by David Borden
StoptheDrugWar.org
December 6, 2012
We noted this morning that marijuana is now legal in Washington State. (!) But what happens next?
As WA press noted, federal authorities had no plans to intervene at this time — the expected celebrations proceeded unmolested, at least we’ve not heard of any problems.
Seattle skyline
Of course that’s not what the feds would do. As we’ve noted here, most law enforcement is state and county and local — federal arrests for marijuana possession are a rarity, and mostly occur in places like national parks that are specifically federally controlled. Thinkers within and without our movement have been speculating what the federal response might be and what options they will legally have at their disposal once the courts weigh in.As one of our advisors, Eric Sterling, commented in our newsletter after the election, officials at the Dept. of Justice were taken by surprise, perhaps by the passage of the initiatives and certainly by the strong margins of victory. A New York Times story today by Jack Healy noted that the Obama administration has yet to announce any policy on the matter, but have simply noted that federal law remains unchanged. According to the article, officials asked about it referred to a statement released yesterday by the US Attorney in Seattle, Jenny Durkan:
“In enacting the Controlled Substances Act, Congress determined that marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance,” [Durkan] said. “Regardless of any changes in state law, including the change that will go into effect on December 6 in Washington State, growing, selling or possessing any amount of marijuana remains illegal under federal law.”
Which tells us nothing we didn’t know. But Durkan did say that the administration is reviewing the initiatives. And according to Healy’s article, “several people familiar with the [administration’s] deliberations” say they are considering legal action. There are a few legal issues at stake:
- Can the government “preempt” the states’ regulatory systems — that is, not just raid marijuana stores if they choose to, but prevent the state from exempting any growers or distributors or sellers under state law?
- If they can, will that endanger the rest of the laws? The argument for that, Healy posits, would be that voters mightn’t have passed the laws without the regulations.
- Do the state laws run afoul of our government’s treaty obligations, particularly the 1961 Single Convention on Drugs?
Many scholars are skeptical that a preemption challenge would succeed. Gregory Katsas, a DOJ official in the George W. Bush administration, pointed out to the Times that there is nothing in the laws that prevent the federal government from bringing marijuana cases in the states. The argument there is that the laws are not in “positive conflict” with the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA), despite their clear “tension” with it. Several legal scholars submitted a brief in a California case on this subject earlier this year taking that viewpoint.
My takeaway from the brief was that the feds might not be able to preempt even the regulatory portions of the laws, and would probably have to amend the CSA to have a chance. The very same law that would be invoked in a court case, is the same one at work in prohibition of medical marijuana. And in 16 years of state medical marijuana laws, including now 10 dispensary states, no federal prosecutor has sought to invalidate any of these laws in court. That suggests they are not confident of what their prospects would be.
Regarding the treaties, my guess would be that the same reasons federal law might not preempt state marijuana legalization applies to the treaties too — marijuana is still federally illegal. The treaties do seem to frown even legalized possession. But they explicitly allow for alternatives to criminalizing possession, such as health and education-based approaches — which we don’t have as much of as we should, but which we do have. So it’s not clear that the treaties will be a problem either.
All that said, we do not know what will happen, and Congress’s power to regulate commerce is broad — the pressure on the feds to do something is greater, and the set of arguments they can bring to court are more numerous.
I am excited but also anxious about what may happen next. Are Amendment 64 and I-502 going to federal court? What will the courts say? Will the feds try to scare Washington and Colorado officials from implementing regulations — will the states’ governors stand up to them if they do, or will they seek delays as happened in a number of medical marijuana states? Will the federal raids being made against medical marijuana facilities be expanded when legalized marijuana stories eventually open? Such a strategy would be more effective in Washington, less so in Colorado where there will be more stores and where home growing is legal. But they can probably take down anyone in Colorado as they choose. Will there be threats to withhold highway funds over the laws, or law enforcement funds?
Hopefully the Obama administration will finally choose to be on the right side of history on this issue. But we’ll ses. What happens next? For now we wait — I am nervous but also excited.
