DFL RECOMMENDS THAT ALL SOUTH AFRICANS WEAR MASKS IN PUBLIC

Doctors For Life International highly recommends that ALL South Africans now wear face masks in public. The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention as well as the U.S. Government is officially recommending this.

We suggest that the public begin making their own cloth face masks to avoid draining health professional supplies in hospitals etc.

You can wash them daily with boiled water and a disinfectant such as JIK.

Need some help making a mask?

Visit this website to get some tips: CDC

DOCTORS FOR LIFE RESPONDS TO KZN RURAL COMMUNITY NEEDS

Doctors For Life International responds to the needs of KZN rural communities during #SALockdown by donating aQuelle water, information on COVID-19, hand sanitizer and face masks. We thank our donors, partners and the volunteers who join us on this project!

If you’d like to get involved, you can donate essentials which we will take to the community.

DFL LAUNCHES COVID-19 WHATSAPP HELPLINE

Doctors For Life International has launched a WhatsApp Helpline for all South Africans seeking more information on the COVID-19. Calls to this number are also welcome.

COVID-19 Helpline at (+27) 72 149 7819

Pro-abortion Professor changes his mind about fetal pain

The following discussion on fetal pain does not attempt to suggest having an abortion procedure should depend upon whether or not an unborn baby can feel pain or not. Especially since there are thousands of Biology and embryology textbooks, modern DNA studies, Medical Dictionaries, Science professors and medical researchers that all confirm that life begins at fertilization. This is a scientific certainty that alone should discourage abortion. Furthermore, it is also well documented how women suffer emotionally, psychologically and in the long term physically due to choosing an abortion. This discussion of fetal pain is to share new insight on previous thought standards that are now changing because of new research on the cortex. 

British psychology professor Stuart Derbyshire and John C. Bockmann, a physician’s assistant in the U.S. Army, published a paper in the Journal of Medical Ethics titled “Reconsidering fetal pain.” They conclude that according to several published papers on the necessity of the cortex for pain experience may have been exaggerated, for example, one study demonstrated continued pain experience in a patient with extensive damage to cortical regions generally believed to be necessary for pain experience. A further study has demonstrated activation of areas generally thought to generate pain in subjects congenitally insensitive to pain but receiving noxious stimuli. Those two studies appear to neatly dissociate pain experience from the cortex. In conclusion unborn babies can feel pain at 18 to 20 weeks, and possibly as early as 12 or 13 weeks. 

The Science Behind Preborn Pain

Ingrid Skop, MD Obstetrician from the USA, has seen unborn babies in the womb at 16 weeks gestation, withdraw their limbs when they accidentally encounter the amnio needle as she performs the Amniocentesis procedure (a process in which amniotic fluid is sampled using a hollow needle inserted into the uterus, to screen for abnormalities in the developing fetus.)

When the unborn baby feels pain, the following can be measured in response to pain: 

  • Elevated stress hormones in their blood, 
  • heart rate increases, 
  • & blood pressure increases.

COVID-19 & another population vulnerable to infection:

According to reports by The National Institutes on Health and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the populations most vulnerable to the coronavirus are individuals who smoke or vape marijuana, or have a history of smoking or vaping marijuana.

NIDA reports that “Because it attacks the lungs, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 could be an especially serious threat to those who smoke tobacco or marijuana or who vape:”

  • A report published by the Journal of the American Medical Association reviewed data from China and found that the case fatality rate for COVID-19 was 6.3 percent for people with chronic respiratory disease, compared with 2.3 percent overall (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2020).
  • NIDA also reports that vaping can harm lung health just as smoking can, and as such, people who vape can be exposed to increased risk from COVID-19.
  • In 2019, the country experienced a vaping crisis in which as many as 2,739 people were hospitalized and 68 people died (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). The more than 2,700 people who were hospitalized and suffer from residual complications associated with vaping-related lung illness are at an increased risk of severe COVID-19.

NIDA concludes: “We can make educated guesses based on past experience that people with compromised health due to smoking or vaping and people with opioid, methamphetamine, cannabis, and other substance use disorders could find themselves at increased risk of COVID-19 and its more serious complications-for multiple physiological and social/environmental reasons. The research community should thus be alert to associations between COVID-19 case severity/mortality and substance use, smoking or vaping history, and smoking- or vaping-related lung disease.”

https://www.drugabuse.gov/about-nida/noras-blog/2020/03/covid-19-potential-implications-individuals-substance-use-disorders

https://learnaboutsam.org/covid-19-and-marijuana-what-you-need-to-know/

Legalized marijuana threatens public health and safety impact report reveals

Reviewed by researchers from: University of Colorado at Denver, Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital, University of Connecticut, Yale University University of Kansas, and more.

