Nd Physician September 2013: Fill & Download for Free

Over the years, mostly as a result of my involvement in the medical field, I have learned to differentiate fact from conjecture, opinion, or misstatements. As such, I tend to take the former seriously when it involves a long string of independently reproducible peer-reviewed clinical studies. Everything else, I take with a grain of salt (and lots of skepticism).The reason vitamin and mineral supplements are a waste of money - with the exception of vitamin D and B12 - is because more than a decade of independently reproducible peer-reviewed clinical studies call their efficacy into question. The facts make this abundantly clear.The supplements industry disagrees, of course... and it has flooded the market with advertising to the contrary, some of which features its own "studies" (which are not independent, are not peer-reviewed, and are not reproducible against a meaningful statistical sample size). That only tends to confirm my conclusion; I've seen big tobacco do the same while growing up... in the 1970's featuring ads with doctors claiming smoking was good for you, in the 1980's claiming that there is no correlation between smoking and lung cancer, and in the 1990's targeting vulnerable youths when all else failed.I've seen the same behavior with the Egg Council (claiming that eggs are healthy and not a major contributor to cholesterol), with the Sugar Producers Council, and with just about every special-interest group around.Still, none of the conjecture, hyperbole, or misstatements trump facts... which are the basis of my health decisions. If anyone cares to disagree with me, please feel free to cite your sources - as a long string of independently reproducible peer-reviewed clinical studies. If you're unable to do so, then the basis for your disagreement amounts to nothing more than conjecture, speculation, personal opinion, and hyperbole. Thank you, but I'll stick with the facts when it comes to my health and that of my family.There is no reason why someone eating a healthy diet (where "healthy" is defined by science rather than by fad or popular opinion) requires supplements, other than vitamin D (because it's better than obtaining it through extended sun exposure which raises your skin cancer rate) or B12. By the way "health" eating is properly defined as a plant-based, whole food diet.Source Citations:Ibiebele TI, Hughes MC, Pandeya N, Zhao Z, Montgomery G, Hayward N, Green AC, Whiteman DC, Webb PM; Study of Digestive Health; Australian Cancer Study. High intake of folate from food sources is associated with reduced risk of esophageal cancer in an Australian population. J Nutr. 2011 Feb; 141(2):274-83.Maserejian NN, Giovannucci EL, McVary KT, McKinlay JB. Dietary, but not supplemental, intakes of carotenoids and vitamin C are associated with decreased odds of lower urinary tract symptoms in men. J Nutr. 2011 Feb; 141(2):267-73.Schönthal AH. Adverse effects of concentrated green tea extracts. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2011 Jun; 55(6):874-85.Rawn DF, Breakell K, Verigin V, Nicolidakis H, Sit D, Feeley M. Persistent organic pollutants in fish oil supplements on the Canadian market: polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine insecticides. J Food Sci. 2009 Jan-Feb;74(1):T14-9.Sharp PA. Intestinal iron absorption: regulation by dietary & systemic factors. Int J Vitam Nutr Res. 2010 Oct; 80(4-5):231-42.Geissler C, Singh M. Iron, meat and health. Nutrients. 2011 Mar; 3(3):283-316.West AR, Oates PS. Mechanisms of heme iron absorption: current questions and controversies. World J Gastroenterol. 2008 Jul 14; 14(26):4101-10.Steele TM, Frazer DM, Anderson GJ. Systemic regulation of intestinal iron absorption. IUBMB Life. 2005 Jul; 57(7):499-503.Collings R, Fairweather-Tait SJ, Dainty JR, Roe MA. Low-pH cola beverages do not affect women's iron absorption from a vegetarian meal. J Nutr. 2011 May; 141(5):805-8.Alert: protein drinks. You don't need the extra protein or the heavy metals our tests found. Consum Rep. 2010 Jul; 75(7):24-7.Boston University School of Public HealthA M Hughes, R M Lucas, A L Ponsonby, C Chapman, A Coulthard, K Dear, T Dwyer, T J Kilpatrick, A J McMichael, M P Pender, B V Taylor, P Valery, I A van der Mei, D Williams. The role of latitude, ultraviolet radiation exposure and vitamin D in childhood asthma and hayfever: an Australian multicenter study. Pediatr Allergy Immunol. 