nih-researchers-reveal-link-between-powerful-gene-regulatory-elements-autoimmune-diseases

Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks its own cells, causing inflammation. Different tissues are affected in different diseases, for example, the joints become swollen and inflamed in rheumatoid arthritis, and the brain and spinal cord are damaged in multiple sclerosis. The causes of these diseases are not well understood, but scientists believe that they have a genetic component because they often run in families.

“We now know more about the genetics of autoimmune diseases,” said NIAMS Director Stephen I. Katz, M.D., Ph.D. “Knowledge of the genetic risk factors helps us assess a person’s susceptibility to disease. With further research on the associated biological mechanisms, it could eventually enable physicians to tailor treatments to each individual.”

Identifying autoimmune disease susceptibility genes can be a challenge because in most cases a complex mix of genetic and environmental factors is involved. Genetic studies have shown that people with autoimmune diseases possess unique genetic variants, but most of the alterations are found in regions of the DNA that do not carry genes. Scientists have suspected that the variants are in DNA elements called enhancers, which act like switches to control gene activities.

Dr. O’Shea’s team wondered if the alterations might lie in a newly discovered type of enhancer called a super-enhancer (SE). Earlier work in the laboratory of Dr. Collins and others had shown that SEs are especially powerful switches, and that they control genes important for the function and identity of each individual cell type. In addition, a large number of disease-associated genetic alterations were found to fall within SEs, suggesting that disease occurs when these switches malfunction.https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-researchers-reveal-link-between-powerful-gene-regulatory-elements-autoimmune-diseases

RIP Tommy Ramone, who has died aged 62Ramones - Needles & Pins

HRB Review Promised after Sinn Fein Bill to Ban Fluorides failed

Posted on Nov 9 2013 - 4:54pm by Shan Kelly for  www.the Journalist.ie

Health Minister James Reilly  ordered the Health Service Executive to ask  a Government agency to review whether compulsory water fluoridation should be ended, after a Sinn Féin bill to outlaw water fluoridation in Ireland  attracted cross party support from TDs on the left. 

With a vote  on the Sinn Fein bill due  on 12th November, the Government  announced a U Turn  after independent TDs  and some from his own party, backed the Sinn Fein Bill in the Dail.
Ireland is  now one of just two countries in the world which still has a national policy compelling water fluoridation, so ending the mandatory  policy would  not be  a radical move.

Most European countries have banned it (like the Netherlands), or abandoned it, after scientific studies identified it as a high risk activity which can affect the brain and bone development of young children.

One political party that has no doubt about the effects of fluorides is Sinn Féin. The party’s Environmental Spokesman is Louth TD Brian Stanley, whose mother died from a thyroid illness.  Stanley knows that Fluorides in water impair the thyroid gland’s ability to absorb the iodine it needs to make thyroid hormones, a fact reported by the  US National Research Council in 2006, which caused it to label fluorides as "endocrine disrupters". Campaigners link rising rates of thyroid illness across the world to water fluoridation.

Stanley‘s bill would have made water fluoridation in the Republic a criminal offence.

 Forced water Fluoridation began in Ireland in 1964, after Gladys Ryan, a Dublin Mother-of-five, lost a six-week Supreme Court battle to prevent it. Gladys was represented in court by Civil Rights lawyer Sean McBride and by former Fine Gael Minister Richie Ryan.

Campaigners believe the health benefits of ending fluoridation here would be enormous. Banning fluoridation would also save us money -a minimum of 4.5M Euro per annum. This could be used to upgrade Ireland’s creaking Victorian water supply system. Problems with Dublin’s water recently resulted in a million people being cut off and unable to flush the loo or brush their teeth between 8pm and 8am for almost a week.