December 12, 2012 | Categories: drug war, health, marijuana, news, tyranny, US | Leave a comment
by Kathryn Augustyn and Kandy Griffin
Morgellons Research Group
December 2, 2012
[Potent News Editor’s note: click here to see an archived version of this article which includes some of the pictures that are missing in this version.]
Morgellons Syndrome: A Programmed Matrix System
Part I
An Ecological Environmental Evolution is facing humanity today. Many citizens are beginning to see the changes in the environment, in the air, water, land mass and in living organisms. Many plant/tree wilt diseases are giving us clues, but we still cannot believe that plants, trees and insects have and do carry viruses and pheromones that recognize their preys in humans by scent. Many people with Morgellons first noticed some type of bug bite or what felt like a bug bite. These bugs often fly at our faces, they recognize a prey pheromone in us. That means universal pheromone proteins, non coding RNA, or promoter, reporter, or induction gene similar to its prey, so when bit, even more DNA is dumped into our bodies. This begins a pathological type condition that is typical of Morgellons.
MRG, in general, believes that Morgellons syndrome involves five criteria that are present in the symptoms and are seen in many images and petri dishes. This involves Spheres, Filaments, (including a conducting filament, plus other sizes); Hexagons, a BioFilm and an Organism.
In more detail, we have narrowed down some descriptions and the most current information available. Morgellons was created in labs around the world, released into the environment, thereby modifying the human genome. This was done through GMO foods, artificial sugars, flavors, colors, geoengineering, university field releases, pharma field releases, herbicides, pesticides and transgenic wildlife, evolutionary experiments and use of transposon mobile genetic elements. This has altered and/or killed trees, plants, animals and humans. This along with heat shock proteins have provided capacitors for adaptation and selection of living organisms to either cooperate, face the painful consequences, or cheat the new paradigm. This is Human Bionano Technical Tyranny.
Our five criteria are:
1.Sphere, Particles (RNA protocell) forms the guiding RNA. Dark matter and melanin. Protocell from Bacteria/Eukaryota/Archaea and/or artificial/synthetic material hybridize to human cells/chromosomes/histones, Quantum dot particles/metalloid nanoparticles.
2. Filaments (CB001) cyanobacteria or PNAs (glycine). Short Telechelic Polymers connect the network, carries the protocells or quantum dots for signals. (a). colored filaments, (protofibrils developed from monomers, amphiphiles and bolamphiphiles) can be sensors and trackers). Nanowires, Nanotubes and Polymers can form smaller filaments.
3. Hexagons (crystallized forms or crystallized proteins from sphere monomer) which form dimers (2 hexs etc) are part of the formation of the filaments) and crystallized protein or alloprotein metalloids can be present in these forms.
4. Biofilm (agrobacterium-like gall) can form a callous, possibly fungal/yeast/slime/rhizoid/algae filamentous structure in connection with an embryo/spore forming gymnosperm or angiosperm.
5. Organism (FL1953 Protomyxzoa) lives under the filamentous biofilm, a form created by the filamentous structures and contact with mucous and fluids in the human body. Using the human as symbiotic host. Pleomorphism or morphology of biological/inorganic forms.
We are concentrating on the spheres and the filaments. Researchers have sent specimens to Labs for fungal identification and those have been reviewed. . This includes fusarium, aspergillis, cladosporium, and other fungi. However, this seems to be a cofactor in the Morgellons Syndrome manifestation. We have sent a Protozoan-like specimen to a lab, and this could not be identified as any known protozoan. We have had hexagons analyzed showing chlorine and oxygen and metalloid hexagons as well showing iridium, antimony and other metals.
We have found information on protocells and how they were created. RNA protocells seem to be the spheres. We will begin with types of Protocells. Below are requirements for protocells”
The Origins of Cellular Life
“Understanding the origin of cellular life on Earth requires the discovery of plausible pathways for the transition from complex prebiotic chemistry to simple biology, defined as the emergence of chemical assemblies capable of Darwinian evolution. We have proposed that a simple primitive cell, or protocell, would consist of two key components: a protocell membrane that defines a spatially localized compartment, and an informational polymer that allows for the replication and inheritance of functional information”………..
