Health & WellnessS


Bandaid

How women suffer 'double-shift' of stress at home and work

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© AlamyA double whammy of pressure means women show the classic symptoms of stress, back and neck pain, far more than men

Women are locked into a 'double-shift' of home and work - both roles leaving them suffering with more symptoms of stress than men.

The double whammy of pressure means that women show the classic symptoms of stress - back and neck pain - far more than men, even when physical causes are removed, research has revealed.

The four-year study focused on two groups of men and women - one students, the other workers - in an effort to isolate possible causes of stress.

Comment: Women all around the world, who have to multitask in a stressful environment, would greatly benefit from the daily vagus nerve activation, in order to reduce their stress and bring into their life so much needed relaxation and clarity.


Syringe

British Government launches fresh campaign to vaccinate millions more against flu - but what if the widespread sickness is coming up from the Gulf?

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© ncarucarWhat if the sickness is being carried up from the Gulf of Mexico?
Health secretary Andrew Lansley is coming under pressure to get a grip on the winter flu outbreak, amid warnings that millions more people need to be vaccinated in order to prevent a mounting death toll.

Lansley was accused of a U-turn as he reinstated a public health advertising campaign after he was warned by government advisers of the need to improve immunisation rates which are at their lowest this winter for many years.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the government's advisers on vaccines to prevent serious illness, said 16 million Britons are at serious risk from flu. The committee said a greater uptake of the jab was vital among groups including pregnant women, those with breathing conditions such as asthma, and people with diabetes or heart, liver or kidney disease.

Lansley has reinstated the national Catch It, Bin It, Kill It advertising campaign. It had been discontinued despite helping educate the public to adopt good hygiene habits during last year's H1N1 swine flu epidemic at a cost of just £609,000.

He has been criticised for not instigating the campaign to urge everyone at risk to get a seasonal flu jab from their GP, for ending the Catch It publicity drive, and for not ensuring that all under-fives were offered the vaccine.

Comment: People should read this:

New Light on the 2010 British Flu Epidemic: The Oil Connection

If the problem is one of toxicology, then we need to detoxify, not medicate ourselves and increase our toxic load. Remember the psychopaths pushing these vaccinations are on record as having scammed the masses:

Remember ''Swine Flu''? President of the Council of Europe declares it a scam to pillage public purse

Swine flu: "They Organized the Panic" - Inquiry into the Role of Big Pharma and WHO by Council of Europe


Family

The Soy and Other 'Natural' Food Products in Your Cabinet May Contain a Dangerous Neurotoxin

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© Unknown

Food purists often fuss about the inadequacies of USDA's organic food standards, how pitifully watered down they are from the lofty principles that built the organic movement. They have a point. After all, the USDA's National Organic Program was created to deal with the big agribusinesses determined to exploit the lucrative organic market. But for all the complaints about federal organic standards, the non-certified alternatives -- with some foods especially -- can be downright scary.

It's ironic that many of the scariest, non-certified organic foods are labeled "natural" -- a term that could not mean less, or mislead more. Like "home-style" or "old-fashioned," the label "natural" can mean whatever the labeler wants it to mean. You could put "natural" on a lab-grade jar of MSG crystals, or on a packet of 10-year-old Twinkies, without violating any law. And all too often it's the companies playing the "natural" card that are doing the most unnatural things to your food.

Consider the widespread use of hexane, a neurotoxin, in processed foods that aren't certified organic (those lame organic standards do at least prohibit hexane use). Hexane is a highly flammable EPA-listed air pollutant that is used in the manufacture of cleaning agents, glues, roof sealer, automobile tires, energy bars, veggie burgers, and soy, corn, and canola oils. If these food products are not certified organic, some of the ingredients have probably been processed with hexane, no matter how many times the word "natural" is stamped on the package. Since hexane is used in the manufacturing process, it's not listed as an ingredient in the foods it helps produce, though residues find their way into the finished product. The European Union has strict standards for acceptable hexane residue levels in soy and oilseed products, but in the U.S., there are no such limits.

