New study links wheat (gluten) consumption to autism

Another piece in the complex puzzle of what causes autism and other related behavioral disorders appears to have been identified by a new study published in the open-access journal PLoS One. Researchers from Columbia University in New York found that wheat, and particularly wheat gluten, triggers a unique immune response in autistic children, and especially those with gastrointestinal problems. And this response, it turns out, produces an array of symptoms commonly associated with autism.

For their study, the team from both the Columbia University Department of Medicine and the Celiac Disease Center set out to assess how children diagnosed with autism respond immunologically to gluten consumption. Since previous research on the subject has been largely inconclusive, the researchers felt it was important to investigate the matter further using strict evaluative guidelines and research criteria in order to arrive at a solid and trustworthy conclusion.

After comparing the effects of gluten consumption among autistic children both with and without gastrointestinal problems to their unaffected siblings and age-matched healthy controls, the team learned that the autistic children had significantly higher levels of the IgG antibody, which targets a gluten protein known as gliadin. And based on the way this antibody functions within the body, many now believe that high levels of it can also interfere with proper neurological function.

"It has been theorized that when the immune system forms antibodies against gliadin, these antibodies cross react with self-structures within the nervous system," writes Sayer Ji for GreenMedInfo.com about the process. "Known as molecular mimicry, this breakdown of immunological self-tolerance can contribute to a wide range of neurological problems including neuropathy, ataxia, seizures, and neurobehavioral changes including mania, schizophrenia and autism."

"Anti-gliadin antibodies are therefore a possible cause of autoimmune neurological damage," he adds.

In other words, many of the symptoms exhibited by individuals diagnosed with autism could actually be the result of an antibody response caused by exposure to wheat gluten. Regardless of whether or not the blood markers of actual Celiac disease are present, wheat gluten appears to greatly elevate levels of this anti-gliadin antibody within the body.

"A subset of children with autism displays increased immune reactivity to gluten, the mechanism of which appears to be distinct from that in Celiac disease," wrote the authors in their conclusion. "The increased anti-gliadin antibody response and its association with GI symptoms points to a potential mechanism involving immunologic and/or intestinal permeability abnormalities in affected children."

Eliminating wheat has helped many people with autism

The obvious takeaway from all this is that eating wheat is probably not a good idea if you fall anywhere on the autism spectrum, and especially if you suffer from GI disorders. Though conventional wheat is technically not good for anybody, it appears to be distinctly harmful for people with autism, and something worth avoiding.

As far as the specific benefits associated with cutting out gluten, a recent study published in the Journal of Child Neurology documents the case of one young child with autism and epilepsy who went completely symptom-free as a result of cutting out both gluten and casein, a type of milk protein. Others have reported similar improvements as a result of going gluten-free, including Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, M.D., creator of the Gut and Psychology Syndrome Diet, also known as GAPS diet, which she used to essentially cure her son's autistic condition.

Source: Natural News

Warning: Genetically Modified “Agent Orange Corn” Coming Soon to a Plate Near You

Remember Agent Orange, the herbicide sprayed in Vietnam linked with devastating birth defects, cancer and Parkinson’s disease?

Dow AgroSciences would like to feed this toxic chemical to the American population via a new breed of genetically modified corn. If the corporation has its way, “Agent Orange corn” will arrive on dinner plates across the U.S. as early as 2014.

Poisonous history of Agent Orange

Da Thi Kieu experienced the deadly effects of Agent Orange first hand. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military sprayed her fields with the herbicide. Likewise, her husband was exposed when he fought in the army and died an early death due to cancers associated with the toxin. Of their eight children, seven were born with birth defects and only two survived.

Sadly, Kieu’s story is not an unfamiliar one. Countless others throughout Vietnam and America have suffered at the hands of Agent Orange. Parkinson’s, Hodgkin’s disease, Bcell leukemias and multiple myeloma are all linked with exposure to the herbicide. And the poisons don’t just magically disappear — decades later, traces are still found in the soil. Additionally, many view Agent Orange as chemical warfare. According to Global Research:

“In US Senate Congressional Records dated August 11, 1969, a table presented to senators showed that congress clearly classified 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T (main components of Agent Orange) in the Chemical and Biological Warfare category.”

