One of the members of the support group posted this link to a timely article on the link between lead and criminal behavior–not just here, but around the world. Pretty impressive. Unfortunately, the article’s focus is solely on lead, and not other heavy metals like mercury, which also affect brain and body function, and is everywhere in the atmosphere.
Anybody wanna bet that this will not be looked at in the case of Adam Lanza or any of the mass killers?
I am just stunned. Eugenics, anyone??
Nothing in this article about him having amalgams or mercury exposure or diet (if he is gluten intolerant, leading to schizophrenia).
No…we can’t have scientists looking at stuff like that, because that’s too simple an answer and the ways to fix it make us uncomfortable. It means we have to give up some things that pollute our environment and we have to make more of an effort to understand the diet and immune system and how they affect our brains.
I mean, really, “science” has taught us that amalgams are safe, right??
…and “science” has brought us pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, and genetically modified organisms.
So, yeah, scientists with biases and prejudices should *absolutely* assign a value to a gene and making sweeping generalizations with those biases. /snark
More here. Be sure to note the Americans funding this garbage.
I can’t remember if I’ve blogged on this website or not, so forgive the repeat if I did~
Celiac.com is a wonderful resource for those with gluten intolerance/celiac.
I was reading the forums from others and it really helps especially during the holidays. One of the posters has family that don’t understand how serious the condition is and that they can’t eat the normal foods associated with the holidays. The family member took offense that she would want to fix food for her family (husband and child are affected) separately.
In another post, it really struck home for me–a new member asked if she could cheat a little, as long as she was eating right most of the time. I have to admit that I’ve cheated, too, and was thinking that as long as I was eating the right foods 90% of the time, that a little bit of cheating wouldn’t hurt.
Wrong.
The other members were quick to tell her in no uncertain terms not to do it. For one, even if you’re diligent about eating the right foods, you never know when you’ll be exposed to cross contamination (eating food prepared in a facility that also prepares wheat products or even breathing the wheat dust while someone else is baking can affect one, as well). One member related that she got fed up with the gluten-free diet and for a year or so ate whatever she wanted….she was at a pizzeria when she doubled over in pain and had to be taken to the hospital. They rushed her into emergency surgery and removed part of her bowel that had literally exploded. She now has a colostomy and hopes to heal enough to get it removed in the near future.
And on the support group (GAPS), a member posted about her child that had been given crackers by the teacher. When the parent raised alarm at this, and how this was not allowed, the teacher made some comment that it was *only* six crackers (or something like that).
Incredible!
If the child had a peanut allergy, and this teacher had given him/her peanuts, it would be considered a serious breach of duty.
Even a doctors have told their Celiac patients that they can cheat *a little*. Wow.
And trying to tell my family about this disease and warning them that it’s inherited and pointing out signs of it has fallen on deaf ears….some even get a little perturbed at me….<sigh>
I was just stunned last night when the news reported that Nancy Lanza was taking her troubled son to shooting ranges and teaching him how to shoot a gun. What on Earth was she thinking?! Some links here and here.
It’s just beyond comprehension how she is portrayed as being so fearful of her son, and then teaching him not only to shoot, but to have guns in the home–it makes absolutely no sense.
One of the stories says she was “responsible” and this meant she would keep the guns locked up. But if she’s out showing off the guns to her landscaper, and anyone that comes to the home, then I have my doubts on whether the guns are kept locked up. She was obsessed with them.
Story after story states that she was this great mother and doted on her son and was advocating for him…but it just doesn’t go with the other details coming out–keeping in mind that the Connecticut State Police stated they had “good evidence” they recovered at the home.
I’m wondering about Nancy’s mental state, as well.
Adam Lanza was reported to have Asperger’s, which is a form of autism. He was painfully shy. He was intelligent, but could not connect with people and with him burning himself, he was crying out for someone to help him.
All of the above symptoms can be connected to mercury/heavy metal poisoning, which some believe (me being one of them) is linked to autism.
A good general article here on the symptoms.
An article here linking heavy metals with autism, ADD, Asperger’s, etc. (I don’t recommend the products or cleanses this site is pushing).
