Category: Dr. Mercola’s Censored Library

• Honey is the third most-faked food in the world. Tests have revealed 50% to 70% of all U.S. honey is fake or adulterated

• True Source Honey, a honey certification group, was created by the businesses it certifies. According to a class action complaint, True Source Honey is being used by these businesses “to fraudulently control the market, sell fake honey at substantially lower prices than honest beekeepers, and divert sales, revenue, and profits to themselves”

• Honey can be faked and adulterated in many different ways. Common strategies include diluting the honey with sugars or syrups, or feeding corn syrup to the bees rather than allowing them to forage for pollen

• Inexpensive, low-grade honey can also be filtered and then dusted with high-grade pollen from another location to obscure its origin. Oftentimes, honey labeled as “local” is, in fact, cheap honey sourced overseas

• To ensure authenticity, buy honey from a local beekeeper. You’ll typically find them at farmers markets. Also, use your senses. Many adulterated honeys will lack the floral notes found in pure honey. Adulterated honey may also have a lingering aftertaste, or will simply taste too sugary, and is far stickier and transparent than real honey

Remarkable as it may seem, food fraud is a huge business and a rampant problem. Award-winning journalist and best-selling author Larry Olmsted revealed many of the food fraud tricks in his 2016 book, “Real Food/Fake Food: Why You Don’t Know What You’re Eating and What You Can Do About It.”1 2

For example, tests have revealed anywhere from 60% to 90%3 of the olive oils you find in grocery stores and restaurants are adulterated with cheap, linoleic acid-rich seed oils that are pernicious to health in several ways.

Another food that is frequently adulterated is honey. Tests have revealed 50% to 70% of all U.S. honey is fake or adulterated,4 5 and according to a comprehensive review of fake foods published in the Journal of Food Science,6 honey is the third most-faked food in the world. As reported by Better Homes & Gardens, October 2, 2023:7

“You probably weren’t aware that much of the honey found on grocery store shelves is actually fake — in some cases, it contains little to no actual honey. In fact, honey is one of the most faked foods found in our food supply today …

Honey can be adulterated in many ways — from treating it with heat to filtering it to diluting it with modified additives like sugar or syrup. It can be harvested too early as plant nectar, doctored up, and sold falsely as the end product, honey.

It can even be labeled as local when it’s really sourced internationally. Other particularly savvy honey-making imposters go as far as to feed bees sugar and syrup to produce honey, rather than natural foraging — severely impacting the product’s nutritional benefits …

When we consume fake honey — made from refined sugar or high fructose corn syrup — we’re not only missing out on all of these therapeutic benefits, but we’re actually consuming a highly inflammatory food, essentially causing the opposite effect on our health. Also, if adulterated honey is treated with heat or filtered, many of the compounds that make honey so healthful can be lost.”

When it comes to Manuka honey, prized for its superior health benefits, both topically and internally, only one in seven products tested during a 2014 investigation turned out to be the real thing, that is less than 15%!8

The nectar from manuka flowers contains dihydroxyacetone, a precursor to methylglyoxal (MGO), an antimicrobial compound not found in most other honey. The presence of MGO is credited for much of manuka honey’s medicinal prowess, which includes the ability to combat complex antibiotic-resistant infections.

If you’re buying fake Manuka, you’re not only losing out on health benefits, but could worsen your problem as highly processed sugar from high fructose corn syrup feeds bacteria that authentic Manuka would suppress. You’re also burning a big hole in your pocketbook, as Manuka honey is among the most expensive honeys in the world.

Class action lawsuits filed over the last five years reveal the “honey laundering” scheme runs deep — all the way to True Source Honey,9 one of the largest honey certification groups that is supposed to confirm the source and guarantee the quality of honey.10

As noted by the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy,11 the drawback that allowed for this is that True Source was founded by the very businesses it certifies.

According to a class action complaint filed in 2021, these honey businesses are “using True Source to fraudulently control the market, sell fake honey at substantially lower prices than honest beekeepers, and divert sales, revenue and profits to themselves.”12

“True Source is not the watchdog of the honey industry it claims to be, but the mechanism that makes the conspiracy tick,” the Resnick Center for Food Law & Policy writes.

“The complaint alleges that True Source purposely fails to monitor its members for compliance with its own certification program, and that the True Source Certified Standard is designed to allow True Source members to a proliferate cheap and adulterated honey throughout the United States.

Until a recent surface-level revamp in this standard, True Source Certified companies only used outdated and ineffective testing methods that are incapable of detecting all methods of honey adulteration and fraud.

True Source intentionally uses these outdated and ineffective testing methods to bypass fraud detection. When syrup is detected, True Source turns a blind eye.

The complaint further alleges that although it purports to be a watchdog of the honey industry, True Source is fully aware that its Certification and Participation program is being used by importers and packers to misrepresent the authenticity of their honey products.”

Honey can be faked and adulterated in a variety of different ways. Here’s a summary breakdown of some of the most common methods:13

• More often than not, the honey is simply diluted with different sugars and/or syrup made from rice, beet or high fructose corn syrup, thereby forfeiting any health benefits. In rare cases, these additives can also cause the honey to ferment, creating alcohol levels that could be dangerous for children.

