Smart Grids - not so smart!

Smart Grid Funding Misspent on Obsolete Technologies, Says New Report

Just as important as what we eat and daily physical activity is our environment!

Download Smart Grid Quadrilogue - Part 1 Audio
Transcript Smart Grid Quadrilogue- Part 1


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Download Smart Grid Dialogue Rees & Schoechle Audio
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By Dr. Mercola

On November 26, the National Institute for Science, Law and Public Policy (NISLAPP) published a new report entitled "Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid¹," authored by Dr. Timothy Schoechle, an engineering and policy consultant with expertise in smart grid technologies.
He currently serves on several international smart grid standard setting committees and has decades of experience in the utility, computer, and communication industries, including being involved in the development of the AMI meter standards and building utility meter reading and demand response gateways.
"Smart meter" is the term used to describe a wired or wireless electrical energy meter that transmits energy consumption data back to your local utility company at regular intervals.
It is replacing conventional hard-wired meters we have had on our houses for decades that only collect usage data and have to be read by some means. However, serious health, privacy, security, homeland security, fire and cost concerns over this technology have been raised, and grassroots resistance groups² have sprung up in at least 18 different states.
The rebellion against the "smart meters" seems to be uniting people from a range of political persuasions, all expressing common values we share — including the right to privacy, and the right to live and thrive in healthy, safe and secure environments.
Unless there are other motives for the meters, it is hard to understand why our government would be promoting and subsidizing "smart meters," when safer and more secure meter alternatives are available. Former CIA Director James Woolsey even has said that on security grounds alone, the new grid design is "…a really, really stupid grid."

Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid

The featured report "Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid" highlights widespread misunderstandings about the alleged technological benefits of the new 'smart' utility meters, including disturbing misunderstandings among state and local government officials, energy policy experts, advocates for renewable energies, environmental nonprofits, and experts at the highest federal levels.
The report builds the case that beyond privacy, security, safety and potential public health risks of the present smart meters, the very basis on which the meters have been presented to communities may have been misrepresented — as the meters themselves actually have nothing to do, according to Dr. Schoechle, with achieving sustainability, developing a smart grid or even stimulating the economy.
The smart meters, he says, do not facilitate the integration of renewable technologies, or local or 'distributed' power generation, key elements of a 'smart grid' that could support a thriving new energy economy. And, "data to be collected by the smart meters, including intimate personal details of citizens' lives, is not necessary to the basic purpose of the smart grid, such as supply/demand balancing, demand response (DR), dynamic pricing, renewable integration, or local generation and storage, as promoters of the meters, and uninformed parties, routinely claim."
These misunderstandings have unfortunately been perpetuated by media who regularly take industry-affiliated spokespeople at their word, and give the impression that smart meters of the kind being installed today are necessary components of a smart grid. In a PBS News Hour program³ (July 20, 2012), for example, the myth of energy efficiency from smart meters, and smart meters being necessary building blocks for a smart grid, were uncritically shared with PBS audiences, according to Duncan Campbell, Esq. who wrote the Foreword to the new report. Edward Randolph, Director of Energy for the California Public Utilities Commission, said:

"The vast majority of all of the input and evidence is that, you know, society is going to benefit from the smart meters. I mean, the energy-efficiency savings alone in the long term for the state of California is going to be a large economic benefit for most rate payers."

Helen Burt, Chief Customer Officer, Pacific Gas & Electric, stated on the same program:

"Well, a smart meter is really a basic building block of a smarter grid. And a smart grid is being built all over the United States to connect solar power and other pieces of intermittent renewable power into the electric system"

Dr. Schoechle, author of "Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid," however, calls the smart meters being rolled out across the U.S. "a canard — a story or hoax based on specious claims about energy benefits…" He says the right investments for a true smart grid have been delayed by the focus on new meters.

Billions of Dollars Spent on Weakening US Electricity Grid and Economy

There's really nothing smart about wireless "smart" meters. According to the report, billions of dollars in federal subsidies for "smart" utility meters have been misspent on meter technology that will simply NOT lead to energy sustainability or contribute to the possibility of a more efficient and responsive electricity grid.
Furthermore, instead of stimulating the economy, this federal expenditure has cut jobs and delayed urgently needed investments to modernize our electricity grid, including integrating renewable energy technologies, distributed (local) power generation and home-based energy management systems.
As it currently stands, the only beneficiaries of these vast sums are the meter and meter networking manufacturers, while unsustainable Investor‐Owned Utilities (IOUs) are financially propped up.
By law, utilities can charge ratepayers enough to secure a 10-13 percent return on capital expenditures. But the impression of financial viability in these companies may prove to be an illusion — with short-term gains concealing the deeper reality that major structural disincentives and conflicts of interest continue to prevent the U.S. from moving into an abundant, low cost renewable energy economy.
The long-term effects of this mirage will be declining global competitiveness; continued high CO2 emissions; delay in making the needed investments in R&D and in standardization to enable widespread integration of renewables; continued disempowerment of homeowners, who could otherwise be lowering utility bills, and earning money by contributing excess energy into the grid; and the continued misleading of utility company shareholders about the long-term health of their investments.
Since IOU's are paid on a per-kilowatt-of-energy-sold basis, there's no incentive for utilities to encourage energy conservation. Utilities often appear to be catering to their customers' interests in green energy and sustainability, but fundamentally, the truth is it is against their financial best interests to do so. Not only that, but an important point in the new report "Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid" is that integrating renewables actually negatively impacts the economies of scale of large baseload generation coal plants, so even if utilities wanted to add renewables, practically speaking, they can't without increasing their costs of production, costs that get passed along to ratepayers.
Furthermore, utilities actually waste a lot of the renewable energy currently generated by "curtailing" them, in order to protect the bottom line of their investors. Yet naïve environmentalists ignorantly buy into the idea that renewable energy is being implemented. Dr. Schoechle says:

