Health & WellnessS


Ambulance

Ireland reports 64 cases of "adverse reactions" to HPV vaccine

Hilary White
LifeSiteNews.com
Wed, 08 Dec 2010 21:48 UTC
A report by the Irish Medicines Board (IMB) has shown that a vaccination program using Gardasil, the drug created to combat Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), a sexually transmitted disease, has resulted in 64 cases of "adverse reactions," including cardiac and allergic reactions and seizures.

The figures are leading some in Ireland to accuse the IMB is not showing due consideration for the health of young people vaccinated with the drug.

According to the IMB report, starting in May this year approximately 45,000 doses of Gardasil have been administered to Irish teens through their schools. As of the end of October, the IMB says that 55 reports of these adverse medical reactions have been received since the beginning of the Schools Immunisation Programme. The remaining complaints were received prior to the start of that program.
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Syringe

Flu Shot Coverage, Vaccine-Related Miscarriage Rates Rise Exponentially


Guerilla Health Report
Tue, 07 Dec 2010 21:40 UTC
The CDC has announced that almost half of all pregnant women were vaccinated with the H1N1 or combined influenza vaccination during the "influenza" season of 2009/2010. Women who were told by their physicians to get the flu shot were three times more likely to get it, and women who were specifically told to get the H1N1 vaccination were a staggering 10 times more likely to accept the vaccination.

However, data presented to CDC's Advisory Committee on Children's Vaccines shows the rate of miscarriage attributed to vaccination during the same period rose by 700% compared to both 2007 and 2008 (view complete resources here). The report was presented to the CDC's Advisory Committee on Children's Vaccines by the National Coalition of Organized Women, who corroborated the miscarriage and stillborn rates reported on the CDC's VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) database with an independent review of miscarriages associated with the influenza and H1N1 vaccination during the winter of 2009-2010.
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People

Imitating Someone's Accent Makes It Easier to Understand Them


Association for Psychological Science
Mon, 06 Dec 2010 17:56 UTC
In conversation, we often imitate each other's speech style and may even change our accent to fit that of the person we're talking to. A recent study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that imitating someone who speaks with a regional or foreign accent may actually help you understand them better.

"If people are talking to each other, they tend to sort of move their speech toward each other," says Patti Adank, of the University of Manchester, who cowrote the study with Peter Hagoort and Harold Bekkering from Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. People don't only do this with speech, she says. "People have a tendency to imitate each other in body posture, for instance in the way they cross their arms." She and her colleagues devised an experiment to test the effect of imitating and accent on subsequent comprehension of sentences spoken in that accent.
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Bandaid

Stress and neck pain more common in women than men


University of Gothenburg
Mon, 06 Dec 2010 07:08 UTC
neck pain
© Unknown
Neck pain is more common in women than men, irrespective of occupation or age. Stressed young women develop more neck pain than their male counterparts. Women also perceive everyday life to be more stressful, reveals a thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

"There is an ongoing debate amongst researchers as to why muscle and joint pain, such as neck pain, are so common, and why this seems to be more prevalent among women than men," says Anna Grimby-Ekman, postdoctoral student and statistician at the Sahlgrenska Academy's Department of Public Health and Community Medicine. "We know that physical work with heavy lifting or assembly work that involves a lot of arm-raising above shoulder height can lead to neck pain. By looking at a group whose work is less physically demanding, we can more readily identify other factors that could be implicated and perhaps explain the generally high incidence of neck pain."

A questionnaire distributed to university students in Sweden - 627 women and 573 men - showed that neck pain is more common in women than men, and that more women than men developed neck pain during the four years of the study. These results were something of a surprise as the researchers had expected that roughly the same number of women as men would develop neck pain in a young group like this, where the majority had yet to start a family and studying meant that the women and men shared a similar working environment.

Comment: Since stress is such a prevalent problem among women (due to their increased sensitivity to the environment), they would greatly benefit from the vagus nerve activation (that wanders throughout the body, including the neck area) to reduce their neck pain and stress.

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Bad Guys

Iraq, Kuwait Dust May Carry Dangerous Elements

Kelly Kennedy
Navy Times
Tue, 07 Dec 2010 22:04 UTC
Toxic Dust
© MC2 Ace Rheaume / NavyBuilder 2nd Class Eric Clark, assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 5, is caught in a sandstorm May 4 at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan. A Navy study suggests that dust from Afghanistan contains metals that may cause respiratory problems and brain damage.

Researchers studying dust in Iraq and Kuwait say tiny particles of potentially hazardous material could be causing a host of problems in humans, from respiratory ailments to heart disease to neurological conditions.

After taking samples, scientists found fungi, bacteria and heavy metals - including uranium - that could all cause long-term health effects.