2011 May;22(3):327-33.X M Mai, A Langhammer, Y Chen, C A Camargo Jr. Cod liver oil intake and incidence of asthma in Norwegian adults--the HUNT study. Thorax. 2013 Jan;68(1):25-30.J T Ashley, J S Ward, C S Anderson, M W Schafer, L Zaoudeh, R J Horwitz, D J Velinsky. Children's daily exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls from dietary supplements containing fish oils. Food Addit Contam Part A Chem Anal Control Expo Risk Assess. 2013;30(3):506-14.E E Birch, S Garfield, Y Castañeda, D Hughbanks-Wheaton, R Uauy, D Hoffman. Visual acuity and cognitive outcomes at 4 years of age in a double-blind, randomized trial of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid-supplemented infant formula. Early Hum Dev. 2007 May;83(5):279-84.E E Birch, D R Hoffman, R Uauy, D G Birch, C Prestidge. Visual acuity and the essentiality of docosahexaenoic acid and arachidonic acid in the diet of term infants. Pediatr Res. 1998 Aug;44(2):201-9.[No authors listed] Fats and fatty acids in human nutrition. Report of an expert consultation. FAO Food Nutr Pap. 2010;91:1-166.J Greene, S M Ashburn, L Razzouk, D A Smith. Fish oils, coronary heart disease, and the environment. Am J Public Health. 2013 Sep;103(9):1568-76.J Greene, S M Ashburn, L Razzouk, D A Smith. Letters re: Fish oils, coronary heart disease, and the environment, Letters, e4-5, Am J Public Health. 2013 Nov;103(11).D W Kastner, D R Van Wagoner. Diet and atrial fibrillation: does α-linolenic acid, a plant derived essential fatty acid, have an impact? J Am Heart Assoc. 2013 Feb 22;2(1):e000030.C Bergkvist, M Kippler, S C Larsson, M Berglund, A Glynn, A Wolk, A Åkesson. Dietary exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls is associated with increased risk of stroke in women. J Intern Med. 2014 Sep;276(3):248-59.D R Jacobs Jr, J Ruzzin, D H Lee. Environmental pollutants: downgrading the fish food stock affects chronic disease risk. J Intern Med. 2014 Sep;276(3):240-2.W J Crinnion. Polychlorinated biphenyls: persistent pollutants with immunological, neurological, and endocrinological consequences. Altern Med Rev. 2011 Mar;16(1):5-13.D H Lee, D R Jacobs Jr. Inconsistent epidemiological findings on fish consumption may be indirect evidence of harmful contaminants in fish. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2010 Mar;64(3):190-2.A Wallin, D Di Giuseppe, N Orsini, P S Patel, N G Forouhi, A Wolk. Fish consumption, dietary long-chain n-3 fatty acids, and risk of type 2 diabetes: systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies. Diabetes Care. 2012 Apr;35(4):918-29.J Ruzzin, D R Jacobs. The secret story of fish: decreasing nutritional value due to pollution? Br J Nutr. 2012 Aug;108(3):397-9.G Vannice, H Rasmussen. Position of the academy of nutrition and dietetics: dietary fatty acids for healthy adults. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2014 Jan;114(1):136-53.M R Flock, W S Harris, P M Kris-Etherton. Long-chain omega-3 fatty acids: time to establish a dietary reference intake. Nutr Rev. 2013 Oct;71(10):692-707.P E Marik, J Varon. Omega-3 dietary supplements and the risk of cardiovascular events: a systematic review. Clin Cardiol. 2009 Jul;32(7):365-72.K Lane, E Derbyshire, W Li, C Brennan. Bioavailability and potential uses of vegetarian sources of omega-3 fatty acids: a review of the literature. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2014;54(5):572-9.M J Bolland, A Grey, I R Reid. Calcium supplements and cardiovascular risk. J Bone Miner Res. 2011 Apr;26(4):899; author reply 900-1.R P Heaney, S Kopecky, K C Maki, J Hathcock, D Mackay, T C Wallace. A review of calcium supplements and cardiovascular disease risk. Adv Nutr. 2012 Nov 1;3(6):763-71.C M Weaver. Calcium supplementation: is protecting against osteoporosis counter to protecting against cardiovascular disease? Curr Osteoporos Rep. 2014 Jun;12(2):211-8.M J Bolland, A Grey, A Avenell, G D Gamble, I R Reid. Calcium supplements with or without vitamin D and risk of cardiovascular events: reanalysis of the Women's Health Initiative limited access dataset and meta-analysis. BMJ. 2011 Apr 19;342:d2040.I R Reid, M J Bolland. Calcium supplements: bad for the heart? Heart. 