Entre las muchas interferencias con que las personas se ven obligadas a elegir entre huir o atacar… el fantasma del miedo es uno de los más acuciantes. Y entre los más inmovilizadores está este miedo a no valer, que afecta de tal modo el paisaje interno y el cuadro de creencias, que condena a la persona que lo padece a un dolor creciente y amargo. ¿Cómo podemos deshacernos de este miedo tan tóxico?El miedo a no valer, a no poder, a no ser suficiente es un miedo que conocemos desde niños. Cuando eres pequeña hay muchas fronteras que no puedes cruzar: algunas porque es físicamente imposible (alcanzar la lata de las galletas) y otras porque forman parte de lo que la familia ha señalado como inapropiado (decir tacos o escarbarse la nariz). Esto forma parte del proceso normal de colaboración paterna para ayudar al niño en su adaptación a la sociedad y los niveles de frustración que esto conlleva.
Pero cuando nos enfrentamos a un desproporcionado intento de protegernos del fracaso o del engaño… o arrastramos un sentimiento de culpa superlativo que nos inmoviliza… estamos ante un problema que puede llevarse por delante nuestras posibilidades de que crear la vida que soñamos.
En esto tienen mucho que decir las creencias: imagina una niña cuya naturaleza es dócil, sensible y conciliadora, que ama a mucho a sus padres (como todos los niños) y que tiene unos padres inflexibles, de carácter muy fuerte, y cuya principal preocupación es que todo salga perfecto.
¿Cuál será el universo interno en el que se desarrollará esta niña? ¿Qué margen de error sentirá que tiene? ¿Cuál será su mayor preocupación a la hora de actuar, si quiere que sus padres aprueben su conducta y no se enfaden con ella?
Los niños por naturaleza se autoexpresan adecuadamente y saben hacer notar sus necesidades desde muy pequeños. De manera que si un niño empieza a sentir que tiene que esforzarse para ser aprobado, hay una tensión de fuerzas excesivo entre el universo de los padres, y el suyo.
Ahora sigamos con el ejemplo de la niña dócil, sensible y conciliadora del ejemplo. Imaginemos por ejemplo que sus padres son personas muy trabajadoras, muy responsables, y han estado toda la vida preocupados por ganar dinero y sacar adelante la familia. Una lucha difícil, dura, y con niveles sostenidos de estrés y de incertidumbre. Aquí… ¿Qué pasaría si la niña quisiera ser artista plástica, escritora o música? Según es el perfil que hemos trazado esto es una posibilidad pero… ¿cómo viviría internamente la posibilidad de decir a sus padres que siente una vocación que conlleva un gran nivel de incertidumbre en su desempeño?
Desde luego, bien pronto la niña escogerá una actividad que tranquilice a sus padres.
Y comenzará a construir una historia externa acorde a los requerimientos de su grupo… y una historia interna llena de frustración, tristeza e ira contenida.
Entonces imaginemos que decide estudiar Medicina, o Derecho. O Periodismo. Da igual lo que escoja:sentirá miedo a no valer.
Y este miedo será la expresión de dos cosas: primero de un intento profundo de intentar liberarse de un destino con el que no sintoniza para nada… y de un autocastigo inconsciente por haber traicionado el llamado de su verdadero destino.
Como siempre, esto no es nada más que un ejemplo, pero que sirve para ilustrar lo que quiero explicarte. Y lo que quiero explicarte es que el miedo a no valer, no es más que una creencia que se puede cambiar. Todas las personas valen. (Aunque desde luego no todas valen para lo mismo). Las creencias se pueden modificar fácilmente. En serio: muy fácilmente.
Pero hay un paso previo a modificar una creencia, que es el paso que te lleva a una mirada panorámica para reconocer el territorio en el que estás moviéndote. El miedo es un exceso de tensión entre dos o más fuerzas, y sólo hace falta reconocer lo que son estas fuerzas y hacia donde tiran, para que una comprensión nos permita dar el paso hacia el cambio.
Entonces, si hay un miedo que te inmoviliza, que no te permite ser tu misma, mira un poco hacia atrás. No tiene por qué ser algo de la infancia. Recuerda cuando fue la última etapa en la que ese miedo no estaba en tu vida. Recuerda cuando sentías que valías, que eras perfecta, que eras invencible… o simplemente que todo estaba bien. ¿Habría llegado tu miedo tan lejos si alguien hubiera dedicado algo de tiempo a verte tal como eres y te hubiera impulsado a dar pasos acordes a tu naturaleza?
Pienso que no.
No sabemos cuando empezó, pero sabemos que el miedo no vino contigo de fábrica porque de bebé llorabas, exigías y posiblemente te enfadabas libremente.
El exceso de autoprotección llegó después… ¿cuándo?… no lo sé.
Pero lo que te puedo decir, porque eso sí lo sé, es que fue una decisión. Un compromiso quizás.
Y los compromisos (todos, sin excepción)se pueden romper.
Cuando Mikao Usui creó el Método Reiki no se inventó nada que no estuviera incorporado en su propia cultura y en su manera de ver la vida. Usui era un hombre afortunado porque nació y creció en una época, en una familia, una cultura y una sociedad (el Japón Imperial) con unas características particulares. Era un hombre comprometido con su tiempo y con la Buena Ayuda, que llevó a cabo de muchas maneras a lo largo de su vida. Y no sólo lo hizo a partir del Método Reiki, método al que dió forma apenas 4 años antes de su muerte, cuando ya era un hombre de 64 años.
Para poder explicarte lo que vengo a explicarte, necesito antes hacer una breve referencia al metamodelodescubierto por Bandler y Grinder (los creadores de la PNL) y que comprendieron observando y estudiando profundamente el trabajo de Fritz Perls y Virginia Satir en psicoterapia… y apoyándose también en la Gramática Transformacional de Noam Chomsky. Bandler y Grinder descubrieron que las personas cuando hablamos, mostramos la estructura superficial de nuestro paisaje interno… y que lo que expresamos al hablar es nuestromapa de la realidad. Pero el mapa no es el territorio: y este mapa está repleto dedistorsiones, generalizaciones y eliminaciones.
Evidentemente a nivel individual nuestro mapa nos puede ofrecer la posibilidad de no ver dificultades en donde sí las hay (recuerdas aquello de “como no sabía que era imposible, lo hizo”?)… pero también, y lamentablemente esto es mucho más frecuente, nos puede limitar, empobrecer, y restringir enormemente.
Para entender la brecha entre el Método Reiki y la mentalidad occidental, necesitamos tomar consciencia de este concepto del mapa de la realidad.
Internamente todos tenemos trazado un mapa de la realidad, con los colores de nuestras creencias, nuestros compromisos, nuestras fidelidades, nuestros esquemas culturales sociales, nuestros permisos… olas fronteras que estos ponen a nuestro desempeño en la Vida. Intentar salirnos de este mapa es algo que crea tensiones internas, y a veces externas, y normalente evitamos hacerlo. Y te voy a dar un ejemplo:
Cuando hablas de energía, de conexión espiritual, o de desarrollo interior con un occidental al que este tema le es ajeno, te mira con cara de no comprender lo que le dices. E incluso en algunos momentos, con algunas personas, puedes llegar a sentirte “rara” o a veces un poco “angustiada” o “incómoda”. Cuando esto ocurre has dado con un muro: el muro trazado por el mapa de la realidad de la otra persona.
Te pongo otro ejemplo más, mira: en mi casa mi mapa de la realidad era diferente al de los demás niños. En mi casa, como ya te he contado alguna otra vez, “eramos artistas”. Esto implica un modelo de la realidad diferente: era la década de los 70 y mi padre practicaba Yoga, Meditación Trascendental, hacía ayunos de varios días, leía sobre macrobiótica, arquetipos, psicoanálisis, poesía… componía música, publicaba libros: su modelo de la realidad era más abierto que el de la mayoría de las personas, y causaba ciertos niveles de asombro y admiración porque a veces salía en los periódicos o daba conciertos en grandes teatros.
Imagina entonces: para la gente del barrio éramos raros que te mueres. De hecho oí muchas veces decir a algunas personas que mi padre era muy raro. Ya lo sabes: las personas llamamos “raro” a todo lo que no está en nuestro mapa de la realidad… y los “raros” normalmente no lo hacemos, porque la normalidad de los otros sí que está incluída en nuestro mapa de la realidad.
