Health & WellnessS


Health

There is Literally Excrement in Your Salad: Fecal Bacteria Contamination Widespread

Ethan A. Huff
NaturalNews
Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© ViewImages
A recent Consumer Reports investigation has revealed that bagged salads labeled "pre-washed" or "triple-washed" may not be as clean as they appear. Of the 208 samples taken from 16 different brands of bagged salad, researchers found that nearly 40 percent of them were tainted with bacteria often found in fecal material.

The tainted salads were not contaminated with more serious bacteria like salmonella or E. coli, but 39 percent of them did contain coliform levels that exceeded 10,000 colony forming units per gram (CFU/g) and 23 percent of them contained enterococcus levels exceeding 10,000 CFU/g. Industry experts generally agree that acceptable levels of these types of bacteria for leafy greens should be below 10,000 CFU/g.

Coliform bacteria does not necessarily come from feces, but high levels of the types found in some bagged salads does suggest that poor sanitation practices likely caused fecal contamination. A few of the samples tested fell into this category, having coliform levels of up to one million CFU/g.

"Although these 'indicator' bacteria generally do not make healthy people sick, the tests show not enough is being done to assure the safety or cleanliness of leafy greens," said Dr. Michael Hansen, publisher of Consumer Reports.
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Bomb

Bomb's Shock Waves May Electrify the Brain

Charles Q. Choi
LiveScience
Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:00 UTC
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© DefenceTalk
Electrical effect commonly seen in guitar pickups and loudspeakers

The blast waves from explosions could jolt the skull into generating electricity, potentially damaging the brain, scientists now suggest.

Although the burns and shrapnel wounds that explosions can inflict are their most obvious hazards, perhaps the greatest danger comes from a blast's shock wave. These rapidly generate ripples in a person's innards, potentially causing traumatic brain injuries with deleterious effects ranging from a simple concussion to long-term impaired mental function.

Now scientists have uncovered a surprising possible way by which a blast might affect the brain - electric fields created when bone is hit by a shock wave.

"It's always exciting to look at a phenomenon that may have been missed in the past," said researcher Steven Johnson, a theoretical physicist at MIT. "Moreover, this is potentially an issue that can directly affect the lives of our soldiers , which gives it a special interest for all of us who are involved."
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Attention

The 10 Biggest Health Care Lies in America

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© NaturalNews
Mainstream health care isn't based on "health" or "caring." It's actually based on an engrained system of medical mythology that's practiced -- and defended -- by those who profit from the continuation of sickness and disease. This system of medical mythology might also simply be called "lies", and today I'm sharing with NaturalNews readers the top ten lies that are still followed and promoted under mainstream health care in America today.

Lie #1) Vaccines make you healthy

Vaccines have emerged as the greatest and most insidious mythology yet fabricated by western medicine. The idea that vaccines protect you from infectious disease is blatantly false in the long term because this year's flu shot actually makes you more susceptible to next year's influenza

On top of that, even the theoretical short-term effectiveness of vaccines is dwarfed by the far more effective protection offered by vitamin D and other immune-modulating nutrients.
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USA

Pentagon Uses "Personality Disorder" Discharges to Cheat Veterans Out of Treatment

Sherwood Ross
Global Research
Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:00 UTC
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Army sergeant Chuck Luther was told his injuries were a result of a 'personality disorder'
An army sergeant who had received 22 honors including a Combat Action Badge prior to being wounded in Iraq by a mortar shell was told he was faking his medical symptoms and subjected to abusive treatment until he agreed to a "personality disorder"(PD) discharge.

After a doctor with the First Cavalry division wrote he was out for "secondary gain," Chuck Luther was imprisoned in a six- by eight-foot isolation chamber, ridiculed by the guards, denied regular meals and showers and kept awake by perpetual lights and blasting heavy metal music---abuses similar to the punishments inflicted on terrorist suspects by the CIA.

"They told me I wasn't a real soldier, that I was a piece of crap. All I wanted was to be treated for my injuries," 12-year veteran Luther told reporter Joshua Kors of The Nation magazine (April 26th). "Now suddenly I'm not a soldier. I'm a prisoner, by my own people. I felt like a caged animal in that room. That's when I started to lose it." The article is called "Disposable Soldiers: How the Pentagon is Cheating Wounded Vets."
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Cookie

The Daily Diet That Has Up to 46 Teaspoons of Sugar

Sean Poulter
The Daily Mail
Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:16 UTC
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© Murray SandersMany adults don't realise the amount of sugar in food such as cereals.
A worrying number of adults are consuming the equivalent of 46 teaspoons of sugar a day, health experts warn.

Many of them do not even realise how much they are eating because a vast range of processed food and drink, including many ready meals and cereals, are laden with sugar.

Researchers claim food companies in the U.S. have been consistently hiking the sugar content of their products to make them more enticing.

