Health & WellnessS


Donut

High blood sugar levels linked to memory loss

Honor Whiteman
Medical News Today
Thu, 24 Oct 2013 10:29 UTC
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New research suggests that people with high blood sugar levels, even those who do not have diabetes, may have an increased risk for developing cognitive impairment. This is according to a study published in the journal Neurology.

Previous research has shown that people with type 2 diabetes - a disorder that causes a person's blood sugar levels to become too high - may increase the risk of dementia.

According to the Mayo Clinic, diabetes is considered a risk factor for vascular dementia as it can damage blood vessels in the brain. This form of dementia is often caused by reduced or blocked blood flow to the brain.

But researchers from Germany now say that even those without diabetes who have high blood sugar levels may be at risk for impaired memory skills.

Scanning the hippocampus

To reach their findings, the researchers analyzed 143 people with an average age of 63, who were free of diabetes or pre-diabetes (impaired glucose intolerance).

The researchers excluded those who were overweight, consumed more than 3.5 servings of alcohol per day, and those who already had memory and thinking impairments.

The participants underwent blood glucose tests and were required to carry out memory tests. One of the tests required subjects to recall a list of 15 words 30 minutes after hearing them.

Comment: In case this is not enough, you might want to read 146 reasons why sugar destroys your health.

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Info

More kids treated for mental health conditions

Bahar Gholipour
LiveScience
Wed, 27 Nov 2013 15:01 UTC
Depressed Child
© Dreamstime

The use of mental health treatments in children has increased in recent years much more than it has among adults, a new study finds.

The trend signals a growing attention to mental health problems in children, but could also be a source of concern about unnecessary medication use in children, the researchers said.

"On the one hand kids who needed treatment are now getting treatment and benefiting from it," said study researcher Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University in New York. "On the other hand, there's a large increase in prescription of stimulants for adolescents, which is potentially problematic."

For example, the non-medical use of prescription drugs on college campuses one of the concerns about stimulants, and is part of a larger picture of substance abuse, Olfson told LiveScience.

The researchers looked at doctor visits by children, adolescents and adults between 1995 and 2010, and found that at the end of the study period, for every 100 youths (age 20 or younger) who visited the doctor, there were 15 visits that resulted in a mental disorder diagnosis, up from eight visits in 1995, according to the study published today (Nov. 27) in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

In other words, children and adolescents who visit a doctor have become almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with a mental disorder now compared to 1995.
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Cell Phone

Sensible countermeasure to wireless radiation: Ukrainian town dismantles cell sites


RT
Fri, 01 Nov 2013 15:05 UTC
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© RIA Novosrti / Yakov AndreevUkranian residents take a stand for health

A town council in Ukraine had local cell sites removed, leaving the place with almost no mobile communications. The decision was made, following residents' complaints over health problems and increased number of cancer diagnoses blamed on the equipment.

A group of activists at the town of Yaremche, a ski-resort in Ukraine's Carpathian mountains, have succeeded in pressuring local authorities into dismantling the cell sites of the town's two major mobile connection providers - Kyivstar and MTS. Residents claimed the number of cancer cases increased since the equipment was installed at the top of a chimney near a hospital in 2004.

"We sought help from the sanitary and epidemiological service," said the town's first deputy head, Yury Bodoryak, as cited by Ukrainian on-line source, Obozrevatel. "They only told us that the radiation was above normal and that was it. But finding ourselves under pressure from the residents we had to make that decision."

Comment: The cancer risks connected to cell towers and WIFI are real:

The Hidden Dangers of Cell Phone Radiation

Electromagnetic radiation and its effect on the brain: an insider speaks out

Cell Phones and Cancer: the Risk is Real

European Leaders Call for Ban of Cell Phones and WiFi in Schools

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Attention

The hidden truth about peanuts: From food allergies to farm practices

Robyn O'Brien
prevention.com
Mon, 25 Nov 2013 16:55 UTC
Image
© archive.constantcontact.com
Most of us have never been told that peanuts are treated with cancer-causing pesticides.

Nor have we been told that they are rotated in fields that contain genetically engineered cotton, a controversial crop used in our food supply that is treated with a weed killer linked to cancer and infertility.

We tend to only hear about the peanut allergy when it comes to peanuts in the news, but a deeper look into how we grow peanuts today unearths a lot of questions.

