Retired child and adolescent psychiatrist and American expatriate in New Zealand. In 2002, I made the difficult decision to close my 25-year Seattle practice after 15 years of covert FBI harassment. I describe the unrelenting phone harassment, illegal break-ins and six attempts on my life in my 2010 book The Most Revolutionary Act: Memoir of an American Refugee.
The use of the Northern Sea Route is expected to boost freight turnover through Russian waters
The first Chinese container ship has completed a transit to Europe via the Arctic’s Northern Sea Route (NSR), Russian state nuclear giant Rosatom announced on Tuesday.
Backed by Russia’s nuclear icebreaker fleet, the voyage nearly halved the shipping time compared to traditional southern routes, according to Rosatom, which has a fleet of atomic ice-breakers and operates the NSR.
Russia has been developing the NSR, a transport corridor that runs through its Arctic and Far East regions and serves as the shortest shipping link between Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. The NSR is expected to become a major trade route and could drastically reduce transportation times compared to traditional pathways through the Suez or Panama canals.
The vessel arrived at Britain’s Port of Felixstowe after a 20-day transit from China’s Ningbo. The cargo ship, with a total deadweight of nearly 25,000 tons, is scheduled to subsequently call at the European hubs of Rotterdam and Hamburg before ending its voyage in St. Petersburg.
The Arctic passage is being closely monitored by the global shipping industry as a faster alternative. A typical voyage via the Suez Canal takes about 40 days, while the route around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope takes approximately 50 days.
Rosatom stated that the route is intended to complement existing corridors and significantly contribute to the growth of global trade.
In 2024, cargo shipments along the NSR reached 37.9 million metric tons, according to Russia’s Ministry for the Development of the Far East and Arctic.
Russia has deployed eight nuclear icebreakers, including four of the latest generation, to guarantee year-round navigation on the NSR, special representative for Arctic development at Rosatom Vladimir Panov said earlier this month. The vessels create channels through the ice, allowing conventional cargo ships to use the passage.
President Vladimir Putin has previously defined the development of the NSR as a national strategic priority. Moscow’s target is to increase annual cargo volume on the route to 200 million tons by 2030, with plans to upgrade northern seaports and expand its Arctic fleet.
Yemeni attacks will stop if Israel implements the deal
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the leader of Yemen’s Ansar Allah, said on Thursday that Yemen will be “monitoring” Israel’s compliance with the Gaza ceasefire deal, warning Yemeni support for the Palestinians in Gaza would continue if the deal isn’t implemented.
“We must be at the highest levels of caution and readiness, and continue the massive popular momentum with the Palestinian people, until we determine whether the agreement will be achieved, or whether we will continue our path of support and assistance to the Palestinian people,” al-Houthi said, according to Yemen’s SABA news agency.
“We will remain vigilant, prepared, and monitor the progress of the agreement. Will it lead to an end to the aggression on the Gaza Strip and the entry of aid, food, medicine, and humanitarian needs to the Palestinian people? Will the Americans and Israelis stop their genocide against the Palestinian people and commit to a ceasefire? This is what we hope for, and it was our goal in the support operations and confronting the attack on the Palestinian people and the nation in general,” al-Houthi added.
Ansar Allah, commonly known as the Houthis, has maintained that its attacks on Israel and blockade of Israeli-linked shipping in the Red Sea would end if there were a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the Israeli blockade on aid entering the Palestinian territory. The Houthis halted their attacks back when a ceasefire deal was signed in January 2025.
After Israel violated the ceasefire deal in March by imposing a total blockade on Gaza, al-Houthi announced that Yemen would restart its blockade on Israeli shipping. In response to that announcement, the US began a very heavy bombing campaign targeting Yemen, known as Operation Rought Rider, which lasted from March 15 to May 6 and killed over 250 civilians.
While the Trump administration framed the bombing campaign as necessary to protect American ships, the Houthis were not attacking US vessels before it started. It ended with an agreement that the Houthis wouldn’t target US ships if the US stopped bombing Yemen, as the Trump administration gave up on trying to get Ansar Allah to stop its attacks on Israel.
US President Donald Trump addresses the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, in occupied al-Quds on October 13, 2025.(Photo by AFP)
Press TV
US President Donald Trump faced heckling from two Israeli lawmakers during his address to the Knesset, during which he gave much praise to Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and also boasted about supplying lethal American weapons to the regime.
Ofer Cassif and Ayman Odeh, members of Israel’s joint Hadash-Taal party, interrupted Trump’s address to the Knesset with banners demanding the recognition of the Palestinian state. They were both removed from the parliament.
