Nurse Nancy recently read an article on the website of “American Association for Health Freedom” regarding a new effort in Finland to prevent anyone but ‘health care professionals’ from treating mentally ill and disabled patients. On the surface, this sounds like a rational plan, does it not? Look a little deeper, think a little longer, and you’ll soon understand that this is a back-door assault on those who sell or provide information on herbal and other alternative medicines and supplements. The European Union, via the “Codex Alimentarius” , is poised to begin a process that could result in the destruction of the natural health industry, as of December 31, 2009. Why is this happening? The international drug-pushing medical mafia, and their godfather, ‘Big Pharma’ are not happy about people using something other than their over-priced nostrums to achieve good health. What then will be left for those of us who are rightfully leery of some of modern medicine’s toxic potions?

To be clear, ‘Codex Alimentarius’ does not, in and of itself, attack the natural health industry, but it opens the door for the “European Food Safety Authority” to ban anything they have not approved. That is where the danger lies - not just for Europe, but for the USA and other countries, who are even now being pressed to follow suit by their own medical associations. Once the “Codex” has been implemented, the EU will begin to strong-arm it’s 170 member nations to follow the codex regulations, forcing those who want to avoid or supplement allopathic medicine to go underground. In effect, it will criminalize anyone who has the audacity to insist on their right to manage their own health care.

Students of European and US history will remember another time when this happened, with horrific results: the later middle ages (aka ‘The Burning Times’) when ‘witches’ - usually women - were persecuted for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the purveying of herbal medicines and natural healing practices. This came at a time when the profession of medicine (an all-male occupation) was beginning to push outward from the cities into the surrounding countryside. They didn’t like the competition from those uppity ‘wise women’, and needed to find a way to eliminate them. Accusations of ‘Witchcraft’ were a convenient, effective  and terrible solution to the problem. The remaining few survivors got the message, and knowledge of herbal medicine went deep underground. It’s interesting to note that the majority of deaths during the “Black Plague” happened in those same cities that enjoyed the ‘marvels’ of the medical doctors’ attentions!

It seems we’re poised to experience a modern version of health-information repression, if the “Codex Alimentarius” and ‘Big Pharma’ have their way. Don’t look for the politicians to save you - they’re all deeply indentured to the pharmaceutical and medical insurance industries. There are currently bills before our own Senate and House that could set the stage to try and stamp out your right to manage your own health care.

Is there an answer? I think - or perhaps I should say ‘hope’ -  there is a way to fight back. First, unless and until the health industry’s gestapo begins house-to-house searches, you can grow many healing herbs yourself. Next, if you live in the USA, write to your local and national politicians and remind them that you have a voter’s card, and you know how to use it. Then, do just that. If you’re not in the USA, you can still Google your representatives and let them know how you feel and what you intend to do about it. You can also join and support groups such as the American Association for Health Freedom , or the International Advocates for Health Freedom , or any of the other groups world-wide who seek to protect their health care rights.

As it has always been, whatever rights you do not demand and protect will be taken from you by those who have an interest in controlling the lives of others. The choice is yours - but maybe not for much longer.

There’s a silent epidemic out there, one that few people talk about because it is shrouded in unnecessary stigmas brought about by by inaccurate information. The cause of the epidemic is HCV - Hepatitis C Virus, and the numbers of infected people are growing, especially among health care workers, such as nurses, doctors, phlebotomists, and others. If you are in a profession that puts you in contact with human blood, you are at risk. That’s because Hep C is exclusively blood borne, meaning it can only be contracted when an infected person’s blood mixes with the blood of an uninfected person (that’s B-L-O-O-D, not vaginal or seminal fluid, tears, saliva, or any other substance, unless there is blood in it).

So why all the shame and stigma? Because those who are supposed to be getting the truth out to the public are not exercising due diligence. The media, in it’s usual state of self-perpetuated Puritanical ignorance, bleats out whatever comes across it’s desks, never checking facts, never looking beyond the ‘new study results’ to see who paid for the study, or what the conditions of the study actually were. Most medical journals try to carry reputable articles, but it is still necessary to check to see who paid for the study results quoted, and what the circumstances were, before making blanket pronouncements about a disease or it’s treatment. Continue Reading »

I previously made my feelings known about Tom Vilsack’s appointment as Secretary of Agriculture, and I stand by it now more than ever. What in the world is Barack Obama thinkin’? Vilsack has been in Monsanto’s pockets since he was old enough to reach their pockets (and for them to reach his). Why all this vitriol from Nurse Nancy? Because I’ve been looking into Monsanto, and the more I look, the more I am convinced that they are just as vile as the people who brought us waterboarding and cluster bombs. They’re just less visible (to the mainstream media), and more insidious. Continue Reading »

I just read an article by Deepak Chopra that was carried by the Wall Street Journal. That’s right, THE WSJ! Now, it was in the ‘Opinion’ section, but the fact that WSJ printed it at all hints that a sea-change is in the works. If you’d like to read that article, it’s “‘Alternative’ Medicine is Mainstream” in the January 9, 2009 edition. I won’t go into a lot of paraphrasing, because Chopra presents the case so much better than I ever could. I do, however hope that President-elect Obama and his appointees Tom Vilsack and Dr. Sanjay Gupta take a gander at it.

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This year, it has been driven home to me just how many Americans are suffering from heart disease. Several of my friends and relatives have had cardiac problems (one who’s 5 years younger than I am had a stroke!), and ended up in the hospital for all sorts of procedures, including bypass grafts, stents, and angioplasties. Yikes! What a wake-up call!

Cardiovascular diseases claim millions of lives every year, with coronary artery disease being the single leading cause of death in the United States (more than 450,000 in 2004). In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that, by 2010, cardiac disease will surpass AIDS as the number one killer worldwide. Enormous sums of money are spent annually to fund research into it’s cause and cure, yet the numbers of people who succumb to heart disease climb higher every year. Heaven knows we have a host of drugs created to manage heart disease, and there’s more than enough evidence proving that diet, bad habits (like smoking cigarettes) and exercise play a critical role in cardiac health, yet we seem unable to change our dangerous behaviors. Could it be we simply don’t care? Or could it be something more? Continue Reading »

As we look forward to the promise of a new political direction here in the USA, it seems that hardly a day goes by without an announcement of a new cabinet appointment, or a statement by the president-elect about his plans for the country once he has taken office. There is even a place on the Obama website (change.gov) where we mere mortals can voice our opinions and make suggestions to the new regime, giving us a sense of actually being included in the political process beyond merely casting a ballot. Next to the current world-wide economic crisis, which must take precedence if we are to continue to be able to live in some kind of civilized society, my pick for the issue needing greatest attention is: Universal Healthcare versus ‘Affordable Healthcare Insurance’ (what else would you expect from a nurse?). It appears to be a given that providing some system by which all US citizens can access healthcare is in the works. On the surface, that is a good thing. Continue Reading »

When I first graduated from Nursing school in 1975, I had no grand dreams of saving the world, or being the next Florence Nightingale. I just wanted to do something that would help people, and earn enough money at it to be self-supporting. You wouldn’t think that was a particularly outlandish expectation, would you? After 33 years, I have to say that I did manage to help people (often in spite of the ’system’) and I did make enough to live a reasonably comfortable life. But over those years, my attitude had been slowly changing, evolving into a disdain for much of the medical establishment and a disgust with the ‘business’ end of American human health care delivery. About three years ago, I’d had enough, got out altogether and moved into another field, where I could still use my medical knowledge, but in a more removed way. It’s not going to make me rich, and sometimes I miss the human interaction, but it had to be done. Continue Reading »