A quote from the above:
The relationship of the heavy metals and children with autistic symptoms is being researched from every angle thought of. One team of investigators reported damage to the intestinal mucosal layer , in the form of increased permeability, in over 40% of autistic children tested. This gastrointestinal dysfunction would allow greater amount of toxins to penetrate the gut barrier into systemic circulation, and thus increase the toxin burden in children unable to properly process this onslaught of toxin agents.
This is known among those of us with “leaky gut”–the question is which comes first–the heavy metal poisoning that damages the gut, or the damaged gut (from undigested gluten) allowing more heavy metals to poison us?
Rage is one thing that is linked to heavy metal poisoning, so it is not unreasonable to think that Adam could have been toxic. What I want to know is this: Did his mother have amalgams? Did Adam? Was there any known exposure to heavy metals (a redundant question on my part, because it’s not IF you’ve been exposed, it’s when and how much)?
Robert Kennedy speaks about the increase in autism with increased vaccination here.
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(A side note here: Santa just arrived here in the Library. There’s a group of little ones here for story hour–squealing with delight. Nice. Trying hard not to get emotional with the mixed feelings….)
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A good article here on toxins in Stratford, Connecticut. Another here on toxins in the fish in CN rivers. And since the damage to DNA happens slowly, from generation to generation, it’s quite possible that Nancy was mildly toxic, and Adam was more so…
A side story here on a nuclear reactor in Connecticut also being shut down because the water in Long Island sound was too hot to cool it. If you recall, this also happened here in the midwest. (Nuclear radiation damages the thyroid, among other things, which can also lead to mental issues.)
Government reported toxic releases in Connecticut. Unfortunately, it doesn’t mention mercury releases, but this does.
Finally, this from HuffPost on heavy metal poisoning.
The questions to what happened in Connecticut will continue, and hopefully, this time, we will get the right answers. It’s a complex problem, but not impossible to solve–it just takes more than lather, rinse, repeat…
I’m waiting to see this entire story unfold, because there’s definitely more going on behind the scenes here.
Here’s the CDC description of fungal meningitis: http://www.cdc.gov/meningitis/fungal.html
(I thought the symptoms are what I experience every month with my migraines–stiff neck, low grade fever, nausea & vomiting, altered mental state….interesting.)
Indiana is now up to 32 cases: http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/indiana/ind-agency-state-has-32-fungal-meningitis-cases
It’s interesting that the CDC says the Midwest is particularly susceptible to the causes of fungal meningitis, that we have all sorts of bugs floating around that will cause illness if our immune system is compromised. I’m also curious about the mold that has begun growing on houses here for…say, at least the last two decades. I’ve lived here all my life, and never saw this.
I found this interesting piece on Purdue’s website:http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2012/Q3/poor-pollination-leads-to-moldy-growth-in-corn.html Makes one wonder, doesn’t it?
My “antenna” went up with compromised immune system, since I’m trying to fix my “leaky gut”–so….I went on a search to find more stuff on the connection between leaky gut and meningitis. While I couldn’t find any articles directly linking it, I am suspicious this may be a factor in why these folks became ill–one of the big reasons is that we on the mercury support group talk about the fight against Candida and other fungal infections that take over because our immune systems are shot. With the inflamed gut, that fungus enters the bloodstream, creating all sorts of health issues.
One of the cures, however, is a natural one: coconuts. It has lauric acid in it which naturally kills off fungal critters. The group recommends taking a teaspoon of organic, non-refined coconut oil per day. It has to be non-refined because the process of refining it takes away all the benefits. You can also cook with it, as the health benefits are not destroyed by cooking. I’ve also used it instead of shortening when I used to make oatmeal cookies <sigh> one of those things I won’t be able to have anymore….
It is supposed to be like breast milk, which also has lauric acid. Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride (GAPS doctor/author) has stated that breast milk is crucial for the first six months of life–babies are born with a sterile gut and the breast milk will provide the beneficial “good” bacteria. I think that is why the Boomer generation is so screwed–the majority of us were bottle-fed, and exposed to chemicals unlike generations before–both of which will diminish and destroy the immune system.
Here’s a pretty good website on all the health issues mold/fungus can cause. It’s stunning that birth defects and cancer can be caused by mold. And that it is a neurotoxin. Wow. Why isn’t more attention paid to this? And does GM corn and other food multiply mold’s effects?
