World News
Brazil halts trials of Chinese COVID-19 vaccine
Al Jazeera – Brazil’s health regulator said on Monday it had suspended clinical trials of an experimental Chinese COVID-19 vaccine after an “adverse incident” involving one of the volunteers, in a surprise to the trial organisers who said that while there had been a death it was not related to the vaccine.
The setback for CoronaVac, developed by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech, came on the same day US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said its vaccine candidate had shown 90 percent effectiveness, raising hopes of an end to the pandemic.
The Brazilian regulator, Anvisa, said in a statement it had decided “to interrupt the clinical study of the CoronaVac vaccine after a serious adverse incident” on October 29.
It did not say where the event took place or what happened, citing privacy regulations. Usually, incidents that prompt the suspension of trials involve death, potentially fatal side effects, serious disability, hospitalisation, birth defects or other clinically significant events.
The Butantan Institute, the medical research institute coordinating the trials of the vaccine in Brazil, said it was “investigating in detail what happened,” and “is at the Brazilian regulatory agency’s disposal to provide any clarification necessary on any adverse incident the clinical trials may have presented.”
The vaccines from Sinovac, Pfizer and Oxford are all in Phase-3 trials, the final stage of testing before regulatory approval.
Lockdown children forget how to use knife and fork
BBC – The pandemic has seen most children in England slipping back with their learning – and some have gone significantly back with their social skills, says Ofsted.
A report from the education watchdog warns some young children have forgotten how to use a knife and fork or have regressed back to nappies.
Older children have lost their “stamina” for reading, say inspectors.
The Department for Education says it shows the need to keep schools open.
West Michigan lawsuits first to challenge new epidemic orders on masks, gatherings
The Detroit News – Two lawsuits originating in Ottawa County appear to be the first to challenge the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’ epidemic orders on gathering rules and mask use.
The epidemic orders largely have taken the place of some of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive orders, which were overturned Oct. 2 by the Michigan Supreme Court.
On Friday, a Hudsonville Christian school called Libertas Classical Association filed suit in Michigan’s Western U.S. District Court, alleging its constitutional rights were violated when the county health department threatened to shut the school because of violations of the state’s mask mandate and gathering restrictions.
On Wednesday, a Grand Haven chiropractor’s office filed suit in the Michigan Court of Claims, arguing that the department’s mask mandate exceeded what orders it is allowed to issue under state law.
Both the school and Semlow Peak Performance Chiropractic have been served cease-and-desist letters from the Ottawa County Health Department in recent weeks.
The chiropractor’s lawsuit was assigned to Court of Claims Chief Judge Christopher Murray, an appointee of former Republican Gov. John Engler.
Trump Supporters Encouraged to Send Complaints to FCC For Networks Calling Biden ‘President-elect’
Newsweek – Republican activists have urged supporters of President Donald Trump to send complaints against TV networks to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for calling President-elect Joe Biden “president-elect” after projecting him as winner of the 2020 election.
Twitter posts by blogger Michelle Malkin and others urge Trump supporters to send the FCC consumer complaints over networks referring to Biden as “president elect,” despite similar language being regularly used after previous elections. The posts quote a section of the agency’s consumer guide dealing with complaints for networks who “intentionally distort the news.”
“The FCC is prohibited by law from engaging in censorship or infringing on the First Amendment rights of the press,” the guide reads. “It is, however, illegal for broadcasters to intentionally distort the news, and the FCC may act on complaints if there is documented evidence of such behavior from persons with direct personal knowledge.”
Significant Psychological Toll From New Zealand COVID-19 Lockdown
Dr. Coldwell – Research has confirmed the nationwide Alert Level 4 COVID-19 lockdown had a significant toll on New Zealanders’ well-being, especially for younger people – but the results were not all negative.
Researchers from the University of Otago conducted a demographically representative survey of adult New Zealanders between 15 and 18 April, corresponding to days 19 to 22 of the 33-day lockdown.
They found almost a third of participants experienced mental distress during the lockdown, but that many people also experienced some form of ‘silver linings’.
They asked Kiwis about their levels of stress, anxiety and depression, about the state of their family relationships and whether there were any positive outcomes from lockdown.