Dicho esto ahora sí vamos a hablar sobre el Método Reiki.
El Método Reiki es un método de gestión de la energía, y de crecimiento personal y espiritual muy completo. Tiene implícitos muchos conceptos que los occidentales luego hemos considerado novedosos como el incosciente (individual y/o colectivo), una perspectiva vibracional de la realidad, o sencillamente una mentalidad fenomenológica.
Sin embargo en occidente la mayoría de las personas no asocian al Método Reiki en absoluto con un método: hablan de imposición de manos, para hacerlo encajar con su propio mapa de influencia judeocristiana de la realidad. Las personas dicen que una vez iniciada vas a canalizar “Reiki” por las manos (cosa incorrecta porque “Reiki” es el nombre de un método), y se oye con frecuencia asociar el Método Reiki con ángeles, guías, magia, tarot, adivinación… y cierto grado de superioridad espiritual de los iniciados.
También oyes a veces decir a la gente que otro “tiene Reiki” (porque ha hecho un curso) o que “ha terminado todo Reiki”… como si fuera realmente posible. Todo esto es exactamente lo que hacemos con nuestra carrera universitaria o profesional: pensamos que nos otorga una categoría superior en algún sentido. Lo cual muestra nuestra profunda carencia de significado, y nuestro enorme desorden.
Los orientales en cambio, y específicamente los japoneses… (y específicamente los japoneses del Japón de Usui) tenían una visión, un mapa de la realidad, muy diferente. Aún hoy, quedan rastros de esta miradaen esta cultura nada individualista, profundamente conectada (incluso los no iniciados) y fuertemente respetuosa y consciente delos demás, de los vínculos familiares, y de sus tradiciones.
Un japonés normalmente se sentirá dulcemente conmovido por nuestra tendencia al individualismo y a la omnipotencia: ellos son hondamente colectivistas y esto los hace muy considerados, en general, con su prójimo.
Desde este mapa de la realidad, que incluye todo y a todos en la medida de lo posible, es mucho más fácil comprender por qué el Método Reiki fue creado por un japonés, y no por un madrileño, por ejemplo. Sus prioridades son diferentes, y esto no es malo ni es bueno: sólo es lo que es. Ahora: si miramos los resultados, como yo lo veo en mi consulta día a día, quizás ellos se equivocan algo menos que nosotros.
El otro día Virginia Canal, que tuvo la oportunidad de viajar a Japón antes de conocernos nosotras ni conocer el Método Reiki, me decía que allí no hay psicólogos. ¿te lo puedes imaginar? Supongo que será posible estudiar psicología en Japón, no lo sé. Pero no parece que tenga mucha salida. ¿No es sorprendente? Está claro que algo hacen mejor que nosotros… porque la gente se encuentra mayormente bien. Con sus idas y venidas, supongo… pero bien.
Cuando el Método Reiki se puso de moda lo primero que se le retiró fue el nombre de “método”. Se lesimplificó, esoterizó, y trivializó para que los occidentales no se asustaran y pagaran con alegría los cursos. Un método es algo largo de aprender, requiere trabajo, humildad y paciencia. Y los occidentales queremos una sanación rápida y sin muchos compromisos. Y sobre todo que no duela.
Esto me recuerda a aquella viñeta sobre la iluminación que publicamos varias veces en la web deFacebook… ¿la recuerdas? Es esta mira:
Bien, bromas aparte: luego de muchos años de experiencia, para mi queda claro que intentar comprender el Método Reiki desde una mentalidad acelerada, esquemática y desconectada del aspecto espiritual de la realidad es una fantasía con la cometa. Necesitamos empezar por ser capaces de ver el mapa de la realidad de Usui, su creador.
Para reducir esta brecha y poder sacar el máximo provecho del Método Reiki, necesitas ampliar tu modelo de la realidad: reparar las distorsiones, reducir la generalizaciones y trazar los caminos que han sido eliminados.
Esto solamente se logra a través de comprensiones que retiren el velo sobre la parte de la realidad que no ves siguiendo tu propio mapa actual.
Y esto requiere una guía comprometida, un maestro que haya hecho este trabajo previamente, y un profundo compromiso personal con tu crecimiento y con tu sanación interior.
Y entonces a partir de este proceso, podrás acercarte al Método Reikiy recibir sus grandes beneficios en su totalidad.
Antes, sólo recibirás un juego llamado Reiki, que te permitirá presumir de algo que no comprendes, con actitud infantil, y con un mapa distorsionado y con borrones, que no te conducirá verdaderamente hacia ningún tesoro.
Thyme has a powerful ability to kill off bacteria and viruses and should be taken at first signs of a cold or illness. It is a rich source of several essential vitamins such as vitamins A, E, C, K, B-complex and folic acid and it is also one of the best sources of calcium, iron, manganese, selenium, and potassium. Thyme contains antiseptic, antiviral, antibacterial, carminative, diaphoretic, and expectorant properties which supports healing throughout the entire body.
Thyme is vital to help stimulate memory, prevent nightmares and melancholy, ease headache and muscle tension, soothe coughs, relieve fevers, and fight colds and infections. It also contains a compound called carvacrol which is an excellent natural tranquilizer and has a tonic effect on the entire nervous system. Thyme is a good source of pyridoxine which is known to play an important role in manufacturing GABA levels in the brain, aid in regulating sleep patterns, and benefit neurotransmitter function in the brain. GABA is also one of the best natural defenses against stress damage.
Thyme is a great purifying herb for the digestive tract and has been found to destroy certain intestinal hookworms and roundworms and aid in the digestion of rich or fatty foods. Thyme has some of the highest antioxidant levels among herbs. It is packed with bioflavonoids such as lutein, zeaxanthin, and naringenin which have all been shown to have powerful effects on eliminating free-radicals and other disease producing substances from the body.
Thyme oil has been used as a local antiseptic and antimicrobial since ancient times and is highly beneficial in supporting the immune system and for easing fatigue and weakness after illness. Thyme oil can also help to stop hair loss by improving blood flow to the scalp and feeding the roots of the hair. Consider using more fresh thyme in your food by adding it to soups, salads, guacamole, vegetables, potatoes, rice, etc… Fresh thyme also makes a powerful and very healing tea. Steep a handful of fresh sprigs in hot water for at least 10 minutes or it can be soaked overnight in a pitcher of water and sipped throughout the day. Add honey or lemon, if desired.
Dr. Oz is no stranger to public controversy concerning his comments on GMO food, pesticides and the biotech industry. It appears that he is now the center of his biggest challenge yet. Having been adored by the mainstream since his show began in 2009, Dr. Oz is now facing his biggest attack to date. Days after running the now viral episode essentially denouncing Monsanto’s flagship product Glyphosate, a group of ten doctors are now publicly demanding Dr. Oz resign from a senior staff position he holds at Columbia University. However it has since been discovered that of these doctors, one has been convicted of medical fraud and over half have connections to The American Council on Science and Health, a discredited industry front group for the pesticide and herbicide industry.
Dr. Oz’s Moment Of Truth
Shortly after the call for Dr. Oz to step down from Columbia University, Dr. Oz released this statement on his Facebook page:
“I bring the public information that will help them on their path to be their best selves. We provide multiple points of view, including mine which is offered without conflict of interest. That doesn’t sit well with certain agendas which distort the facts. For example, I do not claim that GMO foods are dangerous, but believe that they should be labeled like they are in most countries around the world. I will address this on the show next week.”
To be fair, Dr. Oz usually plays it safe on the GMO issue by riding the fence, yet recently he has appeared to surrender to the evidence. He wrapped up his latest “Glyphosate” episode with a final thought commentary stating:
“This is a big debate everyone. Folks who make these products say ‘we need more data before you can make that statement (glyphosate is a possible carcinogen).’ I think it’s the opposite. Not enough research doesn’t mean its safe; it means we actually don’t know! And it’s upon us; it’s our obligation to figure it out before we start releasing it and exposing kids and others.”
Back in 2012, Dr. Oz tackled the topic of GMO’s on his show and concluded the episode with this final thought:
“Let me give you my bottom line if I can. You vote with your pocketbook three times a day. You can choose to buy foods with GMO’s or without them. And so, instead of waiting for data to derive your decision, you are going to have to decide the safest foods for your family on your own. Labels do exist on some products, choose them for now and as the debate follow along I think its worth keep your head in the game because it is going to be a quick-moving field.”
