Melanin and Skin

African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic
NEWSLETTER
Volume 4, Issue 1
January 2009
MELANIN & SKIN

Happy New You
From Maintaining Our Temples
By Qaraandin
This is the time of year when most of us promise to
make all of the changes we need to make to be "perfect."
We promise to: lose weight, stop smoking, start
exercising, spend more time outdoors, eat more fresh
raw foods, and drink more water. In short, we promise to
do all the things we need to do to maintain our temples.
At first, we are proud of ourselves because we are able to
do exactly what we said we would do. We take walks
every day during our lunch breaks. We stop snacking on
chips and beer while we are watching television.
After a couple of weeks, we begin to feel a little better.
We even think we look better! Then, because it takes a
while to completely replace an old habit with a new one,
when something comes up we fall back into our old
program without thinking.
How do we react to our slip? Most of us give all of our
attention to the single mistake and stop our program then
and there. Because of one small mistake, we think that
we have "failed."
We completely overlook the month or six weeks that we
Continued on page 2
INSIDE THIS ISSUE

1 Happy New You
2 The Mass Poisoning of America
3 Afrikan Spirituality Ancestor Veneration in Africa
4 Feature- Skin Healing
6 Feature- Got Melanin?
8 Feature-The Virtues of Vitamin D
11 Dy(e)ing to be Noticed
12 Pregnant Women Warned off Makeup
13 Indigo Plant May Treat Chronic Disease
14 Beauty Creams with Nanoarticles that Poison the Body
15 Feature Melanin & Bio/Nanotechnology
20 Feature Skin Bleaching Thrives
22 Skin Bleaching/Lightening and its Dangers
27 New Botox Rival May Cost Less, Work Faster
28 Nanotechnology Sparks Fears for the Future
29 Skin Cancer Breakthrough
31 Dont Pucker Up: Lead in Lipstick
35 What is Vitiligo?/ Why Isnt My Skin Brown?
38 Herb of the Month Kigelia Africanus & More
What is the African Traditional

Herbal Research Clinic?
We can make you healthy and wise
Nakato Lewis
Blackherbals at the Source of the Nile, UG Ltd.
The African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic located
in Bukoto, Uganda is a modern clinic facility created to
establish a model space whereby indigenous herbal
practitioners and healers can upgrade and update their
skills through training and certification and respond to
common diseases using African healing methods and
traditions in a modern clinical environment.
Traditional healers are the major health labor resource
in Africa as a whole. In Uganda, indigenous traditional
healers are the only source of health services for the
majority of the population. An estimated 80% of the
population receives its health education and health care
from practitioners of traditional medicine. They are
knowledgeable of the culture, the local languages and
local traditions. Our purpose is to raise public
awareness and understanding on the value of African
traditional herbal medicine and other healing practices
in todays world.
The Clinic is open and operational. Some of the
services we offer are African herbal medicine,
reflexology, acupressure, hot and cold hydrotherapy,
body massage, herbal tonics, patient counseling, blood
pressure checks, urine testing (sugar), and nutritional
profiles. We believe in spirit, mind, and body. Spiritual
counseling upon request.
Visit us also at www.Blackherbals.com
Hours: 9:00 am to 6:00 pm Monday thru Friday
10 am to 4:00 pm Saturday - Sundays Closed
-1-Traditional African Clinic January 2009
Continued from page 1- Happy New You
faithfully followed our new program. We ignore the ten

pounds we have lost, the extra energy we have, how
much better we feel when we get up each morning.
We focus on that one slice of cake we just ate, the three
days we didnt take our walk, the one cigarette we
smoked without thinking. And we give up!
If we had stopped trying to walk the first time we fell
down as babies, we would all still be crawling around!
We have been programmed to behave as if one mistake
makes us a "failure." Yet, not one "successful" person
will say he or she got everything perfect on the first try!
When we were babies we didnt think of ourselves as
"failures" because we fell down. We picked ourselves up
and tried again. And again. And again. As many times as
it took us to learn to walk without falling down.
When we decide to make the changes we need to make to
maintain our temples, we will have days that we dont do
all of the things we want or need to do. We dont have to
beat ourselves up over what we didnt do. Instead, lets
be happy about what we did do and plan to do better the
next day.
At least we are trying. How many people do you know
who know what they need to do but wont even try? As
long as we have life, we can make the changes that will
lead toward our best health. Making the first step, no
matter how small it may seem, is, in itself, success.
Sistah Qaraandin is the author of "Maintaining Our
Temples" and the publisher and editor of
www.whattheproblemis.com and "Sistah Qaraandins
M.O.T. Healthzine.
The healing power of a person lies within

the person, not within the doctor, a pill, or a
knife. The healing power of a community lies
within the community, not within a ballot box,
an executive order, or a referendum.
The Mass Poisoning Of

Humanity
An Exploration of Human Stupidity
By Mike Adams
NewsTarget.com
November 27, 2005
The mass poisoning of humanity: an exploration of
human stupidity. As human beings, we're the only species
stupid enough to actually poison ourselves. As part of
modern living, we create a wide variety of chemical toxins

that go into the ecosystem through rivers and streams, the
air, the soil and so on. Not only that, we actually synthesize
toxic chemicals and then inject them directly into the food
supply -- knowing full well that they are poisonous and are
major contributors to the epidemic rates of chronic disease
we are experiencing today.
What are these chemicals I'm talking about? Well, you're
about to get a whirlwind tour of humanity's toxic
chemicals. And if you look at toxic chemicals, you have to
start in the realm of dentistry, because in no other
profession (save medicine) will you find the use of so many
toxic chemicals that are deliberately prescribed to patients
or injected into their bodies. We're talking about, of course,
mercury fillings and fluoride dripped into the public water
supplies.
Dr. Poison Mercury, DDS
When we talk about mercury fillings, you have to keep in
mind that mercury is simply one of the most toxic
substances you can put into the human body, aside from
radioactive substances. Right now, today, dentists all across
the country and around the world are taking this highly
toxic metal and literally putting it into the teeth of human
beings. Those teeth are then used to chew food, and as a
person chews; they effectively grind away the surfaces of
these mercury fillings. These fillings release gas mercury
vapor and mercury particles, which people then breathe into
their lungs, or digest in their stomachs.
Now, I can understand that maybe 50 years ago, the dental
industry was too ignorant to realize that it was advocating
this toxic metal and putting it into patients' mouths. The
industrial revolution is full of examples of companies that
used lots of toxic substances and therapies, thinking they
were good for you. Recall the X-rays and radiation of the
first half of the twentieth century; people thought that
radiation was great for you. Manufacturers were equating
radiation with energy and thinking that if you consumed
radiation pills, you would be more energetic. These were
actually sold and sponsored by physicians and doctors; it
was a mainstay of the medical industry in those days.
Later, we had the lead issue with industrial companies like
DuPont, which has an interesting history in the manufacture
and distribution of lead. People were convinced lead was
great for everything. They put it into the gasoline, and
leaded gasoline was born. We later found out that lead
causes nervous system disorders and that it's very unhealthy
to have lead emissions in the air. We ended up getting rid
of lead paint, and banning the use of lead in foods and
cosmetics.
But for some reason, today dentists still think mercury is
perfectly good for you. It's like they're living in the Dark
Continued on page 7
AFRIKAN SPIRITUALITY
ANCESTOR VENERATION
IN AFRICA
BY CHARLES NYAMITI
1. Introduction
In many African societies ancestral veneration is one of the
central and basic traditional and even contemporary forms of
cult. As is indicated by the title, this essay intends to expose
briefly the main features of that type of veneration in black
Africa, South of the Sahara.
2. Ancestral cult in Black Africa
African ancestral cult is deeply rooted in the African
traditional worldview so much so that a proper and adequate
understanding of that cult cannot be achieved without
examining it in its intimate link with such worldview. Hence,
before exposing the main features of ancestral veneration, it
is useful to give first a brief survey of the African traditional
worldview, in the light of which the former will and should
be envisaged.
2.1 Brief Survey of African Traditional Worldview
As can be gathered from anthropological and ethnological
data most of the elements found in the African worldview can
be reduced to four main headings:
2.1.1 Dynamism and vitalism, comprising an existential,
concrete and affective way of approach. Reality is seen and
judged especially from its dynamic aspects closely related to
life. The farther a being is from these elements, the more
unreal and valueless it is conceived to be, hence the emphasis
on fecundity and life, and the identification between being
and power or vital force. Indeed, the ideal of the African
culture is coexistence with and the strengthening of vital
force or vital relationship in the world and universe. Above
all forces is God, who gives existence and increase of power
to all others. Next comes the dead of the tribe who, thanks to
their transition into the other world, are endowed with special
powers. The living forms a hierarchy according to their
power. The different manners of being are distinguished by
their mode and degree of participation in the Supreme Force
(God) and in superior forces of other "spiritual" beings.
The craving for power, safety, protection and life is the
driving force in the African religion. This craving originates
not so much from logical reflection, but from a feeling of
incapacity and an obstinate desire to overcome it. Many
individual needs are believed to be satisfied by dynamism and
spiritism. Amulets and talisman are vehicles of vital energy.
_____________________
Managing Editor: Nakato Lewis
PUBLISHER: KIWANUKA LEWIS
Published monthly and freely by BHSN for the African Traditional
Herbal Research Clinic
The traditional shrine as a symbol of our cultural history
This ethic is based on the belief that every act and custom
which strikes at the vital force or at the growth and
hierarchy of man is bad. What is ontologically and
morally and juridically just is that which maintains and
increases the vital energy received from the life-Giver, the
Creator of force and the Force from which all forces flow
and are under His control.
Force, soul, life and word are closely connected with one
another. The word is the principle of life, vital force par
excellence (hence the force of the name, ritual, word and
myth). In a certain sense all is participation, because it is
the same force which animates the whole universe; and it
is normal that everything acts upon everything. Hence
pan-vitalism or cosmo-biology characterises the African
traditional worldview.
The classification of being is based on forces according to
(a) the principle of proximity of origin (the begetter is
always "stronger" than the begotten), or of existential
affinity (correspondence between the visible and the
invisible, the profane and the sacred, the jungle and the
village); (b) distinction of sexes.
2.1.2
Solidarity
(relationally),
totality
and
participation. The universe is conceived as a sort of
organic whole composed of suprasensible or mystical
correlations or participations. The African does not only
represent in his mind the object of his knowledge, but he
participates in it only in a representative fashion, but
simultaneously in the physical and mystical sense of the
world, as can be observed especially in rituals. The
connection between cause (supernatural) and effect is
immediate; secondary causes are either not admitted or
considered negligible. God is, in the final analysis, behind
all the vents in the world. He is the Fountain of life and
power in which all participate and, as such, He is the
Foundation of human and cosmic solidarity, totality, and
participation. This totalising vision manifests itself by the
assimilation of the individual in the group, and by the
absence of clear-cut differentiation between the various
social functions (economic, juridical, political, religious).
The social order is conceived as a replica of the order of
Continued on page 32

Volume 4, Issue 1
NEWSLETTER
January 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES
Skin Healing
By Tariq Sawardi
"What you put on your skin is just as important as what you put in your body"
Over the last ten years, I have frequently consulted
African Americans on a number of skin related
problems such as sensitive skin, excessive oiliness,
acne, spotting and tonal unevenness, ashiness, eczema,
psoriasis, dermatitis, boils and athlete's foot. Some
people just wanted a "quick fix". Others, still having to
see themselves in the mirror each morning, were not
happy about what they saw.
Skin eruptions of any kind are nature's way of getting
our attention when we're off wandering in the
wilderness. According to African holistic principles,
most skin eruptions are caused by eating poor food
combinations, animal meat, denatured foods, bleached
flours, dairy, white sugar and from chemicals
contained in commercial cosmetics, to name a few. All
of these things create congestion and toxins in the
body.
The skin is not just a covering to hold bones and
muscles together. The skin is actually the largest
elimination system that the body has and it
communicates to us. Almost everything that we see
happening to us, on the surface level, is reflective of a
condition going on inside.
cheeks and forehead.

There are basically two general types of skin diseases
according to Yorubic medicine: Oshun imbalance and
Ogun imbalance. Oshun imbalance is the result of a
overload of the eliminative systems especially those
affecting the kidneys, colon, and liver networks
throughout the Orisha modes. This theory is also in
agreement with the principles of Traditional Chinese
Medicine utilizing Yin and Yang polarities in the
body. If we consume too much animal protein, there
will be a buildup of urea and other toxic wastes, which
does not allow the kidneys to satisfactorily discharge
the toxins. If white sugar is added to the diet, it will
precipitate a too active discharge resulting in skin
eruptions.
Melanin and Skin Health
Without a doubt, melanin, the substance responsible
for producing dark skin pigment in people of color is
one of the important aspects when considering skin
care. Melanin is a gift from the Creator which serves
to protect the body and makes communication with the
environment possible. Melanin is responsible for
manufacturing and sustaining life and it keeps the
black human in constant contact with the natural
energies of the universe. (Refer to Diagram 1.)
Through holistic health science, we know that each cell

in the body has intelligence and memory. If we stop
putting the poisons in the body that are causing the
problems and nutritionally-support the weakened
system while it repairs itself, then most of the time we
can reverse the damage that we've done. The same
principle must be applied to the skin.
Dr Carol Barnes in his book, Melanin: The Chemical

Key to Black Greatness indicates that melanin is a
biopolymer of undetermined size. A polymer is a
linkage of small units which forms a chemical chain or
a large, complex molecule.
You have probably heard the age-old saying, "you are

what you eat." But we are also what we wear, what we
breathe, and what we think. The thoughts we think,
etch themselves on our face because they affect
our water soluble vitamins and many of our minerals
very quickly. It's hard to think or feel negative
emotions without affecting your B vitamins and your
potassium levels. When potassium and sodium levels
are out of balance, deep lines start to appear on the ears,
Therefore, melanin is a very large, complicated and

complex living molecule. It has a very high molecular
weight, meaning that one molecule of melanin is
composed of a three-dimensional configuration of over
200 individual atoms. It is a living molecule, a life
chemical, and it is charged like a battery. In fact, it
operates like a battery or super-conductor, yet it is heat
resistant and is characterized by a nice, sweet
fragrance.
Continued on page 5
Continued from page 4 Skin Healing
Diagram 1.
Biochemistry of Black Skin
Quite often I have treated black women who had skin

problems around the mouth, or eye areas. Those are the
weakest areas on the face, so toxins will erupt in those
areas first. In most cases, these women were using makeup which contained artificial colors. Most women
experience rashes, marks, and pimples. This is the body's
way of communicating that it is under toxic load. The
artificial colors in the eye make-up are basically the last
straw. In most of the cases I have diagnosed, I found that
those same ladies also consumed quite a bit of sugar.
Because sugar is assimilated in the mouth, it will
immediately weaken the immune system so there is
nothing left to fight against the attack of artificial colors.
The invading chemicals alter the chemical structure of
melanin, alter its electrical charge and damage its
electronic configuration.
All commercially made
cosmetics have a toxic effect on melanin.
The use of colors to make-up the face and body was
derived from the ancient Egyptians. Europeans, however,
misinterpreted this ancient African science, and distorted
the original purpose of color science and called it make-up
which is primarily used to cover and decorate the skin. In
ancient Africa, colors were rubbed on the face to excite
healing of disease. Colors were extracted from medicinal
plants and metals. The ancient Egyptians discovered that
colors derived from plants have a wholistic healing effect
on the body and its organs.
Melanin is found not only in the skin, hair and eyes,

but it is also contained in many other vital parts of the
body as well. It is in the nervous system, the glands,
the brain, the genes, the muscles, intestines, heart and
liver. It is through these melanized organs, or networks
that the skin receives its healthy vibrations. So, it is
important that we understand the significance of
melanin in our efforts to maintain and enhance our
skin complexion.
You and your skin is a product of what you eat, think
and drink, and your body responds to all three. Dr.
Jewel Pookrum states in her book, Melanin - The
Basics, that there is also a relationship between the
immune system and melanin, especially in black
people. Dr. Pookrum describes in detail the chemistry
behind melanin and how it becomes toxic when the
body is exposed to various substances, such as
chemicals, cosmetics, drugs food. When some of these
substances enter the body, they bind with melanin and
confuses the body and its skin, so it cannot maintain
the life functions the way pure melanin is suppose to.
Melanin when toxic loses its ability to function
properly and this results in physical and spiritual
diseases, and "skin disorientations".
When some of these substances enter the body, they bind

with melanin and confuses the body and its skin, so it
cannot maintain the life functions the way pure melanin is
suppose to. Melanin when toxic loses its ability to function
properly and this result in physical and spiritual diseases,
and "skin disorientations". Refer to Color Chart
As a result of their beneficial effects on organs in the
practice of medicine, the colors in flowers, shrubs and
even in minerals were believed to possess therapeutic
virtues according to their colors and these were duly
classified by Egyptian priests. Colors have their own
vibratory radiations which may affect the skin, causing
health or allergic reactions. Pimples, bruises, rashes,
blackheads and acne indicate a disease state of a particular
organ related to a specific area on the face. Furthermore,
discoloration, or vitiligo (small patches of white skin
surrounded by normal pigmented skin) indicates a
dysfunction of the organ related to that facial area. (Face
chart 2.)
Egyptian physicians depended heavily upon plants,
minerals and metals in the compounding of remedies for
different skin diseases. In each case, the color factor was
carefully noted and influenced the selection of medicinal
materials.

