Johns Hopkins researchers report that hospitals may be reaping enormous income for patients whose hospital stays are complicated by preventable bloodstream infections contracted in their intensive care units.

In a small, new study, reported online in the American Journal of Medical Quality, the researchers found that an ICU patient who develops an avoidable central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) costs nearly three times more to care for than a similar infection-free patient. Moreover, hospitals earn nearly nine times more for treating infected patients, who spend an average of 24 days in the hospital.

The researchers also found that private insurers, rather than Medicare and Medicaid, pay the most for patient stays complicated by CLABSIs -- roughly $400,000 per hospital stay -- suggesting that private insurers would gain the most financial benefit from working with hospitals to reduce infection rates.

"We have known that hospitals often profit from complications, even ones of their own making," says Peter J. Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., senior vice president for patient safety for Johns Hopkins Medicine and one of the authors of the research. "What we did not know was by how much, and that private insurers are largely footing the bill."

This humble but immensely powerful seed kills MRSA, heals the chemical weapon poisoned body, stimulates regeneration of the dying beta cells within the diabetic's pancreas, and yet too few even know it exists.

The seeds of the annual flowering plant, Nigella Sativa, have been prized for their healing properties since time immemorial. While frequently referred to among English-speaking cultures as Roman coriander, black sesame, black cumin, black caraway and onion seed, it is known today primarily as black seed, which is at the very least an accurate description of its physical appearance.

The earliest record of its cultivation and use come from ancient Egypt. Black seed oil, in fact, was found in Egyptian pharoah Tutankhamun's tomb, dating back to approximately 3,300 years ago.[i] In Arabic cultures, black cumin is so known as Habbatul barakah, meaning the "seed of blessing." It is also believed that the Islamic prophet Mohammed said of it that it is "a remedy for all diseases except death."

Many of black cumin's traditionally ascribed health benefits have been thoroughly confirmed in the biomedical literature. In fact, since 1964, there have been 458 published, peer-reviewed studies referencing it.

Chickens likely raised with arsenic-based drugs result in chicken meat that has higher levels of arsenic, which is known to increase the risk of cancer, according to a new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The study, published online in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, provides evidence that the use of drugs containing arsenic in chicken populations poses public health risks.

Conventional, antibiotic-free, and USDA Organic chicken samples were purchased from 10 U.S. metropolitan areas between December 2010 and June 2011, when an arsenic-based drug known as roxarsone was readily available to poultry companies that wished to add it to their feed. In addition to inorganic arsenic, the researchers were able to identify residual roxarsone in the meat they studied - in the meat where roxarsone was detected, levels of inorganic arsenic were four times higher than the levels in USDA Organic chicken (in which roxarsone and other arsenicals are prohibited from use).

Monsanto just announced a deal with DSM Nutritional Products to sell a new type of genetically engineered (GE) soybean: one with supposed nutritional benefits. The majority of Monsanto's GE crops are engineered to resist Monsanto's herbicide, Roundup, or to produce their own pesticide, Bt. Once farmers harvest them, they are mixed together with non-GE crops and sold to consumers without labels. This new soybean, called the SDA Omega-3 soybean, will be different.

The SDA Omega-3 soybean will be grown, harvested, and processed separately from "commodity" soybeans. Farmers call these "Identity Preserved" soybeans, because everyone from the farmer to the ultimate consumer will know that they came from Monsanto's new seeds.

This soybean is a first for Monsanto. Its previous genetically engineered seeds all provide supposed benefits only for farmers. For example, cotton that produces its own pesticide or soybeans that do not die if they are sprayed with Monsanto's herbicide. Consumers never know if or when they eat these other genetically engineered foods, because they are not labeled.

But the new SDA Omega-3 soybean claims to provide health benefits to consumers. And if you eat it, you will know . . . because they'll likely want to charge you extra for it.

The evidence continues to mount. That vaccines are doing a great deal of harm is well beyond denying. Worse, though, the evidence that vaccines have had little or no effect on infectious diseases is clear, as documented in new graphs. The precautionary principle, which is enshrined in a UN directive, should have been implemented before vaccines were ever routinely injected.