"State initiatives wanting to fulfill the promise of a 30% or higher renewable portfolio standard (RPS) is practically difficult or impossible in a coal baseload system."

Why is US Sacrificing Opportunity to Keep Up with Other Developed Nations?

This propping up of IOU's by encouraging spending on unnecessary meters, so returns are generated for shareholders, can have harsh consequences for Americans over and beyond the fact that it effectively prevents the US from moving toward sustainable energy. While the financial bottom lines of utility companies may benefit in the short-term, the featured report warns that the conflicts of interest inherent in the monopoly utility business model may eventually require utilities to be bailed out by government, and we all know how well that worked out in the not-so-distant past...
Meanwhile, while the US is actively preventing itself from moving toward a renewable energy economy, other countries are already well on their way, or charging full speed ahead — such as the Netherlands, Germany⁴ and Japan.^{5, 6}
In the wake of the Fukishima disaster (which is still an ongoing debacle), there's been a lot of pressure to shut down the nation's nuclear plants. As a compromise, Japan has passed feed-in-tariffs for renewable energy, and if the Japanese rally to embrace renewable energy sources through this program, it will be politically easier for Japan to shut down their nuclear industry.

Germany Aiming for 100 Percent Renewable Energy

Similarly, according to a recent Truthdig article,⁷ Germany is aiming for 100 percent renewable energy within the next few decades. They've created strong incentives for the German public to invest in renewable energy, including solar, wind and biomass. For example, the government pays citizens to generate their own electricity by installing solar panels on their home. According to the article:

"The effort to turn more consumers into producers is accelerated through feed-in tariffs, which are 20-year contracts to ensure a fixed price the government will pay... The money the government uses to pay producers comes from a monthly surcharge on utility bills that everyone pays, similar to a rebate. Customers pay an additional cost for the renewable energy fund and then get that money back from the government, at a profit, if they are producing their own energy. In the end, ratepayers control the program, not the government.

... Individuals and cooperatives own 65 percent of Germany's renewable energy capacity. In the US they own 2 percent. The rest is privately controlled. The largest difference... between Germany and the US is how reactive the government is to its citizens. Democracy in Germany has meant keeping and strengthening regulatory agencies while forming policies that put public ownership ahead of private ownership. 'In the end... it isn't about making money. It's about quality of life.'"

Indeed, the issue of energy — the sources, cost, and related health risks — IS about quality of life, yet, as in so many other areas, the US appears to purposely be dragging its feet when it comes to sustainable energy. Dr. Schoechle's review of the present U.S.policy approach to electricity infrastructure (detailed in the report Policy Framework for the 21st Century: Enabling Our Secure Energy Future,⁸ issued by the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) of the Executive Office of the President in June, 2011) "evidences a fundamental lack of understanding of the problems associated with the future of electricity and energy."
Schoechle says:

"Overall, the report is disappointingly superficial, myopic, un-critical, and regulatory-centric. Although the report contains some valuable points and some useful topical place-keepers, they are generally not examined in depth or treated with appropriate seriousness.

The NSTC Report's faults are surprising given the resources that such a high level council could have mustered. The listing of resources at the end of the report (and common knowledge about how energy policy is written in Washington) indicates that the report's input is likely to have come largely from industry-related sources and insiders — not the most auspicious approach to find innovative ideas and challenge an entrenched century-old industry paradigm."

More on target was the recent analysis of renewable energy potential for the U.S. by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, CO, "Renewables Electricity Futures Study".⁹ It concluded that:

"RE Futures results indicate that renewable generation could play a more significant role in the U.S. electricity system than previously thought and that further work is warranted to investigate this clean generation pathway." It also said: "Renewable electricity generation from technologies that are commercially available today, in combination with a more flexible electric system, is more than adequate to supply 80 percent of total U.S. electricity generation in 2050 while meeting electricity demand on an hourly basis in every region of the country."

Key Summary Points of "Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid"

In short, the $4+ billion federal underwriting of these "smart" meters (which are actually irrelevant to the much broader and more important concept of creating a smart grid) is based on a hoax , as the technology used will NOT take the United States one inch toward sustainability, nor stimulate the U.S. economy, even though that's how the meters are presented and sold.
Key summary points of this important report¹⁰ include the following. For more information, please read the report in its entirety.¹¹ You can also listen to the interviews at the top of this page for more in-depth information.