Volume 4, Issue 1
NEWSLETTER
January 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES
Melanin Anyone?
Unblind Africanus
It is a sad and unfortunate fact that many people of
Afrikan descent need to be reminded of black history
month, once a year, in order for them to grasp at a few
straws of self-awareness. The minds of these victims
are too busy trying to emulate European behavior and
civilization to initiate a serious exploration and
inploration into their true essence. This goes to many
extremes and is something that affects our situation
negatively as well as niggatively". I am often
dismayed but no longer surprised at the amount of my
brothers and sisters who lack knowledge of self to the
extent that, they are not aware of what melanin is. This
fundamental determinant which makes us who we are
as a people has not been taught to them and they have
not taken the initiative to find out about it.
To start at the beginning: Melanin is a Greek name
(from melanos) which denotes the color black. It is true
however that before the Greeks appropriated Afrikan
civilization and science, in KMT or Egypt (which is a
Greek misguided name) the ancient black Egyptian
(Metu Nefer) word that had the blackest connotation
was KMT and they named themselves by it (kamau).
On a psychological level, the study of melanin is a key
to unlock mental slavery of black people. Melanin is
the fundamental unit of the universe and can exist in
four forms including Cosmic Melanin, Planetary
Melanin, Plant Kingdom Melanin (chlorophyll) and
Animal Kingdom melanin (black pigmentation). The
latter is the appropriate field of study for Afrikans.
In humans, tyrosine, an amino acid, is the main
nutrient. Tyrosine is a precursor of melanin and lays the
foundation for melanin to be produced. The body must
contain an enzyme known as tyrosinase and copper to
be able to use tyrosine to create melanin. In humans
there are three types of melanin. The first being
Eumelanin which has a high electric charge, high
molecular weight and density and gives rise to colors
from dark brown to blue black. A less dense form of
melanin with lower molecular weight is known as
pheo-melanin or pseudo-melanin. It has been
established that those with no melanin have quite a few
more cancers and genetic disorders than those with

pheo-melanin. It is also true that people with pheomelanin have also quite a few more cancerous
developments than those with Eumelanin.
The organ of the human body with the largest surface
area is, of course, the skin. Many people are aware that
the deep concentration of melanin in African peoples
skin makes them black and enables them to use the rays
of the sun more effectively than our less melanated
counterparts, but what few know is that melanin is not
only present in our skin but it permeates our whole
physical being. It is contained in a small battery cell
called a Melanosome. The degree of blackness in
various organs in Afrikan people depends on the type of
melanin contained and its weight.
Melanin is present in each organ and regulates the
workings of our brain. Within the human brain stem are
12 centers of black melanin. On the earth, only humans
have deep pigmentation of all twelve-brain centers. The
brain center with the deepest pigmentation is the Locus
Coeruleus or Black Dot. The Locus Coeruleus supplies
the pineal gland with norepinephrine. The pineal gland
controls the flow of melatonin during the night hours to
activate R.E.M sleep which allows us to communicate
with internal memory pools or other dimensions of life
in nature. Melanin also causes seratonin to flow more
effectively in the waking state so to inspirience more
spirituality. This also helps to keep spiritual intunement
at an apex. The less melanin in an individual, the more
calcified the pineal gland and less access the individual
has to the spiritual world.
Melanin exists also as biopigment for vision in the eyes
of humans and all vertebrates. Color vision is produced
in the retina by melanin through photopigments. These
allow deeper melanin concentrations, offer protection
from the sun as well as a fuller vision of the color
spectrum. The melanin content in the inner ear also is of
great importance. Through this ear pigmentation, it was
found that increased melanin increases hearing
frequencies.
Continued on page 7
Continued from page 6 Melanin Anyone?
Melanin is also used to make the Black Dot more in

touch with the universe. This Black Dot (Third Eye) was
seen by our Kemetic ancestors as the access point to inner
wisdom and divinity. This was the invisible door to the
pyramid which when activated would decipher the
mysteries.
Melanin in its most concentrated form is black. It is black
because its chemical structure will not allow any energy
to escape once that energy has come in contact with it.
This gives us an insight and shows that melanin dominant
people do not require the same amount of minerals and
nutrients in their diet as people with less melanin.
Melanin absorbs light rays and stores them so that they
can be used as energy later on. This is why Melanin
dominant people are able to use sunlight more
effectively. A perfect example of melanins use is related
to Vitamin D. Vitamin D can be found in the skin of
melanin dominant individuals after sun exposure,
whereas less melanated people require the intake of
dairy products to secrete vitamin D. It is important for
people with high melanin content not to indulge in dairy
products because after the age of 5, 80% of highly
melanated people are lactose intolerant. For our people,
eating diary leads to blockage diseases in the body. So
instead of asking your brothers and sisters if they Got
milk? you need to ask them the question, Got
Melanin? This is just one example and also a brief look
at the pervasive manifestations of melanin and its uses. It
is a fact that we have ceased to know about our melanin
and ceased to use it accordingly. The key to our liberation
is the reactivation of our melanin faculties.
The author of this article intends for everyone who reads
it to research melanin and hence research their true self. It
is important for us to know some basic fundamentals on
the energy governing our life. For further research, two
highly recommended books upon which this article was
fed are: Melanin: A Key to Freedom by Richard King
M.D and Vitamins and Minerals: from A to Z by Jewel
Pookrum. The author is a poet of the spoken word in
Toronto, Canada.
Continued from page 2 The Mass Poisoning of

Humanity
Ages. Gee, why don't they have you swallow radiation
pills at the same time they're putting mercury fillings in
your mouth? That way you can be energized and have
fillings, too!
Some of the greatest quackery in the world right now the

problems associated with mercury toxicity and mercury
fillings. Of course, I don't mean all dentists; some dentists
are slowly coming around to this issue. In fact, these
selected dentists are leading the change; they are
pioneering dentists, just as those in the world of medicine
that are trying to change conventional medicine.
These few dentists that are trying to make changes and
get mercury fillings banned deserve tremendous credit for
taking the lead and standing up and fighting against the
dogma of their own industry to protect their patients.
There's no doubt in my mind that within a few years,
mercury fillings will be banned and they will join the
ranks of lead paint, asbestos insulation, leaded gasoline
and radiation pills. They will go into the historical annals
of bad medicine, and some day future generations will
think we were absolutely crazy to be putting mercury in
people's mouths.
More Poison From Dentists - Fluoride
That's not the end of the toxicity in the world of dentistry,
we also have dentists pushing for, get this, the dripping of
a highly toxic chemical waste product into the water
supply... a substance that's scraped off the smokestacks of
industrial polluters. They want every person in the
community to actually drink this substance.
This material is a toxic waste that's regulated by the EPA.
It would be illegal to drip it into a river or a stream, but
for some reason, it is perfectly legal to drip it into the
public water supply and let people drink it. It's a bizarre
cycle of rationalization that can only be called medical
lunacy. They no longer consider this toxic substance
toxic if it passes through the bodies of human beings first.
What substance am I talking about? Fluorosilicic acid,
otherwise known by its short name, fluoride.
Across the country and around the world, dentists are
insisting that we drip fluoride into the public water
supply. For what purpose? To protect the teeth? Can you
be serious? People are swallowing this liquid. They're not
rinsing it in their mouth and spitting it out, they're
ingesting it. Now as a result we have fluorosis, and bone
disorders that are related to the over-consumption of
fluoride.
For some reason, dentists have decided that they now
have medical degrees, and that they want to medicate the
entire population with a drug, a biologically active drug,
without first diagnosing any individual in that
community. In other words, they want to medicate
everyone across the board with the exact same dosage,
regardless of that person's individual health needs, and
regardless of how much other fluoride they may be
exposed to on a regular basis. This is the insanity of the
-7- Traditional African Clinic January 2009

Volume 4, Issue 1
NEWSLETTER
January 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES
The Virtues of Vitamin D: Its Time We Saw the Light

There's no such thing as a cure-all, but Vitamin D comes pretty close. Jeremy Laurance
explains how a little sunshine could help you live a lot longer
18 September 2007
It may not be the first supplement to be called a
"wonder vitamin", but it is one of the few to have
lived up to the name. Last week, the biggest review
of the role of vitamin D in health found that people
who took supplements of the vitamin for six years
Overall mortality
It was the proof that researchers had been waiting for.
Earlier studies had suggested that vitamin D played a
key role in protecting against cancer, heart disease
and diabetes conditions that account for 60 to 70
per cent of all deaths in the West. The new study, by
scientists from the International Agency for Research
on Cancer in Lyon and the European Institute of
Oncology in Milan and published in Archives of
Internal Medicine, shows that it does. The review of
18 trials involving 57,000 people found that those
who took the supplements had an 7 per cent lower
risk of death overall during the six-year period of the
study.
Edward Giovannucci, a professor of nutrition at the
Harvard School of Public Health, said that the
research added "a new chapter in the accumulating
evidence for the beneficial role of vitamin D on
health". He called for a debate on the merits of
"moderate sun exposure, food fortification with
vitamin D and higher dose supplements for adults".
Vitamin D is important because we are often short of
it. Most healthy individuals get all the vitamins and
minerals they need from eating a balanced diet, but
vitamin D is the exception. It is made by the action of
sunlight on the skin, which accounts for 90 per cent
of the body's supply. Very little comes from food.
But the increasing use of sunscreens and the
decreasing amount of time spent outdoors, especially
by children, has contributed to what many scientists
believe is an increasing problem of vitamin D
deficiency. In the winter, the sun in Britain is barely
strong enough to make the vitamin, and by spring,
say scientists, 60 per cent of the population is
deficient (defined as a blood level below 30ng per

millilitre).
Colds and flu
The traditional advice for avoiding these winter ailments
has been to swallow large quantities of vitamin C. But we
may have been turning to the wrong vitamin. Researchers
from Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, New
York, found that giving supplements of vitamin D to a
group of volunteers reduced episodes of infection with
colds and flu by 70 per cent over three years. All the
participants were Afro-Caribbean women whose dark
skin means that they make less vitamin D. The
researchers said that the vitamin stimulated "innate
immunity" to viruses and bacteria. The decline in vitamin
D levels between November and March could be the
"seasonal stimulus" that accounts for the peak in colds
and flu in the winter. "Since there is an epidemic of
vitamin D insufficiency in the US, the public health
implications of this observation could be great," the
researchers wrote.
Heart disease
High rates of heart disease in Scotland have been blamed
on the north's weak sunlight and short summers.
Differences in sunlight may also explain the higher rates
of heart disease in England compared with southern
Europe. Some experts believe that the health benefits of
life in the Mediterranean may have as much to do with
the sun there as with the regional food.
A study of almost 10,000 women over 65 by the
University of California found that those who took
vitamin D supplements had a 31 per cent lower risk of
dying of heart disease; researchers at the University of
Bonn found lower levels of vitamin D in patients with
chronic heart failure.
Vitamin D works by lowering insulin resistance, which is
one of the major factors in heart disease. It is also used by
the thyroid gland, which secretes a hormone that
regulates the body's levels of calcium, which in turns
helps regulate blood pressure.
Continued on page 9
Continued from page 9 The Virtues of Vitamin D
Cancer
A 40-year review of research found that a daily dose of
vitamin D could halve the risk of breast and bowel
cancer, two of the biggest cancer killers. Scientists
from the University of San Diego reviewed 63
scientific papers published since the 1960s and
concluded that there was a need for "public health
action" to boost vitamin D levels. They said that a
daily dose of 1,000 international units (25 micrograms)
was needed; the recommended level in the US is
currently only 400 units. Vitamin D deficiency "may
account for several thousand premature deaths from
colon, breast, ovarian and other cancers annually,"
they wrote in the American Journal of Public Health.
The research showed that African Americans with
darker skins and people living in the north-eastern US,
where it is less sunny, were more likely to be deficient
in vitamin D, and had higher cancer rates. This could
explain why black Americans die sooner that whites
from cancer, even after allowing for differences in
income and access to health care.
In June, the Canadian Cancer Society recommended
that adults start taking vitamin D supplements to
reduce their risk of cancer.
Rickets
This is the disease traditionally linked with vitamin D
deficiency. A century ago, the typical bow-legged gait
of children whose bones had softened and deformed in
the absence of the vitamin was a common sight. Cod
liver oil, which contains vitamin D, was introduced as
a welfare food in 1942 and virtually eliminated the
condition. Now, rickets is reappearing. Last June,
doctors in Dundee reported five cases in ethnically
Asian children; dark skin produces vitamin D more
slowly than lighter skin.
Vitamin D is crucial for the absorption of calcium,
which is the building material for new bones. As well
as leading to rickets, deficiencies can contribute to
poor tooth formation, stunted growth and general ill
health.
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence is
consulting on a proposal to recommend supplements
for certain pregnant women at risk: vegans and women
who cover their skin for religious reasons.
Supplements are already recommended for infants at
risk, and are available free to families on income
support and jobseeker's allowance.
Diabetes
Vitamin D supplements given to babies born in
Finland reduced their risk of Type 1 diabetes by 80 per
cent. Researchers followed 12,000 children born in 1966

until 1997 and found that those who developed rickets,
indicating vitamin D deficiency, were three times more
likely to become diabetic. Vitamin D is believed to act as
an immunosuppressive agent, which may prevent an
overly aggressive response from the immune system from
destroying insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.
In Oxford, the number of five-year-olds with diabetes has
increased fivefold, and the number of 15-year-olds with it
has doubled. Doctors say that this increase is too steep to
be caused by genetic factors, and must be due to changes
in the environment. "Our research shows that an
alarmingly high number of people in the UK do not get
enough vitamin D," said Elina Hypoponen, from the
Institute of Child Health in London, who led the Finland
study. "In winter, nine out of 10 adults have sub-optimal
levels."
Multiple sclerosis
The idea that sunlight might protect against MS arose
because the condition is more common in countries
further from the equator: gloomy Chicago has a higher
rate than sunny Florida, for example. Cloudy Scotland
has the highest rate of MS in the world. Scots born in
May, after the long, dark winter, have an above-average
risk, while those born in November, after the summer
holidays, have the lowest risk.
Sir Donald Acheson, former UK Chief Medical Officer,
published a study in 2004 suggesting that people who
spent more time in the sun had a lower risk than those
who stayed out of it. Published in the Journal of
Epidemiology and Community Health, it concluded that a
certain level of exposure to the sun might be necessary
throughout the year.
Autism
Could vitamin D deficiency be behind the explosion in
autism? John Cannell, a psychiatrist and vitamin D
advocate, thinks so. The evidence is circumstantial, but
Cannell says that medical advice to avoid the sun and
cover up since the 1980s has paralleled the rise in autism.
Flagging levels of vitamin D could be the decisive factor.
Dr Richard Mills, research director at the National
Autistic Society, said: "There has been speculation about
autism being more common in high-latitude countries
that get less sunlight, and a tie-up with rickets has been
suggested observations which support the theory."
How to get it and how much you should take
* 90 per cent of the body's supply of vitamin D is
generated by the action of sunlight on the skin.
* Vitamin D lasts for around 60 days in the body, so it
needs regular topping up.
organs in the human associated with them. To help

discharge waste from the kidneys, colon, liver, it is
recommended that one apply color treatments over reflex
points on the face.
Continued from page 5 Skin Healing
COLOR CHART
ORANGE: lungs,
pancreas
PURPLE: nerves,
circulation
BLUE: glands,
kidneys
GREEN: liver,
heart
RED: blood
cleansers
INDIGO: bones,
skin
YELLOW:
digestion,
purification
BLACK: melanin
The use of color in healing is unique in that the pure

energies of light are applied therapeutically in a variety of
forms. The essence prepared from the color treatment can
be given orally or externally to treat a variety of skin
disorders. This unique art was applied in ancient Egypt
in the healing temples.
Face Chart 2. Reflexology Face Chart
Remedies and Healing Your Skin