Since 2012, the public has followed Dr. Oz’s advice by voting with their pocketbooks causing Monsanto’s stock price to continually plummet. There is now a clear demand for non-GMO food in stores that exceed the demand for organic products. Adding to the momentum, the public witnessed the largest single worldwide protest against a company and their products in the 2014 March Against Monsanto. Finally, the public no longer has to wait for “data to derive your decision” thanks to the World Health Organization classifying glyphosate at a 2A carcinogen in the same category as HIV and HPV. Doctors, food manufacturers and individuals all hear the starting gun in the race away from biotech and are now inundating independent lab facilities to test their products, their patients, and themselves for traces of the possible carcinogen.
It appears Doctor Oz now faces the largest “moment of truth” of his career as a doctor and a public figure. The wiggle room is gone, having been replaced by a collective worldwide voice, relentless daily pocketbook voting, and data to further drive the final nail into the sealed GMO coffin. Commanding the increasingly educated audience Doctor Oz has patiently built, coupled with now megaviral attention, he stands on the precipice of greatness. A rare opportunity to be the voice of a generation that has been waiting for a mainstream public figure with integrity to say what we all already know.
No Double Standard for Oz
In closing, here is a short list of public figures that have far exceeded Dr. Oz in making, what his attackers call “disdain for science and for evidence-based medicine” in their public statements and actions. To date, none have been called out on their statements and actions by the mainstream press.
Bill Maher: “Obama said in 2007 we would label genetically modified foods which, by the way, Europe has this, China!….China which puts lead in baby food, or some S#@t like this. But we can’t have that in America; even though nine out of ten Americans would like foods to at least be labeled so at least we know they’re frankenfoods.”
Seema Mather of Medical Watch news: “Mercury based preservatives in vaccines may be associated with improved behavior and mental performance.”
Ann Coulter, shortly after the Fukushima multiple reactor meltdowns, the largest in nuclear disaster in history:
“There’s a growing body of evidence that radiation in excess of what the governments says are the minimum amounts you should be exposed to, are actually good for you and reduce cases of cancer.”
Madeleine Albright in a 60 minutes interview regarding the death toll of U.S. sanctions on Iraq:
60 Minutes Interviewer: We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean that’s more than died in Hiroshima. Is the price worth it?
Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price, we think the price is worth it.
Dr. Nancy Snyderman “Look this is one time, forget the conspiracy, listen to our government agencies, these guys are telling the truth. You know, there’s no conspiracy here folks, just get your damn vaccine!” *Note: Shortly after this interview Dr. Synderman broke the government mandated quarantine she was placed under during the 2014 Ebola outbreak to purchase a bowl of soup from a local restaurant.
Given the restrictions and the level of control placed upon the disclosure of information when it comes to “credible” medical studies, it seems surprising that glyphosate, the most commonly used herbicide on the planet, has been officially deemed a dangerous health hazard to human beings by the mainstream health community.
“Glyphosate currently has the highest global production volume of all herbicides. The largest use worldwide is in agriculture. The agricultural use of glyphosate has increased sharply since the development of crops that have been genetically modified to make them resistant to glyphosate. Glyphosate is also used in forestry, urban, and home applications. Glyphosate has been detected in the air during spraying, in water, and in food. The general population is exposed primarily through residence near sprayed areas, home use, and diet. and the level that has been observed is generally low.” (source)
A recently published study in what is considered to be one of the most (if not the most) credible medical journals of today, The Lancet Oncology, determined that glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s RoundUp pesticide, is “probably carcinogenic to humans.” The study was published earlier this month, and was conducted by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer. It analyzed data from studies that have been conducted on the chemical for the past couple of decades. (source)
“There is convincing evidence that glyphosate also can cause cancer in laboratory animals. On the basis of tumours in mice, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) originally classified glyphosate as possibly carcinogenic to humans. A US EPA report and several more recent positive results conclude that there is sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals. Glyphosate also caused DNA and chromosomal damage in human cells, although it gave negative results in tests using bacteria. One study in community residents reported increases in blood markers of chromosomal damage (micronuclei) after glyphosate formulations were sprayed nearby.” (source)
It’s the beginning of 2015, and after decades of research and warnings from hundreds of scientists all around the globe, why has it taken so long to officially acknowledge (in North America) that glyphosate is harmful? Billions of pounds of this stuff is sprayed every single year, and as mentioned above, it is commonly detected in air samples, water samples, in our food, and even in our urine. So again, why the delay?
Many professionals today have expressed their concern regarding the delay and manipulation of medical research. Despite the fact that these types of facts have been published for a number of years, Monsanto still maintains that they are safe, and a major health organization like the WHO, you would think, would have acknowledged the dangers associated with these herbicides many years ago.
As Dr. Marcia Angell (physician, author, former editor in chief of the NEJM) puts it, “It’s just not possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgement of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines.” Others point to the “revolving door” between Monsanto, the EPA, and the FDA, and the fact that corporations (like Monsanto) have their hand in dictating governmental policy. Regardless, the information is out there and it’s quite clear that glyphosate is harmful. (source)
What’s worse, the genetically modified crops have become even more resistant to their killers, resulting in increased use of herbicides each year and even providing Monsanto the justification it needs to produce newer and more deadly chemical mixes to combat the problem.
Monsanto’s Response
Monsanto is not at all happy about the study and they are requesting a retraction. In a press release, Chief Technology Officer Dr. Robb Fraley said that Monsanto is “outraged” and that “this conclusion is inconsistent with the decades of ongoing safety reviews by the leading regulatory authorities around the world that have concluded that all labeled uses of glyphosate are safe for human health.” (source)
More Research
The list of studies outlining the dangers associated with this herbicide is enormous, and explains exactly why multiple countries around the globe forbid its use. For example, Sri Lanka decided to completely ban glyphosate from their country out of concern that the chemical may be linked to a fatal kidney disease that could kill agricultural workers.
A new study that was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health suggests that Roundup, or glyphosate, becomes highly toxic to the kidney once mixed with “hard” water or metals like cadmium and arsenic. These metals often exist naturally in the soil or are added via the fertilizer.(source)(source)
“An investigation carried out by medical specialists and scientists has revealed that kidney disease was mainly caused by glyphosate. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has ordered the immediate removal of glyphosate from the local market soon after he was told of the contents of the report.” (source)
Here is a report by multiple researchers, scientists, and professors regarding glyphosate and birth defects. Here is the conclusion they came to:
“Our examination of the evidence leads us to the conclusion that the current approval of glyphosate and Roundup is deeply flawed and unreliable. In this report, we examine the industry studies and regulatory documents that led to the approval of glyphosate. We show that industry and regulators knew as long ago as the 1980′s and 1990′s that glyphosate causes malformation, but that information was not made public. We demonstrate how EU regulators reasoned their way from clear evidence of glyphosate’s teratogenicity in industry’s own studies to a conclusion that minimized these findings in the EU Commission’s final review report.”
It’s also important to note that much research published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, as well as other important independent research, has linked (using the Bradford Hill Criteria, fairly strong in my opinion) glyphosate to autism, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and more. (source)(source) (Please do your research, there are many sources for this claim, I’ve provided a few here and within the articles that are linked within this article)
A report coming out of Argentina explains how deaths from cancerous tumors have as much as doubled in areas where genetically modified (GM) crops are grown and agro-chemicals are used. You can read more about that and access the report here.
“There is evidence of high levels of genetic damage in people of Marcos Juarez, which may result from unintentional exposure to pesticides. ” – Fernando Manas, PhD National University of Rio Cuarto (source)
A study was published in November 2012 in the Journal of Food and Chemical Toxicology, titled Long Term Toxicity of Roundup Herbicide and a Roundup-Tolerant genetically modified maize, by Gilles-Eric Seralini and his team of researchers at France’s Caen University. It was a very significant study that made a lot of noise worldwide, the first of its kind under controlled conditions that examined the possible effects of a GMO maize diet treated with Monsanto’s Roundup Herbicide. After going through such a rigorous review process and remaining published for a long time, the study was retracted. Hundreds of scientists around the world condemned the retraction, and the study was then republished, updated, and all criticisms were answered.
The chronic toxicity study examined the health impacts on rats of eating commercialized genetically modified (GM) maize, alongside Monsanto’s NK603 glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup.
