Tuesday, July 22, 2008

What You Don’t Know Could Get You Raped


Rape is not only about your body, but also of your mind. Read how liberal white women and emasculated men are having their minds raped everyday by ”Diversity” politics, guarded by US government obfuscations and the back-stabbing media — and yet don’t even know it!

Part II of a five part series. Continued from: “What You Don’t Know Could Get You Killed”

Rape is an act of violence and power, not of sex. The victim’s true perspective may elude me as a man, but as a “Politically Incorrect” realist, understanding how people can truly be in this world — instead of what some would like — I might have a little sense on how this particularly vile, degrading act can have lasting, traumatic effects on a woman’s psyche, her physical health, ruining sex and even relationships for the rest of her life.

Try to imagine it all for a moment (if you can): The most intimate act that two people can share, suddenly and unexpectedly becomes a fierce, bestial struggle; one that the victim not only has to endure but worry about her very survival afterwards. It is both an attack on the women’s body and her mind. A mind that must see and feel everything; the animalistic coarseness and stench of the rapist; his angry and ape-like behavior; maybe even forcing her against her will to do incredibly vile acts and all seared into her memory for the rest of her natural life — should she survive!

If the physical part of the rape was not enough, the woman has to mortally fear the possibility of the man killing her — so as to leave no witness behind. “Will this man use that gun or knife when he’s through” she might fearfully ask herself. She may then consign herself to the man’s disgusting deeds — every bit of it – just to live another day. Even then, the chance of a painful, cruel death is as close as it ever will be in life.

Now, imagine if a group of men did such a thing purposefully – conspiring in advance to do something like this? Are you not mortified even at the thought? Then ask yourself this one common sense question: What do you think could happen to you if there was no police around at all, quite suddenly? Think about that one for a minute or two and honestly ask: Who would you really feel safe and comfortable with, when all is said and done?

What you don’t know is that some real truths and facts about rape are being purposefully hidden from you and for political reasons that have absolutely zero to do with a woman’s personal rights and fair justice. Reasons that are — when you get right down to brass tacks — totally racist and evil because they are over politics that target your very own kind, those that you feel most safe with, through outright lies, omissions and manipulations of the real facts that form your belief structure and your politics.

So, in effect, even if you’ve never been sexually assaulted in real life – your mind is figuratively being raped on a daily basis and you don’t even have a clue. And, by going along with all of the political and media lies, may very well lead to a day when your body in raped literally – no matter how young or even old you are!

sexlies.jpg

The very same month that the wacko stripper, Crystal Gail Mangum, accused some white boys of raping her, the national news media (TV and print) was all over it — splashing photos of the evil white boys for all the world to see. But how much of the same kind of attention is given to cases like Dominic Jones and his three University of Minnesota teammates who, just last April, raped a 18 year old white girl — after purposefully getting her drunk to the point of passing-out – and then video-taping the entire act on their cell phones? Where was Newsweek then?

Everyone remembers the total farce about the three college kids in the Duke/Lacrosse case down in North Carolina. But did you notice how the attention was later shifted to Mike Nifong, the prosecutor of the case? Seems like suddenly everything else was forgotten by the media and Nifong became the “Politically Correct” target. Now, I’m not saying that Nifong was innocent or anything, but since he’s a white guy, he can safely be attacked by a media that wants to pretend it’s getting to the bottom of things!

That’s just how they do it. Take your attention away from the fact of their crass liberal behavior, before any real evidence of the case came out. Everyone just assumed that these white boys were guilty since they were rich, spoiled, crude jocks and, most importantly, because they were WHITE.

No wonder there was such absolute belief in the guilt of the Duke students among the leading sectors of liberal America. A drug-addled, half-deranged, promiscuous black stripper accused three young white men of raping her. There are virtually zero rapes of black women by white men in the United States, and half of all rape charges against specific individuals turn out to be false. But in the gnostic, inverted world of liberal demonology, the white students had to be guilty. – Lawrence Auster

Then, you had people like the fat Reverend Al Sharpton making absolutely outlandish statements about black women being raped all across the land by the Evil Whitey Man. And yeah, I know that Sharpton is nothing but some buffoon who should be ignored by the media but obviously he isn’t and what’s more, he’s literally handed the podium by our traitorous media to this day. And don’t forget how the media forgot Sharpton’s Tawana Brawley Hoax.

Like when the DNA results were due-in the next week, Reverend Sharpton, probably searching for something to shift public attention that Friday (just look at the dates for some in-your-face truth), goes and finds some stupid, minor comment from the white talk show host Don Imus, that “nappy-headed ho’s” thing. The media then obligingly followed suit in another race farce against a white person – just like they were part and parcel of it all to begin with. And, in a way, they really were and are.