I know it may seem strange that the things we put on our
skin can cause our bodies distress, but ask people who are
allergic to poison ivy, wool or strawberries. What we put on
our skin is just as important as what we put into our bodies.
When our bodies are healthy and our immune system is
strong, we show a healthy luster on our faces.
However, if we abuse our bodies by eating un-natural foods
(especially animal products), foods we overcook, frozen or
processed foods, synthetics or from taking certain
medically prescribed drugs, our bodies will accumulate
toxins. As we start to build up toxins in our bodies and the
system gets weaker, the effects will start to manifest
themselves on our skin to warn us.
The following is some helpful advice for clearing the skin
and treating skin troubles:
Drink Plenty of Water. Water truly is the 'Fountain of
Youth" and it makes sense that if our body is made up of
98 percent liquid, water should be an important
consideration. PURE water. Not sodas, teas or juices.
Water keeps things moving and helps flush out the organs
so that there is less chance of toxins building up. Water is
an important aid to all elimination.
Wash the skin with natural soap such as BLACK SOAP
(herbal/mineral) and CLAY SOAP. These are natural for
melanated skin. Avoid using commercial cosmetics,
lotions, shampoos or creams. Also supplement the body
with vitamins A, C and B complexes.
Herbs that are helpful in clearing the skin are: chickweed,
dandelion, ginger, red clover, yellow dock root,
sarsaparilla, burdock and sassafras.
Recommended Reading
African Holistic Health, Lliaila O. Afrika
African Medicine, Tariq M. Sawandi
Herbs for Clearing the Skin, S. Beckett
Self Treatment for Skin Troubles, H. Clements
Melanin: The Chemical Key to Black Greatness, Dr.
Carol Barnes
Melanin: The Basics, Dr. Jewel Pookrum
How to Select and Combine Fruits, Vegetables and
Tubers through their Color-Powers, Dr. Ignatius
Tariq Sawandi is a Master herbalist, nutritionist, and

consultant on holistic and consultant on holistic health.
In African medicine, rashes, acne, bruises, and marks that
occur on the face are caused by the imbalances of various
www.blackherbals.com/skin_healing.htm
Continued from page 9 The Virtues of Vitamin D
* Twenty minutes twice a week in the sun with exposed

hands, arms and face is adequate to maintain reserves.
* There is no recommended supplementary dose in the
UK.
* In the US, the recommended supplementary dose is 400
international units a day.
* Some scientists say that 1,000 international units of
vitamin D a day may be necessary to prevent disease.
* Vitamin D supplements cost around 5p a day.
http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article2974479.ece
Dy(e)ing To Be Noticed
By Qaraandin
Shaquille ONeill wore them because his mother said its
okay, as long as they dont show when hes wearing
business attire. Allen Iverson wears them for inspiration.
Whatever the reasons are that folk are wearing them,
tattoos are helping to destroy the health of many
members of our community.
There are four eliminating organs in the body: the colon,
the kidneys, the lungs, and the skin. The skin is the
bodys largest eliminating organ. The four eliminating
organs work together to keep the body clean and healthy.
When any one of the four is not able to do its job, the
other three must work harder.
is an acute inflammatory response which usually includes

local swelling, redness, scab formation, and bleeding. Since
a tattoo is an open wound until it heals, infection of the
wound is always a potential problem.
Problems can appear after the tattoo has healed. These
include: lichenoids (small bumps of reactive tissue);
granulomas (firm balls of reactive tissue that form around
the material that the body perceives as foreign, in this case
the tattoo ink); lymphocytoma cutis (a skin reaction that
mimics lymphoma of the skin and has been associated with
insect bites, some drugs, and allergy shots, as well as
tattoos); scaling, itching, swelling, sores, and keloids.
Some people find that they have problems resulting from a
reaction between the sun and the tattoo dye. These reactions
include swelling, itching, scaling, redness, and sunburn.
There can be a reaction to the tattoo dye long time, even
years, after receiving the tattoo. The reaction may involve
itching, swelling, redness, and/or scaling.
Tattooing may result in the accidental inoculation of
infectious matter into the skin. Some dis-eases that are
known to have been spread through tattooing include:
hepatitis B & C; tuberculosis and other mycobacteria,
syphilis, malaria, and leprosy. There have been no reported
cases of HIV being spread through tattooing.
Most tattoo dyes contain metal although non-metallic
pigment options are available. The metals used in the dyes
are:
Red: mercury, cadmium sulfide
As an eliminating organ, the skin excretes about a pint of

poisons through the pores every 24 hours. The skin also:
Violet: manganese
Breathes and absorbs air, light, and water
Yellow: cadmium sulfide
Reacts to external stimuli and against pain
Blue: cobalt salt (cobaltous aluminate)
Evaporates heat for the body as the body maintains a

constant temperature
Green: chromium
Acts as a storehouse for fats and water
Brown: lead (ferric oxide), cadmium salts
Secretes oil, called sebum, which keeps the skin

flexible
White: titanium, zinc oxide, lead carbonate
Tattoos kill the skin. The skin cells, that are under the
tattoos no longer function. The more tattoos covering the
body, the fewer skin cells left alive to work as the bodys
eliminators. The colon, kidneys, and lungs must work
harder to remove the waste that would ordinarily have
been removed through that part of the skin.
Tattoos are made by injecting colored pigment into small
deep holes made in the skin. As with most trauma, pain
and bleeding are part of the process. Immediately after
the tattooing process and during the healing process there
Black: carbon
Purple: manganese
The inks also contain resin, acrylic, glycol, or all three.

Some of the colors used are industrial grade which are
suitable for printers ink or automobile paint.
Autopsies reveal that ink from tattoos wind up in the lymph
node closest to the tattoo. This weakens the immune
system.
We spend all day, everyday trying to avoid chemicals,
hormones, preservatives, drugs, and other substances that
we know harm the body. We read labels on the foods we
Continued from page 11 Dye(ing) to be Noticed
eat and the beverages we drink. We are careful of the

products we use to clean our bodies, our clothes, and
our homes. We exercise, get plenty of rest, bathe in the
suns healing rays, and drink plenty of water. Why
undo all of that by weakening our immune systems
with tattoo dyes? In his book, "The ReBirth of Gods,"
Dr. Paul Goss reminds us:
"You have to go to the store and buy beauty only
when you do not understand yourself. True beauty is
a healthy colon, healthy kidneys, a healthy liver, a
healthy heart, a healthy appendix, healthy tonsils, a
healthy spleen, a healthy gallbladder, etc. Beauty
comes from perfect health.
"When you allow others to be your understanding
they can control how you perceive yourself. They will
then use your insecurity against you and encourage
you to destroy yourself. What you have been
programmed to accept as beauty aids destroy your
genes and organs."
Yes, our ancestors were the first to do tattooing. The
oldest tattoo found was on a man named Otzi who lived
in about 5,000 BC. However, it is time for us to admit
that not everything our ancestors did was good for
them. It certainly is not in our best interest to
reintroduce habits that we clearly understand are not
good for us.
Our goal is to maintain our temples. We cannot do that
by blindly following trends and fashions. No matter
who starts them.
The healing power of a person lies within

the person, not within the doctor, a pill, or a
knife. The healing power of a community lies
within the community, not within a ballot box,
an executive order, or a referendum.
from: Maintaining Our Temples
By Qaraandin
www.blackherbals.com/dy(e)ing_to_be_noticed.htm
Pregnant Women Warned off

Make-up
wild craving for coal. Now pregnant woman have been told
they have to make do without beauty products.
Growing concerns over the exposure of pregnant women to
chemicals that may lead to birth defects have prompted
calls for a new EU-wide cosmetics labelling system which
would mark out some products as off-limits to mothers-tobe.
The move follows the publication of a study which found
that women exposed to high levels of hairspray during
pregnancy were twice as likely to have babies born with
hypospadias, a condition in which the urinary tract grows
on the underside of the penis. The Imperial College London
study suggested that the birth defects were linked to
chemicals in hairspray shown to disrupt the hormonal
systems in the body and affect reproductive development.
Fears over the effects of chemicals such as parabens,
commonly used in cosmetics as a preservative, and
phthalates, used in hairspray, have led to calls for closer
monitoring of cosmetics. High levels of phthalates, also
used to soften plastics such as PVC, have been found to
affect hormone levels, while parabens have been the subject
of concern since 2004, when a study claimed to have
detected parabens from deodorants in cancerous breast
tissue.
The French health minister Roselyne Bachelot sparked
debate last week by announcing that the French health
authorities were considering a labeling system for
cosmetics that would indicate whether or not products were
safe for pregnant women. But the UK government said that
the EU should address the issue as a whole, adding it to a
range of changes currently being made to the European
Cosmetics Directive.
A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Enterprise
& Regulatory Reform (BERR) said: "BERR does not think
this is something which is suitable for individual countries
to take forward unilaterally and hope that the French raise
this during the current negotiations on the revision of the
cosmetics directive, where a discussion can take place
among experts on cosmetic products".
A 2007 study claimed British women absorb an average of
5lb of cosmetics a year through their skin and mouths.
30 November 2008
Scientists last night backed a labelling scheme. "Labels

enable people to make informed choices. In the vulnerable
period of pregnancy, it makes sense for people to reduce
their exposure to harmful chemicals," said Professor Paul
Elliott, who led the Imperial College study. "It is part of a
broader discussion about minimising chemical exposure in
early pregnancy."
Spare a thought for the mum-to-be: no booze; no fags;

no pt; no fancy cheese; no eggs; and, probably, a
The Royal College of General Practitioners is advising

women to consider which products they use. "Women
Study links birth defects to mothers' use of cosmetics
By Rachel Shields
-12- Traditional AfricannClinic January 2009
Continued from page12 Pregnant Women Warned
according to the Mayo Clinic in the United States.
who are planning to conceive or who are in the first

three months of pregnancy should look at what they are
using," said Professor Steve Field, chairman of the
RCGP. "The cosmetics industry needs to look at this
and clearly label their products. Anything like this
raises concerns," he added, "but I don't think people
should panic."
Earlier this year Lionel Bercovitch of Brown University

in Providence, Rhode Island and colleagues tested 22
popular handsets from eight different manufacturers and
found nickel in 10 of the devices.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-andwellbeing/health-news/pregnant-women-warned-offmakeup-1041649.html
Doctors Warn of Skin Rash

from Cell Phones
Nickel surface of phones can cause dermatitis if you
use them too much
Reuters
October 16, 2008
LONDON - Doctors baffled by an unexplained rash on
people's ears or cheeks should be on alert for a skin
allergy caused by too much mobile phone use, the
British Association of Dermatologists said on
Thursday.
Citing published studies, the group said a red or itchy
rash, known as "mobile phone dermatitis," affects
people who develop an allergic reaction to the nickel
surface on mobile phones after spending long periods
of time on the devices.
"It is worth doctors bearing this condition in mind if
they see a patient with a rash on the cheek or ear that
cannot otherwise be explained," it said.
The British group said many doctors were unaware
mobile phones could cause the condition.
Safety concerns over mobile phones have grown as
more people rely on them for everyday communication,
although the evidence to date has given the technology
a clean bill of health when it comes to serious
conditions like brain cancer.
"In mobile phone dermatitis, the rash would typically
occur on the cheek or ear, depending on where the
metal part of the phone comes into contact with the
skin," the group said in a statement.
"In theory it could even occur on the fingers if you
spend a lot of time texting on metal menu buttons."
Nickel is a metal found in products, ranging from
mobile phones to jewelry to belt buckles and is one of
the most common causes of allergic contact dermatitis,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27214249/
Indigo Plant may treat

Chronic Skin Disease
Ointment helped ease psoriasis with fewer side
effects, small study found
Reuters
November 18, 2008
HONG KONG - Indigo naturalis, a dark blue plant used
in traditional Chinese medicine, appears to be effective
in treating psoriasis, a study in Taiwan has found.
Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease for which no cure is
known, though some therapies bring about a remission.
It causes red scaly patches, or plaques, which take on a
silvery-white appearance and often occur on the arms,
elbows, knees and legs.
A study of the findings of a clinical trial involving 42
patients who had had the condition for at least two years
was published in the latest issue of Archives of
Dermatology.
The researchers found that indigo naturalis in the form of
an ointment was safe and effective in treating psoriasis.
"Current steroid-based medication may cause side effects
like thinning of the skin, but this (indigo naturalis) has
much less side effects," lead researcher Yin-Ku Lin of
Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung
University in Taoyuan, Taiwan, told Reuters by
telephone.
None of the patients in the trial had serious adverse
effects, though some experienced a mild skin allergy.
They applied indigo naturalis ointment on one side of
their bodies and a placebo, or non-medicated, ointment
on the other.
Doctors checked on their condition at the start of the
treatment and after two, four, six, eight, 10 and 12
weeks.
"The indigo naturalis ointment-treated lesions showed an
81 percent improvement, the (non-medicated) ointmenttreated lesions showed a 26 percent improvement," the
authors wrote.
Continued from page 13 Indigo Plant May Treat Chronic

Skin Diseases
Research by Which? found that 87 per cent of customers are

unaware that the technology is in use.
For 25 of the patients, plaques that were treated with

the indigo were completely or nearly completely
cleared.
The consumer group wrote to 67 cosmetics companies asking

them about their use of nanotechnology, the benefits they
thought it brought and how they ensured product safety.
Indigo naturalis has long been used, externally or

ingested, to treat various infections and inflammatory
diseases in China and Taiwan, such as mumps,
pharyngitis and eczema.
Only 17 responded - and only eight were willing to provide

information about their use of nanotechnology or particles.
Long-term systemic use has been linked to irritation of

the gastrointestinal tract and liver problems, the
researchers said. They called for more studies on ways
of improving absorption of the ointment.
The Beauty Creams with

Nanoparticles that could
Poison your Body
Daily Mail
November 5, 2008
Meanwhile, scientists surveyed by the consumer group

expressed concerns about the use of carbon fullerenes, which
appear in a number of anti-ageing creams.
Nanoparticles are also used to make sunscreens transparent
on the skin. But although firms say they offer greater
protection against the sun, EU experts have asked for more
safety tests to investigate their effect on sunburnt skin.
Which? said: 'Our experts raised particular concerns about
potential toxicity of fullerenes if they were able to penetrate
the skin. They were also concerned about the widespread use
of nano titanium dioxide and zinc oxide in sunscreens, when
further research still needs to be done on their safety in nano
form.'
Are beauty products containing nanoparticles safe?
Some beauty firms are also using nano silver, which has antibacterial properties, in products such as toothpaste. But
Which? says there are fears it may be toxic.
Tiny particles that may be toxic are being used in

beauty creams without proper safety testing, a
consumer group has warned.
Sue Davies, of Which?, said: 'The cosmetics industry needs to

stop burying its head in the sand and come clean about how it
is using nanotechnology.
Nanoparticles, which are 80 times thinner than a human

hair, are used by firms including Boots, The Body
Shop, Avon, Nivea and Unilever.
'The Government must introduce a compulsory reporting

scheme for manufactured nanomaterials so we are all aware and only those that are independently assessed as safe should
be allowed to be used in cosmetics.'
Some manufacturers believe the technology can deliver

the benefits of products in a more effective way.
But critics say the size of the particles may allow them
to permeate protective barriers in the body, such as
those surrounding the brain or a developing baby in the
womb.
Their scale also changes the way they interact with
other cells, which might lead to unforeseen toxic
effects.
Following a report which raised concerns that some
firms are not declaring their use of nanoparticles,
Which? has called for the so-called 'grey goo'
technology to be banned unless it is proved to be safe.
Its concerns have been backed by Professor Dame Ann
Dowling, of the Royal Society, the UK's independent
science academy.
She has condemned the beauty industry for failing to
provide information on safety testing and use of the
controversial ingredients.

Volume 4, Issue 1
NEWSLETTER
January 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES
Melanin and Bio/Nanotechnology

Nakato Lewis
Blackherbals at the Source of the Nile, UG Ltd.
Mumia, a powder derived from dried Egyptian
mummies, was one of the most valued commodities on
the apothecaries' shelves. Believed to contain powerful,
mystical cures for many diseases, the demand for
mumia in 17th-century Europe was so great that it was
impossible to supply it. As a result, medical charlatans
grew wealthy selling fake mumia, made from the
remains of recently executed prisoners. In addition, the
oils and resins used in embalming the body were so
potent, that the mummies sold to doctors in Europe
distilled the dressings for use in their medicines.
Embalming was one of the principal uses of
aromatherapy, preserving the tissue of the bodies for
thousands of years - Empirics, Quacks, and
Alternative Medical Practices
Nanotechnology is the science of manipulating matter,
such as black materials, sometimes smaller than 100
nanometers and taking advantages of the properties,
such as electrical conductivity, that is present only at
that level. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, or
about one-millionth the size of a pin head. The prefix
comes from "nanos," the Greek word for dwarf.
Nanotechnology has been around for several decades,
but only now is its potential starting to be realized.
Medicine is expected to be only one of the fields to
benefit most from the technology.
One of the first things we learn in science class is that
there are three states of matter, gas, liquid and solid. All
black materials belong to the solid state and follow its
laws. Black materials are present in the entire universe
and are of great interest for the evolution of our planet
and living systems. They are present in the lithosphere
as minerals, graphite, black shale, fullerenes; in the
hydrosphere as black particles in seas, lakes and rivers;
in the atmosphere as soot and smoke; in cosmos as
fullerenes and cosmids; and in the universe as black
holes. In the biosphere, black matter is better known as
the melanin (black pigment) molecule, in all its forms.
The chemical element carbon is the basis of most life

on this planet and is also black in colour. Melanin
constitutes a class of pigments, which are widespread in
humans, animals and vegetables. While the name
melanin in Greek means black, not all melanin as
pigments are black but may vary from brown to yellow.
It belongs to a family of unique and very stable black
substances that is present throughout nature and the
universe.
Physical Characteristics of Black Materials and
Melanin
But even before we learn about the different states of
matter, we learn that matter cannot be created or
destroyed, only rearranged. One of the physical
characteristics of black materials is the ability to
rearrange its chemical structure to absorb all energy
across the radiant energy spectrum. Reflected energy is
white light, i.e. from the sun, in the visible range
whereas absorbed energy is black in colour. Melanin
absorbs light energy, sound energy and electromagnetic
energy. Melanin has many other interesting properties
too, such as ultraviolet absorption, where it is currently
being utilized in the preparation of UV-absorbing
optical lenses and in cosmetic creams.
The colours of melanin are those of a pure
semiconductor. As with other black materials, such as
graphite and fullerenes, this state is subject to changes
by doping with other materials. All black materials,
including melanin, show a remarkable affinity for
metals and exhibit the ability to form charge-transfer
complexes, which can carry either a positive or a
negative charge. Melanin can conduct electricity
without offering resistance to the flow of electricity.
This means that melanin has super-conducting
capabilities. It also behaves like an insulator in that it
will not allow electrical current to pass through its
structure, similar to rubber and plastic insulators. The
added ability of melanin to undergo polymerization is
of great interest in Industry for its nano-technological
use in bio-plastics and biopolymers.
Continued from page 16 Melanin & Bio/Nanotechnology
Melanin also displays what is called threshold switching

