Articles by Helke Ferrie
Extended Resources for Lyme Disease Goes Under The Microscope
Resources:
H. Ferrie, ed. Ending Denial – The Lyme Disease Epidemic: A Canadian Public Health Disaster, Kos 2010. This book covers the politics, history, science, and proven therapies for Lyme disease in the context of the Canadian situation. All... Read more »
Lyme Disease Goes Under The Microscope
The ancient Romans, not known for their user-friendly policies, did know when to listen to the “vox populi”; even emperors felt the heat when a lot of people made a noise about the same issue. Rome at its height held about a million people. So, what... Read more »
Nourishing Mental Health
(Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in 2006, and has been updated for re-release for the April 2012 issue of Vitality.)
If we’re looking for evidence that the expensive and ineffective old paradigm of treating mental disorders is... Read more »
CREATING A HEALTHY HOME - EXTENDED RESOURCE LIST
I have studied and used all of the information and devices listed here. Our home and cottage were assessed by the people I list here and whose work I can recommend without reservation. I am also using the pulsating PEMF therapy. A full-length... Read more »
CREATING A HEALTHY HOME
“ … She’ll redecorate your home from the cellar to the dome
and then go on to the enthralling fun of overhauling you!”
(Henry Higgins in Lerner and Lowe’s “My Fair Lady”)
The fears of Henry Higgins may now become reality for you, dear readers,... Read more »
WHY OUR WORLD IS ELECTROPOLLUTED
(Ed note: This is the first of a 2-part series on Electropollution. The second part, to run in April Vitality, will focus on solutions.)
If something is invented by and for the military, it is certain to be effective and lethal. And industrial... Read more »
Re-Occupy Your Body
"My body's nobody's body but mine. You run your own body. Let me run mine … " – Peter Alsop, 1983
The Occupy Wall Street movement has frequently been criticized as having no discernible strategy. That may turn out to be the secret of its eventual... Read more »
“Dietary Supplements Increase Mortality Rate in Older Women”
In medicine, patients are the market force. In that particular court of public opinion, which is informed by the direct experience of what has actually worked and what has harmed people, the likes of Jacobs’ junk science will inevitably wind up in... Read more »
Sarah’s Last Wish: A Chilling Glimpse Into Forced Medicine
The Australian environmental health activist, Eve Hillary, has written a book that’s become a bestseller in her country and, thereby, started a process of reform and awareness in Australia about the abomination of forced medical care and the human... Read more »
Medicine Gone Wrong
“If it be misconduct to use methods and techniques that are unknown to, or disapproved of, by the vast majority in the [medical] profession, the profession might never progress.”
— Justice O’Leary, Ontario Court of Justice (Brett et al v. Board of... Read more »
White Coat Black Hat – Adventures on the Dark Side of Medicine
This book contains bad news. But, the good news is that it’s all written down and verifiable – all facts, no opinions. If you were recently given a drug prescription, this book is the first line of defence: read it before the trip to the pharmacy.... Read more »
BIOTECH LOSING GROUND
“… the question we face … is whether this [GMO] cornucopia presents a picture of health and lawful bounty, or instead the hellish image of nature betrayed.” C. Holdrege & S. Talbott, 2008
Ever since biotechnology introduced genetically modified... Read more »
The Birth of a Star
“Conventional therapies have a minimal to zero efficacy profile, a dismal safety profile, and produce adverse effects that are insufferable.” – Dr. Philip Rouchotas, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Integrated Healthcare Practitioners, from his April/May... Read more »
Healing the Planet – One Patient at a Time
The 5,000-year-old Chinese oracle text known as the I Ching advises in Hexagram 18 that “work on what has been spoiled has supreme success,” adding that people of real worth “stir up the people and strengthen their spirit.” We live in a time in... Read more »
Detoxify – Buzzword of a New Era
Dr. Sherry Rogers is coming to town. Rise out of your heavy metal-induced depression, take your pesticide-mediated anxiety seriously, and declare war on whatever ails you by attending the November Whole Life Expo. Rogers and other Environmental... Read more »
A Primer on Kids’ Health
The disciples came unto Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them, and said “...who so offends one of these little ones…. it were better for him that a... Read more »
HORMONE HERESY
Synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has hit the fan. No amount of spin doctoring will be able to minimize the catastrophic effect the truth is having on victims (women), perpetrators (doctors) and manufacturers (drug companies). The... Read more »
AUTISM & VACCINATION
Some 30 years ago we had a foster child who was profoundly autistic. She came to us on an emergency basis from an orphanage. Her body was covered in scars that had been made by cigarettes. At that time, the famous Austrian psychiatrist Bruno... Read more »
ORTHOMOLECULAR MEDICINE
Early in April, at the height of the SARS scare, among the many events cancelled in Toronto was the conference of the International Society of Cancer Researchers (15,000 registered to attend) because they feared contracting or taking home the... Read more »
ORGANICS GO MAINSTREAM
The theme of this year’s Annual Organic Conference held in January 2003 was appropriately titled “Organic Goes Mainstream.” Attended by about 1,700 people, it took place at Guelph University, one of the important centres in the current Food War.... Read more »
MULTIPLE CHEMICAL SENSITIVITY
It is said that when you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. For those whose lives have been devastated by Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and who have been hanging on to that knot for quite some time now, this determination... Read more »
DEPRESSION-FREE NATURALLY
Taking prescription anti-depressants, downing a couple bottles of booze, shooting up or sniffing street drugs — all of these can ultimately let loose an invisible Sorcerer’s Apprentice going wild inside the body’s chemical laboratory. Depending... Read more »
GROWING UP HEALTHY IN A TOXIC WORLD
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
– T.S. Eliot, Burnt Norton
At Christmas time we celebrate the birth of a Divine Child who never grows up. If he did, the cycle of creation and... Read more »
POSTCARD FROM THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth....