2012 Jun;98(12):895-6.I R Reid. Should we prescribe calcium supplements for osteoporosis prevention? J Bone Metab. 2014 Feb;21(1):21-8.I R Reid, S M Bristow, M J Bolland. Cardiovascular complications of calcium supplements. J Cell Biochem. 2015 Apr;116(4):494-501.I R Reid, S M Bristow, M J Bolland. Calcium supplements: benefits and risks. J Intern Med. 2015 Oct;278(4):354-68.M J Bolland, A Grey, I R Reid. Calcium supplements and cardiovascular risk: 5 years on. Ther Adv Drug Saf. 2013 Oct;4(5):199-210.I R Reid, M J Bolland. Calcium risk-benefit updated--new WHI analyses. Maturitas. 2014 Jan;77(1):1-3.M J Bolland, P A Barber, R N Doughty, B Mason, A Horne, R Ames, G D Gamble, A Grey, I R Reid. Vascular events in healthy older women receiving calcium supplementation: randomised controlled trial. BMJ. 2008 Feb 2;336(7638):262-6.J R Lewis, K Zhu, R L Prince. Adverse events from calcium supplementation: relationship to errors in myocardial infarction self-reporting in randomized controlled trials of calcium supplementation. J Bone Miner Res. 2012 Mar;27(3):719-22.I R Reid, M J Bolland. Does widespread calcium supplementation pose cardiovascular risk? Yes: the potential risk is a concern. Am Fam Physician. 2013 Feb 1;87(3):Online.M U Kärkkäinen, J W Wiersma, C J Lamberg-Allardt. Postprandial parathyroid hormone response to four calcium-rich foodstuffs. Am J Clin Nutr. 1997 Jun;65(6):1726-30.M A Denke, M M Fox, M C Schulte. Short-term dietary calcium fortification increases fecal saturated fat content and reduces serum lipids in men. J Nutr. 1993 Jun;123(6):1047-53.I R Reid, A Horne, B Mason, R Ames, U Bava, G D Gamble. Effects of calcium supplementation on body weight and blood pressure in normal older women: a randomized controlled trial. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2005 Jul;90(7):3824-9.L E Griffith, G H Guyatt, R J Cook, H C Bucher, D J Cook. The influence of dietary and nondietary calcium supplementation on blood pressure: an updated metaanalysis of randomized controlled trials. Am J Hypertens. 1999 Jan;12(1 Pt 1):84-92.[No authors listed] Osteoporosis prevention, diagnosis, and therapy. NIH Consens Statement. 2000 Mar 27-29;17(1):1-45.M Nestle, M C Nesheim. To supplement or not to supplement: the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations on calcium and vitamin D. Ann Intern Med. 2013 May 7;158(9):701-2.I R Reid. Cardiovascular effects of calcium supplements. Nutrients. 2013 Jul 5;5(7):2522-9.M J Bolland, A Grey, I R Reid. Calcium supplements and cardiovascular risk. J Bone Miner Res. 2011 Apr;26(4):899; author reply 900-1.S Chalupka. Associations of dietary calcium intake and calcium supplementation with myocardial infarction, stroke, and overall cardiovascular mortality. Workplace Health Saf. 2012 Aug;60(8):372.I R Reid, M J Bolland. Calcium supplements: bad for the heart? Heart. 2012 Jun;98(12):895-6.I R Reid, S M Bristow, M J Bolland. Calcium supplements: benefits and risks. J Intern Med. 2015 Oct;278(4):354-68.M J Bolland, A Grey, I R Reid. Calcium supplements and cardiovascular risk: 5 years on. Ther Adv Drug Saf. 2013 Oct;4(5):199-210.H A Bischoff-Ferrari, B Dawson-Hughes, J A Baron, P Burckhardt, R Li, D Spiegelman, B Specker, J E Orav, J B Wong, H B Staehelin, E O'Reilly, D P Kiel, W C Willett. Calcium intake and hip fracture risk in men and women: a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies and randomized controlled trials. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Dec;86(6):1780-90.C D Hunt, L K Johnson. Calcium requirements: new estimations for men and women by cross-sectional statistical analyses of calcium balance data from metabolic studies. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Oct;86(4):1054-63.H A Bischoff-Ferrari, B Dawson-Hughes, J A Baron, J A Kanis, E J Orav, H B Staehelin, D P Kiel, P Burckhardt, J Henschkowski, D Spiegelman, R Li, J B Wong, D Feskanich, W C Willett. Milk intake and risk of hip fracture in men and women: a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. J Bone Miner Res. 2011 Apr;26(4):833-9.S Mundi, B Pindiprolu, N Simunovic, M Bhandari. Similar mortality rates in hip fracture patients over the past 31 years. Acta Orthop. 