(an on/off switch), which means it can function as a biomechanical regulator of biological functions. Of even
greater interest to the scientific community is its use in
the genetic engineering of pharmaceutical drugs for
specific diseases and other microbial applications using
nanotechnology. For example, two research laboratories
at the Savannah River Site in the US are undertaking a
study to better understand how scientists can encourage
certain bacteria to produce more of a type of melanin, a
pigment similar to the one that makes humans skin
darker, which could be use to clean up metals and
radionuclides (radiation particles) in the environment.
This is called bioremediation, the use of living things,
such as microbes or plants to clean up environmental
contamination. Melanin has been shown to accelerate the
rate at which microbes transform metals and
radionuclides in the soil. Researchers hope to stimulate
the bacteria to produce more melanin by providing them
certain nutrients, which in turn, could speed up the rate at
which metals and radionuclides currently in the
environment are detoxified or immobilized.
In another example, experiments on mice have shown
promise for the future of nanotechnology in treating
cancer. The technology being tested involves a nanoparticle of a hydrogen and carbon polymer with bits of
drug bound up in its fabric and attached to a substance
that hones in on cancer cells. By successfully treating
prostate cancer tumour in mice, this research brings
doctors one step closer to being able to inject patients
with nanoparticles that bore inside tumours and release
powerful doses of cancer-killing drugs while leaving the
rest of the body untouched. However, one major problem
scientists were having in perfecting the blood injection is
that the nanoparticles are ending up in the liver and
spleen - an unwanted side effect because once they
dissolve in those organs, they release toxic levels of
chemotherapy to healthy tissue.
Melanin in Human Physiology
African physiology is based on the melanin biochemical
molecule. Melanin is a unique life chemical found in high
concentration in people African descent. In addition to
providing pigmentation to hair, skin and eyes, melanin is
incorporated into all major systems and vital organs in
the body, bringing control of all bodily systems under the
central nervous of system, the bodys information
network. It is in the nervous system, the spinal cord, the
glands, the brain, the DNA, the muscles, intestines, the
heart, blood and the liver. Its presence can be found
throughout nature and is also found in many of our
foods.
As a free radical scavenger or oxygen scavenger, melanin

has additional anti-toxin characteristics and as such, can
serve as a terminator of free radical chain reactions. As a
free radical scavenger, melanin plays an important role in
preserving cells from the toxic effects of oxygen
(antioxidant effect) and is generally present at the site of
tissue repair, regeneration of cuts and wounds, and
infectious diseases. Melanin also increases the speed of
nerve and brain messages which are transmitted between
the left and right hemispheres of the brainand all signals
transmitted throughout the bodily nerve network.
Melanin can bind and release many of the known
elements that are essential for proper body metabolism. It
readily crosses the blood-brain barrier, and is therefore
useful as a carrier for other therapeutic agents that must
reach brain tissue to produce their therapeutic responses.
A variety of drugs, such as chloroquine, cocaine, heroin,
amphetamines, etc., were designed to have a high affinity
for melanin.
In the past, western medicine considered melanin a waste
product of human metabolism, serving no useful function
in the body. Modern science has since discovered that the
melanin molecule, like other black materials to which it is
related, is very old, very refined, complex,
multifunctional, biochemical polymer having a wide
variety of important functions within the human body and
throughout nature. Earlier scientific studies elucidating
human biochemical structures never took into account the
importance of melanin in the human body. Therefore,
early medical and pharmaceutical determinations based
the physical, neurological and metabolic responses of
animals, in the treatment of disease, only on white or
albino animals as a means of extrapolating the mean
response of humans to laboratory-produced drugs,
chemicals
and
pesticides.
Consequently,
the
physiological, metabolic and neurological differences in
the biological makeup of black people were not included
in those studies. This is one of the reasons why western
medicine does not work adequately in melanated people
and the reason why we suffer so many side-effects from
these substances. Race-based medicine, now being
developed by the pharmaceutical industry, is based on
synthetic and genetically-engineered drugs, chemicals,
food and now, melanin.
Naturally-occurring melanins include eumelanins,
phaeomelanins, neuromelanins and allomelanins (plantbased). Colours in humans are determined chiefly by two
types of melanin, eumelanins and phaeomelanin.
Eumelanins are derived from the precursor, tyrosine,
generally insoluble and black or brown in colour.
Phaeomelanins have tyrosine and cysteine as their
precursors, are generally alkali-soluble and much lighter
in colour. Under the microscope melanin is brown, nonrefractile and finely granular with individual granules,
having a diameter of less than 800 nanometers.
Melanins are polymers produced by polymerization of
reactive intermediates. The reactive intermediates are
produced chemically or enzymatically from precursors
consisting of smaller chemical species in varying
amounts, such as tyrosine, tryptophan, glutamate,
phenylalanine, serotonin, melantonin, dopamine,
norepinephrine
(noradrenaline),
and
epinephrine
(adrenaline). The term melanin includes naturallyoccurring melanins, which are usually high molecular
weight polymers (generally, molecular weights in the
millions).
Naturally-occurring melanin is formed through natural
biochemical pathways. One is diet, involving the amino
acids phenylalanine and tyrosine. Phenylalanine is a
dietary chemical that comes from red meat and soya. It is
a melanin precursor, which can raise blood pressure.
Another pathway for natural melanin production involves
the use of the neurotransmitters, epinephrine and
norepinephrine. Melanin production is intimately
involved with the neural system (neuromelanin) because
tyrosine and phenylalanine are also precursors for the
neurotransmitters epinephrine, norepinphrine and
dopamine.
The metabolic pathway, for the production of melanin
from amino acid building blocks, finds maximal presence
in those cells that have a high demand for those products,
the brain. Brain cells have high levels of tyrosinase
because there is a high demand for dopamine. The
enzyme, tyrosinase plays a key role in the syntheses of
melanins and its derivatives. The substantia nigra, the
region of the brain where the concentration of melanin is
very high, is noted for cells with high levels of tyrosinase.
Insufficient amounts of this enzyme causes melanin
deficiencies in some humans. The gene for human
tyrosinase has been isolated, genetically sequenced and
cloned.
Currently, melanin is being produced synthetically or
isolated from natural sources. Natural sources include
beef eyes, squid, hair, bacteria such as Streptococcus
antibioticus and E. coli, and the human brain, among
others.
Benefits and Risks
With the use of genetic engineering and nano-technology,
melanins, its precursors and its derivatives are being
synthetically produced and patented with predictable
molecular weights, particle sizes, and compositions.
Consequently, melanins can now be attached to anti-
bodies and thus targeted for specific cells (e.g. liver

cells).
Melanin has a number of properties, which can be
exploited to alter both cellular metabolisms and/or
remove or introduce intra- and intercellular toxins. Such
properties include oxygen and free radical scavenging,
metal binding, binding of organic cationic species,
catalysis of coupled reduction-oxidation reactions. These
properties are not interdependent, and melanin can be
selectively altered and optimized. Drugs can be
covalently bound to melanin or just adsorbed on its
surface. They can be attached in such a manner that
induces cellular metabolism at the target cell and cause
release of the therapeutic agent.
Other therapeutic uses of bio-synthetic melanin are: 1) to
treat
melanin
deficiencies;
2)
to
prevent
neurodegenerative diseases of the nervous system caused
by exposure to toxic agents; and 3) to assist in the
recovery of neurons, injured as a result of direct injury or
disease. In fact, the therapeutics uses of melanin and its
derivatives stated above have already been patented in the
U.S. In fact, there are a number of patents on the process
of genetically-engineered melanin production using
genetically-engineered microorganisms. In addition,
nanoparticles of melanin can enter human cells as well as
the soil, can trigger chemical reactions and can interfere
with normal biological and ecological processes.
Synthetic nanoparticles can readily cross the skin-bloodbrain barrier, which should be of major concern to people
of colour. This technology is suitable for bioterrorism and
this is just the tip of the iceberg. A recent analysis of
human genome data in public databases reveals that
hundreds, possibly thousands of markers for ethnicspecific weapons do exist. In Black people there are some
15,000 possible biochemical markers that exist as future
bioweapons.
The world is truly becoming a very dangerous place. The
genetic modification of the common foods we eat in the
production of vaccines, herbicides and pesticides and the
rearrangement of plant and animal cells in
bio/nanotechnology to produce so-called desired physical
and biochemical characteristics across species is arrogant
and foolish. The melanated God that created the universe
and us along with it, cannot be outdone. Is western
science trying to demonstrate that God is not perfect
because some of his creations require fixing? The
illnesses and diseases with which we are confronted are
not from God. Although we have no control over the type
of genes we receive at birth, the majority of the diseases
that we acquire in our lifetime are from our own doing. It
is humans that are polluting the earth and in polluting the
earth, we pollute ourselves and our environment.
Continued from page 7 The Mass Poisoning of Humanity
Through genetic engineering and nanotechnology, they

have opened up Pandora's box and we may not be able to
close it. It has already gone too far.
modern dentistry community. Remember, these are the

same people that want to put mercury in your mouth, so it
only makes sense that they also want to poison your
entire body by putting fluorosilicic acid into the water
supply.
The United States is the world leader in nanotechnology

but is not paying enough attention to the environmental,
health and safety risks posed by nanoscale products, says
a report released by the independent National Research
Council. At least 50 harmful effects can be attributed to
genetically modified and engineered entities. About 300
consumer products on the shelves already contain
nanoscale ingredients, including several foods and many
cosmetics, with little or no research to document their
safety. The industry is expected to be worth about $2
trillion by 2014. So as you can see, the quacks are at it
again.
http://www.blackherbals.com/melanin_and_bio_nanotechnolog
y.htm
Continued from page 14 Beauty Creams with

Nano-particles
They don't call it fluorosilicic acid of course, because that

might scare people. They call it fluoride -- and in fact
they will even deceive the public and call it "naturallyoccurring fluoride." There's nothing natural about
fluorosilicic acid.
If you go to any community water supply where they are
dripping so called "fluoride" into the water system, you
will find out where they actually get the fluoride -- ask
them, "Hey, do you dig this out of the ground in natural
fluoride deposits?," and they will tell you "No, we buy it
from an industrial waste processing company because it's
cheaper than fluoride out of the ground." I've asked this
question myself of people who are in charge of dripping
fluoride into the public water supply, and that's exactly
what they have told me. You can verify this yourself and
find out just how your local community is poisoning you
and your family with this highly toxic waste chemical.
How to Poison the Entire Population
Again, we are the only species stupid enough to actually
poison ourselves. And we do it in highly efficient ways.
If you want to poison a population, there's no easier way
than to drip a substance into the water supply. And if you
really want to make sure everyone is poisoned, you
would pass laws that mandate the dripping of this poison
into the water supply (i.e. fluoridation laws). That would
ensure that everybody gets some, whether it's an infant,
an adult or a senior citizen. This is increasingly what is
happening across the United States and around the world.
Advocates of nanotechnology say the particles could

herald many benefits, for instance, delivering medicines
and vitamins more effectively.
Professor Dowling said: 'Nanoparticles of a chemical can
have different properties to the same chemical in its
larger form. And this is why nanoparticles are so
exciting.
'However, when cosmetics companies are seeking to
exploit these novel qualities in their products they must
ensure that their safety testing methods take account of
these qualities.'
http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-2174-0-6-6--.html
There's absolutely no good science behind any of the

fluoride arguments. Even if they were using genuine
natural fluoride, there are no studies that show the
ingestion of fluoride decreases the incidence of dental
caries in modern society. Yet this myth persists in the
dental community, and the American Dental Association
stands firmly behind this national poisoning agenda. They
will call anybody who disagrees with it a "nut," and they
will say that every population must be fluoridated -- for
their own good, of course. That's the only way to ensure
they have healthy teeth, the logic goes.
Put More Chemicals In Our Food, Please
If you wanted to poison the entire population, but you
were worried that not everyone drinks from the water
supply, there is another way: just poison the food supply.
This, too, is happening today, with food manufacturing
practices and the FDA looking the other way on toxic
food ingredients.
Continued in page 19
Our population is being poisoned with artificial chemical

sweeteners. Let's take a look at these. Aspartame is a
sweetener that was never proven safe; in fact, the original
safety recommendation panel at the FDA recommended
that aspartame be denied approval as a safe food
ingredient. It was none other than Donald Rumsfeld at the
time who helped push aspartame through the FDA to get
it legalized as a food additive.
Today, we now see the vast majority of complaints of
food side effects sent to the FDA being caused by
aspartame. Aspartame is an excitotoxin, that is, a
neurotoxic chemical, and it breaks down in your body
into both formic acid and formaldehyde. Now, would you
like to go out and drink some formaldehyde? Well, you
might do that if you were a biological specimen that
needed to be preserved for dissection, but if you're a
normal, healthy, sane human being, you'd never drink
formaldehyde. Unless, of course, they put it in an
artificial sweetener compound and added it to cans of
your favorite carbonated soft drink, in which case
Americans will gladly drink formaldehyde in can after
can, poisoning their nervous systems, going half blind,
experiencing epilepsy and increasing the onset of
neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.
Again, we're the only species stupid enough to actually
poison ourselves with these chemicals. And yet we have
entire groups, food lobbies and public apologizers who
run around saying that these ingredients are perfectly
good for you. There's nothing wrong with drinking
formaldehyde and formic acid. You'll be fine! Drink
more! Here, in fact here's a 50 percent more coupon, so
you can buy even more!
Want Some Chlorine In Your Food Today?
Some say, "Well, aspartame is on the way out -- the big
sweetener now is Sucralose or Splenda." This is the
artificial sweetener that claims to be made from sugar.
Well, I suppose you can claim that it starts out as sugar,
but it's made by removing some of the atoms from sugar
and replacing them with atoms of chlorine, which is of
course one of the chemical elements used during the
atrocities of World War II to create poison gas, the same
element used in chlorine to disinfect pools and public
water supplies.
When it's put that way, you might start thinking, "Well,
gee, maybe there's something wrong with this sugar,
maybe I shouldn't be putting chlorine atoms into my
body." Would you go out and drink chlorine? If you
know anybody who works on pools, or who has a pool
maintenance business, they will tell you that chlorine gas
will kill you. In fact, just to handle chlorine, they have to
wear protective rubber gloves and protective respiration
devices, because if they get chlorine powder wet and

touch it or inhale it, they are in for a world of hurt.
Chlorine gas can cause serious injury or even death. In
fact, if you just take household ingredients like chlorine
bleach and mix it with ammonia, you will create a highly
toxic gas that will literally kill you, which is why these
products often contain warnings that they should not be
mixed.
And yet, in our food supply, we take chlorine atoms and
we attach them to molecules that used to be sugar, and we
call that a safe sweetener. And now we're putting it into
all kinds of foods, whether it's soft drinks, muffins,
pancake mixes and pretty much everything in the lowcarb arena. I'm not sure people realize that they are
actually ingesting chlorine atoms. Maybe they're too
dazed from the fluoride.
Okay, so far we have dentists putting mercury fillings in
your mouth that give off mercury vapor and cause
neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.
We have the same insane dentists mandating the dripping
of EPA-regulated environmental pollutants into the
public water supply, making sure that human beings in
the United States have to drink toxic waste product...
after which it enters into the rivers and streams as part of
human waste, even though if such chemicals were
dripped directly into the rivers and streams in this country
it would be a violation of federal law. We have food and
beverage companies using artificial chemical sweeteners
to replace sugar and claiming that their products are
healthier than sugar products. And yet, these artificial
chemical sweeteners break down into dangerous chemical
components such as formaldehyde and formic acid, or
they are made with chlorine atoms that simply do not
belong in the human body. These chemicals do not
appear anywhere in nature attached to a sugar molecule.
Yummy Poison: Hydrogenated Oils
So, what else can the money-hungry corporations think of
to put into the food or the water to poison America? They
are quite creative and they have a lot of poisons at their
disposal. The next terrible poison on the list is
hydrogenated oils. They're called brain poisons, and
they're present in perhaps half of all the foods found at
every grocery store. It's listed right on the label -- you can
see it as hydrogenated oil" or "partially-hydrogenated
vegetable oil".
This artificial fat directly causes cardiovascular heart
disease, it destroys normal cardiovascular health, it
destroys the healthy functioning of the nervous system, it
causes brain disorders, it causes heart attacks -- it is one
of the most prominent and yet toxic ingredients put into
the food supply. It also causes birth defects and essential
fatty acid deficiencies in both the mother and her fetus.

