Six Natural Alternatives To Ibuprofen
by Deborah Mitchell
Phoenix Alternative Medicine Examiner
May 30, 2011
Boswellia
The saying used to be, “Take two aspirin and call me in the morning,” but many people turn to ibuprofen to relieve inflammation, pain, and fever. This nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), available both over the counter and by prescription, is commonly used to treat arthritis, menstrual symptoms, headache, general aches and pains, and various inflammatory conditions.
Side effects of ibuprofen
Although many people think of ibuprofen as being rather benign, it is associated with an increased risk of heart and circulation problems, including stroke and heart attack, as well as gastrointestinal problems, such as bleeding or perforation of the stomach or intestinal tract. These risks increase the longer you take the drug, although the length of time until it affects any one individual varies depending on their overall health, use of other medications, age, and other factors.
Natural alternatives to ibuprofen
Many studies have been done on various natural pain killers and anti-inflammatories that can be used as alternatives to ibuprofen. They generally have mild to no side effects. Here are a few you may want to consider. You should always consult a knowledgeable health-care professional before starting a new treatment program.
Boswellia: This anti-inflammatory remedy comes from the Boswellia serrata tree that grows in India. The anti-inflammatory properties of boswellia are attributed to the boswellic acids that it contains. These acids improve blood flow to the joints and prevent inflammatory white cells from entering damaged tissue. Also known as “Indian frankincense,” boswellia is available as a supplement and a topical cream. For pain and inflammation, a suggested dose is 450 to 750 mg daily for three to four weeks.
Capsaicin: The active component of chili peppers, capsaicin is often used topically to nerve, muscle, and joint pain. It works by interfering with substance P, a chemical that helps transmit pain signals to the brain. It is available as a topical cream or gels in several different potencies (most often, 0.025% to 0.075%) and is usually applied three to four times daily. It can cause some stinging and burning initially, but it typically subsides with use.
Cat’s claw: Uncaria tomentosa, or cat’s claw, also known as una de gato, grows in South America. It contains an anti-inflammatory agent that blocks the production of the hormone prostaglandin, which contributes to inflammation and pain. Suggested doses are 250 to 1,000 mg capsules one to three times daily. Taking too high a dose may cause diarrhea.
Curcumin: Curcumin is a component of the herb turmeric, and it is a potent painkiller that can block proteins in the body that cause inflammation and also stops the neurotransmitter called substance P from sending pain message to the brain. Studies show that curcumin is effective in easing the chronic pain of rheumatoid arthritis. A suggested dose is 400 to 600 mg of curcumin taken three times daily for pain and inflammation.
Omega-3 fatty acids: The omega-3 fatty acids have anti-inflammatory properties that have proven beneficial for people who suffer with arthritis, other inflammatory joint conditions, and inflammatory bowel diseases. Omega-3s also reduce cardiovascular risk, which is especially helpful for people with rheumatoid arthritis, which carries an increased risk for cardiovascular disease. A suggested dose of omega-3 fatty acids as fish oil is 1,000 mg daily.
White willow bark: This herb is the predecessor of aspirin. White willow bark contains salicin, which converts to salicylic acid in the stomach. White willow bark is much less irritating to the stomach than the synthetic drug, aspirin, while it works to relieve pain, inflammation, and fever. A suggested dose is 1 to 2 dropperfuls of white willow bark tincture daily.
You can find the natural remedies mentioned in this article at many Phoenix-area stores and pharmacies, including Sprouts Farmers Market, Healthy Habit Health Foods, and the Natural Medicinary.
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(hat tip: Before It’s News)
Iran spots US Navy near drill, ‘ready for confrontation’ (video)
RT
December 29, 2011
The threats are being ramped up over a vital oil shipping route which Iran’s threatening to block. Tehran is holding large-scale wargames in neutral waters near the Hormuz Strait. The U.S. has its own contingent in the region, mainly to ensure passage remains free. Gayane Chichakyan is in Washington for RT.
Also, Shirin Shafaie joins RT – a researcher at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, and also a representative of the Campaign against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran.
Roving TSA ‘Viper’ squads now violating your rights at train stations, bus depots and ferry landings
- Dees Illustration
by J.D. Heyes
Natural News
December 29, 2011
(NaturalNews) Bound and determined to violate the Fourth amendment rights of as many Americans as possible and not satisfied with doing so merely at the nation’s airports, now the Transportation Security Administration has taken to violating the rights of Americans in just about every travel venue in the country.
