#which through word association made me think of masking for illness/disease prevention which made me think of this | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

windingriverherbals · 4 years

Text

The Illustrated Herbiary Collectible Box Set: Guidance and Rituals from 36 Bewitching Botanicals; Includes Hardcover Book, Deluxe Oracle Card Set, and Carrying Pouch (Wild Wisdom)

Rosemary is the smell of deja vu and the after-breath of nostalgia. Her gift is the faint scent that teases and vanishes, leaving you longing for something you can’t quite name, with memories that crest and crash, pulling you gasping into their undertow.

In Victorian times Rosemary was said to say, “Remember me.” This is but a small part of her magic. Rosemary can ease remembrance, softening sharp edges, or she can dredge the distant past, pulling on your DNA to bring forward the longings of lineage. Crush the leaves. Hold them to your nose. The past is encoded into our cellular memory. Rosemary whispers, Sink into the knowledge that lives in your bones. Let memory rise up from the body of your being.

Honoring Ancestral Memory {Ritual}

Rosemary’s magic lies in her scent and the volatile oil hidden in her leaves. Science has affirmed that the smell of Rosemary’s essential oil enhances memory. Here’s how it works; When you inhale Rosemary, her vaporous oils cross through the mucous membranes in your nose and enter your bloodstream. Recall is significantly improved with Rosemary flowing in your veins.

You can get a good whiff of rosemary by crushing fresh leaves between your fingers or by rubbing a drop of rosemary essential oil between your palms. Then hold your hands over your nose and inhale for a few minutes. Notice how you feel.

Remembering Your Lineage

Connect with your ancestral past through freewriting. Her’s how: Grab a notebook and set a timer for 10 minutes. Below is a prompt to start your writing. After you read it, begin writing and don’t stop until your timer goes off.

I can almost guarantee that you’ll feel silly or lost or confused for at least the first 3 minutes. You’ll feel like you are making things up, or that you don’t know what to write. Keep writing. At a certain point, your ego will step aside and that is when the magic happens.

Hee’s your writing prompt: Dear {name of ancestor}, I’m working to deepen my ancestral ties. Is there anything you’d like to share with me? Now start writing, answering in the voice of your ancestor.

You Are Made Of Memories {Refection}

Rosemary whispers the memories of this lifetime, but she also reminds us of the kitchens of generations past and the scent of camphor mixing with sea air. Our DNA has traveled through millennia. When we think of memory, we focus on the people we ourselves have known – grandparents, great-aunts, cousins twice removed. Our thoughts tend to be based on personalities, experiences, likes or dislikes. Rosemary asks us to travel beyond those associations to feel for the memory that lives in the twisting threads of our chromosomes. This is what it means to honor our ancestors and to be rooted in our own history.

What if your bones are ancient bedrock and your laugh the wild wind? What if you are not only an individual but the present incarnation in a long lineage?

Rosemary Oil; Benefits of Therapeutic Use

Rosemary is a fragrant herb that is native to the Mediterranean and receives its name from the Latin words “ros” (dew) and “marinus” (sea), which means “dew of the Sea.” It also grows in England, Mexico, the USA, and northern Africa, namely in Morocco. Known for its distinctive fragrance that is characterized by an energizing, evergreen, citrus-like, herbaceous scent, Rosemary Essential Oil is derived from the aromatic herb Rosmarinus Officinalis, a plant belonging to the Mint family, which includes Basil, Lavender, Myrtle, and Sage. Its appearance, too, is similar to Lavender with flat pine needles that have a light trace of silver.

Historically, Rosemary was considered sacred by the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Hebrews, and Romans, and it was used for numerous purposes. The Greeks wore Rosemary garlands around their heads while studying, as it was believed to improve memory, and both the Greeks and the Romans used Rosemary in almost all festivals and religious ceremonies, including weddings, as a reminder of life and death. In the Mediterranean, Rosemary leaves and Rosemary Oil was popularly used for culinary preparation purposes, while in Egypt the plant, as well as its extracts, were used for incense. In the Middle Ages, Rosemary was believed to be able to ward off evil spirits and to prevent the onset of the bubonic plague. With this belief, Rosemary branches were commonly strewn across floors and left in doorways to keep the disease at bay. Rosemary was also an ingredient in “Four Thieves Vinegar,” a concoction that was infused with herbs and spices and used by grave robbers to protect themselves against the plague. A symbol of remembrance, Rosemary was also tossed into graves as a promise that loved ones who passed away would not be forgotten.

It was used throughout the civilizations in cosmetics for its antiseptic, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-oxidant properties and in medical care for its health benefits. Rosemary had even become a favorite alternative herbal medicine for the German-Swiss physician, philosopher, and botanist Paracelsus, who promoted its healing properties, including its ability to strengthen the body and to heal organs such as the brain, heart, and liver. Despite being unaware of the concept of germs, people of the 16th century used Rosemary as incense or as massage balms and oils to eliminate harmful bacteria, especially in the rooms of those suffering from illness. For thousands of years, folk medicine has also used Rosemary for its ability to improve memory, soothe digestive issues, and relieve aching muscles.

Rosemary Essential Oil’s chemical composition consists of the following main constituents: α -Pinene, Camphor, 1,8-Cineol, Camphene, Limonene, and Linalool.