Volume 4, Issue 1
NEWSLETTER
January 2009
FEATURED ARTICLES
Skin Bleaching Thrives Despite Ugandan Government

Ban on Dangerous Cosmetics
Halima Abdallah Kisule, Uganda
August 12, 2008
Scores of Ugandans continue to bleach their skin
despite a government ban on the sale of several lotions,
creams, gels and soaps which are largely used to
whiten, even and tone the skin.
pills and creams, these products contain melanininhibiting ingredients along with sunscreen. These
treatments also contain amounts of hydroquinone, or
mercury.
However, other cosmetics companies use natural
ingredients to make melanin-inhibiting products.
Extracted from plant leaves, like the berry family,
shrubs and pears, their naturally occurring arbutin leads
to bleaching.
In extreme cases of skin bleaching, the skin can become

multi-colored and marred with inflammation or scarring.
Photograph courtesy of Halimah Abdallah Kisule.
Due to ineffective enforcement of the ban, these

dangerous cosmetics are easily accessible anywhere in
Uganda; whether sold over the counter, along the
roadside or by hawkers, vendors move the skin
lighteners easily due to high demand. Such is the
popularity that skin-whitening products have gained
today in Uganda.
Medically, skin whitening (or bleaching) products are
used for treating pigmentation disorders like freckles,
pregnancy marks, blotchy uneven skin tone, patches of
brown to gray skin and age spots. Skin pigmentation
occurs because the body either produces too much or
too little melanin, the pigment responsible for creating
the color of our eyes, skin and hair. It also provides
crucial protection against the suns rays by absorbing
ultra-violet light. Doctors say that those with darker
skin are less susceptible to sunburn and the overall
effects of sun damage.
According to dermatologists, skin bleaching can be
achieved through a combination of treatments that
reduce or block some amount of the bodys melanin
production. Usually in the form of topical lotions, gels,
A young woman who has been bleaching, gets her hair plaited
- her face and chest are a different color than her arms, hands
and legs. Photograph courtesy of Halimah Abdallah Kisule.
In Uganda, the practice of skin bleaching is common

among adults with dark skin, especially women, but
men also do it with little regard for the dangers posed to
their bodies. Some people even use the products for
anal bleaching to reduce naturally darker pigmentation
of the genital and perineal area.
Consumers of bleaching cosmetics claim that they want
Continued from page 20 Skin Bleaching Thrives
to enhance their beauty. One woman who declined to be

named, explains, One has to look good, by having fair,
lighter skin.
Unfortunately, her skin is now multi-colored from
bleaching. She has red skin on her face, yellow on her
arms and dark skin on her back. The skin on her knees,
toes and finger joints failed to lighten and remain black.
For this woman, the condition of her skin has only
brought her shame; she now tries to cover most parts of
her body in an attempt to conceal the damage done by the
products she thought would enhance her beauty.
Those in the medical profession explain that this
condition occurs from allergic dermatitis or irritant
dermatitis (abnormal, extensive and often local
inflammation of the skin), both of which are common
among people who have not previously used the
bleaching cosmetics.
I have cases where people get severe skin burns. It
happens when people change to something new which
causes allergic dermatitis and irritant dermatitis, says Dr
Misaki Wayengera of Makerere University Medical
School.
He explains that the skin of the people using these
bleaching products get inflamed, turns red, enlarges and
begins to loose function as the cells fail to produce
melanin.
Wayengera says that bleaching can be achieved
medically using low dosage hydroquinone, recommended
at 2%. He advises that it should be used only in the areas
of the skin that need to be lightened. He also advised
consumers to always read the contents of cosmetics
because those that bleach cause health problems like skin
cancer, leukemia, thyroid disorders and delay or prevent
the ability to diagnose leprosy. Mercury is the most toxic
of these ingredients and leads to liver problems.
Though the East African Custom Management Act of
2006 banned the import of all soaps containing mercury,
products like Mekako soaps are readily available in the
country having been smuggled in before being reexported to neighboring Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda.
They are smuggled in jerricans disguised as water while
others come in through ordinary containers but are
declared as cosmetics, when [in reality] they are drugs
that fall under the NDA mandate, says Gyavira Musoke,
Head of Imports Inspection at Ugandas National Bureau
of Standards (UNBS).
UNBS says that Kenya is blaming Uganda for failing to
stop the importation of this toxic cosmetic despite the
existence of the law. This is just one of the 400 prohibited
cosmetic ingredients (that are defined as drugs under

the Uganda National Drug Authority (NDA)
regulations) that are on the open market. Products
containing hydroquinone are still for sale after traders
asked the Ministry of Tourism to give them some time
to sell off their stock.
Ready markets for these highly valued cosmetics
suggest that smuggling wont stop any time soon, but
demand alone does not explain why one would
continue to use these dangerous products.
Such a person lacks self-esteem, has low self-efficacy
and a perception that she or he looks ugly, says Mr
Robert Wandera, Coordinator of the Psychology
Department at Makerere University. It is common
among women who are not educated, he adds.
Wanderas colleague, Mr Calistas, says that it is very
dangerous to have low self-esteem because severe cases
can lead to suicide.
He urges, Do something positive to counter [your low
self-esteem]. Take advantage of the good parts of your
body or talents.
Prolonged use of bleaching cosmetics can indeed be
disastrous both psychologically and physically. One
lady who I encountered on the street declined to be
named nor talk about her skin. Her dry, pale face
showed no happiness. She had wrinkles too - not from
old age, but from the effects of starting and then
stopping the use of these cosmetics. I could easily read
the disappointment in her face when I asked her to talk
about her skin. Her response is a clear testimony to the
negative effects of bleaching cosmetics and hint at the
lengths some will go to for beauty. Her unhappiness is
the other side of beauty that we rarely see, but one that
can easily be avoided.
About the Author
Halimah Abdallah Kisule is a journalist in northern
Uganda who, for the last seven years, has covered
human rights, health, diplomacy, politics and education
for numerous news outlets. She holds a diploma in
Journalism and Media Studies and will soon receive her
BA in Education from Makerere University in
Kampala.
Previously she worked for the independent newspapers,
The Daily Monitor and The Weekly Observer, covering
law and human rights issues, providing both with
extensive investigative journalism.
Halimah endeavors to use her writing skills to bring
awareness to the human struggle and find solutions to
society's problems. She is married with two children.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200806070128.html
Skin Bleaching/ Lightening &

its Dangers
Dangers of Skin Lightening
Both products perform a similar process. In the short

term they will initially cause the skin to lighten by
inhibiting the production of melanin. Without melanin
formation in the basal layer no brown pigmentation will
be visible.
The long term effects, however, are those that must be
addressed.
September 26 2005
Would you use a cream or soap that may have the
following
long
term
side
effects
skin cancer, liver damage, kidney damage or poisoning?
In the modern appearance conscious society in which we
live there is a myth that lighter paler complexions portray
beauty, riches and success.
This misguided belief has resulted in a huge market in the
UK of skin lightening products. Some people use them
secretly knowing what the side effects are, others using
poorly labelled under the counter products not knowing
what dangers they are letting themselves in for.
Manufacturers may not be fully versed with the side
effects or labelling may be misleading or economical
with the truth.
Why do we have colour in our skin?
There are three reasons for the colour of our skin:
1. The cells contained within the dermis and epidermis
provide a natural yellow, white colour
2. Superficial blood vessels provide a blue or red tint
determined by oxygen content
3. Melanin produced by melanocytes scattered within the
basal layer of the skin.
It is this third point which determines how dark a
persons skin is; more melanin production results in
darker skin. Melanin has another key function - it plays a
major protective role. It is the skins own natural
protection from the harmful ultra violet rays of the sun.
Without it the skin is extremely vulnerable and we would
have to cover exposed skins with sun screen or risk a
greater chance of developing skin cancer.
How skin lightening products work
There are two chemicals found in skin lightening
products, Hydroquinone or Mercury.
1. Hydroquinone (C6H6O2) is a severely toxic and very
powerful chemical used in photo processing, the
manufacture of rubber and is an active agent in hair dyes.
2. Mercury in the form of Mercury Chloride &
Ammoniated Mercury is carcinogenic. They appear on
the list of toxic substances that can only be purchased via
pharmacies with prescribed labels of toxicity.
The long term effects of using skin lightening products

Hydroquinone or Mercury applied to the skin will react
with ultra violet rays and re-oxidise, leading to more
pigmentation and premature ageing. More product is
then applied in an attempt to correct the darker blotchy
appearance.
These are the beginnings of a vicious cycle. By altering
the skins natural structure and inhibiting the production
of Melanin, its natural protection, the skin is more
susceptible to skin cancer.
Prolonged use of Hydroquinone will thicken collagen
fibres damaging the connective tissues. The result is
rough blotchy skin leaving it with a spotty cavier
appearance.
Mercury will slowly accumulate within the skin cells
striping the skin of its natural pigment leaving behind
the tell tale signs of gray/ blue pigmentation in the folds
of the skin. In the long term, the chemical will damage
vital organs and lead to liver and kidney failure and
mercury poisoning.
Are these products legal?
Products containing up to 2 percent Hydroquinone were
legally available in the UK until 2001 when the
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) issued the
draft 24th Commission Directive. This bans
preparations with Hydroquinone due to the long term
effects as it accumulates in the tissues. The UK
Cosmetic Product Regulations 1978 prohibits the use of
Mercury compounds.
However, the demand for theses products is so high
that there are illegal imports via small operators from
Asia and Africa of creams, lotions and soaps of up to 6
percent which are sold under the counter in the UK.
Graham McPherson from Trading Standards said we
regularly find consignments varying from a couple of
hundred items to a couple of thousand items on a
monthly basis.
Second generation of skin lightening products
Sujata Kashap, a skin care specialist, has been
investigating a new highly toxic chemical that is
already hitting the shops. Sujata said even if hydroquinone and mercury products are successfully banned
. Continued on page 24
Continued from page 19 Mass Poisoning of Humanity
And it's put in foods on purpose, for the convenience of

the food manufacturers. Hydrogenated oils don't go bad,
which means they save money for the food
manufacturing companies, because their foods don't go
bad on the shelves. And how do you make hydrogenated
oils? Well, you don't find them anywhere in nature -- you
have to have a chemical processing facility to make
hydrogenated oils. And you do it by bubbling hydrogen
gas through liquid soybean oil or other types of oils,
using a catalyst (in most cases the catalyst is nickel). So
with this nickel and the bubbling of hydrogen gas, you
get extra hydrogen atoms attached to the molecules in oil,
which makes them solid at room temperature. Since they
are solid at room temperature, they can be more easily
used to make margarine products, or used in crackers and
cookies. And all of this, again, is for the convenience of
the food manufacturing companies.
Food manufactures don't care what happens to your
health, their job is just to sell food products. If you have a
health problem as a result, that's your problem, not theirs.
You won't find food companies offering to pay for your
medical bills if you have a heart attack from eating
hydrogenated oils. They are basically passing the buck
and demanding that you pay for the health consequences
caused by their foods. In fact, they're working hard to
pass legislation that would outlaw lawsuits against food
companies!
Pepperoni-Shaped Poison
Not to be outdone, the meat processing companies in this
country also want to make sure they get lots of poison
into your food products. It's not enough to just sell you
red meat, which is by itself an extremely unhealthy food
ingredient that promotes colon cancer, heart disease,
obesity and many other disorders, they also have to put
cancer-causing chemicals in various meat products.
This makes sure that you get colon cancer from the
additives, if not from the red meat itself. This additive is
called sodium nitrite, and you'll find it in virtually every
packaged meat product found at the grocery store,
whether it's pepperoni, breakfast sausage, or bacon. You
can buy sliced ham, sliced chicken, deli slices, lunch
meat, packaged ham, pepperoni, the meat that goes into
soups, the meat that goes into those little lunch trays ...
pretty much any form of packaged meat at the grocery
store has this toxic ingredient in it. That's why the daily
consumption of processed meats has now been clinically
shown to produce a 6,700% increase in the risk of
pancreatic cancer!
Guinea Pig People
And what is this ingredient again? Sodium nitrite! When
you ingest sodium nitrite, it mixes with the digestive
juices of your stomach and creates a class of chemical

compounds called nitrosamines. These nitrosamines are
potent cancer-causing chemicals. In fact, as I've
mentioned before, they are so potent that lab
researchers actually inject mice with nitrosamines when
they want to give those mice breast cancer or other
form of cancer they can study. And yet, as humans, we
put sodium nitrite right into the food supply. It's almost
as if we were treating the entire population as lab rats -and in fact that's not far from the truth.
Drugs are frequently released in this country on an
experimental basis, using the population as guinea pigs
to find out how many people might die from that drug
in order to get more safety data. Let's face it, when the
FDA approves drugs for public use, they are not at all
proven safe. The American public is routinely treated
as a collection of guinea pigs in order to promote
prescription drugs, foods, artificial sweeteners or other
elements.
Toxic Personal Care Products
So now we've got toxic chemicals in our mouths, in
our public water supplies, and in our foods and
beverages. Where else can money hungry corporations
put toxic chemicals into our immediate environment
and get them into our bodies? Well, think hard and you
might come up with some other ideas. Let's look at the
personal care products industry, because practically
every brand name shampoo, cologne, perfume,
deodorant, antiperspirant or other personal care product
on the market is made with toxic fragrance chemicals.
These can contain solvents, carcinogens and
compounds that are registered in government databases
as having strong liver toxicity.
The reason these ingredients are allowed in these
products are because the FDA has mistakenly assumed
for many, many years that whatever you put on your
body doesn't get absorbed into your body. They think,
for example, that you could just coat your body with
toxic chemicals and you would be fine, because your
skin is a barrier. I've even heard pharmacists tell me
that the skin is a great barrier, so whatever you put on
your skin won't go into your body.
That's utterly ridiculous! As pharmacists, haven't these
people ever sold nicotine patches? How do you think
those work? They work by releasing nicotine that gets
absorbed directly through your skin into your
bloodstream. If your skin didn't absorb nicotine, the
nicotine patches wouldn't deliver a dosage. You have to
be half-crazy to think that the skin is some kind of
permanent barrier that keeps out everything you put on
it.
In fact, the skin is very porous -- the skin breathes. Yes, it

keeps out bacteria, but it sure doesn't keep out chemical
solvents, and it doesn't keep out molecules as big as
nicotine. Nicotine molecules are not very small, by the
way. There are many things that go right through your
skin, and those include fragrance chemicals, solvents, and
a lot of other toxic ingredients that are found in personal
care products. One such ingredient called MIT was
recently discovered in most brand-name shampoos, and
this MIT ingredient is known to cause brain cancer.
Voluntary Chemical Suicide
So now we are really stupid as a species, because we've
poisoned our mouths, our water supply, our food, our
beverages and even our shampoos and personal care
products. And if you use dryer sheets, then you've got
your clothes poisoned as well, they're coated in a layer of
toxic chemicals found in dryer sheet products. So what
else could we use to poison the population? There are still
many other options.
One way would be to sell a toxic chemical that people
voluntarily put into their mouths because another person
in a position of authority told them to do so. This is
describing the prescription drug industry, where people
are poisoning themselves each and every day with toxic
painkiller drugs like COX-2 inhibitors or toxic anticholesterol drugs like statin drugs. People are poisoning
their minds with antidepressant drugs that promote
violent behavior and suicides. They're poisoning their
cardiovascular system with beta-blockers and other
drugs. And of course they're poisoning their livers.
And yet people volunteer to do this -- each and every day
they will put these toxic chemicals into their bodies
simply because someone with a degree from a school of
disease (also known as medical school) told them to do
so. And, not only that, they will actually pay for the
privilege of poisoning their own bodies.
They'll pay good money too, not just a few hundred
dollars a month, but several thousand dollars a month.
Some people will spend six figures a year poisoning their
bodies because their doctor told them to do so. And, then
when something goes wrong and they have a small tumor
show up on a mammogram, or some other blood test
comes back positive that indicates they may have some
sort of cancer tumor, they will gladly pay another
$100,000 or more in order to destroy their entire immune
system with a treatment known as chemotherapy.
They will literally sit there and let other doctors inject
highly toxic poisons directly into the bloodstream and
allow them to circulate through their body. How toxic is
this stuff? Well, gee, think about it, your hair falls out,
you get sick and you vomit -- are these signs that maybe
this stuff doesn't belong in your body? I don't know about
you, but I think that's a very strange way to heal
someone.
If I were a medical professional and I were healing
someone, and I had them do something which made their
hair fall out and they started vomiting and it looked like
they were going to melt away right before my very eyes, I
would think that, hey, maybe this isn't good for them.
But that's not what conventional oncologists think. They
think, oh, this is great stuff. Look, we're going to destroy
the cancer tumor and, if we're lucky, there may even be a
patient left by the time we're done. And if not -- that's
alright, as long as they pay the bill.
Official, Government-Approved Drug Dealers
We as a species actually have a class of professionals,
highly-paid professionals, who we give the right to
poison us with toxic chemicals. These people are called
doctors. I call them drug dealers. Just like illegal drugs,
their drugs kill people. The main difference is that these
"legal" drugs enrich politically influential corporations,
whereas illegal drugs enrich drug lords. Our national
"War on Drugs" is quite selective in its targets, don't you
think? Industrial hemp is outlawed, but doping up
millions of children on powerful narcotics is perfectly
legal: it's called Ritalin.
So, remember, we're the only species stupid enough to
actually poison ourselves. And if we don't do it in just
one or two ways, we do it in half a dozen different ways!
Then we regulate that poisoning, we make it federal law!
And we have lobbyists and groups out there defending
this use of poison in the food supply, and defending the
use of it in cosmetic products and personal care products.
We have defenders of the drug industry, people who say,
"Yeah, well there was a study five years ago that showed
a 1200 percent heart attack increase, but we thought that
really wasn't relevant to this drug and we decided to go
ahead and market that drug anyway." That's what we
have today. And the real details of this gruesome story
have only begun to be uncovered. Wait until the rest of
the story comes out...
We're #1!
Is it any wonder, with all of the poisoning going on at all
the different levels in our bodies, that we are now the
most chronically diseased population that has ever been
recorded in the history of civilization? It's true -- there is
no population that has suffered from diseases like we do
in America today. You would have to be clinically insane
to not think that there's a correlation between the poison
we are putting into our bodies and the diseases we are
getting as a result.
Dazed, stunned, or stupefied.
Plus, as recent studies have shown, we're the #1 nation in

