But on that Tuesday in April 2022, a compound in the substance called mitragynine took McKibban’s life, an autopsy report later showed. //
an 'all-natural' supplement you can buy at...
5 everyday foods and drinks silently damaging your long-term health, say nutrition experts5 everyday foods and drinks silently damaging your long-term...
I'm a neuroscientist — this 'one-page miracle' can boost brain health, plus why I nicknamed my mind 'Hermie'I'm a neuroscientist — this 'one-page miracle' can boost brain...
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Our sons died taking an ‘all-natural’ supplement you can buy at gas stations — people don’t realize it’s so addictive and dangerous
By Anna Medaris
Published Aug. 6, 2025, 8:00 a.m. ET
Today's Video Headlines
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Months before Jordan McKibban collapsed in his bathroom and never woke up, the 37-year-old prepared smoked salmon and home-grown canned peppers to entertain his big, blended family in their quiet Washington state community.
Weeks before, he told his mom, Pam Mauldin, things were getting serious with the woman he was dating — his “one big desire” to have kids was finally in reach, Mauldin recalled.
Days before, he helped a friend plant a flower garden for a baby shower. “He loved life. He loved doing things outdoors,” Mauldin told The Post.
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Then, on the day of his death, McKibban went to his longtime job at an organic food distributor. When he got home, he mixed a tablespoon of a powdered kratom supplement into his lemonade.
Jordan McKibban preparing meat at a campsite
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Jordan McKibban died at age 37 while taking kratom, an “all-natural” supplement available online and in stores.
Courtesy Pam Mauldin
Large family group photo including
Jordan McKibban (center in a red baseball cap) and his mother (second from right)
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Jordan’s mom, Pam Mauldin (second from right), spoke to The Post to warn other parents — and thinks kratom should be pulled from shelves.
Courtesy Pam Mauldin
Marketed as an “all-natural” way to ease pain, anxiety, depression and more, kratom can appeal to health-conscious people like McKibban, who Mauldin says wouldn’t even take ibuprofen for the arthritis in his hands.
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But on that Tuesday in April 2022, a compound in the substance called mitragynine took McKibban’s life, an autopsy report later showed.
When Mauldin broke into his bathroom after a call from her grandson that day, she found McKibban lifeless. She performed CPR on her own son and shielded her eyes when medics carried his gray body away.
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Several dozen cases of Vibrio vulnificus and nine deaths have been reported so far this year across Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi.
How to protect yourself against flesh-eating bacteria — as deadly infection sweeps 5 states
“I’ve lost my son. I’ve lost my grandchildren that I could have had, I’ve lost watching him walk down that aisle, watching him have a life that I get to watch with my other kids. I’ve lost enjoying these years with him,” Mauldin said.
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“I have to go to the cemetery, and I hate going to the cemetery. He shouldn’t be there,” she added.
From dizziness to nonresponsiveness
Kratom products — sold in powders, gummies and energy-looking drinks — come from a plant native to Southeast Asia and can act like a stimulant at lower doses and a sedative at higher ones.
“Kratom does act like an opioid, and people can become addicted to it and have withdrawal from it and overdose on it.”
Dr. Robert Levy, addiction and family medicine doctor
While they’re readily found online, in brick-and-mortar stores and even gas stations as catch-all solutions to everything from fatigue to opioid withdrawal, the Food and Drug Administration says kratom and its key components are “not lawfully marketed” in the US as a drug product, dietary supplement or food additive. //
Experts are especially concerned with a highly potent, highly addictive kratom offshoot called 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH, which seems to have infiltrated the market in the past few years, said Dr. Robert Levy, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota who’s board-certified in both addiction and family medicine. //
just last week, the FDA recommended classifying 7-OH as an illicit substance.
“7-OH is an opioid that can be more potent than morphine,” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, said in a press release. “We need regulation and public education to prevent another wave of the opioid epidemic.”