In an X post, Odeh said he was dragged out of the Knesset because he raised “the simplest demand, one that the whole international community agrees on: Recognize the State of Palestine! Recognize the simple truth.”
In a separate post, Odeh said that crowning Netanyahu “through flattery … does not absolve him and his cabinet of the crimes against humanity committed in Gaza.”
Cassif also took to X to call for an end to the Israeli occupation and apartheid and the establishment of a Palestinian state, saying, “Refuse to be occupiers! Resist the government of bloodshed!”
During his speech, Trump said the US has the best weapons, and “we’ve given a lot of them to Israel, frankly.”
“Bibi would call me so many times – can you get me this weapon, that weapon, and some of them I’d never heard of,” he added, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.
“But we’d get them here, wouldn’t we,” the US president said, noting, “Israel knew how to use them well.”
Meanwhile, he claimed that Israel has “won all that it can by force of arms.”
Trump further said that the recent ceasefire agreement, proposed by his administration, marks the end of Israel’s war on Gaza, as well as the end of the “age of terror and death.”
The deal is the start of an “age of concord” for the Israeli regime and regional countries, he stated. “It’s the historic dawn of the new Middle East.”
Trump also called on Israeli President Isaac Herzog to pardon Netanyahu, who is currently on trial on corruption charges, and stands accused of fraud and breach of trust over a scandal involving the acceptance of luxury gifts.
“I have an idea, why don’t you give Netanyahu a pardon?” he said in comments directed at Herzog. “Cigars and champagne, who the hell cares about this?” Trump said, referring to illicit gifts mentioned in one of the charges against the Israeli prime minister.
The US president also praised Netanyahu’s leadership during the last two years of war on Gaza. “You are very popular because you know how to win,” he claimed, despite Netanyahu facing almost daily protests for his handling of the war.
Ahead of Trump’s speech, Netanyahu made an address to the Israeli parliament.
He thanked the US president for his policy toward Tel Aviv, including moving the US embassy to the occupied lands to al-Quds, recognizing Israel’s sovereignty claim over Syria’s Golan Heights, withdrawing from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, and supporting the regime at the United Nations.
Netanyahu also indicated that Trump supports Israeli control over the occupied West Bank.
Moreover, Netanyahu awarded Trump with the Israel Prize, the usurping regime’s highest cultural honor.
Last week, Trump proposed a Gaza ceasefire plan, to which Israel and the Palestinian Hamas resistance group agreed after three days of indirect negotiations in Egypt.
Under the first phase of the deal, which came into effect at noon local time on Friday, Hamas had to free 48 captives — dead and alive — in exchange for the release of roughly 2,000 Palestinian abductees from Israeli jails.
The agreement also includes the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza and the withdrawal of the occupation forces to an agreed line from the besieged territory.
Analysts say the truce deal represents a defeat for the occupying regime as it failed to meet its “goals” of eliminating Hamas and releasing Israeli captives by force despite killing 67,869 Palestinians, mostly women and children, during its two-year-long genocide in Gaza.
In the course of the brutal onslaught on Gaza, the US provided full weaponry and political support to Israel in defiance of international criticisms.
The final settlement would require a two state solution.
US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza is “the best thing on the table” at the moment, but it does not fully solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
Hamas has released all 20 surviving hostages taken by the group during its incursion into Israel two years ago, and West Jerusalem has begun to free 2,000 Palestinian prisoners as part of Trump’s 20-point roadmap to end the Gaza war.
The US president has arrived in Israel for the event. Addressing the country’s national legislature, the Knesset, he said that the swap marked the beginning of “the golden age of the Middle East.”
Speaking about Trump’s plan with the Arabic media on Monday, Lavrov said that Russia has “repeatedly assessed [it] as the best thing on the negotiating table at the moment.”
It is essential “to stop the bloodshed as soon as possible and resolve the grave humanitarian problems” in Gaza, he said.
However, the minister noted that “of course, the Palestinian issue is not resolved by this.”
He stressed that Trump’s plan mainly focuses on the situation in Gaza, while only addressing the Palestinian statehood in the most general terms. The United States and Israel were two of only ten countries which flatly rejected a two-state solution at last month’s UN General Assembly meeting; the others included Tonga, Palau, Nauru and Micronesia.
The final settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would require “the creation of a single, territorially integral Palestinian state within the 1967 borders” in line with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, Lavrov said. Moscow remains committed to the two-state solution to the crisis, he added.
Trump’s plan acknowledges self-determination and statehood as “the aspiration” of the Palestinian people, but says that “the conditions [for it] may finally be in place… while Gaza re-development advances and when the PA [Palestinian authority] reform program is faithfully carried out.”