2014 Feb;85(1):54-9.P Haentjens, J Magaziner, C S Colón-Emeric, D Vanderschueren, K Milisen, B Velkeniers, S Boonen. Meta-analysis: excess mortality after hip fracture among older women and men. Ann Intern Med. 2010 Mar 16;152(6):380-90.S A Frost, ND Nguyen, J R Center, J A Eisman, T V Nguyen. Excess mortality attributable to hip-fracture: a relative survival analysis. Bone. 2013 Sep;56(1):23-9.K Michaëlsson, A Wolk, S Langenskiöld, S Basu, E Warensjö Lemming, H Melhus, L Byberg. Milk intake and risk of mortality and fractures in women and men: cohort studies. BMJ. 2014 Oct 28;349:g6015.M C Chapuy, M E Arlot, F Duboeuf, J Brun, B Crouzet, S Arnaud, P D Delmas, P J Meunier. Vitamin D3 and calcium to prevent hip fractures in the elderly women. N Engl J Med. 1992 Dec 3;327(23):1637-42.M Nestle, M C Nesheim. To supplement or not to supplement: the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations on calcium and vitamin D. Ann Intern Med. 2013 May 7;158(9):701-2.P N Sambrook, I D Cameron, J S Chen, R G Cumming, S Durvasula, M Herrmann, C Kok, S R Lord, M Macara, L M March, R S Mason, M J Seibel, N Wilson, J M Simpson. Does increased sunlight exposure work as a strategy to improve vitamin D status in the elderly: a cluster randomised controlled trial. Osteoporos Int. 2012 Feb;23(2):615-24.V A Moyer; U.S. Preventive Services Task Force*. Vitamin D and calcium supplementation to prevent fractures in adults: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. Ann Intern Med. 2013 May 7;158(9):691-6.B M Tang, G D Eslick, C Nowson, C Smith, A Bensoussan. Use of calcium or calcium in combination with vitamin D supplementation to prevent fractures and bone loss in people aged 50 years and older: a meta-analysis. Lancet. 2007 Aug 25;370(9588):657-66.H E Theobald. Dietary calcium and health. Nutrition Bulletin Volume 30, Issue 3, pages 237-277, September 2005.B Dawson-Hughes, P Jacques, C Shipp. Dietary calcium intake and bone loss from the spine in healthy postmenopausal women. Am J Clin Nutr. 1987 Oct;46(4):685-7.

There is no conclusive evidence beyond reasonable doubt that the Iraq war itself or the warfare waged by the United States in Iraq could constitute as a war crime.Saleh v. Bush was a class action lawsuit filed in 2013 against high-ranking members of the George W. Bush administration for their alleged involvement in premeditating and carrying out the Iraq War. In December 2014, the district court hearing the case ordered it dismissed with prejudice. The dismissal was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit.The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California by lawyer Inder Comar, and the lead plaintiff is Sundus Shaker Saleh, an Iraqi expatriate. Plaintiffs alleged that the defendants conspired to wage a war of aggression against the Iraqi people, a violation of the Nuremberg Principles. Plaintiffs specially claimed the primary purpose of the Iraq War was to enact regime change in Iraq, as distinct from national self defense. In pursuit of this goal, the defendants are alleged to have: planned the war as early as 1998; capitalized on the September 11 attacks in 2001 to ramp up support for the invasion; utilized fear tactics and intentional misinformation; entered Iraq without fully proper UN Security Council authorization. The United States Department of Justice represented the defendants, who are all former government officials. The government moved the dismiss the suit, and in December 2014, the U.S District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed the suit with prejudice. The court substituted the United States as the sole defendant in place of the individual government officials, citing the Westfall Act, which provides that "the exclusive remedy for torts committed by Government employees in the scope of their employment" in an action against the government itself under the Federal Tort Claims Act.The court noted that the Attorney General had formally certified that the individual defendants "were acting within the scope of their federal employment when performing the acts at issue." The court then dismissed the lawsuit because the plaintiffs had failed to exhaust administrative remedies as required under the FTCA for claims against the government, a jurisdictional requirement. Saleh v. Bush, Dist. Court, ND California 2014On February 9, 2006, the Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, published a letter that he had sent to all those who had communicated with him concerning the above, which set out his conclusions on these matters, following a preliminary investigation of the complaints. He explained that two sets of complaints were involved:Complaints concerning the legality of the invasion itself; andComplaints concerning the conduct of hostilities between March and May 2003, which included allegations in respect of (a) the targeting of civilians or clearly excessive attacks; and (b) willful killing or inhumane treatment of civilians.Moreno-Ocampo concluded that: "The available information did not indicate intentional attacks on a civilian population." http://www.iccnow.org/documents/...