The study found severe liver and kidney damage, as well as hormonal disturbances, in rats fed with GM maize in conjunction with low levels of Roundup – levels that were below those permitted in most drinking water across Europe. Results also indicated high rates of large tumors and mortality in most treatment groups.
You can read more about this story, and access the studies here. And as you can see from the quote taken from the WHO/The Lancet, multiple studies in animal models have shown these dangers, as well as multiple studies using human cells. There is obviously cause for concern here.
To access and read about more studies linking agricultural pesticides (and more) to autism, click here.
Children today are sicker than they were a generation ago. From childhood cancers to autism, birth defects and asthma, a wide range of childhood diseases and disorders are on the rise. Our assessment of the latest science leaves little room for doubt; pesticides are one key driver of this sobering trend.” October 2012 report by Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) (source)(source)
There is a lot of information to support these claims, so hopefully this gets you off to a good start if you are interested in doing more research.
Lyme disease, do you have it? If you did, you probably wouldn’t know – unless you’re one of the chronic sufferers that have had to visit over 30 doctors to get a proper diagnosis. Lyme disease tests are highly inaccurate, often inconclusive or indicating false negatives.
Why? Because this clever bacteria has found a way to dumb down the immune system and white blood cells so that it’s not detectable until treatment is initiated. To diagnose Lyme properly you must see a “Lyme Literate MD (LLMD),” however, more and more doctors are turning their backs on patients due to sheer fear of losing their practices! Insurance companies and the CDC will do whatever it takes to stop Chronic Lyme Disease from being diagnosed, treated, or widely recognized as an increasingly common issue.
Lyme is considered by the medical field to “only” transmit by way of a tick infected with bacteria. However, the CDC itself admits it is under-reported, and believes there are between 300,000 to half a million new cases each year.That makes Lyme disease almost twice as common as breast cancer and six times more common thanHIV/AIDS. Where are all of these new cases coming from? (It’s interesting to note that since Avril Lavigne recently went public with her Chronic Lyme Disease battle, mainstream news outlets like The Daily Mail have been mentioning Lyme can be transmitted by mosquitoes, too!)
When Lyme isn’t detected in the early stages, it becomes Chronic Lyme, a condition which the CDC and IDSA bothdeny even exists. They will continue to deny it, because if there’s one thing insurance companies hate, it’s chronic disorders they have to spend time and money treating. Therefore, a panel with ties to insurance companies gathered to write up official Lyme guidelines that assure patients are only allowed a few weeks of antibiotic treatment and are not to be diagnosed with Chronic Lyme Disease (even if clear symptoms persist and invade the nervous system). Over half of the panelists who wrote the IDSA Lyme guidelines announcing that Chronic Lyme is not real — including the panel chairman — have obvious conflicts of interest including financial interests in drug companies, diagnostic tests, and patents, as well as consulting agreements with insurance companies. Researchers and scientists with evidence in support of Chronic Lyme were intentionally excluded from the panel. Because of these unjust Lyme guidelines, insurance companies have the “right” to deny coverage for the treatment of long-term Lyme disease. Doctors have even lost their practices for successfully diagnosing and treating Chronic Lyme, as shown in the film Under Our Skin. In the case of Dr. Joseph Jemsek of North Carolina, he not only lost his license, but also his livelihood. Dr. Jemsek can no longer practice simply because he gave antibiotics to Chronic Lyme sufferers, and was then sued by BCBS for 100 million dollars, following which he had to declare bankruptcy. You can read his closing remarks to the NC Medical Board just before they pulled his licensehere.You can also watch his story in the documentary at the end of this post.
Busted – Big Pharma bucks taint the IDSA
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal investigated the IDSA panel members for possible violation of antitrust laws and conflicts of interest.
Of the 14 panel authors of the first edition guidelines: 6 of them or their universities held patents on Lyme or its co-infections, 4 received funding from Lyme or co-infection test kit manufacturers, 4 were paid by insurance companies to write Lyme policy guidelines or consult in Lyme legal cases, and 9 received money from Lyme disease vaccine manufacturers. Some of the authors were involved in more than one conflict of interest. (Source: ‘Under Our Skin‘[2008])
Study: Strong Evidence Of Sexual Transmission
The bacteria that causes Lyme disease is Borrelia burgdorferi, a type of corkscrew-shaped bacteria known as a spirochete. The Lyme spirochete is a cousin to Treponema pallidum, the spirochete that causes syphilis.
Dr. Alan MacDonald, MD who appears in the documentary ‘Under Our Skin’ (2008), says in the film that he found found Borrelia (Lyme) DNA in 7 out of 10 postmortem Alzheimers patients’ brains. This makes perfect sense, since syphilis, its cousin, also invades the brain in tertiary or neurosyphilis. Dr. Klinghardt, MD (also quoted from ‘Under Our Skin’) stated that he’s “never had a single patient with Alzheimer’s, ALS, Parkinson’s Disease or Multiple Sclerosis who tested negative for Borrelia.”
Dr. Alan MacDonald, MD talks about Lyme.
Why are so many people suffering from Lyme disease and its allegedly associated chronic disorders, such as Alzheimers and ALS? A new study suggests that just like its spirochete cousin that causes syphilis, Lyme disease may be sexually transmitted! The study was presented at the annual Western Regional Meeting of the American Federation for Medical Research, and an abstract of the research was published in the January issue of the Journal of Investigative Medicine.
The study — presented at the annual Western Regional Meeting of the American Federation for Medical Research — a collaborative effort by an international team of scientists — tested semen samples and vaginal secretions of three groups of patients to investigate whether passing Lyme disease to a partner through unprotected sex is a possibility. The study observed control subjects without evidence of Lyme disease, random subjects who tested positive for Lyme disease, and married heterosexual couples engaging in unprotected sex who tested positive for the disease. The presence of B. burgdorferi and identical strains of the bacterium were of particular interest to the researchers in unprotected sex in spouses.
The control subjects were found to test negative for the bacterium in semen samples or vaginal secretions, as expected by the researchers. The researchers found traces of B. burgdorferi in the vaginal secretions of all women with Lyme disease. In contrast, approximately half of the men with the disease tested positive for the bacterium in semen samples. In addition, one of the heterosexual couples with Lyme disease were found to have identical strains of the bacterium in their genital secretions.
One researcher in the study notes, “There is always some risk of getting Lyme disease from a tick bite in the woods.But there may be a bigger risk of getting Lyme disease in the bedroom.”
“Our findings will change the way Lyme disease is viewed by doctors and patients,” said Marianne Middelveen, lead author of the study. “It explains why the disease is more common than one would think if only ticks were involved in transmission.” But will this actually change the way Lyme disease is viewed? Or will the money funneled in by insurance companies and vaccine manufacturers continue to blind and corrupt the IDSA board members? When is enough, enough?
The study was a joint effort by a team of scientists which included dermatologists, molecular biologists, microbiologists, internists, and family practitioners. The most revealing aspect of the study, in my opinion, is the fact I mentioned earlier: one of the heterosexual couples with Lyme disease showed identical strains of the Lyme spirochete in their genital secretions. “The presence of the Lyme spirochete in genital secretions and identical strains in married couples strongly suggests that sexual transmission of the disease occurs,” said Dr. Mayne.
A North Carolina State University researcher has discovered that Bartonella (a common Lyme co-infection) can be passed to unborn babies, causing chronic infections and possibly birth defects. Dr. Ed Breitschwerdt and his research group tested blood and tissue samples taken over a period of years from a mother, father and son who had suffered chronic illnesses for over a decade. Autopsy samples from their daughter–the son’s twin who died shortly after birth–contained DNA evidence of B. henselae and B. vinsonii subsp. berkhoffi infection, which was also found in the other members of the family. Breitschwerdt’s research appears online in the April 14 Journal of Clinical Microbiology.
You can read a transcript of one of Breitschwerdt’s interviews on Bartonella here.
Multiple Strains Of Lyme?
In 2002, W.T. Harvey, an MD from Houston, began finding large numbers of chronically ill Borrelia burgdorferi PCR- and seropositive patients in the area around his home and practice. Houston, Texas is declared a zoonotically “non-endemic” area, so he set out to understand just how this epidemic was occurring. W.T. Harvey had no competing financial interest (as the CDC and IDSA do) and received no grants when writing his study on Lyme.