the world in terms of mental disorders as well! Let's see: #1
in obesity, #1 in diabetes, #1 in cancer, #1 mental disorders,
and we have the HIGHEST health care costs in the world,
too. We have the most expensive drugs in the world. We
have more doctors and health care professionals per capita
than any country in the world. And, frighteningly, we're the
country with the most nukes. Great idea, huh? Put the
nuclear weapons under control of the most mentally
disturbed population in the world... now if only our leaders
were at least sane...
Can you think of a better word to describe the people

around here?
But no, wait a minute -- the doctors are right, all diseases
are just genetic. None of these poisons matter, it's just your
genes. They say the gene pool of the human race was
perfectly fine 100 years ago when people didn't have all
these diseases, but it has somehow mutated to a gene pool
that gives you heart disease and cancer and osteoporosis
and diabetes, and, by the way, there's nothing you can do
about it. That's what they want you to believe, because then
they take away your power. Then you have no ability to
make changes.
Actually, We're Pretty Darned Clever, Aren't We?
Not only are we the most stupid species on the planet,
because we're poisoning ourselves, we are simultaneously
the cleverest species, because we find ways to justify all
that poisoning. We find scientific gobbledygook to claim
that, yes, NutraSweet is good for you! Or that these
chlorine atoms attached to sugar are great for you, or that
mercury in your mouth somehow doesn't have a toxic effect
on your body. Or that hydrogenated oils are perfectly fine
for your heart health.
We stupidly say if you take those and you drink this weight
loss shake made with sugar, you'll be healthy. And if you
have this barbaric surgical procedure called gastric bypass
surgery, you'll no longer be obese. And if you're not
healthy, don't worry; we have magic bullet prescription
drugs that will make you even healthier. So we're a clever
population at the same time that we're incredibly stupid. Do
you know what that's called? That's called being a
population of great technicians and lousy healers. And
that's exactly what we are today.
Having used the word "stupid" throughout this editorial, I
use it deliberately. I don't mean it in the way that a teenager
might say, "My stupid little brother flipped me off." I mean
it in a more precise way, in the way defined by
Dictionary.com:
Stupid:
1. Slow to learn or understand; obtuse. 2. Tending to make
poor decisions or careless mistakes. 3. Marked by a lack of
intelligence or care; foolish or careless: a stupid mistake. 4.
As Einstein once said, "Only two things are infinite, the

universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the
former."
http://www.newstarget.com/008511.html
Continued from page 22 Skin Bleaching/Lightening

in the UK there is be a second generation of products
containing Kajoic Acid that also work by inhibiting
melanin production. Which means that in 5 years time we
will be back in the same situation.
We need to stop this disease from spreading
For many years beauty has been associated with being fair.
Models are as white as possible and people are commended
on the fairness of their skin. We feel that we must bow
down to the social pressures or we suffer from the
psychological effects which cause us to use products which
may permanently disfigure or cause horrific side effects.
Banning products containing Hydroquinone and Mercury
will not stop the products from entering the UK and being
sold under the counter. The only way we can make a
positive impact on preventing this disease from spreading
is through continuous campaigns raising awareness via the
media and the government.
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/detailed/Health/skin_bleaching/_light
ening_its_dangers_37431.html
Nigeria: Bleaching And

Coloured Women
Bunmi Fasehun
7 June 2008
Leadership
What is being black to you? Is your black colour so dark
that whenever you see a black woman on TV who is light
skinned, you ever wish you had the same colour as her?
As an African, or to be politically correct a "black person",
why do you feel the need to bleach your skin to look
lighter? Do you believe that by bleaching your skin, you
might be more sought after by men? In our culture,
especially in Nigeria, it is a well known piece of
information that light skinned women are more favoured
than their dark skinned sisters. Some consider identifies
being light skinned to be synonymous with beauty.
Evidently, when a very dark skinned or a light skinned
Continued from page 25 Nigeria: Bleaching and Coloured

Women
Nigeria, even though she had the right qualifications

and to make it worse, neither did she have a boyfriend.
woman enter a room, the one to get the attention would

probably be the light skinned woman. When your skin is
lighter; it automatically calls attention to you.
She said she'd noticed that all the women that were
favoured in Nigeria were mostly light skinned women,
and as soon as she'd realised that, she knew she had a
private war on her hands. She got some money together
and bought bleaching creams so she could get a job and
at least get a man that would marry her, and true to her
words, after she began to bleach, she went for about
five job interviews and finally got a job. However, she
could still not get the man of her dreams. Once her
salary was paid to her, most of it was spent on
bleaching her skin, to enable her to attract the man of
her dreams. I asked her what sort of man she thought
bleaching her skin would attract and with a glow on her
face, she gave a wide smile and said, "Of course, rich
men." I had never laughed so much in my life. At
twelve, I didn't know much, but I knew that my
knowledge surpassed my Aunty A's, as she had no clue.
She actually thought by bleaching her skin, she would
attract a rich guy. My reply to her was that she should
stop bleaching, as I doubted that any sensible man
would want to marry a 31-year old with bleached skin.
She gave me a knock on the head! True to testimony,
she did stop bleaching her skin and got a man. She is
now happily married.
When I was in Nigeria, to bleach one's skin was very

much in fashion. There was a time in Nigeria, when
almost all the women bleaching their skin or rather,
toning their skin to give them a lighter complexion,
although, then, it never occurred to me, why women
bleach their skin, I considered it normal. Until I grew up
and began to understand the dangers of bleaching one's
skin. The beauty of a woman is mostly her skin, you can
tell a lot about a woman, just by looking at her skin and
how healthy it is. During my time of adolescence, my
thinking was that, it was a natural thing for women to
lighten their skin in order to be beautiful, but as time
went by, I saw it differently. The women I knew whilst
growing up, were reacting badly towards the creams they
are used to bleach. After prolonged bleaching, the skin
deteriorates into a different shade, which looks dirty and
wrinkled. For older African women who reside in Africa,
the side effects of bleaching are never to their favour, as
the Weather and of course, nature deal with their skin in a
way that would make one puke. It was mostly a horrid
sight, seeing rubbery, burnt skin on a person's face.
So why do African women bleach their skin? This
question has been asked numerous times by academicians
and of course the man on the street. Simply put, African
women bleach their skin to look beautiful and in a way,
to look more like their Western sisters, who are much
fairer. During the colonial times in Africa, it was said that
if you were a black woman and light skinned, life was
much easier, as being light was almost like to being
white. It is not hidden that Africans prefer black women
who are light in complexion.
As a female who grew up in a female dominated
household, I witnessed Aunties mixing different types of
bleaching creams, to fade away their natural skin tone, in
order to be accepted by society and of course, date rich
men. The lighter you are in Nigeria, the better your
chances of success, said one of my aunties. My aunty,
whom I call Aunty A, is not your conventional beauty,
but she was one who made the best of what God gave her
by enhancing her skin tone so she could get the right job
or man. When I was about twelve years old, I sat down
one afternoon with Aunty A in the kitchen. She was
about to mix her bleaching cream and I asked her why
she felt the need to bleach. Head bowed, mixing her
creams, she smiled and said it helps in the society that we
live in. She said I should take a look at her. At her age
(then 31), she had no boyfriend, she had no job. She
could not understand why she could not get a job in
To be fair to African women, especially the ones in the

diaspora, it is very hard to be a success in this world, as
you will find so many hindrances would be placed on
your feet; It is not easy for African women in the
diasporas, it can be problematic being very dark
skinned. In the Western culture, you are mostly judged
by your appearance, how you speak and how you
present yourself. Being black is almost a curse in the
world we live in today. No matter how educated and
enlightened you are, once your skin colour is black, the
boundaries are set for you. You are invisibly set
invisible limit on how high you can go in the Western
world. One must also point out that the issue of women
bleaching their skin does not only lie in the Western
world, it is in every part of Africa. Wherever there are
black people, you will always come across black men
and women who bleach their skin in order to look the
part.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200806070128.html
New Botox Rival May Cost

Less, Work Faster
New wrinkle in skin injectables may work faster, last
longer and cost less
By Mike Celizic
January 8, 2009
Theres a new player joining the war on wrinkles, and its
looking to take on Botox in a run for your money.
Within the next few months, the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) is expected to approve Reloxin as
an injectable treatment for wrinkles. Made from the same
neurotoxin as Botox, Reloxin is said to act more quickly
and may last longer than Botox, according to a report
filed on Thursday for TODAY by Michelle Kosinski of
NBC News.
The bottom line for consumers, according to Dr. Nancy
Snyderman, NBCs chief medical editor, is that Reloxin
will probably be priced lower than Botox.
Battle with Botox
I think youre going to see a marketing battle,
Snyderman told TODAYs Ann Curry in New York. I
think this is going to come in cheaper. Right now, Botox
costs $350 to $500. Watch for a price war. Its going to
be a price war for women who want this stuff.
Botox has been used in medical applications to treat
muscle spasms and other conditions for nearly three
decades, Snyderman said. In 2002, it was approved by the
FDA for cosmetic use. It is made from botulinum toxin,
the same bacteria that cause botulism food poisoning.
Reloxin, which has been marketed for several years in
Europe and South America under the brand name
Dysport, is made from the same neurotoxin as Botox. It
was originally developed to treat muscular disorders. The
difference, according to Kosinskis report, is that Reloxin
will act in one to two days instead of the three to five
days Botox needs to kick in. Clinical trials suggest
injections may be effective for up to five or six months,
as opposed to about three months for Botox.
They work the same way. They paralyze the muscle,
Snyderman said. In cosmetic use, the substance is used to
immobilize the muscles that cause facial wrinkles.
Reloxin, she said, is a new take on it. It is the first kid on
the block to give Botox some real competition.
She said the main difference between Botox and Reloxin
is that Reloxin will start earlier. I think theres still some
controversy as to how long it will last. Some people say it
lasts about three months, and then you have to go back to
the doctor. Other people say that once you start using it
regularly, you may get up to six months.
So, if Reloxin really lasts longer than Botox that I
have to wait to see. But, no doubt, it starts acting sooner.
Recession-proof?
The new competitor to Botox arrives at a time when
cosmetic surgeons are seeing a downturn in big-ticket
surgeries like breast enhancement, nose jobs and facelifts, but little reduction in the demand for rejuvenating
procedures like Botox injections, dermal fillers and
chemical skin peels.
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal reported that
with the economy in recession, people see maintaining a
youthful appearance as being vital in keeping existing
jobs or looking for new ones. In 2007, Allergan reported
Botox sales of $1.2 billion, but said that demand for the
drug was subdued late last year.
Allergan has responded to the coming hype for Reloxin
by emphasizing its established track record. Physicians
should not assume that they can use another product such
as Reloxin and get the same precise and predictable
results, with the same safety profile, as they do with
Botox, Allergan said in a statement released to NBC
News.
The consumers biggest fear about any wrinkle-erasing
injections is that their face will be permanently paralyzed
into a mask, or suffer other disfigurement. But
Snyderman said such fears are unfounded.
The most important thing to remember is its
temporary, Snyderman told Curry. It will wear off; it
doesnt paralyze anything forever, and, boy, is this stuff
safe. It really has been run through the wringer. Its been
around for 25 years.
FDA Receives 930 Reports of

Wrinkle-Filler Issues
Some suffer facial palsy, disfigurement and other
problems after injections
Reuters
November 14, 2008
WASHINGTON - U.S. regulators have received reports
of serious and unexpected problems in people treated
with wrinkle-fighting injections known as dermal fillers,
Food and Drug Administration staff said in a report
released on Friday.
The problems included facial palsy, disfigurement and
Continued from page 26 FDA Receives 930 Reports of

Wrinkle-Filler Issues
"rare but life-threatening events such as severe allergic

reactions and anaphylactic shock," the FDA staff said.
The agency said it received a total of 930 reports of
health problems over the past six years. Many included
known complications such as minor swelling. The FDA
did not identify which products had reports of more
serious problems.
The FDA staff said the reports had several limitations
such as failing to say when the problems started.
Dermal fillers include Allergan Inc's Juvederm, Restylane
and Perlane from Medicis, and Bioform Medical's
Radiesse.
The FDA will ask a panel of outside experts that meets
on Tuesday if labels for the products should be changed,
agency staff said.
Medicis Chief Executive Jonah Shacknai, in an interview
with Reuters, said, "We do not see any adverse events
that are unexpected or unnoted on our product label.
"We haven't seen anything that is life-threatening," he
added.
Allergan spokeswoman Caroline Van Hove said no
serious problems were seen in clinical trials of Juvederm,
and the most common complaint since its approval was
swelling in 0.4 percent of patients.
"Juvederm has a highly favorable safety profile based on
long-term use and volume," she said.
An official at Bioform Medical could not immediately be
reached for comment.
The report was posted on the FDA Web site.
Nanotechnology Sparks Fears

for the Future
before the effects are seen.

Past generations have brought into general usage materials
such as asbestos, leaded petrol, CFCs and cigarettes without
adequately considering the potential damage and the
commission fears nanomaterials will prove similarly
dangerous.
Royal Society report on nanomaterials
Only by introducing rigorous safety systems, including
widespread monitoring and intensive research, can threats
posed by nanomaterials be identified and countered, the
Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution concluded.
Nanomaterials are already used in a variety of products on
the market including a range of clothes in Japan that have
dispensed with dye because refracting nanomaterials
provide the colours.
A nanomaterial placed on the surface of the glass in the
roof at St Pancras Station has been designed to keep it
clean. It reacts with sunlight to break down dirt without the
need for window cleaners to clamber up on the roof.
Many sun creams contain titanium dioxide particles, a
nanomaterial which has been in use for years. There are
about 600 different products using nanomaterials around
the world and around 1,500 have been patented.
Professor Sir John Lawton, chairman of the commission,
accepted that no evidence has yet been found to show
damage has been caused to human health or the
environment by nanomaterials.
But he said that while the technology had the potential to
offer many benefits to society there is also the possibility it
will cause harm.
The rate of innovation in this sector far outstrips our
capacity to respond to the risks, he said. There is an
urgent need for more research and testing of
nanomaterials.
Lewis Smith
So little is understood about nanomaterials in the

environment, that scientists have yet even to work out ways
of finding them.
Nanomaterials are likely to kill people in the future just

as asbestos did unless extensive safety checks are put in
place, a Royal Commission report has said.
Nanomaterials manufactured for use in products were

considered by the Commission to be those that measure one
to 100 nanometres long. A grain of sand is about a million
nanometres wide.
Times Online
November 12, 2008
The team of experts assessing the likely impacts of the

emerging technology are worried that when
nanomaterials escape into the environment they will
damage people and wildlife but that it will be years
Professor Susan Owens, of the University of Cambridge,

said: If we dont do anything and we leave it, then things
Continued from page 27 Nanotechnology Sparks Fears for

Future
manifest themselves in 10 to 15 years time. By then the

technology is so embedded in society its very difficult to
deal with it.
Backing calls for research and monitoring she said that
problems caused by CFCs, asbestos and other products,
were only detected when they started damaging human
health and the environment.
Experts on the Commission estimated Britain and the rest
of the world has about a decade to carry out research on
the safety of nanotechnology before the use of
nanomaterials, ranging from the diameter of a DNA
strand to that of a virus, become too widely-used for any
damage to be halted.
The commissions report, Novel Materials in the
Environment: the case of nanotechnology, rejected an
outright ban on the technology because of the huge
potential benefits.
A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs (Defra) said: As the Commission
states, it has found no evidence of harm to health or the
environment from nanomaterials, but the Government
remains committed to researching their health and
environmental impact.
In particular, ministers are pushing in Europe to ensure
that effective regulation is in place. EU and UK reviews
of existing legislation have concluded that the existing
regulatory framework can be changed to extend to
nanomaterials.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/gm_biofue
l/article5134227.ece.htm
Skin Cancer Vaccine

Breakthrough
By Clair Weaver
As with the jab now given to millions of young girls each

year to prevent cervical cancer, children aged between 10
and 12 would be given the vaccine to prevent skin cancer
later in life, Professor Frazer envisages.
Testing on animals has shown the vaccine to be
successful and human trials will start next year.
Australia has the world's highest rate of skin cancer with
more than 380,000 people diagnosed with the disease and
1600 dying from it each year.
Professor Frazer will reveal this ground-breaking skin
work at the Australian Health and Medical Research
Congress to be held in Brisbane tomorrow.
He said it would be rewarding to develop a vaccine for a
cancer that was so prevalent in Australia with its hot
climate.
It's an important challenge with a very major health
benefit if it works,'' Professor Frazer told The Sunday
Telegraph.
"If we get encouraging results we will try and push it on
as fast as we can. It's really a given that we try to focus
on health problems which are significant ones.
"When you're looking at treatments, your focus needs to
be on diseases that are most common.''
The new skin-cancer vaccine works by targeting
papillomavirus, a common skin infection that affects
most people and can linger in the body, turning abnormal
cells into cancer.
Prof Frazer and his team from the Diamantina Institute at
the University of Queensland are focusing on preventing
squamous-cell skin cancer, which is strongly linked to
papillomavirus.
Squamous cell is the second most common skin cancer,
affecting 137,600 people in Australia this year and killing
400.
It's not yet known if melanomas, which are the most
deadly form of skin cancer, are also caused by
papillomavirus.
Daily Telegraph
November 16, 2008
"My entire career has been focused on understanding the

interaction between papillomavirus and the cancers they
affect,'' Prof Frazer said.
THE pioneering Australian scientist who discovered the

cure for cervical cancer is on the verge of creating the
world's first vaccine for skin cancer.
"We know it causes at least five per cent of all cancers

globally so one in 20 of the cancers that people get is
caused by papillomavirus. It's a huge issue.''
Professor Ian Frazer, former Australian of the Year, has

revealed the vaccine could be ready within the next five
to 10 years.
The new vaccine is part of a two-pronged approach to

tackle skin cancer.
The other approach involves "switching off'' one of the
Continued on page 29 Skin Cancer Vaccine
patients with chronic disease and pre-cancerous lesions.
skin's controls to allow killer cells to destroy potentially

cancerous cells.
"Getting the vaccine is the easy part,'' Prof Frazer
The new vaccine is not the same as Gardasil - used

against cervical cancer - and contains different
ingredients, although both work in a similar way.
"We need to introduce this other component to change

the setting in the local environment.
"It's a conventional vaccine that contains a viral protein,''