1. Data to be collected by the smart meters, including intimate personal details of citizens' lives, is not necessary to the basic purpose of the smart grid, such as supply/demand balancing, demand response (DR), dynamic pricing, renewable integration, or local generation and storage, as promoters of the meters, and uninformed parties, routinely claim.
2. Federal, state and local governments have mistakenly believed that the installation of smart meters will somehow lead to reduction in use of fossil fuels, greater electricity efficiency and long-term energy economy benefits for the U.S. In fact, efforts to further develop and standardize those technologies that could achieve those goals have languished, while investments with stimulus funding have instead been made in technologies that merely serve the short-term economic interests of the utility industry and its suppliers instead of the interests of a true smart grid which could economically integrate renewable technologies and distributed, or decentralized, power generation.
3. Much of the multi-billion dollar federal subsidy for smart meters does not benefit ratepayers, nor support economic growth, but primarily benefits meter and meter networking manufacturers, while financially propping up unsustainable Investor-Owned Utilities (IOUs). Regulated utilities can charge back their capital investments to ratepayers, with a guaranteed 10-13% rate of return (ROR) on assets, by law. Thus, investors in utilities gain from the smart meter deployment, as they would from any other capital expenditure, while there is no clear gain and significant new risks (privacy, security, health & safety, costs) for the ratepayer.
The allocation of stimulus dollars to subsidize smart meters has also been a net job destroyer, eliminating meter readers and creating manufacturing jobs overseas, while being an egregious waste of federal resources that only supports corporate interests and delays the needed transformation of the electricity grid.

4. Because Investor-Owned Utilities (IOUs) are paid on a per-kilowatt-of-energy-sold basis, and also receive a guaranteed ROR on assets, they do not have a financial incentive to encourage less energy usage, or to invest in technologies that would help citizens reduce energy consumption.
5. Because coal plants must run at near capacity to achieve necessary economies of scale, adding renewable energy to the power mix may be in fact cost-additive for utilities, not cost-reducing, and ultimately cost-additive for ratepayers. Thus, there is an inherent conflict between coal-based power generation, the dominant means of electricity generation in the U.S., and a transition to renewable energy technologies that could lead to sustainability. The report recommends the U.S. "move away from dependency on baseload generation, particularly coal, as quickly as possible" to facilitate renewable integration and reach our potential for energy independence.
6. Despite paying lip service to the public's interest in incorporating renewable energy, as evidence in their marketing materials, utilities actually 'curtail,' or waste, much of the renewable energy now generated in order to protect the economics of investor-owned coal plants. "Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid" explains why state initiatives wanting to fulfill the promise of a 30% or higher renewable portfolio standard (RPS) is practically impossible in a coal baseload system. The paper suggests that decommissioning coal plants, possibly through a public bailout, may be required to move the United States to a renewable energy future.
7. U.S. policy statements "reflect the mistaken belief that the basic solutions involve fixing or modernizing the existing electricity grid, rather than complete structural transformation of electrical service, which goes beyond particular 'smart' technologies." In reality, shaving peak energy usage by shifting loads may actually increase energy bills as well as CO2 emissions by increasing dependency on coal baseload generation — the most expensive generation there is when considering the totality of subsidies and externalized costs. Increasing baseload dependency will not lower energy costs, as it appears our Administration believes, and it will further obstruct integration of renewable sources.
8. Expected growth in electric vehicles within a coal-based system will only worsen the nation's baseload dependency, thus making the needed shift away from coal to a renewable energy future that much more pressing.
9. Leadership in the energy sector is unlikely to come from the top, due to 'regulatory capture,' unless caused by a catastrophic event or consequence. At present, there appears to be little evidence utilities and their regulators want to or know how to make the needed changes to the utility business model, leaving it to the American public, through community-based initiatives and municipalization efforts, to drive the needed change toward renewable technologies and distributed, non-centralized power generation — as is now happening in such places as Boulder, Colorado.

Smart Meters and Electromagnetic Radiation — the Health Crisis of Our Time

Aside from the fact that the current roll-out of smart meters across the United States will effectively prevent us from moving toward safer, non-polluting, less expensive sustainable energy while many other nations are taking progressive action in this area, these wireless meters come with a host of potential health hazards for home owners and their neighbors.
A couple of resources where you can learn more about the many health hazards and other problems related to wireless smart meters include Electromagnetichealth.org,¹² SmartMeterDangers.org,¹³ and EMFSafetyNetwork.org.¹⁴ Another excellent resource is the Radiation Research Trust's (UK) report "Smart Meters, Smarter Practices"¹⁵ by Dr. Isaac Jamieson, and "Dumb and Dangerous - The Problems with Smart Grids,"¹⁶ by science writer B. Blake Levitt and Chellis Glendinning, PhD.
Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, PhD, among many others, has done much to educate people about the dangers of electromagnetic radiation (EMR). In the following interview, excerpted from the upcoming documentary film, Take Back Your Power,¹⁷ smart meters and EMR are referred to as "the health crisis of our time," and in it he explains how electromagnetic fields (EMF) interfere with your biology, and how it contributes to the creation of autism. According to Dr. Klinghardt:

"Based upon a study of 10 autistic cases and 10 normal cases, the pregnant mothers who gave birth to autistic children slept in a location in which microwave radiation was 20.7 times higher, on average, than pregnant mothers who gave birth to non-autistic children."