If Agent Orange is so toxic, why does Dow AgroSciences want to introduce more of it into our food supply?

Follow the money

As with all genetically modified crops, the reason comes down to one point: corporate profit. It is not about feeding the hungry masses or improving the lives of millions. The main motivating force is always money, plain and simple. This is why whenever a new GM crop is on the ticket for approval, food activist groups like the Organic Consumers Association go on high alert. They realize mega corporations such as Monsanto and Dow are up to something — and it’s most likely harmful.

New “Frankencorn” crop

Enlist brand GM corn is Dow AgroSciences latest mutant baby. It’s a crop developed to withstand extreme amounts of 2,4-D — an ingredient found in Agent Orange that severely jeopardizes the health of the environment as well as that of humans and wildlife. Round Up Ready resistant ‘superweeds’ apparently need something stronger. Enter Agent Orange.

As accurately observed by conventional soybean and corn farmer George Naylor, “Farmers are on the front lines of this potential chemical disaster,” and adds, “I’m also very concerned about the further pollution of the air and water in my community.” Scientists and more than 140 advocacy groups have flooded U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s inbox with letters protesting Dow’s regulatory application for the Enlist crop. But further pressure is needed to stop the approval. To take action against this toxic new breed of corn, click here.

Source: Wake Up World

Have long-lost pyramids been found in Egypt?

Mysterious, pyramid-like structures spotted in the Egyptian desert by an amateur satellite archaeologist might be long-lost pyramids after all, according to a new investigation into the enigmatic mounds.

The structures were spotted last year by amateur satellite archaeologist 
Angela Micol using Google Earth [Credit: Mohamed Aly Soliman]

Angela Micol, who last year found the structures using Google Earth 5,000 miles away in North Carolina, says puzzling features have been uncovered during a preliminary ground proofing expedition, revealing cavities and shafts.

"Moreover, it has emerged these formations are labeled as pyramids on several old and rare maps," Micol told Discovery News.

Located about 90 miles apart, the two possible pyramid complexes appeared as groupings of mounds in curious positions.

One site in Upper Egypt, just 12 miles from the city of Abu Sidhum along the Nile, featured four mounds with an unusual footprint.

Some 90 miles north near the Fayum oasis, the second possible pyramid complex revealed a four-sided, truncated mound approximately 150 feet wide and three smaller mounds in a diagonal alignment.

While the site in the Fayum has not been investigated yet, a preliminary on-the-ground expedition
has already occurred at the site near Abu Sidhum [Credit: Mohamed Aly Soliman]

"The images speak for themselves," Micol said when she first announced her findings. "It's very obvious what the sites may contain, but field research is needed to verify they are, in fact, pyramids,"

First reported by Discovery News, her claim gained widespread media attention and much criticism. Authoritative geologists and geo-archaeologists were largely skeptical and dismissed what Micol called "Google Earth anomalies" as windswept natural rock formations -- buttes quite common in the Egyptian desert.

"After the buzz simmered down, I was contacted by an Egyptian couple who claimed to have important historical references for both sites," Micol said.

The couple, Medhat Kamal El-Kady, former ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman, and his wife Haidy Farouk Abdel-Hamid, a lawyer, former counselor at the Egyptian presidency and adviser of border issues and international issues of sovereignty, are top collectors of maps, old documents, books and rare political and historical manuscripts.

El-Kady and Farouk have made important donations to the Egyptian state and the U.S. Library of Congress. Their various gifts to the Library of Alexandria include Al-Sharif Al-Idrissi's map of the Earth drawn for King Roger II of Sicily in 1154.

Suspecting the mounds were ancient in origin, locals tried to dig into one
of the two smaller mounds [Credit: Mohamed Aly Soliman]

According to the couple, the formations spotted by Micol in the Fayum and near Abu Sidhum were both labeled as pyramid complex sites in several old maps and documents.

"For this case only, we have more than 34 maps and 12 old documents, mostly by scientists and senior officials of irrigation," El-Kady and Farouk told Discovery News.