(page 6)He also concluded that, while many facts remain to be determined, the available evidence "did not allow for the conclusion that there was a reasonable basis to believe that a clearly excessive attack within the jurisdiction of the Court had been committed." In reference to whether or not coalition forces, even though civilians were not intentionally targeted, that attacks were nonetheless clearly excessive to military necessity. http://www.iccnow.org/documents/...(page 8)As a result, "After exhausting all measures appropriate during the analysis phase, the Office determined that, while many facts remained undetermined, the available information did not provide a reasonable basis to believe that a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court had been committed."http://www.iccnow.org/documents/...(page 7)As far as the allegations of willful killing or inhuman treatment of civilians are concerned, Moreno-Ocampo concluded that there was a reasonable basis to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court had been committed. He explained that the information available did support a reasonable basis for an estimated four to twelve victims of willful killing and a limited number of victims of inhuman treatment, totaling in all less than twenty persons. He also reported that, in all of these cases, the national authorities had initiated proceedings.As for allegations of complicity, the Prosecutor said: "the available information provided a reasonable basis with respect to a limited number of incidents of war crimes by nationals of States Parties, but not with respect to any particular incidents of indirect participation in war crimes". In other words, he did not find a reasonable basis to proceed against nationals of state parties on the basis of complicity in war crimes carried out by non state parties. However, this is not, as such, a finding that war crimes were not carried out by non state parties. The prosecutor did not express a conclusion on that matter since that was not within his competence.I would say the US-led coalition forces operation in Iraq against ISIL forces from the beginning of this decade may have at times constitute as a war crime, causing more indiscriminate damage and civilian causality than it’s previous actions.Amnesty International reported in November 2017;This suggests the US and Iraqi governments did not take proper care to prevent civilian deaths – resulting in an appalling number of casualties.This activity points to an alarming pattern of US-led coalition airstrikes that have destroyed whole houses with entire families inside over recent months. It cannot continue.Act now and sign the petition to demand that the US-led coalition and Iraqi government launch an immediate and full investigation into the horrific death toll resulting from this operation – and prevent future civilian deaths.Demand the US and Iraq protect civilians from airstrikesThey also reported;Rising civilian casualties from aerial operations have heightened concerns regarding coalition and Iraqi forces use of airstrikes. The use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects such as air-dropped bombs of 500lbs and above, which have been used in the context of the operation, in densely populated civilian areas of western Mosul may be resulting in civilian casualties and damage to civilian objects that is excessive to the anticipated military objectives of the strikes. Such disproportionate military attacks are prohibited under international humanitarian law.Iraq/US-Led Coalition: Weapons Choice Endangers Mosul CiviliansDW cites an unnamed Amnesty Report;Amnesty International said on Tuesday that Iraqi forces and the US-led coalition fighting the so-called "Islamic State" (IS) in Mosul repeatedly