"You can see the dust," said Dale Griffin, an environmental public health microbiologist with the U.S. Geologic Survey. "It's what we can't see that will get you."

Three recent reports detail the problems, and Griffin said there are more to come.

Capt. Mark Lyles, who chairs the medical sciences and biotechnology department at the Center for Naval Warfare Studies, part of the Naval War College, co-authored with Griffin a report that they presented last year at the International Seminars on Planetary Emergencies in Italy.

The paper summarized their analysis of sand samples taken in 2004 in Iraq and Kuwait, which revealed a "significant biodiversity of bacterial, fungi and viruses of which 25 percent are known pathogens."

Just as troubling, according to the paper, was the presence of 37 elements - including 15 bioactive metals, including uranium, known to cause serious, long-term health effects in humans.
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Alarm Clock

Flame retardant contamination is found in butter

Shari Roan
The Los Angeles Times
Tue, 07 Dec 2010 10:52 UTC
butter
© Gary Porter / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / MCTFlame retardants were found in a box of butter.

Flame retardant chemicals that are known to be harmful to health have been found in a package of butter sampled in a Dallas grocery story, according to a study published Tuesday. This is the first reported case of food contamination that is thought to have resulted from the chemicals used in the food packaging.

The chemicals are polybrominated diphenyl ethers -- or PBDEs. The chemicals are commonly found in electronic devices, fabrics and insulation. PBDEs are known to be harmful to animals and are suspected of disrupting human thyroid hormones. U.S. manufacturers have agreed to phase out a particularly harmful type of chemical called deca-BDE.

Ten samples of butter were purchased in Dallas grocery stores as part of a routine investigation intended to help scientists improve estimates for the amounts of PBDEs people consume in food. The contaminated sample of butter contained PBDEs that were 135 times the average amount found in the other nine samples and was particularly high in the dangerous deca-BDE. The butter's paper wrapper had levels more than 16 times greater than in the butter itself.
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Attention

New Tests Reinforce Concerns about Mercury in Canned Tuna

Naomi Starkman
Civil Eats
Tue, 07 Dec 2010 16:20 UTC
Image
© Civileats
Consumer Reports' latest tests of 42 samples from cans and pouches of tuna bought primarily in the New York metropolitan area and online confirm that white (albacore) tuna usually contains far more mercury than light tuna. According to Consumers Union, pregnant women should avoid tuna and younger women and kids should limit their consumption.

"Canned tuna, especially white, tends to be high in mercury, and younger women and children should limit how much they eat. As a precaution, pregnant women should avoid tuna entirely," said Dr. Urvashi Rangan, Director of Technical Policy, at Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advise that women of childbearing age and young children may eat up to 12 ounces a week of light tuna or other "low in mercury" seafood, including, within that limit, up to 6 ounces per week of white tuna.
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Heart

Flashback Massage for Anxiety and Pain

JP
healthyfellow.com
Tue, 05 May 2009 15:14 UTC
Image
© healthyfellow.com
Massage is a dramatically under utilized healing modality. Maybe it's just hard to imagine that something that feels so good can actually provoke tangible benefits in the body and mind. There is also the common perception that a massage is an indulgence. Given the current economic climate, the likelihood of "indulging" in such a treatment becomes even more remote.

The reality is that therapeutic massage provides very real and quantifiable health effects that help us live happier and healthier lives. In addition, it can offer a viable alternative or synergistic support to conventional treatments. The issue of cost can also be managed by strategically using your health insurance and/or engaging in home based, amateur massage with a trusted partner.
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Arrow Up

Why Butter is Better

Weston A. Price Foundation
Dr. Mercola
Tue, 07 Dec 2010 13:33 UTC
Image
© bananastock/Thinkstock
The Weston A. Price Foundation provides accurate information about nutrition and is dedicated to putting nutrient-dense foods back on American tables.

Members receive a lively and informative quarterly journal and email updates on current issues and events.Visit their website at westonaprice.org.

Are you still shunning butter from your diet? You can stop today because butter can be a very healthy part of your diet.
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Bad Guys

Gov decides not to have scientific advice on drugs any more

John Oates
The Register
Mon, 06 Dec 2010 01:17 UTC
Get Gillian McKeith on the phone!

The coalition government is ditching the requirement to seek scientific advice before setting drugs policy.

As part of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 government must take, or at least listen to, advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. That committee needed to have at least six scientists on it.

But police reform legislation introduced last week will remove the requirement to listen to annoying scientists before setting policy.

Ex-Lib Dem MP Evan Harris, told the Guardian: "The government is ill-advised to hack away at science advisory structures.
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