Death by Default, Is It Our Fault

        In an age of global warming and many other potential disasters we do not need more problems. The real question is how many of the problems are of our own creation.  When I hear the complaints about obesity in America, especially childhood obesity I have to wonder if we are missing something.  I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer.  But I am starting to see, or at least believe personally, that many of the health problems we are seeing today in America we have created.

        Is there a connection between Alzheimer's disease, autism and increased brain tumors in America.  My beliefs come from over sixty years of observations. The realization that some things are related is pretty easy to come too.  Could all the missing honey bees just be one more confirmation of the link between science and technology and the worlds problems today.  Is there a common bond that ties them all together.  Could the genetic modification of plants be leading to the demise of the bees.  It would not surprise me.  Of course all of Monsanto's money says I am wrong.

       Most people have heard of the possible link between brain tumors and cell phones.  It has supposedly been proven to be false.  When you live in a society where laws are passed at the whim of corporate lobby's.  Is it really unrealistic to believe that the truth might be swept under the carpet in the interest of corporate earnings.

      The fact that science makes mistakes is a documented fact.  In 1962  a book by Rachel Carson called Silent Spring gave birth to the environmental movement.  In just ten years it led to the ban of DDT. The book laid down the fact that many chemicals are transmitted up the food chain.  The cumulative effect of consuming contaminated food sources can have fatal consequences to those beings farther up the chain. This knowledge led to the ban of DDT in 1972.  It had been discovered that DDT may have been to blame for the decline and almost extinction of the Bald Eagle in the lower forty eight states. Eagles were eating fish.  The fish had fed on smaller plants and animals that had absorbed the DDT which got into the runoff water from agricultural usage.  The consequence was the levels gradually increased in the Eagles bodies till it effected the shells of their eggs. The eggs became weak and thin and unable to survive till they were hatched.  The return of the Bald Eagle proves that some pollution damage can be reversed.

      So what does all this have to do with obesity, Alzheimer's and autism to name a few things. In America we eat processed foods that grown for market.  Those foods are fed the best growth products to make them grow and put on weight.  The question is have we come to a point where those growth hormones are effecting us the consumers.  I offer as proof of my theory ex-President Bill Clinton.  Most people were aware of his love of food and his battle with weight problems.  After leaving office he had health problems with cholesterol and blood pressure.  He became a vegan (vegetarian that eats no animal products including milk and eggs)  Anyone who has seen him lately can see the weight loss.  He says he feels healthier.  The diet even has a Biblical based story that validates it.  Read the first chapter of the book of Daniel and it tells how Daniel and his associates survived on a meatless diet.

      I am not advocating everybody become vegetarian. I am advocating knowing how the meat  you do eat is grown and what is being put into it's body, which you in turn put into your body.  Have you ever heard of Mad Cow disease.  They believe it was transmitted to the cows through their food supply. All the diseases I mentioned earlier have to do with the learning or memory process.  In 2011 I lost my youngest daughter to a brain tumor.  She was a nurse and we had many discussions about the possible causes for brains tumors.  She fought hers for seven years and had three operations. She was a nurse and so we approached it in a manner that if we could figure anything out we should share it.

      Back in the seventies while I was still in the Army I read two articles in major newspapers that made me wonder about where we were headed.  As a Vietnam veteran and having been exposed to Agent Orange I definitely have an interest in the matter.  I have heard but have not read it myself that the cause of the mysterious Gulf War Syndrome was caused by canned diet drink exposed to high heat.  Supposedly the heat caused a chemical reaction turning the diet drink into formaldehyde.  Which is something definitely not good for human consumption.  Getting back on track the two articles I read had to do with plastics.  The first was in the Chicago Tribune paper and it talked about extremely high brain tumor rates in a laboratory run by an oil company.  I am not sure of the name so I will not mention it. I am sure it was an oil company laboratory though.  They were doing plastics research.  In the course of research it became apparent that more and more of the people in the lab were developing brain tumors.  It was happening at hundreds of times the national level per 100,000 people.  The second article I read was in the Rio Grande valley of Texas near the town of McAllen. Across the border supposedly some plastics plants were in operation.  They were discharging waste that was getting in the local water supply.  The incidence of spina bifida was at hundreds of  times the national rate. Spina bifida is a disease where the spinal column does not completely develop during the birth process.  Both articles associated the heating process in the making of plastics as contributing to the problem.

       A few years later we got our first microwave oven. I noticed a peculiar smell when plastics were heated in the oven.  Remembering what I had read it became my personal police not to eat things that were cooked in a microwave if they were wrapped in, or placed in a plastic container.  Like I said it was and is a personal decision, but the longer I live the stronger I feel I am right in what I believe.  Which is that plastics while being beneficial in some ways to society may not be healthy in some circumstances.

        While I have no scientific background I feel compelled to share these observations as they may help someone from getting sucked into the cycle.  My comments are those of a layperson that is only concerned with the constantly rising rate of cancer deaths and infections I see and hear about daily.  Is the increase simply from better detection methods. It is not mine to say, but I do believe there is a cause and effect that with the proper amount of study might answer some of these issues.  If we do not solve the bee problem none of us may be here.  No pun intended. Simple things like bees keep nature in balance.  If the killer plants that do not reproduce continue to be planted, We may be planting the seeds of our own demise.  Have bees been harvesting their own demise as they are at the very beginnings of the food cycle.  Only time will tell.