violated international humanitarian law and may have committed war crimes."Iraqi government and US-led coalition forces failed to adequately adapt their tactics to these challenges – as required by international humanitarian law – with disastrous consequences for civilians," Amnesty said in a report named "At any cost."Amnesty says Iraqi forces, US-led coalition may have committed war crimes in Mosul | DW | 11.07.2017Reuters and NPR reported on the same Amnesty report.Though, to answer your question, the Syrian Civil War has seen an unprecedented amount of civilian populated areas bombed indiscriminately and human rights abuses by Syrian and Russian forces, among others such as various of the terrorist and militant groups.From Human rights violations during the Syrian Civil WarAccording to various human rights organizations and the United Nations, human rights violations have been committed by both the government and the rebels with the "vast majority of the abuses having been committed by the Syrian government".The Assad Regime has been blamed for using chemical weapons (chlorine gas) against civilians and conducted torture and extrajudicial killings. Assad has also been accused of "Indiscriminate and disproportionate aerial bombardment and shelling" which "led to mass civilian casualties and spread terror."According to a 2011 UN report, Syrian armed and security forces may be responsible for:unlawful killing, including of children (mostly boys), medical personnel and hospital patients ("In some particularly grave instances, entire families were executed in their homes");torture, including of children (mostly boys, sometimes to death) and hospital patients, and including sexual and psychological torture;arbitrary arrest "on a massive scale";deployment of tanks and helicopter gunships in densely populated areas;heavy and indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas;collective punishment;enforced disappearances;widescale and systematic destruction and looting of property;the systematic denial, in some areas, of food and water; andthe prevention of medical treatment, including to children - in the period since 15 March 2011.(There is much more referenced documentation, accusations, and assumptions talked about in this article)UN Report: Assad’s war-crimes;http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/H...Detainees held by the Government were beaten to death, or died as a result of injuries sustained due to torture. Others perished as a consequence of inhuman living conditions. The Government has committed the crimes against humanity of extermination, murder, rape or other forms of sexual violence, torture, imprisonment, enforced disappearance and other inhuman acts. Based on the same conduct, war crimes have also been committed.Eyewitness accounts and documentary evidence strongly suggest, however, that tens of thousands of people are detained by the Syrian Government at any one time. Thousands more have disappeared after initial arrest by State forces or while moving through Government-held territory, or have gone missing after abduction by armed groups. The accounts of hundreds of surviving detainees, notably those held in facilities controlled by the Syrian intelligence agencies, paint a terrifying picture of the magnitude of the violations taking placeThe [Syrian] government has committed the crimes against humanity of extermination, murder, rape or other forms of sexual violence, torture, imprisonment, enforced disappearance and other inhuman actsOne of the earliest documented cases of death in detention is that of a 13-year-old boy, arrested during a protest in Sayda [Dara'a] in late April 2011," the Human Rights Council report said. "His mutilated body was returned to his family in May 2011. Women, boys and girls, as well as the elderly, have been subjected to torture and brutal prison conditions and have suffered physical and mental trauma. They too have been the victims of, as well as witnesses to, deaths in custodyMany detainees were subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence, and exposed to humiliation and degrading treatment. Prisoners were subjected to threats of sexual violence against female relativesPrisoners were given inadequate or no medical care, and died in large numbers from preventable conditions such as diarrhea or other