Since when did so many kids suddenly have a peanut allergy? A peanut butter and jelly sandwich hasn't always been a loaded weapon on a lunchroom table.

From 1997-2002, the incidence of peanut allergy doubled. In the last fifteen years, there has been a 50% increase in the number of children with food allergies. About 1 in 20 U.S. children have food allergies - a 50 percent increase from the late 1990s, according to a recent CDC survey.

But that's not where it stops.
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Fish

Against the advice of experts, Canada approves world's first genetically modified salmon destined for consumption in the U.S.

Marco Torres
Prevent Disease
Wed, 27 Nov 2013 12:18 UTC
It seems the level of corruption at the hands of politicians and power hungry investors is no different in Canada than anywhere else in the world. Environment Canada has approved the commercial production of GM Atlantic salmon eggs which grow to market-size twice as fast as other farmed salmon. The biotech company responsible, Aquabounty, has revealed that it is no longer asking for approval to grow the fish in the US but plans to produce all of the GM salmon eggs in Canada and then sell "table-ready" GM salmon into the US consumer market. It is an alarming decision that sets Canada up to be the source of global environmental risk, says the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network.
GMO Salmon
© PreventDisease
A U.S. company who has lobbied to commercially produce genetically modified salmon eggs in Canada says it has cleared a major hurdle in its proposal to make the fish available for human consumption, a possibility that has critics worried about the prospect of "frankenfish" escaping and endangering wild Atlantic salmon around the world.

The Environment Canada approval is the first government approval for the company AquaBounty. The company has asked for approval of the GM Atlantic salmon for human consumption in the U.S., based on a plan to produce the GM fish eggs in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada and ship them to Panama for grow-out and processing.

"We're devastated that Prince Edward Island is now officially the home of the Frankenfish," said Leo Broderick of the Prince Edward Island (PEI) group called Islanders Say No to Frankenfish, "We don't want our Island to be the source of this dangerous living pollution."
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Sherlock

Make me some science I can't refuse: Nutritional science articles make "overreaching statements of results"

Adele Hite, MPH RD
Eathropology
Fri, 15 Nov 2013 00:01 UTC
microscope
© Unknown
In case you missed it, in a recent article published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine entitled "Overstatement of Results in the Nutrition and Obesity Peer-Reviewed Literature"(not making this up), the authors found that a lot of papers published in the field of obesity and nutrition have, shall we say, issues.

Well - as they say down South - I never!

The authors looked at over 900 scientific articles on nutrition or obesity published either in 2001 or 2011 in leading journals. They found that about 1 in 11 include "overreaching statements of results."

Comment: We all know the tune by now, we're just filling in the minutiae. The scientific study, far from being the bastion of objectivity it professes to be, becomes a tool for propaganda enforcement in a ponerized society. See also:

Fraud is growing more rampant in scientific studies

The Corruption of Science in America

Scientific Fraud Prevalent Among Science-Based Medicines

Corruption of Science: Fraud and Errors in Scientific Studies Skyrocket

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Health

Supporting others brings healing to cancer survivors


Science Daily
Wed, 27 Nov 2013 11:30 UTC
helping hand
A new study finds that survivors of hematopoietic stem cell transplant, an aggressive treatment for blood cancers, benefited from a two-part peer support process the authors call expressive helping.

The process includes first writing for oneself in emotionally expressive ways about the trauma of the cancer and transplant experience, followed by peer helping, which includes writing as if speaking to a person ready to undergo the transplant procedure about the survivor's experience while offering advice and encouragement.

Christine Rini, PhD, research associate professor of health behavior at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, led the study.

Benefits of receiving peer support when in ill health are recognized widely. Although fewer studies have focused upon the effect of an ill person's giving support to a peer, prior research has established that cancer survivors who help others face treatment experience a range of psychosocial and health-related benefits as a result of peer helping. The current study shows that the survivor's preceding the helping with emotionally expressive writing about his or her own experiences increases the health benefits to the survivor.
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Smoking

Brain Researchers: Smoking increases intelligence

Klaus K
Den Gule Negl
Mon, 03 Dec 2012 00:00 UTC
Einstein smoking
Quitting smoking results in a decrease in brain activity, says professor.

