Health & WellnessS


Beaker

US: In New York State Some People Who Drink Water Are More Equal Than Others

Lennard Davis
Huffington Post
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:59 UTC
In upstate New York, where I am living, there is a class of citizens protected from chemicals and harmful substances in drinking water, and then there are the vast majority of people like me, my family, and friends, who are experimental subjects being tested to see if known carcinogens like benzene will do anything harmful to us.

A few years ago, we would have called that an unethical, if not illegal, experiment worthy of the Nazi doctors and the Tuskegee syphilis experiments. Now we call it governmental policy. The just-released Executive Summary of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation report on gas drilling says that of over one million people who drink ground water every day, about a third will have their sources of water protected. But a shocking two-thirds, or 840,000 men, women, and children, will have no protections at all.

Basically the DEC is protecting those lucky people who live in cities and letting the rural population of New York State consume water that could be contaminated with a mix of chemicals so lethal that they are banned for human consumption.
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Cow

It's not all white: The cocktail of up to 20 chemicals in a glass of milk

David Derbyshire
Dailymail.co.uk
Thu, 07 Jul 2011 08:44 UTC
Image
© UnknownHealthy drink: Quantities of compounds found in milk were minuscule.
A glass of milk can contain a cocktail of up to 20 painkillers, antibiotics and growth hormones, scientists have shown.

Using a highly sensitive test, they found a host of chemicals used to treat illnesses in animals and people in samples of cow, goat and human breast milk.

The doses of drugs were far too small to have an effect on anyone drinking them, but the results highlight how man-made chemicals are now found throughout the food chain.

Comment: For more information about why milk isn't good for you, see this Sott link:

6 reasons why you should avoid milk at all costs...

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Pills

Best of the Web: Food Allergy and Joint Pain - Is There a Connection?


Gluten Free Society
Thu, 07 Jul 2011 01:28 UTC
arthritis pain
© Unknown
Most, doctors specializing in the treatment of arthritis, joint pain, and autoimmune diseases affecting the musculoskeletal system never even consider diet as an important factor in the development of these conditions.

I was formally trained in rheumatology at the VA hospital in Houston, TX, and I can say that diet and nutritional recommendations to patients were discouraged and in most cases frowned upon by our attending physicians. It was actually this experience that prompted me to dig deeper into the connection between autoimmune disease and food.

Over the past 10 years, I have treated thousands of patients with arthritic conditions. The most single effective therapies have always been diet and exercise. The paradox with exercise... It is harder to stick to if it flares up the arthritis. The problem with food...everyone reacts uniquely based on their own unique chemistry. But it only makes sense that if drugs can target inflammation as a treatment, why can't food. After all, isn't food a drug of sorts?

I have found that medical research greatly supports this connection, but more importantly, I have found that patients get better after eliminating inflammatory foods from their diets. What foods should we avoid to help recover from arthritis? Depends on the person. Everyone is unique.
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Roses

New Yorkers battle giant blindness-causing plants

Lester Haines
The Register
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 04:02 UTC
Botanical SWAT teams confront triffid-esque menace
plantblind
© The Register

Authorities in New York State have warned residents to keep a sharp look-out for the giant hogweed - the alien invader from the Caucasus Mountains which has the power to cause "severe skin and eye irritation, painful blistering, permanent scarring and blindness".

The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is in its fourth year of battling Heracleum mantegazzianum (pictured), and has six botanical SWAT teams on standby to purge the 944 known New York giant hogweed sites of the menace. Citizens who sight the beast are warned not to approach it, but rather provide photographic and location information to the department.
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Bacon

UVa Research Finds Link Between Tick Bites, Red Meat Allergy

Tammie Smith
NewEraProgress.com
Tue, 05 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
Richmond - The ticks were so bad last summer that Dr. Fred Robinson, a retired cardiologist, could hardly go for a walk in his yard in Midlothian without coming in to find a tick somewhere on his body.

They were a nuisance, but he now suspects they also are to blame for an unusual allergic reaction he has developed to beef.

It sounds improbable, but allergy doctors say patients such as Robinson are cropping up more and more, and research is pinning down a plausible explanation for what may be happening.

Much of that research is being done at the University of Virginia, where studies are also trying to help patients whose only remedy so far is to give up beef or other red meats.

"About 11 years ago I had a little teeny tick the size of a pinhead behind my left knee," Robinson, said, explaining his ordeal.