Recent studies of vesicles composed of fatty-acid membranes have shed considerable light on pathways for protocell growth and division, as well as means by which protocells could take up nutrients from their environment. Additional work with genetic polymers has provided insight into the potential for chemical genome replication and compatibility with membrane encapsulation. The integration of a dynamic fatty-acid compartment with robust, generalized genetic polymer replication would yield a laboratory model of a protocell with the potential for classical Darwinian biological evolution, and may help to evaluate potential pathways for the emergence of life on the early Earth. Here we discuss efforts to devise such an integrated protocell model. http://cshperspectives.cshlp.org/content/2/9/a002212.long
Attempts have been made to solve the initial protocell of life, however, these protocells are becoming part of the environment, today, as if a new evolutionary direction is being taken to bring in the artificial protocell of RNA to be used for an “autonomous adaptive system” within the Extracellular Matrix in the human body. Why such a request for a “protocell”? They have been created. Many with Morgellons have what is called “pseudovesicles” which most likely are biofilms that calcify and make callouses. These callouses are both inorganic and organic.
These vesicles self assemle and form Protocells. These can group together, under skin forming a new vesicle which can be called a ‘pseudovesicle” or false vesicle. Once the protocell is formed, the information carried is transferred to the system. And these protocells can replicate. The amphiphiles are in layers. The vesicles self assemble into protocells. They cluster or separate by repulsion or attraction to water. It appears that the amphiphiles and vesicles work together to form the protocell cluster which can be altered by EM, RF or possibly light wave. In the image one can see where inorganic and organic forms become part of the protocell. Fatty acids are important in the formation of the vesicles, which have been seen on Morgellon’s sufferers as small white pearly bumps. Some are red as these vesicles push other cells out of the way. These vesicles grow and accumulate in protocells forming the biofilm like structures.
From Self-Assembled Vesicles to Protocells
Self-assembled vesicles are essential components of primitive cells. We review the importance of vesicles during the origins of life, fundamental thermodynamics and kinetics of self-assembly, and experimental models of simple vesicles, focusing on prebiotically plausible fatty acids and their derivatives. We review recent work on interactions of simple vesicles with RNA and other studies of the transition from vesicles to protocells. Finally we discuss current challenges in understanding the biophysics of protocells, as well as conceptual questions in information transmission and self-replication.
For synthetic biologists, a useful operational definition of life is “a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution,” which was adopted by the Exobiology program of NASA (Joyce 1994). In the quest to build a simple living system, much recent interest has focused on encapsulating a genetic or metabolic system inside membrane vesicles (Deamer and Dworkin 2005; Luisi et al. 1999; Morowitz et al. 1988; Ourisson and Nakatani 1994; Szostak et al. 2001). Vesicles are supramolecular aggregates containing an aqueous interior that is separated from the bulk solution by one or more bilayers of amphiphiles.
Thermodynamics of Self-Assembly of Amphiphiles
Self-assembled structures of amphiphiles are the result of a balance of attractive and repulsive forces. Amphiphiles tend to aggregate because of the hydrophobic effect, which stems primarily from the strong attraction of water for itself (Tanford 1973). Nonpolar solutes disrupt the isotropic hydrogen bonding of water, causing an entropic loss at the solute-water interface. Therefore nonpolar molecules tend to aggregate to minimize the interface (direct attractive interactions, such as van der Waals forces, play a relatively small role). In the absence of a repulsive force, the hydrophobic effect would lead to bulk-phase separation. However, repulsion among amphiphiles resulting from sterics (e.g., among hydrated head groups) or electrostatics favors the formation of structured assemblages.
Structures of prebiotically plausible single chain amphiphiles and a commonly used buffer. (A) micelle; (B) vesicle; (C) myristoleic acid; (D) bicine; (E) geranylgeranyl phosphoric acid; (F) n-decylphosphonic acid.
