Health & WellnessS


Heart

Eggs' Antioxidant Properties May Help Prevent Heart Disease and Cancer, Study Suggests

Cracked Eggs
© Science Kukuchew.com

One of nature's most perfect foods may be even better for us than previously thought.

While eggs are well known to be an excellent source of proteins, lipids, vitamins and minerals, researchers at the University of Alberta recently discovered they also contain antioxidant properties, which helps in the prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Jianping Wu, Andreas Schieber and graduate students Chamila Nimalaratne and Daise Lopes-Lutz of the U of A Department of Agricultural Food and Nutritional Science examined egg yolks produced by hens fed typical diets of either primarily wheat or corn. They found the yolks contained two amino acids, tryptophan and tyrosine, which have high antioxidant properties.

After analyzing the properties, the researchers determined that two egg yolks in their raw state have almost twice as many antioxidant properties as an apple and about the same as half a serving (25 grams) of cranberries.

Health

Eritrea-Ethiopia: Thousands need aid after volcano eruption

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© National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationSatellite view of the Nabro volcano
Addis Ababa/Nairobi - Thousands of Ethiopians in Afar State are facing critical food, water and health gaps almost a month after a volcano erupted in neighbouring Eritrea's Nabro region, officials say.

The volcano started erupting on 12 June, spewing ash over hundreds of kilometres, affecting food and water sources as well as air travel in some parts. The eruption also caused an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7, Eritrea's Information Ministry reported in a communiqué.

According to a report from Ethiopia's Afar Disaster Prevention and Food Security Programs Coordination Office: "The adverse impacts of the volcanic ash increased reports of livestock mortality, migration, critical water shortage, human health problems and rising malnutrition among the worst volcanic affected woredas [districts]: Bidu, Afdera, Erebti, Elidar, Teru and Kori.

Wolf

FDA's New Sneak Attack on Supplements

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Just before the July 4 holiday weekend, hoping to limit media attention, the FDA dropped a bomb on dietary supplements. Don't let them get away with it! A new Action Alert.

On July 1, the US Food and Drug Administration issued draft guidance for complying with the New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) notification protocols contained in the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). Ever since DSHEA was enacted in 1994, supplement manufacturers have had very little guidance on what counts as an NDI and when or how to send an NDI notification. The government has arbitrarily ignored or enforced this section of DSHEA, doing as it liked, without spelling out the rules.

Why does this matter? Because when you hear New Dietary Ingredient (NDI), substitute "New Supplement" in your mind. What we are dealing with here is whether the supplement industry is allowed to innovate and create new supplements - and if so, under what rules.

Bomb

The Hidden Time Bomb Within You: Inflammation

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© ancientpathsnaturally.blogspot.com
5 surprising, life-changing facts to know about inflammation

Get ready for the health buzzword of 2011: inflammation. A key biochemical process inside every one of us, inflammation is the cornerstone of health and healing - and yet - unless you learn the secrets to managing it - it will also probably eventually kill you.

The good news: As scientists slowly but surely uncover how the inflammatory response works, they're learning how we can influence it to our benefit.

Here, five surprising - and life-changing - facts.

Comment: It's good to see awareness of inflammation hitting the mainstream, but this article is way off for recommending vegetables which are known inflammatory factors and a reduction in saturated fat from already dangerously low levels. SOTT sez: a HIGH-fat, ANIMAL-based Paleo diet will be a win-win for your body.


Family

US: Home birth on the rise by a dramatic 20 percent

One mother chose home birth because it was cheaper than going to a hospital. Another gave birth at home because she has multiple sclerosis and feared unnecessary medical intervention. And some choose home births after cesarean sections with their first babies.

Whatever their motivation, all are among a striking trend: Home births increased 20 percent from 2004 to 2008, accounting for 28,357 of 4.2 million U.S. births, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released in May.

White women led the drive, with 1 in 98 having babies at home in 2008, compared to 1 in 357 black women and 1 in 500 Hispanic women.

Sherry Hopkins, a Las Vegas midwife, said the women whose home births she's attended include a pediatrician, an emergency room doctor and nurses. "We're definitely seeing well-educated and well-informed people who want to give birth at home," she said.

Robbie Davis-Floyd, a medical anthropologist at the University of Texas at Austin and researcher on global trends in childbirth, obstetrics and midwifery, said "at first, in the 1970s, it was largely a hippie, countercultural thing to give birth outside of the hospital. Over the years, as the formerly 'lay' midwives have become far more sophisticated, so has their clientele."

Bell

Pollution Can Lead to Brain Damage and Depression Warn Scientists

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© The IndependentMist and pollution hanging over the City of London
Long term exposure to air pollution could damage the brain and lead to learning and memory problems and even depression, new research has revealed.

The tests on mice showed that in the long term dirty air could cause actual physical changes to the brain which in turn had negative effects.