American Academy of Environmental Medicine Calls for Caution

On April 12, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) released a position paper on EMF and radiofrequency (RF) health effects,¹⁸ calling for "immediate caution regarding smart meter installation." The Academy cites several peer ‐ reviewed scientific studies showing causality that led to its conclusion that "significant harmful biological effects occur from non‐ thermal RF exposure," such as that emitted from wireless smart meters.
According to Dr. Amy Dean,¹⁹ board certified internist and President of the AAEM:

"More independent research is needed to assess the safety of 'Smart Meter' technology. Patients are reporting to physicians the development of symptoms and adverse health effects after 'Smart Meters' are installed on their homes. Immediate action is necessary to protect the public's health."

The AAEM also calls for:

• Accommodation for health considerations regarding EMF and RF exposure, including exposure to wireless "Smart Meter" technology
• Use of safer technology, including for "Smart Meters," such as hard wiring, fiber optics or other non-harmful methods of data transmission
• Recognition that electromagnetic hypersensitivity is a growing problem worldwide
• Consideration and independent research regarding the quantum effects of EMF and RF on human health

Opportunities to Intelligently Move the United States Forward

The featured report doesn't stop at simply pointing out the many problems, however. It also presents an alternate plan. In the foreword of the report, journalist and political analyst Duncan A. Campbell, Esq. writes:²⁰

"Dr. Schoechle examines and explains the prevailing confusion about the 'smart grid' and offers a clear path forward, lucidly showing an alternative to patching up our overly complex, vulnerable, and increasingly expensive energy system — thus creating a truly smart and genuinely sustainable electricity system ."

Jim Turner, Esq, Chairman of National Institute for Science, Law & Public Policy, publisher of the new report, and legal counsel to several community groups and state legislators fighting for smart meter consumer opt out options, says:

"We're moving from a centralized to a 'distributed' economy. In a distributed economy knowledge and decision making move increasingly from the center to the periphery empowering citizens in this case, through a 'rooftop revolution,' to lower energy costs and participate in the energy economy. Consumer participation is the core power that a true smart grid, or as I like to call it a 'wise' grid, offers. Beyond the environmental benefits of breaking our over-dependence on fossil fuels, a 'wise' grid offers the opportunity for more efficient and empowering use of energy by consumers leading the way to a much stronger and more economically productive energy market."

"Decentralizing power distribution is part of an evolutionary trend that began when PCs replaced centralized mainframes making computing power available to all. We have seen this movement, as well, in the breakup of the telephone industry, the burgeoning of the locally grown farmers markets, development of the multi-billion dollar natural health market, and the growing mobile applications industry which is transforming the recording, movie and education markets."

"Dr. Schoechle's new report points the way to how federal energy policy can facilitate the democratization of energy generation--allowing the cumbersome and inefficient energy sector of the economy to join the burgeoning consumer driven markets--by investing in the right smart grid technologies. Such investing will ultimately be a boon for our economy including not only for consumers but also for the investors, managers and suppliers of energy to the consuming public. The movement toward a decentralized economy has the potential to be as significant as the industria revolution. It is in nobody's interest for the energy sector to be left out of this transformation."

Summary of Seven Key Opportunities

In its press release,²¹ NISLAPP summarizes seven key points presented in the report — opportunities that can help the United States move forward in an intelligent manner:

1. The U.S. must move away from dependency on coal baseload power generation and toward renewable sources. Renewables (e.g., wind and solar), augmented by flexible "peaking" generation (e.g., natural gas turbines, hydro, etc.) and advanced smart grid supply/demand balancing can completely replace baseload generation.
2. Free, renewable energy resources must be prioritized and local opportunities for power generation and storage pursued. We must stop subsidizing a centralized, wasteful infrastructure approach that will not lead to sustainability or empower citizens to contribute to the grid.
3. A clear legal and policy demarcation between customer premises space and utility space must be established. Utilities should not be the sole "gatekeeper" for access to energy applications controlling consumer use, storage, and generation of electricity. As occurred in the telecommunications industry, establishing a clear market demarcation could unleash the creativity and competitive market strength of consumer electronics, appliance manufacturers, homebuilders, solar installers, apps developers, etc.
4. Develop and standardize distributed renewable integration technologies, in-home devices and smart appliances. The heavy lifting on smart grid deployment is yet to be done. It will require research, engineering, and standardization of new consumer premises equipment and communication protocols to support distributed, variable, and transactive control of electricity generation, use, and storage at the household level.
5. Localize electric power, using distributed renewable sources, instead of large solar and wind farms where the economies of scale are not significantly greater than at small scale. Localization of power generation avoids the energy loss and environmental and capital costs that come with long-distance energy transmission, keeps money in the community, with a 3.5x multiplier effect, and enhances reliability, responsiveness and grid security.
6. State legislatures should enable PUCs to fundamentally change the utility business model so it can be sustainable. Utilities must move to a service model that is not based on the present economics of commodity sale of electricity and rate of return regulation (ROR) that encourages unwise capital investments. Generation must be deregulated and separated from distribution, and the customer premises opened up to market competition in products and services for the premises-based generation, storage, management, and use of electricity. For example, some states are already moving to deregulate renewable generation for the charging of electric vehicles.
7. Local communities must take it upon themselves to understand and obtain the safest and most secure technological options available for utility meters and other smart grid technologies. This education should be gained from independent experts with no vested interests in the present centralized utility paradigm. Wireless technologies should be avoided where safer more secure options exist.