More from the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride….
p.321
Top Ten Influences which boost immunity:
1. Fresh animal fats (from meats and dairy) and cholesterol-rich foods (particularly raw egg yolks). [Dr. Campbell-McBride emphasizes that cholesterol is very beneficial, despite the false promotion of junk science saying otherwise.]
2. Cold-pressed oils: olive oil, fish oils, nut and seed oils.
3. Onions and garlic.
4. Freshly pressed veggie & fruit juices. [the fresh foods have enzymes that help your body to digest them properly. ]
5. Regular consumption of greens: parsley, dill, coriander, spring onion and garlic, etc. [word of caution: coriander has an effect on mercury mobilization, and it’s not been researched so there is no reliable info. on whether it carries it out of the body, too.]
6. Probiotic supplementation and fermented foods. [She explains that gut flora is seriously compromised in most of the population, and these will help restore normal flora.]
7. Contact with animals: horses, dogs, etc. Having a pet in the family can do a lot for children’s immune status.
8. Swimming in unpolluted natural waters: lakes, rivers, sea.**
9. Physical activity in the fresh air.
10. Exposure to sunlight and sensible sunbathing.
**These are non-chlorinated swimming pools. Pretty cool, eh?
…and if you prefer to do it yourself, Mother Earth News has this for you. They lose me with advocating man-made materials, however, but you’ll get the basics from the article.
~~~~~~~~
Next, Dr. Campbell-McBride has a list of the Top Ten Influences that damage immunity:
1. Sugar and everything containing it: sweets, soft drinks, confectionery, ice cream, etc. [she does, however, allow natural honey…whew]
2. Processed carbohydrates: cakes, biscuits, crisps, snacks, breakfast cereals, white bread, and pasta.
3. Chemically altered and artificial fats: margarine, cooking and vegetable oils, processed foods with these. [basically, the more they change the structure of the food, the worse it is for you–raw and fermented being the best foods.]
4. Lack of high quality protein in the diet, from meats, fish eggs, dairy products, nuts and seeds. [Dr. Campbell-McBride writes quite a bit against the vegetarian diet. She says that the proteins in the plants are not easily absorbed/digested by our digestive systems. I was a vegetarian from 1998-ish to 2006, when I was advised to start eating meat because of severe anemia, so I understand what she’s saying, but I had hopes that once I was well again that I could go back to vegetarian, but it doesn’t look promising.]
5. Exposure to man-made chemicals: cleaning and washing chemicals, personal care products, paints, fire retardants, petrochemicals, pesticides, etc.
6. Exposure to man-made radiation: electronic screens: TV, computer, play stations; mobile phones, high-powered electricity lines, nuclear stations, nuclear waste, anti-cancer medication, anti-viral drugs.
7. Drugs: antibiotics, steroids, antidepressants, painkillers, anti-cancer medication, anti-viral drugs.
8. Lack of fresh air and physical activity.
9. Lack of exposure to sunlight.
10. Lack of exposure to common microbes in the environment. […] Living in too sterilized environment is strongly associated with compromised immunity.
~~~~~~~~
More from the book:
p.71 […] In an old Textbook of Psychiatry by Henderson and Gillespie, published in 1937, it is clearly stated: “A thorough physical examination is absolutely essential in every case–schizophrenics are commonly poorly nourished”. […] Deficiencies in vitamins (such as niacin, or B3, B6, B12, B1, folic acid, Vitamin C)and many minerals (such as magnesium, zinc, manganese, etc.) are routinely recorded in schizophrenic patients.[…] U.S. professor Curtis Dohan, M.D., devoted many years to researching what connection digestive abnormalities in schizophrenic patients may have with their psychological state.
…Dr. Dohan found that symptoms of schizophrenia could be dramatically relieved by cutting all grains…
He also found that some cultures in the South Pacific which never consumed grains, had no schizophrenia. Only when they adopted a Western diet full of grains did they stat getting cases of schizophrenia. Another good example is Ireland, where people did not consume wheat until the potato famine in 1845. Before then there were no cases of schizophrenia or coeliac disease recorded in Ireland.
(I can’t find it now, but I had seen a link a while back where Germans also suffer from gluten intolerance. They observed that schizophrenia went down dramatically during WWII, when grains were scarce. So, yeah, I have both German/Irish genes, so I’m pretty much SOL in the gluten department.)