Health

SOTT Focus: New Light on the 2010 British Flu Epidemic: The Oil Connection

Swine Flu
© Unknown

As noted in the recent article Flu Crisis Hits Cancer Surgery: Britain Teeters on the Brink of an Epidemic, the flu seems to be hitting Brits pretty hard this winter. So much so that they are now short on inpatient hospital beds in some facilities. The article states that the British health care system is at near epidemic level with the flu:
So far this winter nine children and 18 adults are confirmed to have died from the virus, although in reality this number is expected to be much higher.

One intensive care doctor described the outbreak as the worst he had seen in two decades. Dr Ian Jenkins, former president of the Paediatric Intensive Care Society, who works at Bristol Children's Hospital, said: 'I've not seen this much flu in more than 20 years.'
In another article, Swine flu kills 10 in Britain; sparks fear of another pandemic in 2011, the ghost of the Swine Flu virus is resurrected as the cause of this recent spike in flu-like illness.

While the article starts out with the words, "It's back!", we have some doubt that this soon-to-be flu epidemic is solely the result of this virus. Let's not forget that virus experts stated from the early days of the so-called global Swine Flu pandemic that the Swine Flu virus went global before health authorities could do anything about it. In other words, everybody has experienced this virus to some extent by now, and the results have been somewhat blasé compared to the dire predictions of dead millions initially made by the WHO.

While the spike in flu cases in Britain is very real, the purported Swine Flu virus as the cause is likely another example of medical propaganda run amok. But if this recent epidemic in Britain isn't the result of a measly virus, then what is?

Cow

New FDA Numbers Reveal Food Animals Consume Lion's Share of Antibiotics

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Antibiotics, one of the world's greatest medical discoveries, are slowly losing their effectiveness in fighting bacterial infections and the massive use of the drugs in food animals may be the biggest culprit. The growing threat of antibiotic resistance is largely due to the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in both people and animals, which leads to an increase in "super-bacteria". However, people use a much smaller portion of antibiotics sold in this country compared to the amount set aside for food animals. In fact, according to new data just released by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), of the antibiotics sold in 2009 for both people and food animals almost 80% were reserved for livestock and poultry. A huge portion of those antibiotics were never intended to fight bacterial infections, rather producers most likely administered them in continuous low-dosages through feed or water to increase the speed at which their animals grew. And that has many public health experts and scientists troubled.

For years scientists concerned about the threat of antibiotic resistant bacteria in food animal production have been trying to figure out just how much antibiotics producers are using each year. The best they could do was come up with rough estimates. That is because the data was never publicly available, until now.

In accordance with a 2008 amendment to the Animal Drug User Fee Act, for the first time the FDA released last week an annual amount of antimicrobial drugs sold and distributed for use in food animals. The grand total for 2009 is 13.1 million kilograms or 28.8 million pounds. I found the stories covering this revelation interesting, but they did not convey the whole picture. It is important to understand how this amount compares to the total available for people. So, I decided to find out for myself and contacted the FDA for an estimate of the volume of antibiotics sold for human use in 2009. This is what a spokesperson told me:
"Our Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology just finished an analysis based on IMS Health data. Sales data in kilograms sold for selected antibacterial drugs were obtained as a surrogate of human antibacterial drug use in the U.S. market. Approximately 3.3 million kilograms of antibacterial drugs were sold in year 2009. OSE states that all data in this analysis have been cleared for public use by IMS Health, IMS National Sales Perspectives™."

Cookie

Hershey Reformulates UK Candy to Comply with Non-GMO Regulations, Not for US Market

hershey's chocolate
© Unknown

The Hershey Company is expanding its confectionery market to Europe. And the company plans to reformulate its Europe-destined products to be free of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) in order to meet demand and to comply with the non-GMO requirements of Asda, the U.K. subsidiary of Wal-Mart that will be Hershey's exclusive retailer in the U.K. However, Hershey's has no intentions of changing any of its U.S. formulas, all of which are tainted with GM ingredients, say reports.

According to an email obtained by GMWatch, an independent watchdog group fighting pro-GMO propaganda, Hershey's agreed to reformulate 21 varieties of its chocolate products, including Reese's brand chocolates, to meet Asda's requirements. And a report in Confectionery News confirms this as well, noting that the reformulations are strictly for the European market and not for the U.S. market.

