping in the

seaweed. To my knowledge, this particular type of seaweed is not being sold in

the United States at the present time. Gupta: Consequences of Iodine Deficiency

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2007/01/31/consequences_of_iodine_deficien\

cy.htm

[xiv] D. Williams, Poor Man's Chelation Therapy, on-line version,

www.home.earthlink.net/~jedcline/cilantro.html

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