• Honey is sometimes heated to high temperatures to avoid crystallization and make it easier to manipulate, yet is still sold as “raw.” Heating above 100 degrees Fahrenheit destroys the beneficial enzymes, effectively eradicating expected health benefits.

• Some honey producers will extract the honey early, when it’s a nectar product and not yet finished honey, and then machine dry it. As a result, it won’t have the health benefits.

• Unscrupulous honey producers will feed high fructose corn syrup to the bees rather than allowing them to forage for pollen.

• Honey is oftentimes labeled as “local” when, in fact, it comes from overseas. So, if you’re using it to address seasonal allergy symptoms, it may not work.

• Honey can be filtered through aliphatic resin, a rinsing technology that removes contaminants. This method obscures the origin of the honey and removes antibiotics, pesticides and undesirable flavors present in the raw product.

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  This method is typically used on low-grade unpalatable honey like Indian Gum honey, which cannot be sold due to its disgusting taste and smell. Once dissolved in water and run through this process, you end up with an unscented light-colored amber honey that can be sold. However, the technology also eliminates the enzymes and chemicals responsible for honey’s health benefits.

• Inexpensive, lower-grade honey can be filtered and then dusted with high-grade pollen from another location to obscure its origin. The end product also may not have the health benefits assumed.

With fraud so rampant, how can you be sure you’re getting real, unadulterated, unfiltered honey? The only way to be absolutely certain that honey hasn’t been adulterated would be to test its chemical composition, which is something Sweetwater Science Labs14 specializes in. As reported by Vice:15

“As an independent and ISO accredited lab, Sweetwater Science is up for hire by anyone who wants to test honey — beekeepers, consumers, packers, and lawyers … Even people off the street who want their honey tested can bring them their samples, which happens more than you might think.

[Jim] Gawenis is a scientist — he doesn’t sell honey or import it. He doesn’t even certify the honey he tests as good or bad, either; he analyzes it with Bruker’s NMR food screener, and provides the data to his clients. From there, they can do what they like with the information.”

Unfortunately, Sweetwater Science doesn’t publish results on their website, but the Vice article includes the results of several honeys brought for testing by the author, Shayla Love. Some of the results are surprising indeed.

A bear-shaped bottle of Great Value Clover Honey from Walmart tested pure, with no sign of adulteration of any kind, whereas a jar of Tennessee “raw, local sourwood honey” turned out to be sourced from Vietnam and contained added non-honey sugars, and a bottle of Whole Foods 365 Organic honey had been adulterated through heating.

Most people probably aren’t willing to go quite as far as lab testing their honey. In this case, the commonsense strategy is to buy honey from a local beekeeper. You’ll typically find them at farmers markets.

“Many adulterated honeys will lack the floral notes found in pure honey. Adulterated honey may also have a lingering aftertaste, or simply taste too sugary, and is far more sticky and transparent than real honey.”

Also, use your senses when selecting honey. Many adulterated honeys will lack the floral notes found in pure honey. Adulterated honey may also have a lingering aftertaste, or will simply taste too sugary.

Real honey also isn’t very sticky. Rather, it tends to have a balm- or cream-like consistency when rubbed between your fingers. If it’s excessively sticky, chances are refined sugars or syrups have been added.

Real, raw, unfiltered honey also tends to have a cloudy appearance, and may have remnant honeycomb particles or flecks of pollen in it. Over time, it may also begin to crystallize. If it never crystallizes, it might not be pure. If you’re buying Manuka honey, you’ll want to verify the MGO, NPA and UMF content.16

• MGO (methylglyoxal) is a measurement of the main ingredient, which has a direct correlation to its antibacterial properties. The higher the MGO, the higher the potency in terms of healing ability. All genuine Manuka honey produced in New Zealand is tested for MGO.

• NPA (non-peroxide activity) refers to its antibacterial activity and is equivalent to the UMF rating. For example, an MGO of 550 equates to an NPA of 15, and many companies will list both on the label.

• UMF (unique manuka factor) is a trademark registered and controlled by the UMF Honey Association, which provides some assurance of both quality and genuineness. The UMF correlates to the MGO, but also includes other quality and authenticity checks.

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Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Mercola, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked.

The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Mercola and his community. Dr. Mercola encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. The subscription fee being requested is for access to the articles and information posted on this site, and is not being paid for any individual medical advice.

If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your health care professional before using products based on this content.

