Women who use contraceptives like birth control pills experience memory changes, according to new UC Irvine research. Their ability to remember the gist of an emotional event improves, while women not using the contraceptives better retain details.

"What's most exciting about this study is that it shows the use of hormonal contraception alters memory," UCI graduate researcher Shawn Nielsen said. "There are only a handful of studies examining the cognitive effects of the pill, and more than 100 million women use it worldwide."

She stressed that the medications did not damage memory. "It's a change in the type of information they remember, not a deficit."

The change makes sense, said Nielsen, who works with neurobiologist Larry Cahill, because contraceptives suppress sex hormones such as estrogen and progesterone to prevent pregnancy. Those hormones were previously linked to women's strong "left brain" memory by Cahill's research group.

"This new finding may be surprising to some, but it's a natural outgrowth of the research we've been doing on sex differences for 10 years," Cahill said.

A neurobiologist not involved in the latest work agreed it was a logical and intriguing next step in the examination of memory differences between the sexes. Like any research, she added, it would be important to validate it further.

"Restaurants want a piece of food stamp pie" blared a recent USA Today headline. The article focused on lobbying by fast food restaurants, particularly Yum! Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell and KFC, which is enthusiastic about feeding food stamp recipients its market-tested concoctions. It caused a stir on Twitter and even got Gothamist's snark-filled attention.

The prospect that the food scientists who came up with the gut-busting Double Down sandwich would start a relentless marketing campaign aimed at low-income consumers in an era of rising obesity is alarming. Indeed, Kelly Brownell, director of Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, called the idea of Yum! restaurants participating in the program "preposterous."

I was surprised to hear of this lobbying campaign; I had understood that food stamps could not be used at restaurants - and that recipients are barred from using their benefit to purchase prepared foods. But USA Today indicated that several states, including California, Michigan, and Arizona, currently allow such purchases; Rhode Island just started a pilot program limited to a handful of Subway restaurants, while Florida allows it in a single county.

Coffee does not make you "superhuman." The truth is that you become addicted to caffeine quickly, and soon you are drinking coffee to cure withdrawal more than for stimulation.

The Misconception: Coffee stimulates you.

The Truth: You become addicted to caffeine quickly, and soon you are drinking coffee to cure withdrawal more than for stimulation.

Mmmm, a warm cup of coffee with delicious cream, topped with a frothy head.

You smell it brewing and feel cozy inside as you browse cakes and brownies, scones and biscotti.

You get some of it in you, and you feel alive again - you feel superhuman.

Suddenly, you feel like John Nash, you can't keep up with your own mind as geometric symbols float over the magazine articles in your lap. Someone strikes up a conversation about health care, and suddenly everything you've ever heard about the topic is at the tip of your tongue.

Damn, coffee is awesome.

Except, of course, much of this is an illusion.

EXTRACTS: A meta-analysis on 19 studies confirms kidney and liver toxicity in rats and mice fed on GM soybean and maize, representing more than 80 percent of all commercially available GM food; it also exposes gross inadequacies of current risk assessment.

A team of independent scientists led by Gilles-Eric Séralini at Caen University in France carried out a meta-analysis combining the results of 19 previous studies [1], and their report concluded:

"From the regulatory tests performed today, it is unacceptable to submit 500 million Europeans and several billions of consumers worldwide to the new pesticide GM-derived foods or feed, this being done without more controls (if any) than the only 3-month-long toxicological tests and using only one mammalian species, especially since there is growing evidence of concern."

Kim, Y, EH Ha, EJ Kim, H Park, M Ha, JH Kim, YC Hong, N Chang and BN Kim. 2011. Prenatal exposure to phthalates and infant development at six months: Prospective Mothers and Children's Environmental Health (MOCEH) Study. Environmental Health Perspectives http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1003178.

A woman's exposure to commonly used plasticizers - called phthalates - during pregnancy may be associated with suboptimal development in babies, finds a South Korean study.

Increasing exposure to plastic-softening chemicals in pregnant women was associated with poorer development in their baby boys, finds a study that examined mental and motor skills in 6-month-old infants.

The results show that the higher the exposure to phthalates in the moms, the lower the scores of infant development, including both cognitive and motor behavior. However, the association was only identified in sons, not in daughters.

Given that phthalates are short-lived in people, reducing exposure in pregnant women will effectively reduce the possibility of fetal exposure to these chemicals. The study is important because it adds more evidence to the growing human health concerns about these chemicals, especially with boys.

Kim, Y, JC Ryu, H Choi and K Lee. 2011. Effect of 2,2,'4,4'-tetrahydroxybenzophenone (BP2) on steroidogenesis in testicular Leydig cells. Toxicology http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tox.2011.06.013

A UV-blocking chemical added to stabilize personal care products works as an endocrine disruptor and reduces the production of male reproductive hormones.

Researchers show an ultraviolet (UV) radiation blocker - designated BP2 - found in a variety of cosmetics and personal care products decreases testosterone hormone production in both cultured human testes cells and in male mice.