Plus, they turned a blind eye to a real case of a white coed Duke girl raped by a black that same month in a fraternity bathroom, nearby. Admittedly, the rapist was not some rich student, but he was black and that’s the real reason for them to have ignored it. Or, if you dismiss this because of it being a “common, garden-variety” rape (which the media will call it but certainly not the victim!) then how about the story about the four black football players raping some passed-out white woman at the University of Minnesota in April of 2007? They actually had the dam nerve to video-record it on their cell phones!

And there’s plenty of other similar, disgusting stories about blacks raping white women with impunity across the country with nary a bleep in the national news apparatus. Any one of which, had the races been reversed, would be covered non-stop by these people. Whites are getting it from both ends!

Or the Mission Beach, California rape story where 4 Blacks broke into an apartment and held 2 white men at gunpoint while they took turns gang-raping the 2 white college girls there. One, happened to be a virgin and the rapists admitted having ”difficulties” because of it. Can you imagine that? How about having to testify on being forced to perform “oral copulation,” at gunpoint, with a courtroom of strangers watching on? And think of the total, non-stop uproar out of the Black community and in the national news, if 4 white men had done something like this to them!

This kind of thing happens more often than you’ll even know. You might never hear about it unless you live in the locality where it happens. And even then, you have to make a guess about the perps from the sound of their names. Just this alone, will tell you what’s truly going on and how the media gives them a free pass, anymore. And I have some bad news for you: These vile crimes against women are an increasingly common occurance all across this country! Read on.

Sure, there’s a lot of white women being raped by white men. There are perverts and violent sickos in all populations. No getting around that sorry fact of life. But the statement that black women are being targeted for rape by white men is a bald-faced lie by race hucksters like the Reverend. But it’s not just the fat Reverend, mind you, but the media and even our educational system who promote such anti-White lies in textbooks that many colleges now make freshmen read; such as the “Angela Y. Davis Reader,” where on page 143, states: “proportionately more white men rape black women than black men rape white women.” Right.

In fact, the real truth of the matter is directly opposite of what they say. White women are targets for black sexual predators and have been for quite some time. The discrepancy is apparent in the following facts gleaned from the 2005 Department of Justice report. Make sure that you remember that the white figures also includes hispanics, arabs, etc. etc. as discussed in the first part of this series. This artificially skews the figures for white perpetrators upwards, yet leaves the numbers for the white victims alone. This governmental statistical gambit makes the reality of black rape less glaringly obvious.

In the United States in 2005, 37,460 white females were sexually assaulted or raped by a black man, while between zero and ten black females were sexually assaulted or raped by a white man. What this means is that every day in the United States, over one hundred white women are raped or sexually assaulted by a black man.

In Table 42, entitled “Personal crimes of violence, 2005, percent distribution of single-offender victimisation’s, based on race of victims, by type of crime and perceived race of offender,” we learn that there were 111,590 white victims and 36,620 black victims of rape or sexual assault in 2005. (The number of rapes is not distinguished from those of sexual assaults; it is maddening that sexual assault, an ill-defined category that covers various types of criminal acts ranging from penetration to inappropriate touching, is conflated with the more specific crime of rape.) In the 111,590 cases in which the victim of rape or sexual assault was white, 44.5 percent of the offenders were white, and 33.6 percent of the offenders were black. In the 36,620 cases in which the victim of rape or sexual assault was black, 100 percent of the offenders were black, and 0.0 percent of the offenders were white. The table explains that 0.0 percent means that there were under 10 incidents nationally. — Read Lawrence Auster’s FrontPage Magazine.com article

And make clear note of this: In the year 2005, less than 10 (possibly even zero) white men committed sexual assaults on black women. That means over a hundred traumatized white women are putting their feet up in stirrups and having rape tests performed every single lousy day!

blackrape.jpg

Table 42: Shows you the real numbers (White perp category still includes Hispanics): Everyday over a hundred white women (non-hispanic victims) are being sexually assaulted by blacks but less than 10 black women, possibly even zero (statistically) are being sexually assaulted by white men – for the entire year! In the year 1995,* 42% of all rapes were committed by black men, (that was a fairly big year, but not as big as 2005).

These 2005 figures also tell us that black men, at 6% or so of the population, committed over 40% of all rapes or sexual assaults on ALL WOMEN in the US, for the year 2005! Rounding things off and deducting an estimated 20% for the Hispanic part included in with the white perps, with another 20% for all other races, that leaves only about 20% of all the rapes or sexual assaults, to have been committed by the “Evil White Man,” – so maligned by everyone!