• One month after a federal study found a direct association between serum levels of PFAS and testicular cancer in military personnel, the military released a report to Congress claiming the chemicals are “quite stable,” and “critically important” to military readiness

• David Andrews, senior scientist at EWG, said the report fell short in effort and scope. Government regulations are not proposing a ban on PFAS as alluded to in the report, and the statements were “completely unsubstantiated, and it’s almost a fear-mongering statement”

• PFAS-laced firefighting foam increases the risk to firefighters. One retired Air Force firefighter told KFF Health News that the Air Force told personnel it was “just soap and water, completely harmless”

• PFAS is associated with multiple health effects, including cancer, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis, liver and kidney damage, reproductive damage, birth defects, and low birth weight babies

• The U.S. military does not recognize dangers from PFAS, does not recommend serum levels in veterans, and is intent on creating food from plastic to feed military men and women who have dedicated their lives to defending this country. Thank you so much for your service. Here’s a big bowl of plastic-derived food

In August 2023, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy released a report in which they claimed:1

“PFAS are chemically quite stable, and many are water and oil repellent, heat resistant, and/or stain resistant … DoD is reliant on the critically important chemical and physical properties of PFAS to provide required performance for the technologies and consumable items and articles which enable military readiness and sustainment.

Losing access to PFAS due to overly broad regulations or severe market contractions would greatly impact national security and DoD’s ability to fulfill its mission …”

PFAS are fluorinated chemicals that are known to be endocrine disruptors and are known to accelerate metabolic changes in the body. Since the 1999-2000 survey, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) has measured blood serum PFAS in adults and children and released the data every two years.2

Biomonitoring studies have also measured levels from occupational exposure, communities that have contaminated drinking water, and throughout the general population.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) notes that while blood levels for PFOS and PFOA have declined as use has declined, exposure to other PFAS chemicals may rise. Data show that the highest exposure is occupational and in communities that have been exposed, most in their water supply.3

As ATSDR has noted, the NHANES has recognized that rising serum values of PFAS may have indicated a significant health risk since 1999. As KFF Health News reports,4 a DoD study in 1974 demonstrated the chemical was fatal to fish and in 1983 a report showed it was deadly to mice.

Despite this knowledge, it is apparent from the subsequent actions of the military that they were not protecting service men and women. As demonstrated by a photo release from the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service5 in 2013, personnel working without protective gear on Travis Air Force Base, California, were surrounded by mounds of PFAS-laced firefighting foam.

James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 20236 authorizes appropriations for military activities of the Department of Defense and requires the assessment of PFAS chemicals in military products and equipment. This prompted the August 2023 DoD report to Congress in which the DoD claimed PFAS chemicals were critical and eliminating them could undermine military readiness.7

According to the report,8 most of the weapon platforms incorporate these chemicals, including microelectronic chips and lithium ion batteries. The chemicals are also used in a variety of uniform clothing, footwear, tents and duffel bags.

For more than 50 years, the DoD has used PFAS-laced firefighting foam and contaminated at least 359 military sites or nearby communities, with over 200 others under investigation. Yet, the report did not address health concerns. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) told KFF Health News that the “report lacked acknowledgment of the health risks or concerns posed by PFAS and ignored the availability of PFAS-free replacements for material, tents and duffel bags.”9

According to David Andrews, senior scientist at EWG, the report fell short. “It’s kind of like that report you turn in at school, when you get a comment back that you did the minimum amount possible,” Andrews said. In addition to this, Andrews notes that the government has not proposed banning PFAS chemicals as was alluded to in the report.

“The statements are completely unsubstantiated, and it’s almost a fear-mongering statement,” Andrews said. “I think the statement is really going beyond anything that’s even being considered in the regulatory space.”

Kevin Fay, executive director of the Sustainable PFAS Action Network, a coalition of organizations and researchers who support PFAS compound use, told KFF Health News10 that using a one-size-fits-all approach “will gravely harm national security and economic competitiveness.”

The Congressional report was published one month after a 2023 research study11 confirmed what multiple other studies have shown in the past — firefighters have a higher rate of testicular cancer than people in other occupations, which points to the presence of PFAS in firefighting foam.

The difference was this federal study demonstrated for the first time a direct association between serum levels of PFOS, a chemical in the PFAS family, and testicular cancer. The researchers tested blood serum drawn from Air Force servicemen and banked at the Department of Defense Serum Repository.

They gathered data from 530 Air Force servicemen with a diagnosis of testicular germ cell tumors and 530 controls that were matched for several factors including ethnicity, race, birth date, the year they entered the service and the year the sample was collected. The researchers found elevated concentrations of some PFAS chemicals in the blood supply of those employed in firefighting in the military and at bases where there was a high PFAS concentration in the drinking water.

Elevated levels of PFOS were associated with testicular germ cell tumors. “To my knowledge, this is the first study to measure PFAS levels in the U.S. military population and to investigate associations with a cancer endpoint in this population, so that brings new evidence to the table,” Mark Purdue, senior investigator at NCI and co-author of the study, told KFF Health News.12

Testicular cancer has a high rate of diagnosis in active military personnel aged 18 to 40 years who are in peak physical condition. It was the age distribution and exposure to PFAS contamination that prompted the researchers to look for a possible connection.13

Kevin Ferrara, a retired Air Force firefighter, told KFF Health News that the Air Force barely warned of any dangers. “We were told that it was just soap and water, completely harmless,” Ferrara said. “We were completely slathered in the foam — hands, mouth, eyes. It looked just like if you were going to fill up your sink with dish soap.”14

Ferrara does not have cancer but has other health concerns he attributes to his exposure to PFAS. While the Department of Veterans Affairs does not currently recommend blood testing,15 KFF Health News reports that the Congressional PFAS task force introduced an act that would require the VA to treat conditions that are linked to PFAS exposure as well as provide disability benefits.16

KFF Health News describes the case of Gary Flook, who served in the Air Force for 37 years as a firefighter. Flook did not speak to KFF Health News as he is part of a 3M class action lawsuit filed in August 2022.17 June 22, 2023,18 3M agreed to pay $10.3 billion to roughly 300 communities in a multidistrict litigation to help clean up PFAS chemicals in the water supply.