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two... Read more »
THE SEARCH FOR ETHICS IN MEDICINE
On March 4 and 5, a conference at Sunnybrook Estates allowed me to peek into the world of Big Pharma. My media pass to the Canadian Forum on Pharmaceutical Marketing stated: “Hear how the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies are modernizing... Read more »
MAKE MINE ORGANIC
“Necessity is the excuse of every tyranny,” observed the 18th century British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, when he failed to persuade Mad King George to ease up on the economic repression of the American colonies, so they successfully... Read more »
HIPPOCRATES IN THE LAND OF OZ
This year I have written a book for patients and doctors who have lost faith in the quick fix approach to modern healthcare, and often are in despair about it. Over the past years of writing articles about the politics of medicine, the question... Read more »
SCHMEISER VS. MONSANTO
God and the Supreme Court work in mysterious ways. They don’t follow a straight line, but somehow justice is slowly achieved, and they always offer great new opportunities for the doggedly determined. And so it is — and will be — with... Read more »
THE MAGIC OF MINERALS
Billions of years ago, when the universe was born in unknown millions of galaxies, our planet eventually also appeared. The same star dust that became Earth, also created all life and maintains it every second of the day. Nobel laureate Christian... Read more »
A Cure for All Cancers
The keynote speaker at this year’s Whole Life Expo is Charlotte Gerson, daughter of Dr. Max Gerson who developed a “cure for all” cancers in the 1920s. Many current non-toxic cancer therapies trace their way back to Max. In 1977 his daughter... Read more »
Return of the Light – A Look Back at 2004
“I say: Fear not! Life still leaves human effort scope.”
— Matthew Arnold
Looking back over the events of 2004, I was reminded that intertwined with all the terrible events of the year were the beginnings of a new world to which human effort,... Read more »
Codex Alimentarius — An Emerging Threat
“It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.” — Robert Houghwout Jackson, Chief Judge, War-Crimes Tribunal, Nuremberg,... Read more »
Defeating Obesity, Diabetes and High Blood Pressure – The Metabolic Syndrome
Readers who have had the uplifting experience of hearing Charlotte Gerson speak at previous Whole Life Expo events in Toronto, and who are familiar with the excellent results produced by the Gerson Therapy for almost all forms of cancer and chronic... Read more »
KEEPING AN OPEN MIND
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.”
Voltaire - French Enlightenment philosopher 1694 – 1778
Many people have asked me how I manage to cope with the monumental task of researching medical corruption, corporate and... Read more »
Death and Resurrection in Science and Medicine
At Easter we celebrate the fact that life may be harmed, but it cannot be vanquished. Not even by death. The religious mind contemplates the great mystery of the apparent finality of death in contrast to the observed reality of life triumphing... Read more »
Getting the Lead Out
Ten years ago, I embarked upon a personal road to recovery after suffering a near-fatal neurological disorder caused by pesticide poisoning from two decades of exposure to DDT in India, combined with the mercury in my dental amalgams.... Read more »
Restoring the Integrity of Food
“Only after the last tree has been cut down. Only after the last river has been poisoned. Only after the last fish has been caught. Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.” – Cree Indian Prophecy
“We should not have to vouchsafe the... Read more »
Government Hijacked by Industry
Editor's note: This article was first published in the September 2005 issue of Vitality Magazine.