Your father, your brothers and your white male friends are treated in this totally unjust, anti-White racist way – and all for political and social engineering purposes!

Here, you do the math: Download Dept. of Justice PDF yourself and look

But that’s not all. These are single offender victimization figures. White women are also at severe risk of multiple offenders, or what is called gang rape. Imagine that happening. Go back a few paragraphs and read that story about the Mission Beach crime. That’s only one story, too. I’ve read many others with similar details. You think that it could not happen to you or someone you care about? This is really getting out of control, people:

According to murder figures released by the Justice Department in 2002, , Black predators are at least 22 times (2,200 percent) more likely to murder White women than the reverse. In regard to gang attacks including the horrible specter of gang rape, the figures are literally off the charts, with at least a 200 times (that’s 20,000 percent!) greater chance of Blacks committing gang assaults and that includes both White men and women victims! – David Duke

But let’s take a break from facts and figures, shall we? Go back to that first question I asked you earlier — what do you think could personally happen to you, should the social situation suddenly render you vulnerable as a women? Do you feel like you could walk through certain parts of your town unmolested, all by yourself? Would you not feel uncomfortable finding yourself in a place with no whites or police? Think about it all now and be honest with yourself — not how you hope you’d feel – but your visceral, gut reaction. That’s your very own natural protective voice that you need to listen to — instead of the programming by the media that has confused you and has often lied to you, by omission if nothing else, over the years.

You know, in your heart, that all of this is the real, brutal truth of the world and you could easily fall victim to black’s predilection to violent crime should the situation allow for it. And it’s easy to see this kind of thing happening openly, like in Africa where the women are often treated like hell by the men. Did you know that 70% of the women in the African country of Niger report being beaten and raped as a “normal” part of life? How about the shocking fact that rape is not even illegal and is almost commonplace in the capital city, according to the United Nation’s OXFAM?

And the rest of Africa is not any better. In the Congo, it’s now at total epidemic levels and blacks rape babies in the attempt to ”cure” AIDS. In South Africa — now the crime capital of the world — with 1 rape every 17 seconds, white women are often targeted for rape and murder by black gangs. All of this is ignored by the Western press so as to not embarass the sacred symbol of the Diversity mavens: Nelson Mandela.

All of it is a BIG FAT LIE being fed to the White America: They don’t want you to know that white girls and women are often the victims of violent crime and rape from black men. Also, they don’t even want you to know just how vile blacks can truly be.† This, along with other statistics about violent black crime, would make White America justifiably outraged and angrily reevaluate the whole “Multicultural” social engineering being forced down our throats as we speak.

They can’t have us know these things, for if we do – then we might just get together and it’s really this potential solidarity that they fear most from us. This has been the main point to the entire Multicultural BS game to begin with: To keep White America from becoming a unified force and one that could put a stop to these evil people’s eventual designs.

Folks, these rape statistics are much, much more than just some minor inconvenient truth to be ignored because it doesn’t fit your altruistic political views. Taken into context with all the other statistics of black crime in the United States of America, must be understood for what it is: That the myth of “Diversity” is being dearly paid for by the white people of this country. Not only in our tax monies, but also with serious pain and suffering, maybe even diseases – horribly affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of white people, just like yourself.

When will you EVER say enough is enough? When it happens to you or one of your loved ones? The chances for that increase daily. Wake up to it, people — our race and our minds are being raped!

– Phillip Marlowe

Next: True Black Serial Killers and Mass Murderers. READ HERE

The first installment in this series: What You Don’t Know Could Get You Killed

*All of these figures are difficult to come by, since the US Government purposefully buries such things and the media patently ignores them — and all for the Gods of Diversity. Go to the DOJ website and prowl around — you’ll see how there are no clear-cut facts about black crime vis-a-vis whites. Always remember that the white perpetrator’s figures include Hispanics (18-38%) to bring up the final numbers of white criminals. Also, definitely check out this site here: Jerry’s Racial Violence Statistics Page Look to the left for his section on criminal race statistics for some in-your-face numbers.

†Here’s an article that the fat Reverend Sharpton ignored (and you might want to, as well): An absolutely, unbelievably vile, gang-rape committed by blacks on a black mother and son: Read here. You think for one lousy minute, that stories like this one would be ignored by the media if it was whites doing it to blacks or even whites doing it to themselves? If you do, then you must be a total blithering idiot.