Smart Meters — The Tip of the Iceberg...

According to Camilla Rees, MBA, founder of ElectromagneticHealth.Org²² and the Campaign for Radiation Free Schools,²³ and overseer of the smart grid report for the National Institute for Science, Law and Public Policy:

"While smart meters pose privacy, security, health, financial, and other risks, when one looks at this problem through a wider lens, as has been done by Dr. Schoechle in 'Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid,' one sees a far greater problem—one that relates to our long-term national economic prospects, national security and the U.S. contribution to global carbon emissions. And we see what Dr. Schoechle has called a 'canard' or a 'hoax,' and what some would call fraud.

Noise-making over the meters, while completely justified, is the 'tip of the iceberg' under which one finds political and corporate decision making processes gone very wrong.

Serving only short-term financial interests of the utility industry, instead of acknowledging the reality that there is no role for baseload coal generation in a renewable energy future, these myopic, selfish decisions have essentially sold our energy, economic, environmental, health and privacy interests down the river. It is high time citizens insist that the entire impact of technological decisions, in all areas of life, be more carefully considered."

What Can You Do Right Now?

The scenario described in "Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid" by Dr. Schoechle is sobering. Like so many other situations where corporate interests have been put before society's interests, such as in GMO foods, it is essential that citizens speak up. Here are a few things you can do right now:

• Write to Congress. Citizens for Health, Chaired by Jim Turner, Esq. of the National Institute for Science, Law & Public Policy, has launched a campaign to help citizens communicate with Congress on this matter. It is important citizens ask why Congress subsidized $4+ billion in meters with our tax dollars that serve no good or needed purpose except corporate profits and have the potential to harm our health. Write to Congress at the following DemocracyInAction link.
• Attend Media & Community Conference Calls. For those wanting 1) to learn more about the present smart meters and the technology needed for a true smart grid, 2) have questions about the risks of the present approach, such as the privacy, security, safety, health, solar flare, homeland security or economic risks, or 3) want to learn how communities might begin a legal process toward energy municipalization, as Boulder, CO has begun, join Dr. Schoechle and other experts on monthly Media & Community Leader Conference Calls. Email Emily@GettingSmarterAbouttheSmartGrid.org to receive announcements.
• Dr. Schoechle's report outlines Immediate, Medium-Term and Long-Term Action Recommendations on Pages 41-43 of the report. Included here are actions that can be taken at the state and local level through appropriate legislation and regulatory policies, such as "deregulation of power generation, local renewable subsidies, net-metering tariffs, feed-in tariffs, solar gardens, efficiency programs, unified and simplified building codes for solar installation, etc."'
An essential step will also be establishing a demarcation line so that the utility business can be separated into two parts — one that is about the wires and poles, and another focused on the most efficient and safe means of energy generation. These will all be discussed on upcoming Media and Community Leader Conference Calls, Contact Emily@GettingSmarterAbouttheSmartGrid.org for the schedule.

Anti-Aging dietary discovery

The Amazing Anti-Aging Discovery Experts Say Deserves the Nobel Prize

 
A great article that was written 2 years ago.

You may be able to extend your life and stay fit throughout your old age with a simple change of diet that switches on your "youth" gene.
Professor Cynthia Kenyon, whom many experts believe should win the Nobel Prize for her research into aging, has discovered that carbohydrates directly affect the genes that govern youthfulness and longevity. 

By tweaking the genes of roundworms, she has been able to help them live up to six times longer than normal. 

The genes that controlled aging in worms also do the same thing in rats and mice, probably monkeys, and there are signs they are active in humans, too. She found that turning down the gene that controls insulin in turn switches on another gene which acts like an elixir of life. 

The Daily Mail reports:

"Discovering the ... [first] gene has prompted the professor to ­dramatically alter her own diet, cutting right back on carbohydrates. That's because carbs make your body produce more insulin (to mop up the extra blood sugar carbs ­produce) ... so the vital second gene, the 'elixir' one, won't get turned on."

 by Dr. Mercola

Funny how conventional media can make something so foundational for good health sound like a brand new insight. I've been warning my readers to avoid carbohydrates in the form of sugars and grains for well over a decade, in order to improve health and increase longevity.
Still, the fact that this is now getting some well-deserved attention is great news.  As science catches up, perhaps more people will finally see the light of truth.
As the Daily Mail reports above, research confirms that insulin-like growth factor is intricately linked to various cancers, and that "raised insulin levels, triggered by high carbohydrate ­consumption, could be what ­connects many of our big killers."
If you've been reading this newsletter for any amount of time, this is already a familiar fact for you. 
But many still have not gotten the message. As Daily News states, this is a suggestion that "flies in the face of 30 years of health advice to have a lower fat intake and eat plenty of long-lasting complex carbo­hydrates to keep the body supplied with energy."
Indeed. And that standard health advice is a major reason why obesity and diseases such as diabetes and cancer have reached such epidemic proportions in the US and other developed nations.
Insulin is in fact a MAJOR accelerant of the aging process, and also affects many bodily processes, all of which can impact your longevity.
For example, insulin:

• Alters the expression of numerous hormones
• Stimulates your sympathetic nervous system
• Promotes vasoconstriction

Research Now Shows HOW Carbohydrates Shorten Your Lifespan

The research that is now turning conventional dietary advice on its ear was done by Professor Cynthia Kenyon, and it's so revolutionary that many experts think she should get a Nobel Prize for it.
She found that carbohydrates directly affect two key genes in your body that govern longevity and youthfulness.
Daily News reports:

"This work has revolutionized our understanding of ageing, explains Jeff Holly, professor of clinical sciences at Bristol University.
'Ten years ago we thought ageing was probably the result of a slow decay, a sort of rusting,' he says. 'But Professor Kenyon has shown that it's not about wear and tear, but instead it is controlled by genes."