The L.A. Times reports that the TSA has developed and deployed more than two dozen so-called “Viper” (which stands for Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response) teams that so far have conducted more than 9,300 “unannounced checkpoints,” as well as “other search operations,” in the past year at a growing number of train stations, subways, ferry terminals and other mass transit locations.
“We are not the Airport Security Administration,” boasted Ray Dineen, the air marshal in charge of the TSA office in Charlotte, N.C. “We take that transportation part seriously.”
If only the agency – and the government that created it – took the Constitution as seriously, traveling in the post-9/11 world would be a heck of a lot more enjoyable, not to mention far less hostile to individual liberties.
TSA officials have sold this as “surface transportation security,” even though there is no evidence whatsoever these roving rights violation patrols have prevented a single crime or act of terrorism. Privacy advocates are rightly questioning the legality of the added patrols. They say the TSA is stretching the limits of the law over the government’s right to search U.S. citizens without probable cause – especially since there is no evidence the hit-and-miss patrols do anything to prevent attacks.
“It’s a great way to make the public think you are doing something,” Fred H. Cate, a professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, who writes on privacy and security, told the Times. “It’s a little like saying, that if we start throwing things up in the air, they may hit terrorists.”
Yet, the Department of Homeland Security spent tens of millions on the program last year and wants millions more next fiscal year, at a time when the White House is set to ask for a trillion more dollars to raise the nation’s debt ceiling.
With the added TSA presence, of course, come added indignities. At a North Carolina train station recently, 57-year-old lawyer Rick Vetter got nosed in the crotch by a Viper team canine supposedly trained to sniff out explosives chemicals, but who instead only smelled the scent of the lawyer’s own dogs on his trousers.
Vetter’s “suspicious behavior” that got him stopped? He was rushing to make the train in time – something that tens of thousands of Americans do on a daily – or hourly – basis.
We can add this to the indignity of, say, having TSA agents touch your junk and scan your DNA; or strip-search elderly women; or molesting kids.
What more will it take before lawmakers get the hint that the TSA is a Frankenstein’s monster, growing more out of control by the day?
Sources:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw…
http://www.naturalnews.com/032827_T…
http://www.naturalnews.com/031530_D…
http://www.naturalnews.com/034323_N…
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Video of US carrier filmed from Iran plane during drill in Persian Gulf
RT
December 29, 2011
An Iranian warplane has spotted a US aircraft carrier during Tehran’s ongoing navy drill in the Persian Gulf, reports IRNA news agency. The US fleet’s maneuvers come after Iran threatened to block the oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran’s surveillance jet has shot a video and pictures of the American carrier, which was later identified as John C. Stennis. The US Fifth Fleet keeps a military base in Bahrain, while the ship was spotted in the Gulf of Oman after crossing the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian state TV also showed images of the Iranian exercise, which is taking place in international waters near the Strait of Hormuz – the passageway for one-sixth of the world’s oil supply. The US Navy’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet is also active in the area, as are warships of several other countries that patrol for pirates there.
Grassroots Internet freedom movement slams GoDaddy.com, lawmakers for their support of SOPA
- Dees Illustration
by J. D. Heyes
Natural News
December 28, 2011
(NaturalNews) The Internet is the “final frontier” when it comes to pure freedom of speech and expression, which is why authoritarian regimes in places like Iran and China either severely limit or ban access to much of it.
Having said that, you wouldn’t think that here in the cradle of democracy and freedom, American lawmakers would be attempting to pass legislation that, for all intents and purposes, kills Internet freedom of expression.
Enter the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, which is a piece of legislation currently gaining favor in the House of Representatives that would, according to the bill’s language, hold Internet Web hosting companies and their users liable for everything they post.
According to lawmakers supporting the bill, its chief aim is to target foreign Web sites “primarily dedicated to illegal activity” or foreign sites that “market themselves as such.”
“There is a vast virtual market online run by criminals who steal products and profits that rightly belong to American innovators. These foreign rogue websites not only steal movies and music, they offer counterfeit medicine, automobile parts and even baby food, which harm American industries and put American lives at risk,” says Rep. Lamar Alexander, R-Texas, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. “Because the U.S. produces the most intellectual property, our nation has the most to lose if we fail to address the problem of rogue sites.”