There are an additional 3,000 claims that are still unsettled. Michael London of the New York law firm Douglas & London is representing plaintiffs in the city of Stuart, Florida. He told Time, “There are also 5,000, perhaps 6,000 individuals who have brought personal injury cases [nationwide].”19

One 2023 study20 published in a Lancet publication, eBioMedicine, found an association between exposure to PFAS and an increased rate of thyroid cancer. The researchers noted that this is a worldwide concern, given the ubiquitous nature of PFAS exposure.

One research team explained that an accumulation of epigenetic events induced by PFAS exposure can “synergistically amplify tumorigenicity and cancer progression,” adding that immune system suppression and chronic inflammation also likely play a role. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals that accumulate in body tissue can also lead to fatty liver disease.

“This bioaccumulation,” researchers wrote in Environmental Health Perspectives, “coupled with the long half-lives of many PFAS, leads to concern about the potential for PFAS to disrupt liver homeostasis should they continue to accumulate in human tissue even if industrial use is abated.”21

The researcher’s systematic review and meta-analysis compared exposure to liver injury. The data showed higher levels of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) indicating liver damage with exposure to several PFAS chemicals. Exposure to PFOA was also linked to higher aspartate aminotransferase and gamma-glutamyl transferase levels — two widely used markers of liver disease — in humans.

Another 2022 study22 published in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension showed women with the highest concentration of PFAS chemicals in their bloodstream also had a 71% increased risk of high blood pressure. According to the Endocrine Society, PFAS exposure may contribute to:23

• Thyroid disease

• Ulcerative colitis

• Testicular cancer

• Kidney cancer

• Pregnancy-induced high blood pressure

• Altered cholesterol levels

• Liver and kidney damage

• Altered immune response

• Reproductive damage

• Birth defects

• Low birth weights

• Tumors and cancer

Apparently, American servicemen and women are not exposed to enough plastic pollution on military bases and in the food and water supply. In 2020 Iowa State University announced that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded the University and partners a $2.7 million grant to create a process that would make food from plastic and paper waste.24

The military hopes to use this to feed the men and women who have dedicated their lives to defending this country. They believe the ability to turn paper and plastic waste products into a consumable could help with short-term “nourishment” and improve military logistics for extended missions. They estimate the total award could reach $7.8 million before the project ends.25

The proposed system hopes to convert plastic waste into fatty alcohols and fatty acids and paper into sugar that would then be bioprocessed by single-cell organisms into an edible mass rich in protein and vitamins. In other words, the hope is that microorganisms in the lab can do what those in the environment and ocean cannot — convert endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in plastic into vitamins and proteins.

DARPA also awarded Michigan Tech26 and collaborating researchers $7.2 million to turn plastic waste into protein powder and lubricants. In 2022, Stephen Techtmann’s lab announced they had indeed converted plastic into something that smells like yeast extract. “But he [Techtmann] hasn’t tasted it. First, he wants to know it’s safe, free from anything that might be toxic. It is, after all, made from plastic.”27

In an era where fake meat is valued over regeneratively and biodynamically grown real meat,28 it doesn’t take much to imagine that the next step could be plastic food for all. DARPA is starting with military men and women who put their lives on the line to protect our country. Thank you so much for your service. Here’s a big bowl of plastic.

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Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Mercola, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked.

The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Mercola and his community. Dr. Mercola encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. The subscription fee being requested is for access to the articles and information posted on this site, and is not being paid for any individual medical advice.

If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your health care professional before using products based on this content.

• When children with ADHD inhaled vetiver essential oil three times a day for 30 days they had improved brain wave patterns and behavior and did better in school

• Other research showed vetiver essential oil to have particular promise for ADHD, as it led to changes in brain activity suggestive of increased alertness

• Other essential oils that may relieve ADHD symptoms include cedarwood, rosemary, ylang ylang, frankincense and more

Editor’s Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published January 26, 2017.

About 11% of U.S. children (or 6.4 million) have been diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),1 which is characterized by a pattern of inattention, hyperactivity and/or impulsivity that interferes with learning, daily functioning and relationships. Rates have been increasing by about 5% a year.2

Among very young children (2 to 5 years), behavior therapy is the first-line treatment recommended for ADHD, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

However, data from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that about half of preschoolers with ADHD were taking medication, and 1 in 4 were being treated only with medication.3

Further, only half of 4- to 5-year-olds with ADHD received behavior therapy, despite it being the recommended go-to treatment. By age 6, the so-called “best practice guidelines” for ADHD include treatment with both medication and behavior therapy.

