Health & WellnessS


Target

Tell Congress to Label Genetically Modified Foods

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Gen-M, "Generation Monsanto," the first generation of humans force-fed genetically modified foods, hasn't reached reproductive age yet (they were born in the late 1990s). But, if a critical mass of animal feeding studies are any indication, the millennial generation, reared on Food Inc.'s unlabeled "Frankenfoods" can look forward to a long-term epidemic of cancer, food allergies, sterility, learning disabilities, and birth defects.

Corn (85% of U.S. production is GM), soy (91% GM), cotton (88% GM), canola (85% GM) and sugar beets (95% GM) are all genetically engineered by Monsanto to withstand massive doses of the company's glyphosate herbicide Round Up, or else to exude their own pesticide, Bacillus Thuriengensis (Bt). Round Up, the favorite weedkiller poison of non-organic farmers and gardeners, causes brain, intestinal and heart defects in fetuses. And scientists warn that Round Up, the most extensively used herbicide in the history of agriculture, "may have dire consequences for agriculture such as rendering soils infertile, crops non-productive, and plants less nutritious." In addition, hundreds of thousands of US dairy cows are injected with genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone (developed by Monsanto) in spite of studies linking rBGH with cancer, and longstanding bans on the drug in the EU, Japan, Canada, and most industrialized nations.

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PCBs Found in 10 Fish Oil Supplements

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© Getty ImagesFish Oil
A California lawsuit is accusing several fish oil supplement manufacturers of selling fish oils that contain unsafe levels of polychlorinated biphenyl compounds, also known as PCBs. The state's Proposition 65 requires products that may contain toxic ingredients above safe levels to have warning labels for consumer safety.

Five supplement companies, CVS and Rite Aid drug stores, and Omega Protein, Inc., the world's largest producer of omega-3 fish oil, are all named in the suit, which the plaintiffs hope will bring light to fish oil contamination problems. They also hope to see more accurate labeling of fish oils that includes specifics about contaminants like PCBs; that way, consumers will be able to make better decisions about which kinds are safe to buy.

The PCB chemical family consists of 209 different chemical compounds, all of which were tested for in the lawsuit by a California lab. That same lab also tested each of the product samples for 12 of the most toxic PCB compounds. It then evaluated each sample in terms of daily exposure to PCBs overall, and daily exposure to PCBs in terms of toxicity.

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New Doctors Linked to Unnecessary Deaths, Especially in July

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© NaturalNews
If you plan on going to a teaching hospital for a test or elective procedure, here's a warning that could save your life: Stay away from the hospital in July. The reason? According to a new study headed by Dr. David Phillips and Gwendolyn Barker from the University of California, San Diego, fatal medication errors soar that month -- especially in teaching hospitals.

The research team investigated the cause behind the so-called curious "July Effect" that has long been noted to worsen the outcomes of patients being treated in teaching hospitals during the month of July. Phillips and Barker focused on 244,388 U.S. death certificates issued between 1979 and 2006 that listed fatal medication errors as the primary cause of death. Then they compared the number of deaths that occurred in July with the number of expected events in a given month for a given year. Next, they looked to see if there were any differences between deaths in and out of hospitals in July and in counties that had or lacked teaching hospitals.

The research, which was just published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, found a clear association between inexperienced physicians and deadly medical errors. Specifically, the spike in hospital deaths each year from medication mistakes (such as accidental overdoses, wrong drugs given, and accidents in the use of drugs during medical and surgical procedures) in July coincided exactly with the annual influx of thousands of rookie doctors who begin their medical residencies and take on responsibility for patient care that month.

Bad Guys

FDA Cracking Down on Excess Radiation from Medical Imaging Devices

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© Andrew Testa/The New York TimesA push to reduce unnecessary radiation exposure from CT scans, above, nuclear medicine studies, and fluoroscopies.
The FDA has announced a plan to reduce patients' unnecessary exposure to radiation from three different medical imaging tests. The three-pronged strategy will focus on increasing the safety of the devices, increasing patient awareness of risks, and improving the ability of patients and doctors to make informed decisions.

The tests in question are computed tomography (CT) scans, nuclear medicine studies and fluoroscopy. CT scans produce three-dimensional images of different areas of the body, nuclear medicine studies involve consumption of a radioactive substance to observe its motion through the body, and fluoroscopy uses a continuous beam of radiation to produce a real-time, moving image.

"The FDA continues to support a strong dialogue between patients and physicians over the medical necessity and risk associated with these types of imaging studies," the agency said. "However, like all medical procedures, CT, nuclear medicine, and fluoroscopy pose risks."

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Frozen Yogurt is Not Health Food

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© NaturalNews
It did not even occur to me that people thought frozen yogurt was a "health food" until I spent some time in the USA. There, people line up in droves at frozen yogurt stores to buy a junk food that they're convinced is good for them. And why is it good for them, in their own minds? Because it's "yogurt."