In the meantime, according to Levy, parents should be having open conversations with their kids about the appeals, dangers and addictive potential of kratom — and the fact that “all-natural” or “plant-based” doesn’t necessarily mean safe. “Arsenic is also from a plant,” he says.
The first widespread success in curing HIV may come from children, not adults.
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Rest. Fatigue can cause eye floaters and other visual disturbances. Resting your eyes and getting enough sleep can minimize strain and reduce floaters.
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Harsh light exposure. Wearing protective sunglasses, limiting screen time, dimming indoor lights, and eliminating glare sources can help reduce eye strain and floaters.
pineapples have been linked to a decrease in floaters because of an enzyme called bromelain. It can digest proteins like collagen, which is what floaters are made of.
Barta was battling topical steroid withdrawal (TSW) syndrome, a debilitating condition some face after quitting high-potency creams to treat skin issues like eczema.
Common symptoms include intense burning, redness, itching and skin shedding. Many sufferers are bedridden or housebound for months — or even years — before the effects begin to subside, according to the International Topical Steroid Awareness Network (ITSAN), which advocates for awareness and supports those affected.
In an appearance on Fox News' Faulkner Focus, Kennedy said, "Well, people will still get indemnified for it to the extent that they're already indemnified. But, you know, it is an issue, it's a balance. You're gonna see probably slightly more cavities, although in Europe, where they banned fluoride, they did not see an uptick in cavities.
"The issue is parents need to decide because the science is very clear on fluoride. The National Toxicity Program issued a report of a meta-review of all the science on it in August that said there's a direct inverse correlation between the amount of fluoride in your water and your loss of IQ."
Kennedy has long advocated for the removal of fluoride from drinking water and some states have looked to remove it, including Florida and Oklahoma. While research has shown effects on brain development, some dental organizations have raised concerns that removing fluoride from drinking water will lead to poorer oral hygiene.
A British woman has died from rabies after she was "scratched" by a puppy in Morocco, her family said.
Yvonne Ford, 59, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, had light contact with the stray dog while on holiday in February in the North African country.
In a social media post, reported by the Press Association, Mrs Ford's family said she developed a headache two weeks ago and later couldn't "walk, talk, sleep, swallow".
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said there was no risk to the wider public due to no documented evidence of rabies passing between people.
Corporate media often smear birth control skeptics for believing “misinformation” about the harms synthetic hormones can have on women’s bodies and minds. A flurry of nearly 300 lawsuits from females alleging that the popular “safe and effective” birth control shot Depo-Provera played a role in their development of brain and spine tumors, however, suggests women should question the effects of any drug sold to them — especially those designed to prevent pregnancy. //
It wasn’t until a landmark study published in the British Medical Journal in March 2024 found that women who took Depo-Provera had a 500 percent higher risk of developing a meningioma (a tumor that specifically forms and develops in the membranes around the brain and spinal cord) than women who did not get the shot that women across the world realized the connection.
A February 2025 study purported to confirm that the chemical compound that makes up Depo-Provera increases the risk of meningioma in women who take it.
Any type of aerobic exercise works for the improvements, study finds. //
Exercise is generally good for you, but a new high-quality clinical trial finds that it's so good, it can even knock back colon cancer—and, in fact, rival some chemotherapy treatments.
Researchers warn that misclassification could deprive women of the emergent care they need for the serious adverse events linked to abortion. //
Researchers interested in how hospitals handle treatment for women who experience complications after abortions examined nearly 29,000 anonymized ER Medicaid claims ranging from 2016 to 2021 among women who had chemically or surgically ended a pregnancy in the last 30 days. They determined that 83.5 percent of the abortion drug-induced ER visits during that period were miscoded, often as miscarriage.
That figure not only represented a steep increase in miscodes from the 2004 to 2015 data, but also confirmed that “visits following chemical abortion are significantly more likely to be incorrectly coded as following spontaneous abortion than are visits following surgical abortion.”