contagious infections spread in the unhygienic and overcrowded cellsAccording to Human Rights WatchIn 2016, Human Rights Watch documented several attacks on homes, medical facilities, markets, and schools that appeared to be targeted, including a major airstrike by the Syrian-Russian coalition that hit al-Quds Hospital and surrounding areas on April 27, 2016, killing 58 civilians and patients.Government forces used at least 13 types of internationally banned cluster munitions in over 400 attacks on opposition-held areas between July 2012 to August 2016, killing and injuring civilians, including childrenGovernment forces, and their allies, also increasingly resorted to the use of incendiary weapons, with at least 18 documented attacks on opposition-held areas in Aleppo and Idlib between June 5 and August 10Government forces also continued using toxic chemicals in several barrel bomb attacks in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention. Syrian government helicopters dropped barrel bombs with toxic chemicals on residential neighborhoods in opposition-controlled parts of Aleppo city on August 10 and September 6.In a report issued on August 24, 2016, a UN-appointed investigation attributed two chemical weapon attacks earlier in 2016 to the Syrian governmentAccording to I AM SYRIASyrian Regime Continues To Use Chemical WeaponsSyrian Regime Has Carried Out At Least Nine Chemical Attacks In 2017THE INTERNATIONAL MECHANISM OF EVIDENCE COLLECTING CONCERNING THE CRIMES COMMITTED IN SYRIAAccording to Amnesty.orgArmed conflict – violations by Syrian government forces and allies, including RussiaIndiscriminate attacks and direct attacks on civiliansGovernment and allied forces continued to commit war crimes and other serious violations of international law, including direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks. Government forces repeatedly attacked areas controlled or contested by armed opposition groups, killing and injuring civilians and damaging civilian objects in unlawful attacks. They regularly bombarded civilian areas using explosive weapons with wide-area effects, including artillery shelling and unguided, high-explosive barrel bombs dropped from helicopters. The attacks caused numerous civilian deaths and injuries, including of children.Government and allied Russian aircraft carried out several apparently deliberate attacks on hospitals, medical centres and clinics and aid convoys, killing and injuring civilians, including medical workers.As the year progressed, government forces with Russian support increased attacks on eastern Aleppo, hitting residential homes, medical facilities, schools, markets and mosques, killing hundreds of civilians. Russian-made cluster munitions were also scattered across the area, with unexploded munitions posing an ongoing risk to civilians.Two barrel bombs allegedly containing chlorine gas were dropped by suspected government aircraft on 1 August on two residential neighbourhoods controlled by non-state armed groups in Saraqeb city, Idleb province, reportedly injuring at least 28 civilians.On 26 October, suspected government or Russian aircraft bombed a school compound in Haas, Idleb governorate, killing at least 35 civilians including 22 children and six teachers.Sieges and denial of humanitarian accessGovernment forces maintained prolonged sieges of predominantly civilian areas controlled or contested by armed groups, including in Eastern Ghouta, Mouadhamiyah al-Sham, Madaya, Daraya and, from September, eastern Aleppo. The government sieges exposed civilian residents to starvation and deprived them of access to medical care and other basic services, while subjecting them to repeated air strikes, artillery shelling and other attacks.The sieges prevented civilians leaving the area to seek medical care. For example, on 19 March a three-year-old boy reportedly died in al-Waer, in Homs city, after government forces prevented him from leaving the area to receive medical care for a head injury.On 12 May, government forces prevented a UN humanitarian aid delivery, due to be the first since 2012, from entering Daraya. Government forces fired mortars into a residential area of the town, killing two civilians. In June, government forces allowed two limited convoys to enter Daraya but simultaneously intensified their indiscriminate attacks using