Prof Fraser said.
"The skin has a number of defences against the body's

own immune system.
"It was specifically developed for this trial.''
"What we're learning is the nature of those controls and

how to turn them off.
"We can turn them off in animals and if we turn them off,
the vaccine does its job.''
The next stage of trials will involve treating those
patients with chronic disease and pre-cancerous lesions.
The new vaccine is not the same as Gardasil - used
against cervical cancer - and contains different
ingredients, although both work in a similar way.
"It's a conventional vaccine that contains a viral protein,''
Prof Fraser said.
"It was specifically developed for this trial.''
Professor Frazer told Thursday's St George Hospital 2008
symposium in south-east Sydney that more than 20 per
cent of the world's cancers were triggered by infection
and they could therefore be prevented by immunisation.
But he acknowledged that the full extent of the role of
papillomavirus in skin cancer had not yet been
established.
Professor Frazer told Thursday's St George Hospital 2008

symposium in south-east Sydney that more than 20 per
cent of the world's cancers were triggered by infection
and they could therefore be prevented by immunisation.
But he acknowledged that the full extent of the role of
papillomavirus in skin cancer had not yet been
established.
"I don't know how many skin cancers are caused by it,''
he said. ``On pessimistic days I say one per cent, but on
other days I think maybe all of them are.''
And despite his hopes, Prof Frazer stressed it would not
mean vaccinated people could abandon measures to
protect themselves from the sun.
"There's always a danger of complacency,'' he said. "A
vaccine is not a replacement for prevention.''
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,246571
72-5006010,00.html
Don't Pucker Up: Lead in

Lipstick
"I don't know how many skin cancers are caused by it,''
he said. ``On pessimistic days I say one per cent, but on
other days I think maybe all of them are.''
From the Department Store to the Drugstore: Lead on

Your Lips
October 12, 2007
And despite his hopes, Prof Frazer stressed it would not

mean vaccinated people could abandon measures to
protect themselves from the sun.
You might want to think twice before touching up your

lipstick. According to a new report, some lipsticks are
contaminated with lead, from drugstore brands to
designer labels.
"There's always a danger of complacency,'' he said.

"A vaccine is not a replacement for prevention.''
"We need to introduce this other component to change
the setting in the local environment.
"The skin has a number of defences against the

body's own immune system.
"What we're learning is the nature of those controls
and how to turn them off.
"We can turn them off in animals and if we turn them
off, the vaccine does its job.''
The next stage of trials will involve treating those
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics randomly purchased

more than 30 lipsticks in four cities and sent them to a lab
for lead testing. More than half came back with levels of
lead.
"It's unconscionable that women should have to worry
about lead in lipstick," said Stacy Malkan of the
Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.
The coalition's report found that 20 of the 33 lipsticks it
sent to be tested contained lead. Higher levels were found
in products made by L'Oreal, Cover Girl and Christian
Dior.
Continued from page 31 Dont Pucker up: Lead in

Lipstick
Because there is no federal standard for lead in

cosmetics, the advocacy group used the Food and Drug
Administration's limits for lead in candy as a yardstick.
"We want the companies to immediately reformulate
their products to get the lead out and ultimately,
really we need to change the laws and force these
companies to be accountable to women's health,"
Malkan said.
But the trade group representing the cosmetics industry
said the report is nothing new and, not surprisingly, the
findings are not cause for worry.
"I think the levels are actually quite low trace levels
really not something that would present a cause for
concern," said John Bailey of the Cosmetic, Toiletry,
and Fragrance Association.
Experts say pregnant women should be extra aware
when it comes to lead-tainted products. "Lead is a
proven neurotoxin. It can cause learning disabilities. It's
also linked to miscarriage and infertility," Malkan said.
Bailey advises that all pregnant women consult their
physician before choosing their cosmetics.
L'Oreal told ABC News that all its products are in
compliance with FDA regulations and that it upholds
the highest standards of safety for its customers.
Proctor and Gamble, maker of Cover Girl, said that it
stands behind the safety of its products and that all its
products go through rigorous testing procedures.
LVMH, the company that makes Dior products, said it
does not use lead products in its cosmetics. Trace
amounts of lead exist in natural pigments, but the
company considers those levels harmless.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3722013
FDA Approves Treatment to

Boost Eyelashes
Glaucoma drug can be used to increase thickness,
fullness of lashes
Associated Press
December, 26, 2008
YORK - Cosmetic drugmaker Allergan Inc. said Friday
its eyelash treatment Latisse received Food and Drug
Administration approval.
The drug treats the condition hypotrichosis of the
eyelashes and is applied once-daily to increase thick
ness and fullness, the company said. The treatment has
full results within 16 weeks, it said.

"Latisse fulfills a significant and previously unmet need
in the medical aesthetic marketplace with a product
approved by the FDA that increases the growth of
eyelashes, making them longer, thicker and darker,"
said Dr. Scott Whitcup, Allergan's executive vice
president of research and development, in a statement.
The drug's active ingredient, bimatoprost, was first
approved in 2001 as a treatment to lower intraocular
pressure in people with a type of glaucoma or
hypertension within the eye.
Allergan expects to launch Latisse in the first quarter
and forecasts peak annual sales exceeding $500
million.
WHY THE US
GOVERNMENT REQUIRES
WARNING LABELS ON
TOOTHPASTE
WARNING
Keep out of the reach of children under 6 years of
age. If you accidentally swallow more than used for
bushing, seek professional assistance or contact a
Poison Control Center immediately. As with other
toothpaste, if irritation occurs discontinue use.
DIRECTIONS: Adults and children 2 years and
older. Apply toothpaste onto a soft bristle
toothbrush. Brush thoroughly after meals or at least
twice a day or as directed by a dentist or physician.
Children under 6 years: To minimize swallowing,
use a pea sized amount supervise brushing until
good habits are established. Children under 2
years: Ask a dentist or physician.
The above guidelines are the typical warning labels and
directions for toothpaste. Lets examine the ingredients
found in most toothpastes to find out why the FDA
requires warning labels. The following are common
ingredients found in toothpaste: hydrated silica,
sorbitol, sodium saccharin, titanium dioxide, glycerin,
sodium lauryl/laureth sulfate, and sodium fluoride.
Hydrated silica is made from a crystallized compound
found in quartz, sand, and flint and is primarily used as
an abrasive in toothpaste.
Continued from page 31 Why the US Government Requires

Warning Labels on Toothaste
Sorbitol and sodium saccharin are both sweeteners

and used as carriers and sweeteners in toothpaste.
Titanium dioxide is a pigment used for providing
brightness and whiteness to such products as paint,
plastics, paper, inks, fibers, food, and cosmetics; and is
used as a stain remover/whitener in toothpaste.
Glycerin is a syrupy, sweet, colorless or yellowish liquid
obtained from fats and oils and used as a solvent,
antifreeze, plasticizer, and sweetener in the manufacture
of dynamite, cosmetics, liquid soaps, inks, and lubricants.
Glycerin prevents toothpaste from drying out and helps
maintain product consistency.
Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) is a powerful surfactant
(wetting agents) and detergent. It has industrial and
cosmetic uses and is used around the world in clinically
studies as a skin irritant. The molecule is small enough to
penetrate the skin and can enter the blood stream being
carried to every organ of the body. SLS is used in
toothpaste as a foaming and cleansing agent.
Sodium fluoride is a colorless crystalline salt used in
fluoridation of water, in treatment of tooth decay, and as
an insecticide and disinfectant. Sodium fluoride is used in
toothpaste to harden the enamel of the teeth to prevent
tooth decay.
You are probably as shocked as we were to discover
whats in toothpaste, and what we are exposing ourselves
and our children to everyday. Although there are
proponents that warn against the use of all of the above
ingredients, sodium fluoride is the one ingredient that
triggered the FDA to require warning labels on
toothpaste. Here are some facts about fluoride.
The FDA lists fluoride as an unapproved new drug
and the EPA lists fluoride as a contaminant. Fluoride
has never received FDA Approval and is considered to
be a toxic waste product from the fertilizer industry.
A July 1998 report for The American Academy of
Pediatric Dentistry states that at least 22% of all
American children now have dental fluorosis as a result
of ingesting too much fluoride. Fluorosis is light spots
and discoloration forming on developing teeth of
children. In advanced cases pitting of teeth can occur.
Fluoride has been linked to many harmful health effects
including: Alzheimers, kidney damage, gastrointestinal
problems, cancer, genetic damage, neurological
impairment, bone and tooth decay, arthritis, and
osteoporosis. Check the Internet for government and
scientific
reports
validating
this
see
http://www.zerowasteamerica.org/Fluoride.htm.
Battelle released the results of its study of fluorides and

rats in April 1989. The study showed a dose-dependent
relationship between the incidence of oral cancerous
tumors and fluorides. After learning this, the National
Cancer Institute did a study and found that as exposure
to fluoridation increases, so does the incidence of oral
cancer; sometimes by as much as 50%.
In 1990 forty US dentist brought a case against the
American Dental Association contending that the
Association purposefully shielded the public from data
that links fluoride to genetic defects, cancer and other
health problems (Columbus Dispatch, Oct 21, 1990).
Since 1990 over 45 US cities have rejected fluoridation.
Ninety eight percent of Europes drinking water is now
fluoride free.
In 1986-1987, a study involving 39,207 children aged
5-17 showed no statistical difference in decay of teeth
from using non-fluoridated or fluoridated water (Dr J.
Yiamouyiannus Water Fluoridation & Tooth Decay
Study, Fluoride 23:pp55-67, 1990.).
The FDA has determined toothpaste containing sodium
fluoride enough of a risk to require warning labels.
Historically, when the FDA requires warning labels
there is a good reason for it. Look at the progression of
cigarette warning labels: 1970 - Caution: Smoking may
be hazardous to your health; 2000 Surgeon Generals
Warning: Smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease,
emphysema, and may complicate pregnancy.
Although there is a growing movement against the use
of fluoride, there are also some big companies with
deep pockets and strong lobbyist in Washington DC
that want to continue selling fluoride. We suggest you
find a use a safe, alternative to fluoridated toothpaste.
http://www.oramd.com/toothpastewarning.htm?kbid=1110
Continued on page 3 - Ancestor Veneration

the cosmos (adultery provokes dryness), and public
function is at the same time religious and cosmological
(i.e. symbolises somehow the cosmos). The power of
tradition is connected with cyclic duration, ritual
repetition, gerontocracy (government by old men), cult
(of ancestors, initiation rites whereby man is plunged
into the mythical time of the ancestors to participate in
the sacred events of that time of origins). The solidarity
and totality of the socio-cosmical universe determine
all private initiative.
Things are conceived as symbols of each other.
Symbols, on their part, not only unify the objects they
symbolise, but are also believed to participate somehow
in the reality which they express. The African is not
Continued from page 32 Ancestor Veneration
content merely with living in the world and experiencing

its rhythm but desires also to interpret the symbolism of
created things, and to enter into sympathetic communion
with them. The world is, for the human being who has
daily contact with it, an ensemble of signs and messages
to be interpreted. The initiated is the one who knows the
secret (symbols) of things. There is no clear-cut
distinction between the sign and the signified.
What is also prominent in this "corporate way of
thinking" is a strong of community life, expressed by
participation in the life of the community into which the
individual is introduced by various initiation rites. This
accounts for the deep sense of the family shown by the
attachment to the family and the bond with the ancestors.
Closely connected with the family and community at
large is the great respect shown to the head of the family
and other members of the communal authority. In many
cases members of a clan have special mystical
relationship to a totem, with which the name of the clan is
associated.
2.1.3 The sacred. There is a marked sense of the sacred
understood as the "tremendum et fascinosum", and is
characteristically manifested in initiation rites
comprising, among other things, return to the sacred time
of the ancestors, culture heroes, founders and archetypes.
The present world is closely connected with the world
after death, and one lives in close contact with ones
ancestors and other spirits. As consequence, the African
traditionalist is deeply characterised by magico-religious
behaviour.
Among the spirits, God is the highest. He is the ultimate
controller of natural forces and human destiny. He dwells
far away in the sky, or in some important places such as
mountains. He is often approached through
intermediaries.
Side by side with God is the Mother Earth - a goddess
who purifies or symbolises the fertility of the soil.
Besides these are other spirits and those of the dead.
2.1.4 Anthropocentrism. Society and religion are
centred on man whose welfare (well-being, security,
protection) in this and the next world they are meant to
procure. Human dignity is highly respected, and man has
a privileged place in the universe; he interprets the
cosmos in terms of human organisation. The world,
inexhaustible source of life, is meant to reinforce the
power of man so as to make him more living. Interest in
God seems to be chiefly based on His readiness and
capacity to help man in his terrestrial interests. This fact,
together with the desire to live fully the values and
powers of this world, may explain the absence of
mystical contemplative
traditional societies.
communities
in
African
It should be added that in modern African societies

especially in urban circles and among the elite these
elements are undergoing considerable changes and are
at times even disappearing. But it remains true that they
still characterise the general African traditional
mentality.
After this short description of some of the items in the
African traditional worldview, I shall now expose the
various beliefs and practices concerning ancestral
veneration in the majority of African traditional
societies.
2.2 The Cult of Ancestors
There is no uniform system of beliefs and practices of
this cult in black Africa. In fact, one finds differences
of detail even in the same ethnic group. Moreover, the
ancestral veneration which will be described here is not
found in each African traditional community.
Nevertheless the cult belongs to the majority of the
peoples. Besides, notwithstanding the differences
referred to above, there are many elements shared in
common by many ethnic societies. This fact justifies
the assertion that there are common conceptions on
ancestors and their cult. It is on such common views
that the exposition which follows will be mainly
centred.
Mention has already been made that ancestral
veneration in Africa is intimately linked with the
traditional worldview. In this worldview life,
understood as sacred power (vital force), is a central
element. We have seen that the ideal of African culture
is coexistence and strengthening of vital force in the
human community and the world at large. This ideal is
one of the basic motivations of ancestral cult. That is
why in many African societies ancestral status is
closely linked with procreative fecundity. In some (but
by no means all) communities, a person without
offspring cannot become an ancestor.
There are even cases where it is believed that the
naming of the descendant by the name of his ancestor
makes it possible for the ancestor to continue to live in
his descendant. The belief is widespread that the
ancestor will continue to survive as ancestor only on
condition that he is not forgotten, i.e. if his descendants
communicate with him. Hence, the African desires to
have many children who will remember him and
ritually communicate with him. An ancestor, on his
part, is believed to procure benefits for his living kin
such as health, long life and the begetting of children.
Continued from page 33 Ancestor Veneration
African ancestral relationship includes the idea of

kinship as an indispensable factor. No one can be an
ancestor of an individual who is not kinly related to
him. It is for this reason that rituals for the dead without
any particular reference to kinship are generally
considered as not belonging to ancestral cult. And
although there are cases where ancestral relationship is
not founded on family ties (e.g. when such relationship
is grounded on common membership in a religious or
secret society), yet such relationship rarely if ever
goes beyond tribal limits.
Thanks to his death an ancestor is believed to enjoy a
sacred super-human status with special magicoreligious powers that can be beneficial or even harmful
to his earthly kin. Such super-human condition is
expressed in various ways. Thus, for instance, both
bodily and spiritual qualities are ascribed to the
ancestors: invisibility or visibility in human but unusual
form, capacity to enter into and possess human
individuals or brute animals, capacity to consume food
or drinks, special nearness to the Supreme Being,
capacity to exist anywhere although the ancestors
are believed to have localities of preference (e.g.
shrines, particular trees or bushes, grave-yards, etc.). At
times the ancestral spirits are presented with ambivalent
features: they can be benevolent to their earthly kin, but
they can also intervene at will to harm them. That is
why they are also feared. When they are forgotten or
neglected by their descendants, they are said to
manifest their anger by sending to their descendants
bodily or spiritual calamities. Their anger is usually
appeased through prayer and ritual offerings or
oblations. This is an indication of the belief that
ancestors are entitled to regular sacred communication
with their earthly relatives.
In spite of the fear manifested at times towards
ancestors, the living is naturally drawn to ritual
communication with their deceased kin. Such
inclination stems from the natural love, piety and
respect towards their sacred relatives in the other world,
as well as from the belief in the beneficial sacred vital
forces the ancestors are supposed to possess thanks to
their nearness to the Supreme Being. Indeed, the living
on earth expect special benefits from their ancestors,
e.g. protection from sickness, death or other
misfortunes, and the acquisition of various benefits,
such as long life, great wealth or many children. An
ancestor is, therefore, expected to be faithful to his
Being as a last resort. The ancestors, on their part, are
said to desire frequent or regular contact with their
earthly relatives, and are even believed to visit them
through mediums (e.g. snakes, hyenas and caterpillars)
or to have direct union with them through possession. In