The brave women from across Ireland who posed for The Naked Fluoride Calendar 2014 did so to end Ireland’s 50-year-old policy of mandatory water fluoridation, which studies have linked to higher rates of bone cancer, osteoporosis and thyroid illness. The Calendar Girls  joined their ringleader, nutritionist Aisling Fitzgibbon, 27, from Kerry, at the White Lady art gallery on Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Quay, to launch the 2014 Calendar and party with DJs and journalists from Hot Press, the music magazine which has supported the campaign.

Fine Gael’s Ivan Yates promised the party would end water fluoridation if it was re-elected, way back in 2001.

 The www.HRB.ie Review of the health impacts of water fluoridation at current levels  is expected in December 2014.

The Naked Fluoride Calendar 2014 is on sale for 9.99 euro from www.thegirlagainstfluoriode.com 

Minister ordered HRB Review after Sinn Fein brought Dail bill to ban fluorides

Minister ordered HRB Fluoride Review after Sinn Fein Bill won Cross Party Support 

Posted on Nov 9 2013 - 4:54pm by Shan Kelly

 for www.thejournalist.ie

Health Minister James Reilly told the Dail on Wednesday, November 8th that he asked the Health Service Executive to order  a full scientific  review  of whether compulsory water fluoridation should be ended, after a Sinn Féin bill to outlaw water fluoridation in Ireland drew cross-party support from parties on the Left. 

Studies have linked fluorides in water  to higher rates of bone cancer, asthma, osteoporosis and to thyroid illness.

 With a vote to take place on Tuesday, 12th November,  the Government announced a U Turn on  its previous water policy.The HRB review is  now due to report in December this year. It has been told to look at how  fluorides affects many  vulnerable groups who have not previously been the subject of fluoride impact  studies.

Ireland is one of only three countries in the world which still has a national policy compelling water fluoridation. Most European countries have banned it (like the Netherlands), or abandoned it after scientific studies identified it as a high risk activity which can affect the brain and bone development of young children.

One political party that has no doubt about the health impacts of  fluorides is Sinn Féin. The party’s Environmental Spokesman is Louth TD Brian Stanley, whose mother died from thyroid illness. Fluorides in water impair the thyroid gland’s ability to absorb the iodine it needs to make thyroid hormones.
Stanley‘s bill sought to  make water fluoridation in the Republic a criminal offence. 

Meanwhile   a group of brave  men and women from across Ireland have posed for a nude calendar to fund a Supreme Court case to make the Government  end its  archaic and risky  mandatory fluoride policy. The  Naked Fluoride Calendar 2014  being sold by @fluoridegirl Aisling Fitzgibbon  will fund  a court case  to  make the Government end Ireland’s 50-year-old policy of mandatory water fluoridation in 2014. 

Forced Fluoridation  of Irish water began in Ireland in 1964, after Gladys Ryan, a Dublin Mother-of-five, lost a six-week Supreme Court battle to prevent it. Gladys was represented in court by Amnesty Founder Sean McBride and by former Fine Gael Minister Richie Ryan.

Campaigners believe the health benefits of ending fluoridation here would be enormous. Banning fluoridation would also save us money - a minimum of 4.5M Euro per annum. This could be used to upgrade Ireland’s creaking Victorian water supply system. Problems with Dublin’s water recently resulted in a million people being cut off and unable to flush the loo or brush their teeth between 8pm and 8am for almost a week.

 The Calendar Boys and  Girls joined their ringleader, nutritionist Aisling Fitzgibbon, 27, from Kerry, at the White Lady art gallery on Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Quay, to launch the 2014 Calendar and party with DJs and journalists from Hot Press, the music magazine which has supported the  50- year battle.

 The Naked Fluoride Calendar 2014 is on sale for 9.99 euro from www.thegirlagainstfluoride.com.

  Ivan Yates promised his party would end water fluoridation if it was re-elected, way back in 2001, but Fine Gael  did not put this promise  into its programme for Government when it was elected.