Positive effects of nicotine on the brain's performance is now confirmed by the Danish nicotine research at the Panum Institute in Copenhagen. We can now add another piece to the puzzle which clearly shows that smoking increases the intelligence. According to an interview with brain scientist, Professor Albert Gjedde in Ekstra Bladet.

Albert Gjedde, along with two colleagues started with nicotine tests, according to Gjedde clearly shows that if a heavy smoker suddenly stops smoking, then it bears negative consequences on his brain activity.

"The energy metabolism of oxygen in the brain decreases. This means, that one's thinking capacity is also decreased. But if you start smoking again, so does the energy sales at the usual level, "he says. Albert Gjedde explains in the interview that a number of now concluded studies that smoking increases intelligence:
"If you have to explain the concept of intelligence, it is in fact the ability to make sensible choices - to anticipate future challenges. And this is where nicotine can help"
he told the newspaper. Gjedde also refers to the Swedish professor of genetic developmental biology, Klas Kullander, who found that nicotine promotes learning and memory: "Nicotine affects receptors in the memory center. You simply get better at organizing his memory. ", said Gjedde.

Comment: Let's All Light Up!

5 Health Benefits of Smoking

Nicotine Lessens Symptoms Of Depression In Nonsmokers

Nicotine helps Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Patients

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Pills

Top ten legal drugs linked to violence

Maia Szalavitz
Time
Tue, 07 Jun 2011 09:13 UTC
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When people consider the connections between drugs and violence, what typically comes to mind are illegal drugs like crack cocaine. However, certain medications - most notably, some antidepressants like Prozac - have also been linked to increase risk for violent, even homicidal behavior.

A new study from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices published in the journal PloS One and based on data from the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System has identified 31 drugs that are disproportionately linked with reports of violent behavior towards others.

Please note that this does not necessarily mean that these drugs cause violent behavior. For example, in the case of opioid pain medications like Oxycontin, people with a prior history of violent behavior may seek drugs in order to sustain an addiction, which they support via predatory crime. In the case of antipsychotics, the drugs may be given in an attempt to reduce violence by people suffering from schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders - so the drugs here might not be causing violence, but could be linked with it because they're used to try to stop it.

Nonetheless, when one particular drug in a class of nonaddictive drugs used to treat the same problem stands out, that suggests caution: unless the drug is being used to treat radically different groups of people, that drug may actually be the problem. Researchers calculated a ratio of risk for each drug compared to the others in the database, adjusting for various relevant factors that could create misleading comparisons. Here are the top ten offenders:

Comment: Why even try to quit smoking when nicotine has proved to be anti-inflammatory and healing. See Nicotine Found To Protect Against Parkinson's-like Brain Damage and Warning: Nicotine Seriously Improves Health.

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Alarm Clock

Best of the Web: GMO linked to gluten disorders plaguing 18 million Americans - report


RT
Tue, 26 Nov 2013 22:05 UTC
gmo corn
© AFP / Khaled Desouki
Genetically modified foods such as soy and corn may be responsible for a number of gluten-related maladies including intestinal disorders now plaguing 18 million Americans, according to a new report released on Tuesday.

The report was released by the Institute for Responsible Technology (IRT), and cites authoritative data from the US Department of Agriculture, US Environmental Protection Agency records, medical journal reviews as well as international research.

"Gluten sensitivity can range in severity from mild discomfort, such as gas and bloating, to celiac disease, a serious autoimmune condition that can, if undiagnosed, result in a 4-fold increase in death," said Jeffrey M. Smith, executive director of IRT in a statement released on their website.

Smith cited how a "possible environmental trigger may be the introduction of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to the American food supply, which occurred in the mid-1990s," describing the nine GM crops currently on the market.

In soy, corn, cotton (oil), canola (oil), sugar from sugar beets, zucchini, yellow squash, Hawaiian papaya, and alfalfa, "Bt-toxin, glyphosate, and other components of GMOs, are linked to five conditions that may either initiate or exacerbate gluten-related disorders," according to Smith.

It's the BT-toxin in genetically modified foods which kills insects by "puncturing holes in their cells." The toxin is present in 'every kernel' of Bt-corn and survives human digestion, with a 2012 study confirming that it punctures holes in human cells as well.
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