It’s a sad state of affairs on multiple fronts, the first of which surrounds the accuracy of ADHD diagnoses. Misdiagnosis is common, which means many children may be taking medications unnecessarily. The other glaring issue is the dangers of ADHD drugs, which are immense.

Kids taking these powerful drugs may suffer from side effects ranging from sleep problems and loss of appetite to seizures and increased heart rate, which is why alternative treatment options are urgently needed. Fortunately, one age-old option, essential oils, has shown promise in helping to relieve the symptoms of ADHD.

Essential oils are concentrated, aromatic plant extracts that have been used for thousands of years for emotional, cosmetic, medical and even spiritual purposes. The term “essential oil” actually comes from the idea of “quintessential oil.”

Aristotle believed that in addition to the four physical elements (fire, air, earth and water) there was a fifth element, quintessence.

This was considered to be the “spirit” or life force of the plant, and distillation or evaporation were used to remove the “spirit” for human usage (this is also why distilled alcoholic beverages are referred to as “spirits”).4

Today, essential oils, which contain complex mixtures of beneficial plant chemicals, are extracted from plants via two primary methods: distillation, which has been used since ancient times; and expression or cold pressing, which is used to extract citrus essential oils.

Research by the late Dr. Terry S. Friedmann, a physician who believed in treating the body, mind and spirit as one, showed that vetiver oil (vetiver is a type of Indian grass) was beneficial for children with ADHD.5

When the children inhaled the oil three times a day for 30 days they had improved brain wave patterns and behavior and did better in school. Eighty percent of the children also improved when using cedarwood oil similarly.6

Cedarwood essential oil was chosen for the study because it has a high concentration of sesquiterpenes (they make up 50% of its constituents), which improve oxygenation of brain cells. Vetiver is known to calm and balance the nervous system while stimulating the circulatory system, according to Friedmann. He explained:7

“When the essential oil is inhaled, the micro droplets are carried to the limbic system of the brain, which is that portion that is the processing center for reason, emotion and smell, and to the hypothalamus, which is the hormone command center.

The essential micro droplets are also carried to the lungs where they enter the circulatory system.”

Improvements in brain activity were revealed via electro-encephalograph (EEG), which measures electrical impulses moving through the brain. This allowed researchers to determine whether the children’s brains were functioning primarily in a beta (i.e., alert) state or a theta state (i.e., lack of focus).

Improvements in beta-theta ratios were noted following the use of vetiver essential oil, while parents also noted improvements in symptoms. Friedmann reported:8

“I received several letters from parents of the ADHD children stating that their behavior at home had improved for the better.

In several cases, they also stated that school educators informed them that their performance was observed to improve in the classroom. The report cards in some of the subjects had reflected this improvement as well.”

A study published in the Journal of Intercultural Ethnopharmacology also showed vetiver essential oil to have particular promise for ADHD.

The animal study revealed changes in brain activity suggestive of increased alertness,9 while research on human subjects revealed faster reaction times and stimulation of sympathetic nerve activity following inhalation.10 The former study’s researchers wrote:11

“Ultimately, the stimulating effects of vetiver EO [essential oil] might be beneficial for learning and memory processes. In conclusion, the present findings provide information that vetiver EO may be used as a stimulant to improve alertness and task performance.”

Beyond vetiver and cedarwood, rosemary essential oil has also shown promise for increasing cognitive performance. When study participants completed tasks in a cubicle diffused with the aroma of rosemary essential oil, their performance improved in both speed and accuracy.12

“The unique relationships between plant essential oil aromas and any behavioral impact are potentially due to the complex molecular composition containing a range of alcohols, aldehydes, acids, phenols, esters, ketones and terpenes,” the researchers wrote, continuing:13

“[T]his study supports the suggestion that active compounds present in aromas may be absorbed through the nasal or lung mucosa and thus provide the potential for pharmacological activity …

The small size of these lipid-soluble compounds facilitates passage across the blood–brain barrier and consequently they may produce effects at the neuronal level by either acting directly on receptor sites, or indirectly by impacting on enzyme activity.”

Lavender essential oil, on the other hand, is most known for its sedative properties. Some people with ADHD have trouble sleeping, and lavender essential oil has been found to improve sleep.14 Other essential oils that may relieve various symptoms of ADHD include peppermint oil for improved alertness as well as:

• Ylang ylang, which is known for its relaxing properties

• Frankincense, valued for inducing feelings of mental peace and calm

• Bergamot, which may help reduce feelings of stress and anxiety

• Eucalyptus, which may relieve mental exhaustion and stimulate blood flow to the brain

• Lemon, valued for improving mood and preventing emotional outbursts

One Wellington, Florida, mother, Tina Sweet, spoke with WPTV to share her experience using essential oils as a treatment for ADHD in her 11-year-old son.