I've previously written about how your diet can over-ride genetic predispositions to disease, and this research further strengthens those claims, as the two key genes in question can be turned on or off as a consequence of eating carbohydrates.
Now, Professor Holly goes on to say that this opens up new vistas for slowing down the aging process using drugs designed to turn these genes on or off, but come on...
The real answer is staring you right in the face!
Limit your intake of carbohydrates, primarily in the form of fructose and grains, and you'll achieve these results without any negative drug-induced side effects!
Professor Kenyon worked with C. elegans roundworms, but her findings have been successfully repeated in other labs around the world using other animals, including rats, mice, and to some extent, monkeys.  Humans also have these genes, indicating these results should apply to us as well.
One of the most interesting details of her findings is that not only did the roundworms live up to SIX TIMES longer than normal, but they kept their health and youthful vigor until the end.
Previous research has shown that you can extend your lifespan by reducing your caloric intake, and I've written about this technique in the past. The problem is that most people do not understand how to properly cut calories, because in order to remain healthy, you have to cut out calories from a specific source – namely, carbohydrates!
Kenyon's research offers renewed support for this key point.
Daily News reports:

"... [W]hat Professor Kenyon found out was why ­drastically reducing calories has such a remarkable effect.
She discovered that it changed the way two crucial genes behaved. It turned down the gene that controls insulin, which in turn switched on another gene, which acted like an elixir of life.
'We jokingly called the first gene the Grim Reaper because when it's switched on, the lifespan is fairly short,' she explains. The ­second 'elixir' gene seems to bring all the anti-ageing benefits — its proper name is DAF 16, but it was quickly nicknamed 'Sweet Sixteen' because it turned the worms into teenagers. 'It sends out instructions to a whole range of repair and renovation genes,' says Professor Kenyon.
... The Sweet Sixteen gene also 'boosts compounds that make sure the skin and muscle-building ­proteins are working properly, the immune system becomes more active to fight infection and genes that are active in cancer get turned off,' she adds.
... Discovering the Grim Reaper gene has prompted the professor to ­dramatically alter her own diet, ­cutting back on carbohydrates. That's because carbs make your body produce more insulin (to mop up the extra blood sugar carbs ­produce); and more insulin means a more active Grim Reaper. So the vital second gene, the 'elixir' one, won't get turned on.

... To test this, last year she added a tiny amount of ­sugary glucose to the normal diet of some of her worms that had had their genes engineered so they were living much longer, healthier lives.
'The effect was remarkable,' she says. 'The sugary glucose blocked the "youthful" genes and they lost most of the health gains.'"

Elevated Insulin Levels -- The Leading Cause of Premature Aging and Premature Death

Increased insulin and leptin receptor sensitivity have clearly become the leading candidates for premature death.
This results from two primary conditions:

1. Excessive amounts of sugar/grains and processed foods, combined with
2. Insufficient exercise

Previous studies have also found that diets high in sugar and grains are the primary culprit of obesity, and that leanness (more so than food restriction in general) is a key contributor to a long life. One such study was published in 2003 in the journal Science. This elegant study from Harvard confirms that insulin is the major mechanism through which this result is mediated.
Unfortunately, many health care practitioners are still ignorant of the profound influence that insulin has on health.
Please understand that a firm appreciation of insulin's role is one of the most important things you can do to optimize your health and outlive the naysayers.

Fructose Wrecks Your Health and Kills You Prematurely

Aside from grains, fructose, typically in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), is perhaps the absolute worst dietary culprit as it:

• Destroys your insulin sensitivity
• Metabolizes into fat far more readily than other sugars
• Causes glycation and inflammation, which speeds up the aging process

We now know that fructose is a primary contributor to:

• Insulin resistance and obesity
• Elevated blood pressure, triglycerides, and LDL (bad cholesterol)
• Cardiovascular disease
• Liver disease
• Cancer
• Arthritis
• Gout

Fructose-Glycation-Inflammation – A Disease-Promoting Triangle

I've written extensively about the different ways fructose adversely affects your body and can lead to the health problems listed. However, one of the mechanisms that causes significant damage is glycation; a process in which the sugar bonds with proteins and forms so-called 'advanced glycation end products', or AGEs.
It's a fitting acronym because – along with oxidation – it's one of the major molecular mechanisms whereby damage accrues in your body, which leads to disease, aging, and eventually, death.
When sugar glycates, it creates inflammation, which activates your immune system in a defensive maneuver. Macrophages are scavenger cells that are part of your immune defense system, and as such they have special receptors for AGEs, aptly called RAGEs (think: raging inflammation). These RAGEs bind to the AGEs and get rid of them.
Unfortunately, this process can leave its fair share of battle scars. Inside your arteries, for example, the scar tissue created from this process is called plaque. This also explains why there's such a strong connection between diabetes and heart disease.
Lifestyle choices such as smoking, consuming processed foods laden with trans fats and other harmful chemical additives, along with pesticide- and other chemical exposures further add to your body's free radical burden.