α -Pinene is known to exhibit the following activity:

Anti-inflammatory

Anti-septic

Expectorant

Bronchodilator

Camphor

Cough suppressant

Decongestant

Febrifuge

Anesthetic

Antimicrobial

Anti-inflammatory

1,8-Cineol

Analgesic

Anti-bacterial

Anti-fungal

Anti-inflammatory

Anti-spasmodic

Anti-viral

Cough suppressant

Camphene

Anti-oxidant

Soothing

Anti-inflammatory

Limonene

Nervous system stimulant

Psychostimulant

Mood-balancing

Appetite-suppressant

Detoxifying

Linalool

Sedative

Anti-inflammatory

Anti-anxiety

Analgesic

Used in aromatherapy, Rosemary Oil helps reduce stress levels and nervous tension, boost mental activity, encourage clarity and insight, relieve fatigue, and support respiratory function. It is used to improve alertness, eliminate negative moods, and increase the retention of information by enhancing concentration. The scent of Rosemary Essential Oil stimulates the appetite and is also known to reduce the level of harmful stress hormones that are released when involved in intense experiences. Inhaling Rosemary Oil boosts the immune system by stimulating internal anti-oxidant activity, which in turn fights ailments caused by free radicals, and it relieves throat and nasal congestion by clearing the respiratory tract.

Diluted and used topically, Rosemary Essential Oil is known to stimulate hair growth, reduce pain, soothe inflammation, eliminate headaches, strengthen the immune system, and condition hair to make it look and feel healthy. Used in a massage, Rosemary Oil’s detoxifying properties can facilitate healthy digestion, relieve flatulence, bloating and cramps, and relieve constipation. Through massage, this oil stimulates circulation, which allows the body to better absorb nutrients from food. In cosmetics for hair care, Rosemary Essential Oil’s tonic properties stimulate hair follicles to lengthen and strengthen hair while slowing the graying of hair, preventing hair loss, and moisturizing dry scalp to relieve dandruff. Traditionally, Rosemary Oil combined with Olive Oil in a hot oil hair treatment has been known to darken and strengthen hair. The anti-microbial, antiseptic, astringent, antioxidant, and tonic properties of this oil make it a beneficial additive in skincare products that are meant to soothe or even treat dry or oily skin, eczema, inflammation, and acne. Effective for all skin types, this rejuvenating oil can be added to soaps, face washes, face masks, toners, and creams to achieve firm yet hydrated skin that appears to have a healthy glow that is free of unwanted marks.

Rosemary Essential Oil’s refreshing and energizing aroma can be diluted with water and used in natural homemade room fresheners to eliminate unpleasant odors from the environment as well as from objects. When added to recipes for homemade scented candles, it can work the same way to freshen the scent of a room.

COSMETIC: Stimulant, Analgesic, Anti-inflammatory, Antiseptic, Anti-fungal, Anti-bacterial, Astringent, Disinfectant, Antioxidant.

ODOROUS: Anti-stress, Cognition-enhancement, Psycho-stimulant, Stimulant, Decongestant.

MEDICINAL: Anti-bacterial, Anti-fungal, Detoxifying, Analgesic, Anti-inflammatory, Carminative, Laxative, Decongestant, Antiseptic, Disinfectant, Antiseptic, Anti-nociceptive.

CULTIVATING AND HARVESTING QUALITY ROSEMARY OIL

Rosemary is a perennial bush that often grows on the sea cliffs of Spain, France, Greece, and Italy. The leaves of the aromatic Rosemary bush have a high oil concentration, and it is part of an aromatic family of herbs, which also includes Lavender, Basil, Mint, and Oregano to name a few.

Rosemary is a hardy plant that can withstand frost, but it also loves the sun and thrives in dry climates where the temperature is between 20ᵒ-25ᵒ Celsius (68ᵒ-77ᵒ Fahrenheit) and does not drop below -17ᵒ Celsius (0ᵒ Fahrenheit). Though Rosemary can grow in a small pot inside a home, when grown outside, the Rosemary bush can reach a height of approximately 5 ft. Due to its adaptability to various ecological conditions, Rosemary plants can vary in appearance in terms of their colors, the sizes of their flowers, and the aromas of their essential oils. The Rosemary plant requires adequate water drainage, as it will not grow well if it is over-irrigated or in soils with high clay content, thus it can grow in the earth that ranges in soil type from sandy to clay loam soil as long as it has a pH range of 5,5 to 8,0.

The upper side of Rosemary leaves are dark and the undersides are pale and covered in thick hairs. The tips of the leaves begin to sprout small, tubular pale- to deep-blue flowers, which continue to bloom in the summer. Rosemary Essential Oil of the most superior quality is obtained from the flowering tops of the plant, although oils can also be obtained from the stems and leaves before the plant begins to flower. Rosemary fields are usually harvested once or twice a year, depending on the geographical region of cultivation. Harvesting is most often done mechanically, which allows more frequent cutting due to higher yields from rapid regrowth.

Before distillation, the leaves are dried either naturally by the heat of the sun or by using driers. Drying the leaves in the sun results in poor quality leaves for producing oils. The ideal drying method involves the use of a forced air-flow drier, which results in better quality leaves. After the product is dried, the leaves are further processed to have the stems removed. They are sieved to remove dirt.

HOW IS ROSEMARY OIL EXTRACTED?

Rosemary Essential Oil is most commonly extracted through the steam distillation of the plant’s flowering tops and leaves. After distillation, the oil has a watery viscosity and can be colorless or pale yellow. It’s the powerful and refreshing smell is herbaceous and similar to mint with an undertone that is characterized as woody and balsamic.

USES OF ROSEMARY OIL

The uses of Rosemary Essential Oil are abundant, ranging from medicinal and odorous to cosmetic. Its many forms include oils, gels, lotions, soaps, shampoos, and sprays, to name a few suggestions for homemade products.

Used in aromatherapy, the woody, evergreen scent of Rosemary can promote relaxation and boost alertness as well as brain function, thereby improving memory. To relieve stress while studying and maintain concentration, diffuse Rosemary Essential Oil in the room for a maximum of 30 minutes.