Source : incogman.wordpress.com

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Rape of Iraqi Women

Los Angeles, Alta California - May 2, 2004 - (ACN) The release, by CBS News, of the photographs showing the heinous sexual abuse and torture of Iraqi POW's at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison has opened a Pandora's box for the Bush regime. Apparently, the suspended US commander of the prison where the worst abuses took place, Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, has refused to take the fall by herself and has implicated the CIA, Military Intelligence and private US government contractors in the torturing of POW's and in the raping of Iraqi women detainees as well.

Brigadier General Janis Karpinski said to the Washington Post that Military Intelligence, rather than the Military Police, dictated the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. "The prison, and that particular cellblock where the events took place, were under the control of the Military Intelligence command," Brigadier General Karpinski said to the Washington Post Saturday night in a telephone interview from her home in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Brigadier General Karpinski, who commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade, described a high-pressure Military Intelligence and CIA command that prized successful interrogations. A month before the alleged abuses and rapes occurred, she said, a team of CIA, Military Intelligence officers and private consultants under the employ of the US government came to Abu Ghraib. "Their main and specific mission was to give the interrogators new techniques to get more information from detainees," she said.

Today, new photographs were sent to La Voz de Aztlan from confidential sources depicting the shocking rapes of two Iraqi women by what are purported to be US Military Intelligence personnel and private US mercenaries in military fatigues. It is now known that hundreds of these photographs had been in circulation among the troops in Iraq. The graphic photos were being swapped between the soldiers like baseball cards.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one Mexican-American soldier told La Voz de Aztlan, "Maybe the officers didn't know what was going on, but everybody else did. I have seen literally hundreds of these types of pictures." Many of the pictures were destroyed last September when the luggage of soldiers was searched as they left Iraq, he said

An investigation, led by Army Major General Antonio M. Taguba, identified two military intelligence officers and two civilian contractors for the Army as key figures in the abuse cases at the Abu Ghraib prison. In an internal report on his findings, Major General Taguba said he suspected that the four were "either directly or indirectly responsible for the abuses at Abu Ghraib and strongly recommended disciplinary action."


The Taguba report states that "military intelligence interrogators and other U.S. Government Agency interrogators actively requested that Military Police guards set physical and mental conditions for favorable interrogation of witnesses." The report noted that one civilian interrogator, a contractor from a company called CACI International and attached to the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade, "clearly knew his instructions" to the Military Police equated to physical and sexual abuse. It is not known whether these instructions included, or led to, the raping of Iraqi women detainees as well.


by
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan


Source : http://www.aztlan.net/iraqi_women_raped.htm

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Thursday, July 3, 2008

What is Global Warming ?

Global warming is perhaps the most important environmental problem in the world today. Levels of greenhouse gases are increasing in the atmosphere due to human activities, and are changing the composition of the atmosphere and global warming. Climate scientists agree that human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels contribute to the problem.



What is global warming - Clearly detailed

Scientists have predicted the phenomemon of global warming for decades. Unfortunately, some of the adverse effects of global warming, they have also predicted begin to occur throughout the world, including:

* growing incidence of droughts in some areas, floods in others;
* The rising temperatures of oceans and the sea level;
* increase extreme weather events such as tornadoes and hurricanes;
* The melting of mountain glaciers and the reduction of snow cover;
* Dying coral reefs, and
* Coastal erosion, and loss of coastal ecosystems.

While a handful of skeptics continue to discuss science, the World 'scientists agree: science is in. Global warming is happening.


What is global warming

What scientists say:

The Intergovernmental Group of Experts on International Climate Change (IPCC), an organization of more than 2000 climate scientists , has produced three scientific assessments concerning climate change and, in each, has concluded that global warming occurs, and is related to human activity. Their latest report (January 2001) stated that: "There is new and stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities."

The US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) concluded in June 2001 that: "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth 'atmosphere as a result of human activities, causing air temperatures on the surface and subsurface of the Ocean temperatures on the rise. Temperatures are, in fact increasing. "And he added: " national policy decisions made now and in the longer-term future will influence the extent of any damage suffered by vulnerable populations and ecosystems later in this century. "

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) issued an unprecedented alert in July 2003 warning that " Extreme weather events Might Increase "in the world. The alert tied a record number of extreme weather events such as tornadoes and heat waves in 2003 to global warming. The alert said: "Record extremes in weather and climate events continue to occur around the world. Recent scientific assessments indicate that, as the global temperatures continue to warm due to climate change, the number and intensity of extreme events might increase. "Here in the United States, some states are taking action. The private sector is also responding to this challenge.

What is global warming
What is the United States about global warming?