The State of Palestinian is currently supported by 157 out of the 193 members of the UN. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said repeatedly that the Palestinian state “will never happen.”
When, while speaking at the UN, Trump said: “If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail,” he was, of course, lying. If “your country” is part of the EU, then there is no getting away from “this green scam”: the money has already been misspent and the energy infrastructure has already been compromised. Russia has already given up on the European energy market and has reoriented its energy exports to the east. For the EU, rapid deindustrialization is now inevitable. Trump’s statement can thus be shortened to “Your country is going to fail.
But that is not what Europe’s leaders wanted to hear. Admitting that Trump is right would be tantamount to volunteering to resign from their positions and that is not what they had in mind. Instead of resigning (that would have been an honorable thing for them to do) they instead chose to greenlight a new, bigger and better scam, which I will call the Brown New Deal.
[…]
Aside from incidental exceptions, the more commonplace connotations of “brown” are rot, Nazis, “darkies” (if you happen to be a Nazi) and shit. This wealth of connotations makes brown a good choice as the color of the decomposing Green movement, now that its public stupification program known as “anthropogenic climate change,” the refusal of pipelined hydrocarbon imports and the copious public subsidies for wind generators and solar panels have ushered in an era of financial, political and economic meltdowns throughout Europe. The new public stupification program is “Russian aggression,” and the response to it requires copious public spending on various defense programs.
The result of the Green New Deal is steadily decreasing living standards throughout Europe stemming from the root cause of lower per capita energy affordability. In turn, it is superficially stable but steadily worsening living conditions, much more so than an outright crisis, that cause populations to rebel and to overthrow their ruling elites. The ruling elites of Europe know this, do not fancy being strung up on lampposts all over Europe, and seek to at least deflect the blame and, better yet, to engineer an outright crisis which they can then pretend to mitigate heroically.
Their manufactured crisis of choice is the entirely fictional yet imminent attack on the European Union by the Russian Federation. The risible lie used to support this argument is that should the Ukrainian army be routed and should the illegitimate and corrupt Kiev regime fall, Russian tanks will then roll across Europe… just like they did in 1945! The thorny question of why Russia would ever be interested in such an escapade is avoided through irrational anti-Russian bigotry: the very fact that the Russians happen to be Russian is taken as sufficient to guarantee their propensity for such insane and self-defeating behavior.
For China, World War II began in 1931 with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. By November 1937 they occupied all of Manchuria. advancing to capture Shanghai in November 1937 and the Chinese capitol Nanjing in December. The communist guerilla forces led by Mao Zedong and the anticommunist Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek joined forces to defend their country. However when both armies withdrew from Nanjing, the Japanese systematically raped, mutilated and slaughtered its civilians.
The combined Chinese forces received major support from the Soviet Union. Between 1937-1941, the USSR supplied China with 900 aircraft, 100 tanks and tens of thousand of artillery and small arms. They also provided instructors, pilot and troops, significantly helping to significantly slowing the Japanese advance. Although the Russians also invited Chinese recruits to train at the Soviet military academy, once the Japanese blockaded the Soviet-Manchuria border, they (including Mao’s son) couldn’t return and fought the German Nazis alongside Soviet troops.
Meanwhile the Japanese established the infamous Unit 731 in Manchuria, carrying out cruel experiments on civilians, infecting them them with typhoid, cholera, plague; exposing them to toxic chemicals and gradually freezing them to death. In total 500 Manchurian villages were destroyed via biological warfare or by poisoning their wells and reservoirs. The Japanese systematically contaminated a 1000 more villages in the rest of China.
The Japanese, who signed an anti-Comintern pact with Nazi Germany in 1936, planned to invade the USSR from the Far East after the anticipated Nazi victory over the Soviets.
The Soviet response, in February 1945, was to join the US and Britain in the Pacific arena under the Yalta agreement. The USSR committed 100 million troops to the Japanese-controlled industrial center of Manchuria. The latter was logistically inaccessible to US and British troops.
During the Japanese war crimes trial of 1946-48, the Soviet Union protested bitterly that the Japanese emperor was never prosecuted. They were also condemned the US destroyed of official archives implicating the emperor and participants in Unit 731.
The Soviets held a second war crimes tribunal in Khabarovsk in 1949 in which they tried 12 war criminals who participated in Unit 731. Only China supported and participated in these proceedings, the first to bring Japanese biological warfare activities to international attention.
Ten out of the twelve defendant pleaded guilty. All were convicted and received custodial sentences.
