Health & WellnessS


Sherlock

Why Refined Grains Are Harmful

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© grainsessential.ca
There is a jingle that goes: "The whiter the bread, the sooner you're dead!"

Bread has been called the "staff of life." Unfortunately these days most folks consume grain in its refined state and this staple contains little to no nutritive properties and cannot support animal or human life.

Wheat is the key ingredient in the American diet. But after being milled, it is seldom utilized in its whole form with its components intact. Invariably, when we eat wheat, we get it in the form of bread, pies, cakes, cookies, biscuits, spaghetti, cream of wheat, cereals, and other forms that have been treated, heated, fractioned, and fragmented until it is next to impossible to recognize it for what it was originally.

A refined grain, or its product, is made by processing a natural, whole grain so that some or most of the nutrients are lost. Almost all grain products have been refined in some way or another.

White rice, cream of wheat, cookies, and bowls of snap-crackle-and-pop each morning are all examples of refined grain products.

Bandaid

Stress As an Epigenetic Factor: Traumatizing your DNA

dna
© Unknown
Tel Aviv University researcher warns that it isn't 'all in the genes'.

When the Human Genome Project ended a decade ago, scientists thought that they'd closed the lid on all that's to be known about our genes. But what they really did was open a Pandora's Box, says theoretical evolutionary biologist Prof. Eva Jablonka of Tel Aviv University's Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas.

After sifting through hundreds of scientific studies concerned with epigenetics, Prof. Jablonka concludes that some of the effects of stress, cancer, and other chronic diseases we suffer from may be passed on to our offspring through deep and complicated underlying cellular mechanisms that we are just now beginning to understand.


Comment: Add to the list the influence of parents' diet. From You are what your father ate: Genetic predisposition, or how diet defines who we are as species:
Environmental cues - in this case, diet - influence genes in mammals from one generation to the next, evidence that until now has been sparse. These insights, coupled with previous human epidemiological studies, suggest that paternal environmental effects may play a more important role in complex diseases such as diabetes and heart disease than previously believed.

Prof. Jablonka will discuss her findings at an epigenetics conference in North Carolina later this month.

The invisible threat

Epigenetic research suggests that the effects of stress and environmental pollution can be passed on to future generations without any obvious change or mutation in our DNA. The problem, Prof. Jablonka points out, is that we have no idea of the extent these effects will have on the human genome of the future.

"I am a story teller. I read a lot of information and develop theories about evolution. For the last 25 years, before it became a fad, I was interested in the transmission of information not dependent on DNA variations," Dr. Jablonka says. "Epigenetic inheritance is information about us that is not explicitly encoded in our genes. Two individuals may have identical genes, but the genes present very different characteristics. They can be genetically identical but different epigenetically."

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Visit the Éiriú Eolas site or participate on the forum to learn more about the scientific background of this program and then try it out for yourselves, free of charge.


Evil Rays

Japan finds 11 types of vegetables in Fukushima over radioactive safety standards vegetables

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© Dan L. Perlman/EcoLibrary.org
The Japanese government on Wednesday urged people not to eat 11 types of vegetable grown near the quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in northeast Japan after levels of radioactivity in the produces were found to have far exceeded legal limits.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said consumers should avoid eating potentially contaminated vegetables grown near the faltering power plant, including broccoli, spinach, cabbage and cauliflower.

The advisory from the ministry came following consultations with the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan.

The ministry said the vegetables should not be consumed for the time being and noted that the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations has halted shipments of potentially contaminated produce as of Monday.

Heart - Black

US: Sen. DeMint Chooses Ideology Over Doctor's Promising Device

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© Kim Kim Foster-Tobin/The StateDr. David Cull tried to get help from his hometown senator, but was rebuffed.
The good doctor was frustrated.

Dr. David Cull, a prominent vascular surgeon in Greenville, had invented a small valve system that, if it works, could spare 300,000 dialysis patients across the country enormous suffering and save U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars.

But Cull's hometown senator, Jim DeMint, would not write a letter supporting the surgeon's application for a federal grant under the landmark health care bill that President Barack Obama signed into law a year ago today.

