Sri Lanka President Vows To Step Down As Protesters Occupy His Palace

Sri Lanka President Vows To Step Down As Protesters Occupy His PalaceNiamh Harris – In the face of massive public protests triggered by the dire economic crisis in Sri Lanka, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has vowed that he will resign this week.

The president’s much-anticipated resignation follows mass protests on Saturday when hundreds of thousands of people descended on Colombo and overran the president’s house and office demanding he step down immediately.

Now the protestors are planning to stay put until Rajapaksa actually leaves, saying they “don’t believe it and won’t believe it until they see it in action.” Continue reading

Cinnamon’s Infection And Diabetes-Fighting Properties Revealed

Wake Up World  October 31 2013

Cinnamon’s medicinal potential is as rich and complex as its flavor and aroma, with blood sugar balancing and infection fighting at the top of the list.

Blood sugarCinnamon is a familiar spice, but few are aware of just how diverse are its medicinal properties. The US National Library of Medicine houses well over 1300 abstracts on the subject of the various forms of cinnamon’s potential health benefits.

GreenMedInfo.com has gathered together research on no less than 60 potential health benefits of this highly valued spice on our research page dedicated to the topic: Cinnamon Medicinal Properties.

First, it must be clarified that there are a wide range of plants whose bark are sold as cinnamon. The first though less used form is known as Cinnamomum verum (literally “true cinnamon”). It is sometimes called Ceylon (the ancient name of Sri Lanka) cinnamon, as it is named after the geographic region where it was first commonly cultivated. Due to its rarity, it is more expensive and harder to find on the market.

Other forms include

  •  C. cassia (Cassia or Chinese cinnamon)
  •  C. burmannii ( Indonesian cinnamon)
  •  C. loureiroi (Vietnamese cinnamon)

One of the major differences between C. verum and varieties such as C. burmannii and C. cassia is that the latter types contain much higher levels of coumarin, a naturally occurring phytochemical with blood-thinning properties. This has prompted European health agencies to warn against consuming large amounts of cinnamon varieties such as cassia.[i] Natural blood-thinning activity, of course, within the proper context can be life-saving, but when mixed with already dangerous blood-thinning drugs such as aspirin, can be a recipe for disaster – all the more reason why folks using spices and herbs in ‘pharmacological’ or heroic doses should consult a medical herbalist, or physician with a nuanced understanding of the benefits and potential harms of using high-dose herbal therapies.

Another issue that the US buyer of spices must be fully aware of is the likelihood that, unless explicitly labelled ‘USDA certified organic’, the cinnamon they are purchasing was exposed to toxic levels of gamma irradiation in a controversial process known as “electronic” or “cold” pasteurization. To learn more about this serious threat to our food supply read: The Invisible Nuclear Threat in Non-Organic Food.

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