The Bush administration, unfortunately, has turned its back on this problem. Shortly after taking office in 2001, President Bush went back on a campaign promise to regulate carbon emissions from the power plants (a major source of pollution to global warming). The Climate Change Plan announced by President Bush in February 2002, calls for a 18 percent reduction of greenhouse gases "intensity " in 2012, which translates into a 14 per cent more greenhouse gases during this period. As pointed out by the US General Accounting Office (GAO) in October, 2003 report, however, the "plan " represents virtually 'business as usual. 'The report states: "While the emissions of greenhouse gases in the United States rose Significantly, the Energy Information Administration of the United States reported that the emission intensity has been generally declining steadily since 50 years. "The Bush Climate Change Plan allows greenhouse gases continue to rise while the long decline in emissions intensity is also continued.

Fortunately, the United States Congress are beginning to demand action in the light of the continued blocking of the Bush administration. In the very first Senate vote on a mandate of the American policy cuts greenhouse gases, which took place in October 2003, 43 members of the Senate voted in favor of the measure, with 55 voting members of the objection. The authors of legislation, Senator from Arizona John McCain and Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut have promised to push for another vote on the bill, the Climate Stewardship Act, in 2004, and believe that they may even have enough votes for the measure to pass the Senate.

Source From : http://www.effectofglobalwarming.com/what-is-global-warming.html

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Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Children's illness: Top 5 causes of missed school

Why do children get sick so often? When can they return to school?

Childhood illness may not affect your family life until your child starts child care or school. After that, though, it may seem like he or she is sick all the time. This pattern is normal as your child builds a robust immune system. Resistance to infection develops only after exposure to a multitude of germs.

Young children in large groups are breeding grounds for the organisms that cause illness. Little hands rub drippy noses, and then transfer infectious agents to other children or to shared toys. Here's a lineup of the top five infectious illnesses that keep children home from school or child care.

1. Colds

The most common childhood illnesses are upper respiratory infections — colds and other viral ailments that affect the throat, nose and sinuses. While adults average two to four colds a year, children typically have six to 10. Children also tend to have more severe and longer lasting symptoms than do adults.

Studies have shown no benefit from treating children's colds with antihistamines, decongestants or cough suppressants. The only medications that might ease the discomfort of a bad cold are acetaminophen (Tylenol, others) and ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, others), which reduce fever. Do not give your children aspirin because it may trigger Reye's syndrome, a rare but potentially fatal disease.


2. The stomach flu (gastroenteritis)

The second most common childhood illness is gastroenteritis, more commonly known as the stomach flu. This childhood illness causes vomiting and diarrhea, and can lead to dehydration, particularly in very young children. Signs and symptoms of dehydration include:

* Excessive thirst
* Dry mouth
* Little or no urine, or dark yellow urine
* Decreased tears
* Severe weakness or lethargy

Oral rehydration solutions, such as Pedialyte, can help replace lost fluids, minerals and salts. When you reintroduce food, start with easy-to-digest items — broth, toast, bananas and rice. Avoid dairy products.

Many parents assume that any kind of stomach upset in a child is the result of a contagious illness when the real culprit is simple indigestion or constipation. Some children get stomachaches when they're worried about things, either at home or at school. The dread of facing a bully or of taking a test, for example, can make a child's stomach hurt. It's important for a doctor to determine the cause of a child's digestive symptoms before prescribing treatment.

3. Ear infection (otitis media)

Ear infections most often occur in children under the age of 2, but the problem can also be common between the ages of 5 and 6 — triggered by the respiratory illnesses picked up in kindergarten or first grade. Colds or allergies cause congestion, which may squeeze shut your child's eustachian tube, the tiny drainage pipe for the middle ear. Fluid trapped in the middle ear can become a breeding ground for viruses or bacteria.

It can be difficult to distinguish between ear infections caused by bacteria and those caused by viruses. The distinction is important, however, because antibiotics will cure bacterial — but not viral — infections. And using antibiotics when they aren't necessary has serious consequences, most notably fueling the emergence of bacteria strains with built-in resistance to many of the drugs that fight infection. For that reason, doctors today often wait to see if an ear infection will clear up on its own before prescribing antibiotics.

If your child has chronic ear infections, you may want to consider having a small tube placed in the eardrum, to help drain the excess fluid inside the middle ear.

4. Pink eye (conjunctivitis)

Pink eye (conjunctivitis) is an inflammation of the clear membrane that covers the white part of the eye and lines the inner surface of the eyelids. When caused by viruses or bacteria, conjunctivitis is highly contagious. It is typically treated with antibiotic eyedrops or ointment. Warm or cool compresses may ease your child's discomfort.