Before initiating a piece of controversial legislation, first find some pretext to fire those civil servants who are likely to object to it as... Read more »
Codex Alimentarius Update
What do airplanes, pharmaceutical drugs and Codex Alimentarius have in common? Answer: a black box. When an airplane crashes, its black box, retrieved from the wreckage, contains a record of events up to the moment of the crash and enables... Read more »
Paradigm Shift
Angels walk upon the Earth amongst us. They brandish flaming swords against injustice and protect the vulnerable; they fearlessly hammer home Truth because they love humanity. You don’t want to miss meeting one of those.
This month at the Whole... Read more »
A Great Year for Health Care
“We are only undefeated
Because we have gone on trying.”
– T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets
“Never, never, never give up.”
– Winston Churchill
Pour yourself an organic egg nog, curl up in a comfy easy chair that hopefully doesn’t outgas nasty chemicals,... Read more »
Medical Research Fraud
“The Truth shall make you free.” – Gospel of St. John
“The Truth shall make you free – but first it hurts.” – Gloria Steinem
Nicolas Regush, well known for his investigative reporting on health issues for CBC radio and television, wrote the... Read more »
Gaia’s Last Stand
“Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees . . .” - Revelations 7:3When I was a child, the Earth was incomprehensibly huge, solid and eternal. Now it seems as fragile as a Christmas ornament. Within a hundred years most life... Read more »
National Campaign Against Pesticides
The golden glory of summer and dandelions is upon us. But some people see red at this time of year, and embark upon their annual war against wild plants, however glorious. Armed with herbicides, they ride their CO2-puffing lawnmowers in pursuit... Read more »
The ABCs of Animal Wellness
On March 27, the 8 a.m. CBC radio news summarized the presentations at the largest international veterinary conference that had taken place in many years at the CN Tower Convention Center. It was hosted by the American Animal Hospital Association... Read more »
Industry Pushes GMOs While Consumers Just Say No
The root of the word “religion” is the Latin religiere, meaning “careful consideration.” Since humans are thoughtful as well as greedy, this overview of biotechnology and organics is complex, because good thinking sometimes sabotages biotech, and... Read more »
Affairs of the Heart
The heart is not merely a sophisticated pump. In an Egyptian text from three thousand years ago, The Instructions of Amenemope, the heart is described as the source of thought and the seat of the “Universal Lord, the pilot of the ship of human... Read more »
The Damaging Effects of Electropollution
“This device emits electromagnetic radiation, exposure to which may cause brain cancer. Users, especially pregnant women and children, should keep it away from the head and body.” ~ Currently proposed legislation for cell phones: Bill LD 1014,... Read more »
The Orthomolecular Universe
In polite society, the “F” word is bad form. Financial pundits avoid the “R” word to prevent upsetting the markets. In medicine, the “O” word has been a problem for a long time, but now yields 219,000 entries on Google. “Orthomolecular” was... Read more »
The Conscientious Consumer
The snake curled around a staff is known the world over as the symbol for medicine which originated in ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), where some five millennia ago it was revered for its demonstration of the immortality of life by apparent... Read more »
Are Humans an Endangered Species?
In the fall of 1999 I attended a conference in Toronto on “Reproductive Health Hazards”. Organized by occupational health clinics, the Canadian Auto Workers’ Union, the Canadian Labour Congress, the Ontario Federation of Labour, and the United... Read more »
Going Green Can Save Your Life
That cancer is an environmental illness was established by a landmark study now amply supported by a huge body of growing data. Published on June 13, 2000, in the New England Journal of Medicine and undertaken by Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, the... Read more »
The War on Cancer: An Anatomy of Failure
Books that discuss the total failure of standard cut-burn-and-poison cancer treatment and the conceptual mistakes of the orthodox research paradigm are not rare; but they are usually written by people who opted out of the Cancer Establishment.... Read more »
On Organics and GMOs
Do scientists know how dangerous a game they’re playing when they mess with plant and animal genes in the service of biotechnology? I have wondered about this often and finally got an answer.
Last August, the Institute for Responsible Technology... Read more »
A History of Disease
When I was studying human evolution at the University of Toronto I learned that diseases are a direct result of the increasing complexity of human social organization from hunter-gatherers to early farmers, city-states and empires. An... Read more »
What To Eat
Wow! What a book! I hope and pray that somebody has nominated Marion Nestle for the so-called “alternate Nobel prize”, namely Sweden’s Right Livelihood Award which she richly deserves. With this book she has performed a unique and extraordinary... Read more »
News Flash – Health Canada Backs Off Deadline for Banishing Natural Health Products
Just prior to going to press with the March issue of Vitality Magazine, editor Julia Woodford asked me to double check what the position of Health Canada's Natural Health Products Directorate is in regard to stopping the availability of all... Read more »
Activists Celebrate Victories for Human Health
“It is important to fight, and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then can evil be kept at bay, though never quite eradicated.”
