Irradiated Foods Cause Severe Neurological Damage
Wednesday, April 01, 2009 by: Sherry Baker, Health Sciences Editor
http://www.naturalnews.com/025971.html
(NaturalNews) In a study just published in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
(UW-Madison) report on cats developing severe neurological symptoms due to a
degradation of myelin, the fatty insulator of nerve fibers called axons.
Because myelin facilitates the conduction of nerve signals, when it is lost
or damaged there can be impairment of sensation, movement, thinking and
other functions, depending on what particular nerves are affected. This loss
of myelin is found in several disorders of the central nervous system in
humans -- the best known being multiple sclerosis (MS).
So what caused the cats to develop neurological problems? Although the
researchers' statement to the media practically buries the fact, a close
read shows the animals were fine until fed irradiated food. What's more,
when they were taken off the irradiated diet, the animals' nervous systems
began healing.
The new study took place when the researchers were faced with reports of a
mysterious illness in pregnant cats. A commercial company had been testing
various diets on the animals to see how the food impacted growth and
development in the felines. The food used, it turns out, had been
irradiated. Irradiation, which is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) for many human as well as animal foods, involves
exposing foods briefly to a radiant energy source such as gamma rays or
electron beams in order to kill bacteria.
Some of the cats eating the irradiated cat food exhibited very severe
neurological symptoms, including movement disorders, vision loss and even
paralysis. After being on the diet for three to four months, the pregnant
cats started to develop progressive neurological disease, said Ian Duncan,
a professor of medical sciences at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary
Medicine and an authority on demyelinating diseases, in a statement to the
media.
The sick cats were shown to have widely distributed the very severe
demyelization of the central nervous system. Their neurological symptoms
were very much like those seen in people with MS and other demyelization
disorders. When the felines were taken off the irradiated foods, they began
to recover slowly. However, according to Dr. Duncan, the restored myelin
sheaths were no longer as thick as normal myelin sheaths.
The finding is important, the scientists concluded in their study, because
it shows the central nervous system retains the ability to reestablish
myelin -- so strategies that could be developed to spur the growth of new
myelin sheaths anywhere nerves themselves are preserved could be a possible
therapy for treating a host of severe neurological diseases in humans. The
key thing is that it absolutely confirms the notion that remyelinating
strategies are clinically important, Duncan stated.
Curiously, although the scientists' related their findings to possible human
applications, they were quick to dismiss a possible connection between
people, irradiated food and health risk. We think it is extremely unlikely
that (irradiated food) could become a human health problem, Duncan
explained in the media statement. We think it is species specific.
However, not everyone agrees irradiated food is fine for humans or animals.
According to the Center for Food Safety, studies have shown irradiation
produces volatile toxic chemicals such as benzene and toluene, which are
known or suspected to cause cancer and birth defects. A 2001 study found an
association between colon tumors and 2-alkylcyclobutanones (2-ACB's), a new
chemical compound detected only in foods that have been irradiated.
For more information:
http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/...
http://firedoglake.com/2008/08/23/n...
http://www.fda.gov/opacom/catalog/i...
About the author
Sherry Baker is a widely published writer whose work has appeared in
Newsweek, Health, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Yoga Journal,
Optometry, Atlanta, Arthritis Today, Natural Healing Newsletter, OMNI,
UCLA's Healthy Years newsletter, Mount Sinai School of Medicine's Focus
on Health Aging newsletter, the Cleveland Clinic's Men's Health Advisor
newsletter and many others.
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