Happy 2B Fluoride Free in 2013

Thanks to Declan Waugh for all his Good Work in 2012 :)

Wishing You all A Fluoride Free New Year in 2013

The day we met a confused snake

At the Circus, we met a confused snake, who was thankfully quite docile.

Snow in Mulvey Park 2010

Snow in Mulvey Park,

 December 2010

Christmas show from Australia

This is a Wonderful Christmas Show
By Simon Baldwin in  the Northern Territories, Australia,
Thanks to Phoenix Chick for sharing


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Hot From Doha - Sexy Phil Puts Crap in Irish Water

There was a gas escape at a fluoride processing plant in Shannon yesterday which resulted in seven workers  being hospitalised and an industrial estate  being evacuated after a vapour cloud made breathing difficult.
But it's all ok now, apparently.  Just as we are all supposed to accept  that a little bit of poison in our water is good for our teeth.

The water that people in Ireland are forced to drink is laced with chemical waste, by government dictat, since 1964. Ireland is one of only three countries remaining in the world that persists with the bizarre idea that putting  a small  dose of a grade two poison into public  water is  somehow okay.
Most countries  halted water fluoridation  in the 1970s, 1980s, or, like Finland, in the 1990s. None of these places  have  reported tooth problems as a result.
But just as with abortion legislation,  Irish legislators are so  behind the times, it is not even funny. It is really not funny either  for the kids here who are suffering with painful bone cancers, or for  the millions of Irish  people with thyroid problems. All of these medical conditions are made worse by fluoride, because  it prevents the thyroid master gland functioning normally.  Abnormal thyroid function causes obesity, alzheimers, arthritis and depression and  these illnesses create massive medical bills for the state.

So, because sexy Phil Hogan and his secretary, who were  pictured cavorting  at  a Climate Change Conference in Doha on  the front page of this month's Phoenix Magazine, persist in buying the myth that  fluoride prevents  tooth cavities developing, Ireland  spends  around ten million euro a year putting crap in our water,
Hogan's cabinet colleague Health Minister  James Reilly has a very unhealthy population to deal with, thanks to the environement \minister's dealings with Chemifloc, the company that had seven workers in hospital after an accident at their Shannon  Plant last night.
Hardly Dr Reilly's fault then, that his  health budget is massively overspent, when it's  Hogan's department adding Chemifloc crap to the water.

But is  Reilly really interested in people being healthy? He is a doctor and needs  his colleagues to  have patients.  Reilly claims to be a reformer,  but he has accomplished little. He could save his skin, by listening  to scientists a bit.  HE COULD GET  Phil Hogan  to stop putting poison in public water. Then people would not  get so sick, andMinister Reilly would not be so over budget.
Why, when he is in such deep shit, does Minister Reilly not do what Fine Gael  said it  would in 2000, and remove Fluoride from Irish water?
When scientists like Declan Waugh of www.environ.ie wrote to the Government in March this year, to explain that  fluoridation was a massively expensive liability  that we   really could not afford to pursue any longer, the Dept of  Health brushed him off. Aah it's grand, they said. As long as it's only a little hit.

 Why? Why  would a government desperate to cut its spending continue to spend more than 10 Million euro a year on  a substance that makes people sick?
 Is only a litle bit  sick ok? Like a little bit pregnant is ok?  Or maybe Dr Reilly and Minister Hogan and Taoiseach Enda Kenny  are only a little bit stupid? I really hope they are stupid, because the alternative is that they are not stupid and are therefore corrupt, or willfully negligent.

So I am  sorry,  that I can't say Irish water  is okay. I can  only say that the PRESENT coalition government, for its own reasons, feels a burning need to spend ten million euro a year on adding a substance to public warter that makes people sick and sabotages infant brain development.There was a Seanad debate on whether mothers should be warned  that giving Irish tap  water to their babies would hinder their brain development, and just as with the abortion issue, they decided to do FUCK ALL. The Government advice, issued after much consideration about just  how to explain to people how  fluoride in water affects babies, was that   breast is best.  Yes that IS true, but it is certainly  not the full story. The truth is that giving tap water from IRISH PUBLIC SUPPLIES TO BABIES UNDER TWO YEARS will probably damage their ability to think. Forever.