Diluted with a carrier oil and used topically, Rosemary Essential Oil’s detoxifying and anesthetic properties can boost immunity by recharging the body’s detoxification system. By diluting Rosemary Oil in a carrier oil such as Fractionated Coconut Oil and massaging it into the lymph nodes, the body will be stimulated to more rapidly eliminate waste and to soothe digestive ailments. Its analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties make it an ideal essential oil for relieving muscle aches and pains. For a massage oil that reduces pain, blend Rosemary Oil with Peppermint Oil and dilute the blend in Coconut Oil then rub on tender muscles and aching joints.

Rosemary Essential Oil’s anti-viral, anti-microbial, and antiseptic properties make it a natural homemade multi-purpose cleaning spray to cleanse indoor environments and eliminate harmful bacteria therein. A dilution of Rosemary Oil in distilled white vinegar and water makes a spray cleaner that is suitable to wipe down surfaces like countertops.

A GUIDE TO ROSEMARY OIL VARIETIES & THEIR BENEFITS

ROSEMARY VARIETY & BOTANICAL NAME COUNTRY OF ORIGIN BENEFITS OF OIL Rosemary (Morocco) Essential Oil

Rosmarinus Officinalis

Found in:

Morocco

Believed to:

soothe inflammation

strengthen the body

eliminate harmful bacteria

Rosemary Essential Oil (Spanish)

Rosmarinus Officinalis

Found in:

Spain

Believed to:

improve memory

soothe digestive issues

relieve aching muscles

Rosemary Organic Essential Oil

Rosmarinus officinalis

Found in:

Spain

Believed to:

relieve nasal congestion

reduce fever

relieve muscle and joint pain

CONTRAINDICATIONS FOR ROSEMARY OIL

As per NAHA guidelines, we do not recommend the ingestion of essential oils. It is imperative to consult a medical practitioner before using Rosemary Essential Oil for therapeutic purposes. Pregnant and nursing women and those taking prescription drugs are especially advised not to use Rosemary Essential Oil without the medical advice of a physician. The oil may have a negative effect on the fetus and potentially lead to miscarriage. Rosemary Essential Oil should always be stored in an area that is inaccessible to children, especially those under the age of 7. Those with high blood pressure should avoid using this oil, as it may further elevate blood pressure.

When applied topically, Rosemary Essential Oil should be used in dilution – a carrier oil such as Almond, Coconut, Jojoba, Olive, or Hemp is recommended – and in small amounts, as using the oil directly or in high concentrations can potentially cause skin irritation. A skin test is recommended prior to use. This can be done by diluting the essential oil in a carrier oil and applying a small amount to a small area of skin that is not sensitive. Rosemary Oil must never be used near the eyes, inner nose, and ears, or on any other particularly sensitive areas of skin.

ROSEMARY ESSENCE…

Rosemary receives its name from the Latin term “Dew of the Sea,” as it is native to the sea cliffs of the Mediterranean region

Rosemary belongs to an aromatic family of herbs that includes Basil, Lavender, Myrtle, and Sage.

Rosemary was considered sacred by ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Hebrews, and Romans, who used it to improve memory, incense, protection, and as a reminder of the life and death cycle, among other uses.

Rosemary Essential Oil of the most superior quality is obtained from the flowering tops of the plant.

Rosemary Essential Oil is best known for its stimulating, soothing, and pain-relieving properties.

Rosemary, “Remember Me” The Illustrated Herbiary Collectible Box Set: Guidance and Rituals from 36 Bewitching Botanicals; Includes Hardcover Book, Deluxe Oracle Card Set, and Carrying Pouch (Wild Wisdom)

#Ancestor&039;s #Aromatherapy #book #health benefits #Herbal #Herbs #journal #lineage #Maia Toll #remembrance #Rosemary #rosemary oil #Rosmarinus Officinalis

1 note · View note

radiantgoodhealth · 6 years

Text

Autumn: Cider, Football, and Your Lung Health

Friend: I can feel autumn coming. Me: I know. How are your lungs? How is your sadness, your depression?

Friend: Pardon me?

Now, those are weird questions to come up when you hear “I can feel autumn coming,” ain’a?

Autumn is, in fact, coming and with it the body-mind changes that acupuncture and traditional medicine treat with every seasonal change. We are organic beings after all, made up of the stuff of this precious Earth, living in the ecosphere of our little blue ball, and necessarily responding to, adapting to the cycles she offers us.

Sometimes, we ain’t all that good about adapting to these changes. In Traditional Medicine, autumn is the driest season of all.

Even the sun’s rays begin to dry up, so to speak, as our daylight hours suddenly shorten, and we move toward the Winter Solstice.

Let’s look at the Lung River and it’s qi. Most acupuncturists use the terms ‘channel’ or ‘meridian’ to describe the discrete pathways our vital energies—our qi—flow through in our body-mind. For me, those are meh terms. I use “river”. Qi flows through 14 different and discrete rivers inside you, me, and all living beings. Acupuncture helps to keep those rivers contained in their banks when they are too exuberant, full of qi in times of depletion, and flowing smoothly always, from their wellspring to the sea. When those are all balance, we are healthy. And then, there’s autumn.

The Lung River is associated with autumn and autumn is associated with dryness. A dry Lung River is an unhappy one; lungs like to be wet (but not too wet). Since the lungs are the most exterior of all the qi-organs, the harvest season can give us problems if we are not full of care for them.

Every season has its own emotion as does every qi River. Autumn and the Lung River are associated with the emotions of grief and sadness—particularly things that have arisen more recently. For example, a child trauma will more like settle in the Heart River but may arise acutely in autumn. A loss within the last few months or year will probably damage the Lung River now.

Think of what it feels like to sob—the Lung qi is moving erratically up and down, the River is in turmoil, tossing in any direction; breathing is hard, there may be pain in the chest and shoulders, there is constriction and anxiety.

