The new MAHA report: A bridge too far, or a cop out?
The new MAHA report has dropped, specifically addressing our epidemic of childhood diseases. It’s a clarion call to save America’s children.
I urge you to put aside partisanship and read the document for yourselves. For those averse to all things MAGA, merely because it’s yoked to a presidential administration with which you don’t align shouldn’t vitiate its relevance for advocates of natural medicine and health freedom.
It covers familiar themes: childhood obesity and diabetes, the surge in pediatric allergic and autoimmune diseases, neuro-developmental problems like autism and ADHD, as well as adolescent anxiety and depression.
It highlights root causes, faulting over-medicalization of health problems. Ultra-processed foods, lack of exercise, environmental pollution, pesticides and herbicides, the ubiquity of cellphones and toxic social media, ever-proliferating vaccine schedules, and even electromagnetic fields are platformed as potential contributors.
Moreover, it denounces groupthink about health, reinforced by BigPharma, BigFood, BigChem and BigAg influence over med school and post-graduate physician continuing education, medical journals, regulatory agencies, and legislatures. It specifically calls out COVID era measures to censor, deplatform, or even punish dissenters from our health information monoculture.
Critics immediately pounced over dubious references among the report’s voluminous citations. That has led some to speculate that the report was, in part, a hasty AI compilation of writings by medical mavericks without adequate fact-checking.
Some health authorities wailed that its recommendations would gut America’s carefully constructed health establishment; merely by calling into question our vaccine approval process, vaccine hesitancy would be encouraged, and millions of children put at risk.
Operators of huge industrial farms complained that enacting restrictions on agricultural chemicals would sap productivity and slash availability of affordable foods; Defenders of SNAP benefits, which the MAHA report urges be scaled back to include only nutritious alternatives, decry it as a war on “choice”, and stigmatization of the disadvantaged.
On the other hand, some hardcore MAHA insiders that I’ve talked to feel the report is weak tea—a cop out. They call out the report’s hesitancy to issue a full-throated demand for outright bans on agricultural chemicals, all artificial food additives, direct-to-consumer drug ads, and mRNA vaccines. There’s clearly been an effort to moderate the most audacious objectives of MAHA stalwarts, which leaves them feeling betrayed by the compromises dictated by Real-Politik.
Nonetheless the new MAHA report is an ambitious attempt to stake a bold position and identify potential impediments to health progress that is unprecedented in mainstream American politics. If taken seriously, and if followed up by concrete actions, it’s the enthronement of many of the ideas that Intelligent Medicine has advanced over past decades. I never could’ve envisioned that happening in my lifetime.
It’ll also prioritize nutrition research, which will deliver real-world dividends for Americans.
My hope is that the MAHA report garners broad readership: It should be required reading for every medical and nursing student and health professional in the U.S., especially those entrusted with childcare, and I hope that legislators and health policy wonks pay it close attention.
“You’ve got a great aura!”
Hearken back, ye Boomers, to hippie days. You pull back a beaded curtain, wind chimes tinkle softly and the aroma of patchouli fills your nostrils. The plangent chords of Ravi Shankar sound in the background and UV lights illuminate wall art that recalls a Fillmore West psychedelic light show, as a lava lamp undulates. Your host greets you:
“I can see your aura, man, it’s far out!”
Is it your (then) abundant curls illuminated by the strange light that give off that impression? Or has your host recently partaken of a hit of that recently-popular Owsley blotter acid?
Whatever the case, auras were a THING in the 60s and 70s. They adorned the visages of the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan and David Bowie on album cover art. They were the subject of paranormal research projects, and remain a popular entertainment.
Inner Light Aura, a popular photo studio in New York and Philadelphia, offers:
“We use a special analog film camera, originally created in the 1970s, to capture the colorful energy that makes you unique. This process creates a vibrant, one-of-a-kind Polaroid that reveals your aura in just minutes. Want to go deeper? You’ll also have the option to receive a personalized aura reading full of meaningful insights into your energy and inner light.”
Aura “science” owes much to a Russian researcher, Semyon Kirlian, who in the 1930s developed a photography technique that purported to capture heretofore invisible emanations from living things. This was interpreted by some to be evidence of a “life force” that reflected the energetic state of subjects, even providing an index of a person’s physical health or psychological condition.
Kirlian photography was said to be decisively debunked as a mere artifact of static electricity discharge or water evaporation from body surfaces.
But there’s reason to believe that some elusive aura-like phenomena exist, only beyond the threshold of detection by human senses or existing technology. Is there a reason why, even in a pitch-black, soundless room, we can often detect the presence of someone else?
Now scientists have reinvigorated the notion of an aura, or emanation of life force, as a universal property of all living things. Using an ultra-sensitive camera, capable of capturing the energy of single photons—the tiniest electromagnetic particles of light—they took pictures of mice in darkened enclosures.
They were careful to distinguish between the glow of infrared-spectrum light given off as heat by warm-blooded animals, versus photons of novel invisible wavelengths. It’s a given that we can “see” heat signals when equipped with night vision goggles. But this new eerie radiance was different.
When the mice died, their photon auras faded and ultimately disappeared. Dramatic photo-images highlighted the contrast between live and deceased animals.
So, they conclude, this photon signature might provide an imprimatur of life. Detecting biophoton emissions with new ultra-sensitive gadgets might eventually prove a way to assess the health of living tissue non-invasively.
So, if you’re told you have a great aura, consider it a compliment.
Young poop
We all know how powerful the microbiome is in shaping not just digestive health, but also overall well-being.
When all else fails—diet, antibiotics, probiotics, botanicals—fecal microbiota transfer (FMT) has emerged as a way of radically rebooting the microbiome.
It’s approved for C. difficile colitis, and under investigation for ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, but also for conditions ranging from diabetes to cancer immunotherapy. One person I talked to who obtained a fecal transfer for intractable digestive complaints made a complete recovery. “I must’ve gotten my dose from a happy donor”, she added. “It even cured my anxiety and depression!”
In animal models, it’s even been shown that transferring poop from thin rodents to obese rodents can normalize their faulty metabolisms and enable them to attain normal weight.
Now comes evidence that giving aged rats transfers of colonic bacteria from young rats improves their working memory. The older rats navigated mazes better and analysis of their brain structure and function showed rejuvenating effects. Levels of BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor)—a kind of Miracle-Gro for neurons— were increased in the rats receiving implants of young poop. Synaptic connections were improved.
As unappetizing as it may seem, this type of research may pave the way for refinements leading to specifically bio-engineered poop pills targeting human cognitive preservation.
Overzealous bio-hackers beware: Until more research demonstrates safety and efficacy in human subjects, DIY fecal transfers remain a “crapshoot”.