EXECUTIVE HIGHLIGHTS

Today’s highly potent marijuana represents a growing and significant threat to public health and safety, a threat that is amplified by a new marijuana industry intent on profiting from heavy use. State laws allowing marijuana sales and consumption have permitted the marijuana industry to flourish, and in turn, the marijuana industry has influenced both policies and policy-makers. While the consequences of these policies will not be known for decades, early indicators are troubling. This report, reviewed by prominent scientists and researchers, serves as an evidence-based guide to what we currently observe in various states. We attempted to highlight studies from all the “legal” marijuana states (i.e., states that have legalized the non-medical use of marijuana). Unfortunately, data does not exist for several “legal” states, and so this document synthesizes the latest research on marijuana impacts in states where information is available.

Full Impact Report link HERE

UK – landmark court case could change the way childhood gender dysphoria is treated

A woman who received treatment for Gender Dysphoria (GD) as a teenager says the puberty-delaying drugs and testosterone prescribed to her has caused irreversible damage to her physical and mental health. Keira Bell is now taking Tavistock (gender affirmation clinic) to court. Keira says her transition turned out to be nothing more than a “coping mechanism” and that there was no real investigation into the other mental health issues she was going through. Keira adds that the transition left her feeling more depressed and suicidal and solved nothing.

Sky News research suggested that 35 psychologists have resigned from the children’s gender-identity service in three years. Six of them have now raised concerns about hormone treatment being given to children with GD. The London clinic sees children under 18, including some cases who are as young as three. Around half of children are put on drugs to pause their puberty, known as hormone blockers.

Ms Bell said she found her experience at the Tavistock Centre so distressing that she has since decided to de-transition. “It’s very difficult because you have to live with the physical changes you’ve experienced, especially when it comes to things like surgery,” she said.

“The whole process is really traumatic looking back on it, there’s no going back from it really because you are changed forever visibly.”

Ms Bell’s legal team will argue the centre’s approach was unlawful because children could not give informed consent for this kind of treatment and the potential risks of treatment were not adequately explained.

Scrutiny of the transgender “affirmative” treatment model is intensifying, and inquiries or reviews are underway in Australia, the UK, Sweden, Brazil and Germany. According to a new watchdog body called, the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM), many mainstream doctors are unaware that children’s hospital gender clinics carry out invasive medical treatments based on low-quality evidence. US physician William Malone, the spokesman for SEGM explained that the best treatment for such children should be found through scientific study, investigation and open debate. There has been an exponential rise in troubled teenagers seeking to transition. Many reportedly come to gender clinics with pre-existing mental health problems, autism, suppressed same-sex attraction, a history of child sex abuse or family trauma, and there is debate about whether they are getting the right treatment.

Hundreds of young transgender people are regretting their decision to change their sex as they are now seeking help to return to their original sex, a woman who is setting up a charity has told Sky News. Charlie Evans, 28, was born female but identified as male for nearly 10 years before detransitioning.

Sky reports that the number of young people seeking gender transition is at an all-time high but very little is heard about those who may come to regret their decision.

Dr. Michelle Cretella, president of the American College of Pediatricians has said that Other studies have found that while there is a “honeymoon period” of “reported relief and happiness” following sex reassignment treatment, it does not last. “Ten years beyond transition, however, rates of additional mental illness begin to rise precipitously, to the point that thirty years following surgical transition (mutilation), the suicide rate is 19 times greater than that of the general population.”

Landmark case against Tavistock HERE

Gender clinics operate with weak evidence HERE

Sex-change regret HERE

The Global Campaign Against Pornhub Explained

The link between pornography and Human Trafficking…

One of the most popular pornographic websites in the world called Pornhub is at the focus of the #Traffickinghub campaign which began getting and widespread awareness in early 2020. The #Traffickinghub campaign is being spearheaded by Laila Mickelwait, Director of Abolition at Exodus Cry, a long-standing and diverse movement against sexual exploitation.