I actually went to the trouble of visiting a line of people at a frozen yogurt store and asking several people there if they could name the ingredients in the frozen yogurt they were buying. Not one of them could. Most just said, "Yogurt." (Are you detecting a pattern here?)

Upon further investigation, I found that frozen yogurt retailers don't make it very easy for you to find out what's actually in their products in the first place. They don't print ingredients on the products they sell, and even their websites make it virtually impossible to find this information.

Alarm Clock

UK Scientist Raises BPA Alarm

University of Ulster scientist, Anna Soto, just issued a warning that bisphenol A - BPA - can set off toxins that lead to cancer, wrote the BBC. According to Soto, a link has been found between BPA use and mammary cancer in laboratory rats, the BBC added.

The BBC also pointed out that BPA has been banned or limited in three countries: Canada, Denmark, and France. In the United States, a number of bans are in place in a variety of states and counties; others are underway and under consideration.

Professor Soto collaborated with Professor Carlos Sonnenschein from Tufts University in Boston; the team discovered that fetal and neonatal BPA exposure increases the risk of developing "malignant tumors later in life," wrote the BBC. "I would call for a banning of the use of BPA giving the growing evidence and increasing concerns that research has shown. The fetal and neonatal life are crucial for a child's development and parents should consider the advantage of using BPA-free products," said Soto, quoted the BBC.

Red Flag

C8 Exposure Linked to ADHD in Children

Charleston, West Virginia - Children exposed to higher levels of C8 are at an increased risk of developing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to a scientific paper published this week.

The study, by researchers at Boston University and the Harvard School of Public Health, also found higher risks for children exposed to other similar perfluorinated chemicals.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is one of the most common neuro-developmental disorders in children. Kids diagnosed with it are often inattentive, impulsive and hyperactive.

Researchers compared parental reports of ADHD diagnosis from Centers for Disease Control Data and blood samples for the chemicals. They found that, for example, for every additional 1 part per billion of C8 in the blood, children faced a 12 percent increased risk of ADHD.

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Consent form Gobbledygook: Are Medical Research Subjects Adequately Informed?

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© NaturalNews
When a person signs up to participate in medical research, he or she is given a form to sign that is supposed to state the goal of the study as well as all the known possible risks of the drug or procedure being tested. But a new report by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Columbia University concludes informed consent forms are often too long and complicated -- full of legalese and technical gobbledygook -- for many people to understand.

For anyone who takes a look at the sometimes shameful history of human experimentation in this country, even the slightest concern research subjects are not fully informed is worrisome. One of the most heartbreaking cases of study participants denied informed consent involved the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study.

Between 1932 and 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service conducted experiments on 399 poor African-American men suffering from syphilis. The men were never told what disease they had or its seriousness. Instead, they were told they were being treated for "bad blood" by doctors who had no intention of curing them of syphilis at all. In fact, the goal was to collect data from the men's bodies after they died from the excruciating effects of untreated syphilis.

In 1966, Henry K Beecher, M.D., published a scholarly article, "Ethics and Clinical Research," that documented 22 unethical research trials published in U.S. medical journals since World War II. The paper revealed horrendously dangerous experiments conducted on unsuspecting research subjects. For example, malignant cells from cancer patients were injected into elderly and debilitated inmates of the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital -- people who were incapable of giving informed consent.

Newspaper

Australian Courts Rule that Vioxx Should Never Have Been Approved for Sale

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© Getty Images
Australian courts recently ruled that Vioxx, a popular prescription painkiller, should never have been approved and allowed on the market. The case represents the world's first successful class action lawsuit against a drug company for damage caused by its drugs.

Merck, the drug giant that produced Vioxx, was deemed by the courts as negligent for failing to properly inform doctors who were prescribing the drug about the dangers and health risks associated with the drug. As a result, thousands of patients around the world have suffered severe injury or death because of Vioxx.

Graeme Peterson, a 59-year-old man represented in the case, was awarded the equivalent of about $266,000 for injuries inflicted upon him by Vioxx. He suffered a heart attack from the drug in 2003 that has left him unable to work since. He took the drug for more than four years, and still keeps a Vioxx tablet with him as a reminder of what almost killed him.

Health

Arsenic in Water Poisoned 77 Million Bangladeshis

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© Agence France-PresseBetween 35 and 77 million people in Bangladesh have been chronically exposed to arsenic-contaminated water
Dhaka - Up to 77 million Bangladeshis have been exposed to toxic levels of arsenic from contaminated drinking water, and even low-level exposure to the poison is not risk-free, The Lancet medical journal reported.

Over the past decade, more than 20 percent of deaths recorded in a study that monitored nearly 12,000 people in the Araihazar district of the capital Dhaka appear to have been caused by arsenic-tainted well water.

By some estimates, between 35 and 77 million people in Bangladesh have been chronically exposed to arsenic-contaminated water as a result of a catastrophically misguided campaign in the 1970s.