Defending vitamin D, Let kids play, Supporting heart health, Brain heart link, Fire challenge insanity, Coconut oil “poison”, Cholesterol myth continues, Dave Herman, Kratom dirty tricks, Pocono farm-to-track and MORE!

Aug 21, 2018 7-9PM ET

Tuesday on The Robert Scott Bell Show:

Vitamin D – What’s Behind It?

Vitamin D, the Sunshine Supplement, Has Shadowy Money Behind It Dr. Michael Holick’s enthusiasm for vitamin D can be fairly described as extreme. The Boston University endocrinologist, who perhaps more than anyone else is responsible for creating a billion-dollar vitamin D sales and testing juggernaut, elevates his own levels of the stuff with supplements and fortified milk. When he bikes outdoors, he won’t put sunscreen on his limbs. He has written book-length odes to vitamin D, and has warned in multiple scholarly articles about a “vitamin D deficiency pandemic” that explains disease and suboptimal health across the world. His fixation is so intense that it extends to the dinosaurs. What if the real problem with that asteroid 65 million years ago wasn’t a lack of food, but the weak bones that follow a lack of sunlight? “I sometimes wonder,” Dr. Holick has written, “did the dinosaurs die of rickets and osteomalacia?” Dr. Holick’s role in drafting national vitamin D guidelines, and the embrace of his message by mainstream doctors and wellness gurus alike, have helped push supplement sales to $936 million in 2017. That’s a ninefold increase over the previous decade. Lab tests for vitamin D deficiency have spiked, too: Doctors ordered more than 10 million for Medicare patients in 2016, up 547 percent since 2007, at a cost of $365 million.

Bringing Back Common Sense…

Doctor’s orders: Let children just play Imagine a drug that could enhance a child’s creativity, critical thinking and resilience. Imagine that this drug were simple to make, safe to take, and could be had for free. The nation’s leading pediatricians say this miracle compound exists. In a new clinical report, they are urging doctors to prescribe it liberally to the children in their care. What is this wonder drug? Play. “This may seem old-fashioned, but there are skills to be learned when kids aren’t told what to do,” said Dr. Michael Yogman, a Harvard Medical School pediatrician who led the drafting of the call to arms. Whether it’s rough-and-tumble physical play, outdoor play or social or pretend play, kids derive important lessons from the chance to make things up as they go, he said. The advice, issued Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics, may come as a shock to some parents. After spending years fretting over which toys to buy, which apps to download and which skill-building programs to send their kids to after school, letting them simply play—or better yet, playing with them—could seem like a step backward.

Question of The Day!

I attended your lecture at the Health Basket in June and have your book. I am taking selenium, chromium and silica and drinking Echo water. I eat mostly organic clean food, exercise and practice yoga and meditation. I also used cbd oil daily, which helped me to discontinue Xanax. I have strong family history of heart disease and slightly high blood pressure. What would you recommend for prevention of heart issues? I love your show. Thank you for what you do.
Best Regards,
Carolyn

Brain Function Tied to Heart Health Early and Late in Life Cardiovascular health at young and old ages showed ties to better brain function, according to two reports. Optimal scores on an American Heart Association (AHA) seven-item checklist were linked to a lower risk of dementia, a longitudinal study of nearly 7,000 older adults in France found. And an observational assessment of 125 young adults in Oxford, England, demonstrated that better cardiovascular metrics were associated with higher cerebral vessel density and caliber, higher cerebral blood flow, and fewer white matter hyperintensities. Previous analyses have examined links between cognitive outcomes and cardiovascular risk factors mostly in middle age, not earlier or later in the life span, noted Jeffrey L. Saver, MD, of the University of California Los Angeles, and Mary Cushman, MD, MSc, of the University of Vermont in Burlington.

What Is With These Kids?

‘Fire challenge’ leaves Michigan girl, 12, with severe burns over half her body A 12-year-old girl from Detroit, Mich., was hospitalized Friday with severe burns after participating in what her mother called the “fire challenge.” Timiyah Landers was hanging out with two friends at her house when she became “engulfed in flames” after apparently mimicking a video she saw on YouTube, her mother, Brandi Owens, told Fox 2. Owens heard a small explosion and witnessed her daughter “running up [a] hallway on fire from her knees to her hair.” Owens’ quick-thinking fiancé directed Timiyah to the bathtub and sprayed her with water. The 12-year-old was then rushed to the hospital, where the family learned more than 49 percent of her body was burned. The girl’s friends said they were participating in the “fire challenge,” an Internet trend in which people seemingly douse themselves in rubbing alcohol and set themselves on fire. One of the girls said she viewed videos of people taking part in the challenge online.