“In order to understand this finding prior to sufficient data availability, we chose to examine critically the currently accepted but troublesome ‘Lyme disease’ concepts,” Harvey’s study reads. “Our method was to analyze each foundation ‘Lyme disease’ premise within the context of available medical and veterinary literature, then to reconstruct the disease model consistent with the preponderance of that data. We find the present conceptualization of the illness seriously truncated, with a high likelihood of two distinct but connected forms of human B. burgdorferi infection. The yet-unrecognized form appears to have a broader clinical presentation, wider geographic distribution, and vastly greater prevalence. We conclude that ‘Lyme disease’ currently acknowledges only its zoonosis arm and is a limited conceptualization of a far more pervasive and unrecognized infection state that must be considered a global epidemic.”
Could You Have Lyme From Your Pets?
Suzy Cohen of suzycohen.com is a registered pharmacist and best-selling author. When she graduated from pharmacy school in 1989, she believed that medication was the answer to helping patients get healthy. When that didn’t always work, she began to do some serious research. In one article addressing the truth about Lyme, she writes:
“Most Lyme sufferers have pet cats and dogs, they are not aware that their pets gave it to them. But it happens like this, your pets go out into the yard to do their duty, and ticks jump on them, especially in May and June, their breeding season but any time of the year is possible. Your pet totes these ticks into your house and then you cuddle with your pet. The ticks get on you, and numb your skin. They are teeny tiny, about the size of a poppy seed and you’ll never know you got bit. They like every part of your body, but especially warmer areas, like armpits for example. You may never know. Sometimes the Lyme can happen from a cat scratch or bite. When I ask pet owners about their pets, they go into a bit of denial, because of the great love they have for pets. But you have to realize pets, for as delightful as they are, are tick taxis. If you have Lyme, and get bit again by your pet, you are potentially introducing new coinfections or re-innoculating yourself with more Lyme organisms. It explains why some people just can’t get well, or get setbacks even under treatment.”
Borrelia spirochetes have been found in the urine of infected dogs, among several other animals. Studies on micehave found that the spirochetes in urine remained viable for 18-24 hours and concluded that “[u]rine may provide a method for contact non-tick transmission of B. burgdorferi in natural rodent populations particularly during periods of nesting and/or breeding.” Evidence for direct contact transmission has been demonstrated in mice.These findings suggest that further research is needed to evaluate alternate methods of Lyme transmission, such as by the urine of infected animals to humans.
Conclusion & How To Learn More:
“Lyme is one of the many microbes that has entered our system. And I feel as a physician that things are getting to a degree that’s serious. We’re watching other mammals die out and just think, ‘well, I’m glad it’s not me.’ However, as our environment becomes increasingly polluted, so do our bodies. And then we grow bugs [parasites, pathogens] in us that are not compatible with human life anymore.”
– Dr. Klinghardt, MD, ‘Under Our Skin’ (2008).
As Dr. Klinghardt said, this is getting serious. Or as Dr. Harvey put it, this is an epidemic. These patients, along with solid science, are being purposefully ignored because IDSA panelists have been bribed and bought.
Could you have Lyme? I suspect I might after a series of flea bites in 2011, and I’m almost positive my mother has had it for a very long time. Her doctors are finally thinking the same. This is no shock to me; as Dr. Klinghardt stated above, Lyme is one of the many microbes that has entered our system. We are all exposed to pathogens and parasites on a daily basis, and are never taught anything about how to cleanse or maintain a largely uninhabitable inner environment (hint: a strong immune system)! In fact, I’m on my third parasite cleanse and still passing worms. What else are we housing that we don’t know about? Why is all of this information ignored?
Lyme presents itself in symptoms often misdiagnosed as Crohn’s Disease, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, ALS, MS, Alzheimer’s, Colitis, Encephalitis, Fibromyalgia, Fifth’s Disease, Arthritis, Cystitis, IBS, Lupus, Prostatitis, Psychiatric Disorders (bipolar, depression), Sjogren’s Syndrome, sleep disorders, thyroid disease, and more.
This is a long list, and the number of people who go misdiagnosed or undiagnosed altogether is staggering. As I said, Lyme and hundreds of other pathogens and parasites have taken up residence in our bodies. We have improved our outer practices of hygiene, yet have increased our sources of autointoxication: GMO foods, processed food-like products, overeating, fluoride in water, and chemicals in everything from household cleaners to plastics – just to name a few.
Please watch “Under Our Skin” to learn more about Chronic Lyme disease and how the medical industry continues to ignore this epidemic.
Cucumber. Even its name sounds cool, crisp, and refreshing! Not only are cucumbers delicious and nutritious, they are loaded with essential vitamins and minerals, such as: vitamin K and C, some B vitamins, copper, potassium, and manganese, all of which can help revitalize your health! This squash is definitely something you want to incorporate into your diet as much as possible. You won’t regret it.
9 (Of Many) Amazing Benefits Of Cucumbers
1. Brain Protection
Cucumbers contain an anti-inflammatory flavonal called fistein that has been shown to play a crucial role in promoting brain health. It is known to improve memory and even protect your nerve cells from declining due to aging, and fisetin has also been found to prevent learning and memory impairments in mice with alzheimer’s disease. (1)
2. Amazing Antioxidant Properties
Cucumbers are loaded with antioxidants, including vitamin C and beta-carotene. They also contain antioxidant flavonoids like quercetin, apigenin, luteolin, and kaempferol. (2) Quercetin is an antioxidant that has been shown to prevent histamine release, making it a natural antihistamine. Kaempferol can help fight cancer and lower your risk of heart disease.
3. Reduce Inflammation
Cucumbers can literally help “cool” the inflammatory response system in your body. Some studies conducted on animals found that cucumber extract helps to reduce unwanted inflammation partially by inhibiting activity or pro-inflammatory enzymes. (3)
4. Cancer Risk Reduction
Cucumbers contain polyphenols called lignans, which can help lower your risk of various cancers such as breast, uterine, ovarian, and prostate. (4) They also contain phytonutrients called cucurbitacins (great name) which also have anti-cancer properties! (5)
5. Digestive Assistant
Cucumbers are loaded with fiber and water, two of the most essential elements that are needed for optimal digestive health. Cucumbers may help to raise the stomach pH, which can assist with symptoms of acid reflux. Also, the skin on cucumbers contains insoluble fiber, which can add bulk to your stool, assisting food to move through your digestive tract quickly and thereby promoting healthy elimination.
6. Freshen Your Breath
If your breath is a little on the stinky side, you can freshen it up by placing a slice of cucumber on the roof of your mouth. This will help help rid your mouth of odor-causing bacteria. According to Ayurveda, eating cucumbers can also help to release any excess heat in your stomach, which is believed to be a primary cause of bad breath.
7. Stress Management
Cucumbers contain an assortment of B vitamins including vitamin B1, B5, and B7. B vitamins are known to help ease anxiety and reduce the damaging effects of stress.
8. Healthy Weight Management
Cucumbers are extremely low in calories, but extremely high in nutrients, so they make a filling and healthy snack. When cucumbers are digesting they dissolve into a gel-like texture which helps to slow down digestion, helping you feel full for longer. This is why fiber rich foods are great for weight management.
9. Heart Health
Because cucumbers contain potassium, they can assist with lowering blood pressure. Potassium is an electrolyte, and its functions assist with interacting with sodium to help control nerve impulse transmission, muscle contraction, and heart function.
If these are not enough reasons to start eating more cucumbers, then I guess you must really not like them! Be sure to get organic when possible. You can enjoy slices of cucumber in your water, juice it with other veggies, add it to your salad, and just eat it straight up! Its great in the summer, but can definitely be enjoyed all year round. Enjoy!
Because’s so Much Important that You Ever Thought, please, Check the Film.
Thank You. #PlanetEartOurHome.
Renewable energy meets the evolution of consciousness in an exciting new documentary! With a special internet release in time for Earth Day, The Future of Energy film is coming off a North American and Australian tour, and was a featured film of New York Climate Week.
I recently watched a newly released documentary called The Future of Energy, a film that is as much about consciousness as it is about solar panels and wind turbines. I connected with Theo Badashi, co-writer and host of the film, for an exclusive Earth Week interview to ask him about the relationships between consciousness, energy, and community empowerment.
You can watch The Future of Energy free right here.
Adrian: When most people think of solar panels they don’t immediately think of the evolution of consciousness, yet your film speaks directly to that correlation. How did your team make those connections?