5. Sore throat

Most sore throats are caused by viruses and are usually associated with other respiratory signs and symptoms, such as a runny nose and cough. But about 15 percent of children's sore throats are caused by streptococci — bacteria that cause strep throat.

Fevers above 101 F are common in strep throat, and swallowing can be so painful that your child may have difficulty eating. Antibiotics are required to combat strep throat. Left untreated, strep bacteria eventually can trigger an abnormal immune response, which is responsible for rheumatic fever. Complications of rheumatic fever include damaged heart valves and stiff, swollen joints.

Prevention

Your child's sneezes and coughs spray germs into the air, sometimes landing right on other children, who are then infected. Or a child's hand can become a vehicle carrying viruses and bacteria from toys and other well-handled objects to the eyes, nose or mouth — the usual points of entry for germs that cause illness.

The single most important thing your child can do to prevent illness is to wash his or her hands thoroughly and frequently. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people wash their hands with soap and warm water for 15 seconds — about as long as it takes to sing the "Happy Birthday" song twice.

Alcohol-based hand sanitizers also can keep hands clean. They come in disposable hand wipes or in gel form and require no water.

How long should sick kids stay home?

As a parent, you can help prevent the spread of illness by not sending a sick child to school or child care. Each facility generally has its own rules, but most won't let children attend if they have a fever of more than 100.4 F, are vomiting or have diarrhea. In addition, some facilities require that children with strep throat or pink eye be on antibiotic therapy for 24 hours before returning.

Generally, though, children can return to school when they:

* Have no fever
* Can eat and drink normally
* Are rested and alert enough to pay attention in class
* Have completed any period of medically recommended isolation

Resistance comes with time

Despite your best efforts, your child is going to get sick — especially during his or her first few years of contact with larger groups of children. But a child's immunity improves with time. School-age children gradually become less prone to common illnesses and recover more quickly from the diseases they do catch.

Source from : http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/childrens-conditions/CC00059

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Caffeine ( Coffee Poison )




Don't drink, smoke, or do drugs? Think you've got no vices? Think again. If you drink coffee, tea, cola or indulge in the occasional piece of chocolate, then you're using a drug. Believe it or not, caffeine has the same pharmacological effects on the body as many of the substances we associate with doing harm. Of course, coffee is so well integrated into our culinary culture that we barely give its health effects a second thought.

Apart from being highly addictive and causing unpleasant withdrawal symptoms if we stop drinking it suddenly, research shows that even a little bit of coffee may reduce fertility by damaging sperm. It's also bad news if you're pregnant. Caffeine seems to affect the amount of time the baby spends resting, which could lead to abnormal behaviour later on.

But every cloud has a silver lining. Ironically, caffeine is being administered to pre-term babies to help them breathe. It also appears to increase alertness and improve performance under some circumstances.

To drink or not to drink? That is the question . . .



1. Caffeine Consumption

Global consumption has been estimated to be 120,000 tonnes per annum. This is the approximate equivalent of one caffeine-containing beverage per day for each of the planet's 5 billion plus inhabitants. So, caffeine is almost certainly the most widely consumed psycho-active substance in the world.

As a beverage the worldwide consumption of tea is surpassed only by water.



2. Where Did Caffeine Come From?

The coffee "tree" is indigenous to Ethiopia, but its cultivation and use as a beverage stem largely from Arabia. In Arabic it was referred to as gahwah, the poetic term for wine. The Turkish equivalent is kahveh, which became cafe in French and kaffee in German.

Apparently the Ethiopians mixed crushed dried coffee beans with fat which they rolled into balls and used as food on journeys. By the early 16th century the beverage made from infusing ground roasted beans was well-established in the Islamic world, although a fundamentalist element felt that coffee was an intoxicant and it was banned for a time in several places.

Coffee shops sprang up throughout Europe - coffee was the fashionable drug of the 17th and 18th centuries; its delights, and the cravings for it, were the subject of J.S. Bach's "The Coffee Cantata".

The British were the first to tax coffee; in 1660 a duty of 4 pence per gallon was imposed. The popularity of coffee lead to anti-coffee petitions such as "What a curse it is that ordinary working men should sit the whole day in coffee houses simply to chatter about politics, while their unhappy children are wailing at home for lack of bread!"

It's been suggested that America owes its present day coffee habits to the famous Boston "tea-party" of 1773. As a protest against oppression and excessive taxes, citizens of Boston boarded British ships moored in the Harbour and tipped their cargoes of tea overboard. Since that time, the United States has become the major coffee-consuming nation of the world.