British manufacturers, however, insist they have been reducing sugar levels as part of a drive to improve the health of processed foods.

The U.S. study was the first of its kind to examine the association between the consumption of added sugars and its impact on cholesterol, the dangerous blood fats that clog the arteries.
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Propaganda Alert: Video Games "Do Not" Alter Sleep Pattern


PressTV
Wed, 21 Apr 2010 11:31 UTC
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© Getty Images
Despite the general belief, a new study suggests that playing a video game before bed has a subtle influence on the time a male teenager falls asleep.

Many experts urge individuals to avoid any screen activity, regardless of being computer, video games or television, before bed.

Previous studies had similarly reported that playing video games at night has negative effects on sleep as the stimulation keeps one awake even after the game has ceased.

According to the study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, it took teenagers who played violent video games before bedtime only marginally longer time to fall asleep compared to those who watched a relaxing nature documentary.
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Vitamin A Supplements May Negate Benefits of Vitamin D

Deanna Dean
NaturalNews
Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© Google Images
Most of you are well aware that vitamin D has a legion of health benefits crucial to every one of us. What is alarming is the latest research in the British Medical Journal, which appears to confirm: that a form of vitamin A in surprisingly small doses may negate many of the beneficial health effects of vitamin D. This is the largest study to date showing vitamin A blocks vitamin D's effect.

Dr. William Grant, Ph.D., an internationally recognized research scientist and vitamin D expert, found that about 30 percent of cancer deaths could be prevented each year with higher levels of vitamin D. Given that cancer, heart disease and diabetes are three of the top causes of death in the United States, getting enough of this vitamin should be a top priority. Unfortunately most of us are vitamin D deficient. It is clearly important to avoid anything that might hamper your vitamin D production. Surprisingly, it appears vitamin A supplementation may indeed have this effect.

In a recent article, Dr. John Jacob Cannell, MD, executive director of The Vitamin D Council, discussed the British Medical Journal report. He says:
"The crux of the problem is that a form of vitamin A, retinoic acid weakly activates the vitamin D response element on the gene and perhaps blocks vitamin D's more robust activation." In fact, the authors of a 1993 study state, "there is a profound inhibition of vitamin D-activated...gene expression by retinoic acid."
The distinction is between various forms of vitamin A. It is the retinoic acid (retinol) form of vitamin A that is problematic. Not beta carotene.
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Puberty in Girls Hastened by Harmful Chemicals

Anthony Gucciardi
NaturalNews
Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© CorbiaHarmful chemicals may be triggering early puberty in girls.
Multiple studies have found that chemicals found in such products as food cans, toys, shower curtains, and water bottles may be to blame for causing an early onset of puberty in girls.

Furthermore, the studies found that the chemicals also put them at a greater risk of diabetes and cancer. The three chemical classes studied were phthalates, phenols and phytoestrogens. One such hormone-mimicking chemical is Bisphenol A, which was recently found in eighteen out of twenty popular food cans.

The average age that girls begin puberty currently stands at ten years and three months. This average has fallen by more than a year within a single generation. Studies indicated that chemicals like Bisphenol A could be to blame. While Bisphenol A appears to speed up puberty in girls, health experts say other factors must also be considered. Doctors say that obesity could be the largest factor in delaying puberty in girls.
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Attention

Radiation from CT Scans Causes 29,000 Cancers a Year, Kills 14,500 Americans

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© Getty Images
Computerized tomography (CT) medical scans cause at least 29,000 cases of cancer and 14,500 deaths in the United States every year, according to a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Shocking as this figure is, a second study published in the same issue and conducted by researchers from the University of California-San Francisco suggests that the reality may actually be much worse.

CT scans are diagnostic tests in which radiation is used to take a cross-sectional picture of a patient's organs. They have become far more common in the United States over the past 30 years, increasing in frequency from 3 million per year in 1980 to the current rate of 70 million per year.
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Alzheimer's Drugs Cause Brain Damage and Actually Worsen Memory Loss

S. L. Baker
NaturalNews
Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© NaturalNews
Big Pharma drugs that are being used on humans right now and promoted as potential treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD) could cause the very brain damage and memory loss they are supposed to treat. That's the conclusion of University of California at San Diego (UCSD) scientists who just published their groundbreaking findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers combined several high tech methods to investigate nonamyloidogenic peptides that are formed by some drugs being tested as Alzheimer's therapies. UCSD nano-biophysicist Ratnesh Lal and his colleagues combined three dimensional computer simulations with high resolution atomic force microscopy membrane protein and cell imaging, electrical recording and various cellular assays to pinpoint the function of these substances.

The results showed that the peptides created active ion channels that caused brain cells to take in very high levels of calcium ions, eventually killing the very neurons needed for memory. To make matters worse, biomedical researchers have long considered these brain cell-killing nonamyloidogenic peptides to be non-toxic and targeted them as potential Alzheimer's treatments.
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