Theo: We’re deeply interested in understanding how consciousness evolves, and how new phases of evolution are expressed in our culture through the systems and technologies we create. Though we set out to tell a story of how renewable energy can help solve the climate crisis, a bigger story naturally emerged, as it became clear that renewable energy is a physical reflection of a larger shift that is occurring.
Adrian: A lot of people appear to be experiencing the shift in consciousness that your film describes. Share with us how you’re experiencing it.
Theo: The fundamental shift that we see is a transformation of our deeper sense of identity, in which individuals and communities are moving out of the old Egoic Self, and into what many call a Planetary or Biospheric Self. Technology—when used with intention—allows us to engage with people and beings all over the world, and from that people are developing empathy for other cultures, other species, even eco-systems themselves. We’re experiencing a deeper connection with this delicate Web of Life, and creating societies in which the sacredness of all beings is at the center of our decisions and actions. This shift in identity transcends politics, culture, and spiritual beliefs. It appears to be a fundamental evolutionary impulse that is now coming into a new phase of existence.
Adrian: The film places social and ecological justice at the heart of this global shift. With so much concern about racial oppression and economic inequality in America and around the world, what role does renewable energy play in actually addressing some of these problems?
Theo: Ecologist Joanna Macy, who we feature in the film, refers to our current era as the time of the Great Turning, in which we move away from systems based upon oppression and death, to systems based upon justice, abundance, and life. Our entire economic system in America was founded upon the oppression of African Americans and Indigenous peoples, and we see that same oppressive consciousness imbedded within the currently dominant energy regimes. For a genuine revolution of consciousness to occur, it’s clear to us that it has to be founded on restorative healing, honesty, democracy, and community empowerment. Our film aims at showing how this new energy revolution is doing just that.
Adrian: Last question: Can you offer advice to those of us in the consciousness community about how we can help create larger global change?
Theo: One way to further this shift is for the Conscious Evolutionaries of the world to step forward and tell a better story than the one told by Industrial Culture, by embracing our roles as Evolutionary Story Tellers. Climate psychologist Per Espen Stoknes, in his book What We Think About Global Warming, tells us that we have to create stories that simultaneously speak to the heart and the mind. The big mistake most climate educators make is to just lay out a bunch of facts and hope it scares people into action. Studies show that fearful facts actually shut people down and stop them from taking action. What we need is vision from the heart.
Our role as Evolutionaries is to tell a New Story about the world we are creating: a story so beautiful that we wake up each day excited to build it and share it. As cosmologist Brian Swimme reminds us, this is a story 14 billion years in the making. It’s a story about the unfurling of Life and creativity, and about the awakening of a species to its evolutionary potentials. The more we share this story, the more this vision comes to life.
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The Future of Energy: Lateral Power to the People is an exciting new documentary created by Maximilian DeArmon, Missy Lahren, Brett Mazurek, and Theo Badashi. To watch it free online and find out ways you can help, visit TheFutureofEnergy.org
There are thousands, if not millions, of plants which boast amazing medicinal uses for almost any ailment that you can think of. Before reaching out for that prescription drug or cream, do your body a favour and look into some of these amazing natural alternatives first! The best part about healing in this natural way is that many plants and herbs can be grown yourself, or can be purchased in a higher potency essential oil form. There is also a much lower risk for potential side effects, provided you are not allergic to the plant in question. Here are the top 5 most underrated medicinal plants!
1. Ginger
Ginger is an amazing spice to cook with. Not only does it taste great (especially when paired with garlic), it has a whole bunch of amazing medicinal benefits. Ginger is very commonly known for its ability to quell nausea, but it also has antibacterial, antioxidant, and anti-parasitic properties, and is anti-inflammatory as well! These are just a few of the many amazing uses for ginger.
The anti-inflammatory effects make ginger an incredible supplement for joint pain, menstrual pain, migraines, and more. Ginger is also great for people who suffer from indigestion; it contains protein-digesting enzymes and assists with stimulating your stomach to empty its contents.
2. Peppermint
Peppermint has many benefits to the respiratory system, for coughs, colds asthma, allergies, and tuberculosis. Rubbing peppermint oil on the chest can assist with these things. Peppermint oil has also been known to work wonders on digestive health, especially those with IBS. Peppermint tea can ease abdominal pain associated with digestion and offers gas relief.
Peppermint leaves, tea, and oil are all very easy to find. It is also very easy to grow your own peppermint in your garden! An added bonus to this is that it smells lovely and helps to keep unwanted pests away.
3. Chamomile
Chamomile has long been admired for its ability to relieve stress and make you feel relaxed, but did you know that it has a wide array of other benefits as well? According to a government organization in Germany known as Commission E, chamomile has been approved for reducing swelling on the skin and fighting bacteria! It is a powerful anti-inflammatory and also has anti-bacterial, anti-allergenic, anti-spasmodic, and sedative properties. It has been used to treat various skin disorders such as: psoriasis, eczema, chickenpox, diaper rash, and many others.
4. Thyme
Thyme is not only great for cooking, providing a wonderful flavor and aroma to your savory dishes, but it contains many beneficial flavonoids for your health! Some of these flavonoids include: apigen, naringen, and leteolin, along with thymonin, which as been shown to protect and increase the percentage of healthy fats found in cell membranes.
Thyme also contains many nutrients including vitamin C, vitamin A, iron, manganese, copper and dietary fiber.
Thyme oil also has a wide variety of topical uses including relief from problems of gout, bites, sores, arthritis, menstrual pain, nausea, fatigue, athletes foot and even hangovers! It is also a great oil for aromatherapy and can be used to strengthen memory and concentration, and calm the mind and nerves.
4. Lavender
I personally LOVE lavender! It has the most lovely, calming smell and it is my go-to oil for my bubble baths. Lavender oil has been used aroma-therapeutically to treat such conditions as: insomnia, depression, stress, and restlessness.
Lavender oil has been known to fight antifungal-resistant skin and nail infections. It can also be used to: relieve muscle and joint pain, treat skin disorders like acne, psoriasis, and eczema, soothe insect bites, kill lice and nits, boost hair growth, improve digestion, alleviate various respiratory disorders, and more.
Your ancestors’ lousy childhoods or excellent adventures might change your personality, bequeathing anxiety or resilience by altering the epigenetic expressions of genes in the brain.
[This article originally appeared in print as «Trait vs. Fate»]
Darwin and Freud walk into a bar. Two alcoholic mice — a mother and her son — sit on two bar stools, lapping gin from two thimbles.
The mother mouse looks up and says, “Hey, geniuses, tell me how my son got into this sorry state.”
“Bad inheritance,” says Darwin.
“Bad mothering,” says Freud.
For over a hundred years, those two views — nature or nurture, biology or psychology — offered opposing explanations for how behaviors develop and persist, not only within a single individual but across generations.
And then, in 1992, two young scientists following in Freud’s and Darwin’s footsteps actually did walk into a bar. And by the time they walked out, a few beers later, they had begun to forge a revolutionary new synthesis of how life experiences could directly affect your genes — and not only your own life experiences, but those of your mother’s, grandmother’s and beyond.
The bar was in Madrid, where the Cajal Institute, Spain’s oldest academic center for the study of neurobiology, was holding an international meeting. Moshe Szyf, a molecular biologist and geneticist at McGill University in Montreal, had never studied psychology or neurology, but he had been talked into attending by a colleague who thought his work might have some application. Likewise, Michael Meaney, a McGill neurobiologist, had been talked into attending by the same colleague, who thought Meaney’s research into animal models of maternal neglect might benefit from Szyf’s perspective.
Michael Meaney, neurobiologist.
Owen Egan/McGill University
“I can still visualize the place — it was a corner bar that specialized in pizza,” Meaney says. “Moshe, being kosher, was interested in kosher calories. Beer is kosher. Moshe can drink beer anywhere. And I’m Irish. So it was perfect.”
The two engaged in animated conversation about a hot new line of research in genetics. Since the 1970s, researchers had known that the tightly wound spools of DNA inside each cell’s nucleus require something extra to tell them exactly which genes to transcribe, whether for a heart cell, a liver cell or a brain cell.
One such extra element is the methyl group, a common structural component of organic molecules. The methyl group works like a placeholder in a cookbook, attaching to the DNA within each cell to select only those recipes — er, genes — necessary for that particular cell’s proteins. Because methyl groups are attached to the genes, residing beside but separate from the double-helix DNA code, the field was dubbed epigenetics, from the prefix epi (Greek for over, outer, above).
