Health & WellnessS


Cell Phone

Teen Sleep Problems: Could Texting and E-Mailing Be to Blame?

Dr. Michael J. Breus
Huffington Post
Fri, 26 Nov 2010 18:26 UTC
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© Huffington Post
As if we really needed anything else affecting a teen's mood and sleep, recent research shows that Internet use and texting can have a serious, detrimental effect on both sleep and mood. At a conference in Canada, U.S. researchers explained that more than half of kids and teens who text or surf the Internet:
  • Have problems falling asleep (77.5 percent)
  • Have trouble staying asleep - all participants reported being woken up at least once per night by an electronic device
  • Experience mood, behavior and cognitive problems during the day including ADHD, anxiety, depression and some learning difficulties
The study showed that on average, a teenager sends a total of 3400 electronic message per month - that is more than 100 per day! When exactly are they in school? And here was the kicker: the author of the study, Dr. Peter Polos, said that on average, kids were texting or e-mailing 33.5 times per night to more than three different people (3.7)! And these electronic messages would occur anywhere from 10 minutes to four hours after the child's bedtime!
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Pills

Prescriptions for teens and young adults on the rise


University of Rochester Medical Center
Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:14 UTC
Adolescents and young adults are most likely to abuse prescription medications. Yet prescription rates for controlled medications, or drugs the Drug Enforcement Administration deems as having the potential for abuse, have nearly doubled for those age groups in the past 14 years, according to a recent study published in Pediatrics. Overall, a controlled medication was prescribed for young adults at approximately one out of every six visits and for young adult by adolescents one out of every nine encounters.

"Physicians must balance the need to treat patients' symptoms while remaining aware of the possibility that prescription medications can be misused or shared with others. At times, it can be a delicate balance between treating a problem and inadvertently causing one," said Robert J. Fortuna, M.D., M.P.H., principal investigator of the study and assistant professor of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

The study found that between 1994 and 2007, prescription rates for controlled medications nearly doubled from 8.3 to 16.1 percent among young adults and rose from 6.4 to 11.2 percent in adolescents. This increase was observed for both males and females and across multiple settings - ambulatory offices, emergency departments, and for injury related and non-injury related visits.
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Bulb

Scientists discover new mechanism for controlling blood sugar level


University of Leicester
Mon, 29 Nov 2010 16:15 UTC
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© University of LeicesterThis hematoxylin- and eosin-stained pancreatic slice illustrates an islet of Langerhans adjacent to a capillary.
Advance in understanding of insulin secretion could impact on diabetes control.

Medical scientists at the University of Leicester have identified for the first time a new way in which our body controls the levels of sugar in our blood following a meal.

They have discovered the part played by a particular protein in helping to maintain correct blood sugar levels.

The breakthrough was made in the University of Leicester by a team led by Professor Andrew Tobin, Professor of Cell Biology, who is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow. The research is published online ahead of print in the prestigious international scientific journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Professor Tobin said: "The work, which was done wholly at the University of Leicester, is focused on the mechanisms by which our bodies control the level of sugar in our blood following a meal.
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Ambulance

Best of the Web: Is the Mainstream Media Helping or Hindering? MMS on The One Show

TheBigRMeister
YouTube
Thu, 25 Nov 2010 00:00 UTC
The One Show is a news magazine program that airs on the BBC network in England. They recently decided to spotlight MMS.


Comment: For more information about the current Humble situation, see this Sott article:

MMS: Miracle Mineral Solution or Trojan Horse? Your Body and DNA Decide

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Sherlock

How Scientific Is Modern Medicine Really?

Dana Ullman
Huffington Post
Tue, 20 Apr 2010 15:22 UTC
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© masternewmedia.org
Doctors today commonly assert that they practice "scientific medicine," and patients think that the medical treatments they receive are "scientifically proven." However, this ideal is a dream, not reality, and a clever and profitable marketing ruse, not fact.

The British Medical Journal's "Clinical Evidence" analyzed common medical treatments to evaluate which are supported by sufficient reliable evidence (BMJ, 2007). They reviewed approximately 2,500 treatments and found:
  • 13 percent were found to be beneficial
  • 23 percent were likely to be beneficial
  • Eight percent were as likely to be harmful as beneficial
  • Six percent were unlikely to be beneficial
  • Four percent were likely to be harmful or ineffective.
  • 46 percent were unknown whether they were efficacious or harmful
In the late 1970s, the US government conducted a similar evaluation and found a strikingly similar result. They found that only 10 percent to 20 percent of medical treatment had evidence of efficacy (Office of Technology Assessment, 1978).
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Cheeseburger

Health Advisers Spend Millions Promoting Fast Food

Nina Lakhani
The Independent
Sun, 28 Nov 2010 14:42 UTC
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© afp/getty imagesCompanies pledge to improve marketing
A controversial government program which gives fast-food chains influence over healthy eating policies has come under severe criticism after US research revealed the extent of "relentless marketing" of unhealthy food and drinks to children.