Dumbledore to Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Raincoast, 2005
There is so... Read more »
Cancer: 101 Solutions to a Preventable Epidemic
It doesn’t often happen that two books are published which absolutely must be read together! They were written and published simultaneously, and yet the authors do not know each other and had no idea that their books were being written in the... Read more »
Healing The Gerson Way: Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
It doesn’t often happen that two books are published which absolutely must be read together! They were written and published simultaneously, and yet the authors do not know each other and had no idea that their books were being written in the... Read more »
Global Prescription For Recovery From Disease
To show us how to take back the planet and our health, this year’s Whole Life Expo brings two of the most exciting and creative people working in food politics and cancer therapy today Health Canada’s Dr. Shiv Chopra, who first saved the Canadian... Read more »
The New Green Superpower European Union Leading the Way in Eco-friendly Economics
The ancient Chinese believed that a cosmic force, the Will of Heaven, controlled the rise and fall of their imperial dynasties. As soon as an emperor failed to act in accord with the laws of nature, also called the Tao, the Mandate of Heaven... Read more »
THE PERILS OF BEING A PATIENT
“Great is the power of steady misrepresentation.” Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882)
Everyone will sooner or later consult a doctor. That encounter may save your life dramatically in emergency medicine, or lead you into a living hell if chronic disease... Read more »
Drugs Dethroned
Street drugs kill about 20,000 people a year in North America, which is no surprise. But a much more shocking statistic is that prescription drugs kill about 700,000 people a year, making legal drugs the leading cause of death. As well, the side... Read more »
Sexy Hormones
Once in a while a book comes along that feels like the sun rising: everything is made bright and clear. To be sure, there are many excellent books on the market that deal with women’s health issues, but Vanderhaeghe and Pettle have that rare... Read more »
Whistleblower Report
“From the right to know and the duty to inquire flows the obligation to act.” Sandra Steingraber
Dr. Shiv Chopra, PhD, must be fire-proof. As a vaccine and drug regulator for Health Canada for nearly forty years, he evaluated every red-hot topic... Read more »
Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods
It has often been said that one needs a chemistry degree these days to know what foods to buy. The best advice I can give to all, when entering supermarkets, is: “Don’t buy anything that contains substances you can’t pronounce.”
Fortunately, it... Read more »
THE TYRANNY OF GOVERNMENT ‘PROTECTION’
“There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted… If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life …”
~ Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854
When the... Read more »
The World Without Us
“Not only the reason of millennia – the madness of millennia, too, breaks out in us…we are still fighting, step by step, with that giant Chance. Truly, the Earth shall yet become a house of healing!”
F. Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1885
... Read more »
Callous Disregard: Autism and Vaccines – The Truth Behind the Tragedy
In my experience, so-called “controversies,” especially in medicine, are a fight between two parties, one of whom is a liar in danger of losing a lot of money. The current “controversy” over the work of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, and his 1990’s discovery... Read more »
Consumer Alert: Opposition Grows to Bill C-51
On April 8, 2008, the Harper government introduced Bill C-51 as an amendment to the Food and Drugs Act. If passed into law, Canadians will no longer have the freedom to choose between pharmaceutical drugs and natural health products. The two... Read more »
Update on Bill C-51
On June 26th, the Consumer Health Organization of Canada hosted an event in Toronto for the purpose of providing expert information about the proposed federal bills C-51 (to amend the Food and Drugs Act) and C-52 (to amend the Hazardous Products... Read more »
The Future of Food
“Facts are stubborn things.”
- John Adams, First US President, author of the US Constitution
These days, many of us feel a sense of dread and embarrassment when we find out, from time to time, what our government has done on the international... Read more »
The Latest News on Bill C-51 as of September 1
In April, the federal government informed Canadians that they were going to protect the nation’s children, and the rest of us, against unimaginable harm and potential fraud, in exchange for the loss of our most basic Constitutionally-guaranteed... Read more »
Vote for Quality Health Care
“You have done your worst. Now we will do our best.”