Those post-mifepristone ER visits that were miscoded were also 50 percent more likely to be severe than vists that were coded properly. //
While the reason for miscodes is not explicitly clear, the researchers noted that “women are often advised to misrepresent their recent abortion as a miscarriage when seeking treatment for complications in the emergency department.”
“Consequently, the ED doctor is likely to misattribute the complication (e.g., heavy bleeding) to a spontaneous abortion or miscarriage,” the study noted.
Fluoride is the anion of the naturally occurring element fluorine. An anion is a negatively charged atom. As ground water flows over rocks it picks up fluoride ions leached from the compound calcium fluoride, and fluorosilicate compounds in those rocks. These fluoride ions are to what is commonly referred as being “naturally occurring” fluoride.
The most commonly utilized substance to fluoridate water systems is hydrofluorosilic acid (HFA). Once introduced into drinking water, due to the pH of that water (~7), the HFA is immediately and completely hydrolyzed (dissociated). The products of this hydrolysis are fluoride ions identical to those “naturally occurring” fluoride ions which have always existed in water, and trace contaminants in barely detectable amounts far below EPA mandated maximum allowable levels of safety. //
Some consumers have questioned whether fluoride from natural groundwater sources, such as calcium fluoride, is better than fluorides added “artificially,” such as FSA or sodium fluoride. Two recent scientific studies, listed below, demonstrate that the same fluoride ion is present in naturally occurring fluoride or in fluoride drinking water additives and that no intermediates or other products were observed at pH levels as low as 3.5. In addition, the metabolism of fluoride does not differ depending on the chemical compound used or whether the fluoride is present naturally or added to the water supply.
Weber ultimately underwent the procedure. She said she wanted readers to know that the state’s pro-life law was “so dangerous for women.” But in reality, assuming her account is accurate — if it’s true that doctors refused to perform a lifesaving medical procedure because of the state’s pro-life law — the entire ordeal doesn’t prove anything other than that some doctors are incompetent and don’t know how to navigate relatively simple state laws.
The facts are these: the South Carolina “heartbeat bill” explicitly spells out that a doctor can perform an abortion if he determines “that a medical emergency exists or is performed to prevent the death of the pregnant woman.” For good measure, the law directly states that both “intrauterine fetal demise” and “miscarriage” constitute a medical emergency that can justify an abortion.
This is the substance of the law. There are no gimmicks or hidden rules. By her own account there was absolutely no reason that Elisabeth Weber should not have received a D&C. The problem was not with state law, but with the doctors who were either too ignorant or too risk-averse (or both) to do proper medicine.
This is and always has been untrue; Every pro-life law in the United States, without exception, contains provisions that allow for emergency medical intervention to save a mother’s life. //
Doctors are forbidden from killing an unborn child in an act of abortion, but they are more than able to perform related procedures that can save a mother’s life (all the more so in tragic cases like Weber’s, where the baby has died, or even in Thurman’s case, where the babies were killed).
We should never fall for this type of misdirection. Abortion advocates who claim that such laws forbid doctors from saving the lives of women should point to the specific part of the law they claim makes this so.
The N-of-1 accomplishment provides a template for swift, personalized genetic therapies. //
News broke yesterday that researchers in Philadelphia appear to have successfully treated a 6-month-old baby boy, called KJ, with a personalized CRISPR gene-editing therapy. The treatment corrects an ultra-rare mutation in KJ that breaks a liver enzyme. That enzyme is required to convert ammonia, a byproduct of metabolism, to urea, a waste product released in urine. Without treatment, ammonia would build up to dangerous levels in KJ—and he would have a 50 percent chance of dying in infancy.
While the gene-editing treatment isn't a complete cure, and long-term success is still uncertain, KJ's condition has improved and stabilized. And the treatment's positive results appear to be a first for personalizing gene editing. //
KJ's treatment was presented this week at the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy Annual Meeting in New Orleans. It was also simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
In an accompanying editorial, Peter Marks—a former top regulator at the FDA—called KJ's treatment a "platform technology" that could be used as a template for treating millions of others with rare genetic conditions. "The development of gene-editing products to address N-of-1 disorders with the use of mRNA encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles represents one of the most obvious opportunities for the application of a platform-technology approach that could be transformational," he wrote.