Hour 2 – Even Harvard Professors Get It Wrong…

Coconut Oil Is ‘Pure Poison,’ Says Harvard Professor Coconut oil has earned and lost its reputation as a so-called superfood in recent years. That’s rightly so, according to a Harvard professor who has labeled it “pure poison.” Karin Michels, professor of the department of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, explained recently during a lecture at the University of Freiburg, Germany, that—regardless of the advice peddled by unqualified and self-appointed online health gurus—consuming coconut oil carries a raft of health risks. According to a translation by Business Insider Deutschland, in her lecture “Coconut Oil and Other Nutritional Errors,” Michels explained the substance poses a greater risk to heart health than lard as it is almost entirely made up of saturated fatty acids. These are believed to block our arteries. Generally, fats packed with fatty acids are those that are solid at room temperature. According to the American Heart Association, the average person should only consume around 11 to 13 grams of saturated fat per day, or 5 to 6 percent of their total daily calories.

Moderate ‘bad cholesterol’ levels tied to early death for healthy people Healthy adults who don’t keep their LDL-C, or “bad cholesterol,” in check are more likely to die prematurely from cardiovascular disease than peers with lower cholesterol levels, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers examined data on 36,375 adults with no history of heart disease or diabetes and a low 10-year risk for events like heart attacks or strokes. Most had levels of the type of cholesterol that builds up in blood vessels and can lead to blood clots and heart attacks, known as low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), below the threshold that usually leads doctors to prescribe cholesterol-lowering drugs. During the study follow-up period of about 27 years, 1,086 people died of cardiovascular disease and 598 died from coronary heart disease.

For decades, enormous human and financial resources have been wasted on the cholesterol campaign, more promising research areas have been neglected, producers and manufacturers of animal food all over the world have suffered economically, and millions of healthy people have been frightened and badgered into eating a tedious and flavorless diet or into taking potentially dangerous drugs for the rest of their lives. As the scientific evidence in support of the cholesterol campaign is non-existent, we consider it important to stop it as soon as possible.The International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics (THINCS) is a steadily growing group of scientists, physicians, other academicians and science writers from various countries. Members of this group represent different views about the causation of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease, some of them are in conflict with others, but this is a normal part of science. What we all oppose is that animal fat and high cholesterol play a role. The aim with this website is to inform our colleagues and the public that this idea is not supported by scientific evidence; in fact, for many years a huge number of scientific studies have directly contradicted it.

Special Guest Dave Herman!

Dave Herman is Chariman of The American Kratom Association board. With a history of working in the non-profit space, Dave brings to the Board a wealth of experience and a track record of success. After 25 years as a Hotel Executive and Mortgage and Investment banker, Dave retired and began working in the nonprofit arena.  Dave previously worked with a large 501c (4) nonprofit corporation, including serving as Executive Director and National Spokesperson. His experience includes previously testifying before the Congressional Energy and Commerce, Health subcommittee as an expert witness for the Prescription Drug addition to Medicare.  His speaking experience includes Nationwide Television, Regional Television, National Public Radio and Newspaper Editorial Board presentation and press conferences. The American Kratom Association is a grassroots advocacy organization with a large amount of factual data to support our efforts to keep kratom legal, as well as representing millions of kratom consumers in the US.

New Kratom Manufacturing Standards To Protect Consumers From Adulterated Products The American Kratom Association (AKA) published its “Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Standards for the Manufacture of Kratom Products” to provide specific guidance to kratom manufacturers and vendors in the manufacturing and marketing of kratom products. Dave Herman, Chairman of the AKA, affirmed the commitment of the AKA to establish a supply chain of safe kratom products. “The most important goal we have is to protect consumers,” Herman commented.  “We will maintain a public database of manufacturers and vendors who agree to comply with these standards so consumers can have a higher level of confidence that the products they purchase are from sources who are committed to safe kratom products.”

Report Shows FDA Manipulating And Ignoring Science On Kratom Peer-reviewed documentation concerning 44 deaths that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cited to persuade the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to place natural kratom on the Federal Government’s Schedule 1 list of illegal substances disclose errors and omissions on the part of the FDA that the American Kratom Association (AKA) claims can only be seen as “deliberate.” In a detailed white paper released today, AKA scientists and attorneys claim, “The FDA has also misled the DEA, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) with incomplete, inaccurate, extrapolated, and distorted information on adverse events and deaths allegedly associated with the use of kratom to encourage unwarranted legislative and regulatory restrictions on kratom at the federal, state, and local government levels.”

Race Fans Celebrate!

First there was farm-to-table, now Pocono Raceway will have farm-to-track food You’ve heard of farm-to-table initiatives. Now the granddaughter of the founder of Pocono Raceway aims to add farm-to-track to the lexicon. Pocono Organics broke ground last week on a 50-acre regenerative farm next to the race track in Tunkhannock Township in Monroe County. “What started out as a lifestyle and health choice for my family and I became a larger mission when I thought about how we could utilize our land to grow organic food to help others, create jobs in our community, and ultimately become an example of what a fully sustainable regenerative organic farm could be,” Ashley Walsh, president of Pocono Organics, said. The farm on Long Pond Road is part of an initiative to make the Pocono Raceway more sustainable, with the farm providing organic food for the track and, in return, receiving compostable material.