fact, the living and their ancestors form a totality in
which solidarity is lived and expressed through prayers
and rituals, in which human and cosmic solidarity is
engaged.
From what has been said above, it is obvious that the
African manifests a sort of dialectical tension in his
attitude towards his ancestors, namely: fear, but also
attraction towards them. As can be gathered from the
above description there are various reasons behind such
ambivalent attitude. Among such reasons, the sense of the
sacredness of the ancestors should also be included. We
have already seen that the sacred is experienced both as
tremendum et fascinosum, tremendous and fascinating, at
the same time. Undoubtedly, belief in such experience
accounts also for the Africans ambivalent behaviour
characterised by fear and attraction towards his ancestors.
Thanks to their superhuman condition and nearness to the
Creator, the ancestors are often considered as mediators
between the Supreme Being and their earthly kin.
However, although mediation is ascribed to the dead in
many African societies, it is not an indispensable factor
of ancestral status. It is indeed absent from the ancestral
cult of some communities, and some anthropologists
believe that it is a later comer into that cult, probably due
to Christian influence. Besides, although the creation
Himself is acknowledged as ancestor by some tribal
groups, no mediatory role is ascribed to him by such
communities. It is important to add, in this connection
that, unlike the Supreme Being, human ancestors are not
adored in African societies.
No one can attain ancestral status without having led a
morally good life, according to traditional African moral
standards. For an ancestor is regarded as a model or
exemplar of conduct in the community, and as source of
tribal tradition and its stability. In some tribes, proper
burial with appropriate funeral rites is another necessary
condition for the ancestral mode of existence. This
condition is, however, not universal. Thus it was nonexistent among those societies in which the dead were not
buried, but thrown into the bush.
African ancestral cult exists as part of a larger religious
system. As it is limited to the ethnic group, no attempt is
made to proselyte outsiders. Close observation reveals
that the cult is fundamentally anthropocentric. It is
centred on the human person, and is intended to procure
human welfare in this world and in the world beyond
death. And in those cases where the creator is
acknowledged as ancestor, he is anthropomorphically
conceived.
http://afrikaworld.net/afrel/nyamiti.htm
What is Vitiligo
Vitiligo affects the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes
by destroying cells that produce the body's pigment.
The most obvious results of this condition are white
splotches in the areas where the skin isn't producing
enough pigment. This is not a serious condition, but
research physicians are still investigating methods for
correct diagnosis, treatments, co-existent diseases, and
psychological side effects.
Our hair, eyes, and skin are given color by a pigment
called melanin. This material is constantly being
broken down and replaced, so it must be replenished by
cells called melanocytes. Melanocytes manufacture and
distribute the correct amount of melanin, but for people
with vitiligo, this process gets disrupted.
As scientists have found, vitiligo destroys melanocytes
for unknown reasons. They have categorized it as an
auto-immune disorder because no external cause seems
to be responsible for it. In auto-immune disorders, your
body mistakes itself for an enemy intruder and declares
war on those "enemy" cells. Your malfunctioning
immune system continues attacking your own cells; in
this case, melanocytes.
The most common symptom of vitiligo is light or white
patches of skin anywhere on your body. These are
commonly found on areas that receive a lot of sunlight,
like your face, back of the neck, forearms, hands, and
feet. They can also affect other areas, such as
underneath your arms and genitals. For the most part,
the symptoms are the most serious aspect of this
condition, and doctors direct their treatment toward this
aspect.
If you suspect you have vitiligo, make sure to go to
your physician for an official diagnosis and
consultation. You can expect a physical exam of your
skin from a dermatologist. At this stage in research,
there are a number of different courses of treatment,
ranging from light therapy to oral medication to strong
sunscreen.
Since vitiligo seems to affect young people more than
older people, physicians cite the psychological effects
of the disease as a major issue. A person with a visible
difference in skin coloring, called depigmentation, may
be influenced to see their body as unhealthy, disabled,
or unattractive. Doctors encourage young people to see
a psychologist to help with this reaction.
Vitiligo may point your physician to another coexisting
condition often seen with depigmentation. Anemia,
lupus, and hyperthyroidism are often found in people
with vitiligo. Genetics are also probably responsible,
since the condition seems to run in families.

Unfortunately, vitiligo usually gets worse as time goes
on. However, it is certainly not contagious.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-vitiligo.htm
Why Isn't My Skin Brown?

Growing Up as a Black Girl with White
Skin
by Monique Young
November 19, 2008
I was born with blonde hair, porcelain colored skin and
blue-ish grey eyes. Not many people see me for what I
am and that is a black woman in her late 20's. They see a
"white girl"; that was especially the case when I was a
kid. I grew up on the south side of Chicago in an all black
neighborhood. All the kids in my school were black, the
only time you saw a white person they were adults and
had some type of authoritative position i.e. a teacher,
doctor, store manager, delivery guy etc. As a child I
never realized there was a difference between me and
everyone else in my family. I guess when you are a kid
you ignore that kind of stuff. I didn't know I was different
until a girl in kindergarten class called me a "white girl",
I defended myself by telling her I was not white, but to a
child skin color is what determines your race. Little did I
know this would follow me around for the rest of my life.
I remember asking my mother that day, "Why isn't my
skin brown?" Now that I am a parent, I can't imagine how
to explain to your child why they are who they are. My
mother looked at me and told me "Black people come in
all colors, from dark as night to light as day." She then
gave examples of all the different complexions within our
family and that satisfied me, so I went to school the next
day with my armor ready to educate the other kids to my
newfound understanding of being black.
Unfortunately for me however you explained it, my skin
was white so by default I must be a "white girl". Needless
to say, I grew up defending my 'blackness" to my peers.
This in turn made being called a "white girl" infuriating. I
didn't understand why it mattered whether I was black or
not, and why other people were so angry with me for
being "white". I didn't choose my skin color any more
than they chose their hair type. I went from being a
normal happy outgoing little girl to a defensive, angry
and unhappy pre-teen. I learned over the years what
albinism is, but it didn't make it any easier to deal with
people. It did make it easier to explain. Not that I felt
obligated to but there were times when other kids would
genuinely want to know how I "ended up born like that".
Continued from page 35 - Why Isnt my Skin Brown?
The older I got the more I understood about people

and what triggers their thoughts. Most of the kids that
teased me didn't know why they had a problem with my
complexion. I think they, like most children, got their
ideas and beliefs about social and ethnic differences
from their parents. I reasoned that they probably had
never even been around enough white people to
understand why they didn't or shouldn't like them. I
noticed that when these same kids were around our
white teachers, they didn't care about them being white.
Why did it bother them that my skin is white? If I were
really a white girl would I be angry about being called a
white girl? Would they make a point to refer to me as
white girl, if they truly believed that's what I was? I
went from defending my "blackness" as a younger
child to proving it as an adolescent.
I was outspoken, aggressive, and confrontational...that
wasn't necessarily what I thought made me black but it
did make those around me more accepting of that fact. I
can even recall my friend's older brother saying, "You
look like a white girl, but as soon as you open your
mouth... we know you ain't." I had so many physical
fights and used the phrase "who you calling a white
girl" so often, I should have bought the rights to it. It's
funny how we spend a lot of our earlier years learning
and defining who we are. I spent most of mine trying to
prove something, that wasn't obvious, until I got tired
of it.
I was lucky enough to have a family that encouraged
me to be my own person and to lead and not follow. I
started to feel like a follower by behaving how I was
just to make other people happy. I realized that other
kids my age were going through the same type of thing
as I was. We all wanted to be accepted whether that
was by your friends, or those who you'd like to be your
friend. I didn't like trying to "make" people like me. I
finally realized that I didn't care anymore because if
there wasn't my albinism there would be something else
that someone wouldn't like about me and that shouldn't
be my problem. I realized that if someone didn't like
me or think I looked black, so what... who cares. I
know what I am and if they don't like it then they
weren't worth my energy. I began to think about what I
wanted out of life and stopped focusing on my color. I
realized that by getting mad or upset was giving away
my right to be happy. I realized that there was no such
thing as "acting black", you are born what you are and
the way you act can't define your race.
I had this conversation with other black people with
albinism and it's funny but we all had a different way of
dealing with it. One young lady felt like she had to
choose between being black or white.
I became a happier person and instead of worrying about

my color, I was more concerned with what color my lipgloss was. I stopped going out of my way to please
people and I ended up enjoying being a teenager. Of
course, the ignorance didn't' stop but my attention to it
did. I was popular in high school, I had my own group of
friends and we did our own thing. I didn't "act black"
anymore. I was Monique... outspoken, funny, eclectic and
artistic. I can't imagine what kind of person I'd be if I had
continued through the rest of my life trying to please
people.
I still get ignorant reaction to my white skin like when
people meet my parents or when I am walking down the
street with my sons. When my husband and I are together
with the kids there aren't too many stares. I guess that is
due to all the interracial dating. I had to take my oldest to
the emergency room not too long after he was born and
one young black girl said "Aww, look at the little half
breed, he is too cute!" I didn't even bother to correct her.
She was wrong on so many levels and I felt like
regardless to what I said she wasn't going to walk away
any more informed than she already was. It made me
realize how much I've grown and, like my mother, I too
would have to explain to my kids why my skin isn't
brown.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1210049/why_isnt_my_skin
_brown_growing_up_as.html?page=3&cat=43
Continued from page 38 - Kigelia africana

sores. Many dressings, topical treatments and infusions
containing Kigelia africana are also used for their
analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties. The bark,
stems, twigs, leaves and fruits are infused and taken
orally, or applied locally, to relieve rheumatism, sprains,
haematoma and bruising; a decoction of the fruit and bark
is used to relieve toothache and headache.
Extracts of the bark, wood, roots and fruits possess
antibacterial and antifungal properties. These extracts
exhibit significant inhibitory effects in vitro against
common Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, and
the yeast Candida albicans. Of the naphthoquinones
isolated in fruit and root extracts, kigelinone has shown
notable antimicrobial activity.
Kigelia africana is renowned for anti-cancer properties.
Fruit and bark extracts have shown moderate efficacy
against melanotic cell lines and dried fruit elicited lower
cytotoxic responses than those of fresh fruit, indicating
that the active principles may be thermolabile. The
naphthoquinones lapachol and isopinnatal in some.
Naphthoquinones and sterols isolated in root extracts
suggest anti-cancer potential, although in-vitro activity is
not confirmed. From Prota
Melanin
Imagine absolute darkness
Through which your eyes could only see
Obscurity
The full light spectrum
Evaporated into a section
As the pineal gland pushes manifestations
And absorbs all light, hence we dark
Shinning obscurity
Enlightened divinity
From progenator to progeny
Kemetically embedded
Genetically perpetuated philosophy
So my nats contracted
And no lye can substitute for my heritage connected
Heat conducted
Sun rays absorbed
So we aint hyphenated
But hyper-melanated
Multi-faceted metabolisms
Djembes determine the hearts rhythm
All deficiencies are mel-anomalies
The sounds of thoughts dissipate earthly tonalities
Enriching monotonous trivialities
Caught in the prism of our divining melanin
Solutions lie in sinking beyond the skin
Digging
Into multiple levels of interior lining
Reflected in the minds chemical combining
So we vegetarian carnivores
Unnatural reservoirs
For those lacking divining melanin
In the frailness of un-thick skin
Little do they know that our thickness of completion
Lies without and within
Carbon bond to our melanin
Carbon bonded to our melanin.
By Unblind Africanus, Toronto, Canada

inspired by melanites.
Mission Statement
Our aim at The African Traditional Herbal
Research Clinic is to propagate and promote the
awareness in Afrikan peoples at home and abroad of
their health, biodiversity, history and cultural
richness. We gather pertinent information on these
issues and disseminate these freely to our people in
Uganda, the rest of the continent, and anywhere in
the Diaspora where Afrikans are located. One of
the main ingredients for increasing poverty, sickness,
exploitation and domination is ignorance of one's
self, and the environment in which we live.
Knowledge is power and the forces that control our
lives don't want to lose control, so they won't stop at
anything to keep certain knowledge from the people.
Therefore, we are expecting a fight and opposition to
our mission. However, we will endeavor to carry
forward this work in grace and perfect ways.
Where there is no god, there is no culture.
Where there is no culture, there is no
indigenous knowledge. Where there is no
indigenous knowledge, there is no history.
Where there is no history, there is no science
or technology. The existing nature is made
by our past. Let us protect and conserve our
indigenous knowledge.
CALENDAR
OF
EVENTS
SPECIAL EVENT: CLINIC OPENING

PLACE: AFRIKAN TRADITIONAL HERBAL RESEARCH CLINIC
TIME:
Herb of the Month

Kigelia Africana
Saugage Tree, Cucumber Tree
Kigelia africana occurs throughout tropical Africa,
particularly in the drier regions and is widely used
throughout Africa for a variety of purposes, particularly in
local medicine, and more recently in commercial
applications to treat various skin complaints.
The diversity of complaints against which the plant is used
includes fainting, anaemia, sickle-cell anaemia, epilepsy,
respiratory ailments, hepatic and cardiac disorders, and
nutritional illnesses such as kwashiorkor, rickets, wasting
and weakness. The leaves are sometimes used to prepare a
general tonic for improved health and growth. The roots,
bark, leaves, stems, twigs and fruits are used to treat
digestive disorders. Administration is typically by oral
ingestion or as an enema. The roots, bark and ripe or unripe
fruits are taken as a laxative or emetic, to treat chronic and
acute digestive disorders and against gastric infections.
Infections of the genito-urinary tract, particularly venereal
diseases, are treated both internally and externally with
preparations of the roots, bark, leaves, stems and twigs. A
commercial product containing Kigelia africana stem bark
is used to treat Candida albicans infections. Sexual
complaints such as infertility, poor libido, sexual asthenia
and impotence are treated with medicines containing the
fruits, roots or leaves.
Commercially manufactured products are used for
symptomatic relief or cure of skin conditions including,
among others, sunburn, chafing, psoriasis, itchy scalp and
nappy rash. A broad-spectrum antimicrobial cream,
reputedly effective against a number of common microbial
infections, is produced from the stem bark.
Powders and infusions of the bark, leaves, stems, twigs or
fruits are used to clean and dress flesh wounds and open
BULK RATE
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Afrikan Traditional Herbal Research Clinic

1175A Mukalazi Road, P.O. Box 29974
Bukoto, Kampala, Uganda East Africa
Phone: +256 (0) 782 917 902
Email: clinic@blackherbals.com
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
Mailing Address
Street Number and Name
City, Country, etc.

Melanin and Skin

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African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic

MELANIN & SKIN

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

What is the African Traditional

-1-Traditional African Clinic January 2009

Continued from page 1- Happy New You

faithfully followed our new program. We ignore the ten

The healing power of a person lies within

The Mass Poisoning Of

modern living, we create a wide variety of chemical toxins

-2-Traditional African Clinic January 2009

The traditional shrine as a symbol of our cultural history

-3-Traditional African Clinic January 2009

African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic

cheeks and forehead.

Through holistic health science, we know that each cell

Dr Carol Barnes in his book, Melanin: The Chemical

You have probably heard the age-old saying, "you are

Therefore, melanin is a very large, complicated and

-4-Traditional African Clinic January 2009

Continued from page 4 Skin Healing

Biochemistry of Black Skin

Quite often I have treated black women who had skin

Melanin is found not only in the skin, hair and eyes,

When some of these substances enter the body, they bind

-5-Traditional African Clinic January 2009

African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic

more cancers and genetic disorders than those with

-6-Traditional African Clinic January 2009

Continued from page 6 Melanin Anyone?

Melanin is also used to make the Black Dot more in

Continued from page 2 The Mass Poisoning of

Some of the greatest quackery in the world right now the

-7- Traditional African Clinic January 2009

African Traditional Herbal Research Clinic

The Virtues of Vitamin D: Its Time We Saw the Light

deficient (defined as a blood level below 30ng per

-8- Traditional African Clinic January 2009

Continued from page 9 The Virtues of Vitamin D

cent. Researchers followed 12,000 children born in 1966

-9- Traditional African Clinic January 2009

organs in the human associated with them. To help

Continued from page 5 Skin Healing

The use of color in healing is unique in that the pure

Face Chart 2. Reflexology Face Chart

Remedies and Healing Your Skin

Tariq Sawandi is a Master herbalist, nutritionist, and

-10- Traditional African Clinic January 2009

Continued from page 9 The Virtues of Vitamin D

* Twenty minutes twice a week in the sun with exposed

is an acute inflammatory response which usually includes

As an eliminating organ, the skin excretes about a pint of

Breathes and absorbs air, light, and water

Yellow: cadmium sulfide

Reacts to external stimuli and against pain

Blue: cobalt salt (cobaltous aluminate)

Evaporates heat for the body as the body maintains a

Acts as a storehouse for fats and water

Brown: lead (ferric oxide), cadmium salts

Secretes oil, called sebum, which keeps the skin

White: titanium, zinc oxide, lead carbonate

The inks also contain resin, acrylic, glycol, or all three.

-11- Traditional African Clinic January 2009

Continued from page 11 Dye(ing) to be Noticed