In our medicine, each River is associated with one of the elements of our planet. The Lung River is associated with the element of metal (ore, minerals). Metal can generate good body fluids (think of a metal cup full of cool water and the condensation that forms on its outside). Metal can also hold heat such that good body fluids evaporate or become scorched. Think about that time your very wet cough (cold, damp, and phlegmy) turned into a persistent dry, scratchy, hoarse cough (heat and dry), your sputum changed from white and liquid to yellow or green and thick—heat and dryness cook fluids and cooked fluids are a problem for the Lung River.

Another fascinating aspect of the Lung River is that it regulates the cou li, that space between the skin and the musculature. The cou li is the space where our defensive qi (we call it the wei qi) moves to protect us from exterior pathogens. Or, if you like, we can rename all these components as “lymph and immune systems.” Functionally, we are using different words to describe the same phenomena, although the traditional medicine terms also include more subtle effects. For example, grief is very often followed by sudden illness related to breathing or opportunistic infection.

Autumn Precautions

We need to take smart care of our Lung River for the next three months. We do this in three ways: Good cover, good emotions, and good food.

Good Cover: Our upper back and neck, from the base of our skull, across our shoulders, and extending a down the paraspinals is called the “wind gate.” This is the original source of infectious coughs and colds that are so common in the cold, damp weather of autumn. It is important to keep this area impeccably protected from wind, cold, and dampness during this season—especially so on warm days when the pernicious qualities are masked by the sun’s warmth. Pull up your collar, wear a hoodie, toss a scarf or a sweatshirt over your shoulders.

Protect your wind gate and you protect your Lung qi. Protect your Lung qi and you prevent related diseases.

This is a good opportunity to consider the relationship between traditional energy medicine and contemporary biomedicine. We know that the common cold and influenza are caused by viruses. No dispute. What’s with this “wind gate” chatter then? The wind gate is an exposed area of the cou li, This is our immune system, energetically speaking. Sweep it away with damp, cold, wind and you’re left exposed to viral and bacterial lung infections. Nothing “wu-wu” here—just different words to pick out the same phenomena. Cover your shoulders, rest appropriately, boost your wei qi, and don’t let opportunistic infections get a foothold.

Good Emotions: It’s fair to say that all illness, from the perspective of traditional medicine, is entangled with some emotion or other. Even happiness can go into deficiency (a kind of depression—there are many of these in traditional medicine) or excess (difficulties ranging from insomnia to mania). Each of the qi rivers are associated with a different emotion. We live, unhappily, in a culture were all emotions are either suspect, commodified, or devalued…except warrantless anger which seems to be permitted in every circumstance. So, we learn young to squash them down. Wall out sadness. Crush grief under the weight of a mountain of feel-good. Deny love. Deny them all if we can.

When the sadness of autumn arises, don’t look away. You needn’t let current sadness or old grief mow you down. Khalil Gibran said in The Prophet “to suppress a truth is to give it power beyond endurance.” Our emotional state is one of many true states.

So, if you’re truly sad, that emotion must have its day, either by you permitting it (even encouraging it) or by the emotion simply taking over because it is unbearable to wall it off another minute.

At the same time, we must surely not allow emotions to pretend to a permanence and power they don’t truly have. Emotions are soap bubbles. They arise, catch our attention, then pop and fall away, only to be replaced by another emotion—maybe the same one or a related one or an opposing one—each of which will arise, pop, and disappear like all the others. Our emotions only gain strength over us if we forever deny them their voice—and then they gain power ‘beyond endurance’. At that point, they manifest as illness, psycho-emotional, mental, physical diseases, or combinations of these. Deep breath.

If you need to, want to, or must, just have a good cry, especially if one arises naturally, spontaneously. Then “pop” it’ll be gone...for now or forever, who knows? Take a deep breath (directing your Lung River qi downward) and take the next step of your life. Humans have emotions. Be a human. Good Food: Autumn allows us to access the excess of the harvest with an eye to preserving techniques for the next season. It is, in this sense, a season of conservation, of storage and preserving, anticipating the beginning of drawing within in winter.

Sour and fermented foods are especially helpful in this season since they nourish the yin and the jin ye (the body fluids, including those on the intima of interior lung tissue).

Grains: One good choice for the season is sourdough bread. It takes a bit to get a starter going, but so very worth the time and effort. The best sourdough starter I know of involves a pound of organic grapes, locally grown if you can get them. Wrap them in a cheesecloth and give them some gentle bonks with a pastry pin—enough to break the skins without creating jam. Squeeze the juice into a suitable container, add enough water to make 2 cups, and add 2 cups of (preferably organic) flour (white or wheat seem to work well; feel free to experiment with rye or buckwheat). For the first week, you’ll need to add water and flour every day to keep the grape yeast-beasties well fed and stimulate fermentation. Once the concoction bubbles, you can use it as the base for your favorite bread recipe. Keep it fed!

Aduki (adzuki) beans, barley, millet, almonds, sesame seeds, and pinenuts stimulate yin fluids. Add them into soups. Millet is a wonderful warm breakfast cereal or savory side dish.

Meat, fish, and proteins: Tofu, clams, crabs, oysters, mussels, oily fish, pork, and lamb—these are the go-to yin nourishing fluids and especially beneficial to the Lung River.

Veggies: Generally speaking, you probably can’t eat too many vegetables, so long as they are a dominant part of an overall balanced diet. Leeks, cukes, pears, loquat, mushrooms—these are the roots, the sours, and the fungi of good Lung River health.

Foods: Pickles of all kinds, sauerkraut (and other fermented veggies), rose hip tea, citrus fruits, and “the sour varieties of apples, plums, and grapes.”