Cancer occurs when cells abandon efficient mitochondrial energy production for glycolysis, creating lactic acid buildup and cellular dysfunction
Estrogen drives cancer progression by forcing cells into glycolysis, while protective hormones like progesterone, testosterone, and pregnenolone counteract these harmful effects
Environmental toxins including pesticides, plastics, soy, flax, and blue light waves act as endocrine disruptors, creating estrogen dominance and damaging mitochondrial function
Standard cancer treatments like chemotherapy backfire by leaving cellular debris that triggers inflammation throughout the body, spreading the disease further
Therapeutic approaches using aspirin, carbon dioxide, B vitamins, and hormone optimization restore healthy cellular energy production and guide damaged cells toward apoptosis
In an interview by the Rooted in Resilience podcast, bioenergetic researcher Georgi Dinkov provided an update on his research regarding the pitfalls of common cancer treatments, arguing that this approach often goes in the wrong direction. Instead of focusing on what fuels tumors, many doctors target hormones in ways that may worsen the disease.1 He also discussed innovative strategies that result in better outcomes.
All these and more, are discussed in the podcast. I encourage you to listen to it, as it contains a wealth of new information that will change the way you think about cancer and the promising treatments that will be available in the future.
Why Do Cells Become Cancerous?
According to Dinkov, cancer is not just about random mutations, as mainstream medicine often teaches. Instead, he described it as your body falling back on an older, less efficient way of producing energy. But when stress or toxins push your cells to rely on it all the time, you are left with uncontrollable cells.
• Your cells cannibalize their own mitochondria — Dinkov described this change as your cells dismantling their mitochondria. Once those engines are taken apart, the cells start depending on a faster but dirtier process that leaves behind waste like lactic acid. This is what keeps the cancer state alive. The more your cells rely on this shortcut, the more likely they are to keep breaking down instead of functioning normally.
• Many cancer cells are not beyond saving — If you improve the cellular environment, your cells often return to normal energy production. This means that cancer, at least in its earlier stages, doesn’t always need to be attacked or destroyed. Instead, giving the cells what they need to repair themselves can turn them back into healthy, functioning tissue:
[…]
• What to do for cells that are too far gone — Dinkov said they should be guided toward a natural shutdown process called apoptosis. This is a built-in safety feature in your body that removes damaged cells. “If it’s severely damaged and the cell can and should be forced to commit apoptosis, which is the controlled self-destruction,” he says.
The 2 Energy Pathways in Your Cells
Dinkov described how your cells rely on two different ways of making energy. The first is oxidative phosphorylation, which happens inside your mitochondria. This is the clean, high-powered method your cells are designed to use. The second is glycolysis, which takes place outside the mitochondria. Glycolysis is faster but much less efficient, producing only a small amount of energy along with a lot of waste products.
• When your cells begin depending mostly on glycolysis, trouble starts — Dinkov explained that glycolysis doesn’t just mean less energy — it also changes the chemistry inside the cell. The buildup of lactic acid pushes your cells into a more reductive state, which signals them to break down their mitochondria even further. The result is a downward spiral where the cells lose their ability to return to normal function.
• The breakdown in energy production is central to cancer behavior — According to Dinkov, glycolysis is meant as a backup for short-term survival, but cancer locks cells into that mode permanently. If the mitochondria are not working properly, cells become aggressive, multiplying rapidly.
• Restoring oxidative phosphorylation is the key to turning the tide — If you can push energy production back into the mitochondria, your cells have a chance to function normally again. But if the mitochondria are too badly damaged, then the better option is for those cells to self-destruct through apoptosis. Either way, focusing on mitochondrial health rather than simply blasting cells with drugs or radiation offers a different healing pathway.
How Estrogen Pushes Cancer Forward
Estrogen is a powerful force inside your body that changes how your cells make energy. Considering this, Dinkov argued that estrogen forces the cells to rely more on the backup system of glycolysis. This shift creates more lactic acid and weakens your mitochondria, pushing your cells toward a cancerous state.
• Other hormones balance your system — Progesterone, pregnenolone, testosterone, and dihydrotestosterone (DHT) provide a beneficial effect. Dinkov explained that these hormones help your cells resist estrogen’s effects by keeping energy flowing through the mitochondria.
• Here’s one example of how hormones protect against cancer — According to Dinkov, progesterone directly blocks estrogen’s activity at the cell level:
“So, first of all, pregnenolone, progesterone, to a smaller degree, DHEA [Dehydroepiandrosterone], testosterone dehydrogenase — they’re all aromatase inhibitors. So, they directly limit the synthesis of new estrogen no matter where it has been synthesized.