In all, KJ's treatment "shows the potential strength of the application of cutting-edge science and technology with a forward-leaning regulatory approach to safely expedite the development and availability of life-saving medicines," Marks wrote.
This week, the US health department announced a plan to ban prescription fluoride supplements for children. These ingested fluoride products are dispensed at safe doses by doctors and dentists to prevent tooth decay in children who are unable to get adequate fluoride doses from community water systems—something that may become more common as more states and cities remove or ban fluoride from their water.
Both the American Dental Association (ADA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend fluoridating community water and advise prescribing fluoride supplements for children who do not get adequate fluoride dosages through their water. //
While Makary said that the FDA will conduct a safety review of fluoride supplements, the conclusion seems to be foregone, with the HHS writing that it is already "initiating action to remove" the products.
The ADA noted that places that have removed fluoride from drinking water, such as Calgary, Canada, and Juneau, Alaska, have seen increases in dental decay, particularly among children and low-income populations. //
Beteljuice Smack-Fu Master, in training
7y
74
Subscriptor++
They preach fluoride because most dentists are ignorant of Vitamin K2 which massively helps re-mineralize. Most westerners are deficient in this extremely important vitamin. In fact, Vitamin K2 deficiency is the chief driver of osteoporosis.
About four years ago my dentist before he retired was perplexed at my X-Rays, noting his fixation on them I cautiously asked, "Is there something wrong???" He then slowly gestured with his index finger, "Thissss.... new... tooth enamel is MOST unusual." I then told him, "That's because I take Vitamin K2 every day." He then looked over to me as I lay on the dentist chair and said "Vitamin K2???" Being the father of a friend of mine, our relationship was very casual with no pretense, e.g., "I'm a dentist, I know everything about teeth." I then gave him a nutrition lesson. He had never heard of Vitamin K2. More to the point he had never seen anything like he saw that day in my X-Rays during the 30+ years of being a dentist. Want to guess what vitamin he was taking when I saw him for my next cleaning?
(before commenting and/or voting do read this link)
https://www.ericdavisdental.com/faqs-and-blog/blog/vitamin-k2-and-its-benefits-for-teeth/. //
MST2.021K Ars Praetorian
4y
546
Subscriptor
Vitamin K2 might work towards supporting dentin, underneath the enamel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteocalcin
Clearly though, protecting the enamel first works better which is the entire point of fluoridation. //
moongoddess Ars Centurion
14y
347
Subscriptor++
SixDegrees said:
The objection being raised is "mandatory, imposed medication." So I don't see how your proposed solutions would escape being called the same.
In which case, there goes iodide in salt as well. Hello, goiters! //
SixDegrees Ars Legatus Legionis
10y
45,760
Subscriptor
moongoddess said:
In which case, there goes iodide in salt as well. Hello, goiters!
Sure. Also enriched flour, vitamin D milk, and so on.
Lots of this stuff isn't all that important - for the middle and upper classes, who can afford varied and high quality diets. They mainly help those on the lower economic rungs, although everyone benefits to a degree. It's just that the poor may not have any alternatives, and rely on fortification for good health. Even if you eat only the junkiest of junk foods, there's a good chance it's produced with enriched flour and iodized salt. //
stinkly Smack-Fu Master, in training
15y
98
Subscriptor
I'm surprised not to see any mention of recently-reported research showing a negative correlation of intelligence and fluoride intake in the article, in the comments, or evidently in RFK's rationale for the proposed ban. I'm not a domain expert, so I'm ill-prepared to put the research into context, but it's evidently a real thing.
you got it.
Exploring the Spectrum, a groundbreaking 1974 documentary by Dr. John Nash Ott.