Welcome to autumn! It’s a grand season, full of richness (and dryness), harvests (including the inadvertent one of lung harmful bacteria or viruses), and the opportunities to both store the goodness of our lives and let go of the dead leaves of it. As a wise woman once said, ‘The trees drop their leaves when they are dead; that is good advice to follow.’ If you’d like a Lung River nourishing preventive care treatment—or if the season overtakes you and you fall ill—please consider visiting us at the Enerqi Center. Prevention may be worth more than cure, but if you’re sick, the curative effects of good acupuncture, good herbal medicinals, and the ever popular TDP heat lamp-liquid moxa combo are beyond compare, and key components of your Radiant Good Health.

Works Cited

Gibran, K. (n.d.). The Prophet.

Maciocia, G. (2005). The Foundations of Chinese medicine. Churchill Livingstone.

Pitchford, P. (1993). Healing with whole foods: oriental traditions and modern nutrition. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.

1 note · View note

techcrunchappcom · 4 years

Photo

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/scott-atlas-trumps-new-virus-adviser-questioned-mask-use-the-new-york-times/

Scott Atlas, Trump's New Virus Adviser, Questioned Mask Use - The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Dr. Scott W. Atlas has argued that the science of mask wearing is uncertain, that children cannot pass on the coronavirus and that the role of the government is not to stamp out the virus but to protect its most vulnerable citizens as Covid-19 takes its course.

Ideas like these, both ideologically freighted and scientifically disputed, have propelled the radiologist and senior fellow at Stanford University’s conservative Hoover Institution into President Trump’s White House, where he is pushing to reshape the administration’s response to the pandemic.

Mr. Trump has embraced Dr. Atlas, as has Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, even as he upsets the balance of power within the White House coronavirus task force with ideas that top government doctors and scientists like Anthony S. Fauci, Deborah L. Birx and Jerome Adams, the surgeon general, find misguided — even dangerous — according to people familiar with the task force’s deliberations.

That might be the point.

“I think Trump clearly does not like the advice he was receiving from the people who are the experts — Fauci, Birx, etc. — so he has slowly shifted from their advice to somebody who tells him what he wants to hear,” said Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease expert at Emory University who is close to Dr. Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator.

Dr. Atlas is neither an epidemiologist nor an infectious disease expert, the two jobs usually associated with pandemic response. But his frequent appearances on Fox News Channel and his ideological surety caught the president’s eye.

So when Mr. Trump resumed his coronavirus news conferences in July and August, it was Dr. Atlas who helped prepare his briefing materials, according to people familiar with them. And it was his ideas that spilled from the president’s mouth.

“He has many great ideas,” Mr. Trump told reporters at a White House briefing last month with Dr. Atlas seated feet away. “And he thinks what we’ve done is really good, and now we’ll take it to a new level.”

The core of his appeal in the West Wing rests in his libertarian-style approach to disease management in which the government focuses on small populations of at-risk individuals — the elderly, the sick and the immune-compromised — and minimizes restrictions for the rest of the population, akin to an approach used to disastrous effect in Sweden. The argument: Most people infected by the coronavirus will not get seriously ill, and at some point, enough people will have antibodies from Covid-19 to deprive the virus of carriers — “herd immunity.”

“Once you get to a certain number — we use the word herd — once you get to a certain number, it’s going to go away,” Mr. Trump told Laura Ingraham on Fox News on Monday night.

Dr. Atlas’s push has led to repeated private confrontations with Dr. Birx, who in recent weeks has been advocating rigorous rules on wearing masks, limiting bars and restaurants, and minimizing large public gatherings.

Dr. Atlas declined a request to be interviewed, but Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, accused the news media of trying to “distort and diminish” his beliefs and record, adding that the adviser “is working to carry out the president’s No. 1 priority: protecting the health and safety of the American people.” White House officials said there had never been an attempt to shift policy to anything resembling herd immunity.

“There’s never been any advocacy of a herd immunity strategy coming from me to the president, to anyone in the administration, to the task force, to anyone I’ve spoken to,” Dr. Atlas said in a radio interview Tuesday.

White House officials said administration policy continued to focus on efforts to curb the spread of the disease while pushing to rapidly develop medical therapies to minimize deaths, as well as a vaccine. The president and his aides believe effective treatments are critical to allowing the country to return to normal.

But health officials say Dr. Atlas’s beliefs, argued in news media appearances and private conversations, have begun to shift the administration’s thinking.

Before joining the task force, Dr. Atlas pitched his ideas as a health commentator on Fox News, which is in part how he attracted Mr. Trump’s attention. His arrival at the White House has coincided with less visible roles for Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci, the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

In a tense coronavirus task force meeting in which the guidelines were debated, Dr. Atlas angered Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the C.D.C. director, and Dr. Birx, according to senior administration officials.

But it is Dr. Atlas’s embrace of herd immunity that has alienated his colleagues the most.

“When you isolate everyone, including all the healthy people, you’re prolonging the problem because you’re preventing population immunity,” Dr. Atlas said in a Fox News radio interview in July. “Low-risk groups getting the infection is not a problem. In fact, it’s a positive.”

In a Fox News interview in June, he lamented that “misinformation has spread” about herd immunity, arguing: “The reality is that when a population has enough people who have had the infection, and since these people don’t have a problem with the infection, that’s not a problem. That’s not a bad thing.”

In Sweden, the government allowed restaurants, gyms, shops, playgrounds and schools to remain open as the virus spread, asking its citizens to follow social distancing and hygiene guidelines and protect more vulnerable parts of the population.

The Washington Post on Monday reported Dr. Atlas’s advocacy for such a model.

That “soft lockdown” in Sweden had calamitous consequences, even in a country less densely populated and healthier than the United States. Thousands more people died than in neighboring countries that imposed strict lockdowns. The country’s economy also continued to struggle, and Sweden still falls far short of what scientists view as a possible threshold for herd immunity.

But the idea has gained traction in conservative circles. Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, says the United States needs to look at Sweden “before letting the nanny-staters shut the economy down again.”

The conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh discussed it on his show in April and cheered Dr. Atlas’s hiring at the White House, saying he was “countering Fauci.”

