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Genetically Engineered Salmon's Fishy Promises

Paul Greenberg
Grist
Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:45 UTC
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© GristGenetically engineered salmon has consumers and environmentalists running the other way. So why is the FDA considering approving it?
For those who follow the theater of food politics, particularly the underwater portion of the drama, AquaBounty's AquAdvantage genetically engineered salmon has played something of leading role for two decades, dating back to the 1990s when the fish was first conceived. The AquAdvantage salmon, in case you haven't heard about it, is an Atlantic salmon with a (much larger) Chinook salmon growth gene inserted into its DNA. This is coupled with a promoter from a third fish, an ocean pout, that keeps that growth gene more or less permanently in the "on" position. This makes for a fish that grows faster than an unmodified salmon - something which its creators hail as a key to providing more fish for the world and easing the crisis in overfishing.

Comment: For more information about 'Genetically Engineered Salmon's Fishy Promises' read the following articles:

10 Freakiest Things About Frankenfish
Ten Reasons to Reject a Suspicious Fish
Genetically Modified Frankenfish!
Genetically Altered Salmon Get Closer to the Table
Genetically Modified Salmon Present a Number of Risks to Consumer Health and Environment
Genetically Altered Salmon? It Doesn't Stop There

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Sun

Turn up the Heat to Look & Feel Younger


Dr Mark Hyman
Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:59 UTC
infra red sauna
In an ageless society, we will do whatever it takes to look and feel younger. It is no secret that anti-aging essentials include a healthy diet, exercise and some good R&R. But did you know there is a tool that can enhance any anti-aging program to yield better results? A tool that can help you lose weight, lower blood pressure, enhance detoxification, and relieve pain. New science is proving that a simple, ancient method of cleansing the body has widespread positive effects on health. I'm talking about infrared heat therapy--specifically, infrared saunas.
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Attention

Suspected E.coli case recorded in Canada


The Vancouver Sun
Mon, 06 Jun 2011 17:54 UTC
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© Odd Andersen, AFP/Getty ImagesStaff of Berlin's Robert-Koch-institute wear protective gear as they investigate an organic farm that had been identified as a possible source of the deadly outbreak of E.Coli in the village of Bienenbuettel some 300 km north west of Berlin on June 6, 2011.
An Ontario man has come down with Canada's first suspected case of E. coli linked to the outbreak in Europe.

Ontario's Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care says the man is from Peel Region, and he travelled to Germany earlier this spring where he ate local salad products.

The outbreak has also spread to the U.S. where four people in Atlanta were apparently sickened by the bacteria while visiting northern Germany last month.

Sprouts from northern Germany were ruled out as the cause of the outbreak, as were contaminated cucumbers from Spain last week. Officials are focusing tests on tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce from the European Union to pinpoint the cause of the outbreak that has sickened thousands and left over 20 people dead.
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Magic Wand

Fetal programming of disease risk to next generation depends on parental gender


The Endocrine Society
Sat, 04 Jun 2011 16:36 UTC
Overexposure to stress hormones in the womb can program the potential for adverse health effects in those children and the next generation, but effects vary depending on whether the mother or father transmits them, a new animal study suggests. The results will be presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston.

"This research sheds light on how babies who are exposed in the womb to excessive levels of stress hormones, known as glucocorticoids, can pass on the health effects to their own children, and how the effects vary between mothers and fathers," said the study's principal investigator, Amanda Drake, MD, PhD, a senior clinical fellow at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Glucocorticoid levels may become raised during pregnancy if, for example, the mother experiences stress or illness or receives glucocorticoid drugs for treatment of illness or premature labor. Excess glucocorticoid exposure of the fetus can reduce birth weight and raise blood pressure later in life in animals and humans, and babies born with low birth weight are at increased risk of diabetes and heart disease in adulthood, Drake said.
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Attention

German beansprouts 'behind E.coli outbreak' as hospitals face running out of beds

Vanessa Allen and Allan Hall
The Daily Mail
Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:49 UTC
Half of the tests on German beansprouts blamed for the spread of the mutant E.coli bug have come back negative, officials said today.

But a spokesman for Lower Saxony's Agriculture Ministry added he did not expect the tests to be concluded in the short term.

The beanspouts came under suspicion after it was found restaurants linked to the outbreak took delivery of the vegetable from north-east Germany just before customers began falling ill.

The E.coli outbreak has killed 22 making it the deadliest in modern history.

At least 2,153 people have been struck down by the food poisoning bug, including 11 in Britain.

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© Associated PressSuspicion has fallen on beansprouts as the source of the bacterial outbreak which has killed 22 people across Europe
Officials in Germany said they were the 'most convincing' cause and had previously been linked to other outbreaks of E.coli and salmonella.
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Beaker

New Study Finds Major Toxins in Many Cosmetics


Dr. Mercola
Sat, 04 Jun 2011 14:53 UTC
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Lead and arsenic aren't listed among the ingredients of lip gloss and eyeliner. However, Environmental Defence, a Canadian environmental group tested dozens of common cosmetics products and found that virtually all of them were contaminated with heavy metals.

Researchers purchased cosmetics in Toronto, and sent them to an accredited laboratory to have them tested for the presence of arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, beryllium, selenium, thallium and nickel. The items tested included foundations, concealers, powders, blushes, bronzers, mascaras, eyeliners, eyeshadows, lipsticks and glosses.