Fructose Recommendation

As a standard recommendation, I strongly advise keeping your TOTAL fructose consumption below 25 grams per day. However, most people would be wise to limit their fructose to 15 grams or less, particularly if you have elevated uric acid levels, which can be used as a predictor for fructose toxicity. (For more information on this, please see this recent article.)
This includes keeping track of your fructose intake from whole fruits. For a helpful chart showing the fructose content of many common fruits, please see this link. I recommend this lower level simply because if you consume processed foods or sweet beverages at all, you're virtually guaranteed to consume "hidden" sources of fructose.

Limiting Carbs and Exercising are the Cornerstones of "the Fountain of Youth"

I'm glad the Daily News included exercise as a complementary way to reduce your insulin levels. Physical exercise does indeed help you regain insulin sensitivity.
In fact, exercise may in and of itself have the effect of "relative calorie restriction" as it produces many of the same benefits you get when cutting calories from your diet.
These benefits include:

• Improved insulin sensitivity
• Decreased fat mass 
• Reduced risk of cancer

Studies repeatedly show that regular, moderate-to-vigorous exercise can help prevent or delay your onset of hypertension, obesity and heart disease, just to name a few of the diseases that significantly contribute to premature death.
I'm also excited about the research showing how high-intensity, interval training like Sprint 8 can increase longevity by promoting human growth hormone (HGH) production, which is yet another important aspect of the longevity puzzle.

But What Will Actually REVERSE Aging?

Clearly, limiting carbs and avoiding fructose will be very useful in prolonging your healthy lifespan, but it will NOT reverse aging.  Fortunately there are other strategies that involve lengthening your telomeres that can do that.
Last week Harvard researchers actually successfully implemented such strategies in rats. It is likely that these strategies will be available for humans in the not too distant future, so it will be KEY to stay healthy now and limit carbs so you can use these tools to actually REVERSE aging.
I list other strategies below that will help slow down the aging process so you can maximally benefit from the telomere lengthening strategies when they become available.

The Anti-Aging Lifestyle

Of all the healthy lifestyle strategies I know of that can have a significant impact on your longevity, normalizing your insulin and leptin levels is probably the most important. There is no question that this is an absolute necessity if you want to slow down your aging process, and that means modifying your diet to avoid excessive amounts of fructose, grains, and other pro-inflammatory ingredients like trans fats.
That said, longevity is the result of an overall healthy lifestyle, so in addition to curbing your carb intake and exercising, which I already discussed above, these additional strategies can further help you stay young and vibrant, longer:

• Learn how to effectively cope with stress – Stress has a direct impact on inflammation, which in turn underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill people prematurely every day, so developing effective coping mechanisms is a major longevity-promoting factor.
  Meditation, prayer, physical activity and exercise are all viable options that can help you maintain emotional and mental equilibrium. I also strongly believe in using energy psychology tools such as the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to address deeper, oftentimes hidden emotional problems.
  
• Eat a healthy diet based on your nutritional type – My nutrition plan, based on natural whole foods, is your first step toward increasing your chances of living a longer, healthier life. This is so important, I now offer the full nutritional typing program for FREE.
• Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels to between 60 and 70 ng/ml.
• Animal based omega-3 fats – Correcting the ratio of omega-3 to healthful omega-6 fats is a strong factor in helping people live longer. This typically means increasing your intake of animal based omega-3 fats, such as krill oil, while decreasing your intake of damaged omega-6 fats (think trans fats).
• Get your antioxidants from foods –Good sources include blueberries, cranberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries, beans, and artichokes.
• Get your resveratrol naturally – Because resveratrol appears to be so effective at warding off many diseases associated with aging, it is often referred to as a "fountain of youth" that can extend lifespan. Good sources of naturally-occurring resveratrol include whole grape skins and seeds, raspberries and mulberries.
• Use coconut oil – Another excellent anti-aging food is coconut oil, known to reduce your risk of heart disease and Alzheimer's disease, and lower your cholesterol, among other things.
• Naturally increase your glutathione levels with high quality whey protein – Another exciting anti-aging discovery is related to the process of slowing down telomere shortening, as discussed in more detail in this previous article. There's some evidence that this can be done nutritionally, by consuming high quality whey protein.
• Avoid as many chemicals, toxins, and pollutants as possible – This includes tossing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides, and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them with non-toxic alternatives.
• Avoid pharmaceutical drugs – Pharmaceutical drugs kill thousands of people prematurely every year – as an expected side effect of the action of the drug. And, if you adhere to a healthy lifestyle, you most likely will never need any of them in the first place.

Incorporating these healthy lifestyle guidelines will help set you squarely on the path to optimal health and give you the best shot at living a much longer life. For even more anti-aging information, please review the related articles listed below.

