Melatonin is a natural hormone produced by the pineal gland. It is the hormone responsible for the regulation of our internal body clock which is also referred to as the "circadian rhythm". The production of melatonin is influenced by the amount of light in the external environment. Darkness stimulates the production of melatonin while brightness produces the opposite effect.

Aside from the regulation of our biological clock, melatonin also aids in the regulation of other body hormones. In females, it regulates the timing of the releases of reproductive hormones which helps set the pattern of the menstrual cycle.

The government has come under fire this week for revelations that it knew about antibiotic resistant Salmonella in poultry products that has killed at least one person and sickened more than 100 across the country. Although this is one of the largest turkey recalls - affecting some 36 million pounds of ground turkey - the prevalence of bacteria that is immune to common drugs is on the rise on animal farms, which is where the bulk of U.S. antibiotics get used.

But by going organic, poultry farms can cut the amount of antibiotic resistant bacteria in a single generation by nearly five times, according to a new study published online this week in Environmental Health Perspectives.

"We were surprised to see that the differences were so significant across several different classes of antibiotics even in the very first flock that was produced after the transition to organic standards," Amy Sapkota, of the University of Maryland School of Public Health, and co-author of the new study, said in a prepared statement.

I regularly lecture in front of groups, and I'm usually emphasizing the value of good nutrition and what this actually means. I believe in eating a natural, unprocessed diet comprised mainly of foods that have been in the human diet the longest including meat (yes, even red meat), fish, eggs, nuts, fruits and vegetables. We've become, generally, fat-phobic over the last 30 years, particularly with regards to saturated fat. The fact that I advocate a diet that is richer in saturated fat than is traditionally advised can look somewhat out of step with conventional 'wisdom'.

One thing that practically everyone seems to know about saturated fat is that is raises cholesterol levels. My reaction to this is, so what? This attitude may sound blasé, but it's actually based on a fundamental principle: the impact a foodstuff has on cholesterol is not the important thing, it's the impact it has on health that counts.

Our focus on cholesterol levels has allowed many drugs and food products to be marketed on the basis of their cholesterol-reducing properties, in the absence of any evidence that they actually, say, reduce the risk of heart disease or death. Classic examples of this include foods laced with cholesterol-reducing compounds known as 'sterols', and the drug ezetimibe. I've written about both of these things more than once on this site.

One of the most common complaints one hears about from friends and family these days is not having enough energy. Energy drinks, bars and supplements, not to mention the ubiquitous presence of coffee shops on almost every corner in every city are a testament to these complaints and they are also BIG business. Of course, when it comes to so-called "energy drinks" and caffeine we're not talking about generating real lasting energy so much as we are talking about adding a jolt to the system in the form of a stimulant that provides the short-lived illusion of energy. That said, one thing virtually all these products has in common is that they can dramatically spike your blood sugar levels.

So...that's a good thing, right?

Wellllllll...

Anyone who takes a conventional course in nutrition, medical school, nursing school or any chiropractic or naturopathic school today will likely be taught that their brain, tissues and organs greatly depend upon sufficient blood sugar to fuel energy, maintain their day to day energy supply and fuel all their metabolic processes. We are taught that "blood sugar" is important - critical, even - and that it must be sustained and regularly managed for optimal health. Unfortunately, this is only a conditional truth at best and one that conceals a rather mammoth sin of omission that is overlooked by nearly everyone. The fact is that we are all one of two things: we are either a "sugar burner" or we are a "fat burner". Perhaps since fat is (erroneously) assumed to be inherently evil, nothing about its potentially vital role in all aspects of health or primary energy production is ever discussed. We are encouraged to avoid it at any cost and not ask any questions.

Blood sugar management is big business, too. VERY big business.

Washington State Health Department officials say they have the first case of a strain of shellfish poisoning making a people in the United States ill.


Samples in a small bay on the Strait of Juan de Fuca detected presence of Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning or DSP. The tests were conducted at Sequim Bay after members of a local family came down with symptoms of DSP after collecting and eating mussels from the bay.

Local health officials were ordered to post signs and close shellfish fish harvesting on the beach and state officials say they were able to recall all shellfish gathered commercially at the site.

Mice without enzyme were also less inquisitive.