“Every single day I was getting (messages from teachers saying) he won’t stay on task. He won’t stay focused. He won’t stay in his seat. He’s talking. He’s just up and running around. He just could not stay focused,” she said.15

After starting him on aromatherapy using essential oils, she said his grades improved from Cs and Ds to As and Bs. Now in fifth grade, the student is in advanced classes and described as a “calm child.” She applies essential oils to several body areas each morning and he also wears an essential oil bracelet.

Describing the use of essential oils as “life-changing,” Sweet also credits her son’s ability to cut back on his ADHD medications to the use of essential oils.

Inhalation or applying the oils topically to the skin are two effective ways to use essential oils for ADHD. Placing three to four drops of oil into a diffuser is one of the simplest methods, while some of the studies on essential oils for ADHD involved participants inhaling the scent directly from the bottle (for two or three deep breaths) three times a day.

You can also try steam inhalation by placing three to seven drops of essential oil into boiling water, then covering your head with a towel and breathing through your nose (keep your eyes closed and be careful not to get burned).

To use the oils topically, first do a test to be sure they don’t irritate your skin (apply one drop to your skin and observe it for one to two hours). Oils should be applied very sparingly to your neck, wrists, bottom of feet and/or behind your ears. You can blend them with a carrier oil, such as coconut oil, as well.

Some people like to pre-mix essential oils with fractionated coconut oil and put the mixture into a rollerball dispenser. This way you can roll on the oils whenever you feel you need them.

Essential oils may relieve ADHD symptoms, but for best results they should be combined with other natural strategies to relieve ADHD. If your child struggles with behavioral difficulties or other ADHD-like symptoms, whether he or she has been diagnosed with ADHD or not, I strongly recommend addressing the following factors:

• Too much sugar — High-sugar foods and starchy carbohydrates lead to excessive insulin release, which can cause falling blood sugar levels, or hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia, in turn, causes your brain to secrete glutamate in levels that can cause agitation, depression, anger, anxiety and panic attacks.

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  Besides that, sugar promotes chronic inflammation in your body, and many studies have demonstrated the connection between a high-sugar diet and worsened mental health.

• Gluten sensitivity — The evidence suggesting that gluten sensitivity may be at the root of a number of neurological and psychiatric conditions, including ADHD, is quite compelling.

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  According to a 2011 study, celiac disease is “markedly overrepresented among patients presenting with ADHD,”16 and a gluten-free diet has been shown to significantly improve behavior in kids. The study went so far as to suggest celiac disease should be added to the ADHD symptom checklist.

• An unhealthy gut — As explained by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, a medical doctor with a postgraduate degree in neurology, toxicity in your gut can flow throughout your body and into your brain, where it can cause symptoms of autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, depression, schizophrenia and other mental disorders. Reducing gut inflammation is imperative when addressing mental health issues, so optimizing your child’s gut flora is a critical step.

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  This includes not only avoiding processed, refined foods but also eating traditionally fermented foods. Fermented vegetables are perhaps among the most palatable fermented foods, although many kids enjoy fermented dairy products like kefir, especially if you blend them into healthy smoothies.

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  If you cannot get your child to eat fermented foods on a regular basis, a high-quality probiotic supplement may be highly beneficial in correcting abnormal gut flora that may contribute to brain dysfunction.

• Animal-sourced omega-3 deficiency — Research has shown that kids low in omega-3 fats are significantly more likely to be hyperactive, to struggle with learning disorders and to display behavioral problems. A clinical study published in 2007 also examined the effects of krill oil on adults diagnosed with ADHD.17

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  In that study, patients improved their ability to concentrate by an average of over 60% after taking a daily 500-milligram (mg) dose of krill oil for six months. They also reported a 50% improvement in planning skills and a close to 49% improvement in social skills.

• Food additives and GMO ingredients — A number of food additives are thought to worsen ADHD, and many have subsequently been banned in Europe. Potential culprits to avoid include Blue No. 1 and No. 2 food coloring; Green No. 3; Orange B; Red No. 3 and No. 40; Yellow No. 5 and No. 6; and sodium benzoate, a preservative.

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  Research also shows that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, used in large quantities on genetically engineered Roundup Ready crops, limits your body’s ability to detoxify foreign chemical compounds. As a result, the damaging effects of those chemicals and environmental toxins are magnified, and may result in a wide variety of diseases, including brain disorders that can affect behavior.

There are many other natural options that have been shown to improve ADHD symptoms as well, including the following. For more information, please consult with a holistic physician who is experienced in treating ADHD using natural methods.

• Address nutrient deficiencies, including vitamin B6, zinc and magnesium

• Exercise and/or active playtime

• Spend time outdoors in nature

• Limit exposure to radiofrequency microwave radiation, cell and portable phones and electro-pollution

• Reduce toxic exposures to pesticides, artificial sweeteners, monosodium glutamate (MSG), cleaning products, detergents, perfumes and more

Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Mercola, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked.

The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Mercola and his community. Dr. Mercola encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. The subscription fee being requested is for access to the articles and information posted on this site, and is not being paid for any individual medical advice.

If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your health care professional before using products based on this content.