Dr Susanna Every-Palmer, the Head of the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Otago, Wellington, says 30 per cent of those surveyed reported moderate to severe psychological distress and 16 per cent had moderate to high levels of anxiety. Almost 40 per cent said their level of well-being was low.
“New Zealand’s lockdown successfully eliminated COVID-19 from the community, but our results show this achievement brought a significant psychological toll,” Dr Every-Palmer says.
“Substantially increased rates of distress were seen among those who reported having lost their jobs or experienced a reduction in work as a result of the pandemic, those who had potential vulnerabilities to COVID-19, or identified their health status as poor, and those who had a past diagnosis of a mental illness.”
The level of mental distress was much higher in younger adults, with almost half of those aged between 18 and 24 experiencing moderate to severe psychological distress compared to less than one in 10 adults aged 65 years and older.
Dr Every-Palmer says the lower level of mental distress among older people likely results from higher baseline levels of well-being. It may also reflect the resilience they have developed through overcoming past adversities and the fact that they were experiencing fewer daily disruptions and economic impacts as a result of lockdown.
“Older people may also have felt they were safer in New Zealand than elsewhere.”
Just over six per cent of participants reported having suicidal thoughts during lockdown, although for most this was not a new experience, with 83 per cent saying they had similar thoughts in the 12 months prior to lockdown.
Almost one in 10 participants directly experienced some form of family harm over the lockdown period, including sexual assault, physical assault, or harassment, and threatening behaviour. This is three to four times higher than that reported in the 2018-2019 NZ Crime and Victims of Crime Survey. Reports from China, the US, Brazil and Australia also indicate increases in family violence coinciding with lockdown orders.
Brazil suspends trials of China’s vaccine, citing ‘serious adverse event’
CNN – Brazil’s health regulator has suspended trials of a Chinese-developed Covid-19 vaccine following a “serious adverse event” involving a volunteer recipient, according to sources cited by CNN’s affiliate, CNN Brasil.
Chinese drugmaker Sinovac Biotech began Phase 3 trials of its CoronaVac in collaboration with the Brazilian Butantan Institute in Sao Paulo in late July, with an aim to recruit 130,000 volunteers. Phase 3 trials represent the final and most important testing stage before regulatory approval is sought.
The pause in testing marks a potential setback for one of China’s leading vaccine candidates and comes as US drugmaker Pfizer said Monday that early data from its own coronavirus vaccine showed more than 90% effectiveness.
According to a note from Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency, an incident reported on October 29 led to a decision to suspend the trial in order to better evaluate the data and assess the risk.
Amazon charged with market abuse in Germany and France. A huge fine could follow
CNN – The European Union has unveiled formal antitrust charges against Amazon for abusing its dominance in online shopping and opened a second investigation into the company’s business practices.
Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission’s top antitrust official, accused Amazon on Tuesday of illegally abusing its dominant position as an online marketplace in Germany and France, the company’s biggest markets in the European Union.
The Commission opened a formal investigation into Amazon (AMZN) in July 2019 to probe its dual role as marketplace and retailer. It has been looking into agreements between Amazon and independent retailers, and whether data from sellers is being unfairly used by the e-commerce giant, which also sells its own products.
The investigation found that Amazon feeds non-public seller data, such as the number of products ordered and the sellers’ revenues, into its own retail algorithms to help it decide which new products to launch and the price of each new offer, Vestager said on Tuesday.
That allows Amazon to marginalize third-party sellers and cap “their ability to grow,” she added.
Amazon took issue with the findings. “We disagree with the preliminary assertions of the European Commission and will continue to make every effort to ensure it has an accurate understanding of the facts,” the company said in a statement.
U.S. News, Politics & Government
Trump fires Secretary of Defense Mark Esper
Fox – President Trump on Monday said he fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and that Christopher Miller, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, will take over as acting defense secretary “effective immediately.”
“Mark Esper has been terminated,” Trump tweeted, his first ousting of a Cabinet official since the election was called for Democratic nominee Joe Biden. “I would like to thank him for his service.”
A senior U.S. official told Fox News that White House chief of staff Mark Meadows called Esper and let him know he was being fired before the president’s tweet.