~~~~~~~~~~~
I know this diet is spot on–but it’s not easy. Dr. Campbell-McBride has a list of allowed foods and non-allowed foods. She eliminates ALL grains, so I was correct in my thinking that I couldn’t eat rice nor potatoes (carbs).
On the non-allowed foods, I got to…chocolate. Read it again to make sure that I hadn’t misread it….
Chocolate? She wants me to give up chocolate? Was she freaking crazy? I didn’t think I could do it….*anything* but chocolate…
…so I ate a bunch of chocolate…
…and felt so awful that I thought I’d have to at least give it a shot.
I’m at day five…and holding my own. I have a fear that closer to *that* time of the month, however, I’ll be craving it like crazy and will lose the battle…
On the more positive side, I have lost fifteen pounds since March. And my gut is less swollen. It’s freaking amazing. 🙂
…if there is such a thing…
This was posted by one of the group’s members, Brian McBlain. Since mercury toxicity causes chronic fatigue, severe memory loss, loss of coordination, personality changes, etc., many folks have lost their jobs because of it.
*** Employability: A few of us are approaching sufficient memory, stress, and general functionality to re-enter the work force.
Explaining the employment gap is going to be fun…
10. Took some time off to test my metal.
9. Wanted to get in touch with my inner ore.
8. Heavy metal toxicity made me allergic to work.
7. My memory got so bad I couldn’t remember appointments like work.
6. I kept getting lost in my driveway.
5. It is hard to dress for success when you can’t get out of bed.
4. I thought I get in touch with my asocial side.
3. I tried putting pants on one leg at a time and kept falling over.
2. I’d drive to work and not find it.
1. Eye kudn’t tiepe wurth sh
(Reprinted with permission from the author.)
Funny because it’s so true, especially to the more toxic of us.
When my brain was saturated with mercury, I got to the point where my hands were shaking, as in Parkinson’s. I could not hold a thought in my head. Even though I loved to read, it was torture because I had to keep re-reading the same passages over and over because of the severity of ADD and memory loss.
The worst day–the lowest point–was when I couldn’t remember my own children’s names. It was then that I knew that something was terribly wrong–and no freaking doctor could diagnose the root cause. Thanks to my guardian angel for leading me to the answer and not giving up on me.
I finally was able to get a copy of the Gut and Psychology Syndrome book by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride from the library.
(A little warning here–a little gross, so if you’re eating breakfast or lunch, probably not the time to read this.:)
p. 11-12
…in 1998 Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a consultant gastroenterologist at the Royal Free Hospital in London and his team published their research, suggesting a connection between chronic inflammatory bowel disease and autism.
[…]
Dr. Wakefield and his team have identified a condition in the bowel of those children, which they named Ileal-Lymphoid-Nodular Hyperplasia and Non-specific Colitis. […] Ileum is a name given to the last three-fifths of the small intestine. […] The major function of the small intestine in general is food absorption. However, not much food absorption happens in the ileum. The walls of this part of the small intestine are packed with large numbers of lymph nodes, called Peyer’s patches, which are small, round or bean shaped structures, ranging in size from 1 to 25 mm.
[…]
We know two major functions they fulfill:
1. The first function is filtering the lymph (tissue liquid) coming from the ileum and removing bacteria, viruses, fungi, dead cells (including cancer cells) and various toxins from it. It is a good place to look at what particular infectious agents might be lurking in your intestine because the lymph nodes are like a prison from these viruses, bacteria, dead cells, and fungi–if they cannot destroy them, they imprison them. So, when gastroenterologists perform endoscopies, they always try to get a sample of these lymph nodes to be examined under the microscope. This is what Dr. Wakefield’s team had done.
2. A second function of lymph nodes is production of lymphocytes–a large group of immune system cells, a major function of which is fighting infections. In fact lymph nodes themselves are made primarily of lymphocytes, together with some other cells. So, when the lymph nodes are faced with an infection, they start producing a lot of lymphocytes to fight the infection, which makes the lymph nodes large and inflamed, sometimes painful. This enlargement of the lymph nodes is called lymphoid nodular hyperplasia and this is what Dr. Wakefield has found in the ileum of autistic children.