Originally these epigenetic changes were believed to occur only during fetal development. But pioneering studies showed that molecular bric-a-brac could be added to DNA in adulthood, setting off a cascade of cellular changes resulting in cancer. Sometimes methyl groups attached to DNA thanks to changes in diet; other times, exposure to certain chemicals appeared to be the cause. Szyf showed that correcting epigenetic changes with drugs could cure certain cancers in animals.
Geneticists were especially surprised to find that epigenetic change could be passed down from parent to child, one generation after the next. A study from Randy Jirtle of Duke University showed that when female mice are fed a diet rich in methyl groups, the fur pigment of subsequent offspring is permanently altered. Without any change to DNA at all, methyl groups could be added or subtracted, and the changes were inherited much like a mutation in a gene.
Moshe Szyf, molecular biologist and geneticist.
McGill University
Now, at the bar in Madrid, Szyf and Meaney considered a hypothesis as improbable as it was profound: If diet and chemicals can cause epigenetic changes, could certain experiences — child neglect, drug abuse or other severe stresses — also set off epigenetic changes to the DNA inside the neurons of a person’s brain? That question turned out to be the basis of a new field, behavioral epigenetics, now so vibrant it has spawned dozens of studies and suggested profound new treatments to heal the brain.
According to the new insights of behavioral epigenetics, traumatic experiences in our past, or in our recent ancestors’ past, leave molecular scars adhering to our DNA. Jews whose great-grandparents were chased from their Russian shtetls; Chinese whose grandparents lived through the ravages of the Cultural Revolution; young immigrants from Africa whose parents survived massacres; adults of every ethnicity who grew up with alcoholic or abusive parents — all carry with them more than just memories.
Like silt deposited on the cogs of a finely tuned machine after the seawater of a tsunami recedes, our experiences, and those of our forebears, are never gone, even if they have been forgotten. They become a part of us, a molecular residue holding fast to our genetic scaffolding. The DNA remains the same, but psychological and behavioral tendencies are inherited. You might have inherited not just your grandmother’s knobby knees, but also her predisposition toward depression caused by the neglect she suffered as a newborn.
Or not. If your grandmother was adopted by nurturing parents, you might be enjoying the boost she received thanks to their love and support. The mechanisms of behavioral epigenetics underlie not only deficits and weaknesses but strengths and resiliencies, too. And for those unlucky enough to descend from miserable or withholding grandparents, emerging drug treatments could reset not just mood, but the epigenetic changes themselves. Like grandmother’s vintage dress, you could wear it or have it altered. The genome has long been known as the blueprint of life, but the epigenome is life’s Etch A Sketch: Shake it hard enough, and you can wipe clean the family curse.
Voodoo Genetics
Twenty years after helping to set off a revolution, Meaney sits behind a wide walnut table that serves as his desk. A January storm has deposited half a foot of snow outside the picture windows lining his fourth-floor corner office at the Douglas Institute, a mental health affiliate of McGill. He has the rugged good looks and tousled salt-and-pepper hair of someone found on a ski slope — precisely where he plans to go this weekend. On the floor lays an arrangement of helium balloons in various stages of deflation. “Happy 60th!” one announces.
“I’ve always been interested in what makes people different from each other,” he says. “The way we act, the way we behave — some people are optimistic, some are pessimistic. What produces that variation? Evolution selects the variance that is most successful, but what produces the grist for the mill?”
Meaney pursued the question of individual differences by studying how the rearing habits of mother rats caused lifelong changes in their offspring. Research dating back to the 1950s had shown that rats handled by humans for as little as five to 15 minutes per day during their first three weeks of life grew up to be calmer and less reactive to stressful environments compared with their non-handled littermates. Seeking to tease out the mechanism behind such an enduring effect, Meaney and others established that the benefit was not actually conveyed by the human handling. Rather, the handling simply provoked the rats’ mothers to lick and groom their pups more, and to engage more often in a behavior called arched-back nursing, in which the mother gives the pups extra room to suckle against her underside.
“It’s all about the tactile stimulation,” Meaney says.
In a landmark 1997 paper in Science, he showed that natural variations in the amount of licking and grooming received during infancy had a direct effect on how stress hormones, including corticosterone, were expressed in adulthood. The more licking as babies, the lower the stress hormones as grown-ups. It was almost as if the mother rats were licking away at a genetic dimmer switch. What the paper didn’t explain was how such a thing could be possible.
«What we had done up to that point in time was to identify maternal care and its influence on specific genes,” Meaney says. “But epigenetics wasn’t a topic I knew very much about.”
And then he met Szyf.
Postnatal Inheritance
“I was going to be a dentist,” Szyf says with a laugh. Slight, pale and balding, he sits in a small office at the back of his bustling laboratory — a room so Spartan, it contains just a single picture, a photograph of two embryos in a womb.
Needing to write a thesis in the late 1970s for his doctorate in dentistry at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Szyf approached a young biochemistry professor named Aharon Razin, who had recently made a splash by publishing his first few studies in some of the world’s top scientific journals. The studies were the first to show that the action of genes could be modulated by structures called methyl groups, a subject about which Szyf knew precisely nothing. But he needed a thesis adviser, and Razin was there. Szyf found himself swept up to the forefront of the hot new field of epigenetics and never looked back.
Until researchers like Razin came along, the basic story line on how genes get transcribed in a cell was neat and simple. DNA is the master code, residing inside the nucleus of every cell; RNA transcribes the code to build whatever proteins the cell needs. Then some of Razin’s colleagues showed that methyl groups could attach to cytosine, one of the chemical bases in DNA and RNA.
It was Razin, working with fellow biochemist Howard Cedar, who showed these attachments weren’t just brief, meaningless affairs. The methyl groups could become married permanently to the DNA, getting replicated right along with it through a hundred generations. As in any good marriage, moreover, the attachment of the methyl groups significantly altered the behavior of whichever gene they wed, inhibiting its transcription, much like a jealous spouse. It did so, Razin and Cedar showed, by tightening the thread of DNA as it wrapped around a molecular spool, called a histone, inside the nucleus. The tighter it is wrapped, the harder to produce proteins from the gene.
Consider what that means: Without a mutation to the DNA code itself, the attached methyl groups cause long-term, heritable change in gene function. Other molecules, called acetyl groups, were found to play the opposite role, unwinding DNA around the histone spool, and so making it easier for RNA to transcribe a given gene.
By the time Szyf arrived at McGill in the late 1980s, he had become an expert in the mechanics of epigenetic change. But until meeting Meaney, he had never heard anyone suggest that such changes could occur in the brain, simply due to maternal care.
“It sounded like voodoo at first,” Szyf admits. “For a molecular biologist, anything that didn’t have a clear molecular pathway was not serious science. But the longer we talked, the more I realized that maternal care just might be capable of causing changes in DNA methylation, as crazy as that sounded. So Michael and I decided we’d have to do the experiment to find out.”
Actually, they ended up doing a series of elaborate experiments. With the assistance of postdoctoral researchers, they began by selecting mother rats who were either highly attentive or highly inattentive. Once a pup had grown up into adulthood, the team examined its hippocampus, a brain region essential for regulating the stress response. In the pups of inattentive mothers, they found that genes regulating the production of glucocorticoid receptors, which regulate sensitivity to stress hormones, were highly methylated; in the pups of conscientious moms, the genes for the glucocorticoid receptors were rarely methylated.
Methylation just gums up the works. So the less the better when it comes to transcribing the affected gene. In this case, methylation associated with miserable mothering prevented the normal number of glucocorticoid receptors from being transcribed in the baby’s hippocampus. And so for want of sufficient glucocorticoid receptors, the rats grew up to be nervous wrecks.
To demonstrate that the effects were purely due to the mother’s behavior and not her genes, Meaney and colleagues performed a second experiment. They took rat pups born to inattentive mothers and gave them to attentive ones, and vice versa. As they predicted, the rats born to attentive mothers but raised by inattentive ones grew up to have low levels of glucocorticoid receptors in their hippocampus and behaved skittishly. Likewise, those born to bad mothers but raised by good ones grew up to be calm and brave and had high levels of glucocorticoid receptors.