For the site near the Fayum, they cited three maps in particular -- a map by Robert de Vaugoudy, dating from 1753, a rare map by the engineers of Napoleon Bonaparte, and a map and documents by Major Brown, general of irrigation for Lower Egypt in the late 1880s.

The documents would point to the existence of two buried pyramids which add to the known Fayum pyramids of Lahoun and Hawara.

"They would be the greatest pyramids known to mankind," the couple said. "We would not exaggerate if we said the finding can overshadow the Pyramids of Giza."

Their sources would indicate the pyramids at the Fayum site were intentionally buried in a "damnatio memoriae" -- an attempt to intentionally strike them from memory.

The excavation failed due to striking very hard stone that Aly and Micol
believe may be granite [Credit: Mohamed Aly Soliman]

While the site in the Fayum has not been investigated yet, a preliminary on-the-ground expedition has already occurred at the site near Abu Sidhum, providing intriguing data to compare with El-Kady and Farouk’s maps and documents.

"Those mounds are definitely hiding an ancient site below them," Mohamed Aly Soliman, who led the preliminary expedition near Abu Sidhum, told Discovery News.

"First of all, the land around them is just a normal flat land. It is just desert -- sand and stones," he said. "The mounds are different: You will find pottery everywhere, seashells and transported layers. These are different layers, not belonging to the place, and were used by the Egyptians to hide and protect their buried sites," he said.

"Describing himself as "one of the many Egyptians obsessed with the pharaohs’ civilization," Aly has a background as a private investigator and has been studying to identify archaeological sites in Egypt.

"If we look back in history we will find that pharaohs were using seashells in building their tombs and pyramids for ventilation purpose," Aly said.

"Even the rocks used in building pyramids contained up to 40 percent seashells."

Located about 90 miles apart, the two possible pyramid complexes appeared on aerial imagery as an unusual groupings of mounds with intriguing orientations. One site near the Fayum oasis revealed a four-sided, truncated mound approximately 150 feet wide and three smaller mounds in a diagonal alignment (left). The other site, just 12 miles from the city of Abu Sidhum along the Nile, featured two large and two small mounds (right) [Credit: Angela Micol]

He cited the work of Ioannis Liritzis, a professor of archaeometry at the University of the Aegean and colleagues at the University of Athens.

According to the amateur geo-archaeologist, the local people living near the mounds had long suspected the formations were ancient in origin. They had tried to dig on one of the small mounds years ago, but the excavation failed due to striking very hard stone that Aly and Micol believe may be granite.

"What made us sure those mounds are hiding pyramids was a special cavity and metal detector we used over the mounds," Aly Soliman said. "The detector we used showed an underground tunnel heading north on both the big mounds."

"It also signaled metal was present in the mounds," he said. "Most Egyptian pyramids have north facing entrance tunnels, so this is another promising piece of evidence we have found."

According to Micol, the Egyptian team believes they have identified a temple or habitation site near the site and a row of what may be mastaba tombs adjacent to the mounds.

Apart from the two larger and smaller mounds, the expedition team believes the site features a temple or habitation and a row of what may be mastaba tombs adjacent to the mounds. They are shown in the red rectangle thanks to a false color imaging technique developed by Micol [Credit: Angela Micol]

So, has a bunch of amateur archaeologists made a discovery that will dwarf the Pyramids of Giza? Or are their pyramids just naturally occurring rock outcrops filled with wishful thinking and vivid imagination?

"Whether they prove to be anything more than nature must be verified on the ground, but this location seems promising and is the result of research beyond simply pointing out the first sand dune noticed on Google Earth," archaeologist Patrick Rohrer told Discovery News.

To further research the pyramid puzzle and examine other sites, Micol's set up the Satellite Archaeology Foundation, Inc. a pending non-profit -- and launched a crowdfunding campaign.

"Due to unrest and economic distress in Egypt, life is not easy for archaeologists" Micol said. "We found no one from the Egyptian academic community who is interested in finding out about these sites at this time."

"Now that we have ground proof and historical evidence," she added, "my goal is to go to Egypt with a team of U.S. scientists and videographers to help validate the evidence found by the expedition team and to prove if these sites are lost pyramid complexes."

Source: The Archeology News Network