“Scott Atlas is a brilliant guy, and he thinks by early October that we could well be burned out of Covid,” Mr. Limbaugh said.

Kevin Hassett, a former chairman of Mr. Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, who returned briefly to the White House this spring to help with the response to the pandemic, called Dr. Atlas “a legendary physician, and one of the smartest guys I know.”

The Coronavirus Outbreak ›

Frequently Asked Questions

Updated September 1, 2020

Why is it safer to spend time together outside?

Outdoor gatherings lower risk because wind disperses viral droplets, and sunlight can kill some of the virus. Open spaces prevent the virus from building up in concentrated amounts and being inhaled, which can happen when infected people exhale in a confined space for long stretches of time, said Dr. Julian W. Tang, a virologist at the University of Leicester.

What are the symptoms of coronavirus?

In the beginning, the coronavirus seemed like it was primarily a respiratory illness — many patients had fever and chills, were weak and tired, and coughed a lot, though some people don’t show many symptoms at all. Those who seemed sickest had pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome and received supplemental oxygen. By now, doctors have identified many more symptoms and syndromes. In April, the C.D.C. added to the list of early signs sore throat, fever, chills and muscle aches. Gastrointestinal upset, such as diarrhea and nausea, has also been observed. Another telltale sign of infection may be a sudden, profound diminution of one’s sense of smell and taste. Teenagers and young adults in some cases have developed painful red and purple lesions on their fingers and toes — nicknamed “Covid toe” — but few other serious symptoms.

Why does standing six feet away from others help?

The coronavirus spreads primarily through droplets from your mouth and nose, especially when you cough or sneeze. The C.D.C., one of the organizations using that measure, bases its recommendation of six feet on the idea that most large droplets that people expel when they cough or sneeze will fall to the ground within six feet. But six feet has never been a magic number that guarantees complete protection. Sneezes, for instance, can launch droplets a lot farther than six feet, according to a recent study. It’s a rule of thumb: You should be safest standing six feet apart outside, especially when it’s windy. But keep a mask on at all times, even when you think you’re far enough apart.

I have antibodies. Am I now immune?

As of right now, that seems likely, for at least several months. There have been frightening accounts of people suffering what seems to be a second bout of Covid-19. But experts say these patients may have a drawn-out course of infection, with the virus taking a slow toll weeks to months after initial exposure. People infected with the coronavirus typically produce immune molecules called antibodies, which are protective proteins made in response to an infection. These antibodies may last in the body only two to three months, which may seem worrisome, but that’s perfectly normal after an acute infection subsides, said Dr. Michael Mina, an immunologist at Harvard University. It may be possible to get the coronavirus again, but it’s highly unlikely that it would be possible in a short window of time from initial infection or make people sicker the second time.

What are my rights if I am worried about going back to work?

He cited Dr. Atlas’s early warnings for governors to protect nursing homes from the virus. “He’s very similar to President Trump, in that you never have to wonder what he thinks,” Mr. Hassett said.

Mr. Trump is clearly enamored with Dr. Atlas’s arguments, which back up the president’s desire to restart the economy, open schools and move beyond the daily drumbeat of dire virus news.

But fully embracing any version of a policy resembling herd immunity has profound medical and political risks. Simply allowing the virus to travel through most of the population could lead to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of deaths. And medical officials are still not sure how long that immunity might last, and how long-lasting some effects of the virus could be.

“Trying to get to herd immunity other than with a vaccine isn’t a strategy,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, a former C.D.C. director. “It’s a catastrophe.”

Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University who has researched and written about herd immunity, said that “the appeal of the concept of herd immunity is that it suggests we can simply go about doing our regular daily lives and the coronavirus pandemic will take care of itself,” but that it has been tried and has not worked. “Where we have had less stringent responses, we’ve had more cases and more deaths,” he said.

Dr. Atlas’s medical background — chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center from 1998 to 2012 and editor of the textbook “Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain and Spine” — appears incongruous with his current role.

But Dr. Atlas does have political connections in Mr. Trump’s world. He has advised the president’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, and his Hoover Institution employs several staunch supporters of Mr. Trump’s handling of the virus.

Some Hoover scholars were early opponents of state and local government moves to shut down economic activity in March and April, including Richard Epstein, a law professor who predicted in March that only 500 Americans would die of the virus.

Another Hoover scholar, David R. Henderson, wrote in May: “If the lockdowns are ended immediately, will there be more deaths than if the they were not ended forthwith? Probably. But that won’t be enough to declare that ending the lockdown was a failure.”

In Washington, Dr. Atlas has introduced new tension to the coronavirus task force.

In one of his first meetings, he argued over the science of mask wearing. As Drs. Fauci and Birx maintained that drops in caseloads reflected public health measures such as social distancing and mask-wearing, Dr. Atlas insisted that peaks and declines could have merely been the virus running its course, senior administration officials said.

In other discussions, he argued that children cannot spread the virus, despite numerous studies that have shown that children can carry the virus, transmit it and die from it.

In a June interview with the Hoover Institution, he called it “literally irrational” to close schools. “All over the world, Switzerland, Iceland, Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Asian countries, there is a minimal, if any, risk of children transmitting the disease, even to their parents,” he said.

Dr. Atlas brought a similar argument to an August event encouraging school reopenings with Mr. Trump and Betsy DeVos, the education secretary.

His role in the White House has given conservative media a new official to present as a scientific authority on the coronavirus.

“The reality is that there’s certain data that’s very controversial about masks,” he told Tucker Carlson, the Fox News host, in August, railing against the “massive amount of fear bordering on hysteria.”

Dr. Atlas has also regularly promoted an idea that immunologists say is simply wrong, that immune cells called T cells, programmed with infection from other coronaviruses, can function like antibodies to prevent Covid-19.