A captivating journey into the science of photobiology and the profound impact of light on health.
A pioneer in time-lapse photography and full-spectrum lighting, Dr. Ott reveals how natural and artificial light influences the growth, behavior, and well-being of plants, animals, and humans.
Through mesmerizing visuals and innovative experiments, the film challenges conventional wisdom, questioning whether fluorescent lights, UV-blocking glasses, and indoor lifestyles contribute to health issues like cancer, learning disorders, and immune system weaknesses.
Ott’s work highlights the essential role of natural sunlight and balanced light frequencies in sustaining life, urging us to rethink our relationship with the light that surrounds us.
With the tuberculomas visualized, the doctors worked to diagnose the man's condition. Generally, the CNS tuberculosis can be notoriously difficult to diagnose, given that M. tuberculosis are slow-growing and stealthy and can produce generic symptoms. The man's cerebrospinal fluid, for instance, was negative for the bacteria. But a sputum sample was positive.
Tuberculomas are often seen amid tuberculosis infections that have not been adequately treated. That seems to be the case for the patient here, who had been previously treated for tuberculosis. Sometimes patients with tuberculomas also have tubercular meningitis, brain inflammation from the infection. Fortunately, the man did not develop this even more serious manifestation of the disease. With an intensive course of anti-tuberculosis antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory drug, the man's symptoms gradually began to ease. After a month, he was feeling better. After 18 months, his symptoms had completely resolved, and a repeat MRI of his head was normal.
Tuberculosis is the leading infectious disease killer globally. In 2023, the bacteria infected 10.8 million people and killed 1.25 million. The World Health Organization estimates that about a quarter of the world's population has been infected with M. tuberculosis, which spreads through the air.
‘The real-world rate of serious adverse effects following mifepristone abortions is at least 22 times as high as’ the drug label suggests. //
Pro-abortion activists have responded to the end of Roe v. Wade with a nationwide mail-order abortion drug distribution system. States such as New York are protecting those shipping abortion drugs around the nation, even as they break state and federal laws and injure women. As it turns out, women’s health and even a woman’s supposedly all-important “right to choose” matter less to abortion advocates than ensuring abortion drugs continue to flow. //
In contrast to Anderson and Hall’s work to measure the risks of abortion drugs, Democrats have done their best to keep the dangers hidden, even while insisting abortion drugs are safe. What’s more, the safeguards and reporting requirements put in place when the abortion drug was initially approved by the Clinton administration have been all but eliminated. As the report recounts, “During the Obama and Biden administrations, the FDA chipped away at these initial safeguards, risking women’s health in order to increase access to abortion.”
Now instead of in-person visits with a doctor, who can check for contraindications (such as ectopic pregnancy) and ensure emergency care is available, the FDA requires only one telehealth visit with a prescriber, who may not even be a physician, and who may reduce the “visit” to a simple online form. Abortion drugs may then be obtained from a mail-order pharmacy and taken at home alone, with no plan or facilities for emergency care if there are complications. Worse still, the FDA removed any formal reporting requirements (which were always loosely enforced) for prescribers unless they know a patient has died — and, of course, in this mail-order abortion regime, they won’t know.
Red light therapy, near-infrared light therapy, low-level laser therapy, and photobiomodulation are all terms referring to the same general principle. Certain wavelengths of light are known to penetrate the body, impacting it at the cellular level. //
Let’s not forget that long before red light and near-infrared-emitting LED bulbs and devices, people got their light exposure from…the sun. Yes. The same light wavelength frequencies associated with so many health benefits are available from regular sunlight exposure, which is free and available for many hours each day, in most places in the world. If you’re not ready to splurge for a red light mask or other device, consider going outside every day for your daily dose of light exposure (and be sure to use and apply sun protection when appropriate). Bonus points if you take a walk while getting your sun on, adding cardiovascular toning to the other health benefits you’re accumulating.