A report by the authoritative Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity found companies such as McDonald's, Pizza Hut and Burger King spent more than $4bn advertising predominantly unhealthy fast foods in 2009.

Children and young people in the US are bombarded with increasing numbers and types of advertising through TV, radio, magazines, sophisticated websites and phone applications in spite of appeals from the White House to be more responsible, according to Fast Food F.a.c.t.s. Between 2007 and 2009, McDonald's and Burger King increased the number of TV adverts for children by 20 per cent and 10 per cent respectively despite pledging to improve food marketing to children. The report, which analyzed 20 of America's most popular fast-food outlets, found less than 1 per cent of kids' meal combinations met nutritional standards.
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Health

Top 10 Food Additives to Avoid


FoodMatters
Sun, 28 Nov 2010 05:35 UTC
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Food additives have been used for centuries to enhance the appearance and flavor of food and prolong shelf life. But do these food additives really “add” any value to your food?
Food additives find their way into our foods to help ease processing, packaging and storage. But how do we know what food additives is in that box of macaroni and cheese and why does it have such a long shelf life?

A typical American household spends about 90 percent of their food budget on processed foods, and are in doing so exposed to a plethora of artificial food additives, many of which can cause dire consequences to your health.

Some food additives are worse than others. Here's a list of the top food additives to avoid:

1. Artificial Sweeteners

Aspartame, (E951) more popularly known as Nutrasweet and Equal, is found in foods labeled "diet" or "sugar free". Aspartame is believed to be carcinogenic and accounts for more reports of adverse reactions than all other foods and food additives combined. It produces neurotoxic effects such as dizziness, headaches, mental confusion, migraines, and seizures. Avoid if you suffer from asthma, rhinitis (including hayfever), or urticaria (hives).Acesulfame-K, a relatively new artificial sweetener found in baking goods, gum and gelatin, has not been thoroughly tested and has been linked to kidney tumors.

Found in: diet or sugar free sodas, diet coke, coke zero, jello (and over gelatins), desserts, sugar free gum, drink mixes, baking goods, table top sweeteners, cereal, breathmints, pudding, kool-aid, ice tea, chewable vitamins, toothpaste
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Beaker

Plastics: What's Dangerous, What's Not

Linda B. White, M.D.
Motherearthnews.com
Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:37 UTC
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© Stephen Hutchings
You've been out - working, exercising, shopping. You open the car door and slip into the oven like interior. Throat dry, you reach for the water bottle that's been sitting in the cup holder all day. It's warm. But at least it's water, right? Water, yes, albeit water potentially spiked with chemicals that migrated out of the plastic - chemicals that aren't good for your health.

The latest scientific research has given us a lot of good reasons to think carefully about how we use plastics. The main concern with several types of plastic is that they contain endocrine disruptors - substances that, when taken into our bodies, alter normal hormonal function. Over the past several years, scientists and the media have struggled to find answers to mysteries such as precocious puberty, declining fertility rates in otherwise healthy adults, hyperactivity in kids, the fattening of America, and the persistent scourges of prostate cancer and breast cancer. Although multiple factors play a role in all of these conditions, one recurrent theme is the brew of endocrine disruptors infiltrating our lives.
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Info

Europe Mulls Ban on Baby Bottles with Bisphenol-A


Physorg.com
Wed, 24 Nov 2010 13:18 UTC
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© enviroblog.org
Europe could ban baby bottles containing the chemical Bisphenol-A under legislation to be proposed next year over fears that it may harm a child's health, the European Commission said Wednesday.

European Union health commissioner John Dalli wants to pull such bottles off shop shelves across the 27-nation bloc because of the "uncertainties" about its effects on infants, his spokesman Frederic Vincent told AFP.

Only two EU countries, France and Denmark, have imposed bans on baby bottles with Bisphenol-A. Danish authorities went a step further by extending the prohibition to all food products for children up to three years old.

Bans are also in place in Australia, Canada and a few US states. Canada became in October the first country in the world to classify Bisphenol-A as a toxic substance despite industry opposition.
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Ambulance

Study: Harmful Errors Still Common in U.S. Hospitals


Reuters
Wed, 24 Nov 2010 12:44 UTC
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© Reuters/Jessica RinaldiA patient waits in the hallway for a room to open up in the emergency room at Ben Taub General Hospital in Houston, July 27, 2009.
Harmful errors and accidents remain common in U.S. hospitals despite a decade of efforts to improve patient safety, a study found.

According to the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the number of patients experiencing hospital acquired infections, medication errors, complications from diagnostic techniques or treatments, and other such "harms" did not change between 2002 and 2007.

Medical complications, some of which are preventable, can prove costly. The U.S. Office of the Inspector General released a report recently estimating that complications contribute to 180,000 patient deaths per year and overall, cost Medicare up to $4.4 billion annually.
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