• Medical News Today January 10, 2017

• WPTV February 11, 2016

• Journal of Intercultural Ethnopharmacology January-February 2016

• In mid-July 2023, Chase Bank closed my business accounts, along with the personal accounts of my CEO and CFO, and the accounts of their spouses and children

• Chase Bank has close relationships with the technocratic control network that is trying to usher in a one world totalitarian government, and debanking is the weaponization of finance for the purpose of social control. By debanking us, Chase Bank has given people a foretaste of how central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and social credit scores will be used to control the masses

• JP Morgan Chase chief information officer Lori Beer became a member of the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) newly launched Cybersecurity Advisory Committee in December 2021. So, JP Morgan Chase has been advising a federal agency, CISA, on how to most effectively censor and control Americans

• Chase is also the only bank represented on CISA’s subcommittee on Protecting Critical Infrastructure from Misinformation and Disinformation. With everything we now know about CISA’s unconstitutional domestic censorship activities, it appears the weaponization of finance was part of the plan from the start, and Chase has now tested the strategy of “punishment by association”

• Chase Bank also has intimate ties to Bill Gates and the notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. These connections link the bank not only to global child sex trafficking enterprises but also to Gates’ disastrous vaccine philanthrocapitalism, the hidden eugenics agenda, and the heart of the One World Government cabal, the World Health Organization

As previously reported, in mid-July 2023, Chase Bank closed my business accounts, along with the personal accounts of my CEO and CFO — both of whom have been with me for nearly 20 years — and the accounts of their spouses and children. This despite a new Florida law that specifically prohibits financial institutions from denying or canceling services based on political or religious beliefs.

At the time, the only reason given was that there was “unexpected activity” on an unspecified account. Later, a representative told reporters that account closures are typically only done for anti-money laundering purposes.1 2

However, no money laundering charges have ever been leveled against me, and in a real money laundering case, they seize your accounts outright. They don’t instruct you to take your business elsewhere.

Later, in response to an inquiry by Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, a Chase spokesman replied that the accounts were closed because my business had “been the subject of regulatory scrutiny by the Federal government … for engaging in illegal activity relating to the marketing and sale of consumer products.”3

The spokesman claimed the bank had a “legal obligation” to prevent funds from such activities from going through their bank. The problem with that “explanation” is that the last “federal scrutiny” of our business was when the Food and Drug Administration, in 2021, sent us a warning letter accusing us of selling vitamins C, D, and quercetin and pterostilbene advanced to “mitigate, prevent, treat, diagnose or cure COVID-19” in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.4

However, a warning letter is not proof of illegal activity. It’s an accusation. We responded to the FDA’s letter and no further action was ever taken, because we had not, in fact, violated the law.

If Chase Bank insists it has a “legal obligation” to debank me, my employees and their families, over an old FDA warning letter, then they would also be legally obligated to debank Chase executives and employees who intentionally benefited from sex trafficking5 6 7 and defrauded investors with illegal investment schemes,8 which they have not done.

No, something else prompted Chase Bank to close our accounts, and the most likely reason appears to be the bank’s relationships to the technocratic control network that is trying to usher in a one world totalitarian government.

Since our debanking, we’ve discovered that Chase Bank has several connections to entities that are pushing the Orwellian dystopia that is The Great Reset, both domestically and internationally.

Importantly, JP Morgan Chase has been a long-time business partner of Bill Gates, setting up a vaccine “investment fund” together. So, Chase Bank is at the root of Gates’ vaccine profiteering, and has made untold sums from the vaccines Gates is involved with — including mRNA “vaccines.”

For starters, JP Morgan Chase chief information officer Lori Beer became a member of the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) newly launched Cybersecurity Advisory Committee in December 2021.9

According to a press release,10 this advisory committee is tasked with making recommendations to the CISA director on “policies, programs, planning and training to enhance the nation’s cyber defense.”

Two of the topics to be tackled by the subcommittee included “combating misinformation and disinformation impacting the security of critical infrastructure” and “transforming public-private partnership into true operational collaboration.”

So, what we have here is a bank, JP Morgan Chase, advising a federal agency, CISA, on how to censor Americans and figuring out how to leverage this public-private relationship to ensure the survival of an ever-more totalitarian and lawless government.

“By debanking me, my CEO, CFO, their spouses and children (actually barring them for life), Chase Bank has given people a foretaste of how central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and social credit scores will be used to control us.”

With that in mind, is it any wonder then that Chase was the first bank to “punish by association?” Make no mistake, debanking is the weaponization of finance for the purpose of social control.

By debanking me, my CEO, CFO, their spouses and children (actually barring them for life), Chase Bank has given people a foretaste of how central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and social credit scores will be used to control us.

If you’re found to be even loosely associated with a “dissenter,” the rug that is your financial life will be pulled from under your feet. The desired rest is for people to police each other and shun anyone who doesn’t go along with the official narrative.

Chase is also the only bank represented on CISA’s subcommittee on Protecting Critical Infrastructure from Misinformation and Disinformation.