This is the first study to report that BP2 exposure can impact reproductive processes in mammals, including human cells. The new findings - when combined with results from prior studies - suggest more research is needed to understand if BP2 poses endocrine-related health risks when used to stabilize personal care products.

Benzophenone (BP) chemicals absorb and thus filter out ultraviolet light. The one known as BP2 is added to cosmetics and personal care products to prevent sunlight from breaking down the products. Perfumes, lipstick, hair and skin care products and plastics for packaging can contain BP2. People can be exposed as BP2 has been detected in human urine.

Diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes are some of the biggest health challenges facing the world, experts have said.

The number of new cancer cases worldwide stands at 12 million a year - up a fifth in under a decade.

This is more than four times the annual number of new HIV infections, and 2.8 million of these cancers are linked to poor diet, a lack of exercise and being overweight.

The number of cancers that could potentially be prevented is expected to rise dramatically over the next decade as more people lead sedentary lifestyles and become obese.

Morgellons Disease. Maybe you heard or read about it on the web somewhere? It's that crazy-sounding condition where people who've contracted it have bizarre looking fibers growing out of their skin and parasites that cause intense itching all over their bodies. It's the disease that seems too horrible to be true - too 'sci-fi' to be real. And, as the old cliché goes, it's that type of thing that always happens to other people; it couldn't and certainly shouldn't happen to you. Then, it does happen to you. It afflicts more people every day it seems, and its affliction is connected to much MUCH more than meets the eye. That's what I learned when I realized that it wasn't just a nightmare-sounding thing that happened to other people - it happened to me.

For me, Morgellons started with an itch. Well, several itches to be accurate. I woke up one morning after a night of restless and fitful sleep to find myself in a state of extreme creepy-crawliness; like my skin was alive with things crawling on it, biting it, burrowing in it. My eyebrows felt like they were moving all on their own, and as soon as I put my glasses on, there was little tiny stuff moving around on my glasses. Where the heck were these awful sensations coming from? As I flew into the bathroom, I went straight to the mirror to investigate.

After searching a while on my face, I finally saw what appeared to be a tiny mite-like thing taking a stroll on my forehead. Then I took a look at my glasses and noticed some of those same critters right there on the lenses. Holy smokes! I called my wife into the bathroom and showed her what I was seeing. She could see them too. What the heck did I have now, I remember thinking?! Some kind of infestation of mites! Even after a hot shower I felt little to no relief. These things on me - mites, or whatever they were, were relentless. The idea of having them on my skin, crawling around, and seemingly in my skin was horrific. Well, whatever it was, it definitely wasn't something that could wait to be treated. But first, I wondered, what the heck did I really have?

I love to eat grassfed beef fat. I actually will put a large piece of crisp, hot, grassfed beef fat in my mouth, and eat it with great enjoyment and satisfaction.

Animal fat used to be the favorite food of most of humanity. But that has changed.

Fat is taboo. Especially animal fat. Animal fat is supposed to be the ultimate poison. Even looking at it could cause a heart attack, or so people seem to think. Well, I do not believe this anymore, especially where grassfed fat is concerned.

Grassfed fat has a very different composition than the fat of factory meat. Factory meat has far too much omega-6 fatty acids, and is lacking in CLA and various fat-soluble vitamins. Grassfed fat has a perfect omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, and is full of nutrients like CLA and fat-soluble vitamins. The healthy peoples studied by Dr. Weston A. Price ate plenty of animal and fish fat. But nutrition is not the only reason I eat grassfed fat.

Grassfed meat is delicious, but the grassfed fat on the meat can be even tastier.

The symptoms can be abject misery: searing abdominal pain, debilitating stomach cramps, an excruciating, rising burn, acid-filled hiccups, tightened throat, constant sleep disturbance, and even the rare but terrifying bouts of choking from nighttime acid inhalation. I'm talking of course about acid reflux or GERD as it's commonly called these days. I personally suffered from occasional bouts of GERD and experienced all the symptoms above for years during and even after my endurance days. (It wasn't until I gave up grains that my GERD completely disappeared.) Maybe you've had it. Maybe you know someone who's had it. GERD, by the way, isn't your run-of-the-mill occasional heartburn (which isn't much fun either) but a chronic pattern of heartburn in which you experience symptoms at least a few times a week. I get emails about it all the time, and it's little wonder.

Statistics suggest that 25-30% of American adults experience GERD related heartburn multiple times a week (PDF). Of all the pharmaceutical categories, proton pump inhibitors (a predominant prescription for GERD) have ranked consistently in the top twenty for years. And that doesn't even take into account the old-fashioned antacids like Tums and Rolaids that people pop like candy. What, for the love, is going on here? It used to be heartburn was generally confined to women in their last months of pregnancy or to the annual Thanksgiving overindulgence. It certainly wasn't a chronic condition plaguing a large percentage of the population. I sense a familiar pattern here, no?