#adviser #atlas #questioned #scott #trump #virus #Politics

0 notes

georgecmatthews · 4 years

Text

The pressure is growing for the US economy

Last Friday, my oldest child graduated from high school. Late July is not normally associated with graduations, but we are living in a time of COVID, and so what was supposed to occur two months earlier in the New York area was postponed and rescheduled. We were incredibly grateful to our son’s high school for putting on five separate graduation ceremonies in the course of a day to comply with New York State regulations that allow a maximum of 150 people to attend gatherings. Given the need to fit in five ceremonies in one day, the event felt like one part important milestone and one part fast food drive thru — which made it the first high school graduation I ever attended that was efficiently run and ended before you actually started wishing it could end. I was struck by the commencement speaker and his very honest words to the graduates. He told them that he couldn’t imagine having to miss out on the many important senior-year milestones that the class of 2020 missed because of the pandemic. He told them that this year has created a wound that will take years to heal.

Hearing those words, my mind couldn’t help but wander a bit, thinking about all the economic wounds created by the pandemic. The second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) reports for a number of major economies came to mind. I thought of the many wonderful small businesses that have closed permanently, and the large companies that survived other economic crises over the years only to have filed for bankruptcy during this pandemic. And I thought about my youngest child’s school, which was one of a number of schools permanently closed by our diocese because of the very difficult economic climate.

Some economic wounds may be avoidable

I also thought about the potential for self-inflicted wounds that could exacerbate an already-difficult situation. For example, last Friday marked the day many Americans would begin losing federal unemployment benefits. We are already starting to see a stalling of economic data, and families losing their benefits could make August’s data even worse.

I know I have shared this statistic before, but I will share it again: 37% of American households do not have enough savings to meet a $400 emergency expense — and that statistic comes from a Federal Reserve survey conducted before the pandemic hit the US.1 In addition, other households — with mostly white collar employees who are able to work from home — are not spending much and instead continue to hold elevated levels of cash, as seen in a relatively high personal savings rate of 19% for the month of June.2 This isn’t a good sign for businesses that rely on consumer spending — and I believe that the savings rate is likely to move higher if the virus is not controlled.

The US Senate still seems far from reaching a deal — at least one that addresses all the pressing needs facing America, including state and local government funding. I suspect August will be something of a “Great Stall” for the US economy if high unemployment and rising virus cases persist without adequate fiscal stimulus. As Fed Chair Jay Powell stressed last week: “The path of the economy will depend significantly on the course of the virus.”3 Powell also felt it important to add that, in this environment, more fiscal stimulus is critically needed (and, of course, the Fed will remain extremely accommodative).

Could schools set off a ‘second wave’ of virus cases?

Of course, that raises an important question: Will the virus persist? It certainly appears that the virus may have peaked in a number of “hot spot” states and could be in the process of being tamed. However, we are now entering back-to-school season, which carries with it the potential for many “super-spreading” occasions. I am more concerned about this possibility after reading a report released on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the CDC) about a COVID-19 outbreak at a sleepaway camp in northern Georgia in late June. Campers and staff had to meet safety protocol — including a negative COVID-19 test — before being able to stay at the camp. Staff members were required to wear masks, but campers were not. They participated in normal camp activities until a camp counselor became ill just a few days after camp began, and later tested positive for COVID-19. More than half of those at the camp were tested for COVID-19, and a stunning 76% tested positive.4

I, like many of you, am the parent of several school-age children, and I was happily preparing them to go back to school in September, but this report gave me pause. While the Georgia camp did not require campers to wear face masks (perhaps the simplest action to help prevent the spread of the virus without impacting the economy), most states will likely require students to wear face masks. Even so, that was an incredibly high rate of transmission, and so if schools do open for in-person classes, I fear it could hasten a second wave of infections. And this in turn could lead many Americans to return to “self-quarantine” — sheltering in place whether or not government officials direct them to.

Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, has also warned about how widespread the virus has become; in many ways, it is now more dangerous than it was in March and April when it was concentrated in a few big cities in the US because it is now in both rural and urban areas around the country.5 She also warned about “super-spreading events,” which I fear could include sending students back to school — at least in areas where the virus has not been sufficiently tamped down. This could prove to be another self-inflicted wound to the US economy — but hopefully I will be wrong.

The US is not alone in its potential to inflict wounds upon itself. Re-opening economies too quickly or becoming less disciplined about following safety protocol threatens to cause unnecessary wounds to any economy. Some countries such as Spain are facing virus resurgences that could prove economically damaging if they are not able to control them in the near term. Even British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is worried about this and has warned the UK not to create a self-inflicted wound through lack of vigilance: “… I have to tell you that we are looking at a resurgence of the virus in some other European countries and you can see what’s been happening in the United States, and so it is absolutely vital as a country that we continue to keep our focus and our discipline.”6

What does this mean for the US economy?

Given all of these concerns, I anticipate a short-term decoupling of the US economy (and other economies that aren’t able to control the virus) from most other major economies that are likely to see continued improvement. Recent economic data has borne this out. Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) data for China7 showed slow but continued improvement in June, while industrial production in South Korea showed significant growth after disappointment in May.8 And I expect Eurozone PMI this coming week to show improvement. Not only is large fiscal stimulus coming to the eurozone, but there is already a significant social safety net there — unlike the US. Last week, the US saw a second week of rising initial jobless claims after 15 weeks of declining initial jobless claims.9 And I expect that the July jobs report for the US will be disappointing as well.

This all suggests that in the near term, US dollar weakness is likely to persist while US Treasuries and gold are likely to remain popular. I think US stocks might underperform other regions modestly. However, earnings season has been positive thus far, which should be mildly positive for US stocks. And, more importantly, US stocks have the Fed supporting them and other risk assets.