Fox News has learned that Esper was involved in meetings at the Pentagon Monday morning, and was behaving as defense secretary. Sources told Fox News that the president’s announcement caught some of his staff off guard.
Recently, there have been reports that Esper could be removed from his post or could be preparing resignation letters, but some members of his staff believed that he would remain through inauguration.
Esper’s firing comes five months after he said he did “not support invoking the Insurrection Act,” amid nationwide protests over the summer. He has not held a press conference in the Pentagon briefing room since July.
Pentagon’s top policy adviser James Anderson resigns after Mark Esper firing
Fox – U.S. defense officials said James Anderson, the top policy adviser at the Pentagon, submitted his resignation Tuesday, a day after President Donald Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper.
Anderson has been the acting undersecretary for policy since June. Previously he served as the deputy undersecretary since his confirmation for that job in August 2018.
Trump’s firing of Esper comes as he has refused to concede his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Defense officials spoke about Anderson’s resignation on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
A wide range of policy staff positions in the Pentagon have been filled with people on an acting basis over the past year or more, as a number of staff have left or have not been confirmed.
Chris Miller, who was tapped to serve as the Pentagon chief on Monday after Esper was fired, was in his second day in the building, meeting with top staff.
RT – Epidemiologist Dr Michael Osterholm, who has joined Joe Biden’s Covid-19 advisory board, has warned Americans to “get ready,” as he expects cases to continue to surge, and wants a national lockdown to combat the pandemic.
The Biden adviser said the “darkest months” are ahead when it comes to Covid-19, due to the winter driving people indoors, and fatigue and disaffection affecting their willingness to adhere to health guidelines.
These factors, Osterholm claims, will likely drive daily case figures to a new high.
“Get ready. We’re going to be hitting 200,000 or more cases a day, and we have to get prepared in our hospitals,” he told MSNBC’s Morning Joe program on Monday.
Osterholm is of the opinion that a national lockdown is required to “drive this infection level to a place where we can actually control it.” However, he admitted, compliance is key. “If you interview 50 people, you get 75 definitions of what a lockdown is,” he said.
Citing the success of contact tracing in China and elsewhere, Osterholm claimed the US had fallen short in its battle against the pandemic.
If the government were to impose a national lockdown, the country should help fight the “pain and suffering economically” that comes from people being unable to work and businesses being forced to shut down by allowing the borrowing of “money from ourselves” to “pay people to lose their jobs,” he said. “That would be a very different kind of lockdown, where people wouldn’t suffer.”
Minority leader says Pelosi’s tenure as House speaker ending
WND – House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says Nancy Pelosi will not be elected speaker again if the same number of Democrats vote against her as they did after the 2018 midterms.
McCarthy noted in an interview with “Sunday Morning Futures” that a candidate needs 218 votes to win the post, but when Pelosi stood for election two years ago, there were 15 Democrats who voted against her.
“Ten of those Democrats will be coming back to Congress. If those 10 vote against her again, she will not be speaker of the House because of the gains of the Republicans,” he explained. “We are close enough now that we can control the floor with a few Democrats joining with us.”
So far, Republicans have won at least seven seats previously held by Democrats and another from Michigan held by a Libertarian.
In 2018, Pelosi got 220 votes for speaker and McCarthy received 192.
“Our vision for the next two years must be built on the success of Democratic House Majority in the 116th Congress,” Pelosi said in a statement announcing she will run again. “And to harness the extraordinary visions, values and vibrancy of our Caucus to secure the progress that the American people deserve. In that spirit, I am writing to request your support to be re-elected as speaker.”
WATCH: Fox News cuts away from Kayleigh McEnaney claiming vote fraud
WND – Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto cut away from a Trump campaign press conference Monday afternoon with Kayleigh McEnany, declaring the network could not “in good countenance” continue to air her “false claim” that the Democratic Party was “welcoming” vote fraud.
Cavuito picked up McEnaney in progress saying there’s “one party in America that opposes verifying signatures, citizenship, residency, eligibility — there is only one party in America trying keep observers out of the count room, and that party, my friends, is the Democratic Party.”
McEnaney, the White House press secretary, said she was speaking in her capacity as a campaign adviser.