These protocells we believe have been released into the environment. A forced/adaptive non coding RNA protocell to reverse transcriptase and control the human genome involves Epigenetics. This is being done by glycosylation, ubiquination, acetylation, phosphorylation and methylation. This can be called Transformation, or “survival of the fittest”. However, the down side is the consequences. Morgellons Syndrome is one of the consequences. In every forced/directed evolution, there are casualties. These can happen fast, not like the so-called evolutionary concept. Below is an article describing protocells made from lipids and takes us into the molecular world. Humans have lipids.
Model Protocells from Single-Chain Lipids
Membranes are important cellular constituents, allowing for processes such as ATP synthesis and neurochemical signal-transduction. Due to the long evolutionary history of cellular membranes, they are highly complex assemblies consisting primarily of double-chain lipids, sterols, and transmembrane spanning proteins. This level of complexity is necessary to create an impermeable barrier that allows for both the generation of electrochemical gradients and for the specific transfer of molecules across the membrane. In other words, contemporary cells are capable of maintaining a strong barrier between their internal contents and the extracellular space while retaining the ability to specifically absorb or release desired molecules through the use of transmembrane spanning proteins. The result is an asymmetric, nonequilibrium distribution of molecules that can be harnessed for physiological purposes. Clearly, Earth’s first cell-like structures did not already posses such complexity. Instead, more simple membrane systems likely existed that exhibited many of the characteristics that modern biological membranes possess without relying on genetically encoded transport systems.”
Lipid dynamics. a) Exchange of lipids between different aggregate structures, including micelles (left), free monomers (center), and vesicles (right) b) Lipid flip-flop between inner- and outer-leaflets of a bilayer membrane.
Many researchers have questioned the use of protocells, today. What is the purpose? Finding the basis of the cell at the beginning of life is one thing, but there is concern over the use of the synthetic forms and even the biological forms.
“Protocells are tiny, self-organizing, evolving entities that spontaneously assemble
and continuously regenerate themselves from simple organic and inorganic sub-
strates in their environment. A number of scientific teams around the world are
racing to create protocells, and success is expected within a few years.
Protocells will raise a number of social and ethical issues, involving benefits to
individuals and to society, risks to human health and the environment, and trans-
gressions of cultural and moral prohibitions. This volume contains the thoughts of
a diverse group of experts who explore the prospect of protocells from a variety of
perspectives. These perspectives include applied ethics in analytical philosophy,
continental philosophy, and anthropology as well as political and social commen-
tary. The book raises broad questions for a broad audience, without necessarily
drawing final conclusions……..
……….
The creation of fully autonomous protocells is only a matter of
time.
Protocells are capturing growing public attention. New companies for creating
artificial life forms are now being created in Europe and America,
and the commercial and scientific advances are attracting increasing media attention.
The increasing pace of breakthroughs in protocell science will increasingly heighten
public interest in their broader implications.
The prospect of creating protocells raises some pressing social and ethical issues.
Protocells will offer new benefits to individuals and to society and vast new eco-
nomic opportunities, but they also have the potential to pose risks to human health
and the environment, as well as to transgress cultural and moral norms.
Because protocells are living matter created from nonliving matter, they will be unlike any
previous technology humans have created, and their development will take society
into uncharted waters. This book aims to inform interested parties about these new
developments and to promote an open and responsible process of evaluating the
prospect of protocells………..
http://www.wosco.org/books/Philosophy/EthicsProtocells.pdf
One has to wonder just who these stakeholders are, in the creation of these protocells, as in the Morgellons Study done by the CDC.
We have found in Morgellons sufferers DNA/cell/chromosome/histone damage. Some people have severe skin damage, much scarring, and we do have “pseudovesicles”. We have dimers, we have scarred blood cells and many are losing blood cells. We have forms that should not appear in humans. We have clawed forms, tubes within tubes, telechelic polymers and filaments wrapped around fat cells. We have abdominal swelling from filaments clustered in the abdomen. Twisted colons pushing up into the diaphram have required surgery. There are left handed DNA present in descendents of those with initial stages of Morgellons. Babies are born with Morgellons. Many people have died from Morgellons.
