Health effects of sonic weapons

As you gain familiarity with the various ways the government has allowed corporations to poison the air you breath and the water you drink, you may decide to take to the streets in protest.

At the protest site, you may encounter police armed with "acoustic weapons." These were used against demonstrators -- Pennsylvania university students and other Americans -- during the Pittsburgh G20 summit. These weapons had apparently never before been used on a group of demonstrators in the United States (although the weapons may have been used against Hurricane Katrina victims in 2005).   Homeland Security has helped police departments around the US to acquire the weapons.

The question begs to be asked: What are the potential health effects of sound guns or sonic weaponry? Wikipedia notes:

Cavitation, which affects gas nuclei in human tissue, and heating can result from exposure to ultrasound and can cause damage to tissue and organs. Studies have found that exposure to high intensity ultrasound at frequencies from 700 kHz to 3.6 MHz can cause lung and intestinal damage in mice. Heart rate patterns following vibroacoustic stimulation has resulted in serious negative consequences such as arterial flutter and bradycardia. Researchers have concluded that generating pain through the auditory system using high intensity sound resulted in a high risk of permanent hearing damage. Organizations in a research program which included several institutions involved high intensity audible sound experiments on human subjects.

The extra-aural (unrelated to hearing) bioeffects on various internal organs and the central nervous system included auditory shifts, vibrotactile sensitivity change, muscle contraction, cardiovascular function change, central nervous system effects, vestibular (inner ear) effects, and chest wall/lung tissue effects. Researchers found that low frequency sonar exposure could result in significant cavitations, hypothermia, and tissue shearing. No follow on experiments were recommended. Tests performed on mice show the threshold for both lung and liver damage occurs at about 184 dB. Damage increases rapidly as intensity is increased.

Noise-induced neurologic disturbances in humans exposed to continuous low frequency tones for durations longer than 15 minutes involved development of immediate and long term problems affecting brain tissue. The symptoms resembled those of individuals who had suffered minor head injuries. One theory for a causal mechanism is that the prolonged sound exposure resulted in enough mechanical strain to brain tissue to induce an encephalopathy.[7]

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Segway: symbol of everything that is wrong with the American economy?

As the tech bubble was bursting, one of the cleverest inventors in the land, backed by A-list Silicon Valley investors, set out to produce a top secret device that would "change the world as we know it."

The result -- we now know -- was a machine that serves as a substitute for foot or bicycle as means of transportation.

Story continues here.

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Elderberry has antiviral properties against H1N1 flu virus

UPDATED
Reuters:

NAPLES, Fla., Sept. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent research study has given new scientific evidence to the long-held empirical belief that elderberries possess antiviral activities. The research involved a specific, reproducible elderberry extract developed by HerbalScience Group LLC, and succeeded in identifying key chemical components of the extract that inhibited in vitro infection and were shown to bind directly to Human Influenza A (H1N1) virus particles. The binding blocked the ability of the viruses to enter host cells, and thereby effectively preventing H1N1 infection in vitro.

An article detailing the study, titled "Elderberry flavonoids bind to and prevent H1N1 infection in  vitro," has been published in the peer-review scientific journal Phytochemistry. . . .

The research results are notable not only because they identified and characterized two specific flavonoids (plant nutrients that are beneficial to health) that are the major contributors to the anti-influenza activity of the elderberry extract, but also verified how the flavonoids provide that benefit,  via direct binding to H1N1 virus particles and blocking the virus from infecting host cells.

This recent study provides scientific evidence in support of some of the traditional uses of elderberry:

Elderberries have been a folk remedy for centuries in North America, Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa, hence the medicinal benefits of elderberries are being investigated and rediscovered. Elderberry is used for its antioxidant activity, to lower cholesterol, to improve vision, to boost the immune system, to improve heart health and for coughs, colds, flu, bacterial and viral infections and tonsilitis. Bioflavonoids and other proteins in the juice destroy the ability of cold and flu viruses to infect a cell. People with the flu who took elderberry juice reported less severe symptoms and felt better much faster than those who did not. Elderberry juice was used to treat a flu epidemic in Panama in 1995.

UPDATE:  Move over Tamiflu! Here's an impressive quote from the abstract to the recent study.

The H1N1 inhibition activities of the elderberry flavonoids compare favorably to the known anti-influenza activities of Oseltamivir (Tamiflu; 0.32 microM) and Amantadine (27 microM).

The study was published in July 2009 in Phytochemistry "Elderberry flavonoids bind to and prevent H1N1 infection in vitro" by Roschek B Jr, Fink RC, McMichael MD, Li D, Alberte RS.

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