“You don’t take these positions because you want an honest election,” she continued. “You don’t oppose an audit of the vote because you want an accurate count. You don’t oppose our efforts at sunlight and tranparency because you have nothing to hide. You take these positions because you are welcoming fraud and you are welcoming illegal voting.”
McEnaney said the campaign’s “position is clear, we want to protect the franchise of the American people.”
“We want an honest, accurate lawful count. We want maximum sunlight; we want maximum transparency,” she said.
Quarter million voted in Wisconsin while ignoring ID requirement
Washington Examiner- Republicans in Wisconsin are raising questions about the large number of people, particularly new voters, who avoided having to show a photo ID to vote by listing themselves as “indefinitely confined.”
When requesting an absentee ballot, Wisconsin law allows voters to self-certify if they are “indefinitely confined” to their residence because of age, physical illness, or are disabled for an indefinite period of time. Doing so allows them to submit an absentee ballot without having to show any form of photo ID, although they must have a ballot witness sign off.
This year, the number of indefinitely confined voters soared amid the coronavirus pandemic, leaving Republicans saying they are concerned about potential fraud. In 2019, about 72,000 voters said they were indefinitely confined. That number reportedly ballooned to 243,000 this year.
Barr tells US prosecutors to probe claims of vote irregularities
AL Jazeera – William Barr, the attorney general of the United States, has authorised federal prosecutors to look into any possible “substantial” allegations of voting irregularities in last week’s presidential election, despite no evidence of widespread fraud.
Barr’s memo on Monday followed days of attacks on the integrity and legality of the election by President Donald Trump, who has not conceded the election to Democrat Joe Biden and thrown the presidential transition into tumult by blocking government officials from cooperating with the president-elect’s team.
Biden on Saturday secured more than 270 votes in the Electoral College to capture the presidency.
There has been no indication of enough improperly counted or illegally cast votes that would shift the outcome and, in fact, election officials from both political parties have publicly stated the election went well, though there have been minor issues that are typical in elections, including voting machines breaking and ballots that were miscast and lost.
Barr’s action prompted the resignation of the senior Department of Justice official who oversees investigations of voter fraud.
In a memo to federal prosecutors and the FBI director, Barr wrote that investigations “may be conducted if there are clear and apparently-credible allegations of irregularities that, if true, could potentially impact the outcome of a federal election in an individual State”.
Republicans in Pennsylvania Call for Legislature-led Audit of Voting Results
Breitbart – Republican members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives are calling for an audit of the election results to be led by the legislature — and demanding that the results “not be certified, nor electors be seated, until the audit is complete.”
Rep. Dawn Keefer (R-Dillsburg) told reporters in a press conference on Tuesday morning: “This isn’t about the election outcomes.” Rather, she argued, it was about the “volume of inquiries” legislators had received about the election process.
Last week, Republican legislators sent a letter to Gov. Tom Wolf (D), demanding an audit of the disputed results (original emphasis):
For months, I, along with many members of the House of Representatives and Senate, have raised serious concerns relating to the administration of the election, specifically because this was the first full year Pennsylvanians would be able to use no-excuse absentee mail-in ballots.
Unfortunately, some of the concerns that were previously raised have manifested into issues which cannot be overlooked.
First, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unconstitutionally extended the deadline to receive late ballots and openly ignored the findings of fact and law that were issued by the Commonwealth Court. That issue is now being litigated at the United States Supreme Court. However, this judicial intervention created unnecessary chaos and uncertainty as to what constitutes a timely and lawfully cast vote.
…
As such, and due directly to these issues (and any others that may arise), I am requesting that a full audit be conducted of the 2020 General Election prior to the certification of any results.
Gov. Wolf said via a spokesperson that the state conducted audits of results as a matter of course, and other Democrats in statewide office dismissed the Republicans’ concerns.
The legislators are therefore pressing for an audit to be led by the legislature, not state officials.
Breitbart – During his opening monologue on the Monday broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” host Tucker Carlson lashed out a Big Tech for placing restrictions on its platforms that hampered the flow of potentially damaging information about then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Carlson deemed it “election tampering” and cited Breitbart News’ lack of search results on Google to back up his claim.