According to the Montreal Gazette:
"None of the products tested contained mercury, but lead was detected in 96 percent of the products, arsenic in 20 percent and cadmium in 51 percent. Nickel was found in all the products tested, beryllium in 90 percent, thallium in 61 percent and selenium in 14 percent."
Sources

Montreal Gazette May 16, 2011

Environmental Defence, Heavy Metal Hazard: The Health Risks of Hidden Heavy Metals in Face Makeup (PDF)
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Key

Beyond Gluten-Free: The Critical Role of Chitin-Binding Lectins in Human Disease

Sayer Ji
GreenMed Info
Mon, 06 Jun 2011 10:04 UTC
rose thorn lectin
© Unknown
In a previous article this author discussed the "invisible thorn" found within all wheat products - including sprouted wheat bread and wheat grass- known as wheat lectin (technical name: Wheat Germ Agglutinin (WGA)). This intrinsically inflammatory and endocrine disruptive substance was thoroughly reviewed (via MEDLINE) and identified to have a broad range of potentially disruptive effects:
1) WGA may be Pro-inflammatory

2) WGA may be Immunotoxic

3) WGA may be Neurotoxic

4) WGA may be Cytotoxic

5) WGA may interfere with Gene Expression

6) WGA may disrupt Endocrine Function

7) WGA may be Cardiotoxic

8) WGA may adversely effect Gastrointestinal Function

9) WAGpathogenic similarities with certain Viruses
(The above 9 problems are explained in much greater detail here.)

A major revelation in addition to wheat lectin's intrinsically harmful properties is that it does not require immune-mediation to exert its adverse effects. Unlike classically defined wheat/gluten allergies, intolerances and celiac disease, which require positive findings on blood, intestinal biopsy and genetic tests, wheat lectin operates beneath this level of surveillance on a more primary, subclinical level.
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Health

Best of the Web: E.coli Survivor Describes Pain, Chaos at Hospital

Kirsten Grieshaber
The Associated Press
Sun, 05 Jun 2011 14:00 UTC
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© APNicoletta Pabst smiles during an interview with the Associated Press in Hamburg, Germany, Saturday,
Berlin - Nicoletta Pabst could not believe what she saw twelve days ago when she rushed to a Hamburg hospital with stomach cramps, diarrhea and blood in her stool.

The emergency room at the University Medical Center in Hamburg-Eppendorf was engulfed by chaos, she said, overwhelmed as it tried to treat hordes of E. coli victims."

All patients suspected of E. coli were led to a separate location for examination," Pabst told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday. "When I arrived, there were at least 20 other people and more and more kept coming in, many of them by ambulance."

She said the emergency room's sanitary conditions were horrendous.

"All of us had diarrhea and there was only one bathroom each for men and women - it was a complete mess," she said. "If I hadn't been sick with E. coli by then, I probably would have picked it up over there."

Hamburg is at the epicenter of the deadliest E. coli outbreak in modern history.

Germany's national disease control center raised the death toll Sunday to 22 people - 21 in Germany and one in Sweden - and said another 2,153 people in Germany have been sickened since May 2. That figure included 627 people who have developed a rare, serious complication of the disease that can cause kidney failure. Ten other European nations and the U.S. have reported a total of 90 other victims.

"We'd all been reading the scary news about the E. coli outbreak in our region for days," said Pabst, a 41-year-old homemaker. "(My husband) took me to the university hospital right away."
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Question

Mystery deepens over E. coli poisoning


Herald Sun
Sun, 05 Jun 2011 03:29 UTC
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© Agence France-PresseCucumber crisis: Some 112,000 cases of vegetables, mostly tomatoes and cucumbers had to be destroyed after prices dropped dramatically at auctions in Germany.
An outbreak of killer E. coli that has spread to 12 countries and killed 19 people may be linked to a Hamburg festival in May.

As authorities continued to hunt the source of the outbreak, Germany's national disease center, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), is looking closely at a harbor festival that took place in Hamburg between May 6 and May 8.

The weekly newspaper Focus said Saturday the festival drew 1.5 million visitors from Germany and abroad and noted that the first reported case of E. coli infection followed just a week later in the city's university hospital.

German media also said Saturday that a man in his 50s who died in Brandenberg may be the 20th victim, but the cause of death was uncertain because he had several other infections as well as E. coli.

The latest confirmed death was of an 80-year-old woman in the northern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on Friday.
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Beaker

Features Of Bacteria That Caused Epidemic E. Coli In Europe Revealed By Genomics Analysis

Christian Nordqvist
Medical News Today
Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:00 UTC
E.coli
© unknownE.coli
An outbreak of E. coli infection was detected in Germany about two weeks ago. Health authorities say that over 1500 people have become infected and 17 have died so far. Cases of E. coli infection have been reported in several other European countries, including the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, France, Norway, Spain and Switzerland.

Analysis results carried out by scientists at BGI (Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention), the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, the Academy of Military Medical Sciences and the University Medical Centre, Hamburg, reveal that this infection is caused by a completely new E. coli strain.

The scientists report that they have just obtained the genome sequence of this new E. coli strain. Their findings show that it carries several genes making it resistant to antibiotic treatments - it is multi-resistant and hard to treat.
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