Every cell expresses the aromatase enzyme, which is the rate-limiting step in synthesizing estrogen. So, anything that that inhibits aromatase, you know, basically will decrease the production of estrogen.”
The Hidden Threats Around You
The environment you live in is stealthily shifting your body’s chemistry in ways that increase your risk of cancer.
• Toxic chemicals all around you fuel cancer risk — Dinkov explained that pesticides, plastics, and even foods like soy and flax carry compounds that act like estrogen once they enter your body. These are known as endocrine disruptors, and according to him, they create a constant state of estrogen dominance.
• Blue light exposure fuels cancer — Dinkov pointed out that the vast majority of people are exposed to blue light via fluorescent bulbs, which affect your health:
“Our mitochondria does not like blue light because blue light is toxic to bacteria, viruses, fungi, all these primitive microorganisms, which is probably another corroboration of the theory that mitochondria is originally, such an organism that fused with our primitive human cells because blue light is toxic to mitochondria as well.”
• Other side effects of blue light — Aside from increasing your risk of cancer, Dinkov noted that blue light affects your health in different ways. For example, if you sit under it for hours a day, such as being in an office, you’ll eventually develop headaches, cognitive disturbances and increased risk of mental health disorders.
Why Standard Cancer Treatments Might Backfire
As mentioned in the introduction, mainstream cancer treatments often create more harm than help. Dinkov explained that when doctors aggressively attack tumors with chemotherapy or radiation, the dying cells spill their insides into the bloodstream.
• Killed cancer put your immune system on overdrive — Once you kill cancer cells through pharmaceutical drugs, the debris acts like a danger signal to your body. The immune system reacts as if you are under attack from a major infection, spreading inflammation throughout your body. “A lot of the mitochondrial debris and the debris from the nucleus trigger the exact same pathways and receptors that bacteria or viral infections trigger,” he says.
• Inflammation shuts down your body’s preferred energy system — Oxidative phosphorylation takes a back seat. When that switch is flipped, healthy tissues across your body start acting more like cancer cells. “The entire body says, I’m under attack,” he explained, which pushes cells into the cancer metabolism instead of restoring balance.
This helps explain why many people see their cancer return after initially successful treatments. Dinkov said that doctors are very good at killing the primary tumor, but the aftermath often leads to scattered, aggressive new tumors appearing throughout the body. He described this as turning “a million little cancers, and it’s all over the body” because the environment has been shifted into the wrong metabolic state.
• Returning cancer cells to normal before apoptosis — Instead of going to war with cancer right away, Dinkov suggested another path. He argued that cancer cells can be coaxed back to normal function if energy production is restored:
“[M]ost cancer cells are still structurally normal, they are metabolically deranged, but they’re still normal. Some of them are too damaged, but it looks like there’s a small percentage. So really, the goal should be don’t immediately go on an all-out assault, right, which, it turns out to be self-destructive. Try to coax the cancer cell to act normal again and that can be done metabolically with various approaches.”
Why the Latest Research Isn’t in Research Journals Yet
Dinkov noted that his latest research on cancer hasn’t made it into mainstream medical journals, explaining that publishing bold results often triggers powerful pushback. “You should be ready with lawyers because they’re going to attack,” he said, noting that once a controversial study is challenged and retracted, your ability to publish again is severely damaged.
• Simply share the information — Instead of chasing recognition, Dinkov said he focuses on getting information directly to people. He’s already received confirmation from doctors around the world who are quietly using his protocols. One oncologist in Ireland, for example, emailed him saying several patients had their surgeries canceled because their tumors had completely disappeared.
• Nefarious forces are pushing back — Dinkov also pointed out how easy it is for his research to be challenged. Powerful interests in the cancer industry could run the same experiments and report different results. If that happens, journals often retract the original paper, which damages the credibility of the scientists involved. That fear, he said, is one reason many professors refuse to publish such controversial work, even if the data looks strong.
• Big Pharma wants to preserve the status quo — Dinkov noted that even if human trials confirm his approach, powerful resistance will remain. Cancer treatment today is a massive industry, and anything that threatens its profit model faces enormous barriers. For him, the biggest confirmation may not come from journals but from a grassroots movement of patients and doctors who have proven results:
“[I]f it works for sufficiently large number of people, then I don’t need to publish. In fact, I don’t care about publishing. Why do I need to give the enemies a sign that, you know, we’re brewing a resistance here and the resistance is working?”
There Are Ways to Bring Cells Back Toward an Optimally Healthy State
There are several tools that can help your cells return to healthy energy production instead of staying locked in the cancer state. Dinkov goes over them throughout the course of the podcast:
• Aspirin — You might think of aspirin only for pain or fever, but Dinkov described how it works inside your cells to slightly lower their internal pH. This acidic environmental shift gives cells a choice — if they’re still repairable, they switch back to the healthier oxidative phosphorylation, but if they’re too damaged, they self-destruct through apoptosis.