The Fox News host noted the well-documented claim of Google’s handling of Breitbart News following a May 2020 so-called algorithm update.
Partial transcript as follows:
CARLSON: One of the first things that we should be honest about is one of the worst forms of election tampering took place far from polling sites. It wasn’t votes from dead people. Those are bad, but they weren’t the worst thing. The worst things are more obvious than that.
The worst thing was Silicon Valley.
The tech monopolies spent the final weeks of the presidential election suppressing the voices of Trump supporter’s and hiding damaging information about his opponent Joe Biden. That happened. We saw it firsthand. We experienced it. You may have, too.
In August, Facebook banned the pro-Trump super PAC committee To Defend the President from buying any campaign advertising. What? What election has that happened in? None.
Just a few weeks ago, as you well know, The New York Post published true and accurate details of the Biden family’s lucrative and damaging overseas influence-peddling operation, which was real, which Joe Biden knew about.
Facebook, in turn, limited the distribution of this article, and Twitter blocked people from posting it. In other words, they censored it. They kept people from knowing about it, and on what basis? Nothing in those articles was untrue, but they censored it anyway, along with any content that was critical of lockdowns and mandatory mask-wearing. Why? Because Biden supported those.
There are many threads to this. There is overwhelming evidence this happens — we’ll just pick one piece, a report from Breitbart.
They took a lot of time to look into what Google was doing to them. They found that Google suppressed its stories about Joe Biden in the middle of 2020 through Election Day, suppressed them.
Quote, “Clicks and impressions to Breitbart News from ‘Joe Biden’ Google searches displayed a healthy pattern of activity in the middle of 2020 when they suddenly flatlined … the plunge first occurred after a major update to Google’s search algorithm in May 2020.”
Ask anybody in digital news, do searches for the names of candidates decline as we get closer to the election? No, probably not. In fact, they accelerate, but not if Google is censoring you, which is what they were doing.
None of this is normal. It doesn’t matter how often or how emphatically CNN encourages it, tells you it’s fine, tells you it is necessary to suppress disinformation, is totally wrong, and it’s crazy.
Democracy cannot survive tampering like that. The Biden campaign knows exactly what happened. They know exactly the degree to which they benefited from it, and that’s why they are rewarding their co-conspirators in Big Tech with even more power.
Biden apparently has already hired Jessica Hertz, that’s Facebook’s former associate general counsel, as well as Cynthia Hogan, the former Apple vice president for government affairs. Oh, kind of an inside game. Yeah.
Reportedly Biden is also considering naming Eric Schmidt, the former top executive in Google and a big Biden donor to his technology industry task force in the White House. This is not a matter of rewarding your supporters. It’s much bigger than that, and it’s of deep concern to every American.
If we are going to have real and fair elections going forward, then we have to end Silicon Valley’s total control of information. It’s the first thing we must do. We can’t have free and fair elections without that. If voters aren’t allowed to learn critical facts about political candidates before they vote, you can’t have a democracy.
And of course, that’s why they are doing it.
Breitbart – The founder of a Long Island caravan rally in support of President Donald Trump says the rallies are not ending, but, instead, growing stronger, as the president challenges election results in a race that has been called by some in the media.
Shawn Farash, 29, the founder of Long Island Loud Majority – a play on the common characterization of conservative Trump supporters as the “silent majority” – told Breitbart News in an interview Monday that their rallies have grown from 200 to 300 vehicles, at their introductory event in Suffolk County, to now 10,000 cars.
Farash told Breitbart News while ralliers were initially stunned and somber after media outlets announced Biden the winner, he counseled them to block the media out.
“And we have to if our president is not conceding,” he said. “He truly believes that this is illegitimate, and we have to fight until he’s done fighting. I told them we dig our heels in. We’re gonna keep it peaceful, as always, but we have to be angry. That said, we have to be driven and motivated, not depressed.”
Farash said Trump supporters are now fighting a political “war.”
Within a day, he said, people in his organization were confident again, and the energy was high. When the Biden campaign and some news outlets began to ramp up portrayal of the former vice president as “president-elect,” Farash told members of his group they would continue still to rally behind Trump.