"The key ingredients which have been re-formulated from non-GM sources include changing the sugar source from beet to cane sugar and using IP (Identity Preservation) soy lecithin," explained Julian Walker-Palin, Head of Corporate Sustainability at Asda, in an email to Peter Melchett, head of the U.K. Soil Association. "In addition to this the transportation and storage have been confirmed also as GM-free or cleaned before use with these products."

According to reports, Asda does not carry any products that contain GM ingredients, so Hershey's had to agree to work with the company to create appropriate new formulas.

In the past, many large U.S. food producers have argued that reformulating their products to exclude GMOs is not cost effective. But why it was worthwhile for Hershey's to change its product formulas for the European market, but not for the U.S. market, so far remains a question without an answer.

Dollar

Pharmaceutical Industry Fraud

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The corporate defrauding of taxpayers (eg. Medicaid and Medicare) and prescription drugs with skyrocketing prices was the subject of a report by Public Citizen's Dr. Sidney Wolfe and his associates (see citizen.org).

Dr. Wolfe's team compiled a total of 165 federal and state settlements since 1991 totaling $19.8 billion in penalties. A key finding is that the drug industry's penalties under the Federal False Claims Act exceed even those assessed against the overcharging defense industry for fraud.

Before we become overly impressed with the cumulative amount of the penalties, specialists in corporate crime law enforcement believe that adding more federal cops on the corporate crime beat, backed by a determined law and order Justice Department with White House backing, would have greatly increased the number of cases and imposition of penalties on these drug industry giants.

Info

Four Reasons to Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup

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By now, you've more than likely seen one of the ads put out by the Corn Refiners Association. The ads tell the story of a "natural" sweetener made from corn. They go on to insinuate that high fructose corn syrup has been unfairly portrayed and that this truly American ingredient is fine in moderation.

Lloyd wrote about this massive $30 million ad campaign last year. The campaign claims that high fructose corn syrup has the "same natural sweeteners as table sugar and honey." Since then, the association has released a number of ads with the same message.

But when push comes to shove, what are the facts about high fructose corn syrup? How is it made? Is it healthy in moderation to the body and the planet? Here are the facts, so that the next time you're asked, you can confidently dispel any high fructose corn syrup rumors.

Comment: For more information about the negative health effects of High Fructose Corn Syrup read the following articles:

High-Fructose Corn Syrup is Evil: 7 Key Findings
How High Fructose Corn Syrup Damages Your Body
High Fructose Corn Syrup - The Poison that Promotes Obesity and Liver Damage
Soda and Food Warning! High-fructose Corn Syrup Linked To Diabetes, New Study Suggests
High fructose corn syrup is not 'natural', says FDA


Health

Tumeric Health Benefits

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Looking for a simple New Year's resolution for health? Add turmeric to your diet.

Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is a culinary spice, a major ingredient in Indian curries, and the source of American mustard's bright yellow color. Used as both medicine and food for centuries, accumulating evidence suggests that this relative of ginger is a promising preventive agent for a wide range of diseases, probably due largely to its anti-inflammatory properties.

The National Institutes of Health lists 24 current studies on the effects of turmeric and its chief active component, curcumin. Such studies raise the question of which is better to take: whole turmeric, generally used as a powdered spice with food; or curcumin, which is usually taken as a supplement? Each has been shown to have health benefits, but unless you have a specific condition such as inflammatory bowel disease, I favor using turmeric (especially in cooking) rather than taking curcumin pills. This reflects my general belief that, until proven otherwise in head to head studies, whole plants are usually a better choice than isolates. On the other hand, curcumin appears to have a more rapid and dramatic effect, and may be the better choice as a therapeutic (rather than a preventative) preparation.

Better Earth

Water Crisis In Ireland: Tens Of Thousands Without Water, Doctors Warn Of Disease

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© AP

Belfast, Northern Ireland - Frustration and fears of disease mounted in Northern Ireland Wednesday as 36,000 people were left without water, some for more than a week, after a deep freeze and a sudden thaw caused aging pipes to burst.

With reservoirs running low, water supplies were cut off in many towns and cities, and residents turned to emergency water tankers and bottled water for their cooking, cleaning and drinking needs.

Scotland said it was sending 160,000 liters (42,000 gallons) of bottled water to help meet demand.

Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, called the situation "a grave crisis," and said people had been let down by their water supplier.