Do you run when you should stay? Are you afraid of all the wrong things? An enzyme deficiency might be to blame, reveals new research in mice by scientists at the University of Southern California.

In a paper appearing in the October 2011 issue of the International Journal of Neuropharmacology, USC researchers show that mice lacking a certain enzyme due to genetic mutation are unable to properly assess threat. The mice exhibited defensive behaviors (such as biting or tail rattling) in the presence of neutral stimuli, such as plastic bottles.

Conversely, in the presence of true danger cues such as predator urine or an anesthetized rat, the mice with the enzyme mutation were less cautious and defensive than their littermates, even climbing on the unconscious rat.

Mice without the enzyme also took longer to leave an open chamber, indicating reduction in exploratory and escape tendencies.

"Taken together, our findings suggest that monoamine oxidase A deficiency leads to a general inability to appropriately assess contextual risk, as indicated by the inappropriateness of their defensive behaviors," said senior author Jean C. Shih, University Professor and Boyd and Elsie Welin Professor of pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences in the USC School of Pharmacy.

A biochemical pathway long associated with diarrhea and intestinal function may provide a new therapeutic target for treating ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) other neuropsychiatric disorders, according to a team of scientists from China and the United States reporting Aug. 11 in Science.

Scientists have for the last quarter century studied the intestinal membrane receptor protein, guanylyl cyclase-C (GC-C) for its role in diarrheal disease and other intestinal functions, according to Mitchell Cohen, M.D., U.S. author on the study and director of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. In fact, it had been thought that GC-C was found primarily in the intestine.

In the current study, scientists in China who collaborated with Dr. Cohen discovered that the receptor is also expressed in critical areas of the brain. The senior author on the study is Dr. Minmin Luo, a researcher at the National Institute of Biological Sciences and Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Earlier today (Aug. 12), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the first known case of a person dying in the United States as a result of a vampire bat bite. Which raises the question: Are the rest of us at risk?

No, not really, says one expert, and for two good reasons.

First of all, the person who died, a 19-year-old from Mexico, wasn't actually bitten in the U.S.; he was bitten in Michoacán, Mexico, and died a few weeks later during a trip to Louisiana (this all happened last August). Also, he didn't die from the bite itself, but from the rabies virus that the bat infected him with.

These are key distinctions, said Gerald Carter, a Ph. D. biology candidate at the University of Maryland and an expert on vampire bat behavior.

First of all - and probably most importantly - vampire bats don't live in the U.S. They exist only in Central and South America - from central Mexico down to around Brazil - where they parasitize cattle and horses, Carter said. There is some research that speculates that as the climate continues to get warmer, vampire bats will extend their range into the United States. Currently, though, there is little to no reason to believe that the bats have already done so.

Scientists at MIT say they've developed a promising new drug that appears to not only be able to attack the common cold, but just about any other virus as well.

The drug goes by the name DRACO (Double-stranded RNA Activated Caspase Oligomerizer--uh, I'll stick with the acronym) and is made using the defense mechanism of living cells. The drug reportedly attacks cells that have been infected with a virus, without harming healthy cells. DRACO attaches itself to virus-tainted cells and contains a protein that initiates a process by which the infected cells kill themselves. If DRACO encounters a healthy cell along the way, it simply waves hello and leaves it alone.

The idea of a one-size-fits-all approach to creating antiviral drugs has the potential for huge implications. Until now, drugmakers have had to design a new drug to fight each individual virus strain, and because viruses like to be sneaky and mutate often, it's been an ongoing battle to keep up with them.

A Brevard County teen was hospitalized after an amoeba is believed to have infected her brain while she was swimming in a local river.

The young girl, identified in numerous reports as 16-year-old Courtney Nash, is currently listed in critical condition, officials said.

Barry Inman, an epidemiologist with the Brevard County Health Department, told CBS Tampa that the very rare infection, known as amoebic meningoencephalitis, has not yet been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control, but that officials believe a positive test will be returned any day.

"We got a result from the hospital in Orlando and they did a spinal tap on her, and they looked on the cerebral spinal fluid and they saw the amoeba. So we're confident that this is a hospital that has some experience with this organism, and we're confident about what the diagnosis is," he said.

Inman said there are typically fewer than five cases a year in the entire country, and that only one person has survived the infection since the 1970s. Doctors treat it with anti-fungal medications and antibiotics.