Some Soft Drinks Cause Cell Damage
May 27th, 2007Remember DCA as a possible cancer therapy? That targeted functioning of the mitochondria:
Scientists and doctors have used DCA for decades to treat children with inborn errors of metabolism due to mitochondrial diseases. Mitochondria, the energy producing units in cells, have been connected with cancer since the 1930s, when researchers first noticed that these organelles dysfunction when cancer is present.
Until recently, researchers believed that cancer-affected mitochondria are permanently damaged and that this damage is the result, not the cause, of the cancer. But Michelakis, a cardiologist, questioned this belief and began testing DCA, which activates a critical mitochondrial enzyme, as a way to “revive” cancer-affected mitochondria.
Now, look what we find out about soft drinks! Guess which organelles they damage: That’s right, mitochondria.
Look at the prevalence of soft drinks on the one hand, and the level of obscurity of the DCA research on the other.
Does Cryptogon need a Kill Off category?
Via: Independent:
A new health scare erupted over soft drinks last night amid evidence they may cause serious cell damage. Research from a British university suggests a common preservative found in drinks such as Fanta and Pepsi Max has the ability to switch off vital parts of DNA.
The problem – more usually associated with ageing and alcohol abuse – can eventually lead to cirrhosis of the liver and degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s.
The findings could have serious consequences for the hundreds of millions of people worldwide who consume fizzy drinks. They will also intensify the controversy about food additives, which have been linked to hyperactivity in children.
Concerns centre on the safety of E211, known as sodium benzoate, a preservative used for decades by the £74bn global carbonated drinks industry. Sodium benzoate derives from benzoic acid. It occurs naturally in berries, but is used in large quantities to prevent mould in soft drinks such as Sprite, Oasis and Dr Pepper. It is also added to pickles and sauces.
Sodium benzoate has already been the subject of concern about cancer because when mixed with the additive vitamin C in soft drinks, it causes benzene, a carcinogenic substance. A Food Standards Agency survey of benzene in drinks last year found high levels in four brands which were removed from sale.
Now, an expert in ageing at Sheffield University, who has been working on sodium benzoate since publishing a research paper in 1999, has decided to speak out about another danger. Professor Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology, tested the impact of sodium benzoate on living yeast cells in his laboratory. What he found alarmed him: the benzoate was damaging an important area of DNA in the “power station” of cells known as the mitochondria.
He told The Independent on Sunday: “These chemicals have the ability to cause severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it: they knock it out altogether.
“The mitochondria consumes the oxygen to give you energy and if you damage it – as happens in a number if diseased states – then the cell starts to malfunction very seriously. And there is a whole array of diseases that are now being tied to damage to this DNA – Parkinson’s and quite a lot of neuro-degenerative diseases, but above all the whole process of ageing.”
Them, Imidacloprid, Bee Dieoff, IG Farben, Human Dieoff, Guilliani, this one has ’em all.
Would you like a refreshing glass of Sprite with xylon gas boost for your health?
http://www.nospray.org/RGpoison2.shtml
Combine this with all of the other crap people eat, plus a completely sedentary lifestyle set in almost entirely artificial environments, and what do you get? Death!
Of course, people who jog every day, and eat healthy, and live in a clean environment can still die too.
Sad but true.
It would difficult to pin-point “intent,” although it would be easy to create theories of “negligence,” from a legal standpoint.
Additionally, the cyclopean corporate drive to maximize profits always serves as a convenient fig-leaf for product degradations that lead to these kinds of health dangers.
You know what would be great?
If for every scare article posted, we could find some data that would show people how to counteract the scary thing. I mean, for every thing that is bad for mitochondria, there must be things that are good, that could counteract environmental toxins.
In any case, there are some soft drinks that are worth drinking; you just have to check their ingredients to make sure there is no crap in them.
“It is also added to pickles…”
“Professor Peter Piper, a professor…”
Given Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, I suppose it was always likely that he’d find out that what they were pickled with was suss. If we weren’t played for fools all the time anyway I’d swear it was April.
perhaps the use of many of these products and their inclusion in daily life has been a facet of longer term human conditioning only reaching fruition in the near term. perhaps.
for instance, if i knew that there were going to be serious carrying capacity issues in 40 years due to likely human dispersal over the planet, i might engineer a situation that saves what human race i can. if we agree that things are bad, and likely to get worse, and we are not idiots, then what do people with far more interesting information have at their disposal in these matters?
an interesting idea of alien invasion (not being fronted as a suggestion, only an example) is the ‘long term’ scenario that slowly removes the human race as an issue via food/child birth rates/ etc. such a scenario would be bloodless to them and deadly to us. can we really put it past whatever tptb thought process if we can envision such a scenario ourselves by someone else? and have we not done it to ourseleves before when it was deemed that those being ‘removed’ were below ‘us’ to begin with? and will we not see it again once the humanity of the issue is completely gone?
perhaps the slow assisted suicide of our current society has merit, it only remains to see what comes of it in the end.
I have to laugh at the statistics showing life expectancy. Based on what? You have to take into consideration that the oldsters who are presently dying at such ripe old ages didn’t eat, while growing up, all the crap that we have today! Theirs was a simpler albeit less “convenient” life.
Cola is an example of a “soft drink” that’ll consume meat. Good God Almighty! There was a funny email passed through my former company that showed the many “industrial” things one could use it for. Quite funny but sad at the same time.
More references to positive alternatives would certainly be helpful.
Thank you for your interesting story!
I thought perhaps you may also find this related post interesting to you:
Longevity Science: Soft Drinks Linked to Aging ?
http://longevity-science.blogspot.com/2007/05/soft-drinks-linked-to-aging.html
Speaking as someone that has a mitochondrial mutation, and resulting mitochondrial disease, I can say that I have avoided sodium benzoate for years on my own, without this study. Through a process of elimination I traced heart palpitations to this ingredient.
As for things that are good for mitochondrial, we would love to know! So far the only steps someone with mitochondrial disease can take to offset any damage is to supplement with L-Carnitine and CoQ10, which the body makes naturally but are readily used up by our metabolic glitch. These substances help some patients lower damage from the build up of toxins due to faulty metabolism. The toxins can damage any and all body organs/functions in any combination.