Yesterday's article, Vaccines Do Irreparable Harm: Study from Poland, documents the revealing information brought out by Polish scientists' review of the scientific literature on vaccination's adverse effects and immune system effects. Today, the rest of the study covering neurological symptoms following vaccination and a history of vaccines demonstrating little benefit is reviewed.

Starting with a very particular cell extracted from dead cows necks at a local slaughterhouse, a select team of scientists are now close to serving up the world's first human-engineered, cultured meat burger. That's right. A whopping 5 ounce burger will be freshly made from lab grown bits of cultured meat and muscle tissue. The burger, the first of its kind, will be served to curious diner's somewhere in London in the coming weeks.

The whole concept of the program takes us right into a science fiction nightmare made for TV, as billions of fetal cells are needed to make this burger.

In fact, scientists now claim they have proven through studies that if the human population of earth consumes "cultured meat", the world will then save a considerable amount of water and resources, essentially reducing environmental impact from humans. The study titled, Environmental Impacts of Cultured Meat Production, basically outlines how humans are bad, and that we will need to eat all synthetic meat soon as we have become an overpopulated species.

Researchers may have solved a vexing mystery as to why parabens contamination in humans has been so pervasive in recent studies: Parabens are increasingly contaminating our food supply.

Researchers from the New York State Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, along with the University of New York at Albany have determined in a study of foods purchased from local markets that much of the U.S. food supply is contaminated with parabens - a group of chemicals thought previously to produce exposure in humans through the skin in cosmetics and lotions containing preservatives.

This likely explains an increasing body of evidence showing that humans have much higher blood and urine concentrations of parabens than could be explained with the use of body lotions and cosmetics.

The researchers tested 267 samples of food collected from stores and markets around Albany New York. These included juices, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, infant formula, dairy products such as milk, yogurt, cheese and ice cream, oils, fats, breads, flours, rice, pasta, corn, fruits, baked goods, meats, shellfish and seafoods and many others. Once collected and categorized, the foods were analyzed using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry - which measure the biochemical content of the food from the molecular level.

Five different types of parabens were tested. These were butyl-parabens, benzyl-parabens, propyl-parabens, methyl- parabens, and ethyl-parabens.

San Francisco - A malaria drug once widely prescribed to U.S. soldiers could cause symptoms similar to traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), one researcher says.

The drug mefloquine may damage the brain stem and increase the firing of neurons, said Dr. Remington Nevin, a former Army physician and researcher at the Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. Nevin discussed his research Monday (May 20) here at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association.

For decades, soldiers deployed to regions where malaria is common, such as Iraq or Afghanistan, have been given drugs aimed at preventing the mosquito-borne disease, one of which is mefloquine. But the Army stopped recommending the routine use of mefloquine as the preferred anti-malaria drug in 2009, according to the Army Times.

Mefloquine may lead to anxiety, paranoia and hallucinations that can be misdiagnosed as other ailments, such as post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury, Nevin said.

"The symptoms can overlap," Nevin told LiveScience. "It's very easy in military veterans to confuse the two conditions, or to mistakenly diagnose traumatic injury."

Laptop and smartphone screens disrupt sleep and make us drink caffeine

Britons uses 4 times more artificial light today compared to the 1950s

Poor sleep associated with obesity, diabetes, heart disease and depression

Electric lights, including those which illuminate laptop computers, smartphones and tablets, often play a key role in causing people to sleep badly, a leading expert has warned.

Artificial lights disrupt the body's natural rhythm, affect chemicals in the brain and drive people to use stimulants like caffeine to stay awake longer, according to Harvard academic Professor Charles Czeisler.

Writing today in the journal Nature, the professor of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School called for research to help develop 'behavioural and technical' ways of counteracting the ill effects of artificial light on modern sleeping patterns.


The decline in the number of hours slept per night is affecting public health, including a greater risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression and stroke in adults and concentration problems in children, he said.

While all electric light affected circadian rhythms - the natural body clock - and sleep, night-time exposure to LED lights like those in phones and computers was 'typically more disruptive' than standard electric light bulbs, he said.

'There are many reasons why people get insufficient sleep in our 24/7 society, from early starts at work or school, or long commutes, to caffeine-rich food and drink,' he wrote.