"I got part of the tick out. But part of it didn't come out. For years, it would flare up," he said, referring to the area on his leg where the tick was attached.
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Health

Scarlet fever--past and present

Tara C. Smith
ScienceBlogs
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 09:00 UTC
While "flesh-eating infections" caused by the group A streptococcus (Streptococcus pyogenes) may grab more headlines today, one hundred and fifty years ago, the best known and most dreaded form of streptococcal infection was scarlet fever. Simply hearing the name of this disease, and knowing that it was present in the community, was enough to strike fear into the hearts of those living in Victorian-era United States and Europe. This disease, even when not deadly, caused large amounts of suffering to those infected. In the worst cases, all of a family's children were killed in a matter of a week or two. Indeed, up until early in the 20th century, scarlet fever was a common condition among children. The disease was so common that it was a central part of the popular children's tale, The Velveteen Rabbit, written by Margery Williams in 1922.

Luckily, scarlet fever is much more uncommon today in developed countries than it was when Williams' story was written, despite the fact that we still lack a vaccine for S. pyogenes. Is it gone for good, or is the current outbreak in Hong Kong and mainland China a harbinger of things to come?
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Attention

Mercury Vapor Released from Broken Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs Can Exceed Safe Exposure Levels for Humans, Study Finds


Science Daily
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:47 UTC
Fluorescent Light
© Mark Herreid / FotoliaCompact fluorescent light.

Once broken, a compact fluorescent light bulb continuously releases mercury vapor into the air for weeks to months, and the total amount can exceed safe human exposure levels in a poorly ventilated room, according to study results reported in Environmental Engineering Science, a peer-reviewed online only journal published monthly by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

The amount of liquid mercury (Hg) that leaches from a broken compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) is lower than the level allowed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), so CFLs are not considered hazardous waste. However, Yadong Li and Li Jin, Jackson State University (Jackson, MS) report that the total amount of Hg vapor released from a broken CFL over time can be higher than the amount considered safe for human exposure. They document their findings in the article "Environmental Release of Mercury from Broken Compact Fluorescent Lamps."

As people can readily inhale vapor-phase mercury, the authors suggest rapid removal of broken CFLs and adequate ventilation, as well as suitable packaging to minimize the risk of breakage of CFLs and to retain Hg vapor if they do break, thereby limiting human exposure.
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Heart

Eggs' Antioxidant Properties May Help Prevent Heart Disease and Cancer, Study Suggests


Science Daily
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:23 UTC
Cracked Eggs
© Science Kukuchew.com

One of nature's most perfect foods may be even better for us than previously thought.

While eggs are well known to be an excellent source of proteins, lipids, vitamins and minerals, researchers at the University of Alberta recently discovered they also contain antioxidant properties, which helps in the prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Jianping Wu, Andreas Schieber and graduate students Chamila Nimalaratne and Daise Lopes-Lutz of the U of A Department of Agricultural Food and Nutritional Science examined egg yolks produced by hens fed typical diets of either primarily wheat or corn. They found the yolks contained two amino acids, tryptophan and tyrosine, which have high antioxidant properties.

After analyzing the properties, the researchers determined that two egg yolks in their raw state have almost twice as many antioxidant properties as an apple and about the same as half a serving (25 grams) of cranberries.
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Health

Eritrea-Ethiopia: Thousands need aid after volcano eruption


Integrated Regional Information Networks
Wed, 06 Jul 2011 12:20 UTC
Image
© National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationSatellite view of the Nabro volcano
Addis Ababa/Nairobi - Thousands of Ethiopians in Afar State are facing critical food, water and health gaps almost a month after a volcano erupted in neighbouring Eritrea's Nabro region, officials say.

The volcano started erupting on 12 June, spewing ash over hundreds of kilometres, affecting food and water sources as well as air travel in some parts. The eruption also caused an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7, Eritrea's Information Ministry reported in a communiqué.

According to a report from Ethiopia's Afar Disaster Prevention and Food Security Programs Coordination Office: "The adverse impacts of the volcanic ash increased reports of livestock mortality, migration, critical water shortage, human health problems and rising malnutrition among the worst volcanic affected woredas [districts]: Bidu, Afdera, Erebti, Elidar, Teru and Kori.
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Wolf

FDA's New Sneak Attack on Supplements


Alliance for Natural Health
Tue, 05 Jul 2011 07:46 UTC
Image

Just before the July 4 holiday weekend, hoping to limit media attention, the FDA dropped a bomb on dietary supplements. Don't let them get away with it! A new Action Alert.

On July 1, the US Food and Drug Administration issued draft guidance for complying with the New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) notification protocols contained in the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). Ever since DSHEA was enacted in 1994, supplement manufacturers have had very little guidance on what counts as an NDI and when or how to send an NDI notification. The government has arbitrarily ignored or enforced this section of DSHEA, doing as it liked, without spelling out the rules.

Why does this matter? Because when you hear New Dietary Ingredient (NDI), substitute "New Supplement" in your mind. What we are dealing with here is whether the supplement industry is allowed to innovate and create new supplements - and if so, under what rules.
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