One of our researchers found where all of a sudden the discovery of AEG in Cyanobacteria has caused surprise in the Scientific Community. Why should it? This AEG has been synthesized, already. When real science is shown, then those who have already created synthetic life from the lab, are surprised. Was the deed uncovered? Please read and judge for yourself. From our studies cyanobacteria was used in the model for human multicellular protocell or minimal cell creation.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121110093550.htm
Cyanobacteria Produce N-(2-Aminoethyl)Glycine, a Backbone for Peptide Nucleic Acids …….
In looking for what the spheres present in Morgellon lesions are, we come close to identifying them as “protocells” or vesicles. For scientist to find that AEG is in cyanobacteria, then, something is amiss. When we find that AEG or N-(2Aminoethyl) Glycine which makes Peptide Nucleic Acids or PNAs then we know that these were made in lab from chemicals, a synthetic form. So, did evolution happen as is described? Or is it being put in process now? It appears that human Intermediate filaments, microfilaments and microtubules are being reprocessed into synthetic material or inorganic material. This means by not informing the public of the real fossils found of previous life on the planet speculating scientists created their own scenarios, theories and hypotheses. So, to publish papers that have no merit, declaring possible intermediates that could have existed or not, was based on what was called a theory, not proven, so as to create what would could be said to have existed in evolutionary times. The proof is in the cyanobacteria. Always has been, but no LUCA (last universal common ancestor) was ever established, because there was none.
So, cyanobacteria CB001 was used in the construction of the Morgellon protocell. This protocell would be claimed to have existed before. This is not acceptable. We know it was created in the lab. Images here show the microsphere or the “protocell”. These are spontaneous and if released even with “field studies” or by aerosol operations, this has changed the environment, thereby changing the human species. Insects are affected, plants are affected and the entire microbial community. Biofilms are forming everywhere. Humans, animals and plants cannot escape the universal onslaught of these protocells, which now have become microbots as well. The self-sustained replicating enzyme was identified:
“Relatively short RNA molecules have been artificially produced in labs, which are capable of replication. Such replicase RNA, which functions as both code and catalyst provides its own template upon which copying can occur. Jack Szostak has shown that certain catalytic RNAs can, indeed, join smaller RNA sequences together, creating the potential, in the right conditions for self-replication. If these conditions were present, Darwinian selection would favour the proliferation of such self-catalysing structures, to which further functionalities could be added. Lincoln and Joyce have identified an RNA enzyme capable of self-sustained replication.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocell#From_organic_molecules_to_protocells
This shows, you do not need biology:
An RNA enzyme that catalyzes the RNA-templated joining of RNA was converted to a format whereby two enzymes catalyze each other’s synthesis from a total of four oligonucleotide substrates. These cross-replicating RNA enzymes undergo self-sustained exponential amplification in the absence of proteins or other biological materials. Amplification occurs with a doubling time of about 1 hour and can be continued indefinitely. Populations of various cross-replicating enzymes were constructed and allowed to compete for a common pool of substrates, during which recombinant replicators arose and grew to dominate the population. These replicating RNA enzymes can serve as an experimental model of a genetic system. Many such model systems could be constructed, allowing different selective outcomes to be related to the underlying properties of the genetic system.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19131595
A self-replicating molecule directs the covalent assembly of component molecules to form a product that is of identical composition to the parent. When the newly formed product also is able to direct the assembly of product molecules, the self-replicating system can be termed autocatalytic. A self-replicating system was developed based on a ribozyme that catalyzes the assembly of additional copies of itself through an RNA-catalyzed RNA ligation reaction. The R3C ligase ribozyme was redesigned so that it would ligate two substrates to generate an exact copy of itself, which then would behave in a similar manner. This self-replicating system depends on the catalytic nature of the RNA for the generation of copies. A linear dependence was observed between the initial rate of formation of new copies and the starting concentration of ribozyme, consistent with exponential growth. The autocatalytic rate constant was 0.011 min(-1), whereas the initial rate of reaction in the absence of pre-existing ribozyme was only 3.3 x 10(-11) M.min(-1). Exponential growth was limited, however, because newly formed ribozyme molecules had greater difficulty forming a productive complex with the two substrates. Further optimization of the system may lead to the sustained exponential growth of ribozymes that undergo self-replication.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12239349
Sidney Fox called them proteinoid microspheres, protocells or protonerves.
