Monday, May 5, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Ad:

British Opal gets her hearing back with gene therapy

Published 13 May 2024
– By Editorial Staff
Opal with her big sister Nora.

18-month-old Opal Sandy has regained her hearing after a unique ‘gene therapy’ operation. The girl is the first in the world to undergo the procedure.

Opal Sandy was born deaf as a result of auditory neuropathy, a condition that disrupts nerve impulses from the inner ear to the brain and can be caused by a faulty gene. Opal’s five-year-old sister, Nora, has the same type of deafness, but is helped by a cochlear implant that sends electrical signals to the auditory nerve, bypassing the defective parts of the ear.

It was a big decision for parents Jo and James, from Owfordshire, to have their daughter operated on.

– It was really scary, but I think we’d been given this unique opportunity, her mother said in an interview with the British state broadcaster BBC.

During the operation, the girl was given an infusion containing a copy of her missing gene. After the 16-minute operation, the girl was able to hear.

– I couldn’t really believe it, Opal’s mother Jo Sandy told The Guardian. It was … bonkers.

The operation is the first of its kind and was performed at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, part of the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Other deaf children are now being recruited for the operation and will be followed for five years.

Ear surgeon Professor Manohar Bance says these early results from the operation are “better than I hoped or expected”.

– We have results from [Opal] which are very spectacular – so close to normal hearing restoration. So we do hope it could be a potential cure, he says, adding:

– There’s been so much work, decades of work.

A second child recently underwent a similar operation at Cambridge University with good results.

It is now hoped that this type of gene therapy could be used for other types of deafness, as half of all hearing loss in children has a genetic cause. Today, most people, like Opal’s sister Nora, receive a cochlear implant, a device that needs to be replaced several times. But it is important to have the surgery as early as possible, before the age of three, when the brain is more adaptable.

Now that Opal’s hearing has been restored, her parents have other problems to deal with. Opal has a new hobby: banging cutlery on the table as hard as she can to make as much noise as possible.

TNT is truly independent!

We don’t have a billionaire owner, and our unique reader-funded model keeps us free from political or corporate influence. This means we can fearlessly report the facts and shine a light on the misdeeds of those in power.

Consider a donation to keep our independent journalism running…

New endocrine-disrupting chemicals detected in Swedish blood samples

Published yesterday 15:33
– By Editorial Staff
It is still difficult to assess the extent of the negative health effects of environmental pollution.

A new group of environmental pollutants has been discovered in the blood of Swedes. Some of the substances may have a negative impact on fertility and may also be endocrine disruptors.

So-called synthetic phenolic antioxidants (SPAs) have been found in 30 blood donors in Stockholm, confirmed a study from Stockholm University.

SPAs are found in food packaging, chewing gum, clothing and skin care products, where they are often used to increase the durability of materials. Some of these substances are on the EU’s so-called candidate list, i.e. a list of substances of very high concern. This is because some of the substances can be endocrine disruptors and also negatively affect fertility.

Previous studies from China and the US have shown that the substances are present in both humans and the environment, and some in high concentrations. However, this is the first time it has been detected in the blood of Swedes. The levels are comparable or even higher than the levels of the more well-known PFAS substances, according to researchers.

This study is a first indication that we have a high exposure to SPAs also in Sweden. Studies on more individuals in different parts of Sweden need to be done to understand the extent of the problem, says researcher Josefin Engelhardt in a press release.

“Don’t know what the consequences will be”

One reason why SPA levels may have been missed in the past is because of the great care required when analyzing blood. Since SPAs are used in plastics and laboratory materials, it is important to be sure that it is the blood levels that are being measured and not substances added during sample collection. However, new methods have now been developed to analyze SPAs in blood.

The researchers say that we now need to find out where SPAs come from and also investigate their health effects, to best prevent them from spreading and affecting people and the environment.

We don’t know what the consequences of long-term exposure to these substances will be, but the fact that they are present in high levels in the blood is sufficient to act and reduce the levels in accordance with the Swedish Parliament’s environmental quality objective ‘A non-toxic environment’, says Engelhardt.

Young adults in Sweden feel shame about scrolling habits

Published 25 April 2025
– By Editorial Staff

Young adults in Sweden often feel ashamed of their mobile phone addiction and experience themselves to a high degree that they have an addictive behavior, according to research from the University of Gothenburg.

The study looked at how people between the ages of 20 and 35 view their own mobile phone use. It emerges that many consider themselves to be addicted and find it difficult to let go of their cell phones.

André Jansson, one of the researchers behind the study, believes that a form of culture has been created where it has become associated with social status to have the ability to reduce screen time and have control over their mobile phone use, something that many people feel they are unable to live up to in reality. Many also feel that they are wasting their time scrolling and ashamed that they cannot control it.

– When you can’t live up to that ideal, it creates a moral dissonance, you don’t use your smartphone in the way you would like to, Jansson told the state channel SVT.

 

Painkillers linked to increased risk propensity

Published 19 April 2025
– By Editorial Staff
If large groups have an impaired perception of risk, this can have significant societal consequences.

Paracetamol can affect how we perceive risk, according to a US study. Students given painkillers before experiments were found to take greater risks than those given a placebo – something the researchers say may also have societal implications.

Paracetamol is an over-the-counter medication commonly taken for pain and fever and is available in the form of several different brands such as Alvedon, Orifarm and Apofri.