A hard-core conservative with a growing national following, DeMint vowed in 2009 to make health care Obama's "Waterloo" and is leading Republican efforts in Congress to repeal or deny funding to the law, designed to provide medical coverage to 31 million uninsured Americans.

Backing a grant application under the law - even for a constituent who lives in the same Upstate town as DeMint - would leave the senator open to charges of hypocrisy, staffers say.

Stop

U.S. halts Japan food imports, Tokyo water contaminated

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© ReutersA vendor arranges vegetables at a greengrocery in the Togoshi Ginza in Tokyo
Japanese authorities advised against allowing infants to drink tap water in Tokyo due to raised radiation levels and the United States became the first nation to block some food imports from Japan.

The crisis at the tsunami-smashed nuclear power plant, 250 km (150 miles) north of the Japanese capital, appeared far from over with workers attempting to gain control ordered to leave the site after black smoke began rising from one of its six reactors.

The plant was crippled by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami on March 11. Some 23,000 people have been left dead or missing.

Tokyo authorities said water at a purification plant for the capital of 13 million people had 210 becquerels of radioactive iodine -- more than twice the safety level for infants.

"This is without doubt, an effect of the Fukushima Daiichi plant," a Tokyo metropolitan government official said, referring to the nuclear power station.

Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, however, said the radiation level posed no immediate health risk and water could still be used.

"But for infants under age one, I would like them to refrain from using tap water to dilute baby formula," he said.

International concerns about food safety are growing, with the United States the latest to impose controls. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it was stopping imports of milk, vegetable and fruit from four prefectures in the vicinity of the crippled nuclear plant.

Beaker

Tokyo says radiation in tap water above limit

Tokyo Water Bureau officials say levels of radioactive iodine in some city tap water is two times the recommended limit for infants.

The officials told reporters Wednesday that a water treatment center in downtown Tokyo that supplies much of the city's tap water found that some water contained 210 becquerels per liter of iodine 131.

They said the limit for consumption of iodine 131 for infants is 100 becquerels per liter. They recommended that babies not be given tap water, although they said the water is not an immediate health risk for adults.

This is a breaking news update. AP's earlier story is below.

Info

Ghee or Clarified Butter: A Good Source of Saturated Fat

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Ghee-Clarified Butter
Ghee is the vedic super food, declares Sandeep Agarwal, a ghee manufacturer and distributor from New Jersey, USA. Speaking at a recently-held conference on ayurveda and yoga in Rishikesh, he made a strong case for using ghee made from grass-fed cow's milk in everyday cooking. "It is a good source of fat-soluble vitamins. It has essential fatty acids and is also rich in saturated fat needed by growing children," he explains.

For years, clarified butter has been a part of traditional Indian cuisine but this virtuous cooking medium ran out of favor with fitness experts and nutrition specialists as it is high in saturated fat and cholesterol and often the cause of expanding waistlines and obesity.

However, new trends are now emerging, in a way, reinventing tradition. Ayurveda experts are backing ghee for its vitamins, longer shelf-life and immunity-boosting qualities.

Comment: The article states 'fitness experts and nutrition specialists state ghee is high in saturated fat and cholesterol and is often the cause of expanding waistlines and obesity.' Read the following article to understand how we have been lied to about the benefits of saturated fats: The Big Lie: "Saturated Fats Are Bad For You" - from the article:
Nutritionally I can't think of a bigger lie than the one claiming that fats in general and saturated fats in particular are bad for us. This lie is so deeply embedded in the minds of most that you couldn't blow it out with a stick of dynamite. Especially in the minds of academics, and more especially in the minds of most dietitians. Not all, but most. Nutritionally, it is truly the Big Lie.
Saturated Fats benefit overall health and wellness, for more information on the health benefits of saturated fats read the following articles:

7 Reasons to Eat More Saturated Fat
Saturated Fat is Good for You
Higher saturated fat intakes found to be associated with a reduced risk of dying from cardiovascular disease
Saturated Fat and Heart Disease
What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?
Why high fat diets are not fattening
Wrongly Convicted? The Case for Saturated Fat

From the article:
Speaking at a press conference this month in Washington, D.C. sponsored by the Healthy Nation Coalition and the Weston A. Price Foundation, Ms. Morell said that for the past 60 or 70 years, saturated fats have been blamed for clogging arteries, and for causing heart disease, diabetes and even multiple sclerosis. Ms. Morell says that none of these accusations is based on sound science. On the other hand, she points out the critical roles that saturated fats play in the body.