Table 1. Salient Properties of Proteinoid Microspheres
Protobiochemical
Esterolytic
Phosphatatic
Decarboxylatic
Peroxidatic
Synthetic, with P-O-P or ATP
For peptides
For polynucleotides
Photodecarboxylatic
Protophysiological
Electrotactic
Protometabolic (Catalytic)
Aggregative
Protomobile
Osmotic
Permselective
Fissive
Protoreproductive
Conjugative
Protocommunicative
Excitable
http://asa.chm.colostate.edu/archive/evolution/199905/0001.html
Protocell Images
Image credits: http://www.theharbinger.org/articles/rel_sci/fox.html
Below is an article on PNAs, or PNA Oligomers which are used for “gene silencing”. These were created before the news came out about, how life began with cyanobacteria. So, we are seeing the creation of synthetics while the real beginning of life is never really debated, only covered up until the synthetics can be created, and then will be said to have evolved from the orgins so declared. It is like putting the “cart in front of the horse”.
A ‘retro-inverso’ PNA: structural implications for DNA and RNA binding.
Abstract
‘Retro-inverso’ peptide nucleic acid (PNA) monomers of thymine (T*: N-(amidomethyl)-N-(N1-thyminyl-acetyl)-beta-alanyl) (and adenine) have been prepared and introduced in PNA oligomers. A homo ‘retro-inverso’ T*8 PNA was found not to hybridize to a complementary DNA or RNA oligonucleotide, whereas introduction of one retro-inverso thymine unit into the middle of a normal PNA 15-mer resulted in a c.a. 8 degrees C destabilization of the complex of this oligomer with a complementary DNA or RNA oligomer. In an effort to compensate for the structural nucleobase ‘phase-shift’ caused by the T* monomer by also introducing a beta-alanine monomer it is concluded that the effect of the T* backbone is -7 degrees C when hybridizing to DNA and -4.5 degrees C when hybridizing to RNA. Nonetheless, the T* unit shows good sequence discrimination comparable to that of normal PNA. Molecular dynamics simulations indicate an unfavourable conformation of the backbone amide carbonyl group resulting in reduced interaction with the aqueous medium and an ‘electrostatic clash’ with the carbonyl of the nucleobase linker. These results show that a simple inversion of an amide bond in the PNA backbone has a dramatic, and hardly predictable, effect on the DNA mimicking properties of the oligomer.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9881091
And it appears the sneaky way of altering/modifying/changing DNA is through the “back door” of the “DNA, RNA, Protein” Central Dogma. So, create the Protein, on a non-coding RNAse polymer, then connect to the RNA, and then eventually to DNA. However, in this case a non protein is being created, called “alloprotein”.
In the expansion of the genetic code, 3 new amino acids have been added to our original 20. These are: Selenocysteine, Prrolysine and Phenylalanine. These involve a directed/forced evolution where man has to adapt or cheat the adaption. Morgies are rejecting the adaptation, but are paying the price. Are these the debris left from the experiments or are they truly created new life forms for directed/forced evolution? I believe the integration of these forms are to be part of the new transformed human. Some will make it, others will not. However the cheaters may win. We may cheat the system, if we concentrate and focus on what is in front of us. In Part II, we will go into detail, as to how the 3 new amino acids have integrated the genome. We continue to look for the specific characteristics of the specimens and are calling for labs to assist us in recognizing the products used to create these artefacts.
by
Kathryn Augustyn and Kandy Griffin
MRG Researchers
December 11, 2012 | Categories: health, morgellons, news, science, studies, tyranny | Leave a comment
Food Freedom News
December 5, 2012
By Lawrence LeBlond
Globalist Report
Chlorine has long been added to tap water in many communities to ensure it is free of bugs and bacteria. The chemical is also found in many other household items, as well as in pesticides that are often used to treat produce.