Modern Wheat- perfect poison

Modern wheat is a "perfect, chronic poison," according to Dr. William Davis, a cardiologist who has published a book all about the world's most popular grain. 

Go here to watch a video a 5 minute video

Davis said that the wheat we eat these days isn't the wheat your grandma had: "It's an 18-inch tall plant created by genetic research in the '60s and '70s," he said on "CBS This Morning." "This thing has many new features nobody told you about, such as there's a new protein in this thing called gliadin. It's not gluten. I'm not addressing people with gluten sensitivities and celiac disease. I'm talking about everybody else because everybody else is susceptible to the gliadin protein that is an opiate. This thing binds into the opiate receptors in your brain and in most people stimulates appetite, such that we consume 440 more calories per day, 365 days per year."

Asked if the farming industry could change back to the grain it formerly produced, Davis said it could, but it would not be economically feasible because it yields less per acre. However, Davis said a movement has begun with people turning away from wheat - and dropping substantial weight. 

"If three people lost eight pounds, big deal," he said. "But we're seeing hundreds of thousands of people losing 30, 80, 150 pounds. Diabetics become no longer diabetic; people with arthritis having dramatic relief. People losing leg swelling, acid reflux, irritable bowel syndrome, depression, and on and on every day."
To avoid these wheat-oriented products, Davis suggests eating "real food," such as avocados, olives, olive oil, meats, and vegetables. "(It's) the stuff that is least likely to have been changed by agribusiness," he said. "Certainly not grains. When I say grains, of course, over 90 percent of all grains we eat will be wheat, it's not barley... or flax. It's going to be wheat. 

"It's really a wheat issue."

Some health resources, such as the Mayo Clinic, advocate a more balanced diet that does include wheat. But Davis said on "CTM" they're just offering a poor alternative. 

"All that literature says is to replace something bad, white enriched products with something less bad, whole grains, and there's an apparent health benefit - 'Let's eat a whole bunch of less bad things.' So I take...unfiltered cigarettes and replace with Salem filtered cigarettes, you should smoke the Salems. That's the logic of nutrition, it's a deeply flawed logic. What if I take it to the next level, and we say, 'Let's eliminate all grains,' what happens then?

"That's when you see, not improvements in health, that's when you see transformations in health."
Watch Davis' full interview in the video above.

Homeopathy

Homeopathy dramatically more effective at preventing and treating whooping cough than allopathic medicine 

Living in a toxic world isn't easy, but we can protect ourselves with a bit of knowledge and awareness. Vaccination is a prime example. Concoctions of poison, vaccines are linked with autism, seizures and death. Astoundingly, the CDC is the biggest cheerleader of these harmful jabs even when they have been shown to be ineffective. And now, more are being pushed onto the public due to the recent outbreak of whooping cough (pertussis) that is raging across the U.S. A solution for this insanity can be found with homeopathy -- an exceptionally safe and successful remedy for infectious disease.

Dangerous vaccines peddled by the CDC to the detriment of health

Believe it or not, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not hold health and well being as a top priority. It is yet another governmental agency with special interests, bowing down to big pharma and the mighty dollar. The CDC actively advocates vaccination, regardless of effectiveness or health risks. This is seen with the recent resurgence of whooping cough in the U.S. The CDC recommends an increase in pertussis vaccinations even though a majority of those who contract the disease have already been vaccinated. Not only is the vaccine a failure, but it is also extremely unsafe, carrying "one of the highest risks of dangerous side effect of any childhood shot," as stated in Vaccinations: The Rest of the Story.

Homeopathy - A safe alternative

Instead of risky vaccines, homeopathy offers a nontoxic and highly potent alternative for the prevention and treatment of whooping cough.

In the book, Homeopathy in Epidemic Diseases, Dr. Dorothy Shepherd demonstrates the effectiveness of homeopathy. For years, Dr. Shepherd worked closely with an immunization clinic and witnessed first hand how unsuccessful vaccines were in preventing infectious disease. She also observed the dangers associated with vaccination. In an attempt to find a better solution, she purchased a copy of Dr. Clarke's monograph about the nosode of whooping cough (Pertussin). Shepherd's "...eyes were opened to the possibilities of cutting short an epidemic of this dread disease."

Dr. Shepherd found that homeopathy was successful in preventing pertussis and mitigating the severity of an attack. In one example, four children contracted whooping cough and were treated with allopathic medicine. It took the children almost six months to recover and were "a mere shadow of their of former selves," according to Shepherd. Interestingly, other children living close by also contracted the disease, but were given small pills of Pertussin instead. Every child fully recovered within two weeks.

In another instance, "364 cases were given daily doses of Pertussin for two weeks after contact. Many of these cases were seen in the day nurseries under my care -- not one of these children [including newborns] developed the disease," notes Shepherd.

A five-year-old girl in a private school was also treated successfully with Pertussin. Dr. Shepherd reports, "Of the twenty-one children in her class, eighteen were infected with a severe type of whooping cough. Only three escaped -- two had whooping cough a year before, and the third was my little friend."

Thankfully, homeopathy offers a safe and effective alternative to toxic vaccines and harmful infectious disease like pertussis. Further information about how to protect yourself from whooping cough with homeopathy can be found here.