Science & Technology
Report: Biden Will Give Eric Schmidt a Prominent Tech Task Force Role
Breitbart – Former Google CEO and Clinton lackey Eric Schmidt is being considered to lead a key tech task force in a Biden administration, according to a report in the Financial Times.
Even though the election result is still disputed by President Donald Trump and the Republicans, Joe Biden is already forming his transition team, which includes many former Silicon Valley employees, including Schmidt.
According to the Financial Times (paywalled), presidential contender Biden has:
hired both Jessica Hertz, former associate general counsel at Facebook, and Cynthia Hogan, former Apple vice-president for government affairs to his transition team. Eric Schmidt, the former Google chief executive, has been a big fundraiser, and is being talked about to lead a new technology industry task force in the White House.
Multiple Big Tech executives joined the Biden transition team just weeks before Silicon Valley censored the New York Post‘s bombshell articles on alleged Biden family corruption.
Schmidt is known for his close ties to the Democrats, as well as his deep involvement with their election campaigns. These have paid off in terms of government roles at both the state and national level.
As Breitbart News reported earlier this year:
Eric Schmidt, who was executive director of Alphabet Inc during the presidential campaign, pitched himself as “head outside adviser” to the Clinton campaign in 2014, according to emails leaked by WikiLeaks. Schmidt — then still executive director of Google-parent Alphabet — was also pictured at Hillary Clinton’s NYC “victory” party wearing a badge marked “campaign staff.”
Schmidt is deeply tied to the Department of Defense, a relationship that began during the Obama administration. He is currently Chairman of the DoD’s Defense Innovation Advisory board. Schmidt’s relationship with top U.S. politicians has also paid off in New York, where Governor Andrew Cuomo has asked him to “re-imagine” the state post-coronavirus.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), one of the Senate’s most vocal critics of Big Tech, highlighted Biden’s cozying up to Google on Twitter.
Science on the half shell: Mussels yield new material
CS Monitor – When she first saw it, Francesca Kerton thought someone must be playing a prank.
The white blobs didn’t belong there, thought Dr. Kerton, a chemistry professor at Memorial University in the Canadian province of Newfoundland. They were soft and pliable, and they had emerged from mussel shells made of calcium carbonate, which is famously hard and brittle.
But, sure enough, when they repeated the experiment, that spongy stuff appeared again.
Being scientists, they poked and prodded the baffling blobs. They ripped the material apart like cotton candy, stuck it back together, stretched it, and squeezed it so that water seeped out like it would from a soggy sponge.
“We did have a lot of fun in the lab acting like kids, because we hadn’t come across anything like this before, trying to figure out what it was and what we could do with it,” Dr. Kerton says.
It turns out the mystery material was still made up of calcium carbonate. And, given its spongy properties, this substance might just prove useful for ocean cleanups or biomedical purposes. The researchers reported their discovery in a paper published Thursday in the journal Matter.
This study is an example of the importance of curiosity-driven science in developing our knowledge about the world around us, says Peter Fratzl, director at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, Germany, who was not involved in the new paper.
“It’s curiosity that wants us to understand why and how it works, but then knowing why and how it works, you can put it to use in other contexts. And, of course, you never know before you do the study what is going to be useful,” he says. “Serendipity in science is a very well-known effect.”
Health
Healing plants: Silymarin from milk thistle found to have anti-cancer properties
Dr. Coldwell – Milk thistle is an herb derived from the milk thistle plant, Silybum marianum. It is used in traditional Chinese medicine to clear heat, remove toxic elements from the body, soothe the liver and promote bile secretions. The detoxifying properties of milk thistle are so potent that the herb is used to protect the liver from snake bites.
The main active ingredient in milk thistle is silymarin, a flavonoid with potent antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. In a study published in the journal Oncology Reports, researchers from Kongju National University in South Korea found that silymarin can reduce tumor growth by decreasing the expression of pro-cancer proteins involved in mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling. The MAPK signaling pathways play an important role in the regulation of cell proliferation, differentiation, survival and death.
Silymarin can reduce tumor growth
To test the effect of silymarin on human gastric cancer cells, the researchers assessed the viability and migration of cancer cells after treatment with different concentrations of silymarin. The team found that cell viability and cell migration decreased as the concentration of silymarin increased. They also found that the rate of apoptosis and the number of apoptotic bodies increased after silymarin treatment in a dose-dependent manner.
