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This month, October, is Non-GMO Month. I find most people are really confused about what a GMO is and where GMOs are found. Some people tend to think that GMO seeds are similar to the type of hybridization that has been going on amongst gardeners for centuries. Not true! The type of genetic modification that happens to create GMO seeds involves the forceful insertion of things like E.coli genes or genes that produce glyphosphate (an herbicide) or cause Roundup resistance (allowing farmers to dump more Roundup onto the plants) into corn and soybeans and cotton.
Sometimes symptoms or medical conditions can have complex causes and cures, but sometimes they're dead simple. For example, if someone is suffering from a tendency to cramping in their muscles, there's a pretty good chance they're low on magnesium and upping magnesium levels in the body will really help to alleviate or even stop their symptoms. The same is true of the condition dubbed 'restless legs syndrome'.
In early October, three men were abducted and tortured by members of the Latin King Goonies gang in New York City's South Bronx. Piles of cans of Four Loko were found at the scene. One of the many forms of torture to which the gang subjected one of the men - who was attacked for being gay - was forcing him to consume 10 cans of the beverage.
Four Loko tastes fruity to mask the alcohol content. That fact, along with the kid-friendly packaging and price ($2 to $3 a can), makes it a hit with binge-drinking teens. And like other popular alcopops that have come before it - Sparks, Steel Reserve 211 and Joose - Four Loko, made by Phusion Projects, contains a lot of alcohol and a lot of caffeine. It's 12% alcohol by volume (that's more than twice what's in an equal amount of Budweiser) and it has an unspecified amount of caffeine, though common energy drinks have about two to three times as much caffeine as a Coke. Four Loko also has a bunch of other energy-boosting ingredients like guarana and taurine.
© h.koppdelaneyBenefits of Meditation
Contemplative neuroscience is a new field that backs up this claim. It deals with the brain science of meditation and is being led by Richard Davidson, a psychologist who has been practicing meditation for decades.
"We all know that if you engage in certain kinds of exercise on a regular basis you can strengthen certain muscle groups in predictable ways," he said.
"Strengthening neural systems is not fundamentally different. "It's basically replacing certain habits of mind with other habits," Davidson also added.
Comment: Another form of meditation that showed proven benefits, check out the Éiriú Eolas Breathing and Meditation program, which can be found here
© news.sc
Stephen B. Liggett, M.D., lead author of the study and professor of medicine and physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine; Deepak A. Deshpande, Ph.D., author of the study and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine; and John Hopkins University researchers Steven S. An and James S. K. Sham have discovered bitter taste receptors in the human lungs on accident while studying human lung muscle receptors, which regulate airway relaxation and contraction.
"The detection of functioning taste receptors on smooth muscle of the bronchus in the lungs was so unexpected that we were at first quite skeptical ourselves," said Liggett.
© Unknown
Now, there is an interesting fight between the United States and India over a move by Colgate Palmolive to patent an ancient recipe for herbal toothpaste. The Indians say that the recipe has been used for hundreds, if not thousands, of years by Indians and would now be claimed as the property of the company.
The recipe including clove oil, camphor, black pepper and spearmint is used widely in India and could be the start of companies claiming ownership of Indian folk medicines.
Colgate was granted the patent in the U.S. in June and insists that the recipe is a groundbreaking "red herbal dentifrice." It is likely to argue that the addition of red iron oxide distinguishes its product from the traditional recipe.
© UnknownHurry boys! Start bailing!
Monsanto Co. is paying farmers to increase the number of herbicides they're using. The rebate program is designed to prevent more acrage from getting infested with weeds that are resistant to one particularly popular herbicide, Roundup.What a beautiful system: 1) A magical chemical that magically kills all plant life. 2) A crop genetically engineered to be resistant to the magical chemical. 3) A wise and powerful corporation who manufactured the magic chemical and controlled the genetically engineered seed. Profits abounded (for the wise and powerful corporation). Farmers enjoyed fields so perfectly clear of weeds, as to be unimaginable before the term, "Roundup Ready" hit the late night TV commercial airwaves.
Monsanto falls from grace and Dr Joseph Mercola is pleased
Leading natural health advocate Dr Joseph Mercola, and one of Monsanto's greatest critics, is ecstatic to see the company he hates so much suffer.
Dr Mercola has posted the news of Monsanto's apparent turn of fortunes on his website Mercola.com - which he claims is the world's number one natural health website.
Like other natural health advocates, Dr Mercola has long been an opponent of genetically modified foods.
"Monsanto isn't riding so high this year in the stocks department, as news comes in that its products aren't working like they'd hoped," Dr Mercola writes.
The Ministry of Health yesterday issued a public advisory against selling and purchasing a product called "Miracle Mineral Solution" or "Miracle Mineral Supplement" which is available through the Internet.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned against reports advising consumers to dilute several drops of the solution (28 per cent sodium chlorite) with citric acid before adding the mixture to water or juice before drinking it.
This mixture will produce chlorine dioxide which is a form of industrial bleach normally used in industrial textile manufacturing and industrial water treatment.
This industrial strength solution is a health hazard as it can induce vomiting and severe diarrhea.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned against reports advising consumers to dilute several drops of the solution (28 per cent sodium chlorite) with citric acid before adding the mixture to water or juice before drinking it.
This mixture will produce chlorine dioxide which is a form of industrial bleach normally used in industrial textile manufacturing and industrial water treatment.
This industrial strength solution is a health hazard as it can induce vomiting and severe diarrhea.
© Godfrey Olukya/Associated PressA 40-year-old man in eastern Uganda shows hands and feet infested by flea-like, blood-sucking jiggers. At least 20 Ugandans have died, and more than 20,000 have been sickened in just two months. Uganda's government has allocated $1 million to fight the epidemic.
Jiggers, small insects that look like fleas, are the culprits in the epidemic, which causes parts of the body to rot. They often enter through the feet. Once inside a human, they suck blood and multiply by the hundreds. Affected body parts -- buttocks, lips, even eyelids -- rot away.
James Kakooza, Uganda's minister of state for primary health care, said jiggers can easily kill young children and cause early deaths in grown-ups with other diseases.
The parasitic disease, named tungiasis, also exists in parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Some affected people in rural Uganda, such as Dakaba Kaala, 60, say they are bewitched and simply wait to die.
Comment: For more information on fibromyalgia and magnesium benefits, please visit our diet and health forum.