New research from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York has now found evidence that the use of chlorine is associated with a rising number of people with food allergies.
Researchers found adults with high levels of dichlorophenol (a chemical by-product of chlorine) in their urine, were as much as 80 percent more likely to also have a food allergy. That’s a shocking find; especially when upwards of 15 million Americans suffer from food allergies.
Lead study author Elina Jerschow, assistant professor of allergy and immunology at Einstein, said the research “shows that high levels of dichlorophenol-containing pesticides can possibly weaken food tolerance in some people, causing food allergy.”
She noted that past studies “have shown that both food allergies and environmental pollution are increasing in the United States” and the “results of our study suggest these two trends might be linked, and that increased use of pesticides and other chemicals is associated with a higher prevalence of food allergies.”
As for chlorinated tap water, Jerschow said that switching to bottled water as a way to reduce the risk of developing a food allergy may not prove successful. “Other dichlorophenol sources, such as pesticide-treated fruits and vegetables, may play a greater role in causing food allergy,” she added.
Jerschow’s study looked at 10,348 participants in a US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2005-2006.
[READ MORE…]
December 9, 2012 | Categories: food, health, news, science, studies, US, water | Leave a comment
by Susan Patterson
Natural Society
December 8th, 2012
There is something incredibly therapeutic about a walk on the beach, a stroll through the woods or a climb to the top of a mountain. With all senses engaging the fresh air, sunshine and natural beauty of nature, both the mind and body becomes refreshed. These “good feelings” that come with being outside in nature have been the subject of many a study over the years.
Research acknowledges these “good feelings” and has found that time spent in nature does have a variety of positive impacts including a reduction in depression and aggressiveness.In addition, scientific evidence agrees that tense feelings decrease, and we are better able to handle stress and frustration in life when it comes our way if we are connected to nature. Professionals now refer to time spent outdoors as eco-therapy simply because it is so beneficial.
Walking Outdoors
According to one 2007 study done in the Untied Kingdom, something as simple as walking in the park can reduce depression. The study had one group walk in a mall and another group walk outside. Of the group that walked outside, 71% indicated that they had a reduction in depression while 22% of those who walked inside felt as if their depression had increased.
Feelings of self-esteem were increased in 90 percent of those who walked in the park, and tension was reduced by 71 percent in this group, as well. The mall walking group reported only a 50 percent decline in tension and a 44 percent increase in self esteem. While walking anytime is a good habit, it appears, from this study, that walking outdoors, also known as forest bathing, has enhanced benefits.
Viewing Nature
Even just viewing nature has been found to have a positive impact. A 2009 study from the University of Rochester found that when study groups were exposed to nature pictures they chose to be connected to their community over gaining wealth and fame as a life aspiration. Participants who viewed urban photos chose wealth and fame first. In the same study, researchers found that people who were exposed to nature pictures were more likely, than those exposed to city scenes, to share money with others.
Conservation is Healthy
Science Daily reported on a study done in 2005 that found people who were actively involved in conservation projects reaped substantial health benefits from their participation. These benefits included a greater sense of connectedness, feelings of wellbeing and reduction of social isolation. Time spent outdoors doing good appears to be a win-win situation.
‘Nature Deficit Disorder’
Richard Louv created the term “Nature Deficit Disorder” in his book Last Child in the Woods. Louv argues that kids are not spending nearly enough time outdoors today, and in turn are suffering from a number of negative effects from lack of time in nature. Amongst these negative effects are attention difficulties, obesity, depression, and diminished use of senses. Louv’s claims support research finding that detachment from nature has far reaching negative physiological effects. Parents are encouraged to spend time with their children in nature and to take part in outdoor recreational activities as often as possible. Building healthy habits young appears to be a pursuit well worth undertaking.
Additional Sources:
ScienceDaily
Scholastic.com
December 8, 2012 | Categories: health, news, science, studies, UK | 4 Comments
Kenny Valenzuela
Research & Links
PN 