According to Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the truth about cancer treatment is being suppressed.
The Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes clinicians use to report services to health insurers have become a linchpin in the American health care system. These codes are federally mandated, and all health care providers must pay royalties to the AMA to use them. That’s a heck of a cash cow for the AMA.
In 2023, the AMA raked in a staggering $495 million in revenue. A full 62 percent, $308 million, came from royalties tied to the use of CPT codes. And every dollar is paid for by taxpayers, via Medicare and Medicaid, or employers and employees in the private health insurance market.
The AMA’s financial windfall is made possible by the federal government. In 1983, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) mandated that CPT codes be used to report services under Medicare Part B. By 1986, Medicaid programs also had to adopt these codes. The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) then solidified CPT codes as the national standard for electronic health transactions. These federal mandates essentially forced every health care provider to rely on the AMA’s CPT code system, creating a monopoly. Cha-ching!
There is another model out there, though. The diagnoses being addressed by health care providers are tracked using International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes. But ICD codes are free for use by any entity worldwide. There is no reason a similar system couldn’t be developed for CPT codes. //
The AMA has also publicly advocated against “policies excluding transgender individuals from restrooms and other facilities.” In other words, the AMA is perfectly fine with that weird teacher lurking in your middle school daughter’s locker room.
By promoting the trans agenda, the AMA is using its substantial influence — funded by taxpayer dollars through federally mandated royalties — to advocate for policies that Americans repudiated in the last election and that may not be in line with the views of many doctors or patients across the country.
An 18-year-old woman died this year after complications from her 22-week abortion at a Planned Parenthood in Fort Collins, Colorado. A recent testimony given to the state’s Health and Human Services committee noted she lost a significant amount of blood — a known risk of later abortions — and that she was transported too late for the emergency care she needed. She deserved prompt diagnosis and critical care in her moment of need.
But blue-state legislators, instead of showing concern and protecting women from preventable complications and deaths, are more interested in pushing abortion access than they are in ensuring women’s safety. //
Shamefully, Colorado legislators not only rejected recent legislation that would have implemented common-sense public health and safety standards for facilities performing second and third-trimester abortions, they also shockingly claimed the woman would have died of similar complications in childbirth.
As a board-certified OB-GYN, I can attest that this “medical” conclusion is doubtful since amniotic fluid embolus (AFE), the condition they speculated about, is a unique occurrence in a specific clinical situation. Furthermore, their refusal to truly understand the facts surrounding this young woman’s death distracts from the disastrous risks of unregulated, uninspected, unlicensed dangerous second and third-trimester abortions enshrined into Colorado law.
Tragically, media reaction to this case has been virtually non-existent. When women die in states with any abortion limits on the books, the media is quick to highlight their stories, but when women die where there is unrestricted abortion with no safety protections whatsoever, we hear crickets. //
But countless women who enter abortion facilities are unknowingly denied assurance that they will be cared for by competent, credentialed staff who are prepared to identify and promptly transfer patients suffering complications to nearby hospitals for life-saving treatment when needed or if they are prepared to provide adequate emergency care to the vulnerable women who place their health in the hands of their abortionists.
It seems wildly contradictory that states rightly require other healthcare facilities dealing with maternal care, labor, and delivery to uphold rigorous medical standards but place none on abortion facilities. In Colorado, birthing centers undergo licensing and regulation to define their scope of practice, credential their providers, establish emergency preparedness and staff drills, collect data, and more. Likewise, ambulatory surgery centers may only treat “those that do not generally result in extensive blood loss; require major or prolonged invasion of body cavities; directly involve major blood vessels; or constitute an emergency or life-threatening procedure.”
Hospital labor and delivery units are subject to even more rigorous regulation and inspection, including inspections by the Joint Commission and Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services. These measures are commonsense and exactly what anyone would expect from safe healthcare providers.
Even tattoo parlors are required to prove basic first-aid capabilities and sterilization procedures; yet abortion facilities aren’t even held to these standards.