What is almost worse,  is that the Irish Government persists in its  claims, despite evidence to the  contrary, that the many   illnesses caused by fluoride are somehow  an acceptable  form of collateral damage, because Fluoride is  so good at preventing  tooth cavities.  This logic is just plain  weird. The Irish Government  seems to be saying to scientists like Declan Waugh:  "Yeah, right, we know it causes cancer and  arthritis and that yeah, but look you'll have nice teeth, Declan. "Even if  your kids are  made into cretins by drinking  public water, don't worry, we have it all under control.

So, please come back  Father Ted and  bring Jeremy Bentham with you. All is forgiven, because we need some help weighing up infant brains against tooth cavities. Maybe Mrs Doyle could make us a cup of tea, while we try to figure it out.
We  will definitely need  a few more statistics to enliven the talks at  the Science farce the  Irish Government is planning  to stage next July. Maybe  we could get  Father Ted out of retirement to open it.  if not, I'm sure his worthy successor Mario Rosenstock  will find some fresh material there.

Designer micro-home made from shipping container

 Dublin designer builds the My Pad micro home from container - 

 Containers also being used as offices - What about making a community space from one?

 A Dublin-based interior designer who used to present a TV make-over show has created the prototype for a holiday home she calls the My Pad, by upcycling an old shipping container.The My Pad  was designed and  built  by Sinead Moore, who  used to present  RTE’s Beyond the Hall Door   series.

Moore's prototype My Pad is  a holiday home which sleeps two adults and two children, and is based on one 20 foot container.  The My Pad has 129 square feet of living space. It  is lined with wood and insulated. The price of 18,000 plus VAT, includes delivery by truck and connection to the national grid. It can be delivered and habitable within six weeks.

The My Pad micro dwelling will be sold in two sizes, a 20 foot or 40 foot version, according to a Sunday Times report by Niall Toner. The smaller size was used to build Moore’s prototype, and it is getting lots of attention.

She got the idea to convert  the container into a home after spending  a holiday glam camping in West Cork , and then learning that there was a global surplus of  shipping containers due to the economic slowdown.
Moore now runs an interior design business of the same name from offices in Sandyford with  her business partner Michael O Connor .

Architects around the world have been converting shipping containers into buildings for years. Their standard measurements make containers easy to interlock and combine into larger structure. Plus they are very strong and already meet lots of standards. There are an estimated 17M of them  now available at quite low prices.

They are popular in Amsterdam, Australia and  and Berlin, and  a Dublin–based architectural group, ABK, designed and built a live-work scheme in London’s docklands in 2005 which used recycled shipping  containers  Container City is at Trinity buoy Wharf, near Canning Town in London. In the US, a charity called PFNC creates homes from old shipping containers. Conversions there cost less than Euro 2000.

Another Dublin architect Richard Barnwell, who works with www.exhibit.ie came up with an idea for a multi-storey office design based on containers for his  final year industrial design project at NCAD, which  also got a lot of attention  from architects globally. He has plans to develop the project further.

It would  be great to create a community project in Windy Arbour that involved re-using and upcycling  two or more containers into a public building especially if it could  be used to develop local  construction skills and  also provide a much needed meeting place for local people.

One idea I would like to pursue is that of working with the Electricity Supply Board  ESB and DLR County Council  around adding a shipping container based building to the roof of the electricity supply station on the  first green at Mulvey Park, which is next door to the Central  Mental  Hospital.

If the ESB is interested, the new container- based community space could also offer a recharging point for electric cars, which I know the government is keen to roll out over the next few years.

 The cost would be minimal for the ESB and it would be a great way to revitalise Windy Arbour, using architecture, new technology and by getting  people in the community involved and developing new skills.