3. How Much Caffeine Is In Different Beverages And Food?

It's usually presumed that a regular cup of coffee contains 100mg of caffeine but it may range between 40 and 176 mg and the mean is closer to 85mg. There's probably less caffeine in a cup of tea - one study showed a median of 27mg per cup with a range of 8 to 91 mg. An ounce of sweet chocolate may contain between 75 and 150mg of combined methylxanthines and a cup of chocolate or chocolate milk may contain 150-300mg.

The principal dietary sources of caffeine are overwhelmingly coffee and tea. Coffee accounts for some 54 per cent of ingested caffeine, while tea accounts for some 43 per cent. The remaining 3% consists mostly of caffeine ingested in the form of cocoa and chocolate products, various fabricated soft drinks and mate (a tea drunk especially in South America).

In Australia a 375ml can of Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola contains about 40mg of caffeine. Regulations allow a maximum of 145mg of caffeine per kilogram of cola-type drink (54.5mg per 375ml can). "Jolt" Cola - said to have "twice the caffeine" - actually contains the permissible legal limit of around 54mg per bottle.

In the USA, the permissible limit of caffeine in cola drinks and other carbonated beverages is 200mg per litre. The US drinks also have higher levels of sugar. Caffeine's bitter taste acts as a flavouring agent to counteract the sweetness of the sugar.



4. What Caffeine Gets Up To In The Body

Caffeine is absorbed rapidly into the bloodstream from the gastro-intestinal tract. It reaches maximum concentration within about an one hour. The blood distributes it throughout the body. It even manages to pass through the blood-brain barrier.

The half life of caffeine in the human body varies between 3 to 7 hours. Throughout the body it increases metabolic rate by around 10%. Females metabolise caffeine 20-30% more quickly than males. However, it will take women on "the pill" twice as long to metabolise caffeine as women who are ovulating.

Early experiments showed that low concentrations of caffeine may produce small decreases in heart rate, whereas higher concentrations may make the heart beat abnormally fast.

In the brain it constricts the cerebral blood vessels. If you're used to drinking several cups of coffee a day but then you quit, those blood vessels will dilate, maybe enough to give you a powerful headache. It's one of the best known withdrawal symptoms.

Many people know that caffeine is a strong diuretic - it makes you urinate more than usual. Apparently this is due to increasing the blood flow through the kidneys.

It can produce insomnia - delaying the onset of sleep and reducing total sleeping time. It has a small effect on respiration by increasing blood flow through the lungs and increasing the supply of air by relaxing bronchiolar and alveolar smooth muscle. That's why it's proving effective in treating the breathing problems of some prematurely born infants.

Some people experience tremors after drinking coffee and tea. That's thought to be due to over-activation of the central nervous system.



5. Sobering Thoughts About Caffeine

"And I'd better have a big cup of extra strong black coffee to get me past the breathalyser."

Unfortunately, this is one of the most enduring myths about caffeine. True, it may manage to puncture that aura of numbness and make you feel a little sharper but it's no better at sobering you up and lowering your blood alcohol level than a glass of water.

On the other hand caffeine is a good friend the morning after. Alcohol can give you a thumping headache by enlarging cranial blood vessels. Caffeine constricts them and so may bring some relief from the hangover blues. That's why it's an ingredient in some over-the-counter pain killers.



6. How Caffeine Disturbs Your Sleep

If you value a good night's sleep then tea or coffee at bedtime probably isn't a good idea. Caffeine lengthens the time it takes to fall asleep, reducing your total sleeping time. But almost unique among drugs, it doesn't alter the normal stages of sleep. That's why it's better to use caffeine to stay awake than other substances like speed.



7. Caffeine, Conception and Babies

One recent report from the US revealed that women who drink in excess of one cup of coffee every day are only half as likely to conceive as those who drink less than a cup a day.

The odds are considerably worse if women drink more than two and a half cups a day. Then they are nearly 5 times less likely to conceive as women who drink no coffee at all.

Because there's not been as much research on caffeine as there has on nicotine and alcohol, this drug's effects on human development are not yet known. However a number of studies have shown that as little as 2 or 3 cups of brewed coffee every day during pregnancy can result in lowered infant birthweight.

Other studies have claimed that caffeine consumption during pregnancy is associated with prematurity, poorer reflexes and neuromuscular development.

It also appears that heavy caffeine use can affect a newborn baby.

When doctors ask mothers if they have been taking drugs they will think of drugs like heroin but they will not necessarily think of caffeine - it's a social drink, not a drug to them. Because caffeine is so widely used many people drink quite large quantities and don't realise that they have taken something potentially harmful to the baby. And this doesn't apply just to coffee and tea. Some pregnant women drink large amounts of cola beverages which also contain significant levels of caffeine.