In particular, she cites the benefits of saturated fats:
  • Make up 50% of cell membranes.
  • Help the body put calcium in the bones.
  • Lower Lp(a), a marker for heart disease.
  • Are the preferred food for the heart.
  • Protect the liver from alcohol and other poisons.
  • Are required for lung and kidney function.
  • Enhance the immune system.
  • Work together with essential fatty acids.
  • Support the body's detoxification mechanisms



Magic Wand

Spinal cord processes information just like areas of the brain

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© UnknownPatrick Stroman is working to map the function and information processing of the spinal cord.
Patrick Stroman's work mapping the function and information processing of the spinal cord could improve treatment for spinal cord injuries.

"Basic physiology books describe the spinal cord as a relay system, but it's part of the central nervous system and processes information just like parts of the brain do," explains Dr. Stroman, director of the Queen's MRI Facility and Canada Research Chair in Imaging Physics.

Dr. Stroman's research is directed at precisely mapping the areas above and below a spinal cord injury in order to better determine the precise nature of an injury and the effectiveness of subsequent treatment. When medical research has advanced to a point where clinicians are able to bridge an injury on a spinal cord, Dr. Stroman's spinal mapping technique will be key in accurately pinpointing the injury to be bridged.

The technique involves capturing multiple images of the spinal cord using a conventional MRI system. The image capturing is repeated every few seconds over several minutes. During the imaging temperature sensations on the skin are varied allowing areas of the spinal cord that respond to the temperature changes to be detected in the MRI.

Heart

The Exercise Mistake Proven to Damage Your Heart

Long Distance Runner
© Thomas Northcut / Photodisk / Thinkstock

Not long ago, researchers studied the heart health of a group of very fit older athletes -- men who had been part of a national or Olympic team in distance running or rowing, and runners who had completed at least a hundred marathons. The results were unsettling -- half of these lifelong athletes showed evidence of heart muscle scarring.

The affected men were invariably the ones who had gone through the longest, hardest training. And now a new study, this time in laboratory rats, provides solid evidence of a direct link between certain kinds of prolonged exercise and heart damage -- scarring and structural changes, similar to those seen in the human endurance athletes.

The research effectively shows that years of strenuous cardiovascular exercise can damage your heart.

According to the New York Times:
"Unfortunately, it remains impossible, at the moment, to predict just what that threshold is for any given person, and which athletes might be most vulnerable to heart problems as a result of excessive exercise".
Sources:

New York Times March 9, 2011

The Journal of Applied Physiology February 17, 2011 [Epub Ahead of Print]

Circulation 2011;123:13-22


Nuke

Health Canada monitoring stations detect 'minuscule' increase in radiation

Health Canada monitoring stations detected a "minuscule" increase in radiation levels along the B.C. coast Monday in the wake of the nuclear crisis in Japan.

Health spokesman Gary Holub said increased radiation levels were expected, and he stressed the increase posed no public health risk in Canada.

"As anticipated, the amount of radiation reaching Canada is so small that it would not pose a health risk to Canadians," Holub said in an email response to queries.

"Health Canada's radiation monitoring stations have detected a minuscule increase in radiation levels along the West Coast of Canada. This increase is a variation less than what we would see naturally when it rains."

Health Canada installed nine additional monitoring stations along the Pacific coast late last week, as public concerns persisted about possible radioactive drift from Japan making it thousands of kilometres across the ocean to North America.

Some nervous Canadians were trying to track down their own equipment to assess the threat.