• Carbon dioxide (CO₂) — When you increase CO₂ in your body, it moves through your cells like a current, carrying electrons and helping energy flow more smoothly. Dinkov described carbon dioxide as doing the opposite of lactic acid — it encourages proper energy production and slows down cancer metabolism:
“[T]he acidic nature of the carbon dioxide molecule, it draws electrons across the cell as it moves, as it diffuses out of the cell. And that helps speed up the oxidative phosphorylation reaction. Also, carbon dioxide and lactate are inversely correlated in the body.”
• B vitamins — Vitamins B1 and B3 act as cofactors. Without them, the electron transport chain stalls out, and cells can’t make enough energy. In Dinkov’s research, combining aspirin with these nutrients restored energy flow in cells that had been struggling.
• Hormones — These include pregnenolone, which Dinkov described as the “structural cell stabilizer,” and testosterone. As mentioned earlier, progesterone blocks estrogen’s harmful effects as well. To learn how to use it properly and optimize your health, follow the instructions in the following sections.
Acetaminophen is the leading cause of acute liver failure in developed countries, and even normal doses have been shown to stress the liver in otherwise healthy adults
Tylenol PM combines acetaminophen with diphenhydramine, creating risks not only for liver damage but also for memory loss and dementia
Long-term acetaminophen use in older adults is linked to gastrointestinal bleeding, ulcers, high blood pressure, heart failure, and chronic kidney disease
The drug harms your body by depleting glutathione, your master antioxidant, and disrupting protective systems that safeguard your stomach, heart, and kidneys
Safer pain relief strategies include natural options like curcumin, magnesium, and lifestyle practices, along with boosting glutathione levels through foods and, in emergencies, N-acetylcysteine (NAC)
Acetaminophen is one of the most commonly used painkillers in the world, found in countless household medicine cabinets and often taken daily for everything from headaches to arthritis. Because it’s sold over the counter, many people assume it’s safe. Yet its widespread use hides a darker truth — this drug is also the leading cause of acute liver failure in developed countries, sending thousands to emergency rooms each year.1
What makes the situation more alarming is how easily the risks are overlooked. Many people are unaware that acetaminophen is not only in Tylenol but also in dozens of cold, flu, and sleep remedies. This makes it easy to exceed the recommended dose without realizing it. For older adults, who often rely on it for chronic pain, the risks grow even higher, adding strain not only to the liver but also to the heart, kidneys, and digestive system.
The real concern is that a product marketed as safe for daily relief carries such wide-reaching harm. From liver stress and memory loss to bleeding ulcers and high blood pressure, the evidence shows that acetaminophen is far from harmless. Understanding these dangers is the first step to protecting yourself and exploring safer alternatives that address pain without putting your long-term health at risk.
Acetaminophen’s Hidden Dangers to Your Liver
A report from the National Library of Medicine’s LiverTox resource explains that this common over-the-counter drug, long marketed as safe when taken properly, is in fact “a well-established cause of liver injury,” with severe cases tied to high or repeated doses.2
• Healthy adults taking 4 grams of acetaminophen daily developed spikes in liver enzymes within just a week — These enzymes are markers of liver stress. Other cases involved individuals who were malnourished, drinking alcohol, or living with chronic liver disease — all conditions that lower your body’s ability to defend against toxins. Children were also affected when caregivers miscalculated dosages or used adult-sized tablets, showing that no group is fully protected from harm.
• Signs of liver harm were seen in more than three-quarters of participants — In a clinical trial cited by LiverTox, 76% of participants taking high therapeutic doses of acetaminophen developed liver enzyme elevations above the normal range.
Within this group, 39% had levels more than triple the normal limit, while 25% showed increases greater than five times the upper limit. These results are striking because the participants were otherwise healthy adults, not people with pre-existing disease. The numbers make it clear: even “safe” doses often overwhelm the liver in a matter of days.
• Acetaminophen toxicity develops in a predictable timeline — Within 24 to 72 hours after overdose, enzyme levels skyrocket — often reaching values over 2,000 units per liter, compared with a normal of less than 40. By 48 to 96 hours, patients present with jaundice, confusion, and even signs of acute liver failure.
This progression is not limited to intentional overdoses; so-called therapeutic misadventures, when people unknowingly take multiple products containing acetaminophen, follow a similar pattern.