Sounds fair enough, right? Only, the devil is in the details and, quite frankly, can you remember the last time a piece of legislation came out of Washington, D.C., without a softball-sized spool of string attached to it? Here’s a much more accurate assessment of what the law will really do, from someone who would be affected by its provisions:
SOPA explicitly states that companies will be liable for everything their users post. Sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, Wikipedia, or any sites that allow user generated content CANNOT exist under these laws. Immediately after this bill is passed, you will see the media mafia (MPIAA, RIAA, etc) replacing websites like Wikipedia with commercialized encyclopedia software. Mainstream media outlets will not cover this bill because they are the ones lobbying for it.
CBS News even speculated on the law’s implications: “YouTube videos of your kids dancing to Katy Perry songs could land you in jail, or at the very least, cost you a hefty fine. Sounds like a Big Brother-inspired vision of the future? It’s actually only a few steps away from a reality. If a House committee votes to support the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), you could be committing a felony.”
Lawmakers who support the measure are quick to pooh-pooh such assessments, but Internet sites dedicated to freedom of expression aren’t taking any chances – and they’re voting with their wallets. So much so, in fact, that many have pulled their domains away from GoDaddy.com, one of the Web’s bigger hosting services, because the company initially supported the legislation before announcing it would no longer do so.
The damage caused by that initial support, however, may be irreversible. Scores of companies have already moved thousands of Web sites, including Reddit and Wikipedia. And there’s little evidence to suggest GoDaddy.com will get them back.
It’s a Bizzaro World, indeed, when a premier Web hosting service would ever think to support even a semblance of legislation that sought to criminalize Web hosting firms for something a user/customer posted.
Unless that company was, say, exempt from the legislation?
Sources:
http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.co…
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-5…
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_…
http://thenextweb.com/lifehacks/201…
CIA Involved In Occupy Wall Street Crackdown?
The Intel Hub
December 27, 2011
We have all witnessed the massive police crackdown on the Occupy Wall Street Movement whether it be in Oakland, San Fransisco, or New York City.
Many have wondered who was behind these seemingly coordinated, militarized police crackdowns and what motive they would have in stifling the free speech of American citizens.
While the Department of Homeland Security was the more obvious culprit,(and still is) it seems that the CIA may have played a larger part than previously known.
The CIA’s connection to the NYPD has already been heavily documented which adds even more credence to the possibility that they illegally infiltrated a domestic political movement.
The Partnership for Civil Justice recently filed multiple Freedom of Information requests after seeing the massive military style crackdown on the protests.
The answer they received from the Central Intelligence Agency made their position startling clear:
“They wrote back saying that they would refuse to process the request basically on the grounds that if the CIA had any involvement it would have been illegal for it to have involvement and therefore their record system is not constructed in a way that they could possibly search for their involvement,” said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of PFCJ.
Mara went on to note that they could have easily written back a different request, even one that stated that they did not have any records yet they chose to essentially say that they cannot tell the public if there are records because if there were they would be illegal.
The idea that Federal agencies were NOT involved in the clearly coordinated attack on OWS is absurd and the people of America must support legal action against any government agency refusing to turn over their records on the brutal crackdown of a largely peaceful protest movement.
Wall Street Journal “Determines” Russian Election a “Fraud”
Admits “statistical studies can’t prove vote fraud” but US-funded Golos “data” collaborates conclusion.
by Tony Cartalucci
Land Destroyer Report
December 28, 2011
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), going through extraordinary lengths to prove a foreign election “fraudulent,” claims to have written a “computer program that downloaded 2,957 web pages posted on Russia’s Central Election Commission website.” They then claim they used another program to mine pages “for precinct-level data extracting outcomes for 95,228 precincts spread across 2,745 electoral commissions. ” The Wall Street Journal then had “experts” in “election fraud and statistics” look at the data finding what they called, “the fingerprints of fraud.”
In Wall Street Journal’s article, “Russia’s Dubious Vote,” the authors admit that “the analysis doesn’t in itself prove fraud in Russia’s Dec. 4 parliamentary elections.” But the WSJ then cites “local and international observers,” that corroborate their findings of “fraud” with claims of ballot-box stuffing, vote falsification, and other violations. The only organization WSJ is able to cite by name, however, is US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funded GOLOS.
In, “US Caught Meddling in Russian Elections,” GOLOS was noted as being the key “observer” cited across Western media in an attempt to portray the Russian elections as “stolen,” a similar ploy that has been used throughout color revolutions since the 80s and in particular during the last year of US-backed destabilization also known as the “Arab Spring.” However, GOLOS owes its existence to the US government and in turn the banking oligarchs of Wall Street and London who have been trying in vain to dislodge Russia’s Vladimir Putin from power for years.