Because many of the children from his study have developed autistic features after MMR vaccines, this is the direction Dr. Wakefield pursued when looking at what particular infection may have caused this enlargement of the lymph nodes. Suspecting that it might be the measles virus, he involved in his research a well-known virologist Dr. John O’Leary, a professor of pathology from Dublin. Sure enough, Dr. O’Leary has found the same measles virus used in the MMR vaccine in the ileal lymph nodes of the autistic children. This particular part of Dr. Wakefield’s research concerning the measles virus and MMR vaccine, casued a lot of controversy and vigorous resistance from government and the medical establishment which distracted attention from the main issue. The main issue is: autistic children have enlarged and inflamed lymph nodes in their gut wall, which is a clear sign of a fight with some infection going on there.
p.13
[…] Dr. Wakefield’s team has found various stages of the mucous membranes of the colon and intestines, abscesses filled with pus, ulcers, and plenty of faecal compaction. In some places the gut wall was so inflamed with such enlargement of the lymph nodes, that it almost obstructed the lumen of the gut. In some ways this inflammation resembled ulcerative colitis, in some–Crohn’s disease, when some features were completely unique to these autistic children.
[…] the findings of Dr. Wakefield and his team…have been independently supported by…Buie, et al; Uhlmann et al; Furlano, et al; Morris, et al; …[and by] practicing doctors around the world [through clinical observation].
~~~~~~~~
The autism connection to heavy metal poisoning is talked about quite a bit on the support group–the anecdotal evidence is to voluminous to be ignored. However, Dr. Campbell-McBride makes a point later that there are children with inflamed guts whose parents have not had them vaccinated. Then the questions turn to what else could be causing it? She touches on our toxic environment and how our bodies are already being assaulted by chemicals daily and it’s destroying our immune systems. It doesn’t take a whole lot to tip them over the edge so that one starts having problems such as “leaky gut”.
I do think it’s significant that the same measles virus injected into these kids is the same one found in the inflamed gut. Huge red flag. Dr. McBride still believes that children should be vaccinated, however, which just blows me away. She has a list of cautions–like children of parents with compromised immune systems, siblings with immune system issues or epilepsy, schizophrenia, autism, etc., should not be vaccinated at all. Next, she recommends vaccines in one single dose–she makes the point that we don’t get measles, mumps and rubella all at once, so why should we be exposed to all of them at once? Same with the Diptheria, Pertussis, and Tetanus vaccine.
However, Dr. McBride fails to acknowledge that there is a huge controversy about how people’s health was improved with better hygienic practices, not by vaccination.
Here’s a resource center on vaccines.
What I don’t get is this: I had ALL of the diseases they’re now vaccinating for–both kinds of measles, mumps (both sides at the same time, ugh), and chicken pox at six months of age–and I survived. OMG! It’s a miracle!
I mean, measles are scary for a pregnant woman because it can lead to mental retardation…but this idea struck me as I read about all the mental issues associated with the measles vaccine (and leaky gut). Although it didn’t cause mental retardation, was it behind the other mental issues? Which is worse–taking a chance for mental retardation on a few or causing so many to suffer their entire lives? That gets into a huge ethics question.
And there is so much about the immune system that is not understood. If there’s no profit in it, the medical establishment isn’t interested.
I still think information is the key–give people the information and let them make up their own minds to whether they want to risk it or not. For me, if I knew all that I know now, I would take that risk. I feel guilty even now for giving my kids antibiotics when they were young–it’s another drug that is not fully understood and they do not count destruction of the “good” bacteria as a problem, even though it causes serious problems for people’s immune system.
…and you thought that sexism was a thing of the past…
…lest we think that history is in the past…or that it doesn’t affect the present…
From Gloria Steinem’s book, Revolution from Within, a Book on Self-Esteem:
“Freud, for instance, was actually very clear about his adversarial stance to women’s equality. “We must not allow ourselves to be deflected…by…the feminist,” he wrote to his colleagues, “who are anxious to force us to regard the two sexes as completely equal in position and worth.’ Yet his theories have been cited for most of the last century as objective.”