• The danger comes from a toxic breakdown product — Normally, your liver quickly detoxifies this by using glutathione, your body’s master antioxidant. But once glutathione stores run low — whether from poor diet, alcohol, illness, or simply too much acetaminophen — the toxic compound builds up.
When that happens, the breakdown product binds to important proteins inside liver cells, triggering cell death through apoptotic pathways. This explains why acetaminophen injury is so sudden and severe.
Why Tylenol PM Raises Serious Health Concerns
A report from the Daily Mail featured insights from Dr. Ethan Melillo, a pharmacist from Rhode Island, who described Tylenol PM as one of the drugs he “hates” because of the long-term risks tied to its ingredients.3
He explained that this over-the-counter nighttime painkiller, which grosses nearly $1 billion annually, is widely misused and poses risks of liver damage, dementia, and other complications. Unlike prescription drugs that are closely monitored, this product is marketed as safe for everyday aches, making it more likely to be taken without caution.
• Misuse occurs because people see Tylenol PM as harmless — However, it combines acetaminophen with diphenhydramine — a double hit for your body. Acetaminophen places stress on your liver, while diphenhydramine, the same ingredient found in Benadryl, blocks acetylcholine, a brain chemical involved in memory. In his words, regular use “could cause memory loss” and contribute to long-term cognitive decline.
• Details on liver risks — If you take more than 4,000 mg of acetaminophen in a day, which equals eight Tylenol PM pills, your liver becomes overwhelmed. When that happens, a toxic byproduct accumulates and binds to proteins in liver cells, causing direct injury and setting the stage for organ failure. Melillo stressed that many people don’t realize how many products also contain acetaminophen, so stacking multiple medications raises the risk without you knowing it.
• Concerns about brain health — Diphenhydramine brings its own set of issues. Because it’s a type of drug that blocks signals in your brain needed for memory, focus, and learning, it interferes with acetylcholine, the chemical your brain uses to carry out those functions.
Blocking this pathway leads to short-term drowsiness, which is why people take it to sleep. But with regular use, the tradeoff is much larger: impaired memory and a higher risk of dementia. A study cited in the report found that taking anticholinergics daily for the equivalent of three years was linked to a 54% increase in dementia risk compared with shorter-term use.4
• Behavioral changes and risk perception — Another surprising finding tied to acetaminophen is its effect on decision-making. In one study, participants who took 1,000 mg rated risky activities like bungee jumping and skydiving as less dangerous compared to those who took a placebo.
Researchers from The Ohio State University concluded that acetaminophen dulls both emotional responses and risk awareness, creating a subtle but important shift in how people judge danger.5 This means your nightly pain pill not only stresses your liver and brain but also changes the way you perceive everyday risks.
Older Adults Face Widespread Harm from Long-Term Acetaminophen Use
Research published in Arthritis Care & Research examined the long-term health effects of acetaminophen use in older adults.6 The investigators focused on individuals aged 65 and older, analyzing their health outcomes when the drug was used regularly over time. Unlike short-term safety trials, this study looked at chronic use, which reflects how many older adults actually take acetaminophen to manage arthritis, back pain, and other age-related conditions.
• Long-term acetaminophen use was linked to a wide range of serious complications — These included gastrointestinal bleeding and ulcers, increased risks of heart failure and high blood pressure, and a higher incidence of chronic kidney disease. For patients, this means that the very drug prescribed as a “safer” alternative to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) brought with it a nearly identical burden of systemic risks.
• The study revealed a sharp increase in gastrointestinal harm — Participants on long-term acetaminophen therapy experienced significantly higher rates of stomach and intestinal bleeding, ulcers, and even perforations, which are tears in your stomach lining. These complications were once thought to be mostly tied to NSAIDs like ibuprofen, but this study revealed that acetaminophen carries similar dangers when used habitually in older adults.
• Serious impact on the heart — Regular users of acetaminophen showed increased risks for both heart failure and high blood pressure. Heart failure means your heart cannot pump blood efficiently, while high blood pressure places constant strain on blood vessels.
• Chronic kidney disease also emerged as a serious risk for long-term users — Kidneys are responsible for filtering waste products from your blood, and the study indicated that sustained acetaminophen intake accelerates their decline. For older adults already dealing with reduced kidney reserve, the drug placed an added burden that increased the likelihood of progressing to advanced kidney disease.
• How acetaminophen harms your organs — The researchers found that acetaminophen disrupts your body’s normal protective systems. It lowers the amount of natural chemicals that keep blood flowing to your kidneys, help control blood pressure, and protect your stomach lining. When prostaglandins drop too low, your stomach, heart, and kidneys lose that protection. Over time, this makes these organs more likely to get damaged, which matches the problems seen in the study.