barrel bombs, a napalm-like incendiary substance and other munitions, forcing the town’s remaining inhabitants to submit to being evacuated in late August.From July, government forces trapped some 275,000 people in eastern Aleppo, subjecting them to intensified air strikes, including bombing by Russian forces. Suspected government and Russian aircraft bombed a UN/Syrian Arab Red Crescent aid convoy destined for eastern Aleppo on 19 September at Urum al-Kubra, killing at least 18 civilians including aid workers, and destroying aid lorries.Attacks on medical facilities and workersGovernment forces continued to target health facilities and medical workers in areas controlled by armed opposition groups. They repeatedly bombed hospitals and other medical facilities, barred or restricted the inclusion of medical supplies in humanitarian aid deliveries to besieged and hard-to-reach areas, and disrupted or prevented health care provision in these areas by detaining medical workers and volunteers. In June, the NGO Physicians for Human Rights accused government forces and their allies of responsibility for more than 90% of 400 attacks against medical facilities and 768 deaths of medical personnel since March 2011.The UN reported that 44 health facilities were attacked in July alone. Four hospitals and a blood bank in eastern Aleppo city were struck in aerial attacks on 23 and 24 July. One, a children’s hospital, was hit twice in less than 12 hours.

Over the years, mostly as a result of my involvement in the medical field, I have learned to differentiate fact from conjecture, opinion, or misstatements. As such, I tend to take the former seriously when it involves a long string of independently reproducible peer-reviewed clinical studies. Everything else, I take with a grain of salt (and lots of skepticism).The reason vitamin and mineral supplements are a waste of money - with the exception of vitamin D and B12 - is because more than a decade of independently reproducible peer-reviewed clinical studies call their efficacy into question. The facts make this abundantly clear.The supplements industry disagrees, of course... and it has flooded the market with advertising to the contrary, some of which features its own "studies" (which are not independent, are not peer-reviewed, and are not reproducible against a meaningful statistical sample size). That only tends to confirm my conclusion; I've seen big tobacco do the same while growing up... in the 1970's featuring ads with doctors claiming smoking was good for you, in the 1980's claiming that there is no correlation between smoking and lung cancer, and in the 1990's targeting vulnerable youths when all else failed.I've seen the same behavior with the Egg Council (claiming that eggs are healthy and not a major contributor to cholesterol), with the Sugar Producers Council, and with just about every special-interest group around.Still, none of the conjecture, hyperbole, or misstatements trump facts... which are the basis of my health decisions. If anyone cares to disagree with me, please feel free to cite your sources - as a long string of independently reproducible peer-reviewed clinical studies. If you're unable to do so, then the basis for your disagreement amounts to nothing more than conjecture, speculation, personal opinion, and hyperbole. Thank you, but I'll stick with the facts when it comes to my health and that of my family.There is no reason why someone eating a healthy diet (where "healthy" is defined by science rather than by fad or popular opinion) requires supplements, other than vitamin D (because it's better than obtaining it through extended sun exposure which raises your skin cancer rate) or B12. By the way "healthy" eating is properly defined as a plant-based, whole food diet.Source Citations:Ibiebele TI, Hughes MC, Pandeya N, Zhao Z, Montgomery G, Hayward N, Green AC, Whiteman DC, Webb PM; Study of Digestive Health; Australian Cancer Study. High intake of folate from food sources is associated with reduced risk of esophageal cancer in an Australian population. J Nutr. 2011 Feb; 141(2):274-83.Maserejian NN, Giovannucci EL, McVary KT, McKinlay JB. Dietary, but not supplemental, intakes of carotenoids and vitamin C are associated with decreased odds of lower urinary tract symptoms in men. 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