Internal CISA documents obtained from an ongoing lawsuit against the U.S. government shows that a representative of Chase Bank, whose name was redacted, attended the Subcommittee’s March 1, 2022, meeting,11 12 at which the section chief for the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) warned that “subversive information” on social media could undermine public support for the U.S. government and that “media infrastructure” had to be held accountable.13

The committee members went on to discuss what the government’s strategic approach related to misinformation and disinformation ought to be, how best to organize information sharing between the public and private sector, and how to collaborate across channels.

We now know that a formalized process was implemented that allowed government officials to log into a special portal where they could flag social media content for removal.14

The committee also sought to identify entities that had “done appropriate social media monitoring for the government.” We now have proof that CISA partnered with a censorship consortium called the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), later rebranded as the Virality Project, to illegally censor Americans. I detailed this relationship in “How the Virality Project Threatens Our Freedom.”

Why was Chase Bank included in a meeting in which they were trying to tease out the best way for government to censor Americans? With everything we now know about CISA’s unconstitutional domestic censorship activities, the most likely answer is that the weaponization of finance was part of that plan, and a year and a half later, Chase tested this tactic on my employees and their families.

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, Chase Bank also has intimate ties to Bill Gates, as well as the notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. These connections link the bank not only to global child sex trafficking enterprises but also to Gates’ disastrous vaccine philanthrocapitalism, the hidden eugenics agenda, and the heart of the One World Government cabal, the World Health Organization, which receives most of its funding from the Gates Foundation.

As reported by Seamus Bruner,15 author of “Controligarchs: Exposing the Billionaire Class, Their Secret Deals, and the Globalist Plot to Dominate Your Life,” JP Morgan Chase has been one of Gates’ “most powerful business partners.”

In 2011, the bank formed an official partnership with Gates called the Global Health Investment Fund (GHIF),16 17 which “sought to profit from the development of vaccines and other health technologies.” Investors in GHIF included the Pfizer Foundation, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, and entities funded by the governments of Sweden, Canada and Germany.

According to Bruner, the GHIF “backed mRNA technologies at least five years before the COVID-19 pandemic, and at least four of the companies that the GHIF invested in — Atomo Diagnostics, Access Bio, genedrive plc and Univercells — ‘actively worked to address the COVID-19 pandemic through efficient diagnostics that help identify and track cases and the application of innovative technologies for vaccine development and manufacturing.’”

In other words, JP Morgan Chase had a direct and financially motivated incentive to collaborate with CISA to censor COVID narrative destroyers like me, and to punish me and my employees for continuing to speak against the narrative even after we’d been successfully buried by Google, deplatformed by every social media out there, and having had our website taken down by hackers and our email servers permanently destroyed.

After all that, that’s when Chase Bank took action against us, and after learning the bank has been backing mRNA developers for nearly a decade, its actions now make more sense than ever. To them, shutting me up and closing me down was what you would call “personal,” because my viewpoints pose a clear threat to their investments.

Epstein was brought into the partnership by James Staley, a senior Chase Bank executive who managed Epstein’s relationship with the bank. Mind you, in 2008, Epstein, facing federal sex crime charges, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18 and served an 18-month sentence in a work-release program.18

Many knew it was a sweetheart deal that hid a far more sordid reality, yet Chase Bank had no qualms about keeping Epstein as a customer. They also maintained accounts for Epstein’s victims and “managed the flow of money between them,” according to The Washington Post.19

Chase Bank didn’t close Epstein’s accounts until 2013,20 and even then, the bank still retained an off-the-books business relationship with him that lasted all the way up to his arrest for sex trafficking in 2019.

As explained by finance expert Catherine Austin Fitts, founder of the Solari Report, the central bankers, most of whom are technocrats, have created a parallel society in which they are above all law and control just about everything — including fiscal policy.

Their plan, which is part and parcel of The Great Reset, is to implement a new financial system that will permanently lock their ill-gotten power into place. In short, the technocratic control system and the financial transaction system are one and the same.

This new transaction system is the end of currencies, because in this system, you can never take the currency out of the bank and put it in your pocket. You can only conduct transactions digitally, and all transactions must be validated and approved through and by the central bank.

Using my personal debanking experience as the example, it should be easy to see how this kind of transaction system can be used as a central control mechanism.

When someone steps out of line, their ability to make financial transactions is simply cut off, and there won’t even be a human making this decision. Financial punishment for wrongthink and associations with undesirables will be meted out by the artificial intelligence running the social credit system.

Knowing this, the options become rather simple. We can have a human civilization, or we can have an inhuman civilization. We can have a financial system where private monopoly controls the printing of money, or we can have a decentralized system founded in sound money.

I agree with Fitts, who says she wants to live in a world where the financial printing press has been decentralized, and where we are committed to human civilization — not a transhumanist dystopia run by technocrats steeped in the ideology of eugenics.

To make our vision reality, we must push just as hard for decentralization and freedom as the globalists are pushing their Great Reset. That means rejecting all of their convenience offerings, especially as it pertains to banking and surveillance.

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Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Mercola, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked.

The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Mercola and his community. Dr. Mercola encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. The subscription fee being requested is for access to the articles and information posted on this site, and is not being paid for any individual medical advice.

If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your health care professional before using products based on this content.