In the study, which was published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience in 2020, participants were asked to perform various experiments and then assessed based on their risk-taking. Over 500 university students took part in the experiments, with half of the group receiving a single dose of 1000 milligrams of acetaminophen before the experiments, and the rest receiving a placebo.

In one of the experiments, participants had to inflate balloons via a computer game, with each individual pump providing pretend money. The point was not to blow up the balloon with too much air as all the money earned would be lost. The results showed that the students taking paracetamol engaged in significantly more risk-taking during the exercise, compared to the more cautious placebo group.

Overall, those taking paracetamol inflated, and burst, their balloons more than the control group.

“Less negative emotions”

Researcher Baldwin Way from Ohio State University, who is behind the study, believes that this may have to do with the fact that paracetamol has a certain anxiolytic effect.

If you’re risk-averse, you may pump a few times and then decide to cash out because you don’t want the balloon to burst and lose your money, Way says, adding:

But for those who are on acetaminophen, as the balloon gets bigger, we believe they have less anxiety and less negative emotion about how big the balloon is getting and the possibility of it bursting.

The balloon experiment was repeated twice, with similar results. Furthermore, during the experiments, participants were asked to complete questionnaires in which they had to assess risk levels around hypothetical scenarios. For example, betting a day’s income on a sporting event, bungee jumping off a high bridge or driving a car without a seatbelt.

“Significant effects on society”

Those who had taken paracetamol were clearly more comfortable with, for example, the idea of driving without a seatbelt compared to the placebo group.

Way says the study suggests that the substance “seems to make people feel less negative emotion when they consider risky activities”, which he says could have implications for society.

With nearly 25 per cent of the population in the US taking acetaminophen each week, reduced risk perceptions and increased risk-taking could have important effects on society, he says.

Comment: An entire world was injected – but the silence about the long-term side effects is total

The criticized covid vaccinations

Early warnings about the long-term risks of experimental mRNA vaccines were dismissed as conspiracy theorists and quacks. In hindsight, most evidence suggests that their fears were justified and new findings indicate that the vaccines can cause long-term changes in the genetic structure of the body.

Published 18 April 2025
– By Jenny Piper
A German study shows that the COVID-19 vaccine can affect the genetic structure of the body, triggering inflammatory reactions, autoimmune conditions and in some cases cancer.
{ $opinionDisclaimer }

Even at the beginning of the mass vaccination hysteria, I often wrote about the risks of taking the mRNA vaccine shots because the long-term side effects of this fast-acting so-called vaccine are unknown and will only become apparent in a few years.

Whistleblowers from within the pharmaceutical industry had also flagged this very aspect early on – that it is designed to seek out possible weaknesses in people’s immune systems, where it accelerates the development of cancer, autoimmune diseases and cardiovascular diseases. This was of course dismissed as quackery and conspiracy theories, which is why the vast majority of the population rolled up their sleeves at least twice.

Now, a new peer-reviewed study from Germany on mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccines shows that they can cause long-term changes in the body’s genetic structure – changes that in turn can trigger inflammatory reactions, autoimmune conditions and, in some cases, cancer.

19 researchers at leading German institutions conducted the study, which was published in Molecular Systems Biology at the end of March. It shows a possible link between mRNA vaccines and epigenetic changes in immune cells, specifically linked to a protein called histone 3 lysine 27 acetylation (H3K27ac), a protein that has been associated with leukemia and brain tumors.

Histones act as “coils” around which the DNA strand is wound, helping to give DNA its three-dimensional structure. Changes in these proteins affect how genes are expressed. The looser the histones are, the more actively the DNA is transcribed, which in some cases can stimulate tumor growth.

The researchers analyzed how the chromosomes of macrophages (a type of white blood cell) are affected by mRNA vaccination. The results showed persistent epigenetic changes in these cells, which could explain some post-vaccination inflammatory diseases.

Histone modifications – where the structure of DNA is altered without changing the DNA code itself – can play an important role in how genes are expressed. In this case, the researchers found a change in H3K27ac that persisted for months after vaccination, raising concerns about possible long-term effects on the immune system.

According to the researchers, changes in H3K27ac can be linked to several cancers, including gliomas (brain tumors) and leukemia. Other studies, including those from China and Poland, have also linked this particular type of histone modification to cancer.

Several scientists and experts have commented on the study.

Alex Berenson, an independent journalist, says the results show how mRNA vaccines can affect chromosomes in a way that is associated with brain tumors and leukemia.

Nicolas Hulscher, an epidemiologist, says the study adds to a growing body of evidence that mRNA vaccines can disrupt the balance of the immune system and lead to chronic inflammatory conditions.

Jessica Rose, Ph.D., immunologist and biochemist, points out that it is already known that repeated injections cause immunological changes and that these changes can reach stem cells and affect the long-term functioning of the immune system.

Other studies have shown that the levels of synthetic DNA in some vaccine doses (from Pfizer and Moderna) have been well above permissible limits – in some cases up to 470 times higher than regulatory guidelines allow.

The fact that so-called turbo cancer has risen sharply in recent years is hardly a coincidence. Unfortunately, I think we have only seen the beginning of this – and the Swedish establishment has put a lid on the whole thing.

 

Jenny Piper

All Jenny Piper's articles can be found on her blog.