(Sir Winston Churchill, following the Nazi bombing of London in WWII)
On September 10, 2008, lawyer Shawn Buckley launched a new initiative called the Canadian Charter of Health Freedom. Buckley... Read more »
Cancer Really Can Be CURED
“Two roads diverged in the wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
(Robert Frost)
It is undoubtedly true that knowledge is power, but the decision to access that power can sometimes require immense... Read more »
Corrupt to the Core: Memoirs of a Health Canada Whistleblower
When Shiv Chopra grew up in rural India’s Punjab state during the last decade of the British Raj, he never dreamed he would become one of the world’s leading defenders of food safety and security and do battle for three decades with the giants of... Read more »
A Look Back at 2008
“Work on what has been spoiled has supreme success.”
I Ching, Hexagram 18 (Chinese Book of Change – circa 5,000 years BCE
For medicine, 2008 brought some true progress, astonishing revelations, and the initiation of huge challenges for 2009. It’s... Read more »
Lyme Disease
“The physician’s challenge is the curing of disease, educating the people in the laws of health, and preventing the spread of plagues and pestilence.” - Sir William Osler (1849-1919)
A profound medical mystery is unfolding in Canada: Lyme Disease,... Read more »
Asbestos Consensus
“No man is an island … any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
- John Donne (1572 -1631)
The lesson that this current meltdown of the global... Read more »
Activists Gather To Protest Bill C-6
What is wrong with the world today? I’ll tell you what’s wrong – short-term thinking, which is the sign of a disease called arrogance. Those suffering from the disease, however, want us to believe that they are actually the world’s great... Read more »
BIG PHARMA UPDATE
“No doubt, one day our children’s children will learn in school that in the early part of the 21st century tens of thousands of people died every year after taking unnecessary drugs … They will learn that there were no effective laws to protect... Read more »
Vivacious Vitamin D
“Can you imagine what would happen if a drug company came out with a single pill that reduces the risk of cancer, heart attack, stroke, osteoporosis, PMS, SAD, and various autoimmune disorders? There would be a media frenzy the likes of which has... Read more »
Food Fight: Organics Gain Ground as GMOs and Biotech Wreak Havoc on Food Supply
“There’s a crack in everything,
That’s how the light gets in.”
- From “Anthem” by Leonard Cohen
In May, the food labeling committee of the international food standards authority (Codex) had its annual meeting – this time in Calgary. Its new chair is... Read more »
ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE TAKES ON CANCER – AND WINS
“If you are an honest scientist, it doesn’t matter if it’s moondust – if it’s working, you have got to follow through… I also believe that truth always comes to the top… I have done what I have done because of the truth of it, and the truth has... Read more »
The Bill C-6 Battle Wages On
THE RECENT HISTORY OF BILL C-6
On April 30, 2009, all four parties supported Bill C-6 without protest. True, MP Paul Szabo (Liberal, Mississauga North) and MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis (NDP, Winnipeg North) wanted assurances that C-6, to amend the... Read more »
Time to Celebrate! A Look Back at the Challenges, Successes and Hell Raising of the Past Ten Years
You are invited to a great annual bash this month, namely the Whole Life Expo, where for the 23rd year we can celebrate health, critical thinking, and fresh ideas. I intend to be there with a great big organic, home-made carrot cake at the KOS... Read more »
The Year in Review
Corruption, stupidity and greed are best viewed as dispassionately as one views household chores. Don’t get mad. Don’t get depressed. Just help clean up the mess. Forming the habit of calmly resisting the chaos that keeps sneaking up on us... Read more »
May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month
Infectious diseases are very bad news – they are like an uncontained house fire. Ironically, they also are the one type of emergency that modern medicine really knows how to treat and prevent. Triumph over infectious disease is the basis of... Read more »
The Intelligent Revolution: Saying No to Corporate Health Care Fraud
“He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back – that’s an earthquake.”
- Death of a Salesman (1949) by Arthur Miller
Saying No! is a social responsibility none of us may safely... Read more »
The Return of Bill C-6 And Why It Must Be Stopped – Again
Last spring a Canadian court heard a case on the death of two babies killed by faulty playpen accessories. During the trial, Health Canada (responsible for regulating the safety of food, drugs, consumer goods, and hazardous products) admitted to... Read more »
FEATURE INTERVIEW ON GMOs Helke Ferrie and Jeffrey Smith
(Interview transcribed by Joan Zarbatany R.H.N.)
This interview took place on May 29, 2010 at the Canadian Holistic Nutrition Conference in Toronto.
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOODS
|
Helke Ferrie |
I have to tell you something, and this will... Read more » |
A New Model of Economics for the New Year - From Nobel Prize Winner Elinor Ostrom
“It is assumed that the momentum for change must come from outside the situation, rather than from the self-reflection and creativity of those within the situation to restructure their own patterns of interaction.”
– From Elinor Ostrom’s speech... Read more »