Indeed, something is “dubious” about Russia’s elections, namely the concerted, overeager campaign by the West to portray them as fraudulent, to lend ammunition to their stable of US-funded NGOs and opposition leaders now taking to the streets in Moscow, and the Wall Street Journal’s insistence that “local and international observers” back their recent “analysis” but failed to name any beyond a US-funded propaganda front, GOLOS. That the WSJ disingenuously insisted that GOLOS was “Russia’s main independent election-monitoring group” despite receiving its funding from the US government – hardly independent by any stretch of the imagination – calls into question the alleged computer program they wrote to draw the conclusions they have presented.
Image: A screenshot from NED’s official website, listing GOLOS as a recipient of NED funding, which in turn is provided by the US State Department. Despite this overt conflict of interest – especially with NED subsidiary International Republican Institute chairman John McCain openly threatening Russia with “Arab Spring” unrest, “journalists” like those at the Wall Street Journal continue citing them as “independent” election monitors. (click image to enlarge)
A computer program can be written to render any result desired, as the recent “Climate Gate” hoax has proven. It is then only the integrity of those carrying out the analysis and presenting the results that determine the possible veracity of their conclusions. Since the Wall Street Journal makes such overt misrepresentations, such as GOLOS being “independent” when they are clearly, admittedly funded by the US government, indicates that the WSJ lacks such integrity. Instead, they are but the most recent corporate-media propaganda front to jump on the Wall Street-London battlewagon on its way to Moscow.
Wall Street Journal’s Conclusions are Fraudulent as are the Protest Leaders in Russia’s Streets
Meanwhile, Christmas Eve protests in Moscow were once again led by verified agents of Western sedition, namely Alexei Navalny, according to an AP report titled, “Alexei Navalny, Key Engine Behind Russian Protests.” Called a “corruption-fighting lawyer and popular blogger” by AP, who unlike Wall Street Journal, skipped feigned analysis and jumped right to labling the elections as “shameless falsification,” Navalny is portrayed as a force of reform against a corrupt system.
And while Alexey Navalny is renowned for “exposing corruption,” at least when profitable, those researching his background begin unraveling his own insidious, compromised agenda. Alexey Navalny was a Yale World Fellow, and in his profile it states:
“Navalny spearheads legal challenges on behalf of minority shareholders in large Russian companies, including Gazprom, Bank VTB, Sberbank, Rosneft, Transneft, and Surgutneftegaz, through the Union of Minority Shareholders. He has successfully forced companies to disclose more information to their shareholders and has sued individual managers at several major corporations for allegedly corrupt practices. Navalny is also co-founder of the Democratic Alternative movement and was vice-chairman of the Moscow branch of the political party YABLOKO. In 2010, he launched RosPil, a public project funded by unprecedented fundraising in Russia. In 2011, Navalny started RosYama, which combats fraud in the road construction sector.”
The Democratic Alternative, also written DA!, is indeed a National Endowment for Democracy fund recipient, meaning that Alexey Navalny is an agent of US-funded sedition and willfully hiding it from his followers. The US State Department itself reveals this as they list “youth movements” operating in Russia:
“DA!: Mariya Gaydar, daughter of former Prime Minister Yegor Gaydar, leads DA! (Democratic Alternative). She is ardent in her promotion of democracy, but realistic about the obstacles she faces. Gaydar said that DA! is focused on non-partisan activities designed to raise political awareness. She has received funding from the National Endowment for Democracy, a fact she does not publicize for fear of appearing compromised by an American connection.”
Alexey was involved directly in founding a movement funded by the US government and to this day has the very people who funded DA! defending him throughout Western media. (For more information, please see, “Wall Street Vs. Russia.”)
It becomes clear then, that the AP report has misidentified the real “engine” behind the Russian protests. It is not Navalny, but rather Wall Street and London via organizations like the National Endowment for Democracy. It is safe to say that yet again we are watching unfold a “revolution” created from whole cloth not by the aspirations of the Russian people, but by the disingenuous “democracy promoting” forces of Wall Street and London bent on destabilizing Russia, undermining the Kremlin, and either extracting concessions from Russia, especially regarding Syria, or even going as far as replacing entirely the Russian government for one more servile like that of Yelsin’s and the corrupt oligarchs that succeeded him.