While other studies have looked at the impact polluted air has on the heart and lungs this is one of the first to look at the effect on the brain, lead author Laura Fonken noted. She said:
"The results suggest prolonged exposure to polluted air can have visible, negative effects on the brain, which can lead to a variety of health problems.

"This could have important and troubling implications for people who live and work in polluted urban areas around the world."
Ms Fonken, a doctoral student, and her colleagues at Ohio State University exposed mice to either filtered air of polluted air six hours a day, five days a week for almost half their lifespan which was 10 months.

Sherlock

Perfluorochemicals Linked With Impulsivity in Children

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© ShutterstockChemical Triggers? Ubiquitous in commercial products, perfluorochemicals may set the stage for attention issues in children.
Industrial Pollutants: Scientists find that high blood levels correlate with a core feature of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Children's exposure to a growing list of industrial chemicals, including certain pesticides and phthalates, has been linked to development of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Now evidence suggests that perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) boost ADHD risks by making children prone to impulsive behavior (Environ. Sci. Technol., DOI: 10.1021/es103712g).

Used since the 1950s to make Teflon and many other stain- and water-repellent products, PFCs are now global contaminants. Scientists had already associated elevated PFCs with neurological problems, such as delayed gross motor development. A study published in December found tantalizing links between blood PFC levels and diagnoses of ADHD (Environ. Health Perspect., DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1001898). Brooks Gump, a psychologist at Syracuse University, wanted to go one step further: He and his colleagues were interested in how the chemicals might affect impulsivity, a core ADHD feature. Impulsivity has cascading effects on so-called "executive functions," such as planning, verbal regulation, and motor control. ADHD is a complex and multi-faceted diagnosis, Gump notes, that results from deficits in executive functioning. By identifying any influence that PFCs have on impulsivity, Gump hoped to connect the dots between chemical exposure, nervous system effects, and processes leading to ADHD.

Comment: For more information on Common Chemicals Linked To ADHD read the following articles:

Everyday Chemicals May Be Harming Kids
U.S. Study: Pesticides Tied to ADHD in Children
Chemicals in non-stick pans may retard babies' growth
ADHD and Oppositional Defiant Disorder Linked to Phthalate Exposure of Mother
New Warning About Everyday Poison Linked to Alzheimer's, ADHD, and Autism


Display

Study Reveals Office Workers are Exposed to Banned Toxins

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© Forster Forest/shutterstock.com
A new US study published June 30 suggests the surfaces in your office could be covered in a coating of toxic dust.

Researchers discovered concentrations of a banned flame retardant called polybrominated dipheny ether (PBDE) on the hands of workers who spent at least 20 hours a week in an office. The study evaluated 31 offices in Boston, Massachusetts, and researchers noted that the amount of PBDE on workers' hands was linked to how much was measured in their blood.

PBDEs were once widely used in computers and other electronics as well as the polyurethane foam padding in office chairs, furniture, and carpeting, so the chemicals are lurking in a lot of offices, even though they are now banned under the Stockholm Convention, a treaty to control and phase out major pollutants.

Pills

Big Pharma's Latest Shady Ploy to Sell Depression Drugs That People May Not Need

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© Alternet
The drug industry is coming up with ever more clever ways to pump Americans full of drugs they may not need - and that may not even work.

The discovery that many people with life problems or occasional bad moods would willingly dose themselves with antidepressants sailed the drug industry through the 2000s. A good chunk of the $4.5 billion a year direct-to-consumer advertising has been devoted to convincing people they don't have problems with their job, the economy and their family, they have depression. Especially because depression can't be diagnosed from a blood test.

Unfortunately, three things dried up the depression gravy train for the drug industry. Blockbusters went off patent and generics took off, antidepressants were linked with gory and unpredictable violence, especially in young users and - they didn't even work, according to medical articles!

Life Preserver

Pacific Ocean Study Finds Fish Tainted by Plastic

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© J. LeichterTwo lanternfish and several bits of plastic collected in 2009 during the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition.
Southern California researchers found plastic in nearly 1 in 10 small fish collected in the northern Pacific Ocean in the latest study to call attention to floating marine debris entering the food chain.

The study published this week by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego estimated that fish in the northern Pacific Ocean are ingesting as much as 24,000 tons of plastic each year.

Although the research found a lower percentage of affected fish than previous studies, it is the latest to quantify how many fish are eating marine garbage - most of it confetti-sized flecks of discarded plastic - that has accumulated in vast, slow-moving ocean currents known as gyres.

The results came from a 2009 voyage a group of graduate students made to the so-called Pacific garbage patch, an area of high concentration of fragments of floating garbage about 1,000 miles off the California coast. Researchers cast nets into the water and collected 141 fish, mostly lanternfish measuring just a few inches, and took them to a laboratory in San Diego to dissect.