Pornhub is a willing and profiting host to a wide-range of degrading material that includes (but is not limited to) racism, incest, and violence against women. In some cases, Pornhub has brazenly ignored requests to have abusive content removed for months and openly defended incestuous rape-themed content and profited off of the violent torture of women. Worse yet, evidence continues to emerge that Pornhub’s careless, profit-hungry business model has led to child sexual abuse material and content featuring the rape of trafficking victims flourishing on its site.

Earlier this year, the BBC shared the harrowing story of a rape survivor and Pornhub’s repeated refusal to remove content featuring adult men violently raping her when she was just 14-year-old.

Another time, Pornhub refused to remove material by a pornography company, GirlsDoPorn, that was a featured partner on its website even as GirlsDoPorn was facing charges of fraud, coercion, and sex trafficking in court.

It is abundantly clear that there is ample objective, nonreligious, and nonpartisan evidence that shows Pornhub is complicit with the exploitation on its site. Not only that, in many cases Pornhub has actively refused to take action against illegal content when directly confronted by it.

Article link HERE

How Legal Weed Shops Feed the Vaping Crisis

Source: Wall Street Journal

As marijuana use has become more socially accepted in the United States, those pushing for legalization should examine the recent harm that vaping has inflicted on thousands of people, many of whom were using marijuana products.

Dr. Kevin Sabet, Founder and President Smart Approaches to Marijuana, wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal laying out how the marijuana industry is to blame for more cases of this debilitating illness than was initially thought, using recent data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

As you know, the marijuana industry has been working non-stop to push the fact that its “regulated” products are not involved in the ongoing marijuana vaping crisis. But as more data are released, and the picture becomes clearer, it becomes clearer that our efforts have never been more crucial.

Proponents of the marijuana industry have dismissed the “pot vaping crisis,” with its deaths and lung injuries, as an aberration of the illicit market. Legal pot, they say, is regulated and thus not to blame for the recent spate of problems. Victims and families who came forward to warn about purchases made at state-licensed shops were lambasted by legalization advocates. When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised against using all marijuana vaping products, industry insiders questioned their motives and called the warnings conspiracy theories.

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Wall Street Journal article and video link HERE

Global Research Review of Comprehensive Sex-Education (CSE)

Re-Examining the Evidence for School-Based Comprehensive Sex Education: A Global Research Review

Link to Original Article: The Institute for Research and Evaluation

Irene H. Ericksen, M.S.* and Stan E. Weed, Ph.D.**

ABSTRACT

Purpose. To evaluate the global research on school-based comprehensive sex education (CSE) by applying rigorous and meaningful criteria to outcomes of credible studies in order to identify evidence of real program effectiveness.

Methods. The Researchers examined 120 studies of school-based sex education contained in the reviews of research sponsored by three authoritative agencies: the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the U.S. federal Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their reviews screened more than 600 studies and accepted only those that reached a threshold of adequate scientific rigor. These included 60 U.S. studies and 43 non-U.S. studies of school-based CSE plus 17 U.S. studies of school-based abstinence education (AE). The Researchers evaluated these studies for evidence of effectiveness using criteria grounded in the science of prevention research: sustained positive impact (at least 12 months post-program), on a key protective indicator (abstinence, condom use—especially consistent use, pregnancy, or STDs), for the main (targeted) teenage population, and without negative/harmful program effects.

Results. Worldwide, six out of 103 school-based CSE studies (U.S. and non-U.S. combined) showed main effects on a key protective indicator, sustained at least 12 months post-program, excluding programs that also had negative effects. Sixteen studies found harmful CSE impacts. Looking just at the U.S., of the 60 school-based CSE studies, three found sustained main effects on a key protective indicator (excluding programs with negative effects) and seven studies found harmful impact. For the 17 AE studies in the U.S., seven showed sustained protective main effects and one study showed harmful effects.

Conclusions. Some of the strongest, most current school-based CSE studies worldwide show very little evidence of real program effectiveness. In the U.S., the evidence, though limited, appeared somewhat better for abstinence education.

* Senior Research Analyst, The Institute for Research & Evaluation, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A.
** Founder & Director, The Institute for Research & Evaluation, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A.

Click HERE for a PDF file of the study, available for FREE download and distribution.

Short Videos on the Study Findings

https://vimeo.com/337241706
https://vimeo.com/337243836
https://vimeo.com/337244684
https://vimeo.com/337243313

Graphic Summary of the Study Findings