Caffeine gets across the placenta very easily and if the mother continues to ingest her coffee or caffeine-containing beverage the foetus will end up having as much caffeine as the mother. If the mother stops drinking then within 24 hours the foetus may experience withdrawal symptoms. The same thing may happen immediately after birth when the baby is suddenly cut off from the maternal supply of caffeine, although it should be pointed out that this isn't common. The withdrawal from caffeine has been described as similar to what is seen in babies born to heroin addicts. These babies will cry, they don't sleep, they are agitated and restless, they wriggle and abrade the skin on their hands and knees, and they sweat.

There's a suggestion that such withdrawal "dysfunction" may be a contributing factor in infant disorders like neonatal apnoea (where the baby "forgets" to breathe properly) and sudden infant death syndrome. (For further information see "A Guide to Reproduction: Social Issues And Human Concerns" by Dr Irina Pollard, Cambridge University Press, 1994).



8. Caffeine And Muscle Fatigue

A Canadian researcher, Prof Howard Green, has carried out experiments looking at the role of caffeine in helping to overcome muscle fatigue in the quadraceps (thigh) muscles.

Green is from the University of Waterloo and in 1995 visited Cumberland College, part of the University of Sydney's Faculty of Health Sciences.

In his Canadian experiments, muscle fatigue was induced electrically and then caffeine tablets were taken which were the equivalent of 8-10 cups of coffee. Within an hour the effect of reducing fatigue could be noticed. It probably does this by making more calcium available to the muscles.

Professor Green cautions that his experiment only showed effects of caffeine after fatigue. He doesn't know what happens if you take it before exercising - whether or not it might help prevent muscle fatigue. That's a question he hopes to answer soon.

In whole body exercise caffeine can increase the performance of muscles. The theory is that it does this by making more fatty acids available to the muscles than usual and that delays depletion of glygocen reserves. It's known that depletion of glycogen from the muscles is tied in with fatigue. This kind of benefit should be relevant to endurance events such as running and cycling. But you may need to drink the equivalent of 8/9 cups of coffee to feel the effect!!



9. Does Caffeine Make You Mentally More Alert?

Too much caffeine may not be good for complex reasoning tasks, but it can improve mental speed-related tasks. These are some of the results of research by Dr Paula Mitchell, now working at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne.

In 1989 Paula carried out a study which looked at 3 groups of volunteers (around 8 people in each group) divided into low, moderate and high caffeine users. The volunteers visited the lab 8 times at different times of day and night (7am, 1pm, 7pm and 1am). Before the tests began they swallowed either a caffeine capsule or a placebo capsule. In the lab they were given a series of performance tests covering short term memory, mental arithmetic, verbal reasoning (which is like logic), and a serial search task (which is a measure of vigilance).

Caffeine actually improved performance in more simple mental tasks like searching for one particular letter in a string of printed letters. Mental speed is the critical thing in this test.

Caffeine improved performance best at the 7am testing time - when the body's 24 hour rhythm of arousal is at its lowest.

By contrast Mitchell found that the high-caffeine user group didn't perform as well as the others on more complex tasks such as verbal reasoning.



10. Caffeine And Personality Differences

Recent research in Melbourne suggests that caffeine consumption may be tied in with personality differences including mood, or whether a person is a night owl or a lark (early morning person).

As the result of a questionnaire Dr Paula Mitchell found that so-called "night owls" or extreme evening people had much higher levels of caffeine usage than "larks" or extreme morning people. (Extreme evening people and extreme morning people each account for about 10% of the population). The evening people also scored higher on both the extroversion scale and the impulsivity, risk-taking scale. They typically find it difficult to get up in the morning and give themselves big hits of caffeine to wake themselves up. (It's quite possible they are actually suffering from caffeine withdrawal. In other words if they hadn't been drinking coffee the night before they may not have felt like this in the morning.)

Dr Mitchell also says there may be a link between extrovert behaviour and higher caffeine usage.

Caffeine seems to disrupt the body clock rhythms of extreme morning people. By contast the rhythms of the evening types are disturbed by the absence of caffeine. Dr Mitchell believes evening people use caffeine to keep their rhythms regular.

One of the strongest findings was that if morning people had caffeine after about 10am, their mood went down quite dramatically. This could be because caffeine has disrupted their underlying rhythms.



Producer : Richard Campbell

Writer : Geoffrey Burchfield

Editor : Meredith Hopes

Researcher : Joy Mitchell




Source from : http://www.abc.net.au/quantum/poison/caffeine/caffeine.htm

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