How to Safely Manage Pain Without Relying on Acetaminophen
I don’t recommend using acetaminophen for minor aches and pains. Instead, try one of the many natural pain relief options available that provide comfort without stressing your liver, heart, kidneys, or brain. The risks tied to this drug are too great to ignore, especially when safer and often more effective solutions are within your reach. Here are five practical steps to protect yourself and explore better alternatives.
1. Avoid acetaminophen whenever possible — Your first line of defense is simply not reaching for acetaminophen unless it is absolutely necessary. If you’re dealing with a mild headache, sore muscles from exercise, or day-to-day joint stiffness, avoid defaulting to Tylenol or Tylenol PM.
The science shows these small, routine doses still place stress on your liver over time. Shifting your mindset to view acetaminophen as a last resort instead of a first choice is one of the most powerful steps you can take.
2. Explore natural pain relief alternatives — Many safe options exist that help with pain and inflammation without damaging your organs. Consider turmeric or curcumin for joint pain, magnesium for muscle relaxation and cramps, or herbal remedies for chronic pain.
If you’re struggling with sleep, calming herbal teas such as chamomile and attention to better sleep hygiene ease you into rest without the brain risks linked to diphenhydramine. These choices don’t just dull symptoms — they support whole-body health.
3. Strengthen your body’s defenses with food — Since acetaminophen damages your liver by depleting glutathione, your best long-term protection is keeping glutathione strong. Eat sulfur-rich foods like garlic, onions, and broccoli, which help your body produce more of this key antioxidant.
If you frequently experience aches, focusing on nutrition gives your liver resilience while also addressing the root causes of pain, such as chronic inflammation or oxidative stress. N-acetylcysteine (NAC) also boosts production of glutathione.
4. Understand the role of NAC in emergencies — NAC is the emergency antidote used in hospitals for acetaminophen overdose because it replenishes glutathione so quickly. If you accidentally take too much acetaminophen, NAC is lifesaving. While you should not rely on NAC as a routine “safety net” for daily use, it’s important to understand how it works. By boosting glutathione, NAC helps neutralize acetaminophen’s toxic byproducts and prevents catastrophic liver failure.
5. Adopt lifestyle strategies that lower your need for painkillers —Daily walks, stretching routines, stress management, and good sleep habits all reduce your reliance on pills. If you’re an older adult dealing with arthritis or chronic pain, gentle movement practices like yoga or tai chi are especially helpful.
These daily steps lower inflammation, support circulation, and help you feel more comfortable without reaching for acetaminophen. By building these habits, you put yourself in control of your pain management instead of depending on a drug that carries hidden risks.
America plunges back into a cycle of fear, failure, slaughter, and supply chain chaos.
During the summer, mass culling of poultry for H5N1 bird flu came to a complete halt after over 44 million birds were recklessly exterminated from January to May 2025:
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Earlier this year, we relentlessly exposed the catastrophic consequences of mass culling for H5N1 bird flu:
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All of this has contributed to the “Mass Culling Cycle of Devastation”: With H5N1 widespread in migratory waterfowl, farms continue to face reinfection despite repeated culling. Thus, chickens never develop herd immunity leading to a never-ending cycle of food supply chain disruption and chicken-to-human transmission.
Fake death threat letters produced by the Taliban are being used to dupe the Home Office in asylum applications for Afghan migrants. The Telegraph has the story.
A Telegraph investigation can reveal how corrupt officials in Afghanistan produce government letters threatening to kill asylum seekers. The letters are then used as evidence in asylum applications.
To demonstrate how easily such documents can be obtained, an undercover Telegraph reporter paid Taliban officials £40 to produce three fake letters from different regional offices on official headed paper, signed by local administrators.
The letters can be published in full, but have been redacted to protect sources.
They include warnings that the Taliban will “deliver justice upon you” — shorthand for execution — for co-operating with the “evil government of England”.
One letter says: “The mujahideen monitor all your activity on social media and will deliver justice when they see you. God will be pleased and you will be freed from this shameful life.”
The practice of purchasing fake letters raises fresh questions about the integrity of the asylum system and whether genuine refugees are being disadvantaged by forgeries.
Multiple migrants housed in Home Office hotels and Taliban officials in Afghanistan told the Telegraph that the use of fake letters is widespread.
In one case, a rejected asylum seeker said they submitted a fake letter in an appeal as evidence of facing danger in Afghanistan.
The new application was then approved, although it is not clear if the letter was the only piece of evidence that judges took into account.
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi (photo via Yemen’s SABA news agency)
By Dmitry Orlov
The Most Revolutionary Act 