To investigate the anti-cancer properties of silymarin, the researchers examined changes in the expression of proteins involved in MAPK signaling in gastric cancer cells. Using western blot analysis, the researchers found that silymarin increased the expression of the apoptotic activator Bax, activated the tumor suppressors JNK and p38, and decreased the levels of the antiapoptotic proteins ERK1/2 and Bcl?2 in a dose?dependent manner.
By inhibiting the phosphorylation of ERK and Bcl-2 and activating p38, JNK and Bax in human gastric cancer cells, silymarin was able to induce cancer cell death and prevent tumor growth.
“The present study indicated that silymarin is highly promising for the development of gastric cancer medications as it inhibits [cancer] cell growth and tumor generation by inducing apoptosis,” the researchers wrote in their report.
CBD, turmeric and willow: 3 Natural and effective painkillers
Dr. Coldwell – ainkillers are succor to people experiencing acute pain. Unfortunately, pharmaceutical painkillers cause a lot of adverse side effects that can make you feel even worse. These medications can give you constipation and nausea, and some even lead to long-term side effects, like drug addiction and kidney damage.
Fortunately, natural painkillers exist that can help soothe different kinds of pain. (h/t to AskAPrepper.com)
CBD oil
Cannabidiol (CBD) is a type of cannabinoid found naturally in the cannabis plant. CBD oil is made by extracting CBD from cannabis and diluting it with a carrier oil like coconut or hemp seed oil.
The analgesic effects of CBD oil stems from its anti-inflammatory properties and its interaction with the human endocannabinoid system (ECS). The ECS is a specialized system in the human body involved in regulating sleep, appetite, pain and immune system response, among other things. The body produces endocannabinoids, neurotransmitters that bind to cannabinoid receptors in the nervous system.
In a 2006 study, researchers found that intravenous CBD helped reduce the pain response of mice to surgical incision. Meanwhile, another mice study found that oral CBD treatment significantly decreased pain and inflammation in the sciatic nerve.
In addition, CBD oil can help improve sleep. A good night’s sleep gives the body time to heal and helps reduce anxiety and blood pressure.
Turmeric
Turmeric is a spice commonly used in Ayurvedic medicine to treat a variety of conditions, such as headaches, asthma and stress. The main active ingredient in turmeric is curcumin, a natural compound with potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects on the body.
Curcumin is popularly used to relieve arthritis pain and the painful symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). In a 2017 review, researchers reported that curcumin, when taken daily, provides benefits similar to ibuprofen and other conventional painkillers to people with osteoarthritis.
A 2015 study also found that curcumin can lessen the severity of symptoms associated with PMS. These include backache, headache, breast tenderness and abdominal pain.
Studies also show that curcumin can be used to relieve toothaches and tendonitis. A 2018 study reported that curcumin alleviated pain associated with the post-surgical removal of wisdom teeth. In a 2011 study, researchers found that curcumin helped soothe tendonitis — the painful swelling of a tendon — by preventing the activation of certain inflammatory molecules. (Related: Curcumin significantly reduces inflammation in the body.)
You can make your own curcumin medicine by heating turmeric in olive oil. Add black pepper to maximize the benefits of of this potent compound.
White willow
The white willow is a tree that belongs to the willow family. The Ancient Greeks and Chinese traditionally used its bark to reduce fever and inflammation. Even today, willow bark is still a popular remedy for pain. Studies show that it can relieve headaches, low back pain, osteoarthritis pain, menstrual cramps and tendonitis.
The bark of white willow is an excellent pain reliever because it contains salicin, a natural chemical that works like aspirin. Together with the powerful anti-inflammatory compounds in white willow, salicin is thought to be responsible for the analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of the herb. While the bark of white willow brings pain relief more slowly than aspirin, its effects last longer.
Make white willow bark tea by adding two tablespoons of bark chips to a cup of boiling water. Let the bark steep for 20 minutes. Strain the bark and drink.
If you’re in a lot of pain, you can try these three natural painkillers instead of taking pharmaceutical drugs.
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