 It would be great to be involved in a community project which could redevelop an old shipping ontainer for use as a community space. If you agree and  you would also like to make this  kind of project happen in Dublin, you can contact  me  by email: shan.sharklet@gmail.com

Dublin Zombie Walk 2 Protest Govt's Fluoride insanity

Why I'm organising the Dublin Zombie Walk to protest against Fluoride in our water

Gosh, Even though I have not recovered from Summer holiday jetlag yet, I have  somehow got myself involved with organizing a horde of zombies to deliver a petition to the Irish Government asking it to ban the addition of fluoride to Irish  water.
I thought that since fluoride is meant to turn us into zombies, and since the  Irish Government has refused to respond to rational requests from scientists and environmentalists and health campaigners, why not  protest against against its completely irrational and unreasonable  position on water fluoridation using insane and irrational tactics.

 I got the Zombie walk  idea on holidays in Vancouver, when  my  daughter and I met a few of the 5000 Zombies who took to the streets one Sunday in beautiful British Columbia for the fifth annual Zombie Walk there.
 Zombie Walks are really popular now, because of the popularity of Zombie TV shows and films. They've  had them in Brighton, San Diego and  Paris, so why not in Dublin, I reasoned, where our Government is using the same stuff in our water that  Hitler used in  his Concentration camps to  keep the inmates mellow, err, chilled, well, zombified, if you like.

I'm a local newspaper turned business and technology journalist who runs a  web -based support group for  people in Ireland who are living with thyroid illness.  In 2006 I was editor of a  UK magazine called  Water & Waste Treatment, when I first became aware of  the worldwide campaign to have fluoride removed from public water supplies. I didn't use the one article I was offered back then in that magazine, as I felt it didn't meet the criteria for publication and I wasn't convinced that the claims it made about the effects of fluoride on health could really be backed up. Many more books and research articles have been published since then, and my views on fluoride have changed dramatically.
 I  moved back to Ireland in 2007 where I have been receiving treatments for a serious thyroid illness since. Losing my job in 2008 gave me  more time to focus on my health and I found lots of useful information on thyroid illness in books and in online sources that helped me recover my health. I  managed to achieve thyroid balance again in 2010 while taking  a very low dose of anti-thyroid medication and  by 2011( last year) I  was able to stop taking the medicine without suffering a relapse.  I was so pleased that I'd managed to sort out my thyroid illness that  in 2010 I decided to  set up an online support group to help others. The site I set up is called Thyroid Support Ireland or TSI for short. It's at WWW.mythyroidireland.webs.com. There are 75 TSI members now, and  it is through two of them in particular, that I have become aware of how badly our Government's position on Fluoride affects the health of people in Ireland.

The Irish government is one of only three worldwide that demands all water authorities here add fluoride to public water supplies. This is a  ridiculous and scandalous position to take, not to mention damned expensive. We are literally being forced to pay for poison. Fluoride was actually used as an anti thyroid drug, so if you are taking eltroxin or any other thyroid hormone substitute, drinking  Irish water will negate the effect of the drugs your doctor is prescribing to boost  your thyroid hormone.  If you are taking eltroxin ( The most popular thyroid hormone substitute in Ireland) and on a medical card , the Government is effectively paying to dose  you  with two drugs that cancel each other's effects out. Why? I am not sure why the Fine Gael Labour coalition feels unable to tackle the problem of Ireland's fluoride policy, as Fine Gael said it would remove fluoridde from public water supplies in 2000 when it was in opposition. So that is why I am leading a march of zombies on FG headquarters in Mount Street on Friday 26th October. We intend to ask Enda for an explanation on his party's flip-flopping on fluoride. Or we might try to eat his liver. You should consider dressing up in your finest zombie gear and joining us.  We might even make a bit of difference.
You can find out more about the Dublin Zombie Walk walk on Facebook in the Freedom from Fluoride Group's events section.