If economic data does weaken and the virus is not well-controlled in the US, I expect secular growth stocks, especially in the technology sector, to outperform. However, I expect a dramatic shift in leadership to cyclical stocks and away from “safe haven” asset classes such as Treasuries and gold once economic data begins to improve significantly again or an effective vaccine is introduced. And that may not be far off.

It’s clear that significant progress is being made toward a vaccine based on clinical trials being conducted by a number of pharma/biotech companies: Five companies are already in Phase 3 clinical trials or will be starting by the end of September, according to Dr. Moncef Slaoui, an immunologist and chief advisor to the US’ Operation Warp Speed — the project to create a COVID-19 virus. He expects to have millions of doses of effective vaccine by December 2020 or January 2021.10 Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, who has devoted his long career to the treatment of infectious diseases, recently said he is “cautiously optimistic” a vaccine could be available by January.11 Until then, we will be following a wide range of data closely, given that the economic outlook is impacted by medical and scientific progress, fiscal stimulus and consumer and corporate behavior.

1 Source: Federal Reserve, “Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2019,” published May 2020 2 Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis, July 31, 2020 3 Source: Federal Reserve, Federal Open Market Committee statement, July 29, 2020 4 Source: CDC, “SARS-CoV-2 Transmission and Infection Among Attendees of an Overnight Camp — Georgia, June 2020,” July 31, 2020 5 Source: CNBC.com, “Dr. Birx warns U.S. in new phase of coronavirus pandemic with ‘extraordinarily widespread’ cases,” Aug. 2, 2020 6 Source: Reuters, “UK PM Johnson: We cannot delude ourselves that pandemic is over”, July 30, 2020 7 Source: China’s National Bureau of Statistics 8 Source: Statistics Korea 9 Source: US Department of Labor 10 Source, CNN.com, “Operation Warp Speed leader says he expects coronavirus vaccine to be highly effective,” July 31, 2020 11 Source: NBCnews, com, “Fauci ‘cautiously optimistic’ coronavirus vaccine could prove effective by ‘late fall or early winter,’” July 31, 2020

Important information

Blog header image: Klaus Vedfelt / Getty

The Eurozone PMI® (Purchasing Managers’ Index®) is produced by IHS Markit and is based on original survey data collected from a representative panel of around 5,000 companies based in the euro area manufacturing and service sectors. National manufacturing data are included for Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, the Republic of Ireland and Greece. National services data are included for Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Republic of Ireland. The flash estimate is typically based on approximately 85% to 90% of total PMI survey responses each month and is designed to provide an accurate advance indication of the final PMI data.

China’s Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) is compiled by China’s National Bureau of Statistics, summarizing the results of a monthly survey of purchasing managers.

Fluctuations in the price of gold and precious metals may affect the profitability of companies in the gold and precious metals sector. Changes in the political or economic conditions of countries where companies in the gold and precious metals sector are located may have a direct effect on the price of gold and precious metals.

Many products and services offered in technology-related industries are subject to rapid obsolescence, which may lower the value of the issuers.

The risks of investing in securities of foreign issuers can include fluctuations in foreign currencies, political and economic instability, and foreign taxation issues.

The opinions referenced above are those of the author as of Aug. 3, 2020. These comments should not be construed as recommendations, but as an illustration of broader themes. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions; there can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from expectations.

from Expert Investment Views: Invesco Blog https://www.blog.invesco.us.com/the-pressure-is-growing-for-the-us-economy/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-pressure-is-growing-for-the-us-economy

0 notes

therightnewsnetwork · 7 years

Text

Orthodox medicine embracing the food-is-medicine concept

One of my main criticisms of orthodox medicine over the years has been the lack of real nutritional training and understanding for and by doctors.

My years of research led me to understand that almost all of America’s health problems are directly related to diet. In other words, when Americans get sick, what they need is a wholesale change in diet, not synthetic chemicals to mask the symptoms of disease.

Americans are suffering from what I call full-belly starvation; their bellies are full but their bodies are starving for nutrition.

When the American public thinks of starvation, they think of children with extended bellies and reed-thin limbs. Mass starvation in America is an incomprehensible concept to the public.

Probably 80 percent of grocery foods are synthetic chemicals that are not and cannot be fit for human consumption. The other 20 percent is located around the outer wall of the store, where one finds fresh vegetables, meats and dairy. Of course, serious students of nutrition would be hard-pressed to find even 2 percent in this section not adulterated or pasteurized.

These synthetic foods taste good to most people, but they build addictions. Millions of adults and children eat these nonfoods daily. It fills them up, and they all believe that they have eaten real food. They have really eaten products of chemistry that are totally unrelated to nutrition. This is nothing less than a system of starvation, sickness and death, but huge profits for the commercial food processors and the “healthcare” system.

Additionally, these foods cause inflammation and an unhealthy pH balance in the body.

If all sickness and degenerative disease is related to malnutrition, then the public is being prescribed drugs for malnutrition and starvation.

Many researchers in the past and the present know this. But their efforts to educate the general public have been stymied through a systemic and sustained campaign of disinformation to prop up the drug and commercial food industries.

This is a topic I’ve been writing about for more than 20 years and for it I’ve been called a crank and worse by establishment medical practitioners and their enablers.

Now NPR.com tells us there is a new food-as-medicine movement that is part of a “small revolution” brewing in California.

This growing movement among allopathic doctors to cut back on drugs and focus more on nutrition is being greeted with much fanfare and some bold headlines.

NPR tells us the food-as-medicine movement is now manifesting in various ways. In Huntington Beach, California, a “Shop with Your Doc” program is sending physicians to grocery stores to meet with patients who sign up for the service or any customers who want to ask questions.

“There’s no question people can take things a long way toward reversing diabetes, reversing hypertension, even preventing cancer by food choices,” Dr. Daniel Nadeau, program director for Mary and Dick Allen Diabetes Center told NPR.