This is significant because the psychiatric profession is based on Freud’s misogyny. Now, they’ll tell you that he has been discredited, but from what I read of the Diagnostic Manual (DSM), the misogyny is very much a part of diagnosis and treatment. There was one “disease” that was particularly disturbing–it described the patient as “being emotional, moody” and other symptoms I can’t remember, that pretty much described women. If only women could just be more like men!
I remember picking up one of my children’s high school textbooks and saw where they devoted nine pages to discussing Freud. Of course, they said that he had been discredited, but then they devote nine pages to him? Then I looked at the number of pages devoted to the women’s rights movement…not even two complete pages. They pretty much condensed it all. It was something like “women fought for the right to vote…” And not much more, if I recall correctly.
There’s more from the book that I thought was significant:
“It is a modern compendium of the scholarly, scientific, and popular evidence–ranging from comparative measurements of skull sizes and arm lengths to anthropological surveys and popular caricatures–that had been originated by 19th century scientists and popularized by journalists to “prove” a respectable and popular thesis: the Irish had descended from apes only a few generations before, while the English were descendants of man created in God’s image and thus “angels.”
Gees o pete, talk about self-serving “science”…This “theory” was also used against blacks, too, and pretty much any member of a group that was deemed “less than”. And being Irish, I’m more than a little offended at this characterization, as anyone should be.
…there’s more…
“…neuroanatomists believed that higher mental activities were located in the frontal lobes of the brain. Not surprisingly, craniologists confirmed that those areas were larger in male skulls than in female ones, and that the less important, parietal regions at the top and sides of the skull were smaller in females. Toward the turn of the century, however, neuroanatomists revised their opinion: higher intellectual abilities were located in the parietal regions after all. Soon, craniologists had discovered that their earlier measurements had been inaccurate: males actually had larger parietal lobes than females, and the newly important frontal regions were smaller.”
Um-hmmm…as if you could prove anything by brain size. It’s so ridiculous that this was taken as “science” and not discounted for the biased and subjective work that it is.
How does one measure intelligence? Is it the ability to do complicated math? Or is it the ability to recognize plants and their healing abilities? What about the ability to communicate effectively? What about “street smarts” aren’t they a sign of intelligence? See my point—who gets to decide what intelligence means? And doesn’t the meaning of intelligence change with changing situations?
Lastly, here’s this humdinger:
By 1879, G LeBon, a French craniologist, had no doubt: “In the most intelligent races, as among the Parisians, there are a large number of women whose brains are closer in size to those of gorillas than to the most developed male brains. This inferiority is so obvious that no one can contest it for a moment, only its degree is worth discussion. (From research work by scholar Elizabeth Fee).
See…anytime someone says that you can’t contest their findings, it’s a good guess that they’re full of it. Take into account that at this time, the “scientists” were saying that learning “shrunk” a woman’s uterus. They drew this conclusion after observing that women who went to college were less likely to have children. So, naturally, it must be the dreaded education of women that caused their uteruses to shrivel. Geesh.
As recently as the eighties, when I learned that doctors drew the conclusion that Endometriosis was a “career woman’s disease” because they only diagnosed it in women in their thirties who had put off childbirth while they pursued careers. When they were ready and tried to conceive, they were unable to and sought help. Thus, doctors drew the conclusion that it was because these women had pursued careers…not that the condition was caused by medical reasons. (I wonder now if Endometriosis is caused by environmental toxins?)
And don’t forget the video I had linked to in earlier blogs of the psychiatric “profesisonals” who blamed the mother for her child having autism. Pure prejudice.
I discovered a book among my mother’s things about Amish methods of healing. They are a culture that pretty much wants to be left alone, so they seek natural remedies to cure ailments, only using medical doctors when absolutely necessary, such as broken bones.
While reading the book, I came upon the tidbit that they don’t value vaccination. I was curious about this, and found this blog on their very low autism rates. It’s absolutely stunning that their rates are 1 in 10,000, while the general population has climbed with the pressure of a vaccinated society. They also employ mostly organic methods of growing food. Here’s another blog on the Amish.
According to this article, the rate of autism for the general population is 60 in 10,000. Sixty! And it’s rather telling that so many parents are home-schooling their children to avoid having them vaccinated…if what this article states is true.
…and the CDC and medical profession continue to ignore the overwhelming evidence…
Eagle 