Before publishing their findings, Meaney and Szyf conducted a third crucial experiment, hoping to overwhelm the inevitable skeptics who would rise up to question their results. After all, it could be argued, what if the epigenetic changes observed in the rats’ brains were not directly causing the behavioral changes in the adults, but were merely co-occurring? Freud certainly knew the enduring power of bad mothers to screw up people’s lives. Maybe the emotional effects were unrelated to the epigenetic change.
To test that possibility, Meaney and Szyf took yet another litter of rats raised by rotten mothers. This time, after the usual damage had been done, they infused their brains with trichostatin A, a drug that can remove methyl groups. These animals showed none of the behavioral deficits usually seen in such offspring, and their brains showed none of the epigenetic changes.
“It was crazy to think that injecting it straight into the brain would work,” says Szyf. “But it did. It was like rebooting a computer.
Despite such seemingly overwhelming evidence, when the pair wrote it all up in a paper, one of the reviewers at a top science journal refused to believe it, stating he had never before seen evidence that a mother’s behavior could cause epigenetic change.
“Of course he hadn’t,” Szyf says. “We wouldn’t have bothered to report the study if it had already been proved.”
In the end, their landmark paper, “Epigenetic programming by maternal behavior,” was published in June 2004 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
Meaney and Szyf had proved something incredible. Call it postnatal inheritance: With no changes to their genetic code, the baby rats nonetheless gained genetic attachments due solely to their upbringing — epigenetic additions of methyl groups sticking like umbrellas out the elevator doors of their histones, gumming up the works and altering the function of the brain.
The Beat Goes On
Together, Meaney and Szyf have gone on to publish some two-dozen papers, finding evidence along the way of epigenetic changes to many other genes active in the brain. Perhaps most significantly, in a study led by Frances Champagne — then a graduate student in Meaney’s lab, now an associate professor with her own lab at Columbia University in New York — they found that inattentive mothering in rodents causes methylation of the genes for estrogen receptors in the brain. When those babies grow up, the resulting decrease of estrogen receptors makes them less attentive to their babies. And so the beat goes on.
As animal experiments continue apace, Szyf and Meaney have entered into the next great step in the study of behavioral epigenetics: human studies. In a 2008 paper, they compared the brains of people who had committed suicide with the brains of people who had died suddenly of factors other than suicide. They found excess methylation of genes in the suicide brains’ hippocampus, a region critical to memory acquisition and stress response. If the suicide victims had been abused as children, they found, their brains were more methylated.
Why can’t your friend “just get over” her upbringing by an angry, distant mother? Why can’t she “just snap out of it”? The reason may well be due to methyl groups that were added in childhood to genes in her brain, thereby handcuffing her mood to feelings of fear and despair.
Of course, it is generally not possible to sample the brains of living people. But examining blood samples in humans is routine, and Szyf has gone searching there for markers of epigenetic methylation. Sure enough, in 2011 he reported on a genome-wide analysis of blood samples taken from 40 men who participated in a British study of people born in England in 1958.
All the men had been at a socioeconomic extreme, either very rich or very poor, at some point in their lives ranging from early childhood to mid-adulthood. In all, Szyf analyzed the methylation state of about 20,000 genes. Of these, 6,176 genes varied significantly based on poverty or wealth. Most striking, however, was the finding that genes were more than twice as likely to show methylation changes based on family income during early childhood versus economic status as adults.
Timing, in other words, matters. Your parents winning the lottery or going bankrupt when you’re 2 years old will likely affect the epigenome of your brain, and your resulting emotional tendencies, far more strongly than whatever fortune finds you in middle age.
Last year, Szyf and researchers from Yale University published another study of human blood samples, comparing 14 children raised in Russian orphanages with 14 other Russian children raised by their biological parents. They found far more methylation in the orphans’ genes, including many that play an important role in neural communication and brain development and function.
“Our study shows that the early stress of separation from a biological parent impacts long-term programming of genome function; this might explain why adopted children may be particularly vulnerable to harsh parenting in terms of their physical and mental health,” said Szyf’s co-author, psychologist Elena Grigorenko of the Child Study Center at Yale. “Parenting adopted children might require much more nurturing care to reverse these changes in genome regulation.”
A case study in the epigenetic effects of upbringing in humans can be seen in the life of Szyf’s and Meaney’s onetime collaborator, Frances Champagne. “My mom studied prolactin, a hormone involved in maternal behavior. She was a driving force in encouraging me to go into science,” she recalls. Now a leading figure in the study of maternal influence, Champagne just had her first child, a daughter. And epigenetic research has taught her something not found in the What to Expect books or even her mother’s former lab.
“The thing I’ve gained from the work I do is that stress is a big suppressor of maternal behavior,” she says. “We see it in the animal studies, and it’s true in humans. So the best thing you can do is not to worry all the time about whether you’re doing the right thing. Keeping the stress level down is the most important thing. And tactile interaction — that’s certainly what the good mother rats are doing with their babies. That sensory input, the touching, is so important for the developing brain.”
The Mark Of Cain
The message that a mother’s love can make all the difference in a child’s life is nothing new. But the ability of epigenetic change to persist across generations remains the subject of debate. Is methylation transmitted directly through the fertilized egg, or is each infant born pure, a methylated virgin, with the attachments of methyl groups slathered on solely by parents after birth?
Neuroscientist Eric Nestler of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York has been seeking an answer for years. In one study, he exposed male mice to 10 days of bullying by larger, more aggressive mice. At the end of the experiment, the bullied mice were socially withdrawn.
To test whether such effects could be transmitted to the next generation, Nestler took another group of bullied mice and bred them with females, but kept them from ever meeting their offspring.
Despite having no contact with their depressed fathers, the offspring grew up to be hypersensitive to stress. “It was not a subtle effect; the offspring were dramatically more susceptible to developing signs of depression,” he says.
In further testing, Nestler took sperm from defeated males and impregnated females through in vitro fertilization. The offspring did not show most of the behavioral abnormalities, suggesting that epigenetic transmission may not be at the root. Instead, Nestler proposes, “the female might know she had sex with a loser. She knows it’s a tainted male she had sex with, so she cares for her pups differently,” accounting for the results.
Despite his findings, no consensus has yet emerged. The latest evidence, published in the Jan. 25 issue of the journal Science, suggests that epigenetic changes in mice are usually erased, but not always. The erasure is imperfect, and sometimes the affected genes may make it through to the next generation, setting the stage for transmission of the altered traits in descendants as well.
What’s Next?
The studies keep piling on. One line of research traces memory loss in old age to epigenetic alterations in brain neurons. Another connects post-traumatic stress disorder to methylation of the gene coding for neurotrophic factor, a protein that regulates the growth of neurons in the brain.
If it is true that epigenetic changes to genes active in certain regions of the brain underlie our emotional and intellectual intelligence — our tendency to be calm or fearful, our ability to learn or to forget — then the question arises: Why can’t we just take a drug to rinse away the unwanted methyl groups like a bar of epigenetic Irish Spring?
The hunt is on. Giant pharmaceutical and smaller biotech firms are searching for epigenetic compounds to boost learning and memory. It has been lost on no one that epigenetic medications might succeed in treating depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder where today’s psychiatric drugs have failed.
But it is going to be a leap. How could we be sure that epigenetic drugs would scrub clean only the dangerous marks, leaving beneficial — perhaps essential — methyl groups intact? And what if we could create a pill potent enough to wipe clean the epigenetic slate of all that history wrote? If such a pill could free the genes within your brain of the epigenetic detritus left by all the wars, the rapes, the abandonments and cheated childhoods of your ancestors, would you take it?
Entre las muchas interferencias con que las personas se ven obligadas a elegir entre huir o atacar… el fantasma del miedo es uno de los más acuciantes. Y entre los más inmovilizadores está este miedo a no valer, que afecta de tal modo el paisaje interno y el cuadro de creencias, que condena a la persona que lo padece a un dolor creciente y amargo. ¿Cómo podemos deshacernos de este miedo tan tóxico?El miedo a no valer, a no poder, a no ser suficiente es un miedo que conocemos desde niños. Cuando eres pequeña hay muchas fronteras que no puedes cruzar: algunas porque es físicamente imposible (alcanzar la lata de las galletas) y otras porque forman parte de lo que la familia ha señalado como inapropiado (decir tacos o escarbarse la nariz). Esto forma parte del proceso normal de colaboración paterna para ayudar al niño en su adaptación a la sociedad y los niveles de frustración que esto conlleva.
Shanti by Samantha Basso 