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Study: Healthy Lifestyle Triggers Genetic Changes

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© Reuters/Darren StaplesA woman rides a bicycle in Cambridge, central England.
Comprehensive lifestyle changes including a better diet and more exercise can lead not only to a better physique, but also to swift and dramatic changes at the genetic level, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

In a small study, the researchers tracked 30 men with low-risk prostate cancer who decided against conventional medical treatment such as surgery and radiation or hormone therapy.

The men underwent three months of major lifestyle changes, including eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and soy products, moderate exercise such as walking for half an hour a day, and an hour of daily stress management methods such as meditation.


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Health

Oil Spill Stress Starts to Weigh on Gulf Residents

Gulf of Mexico
© Associated PressThe Gulf of Mexico catastrophe
As the slick looms larger, mental health workers fear a rising tide of despair.

Ordinarily this time of year, Adam Trahan would be out on the Gulf of Mexico on a shrimp boat, trawling from South Pass to the Chandeleur Islands. Instead, last week he was trawling between the bar at Cisco's Hideaway on Oak Lane and Artie's out on the highway, fishing for Bud Light.

"I look out there and I see my life ruined," Trahan, 53, said in his long Cajun drawl from the ocean-side deck at Artie's. "There ain't no shrimpin', there ain't no crabbin', there ain't no oysterin'. Well, the only thing I know is shrimpin'. That's all I know. Now you tell me: Where do I go from here? It's heartbreakin', baby."

Comment: Everybody read, All For One and One For All. Any of you who own Éiriú Eolas sets and live around the affected areas, you could make copies and distribute in your area. People need to control their stress before they can think with clarity. People need hope.


Red Flag

Toxins Found in Whales Bode ill for Humans

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© AP Photo/Tasmania Parks and Wildlife ServiceIn this Jan 23, 2009 file photo provided by Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service, a pod of sperm whales are seen stranded on a sand bar off Perkins Island, Australia's Tasmania state.
Sperm whales feeding even in the most remote reaches of Earth's oceans have built up stunningly high levels of toxic and heavy metals, according to American scientists who say the findings spell danger not only for marine life but for the millions of humans who depend on seafood.

A report released Thursday noted high levels of cadmium, aluminum, chromium, lead, silver, mercury and titanium in tissue samples taken by dart gun from nearly 1,000 whales over five years. From polar areas to equatorial waters, the whales ingested pollutants that may have been produced by humans thousands of miles away, the researchers said.

"These contaminants, I think, are threatening the human food supply. They certainly are threatening the whales and the other animals that live in the ocean," said biologist Roger Payne, founder and president of Ocean Alliance, the research and conservation group that produced the report.

Info

Average Age of Girls Starting Puberty Falls Below 10

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More and more girls are hitting puberty before the age of 10, while they are still at primary school, a Danish study has found.

A study of 1,000 girls found that breast development now begins on average a year earlier than 20 years ago - around the age of nine years and ten months.

The research underlines a long-term trend that has seen the average age at which girls start puberty falling sharply. In the 19th century it was around 15 - six years later than now.

Scientists yesterday spoke of the serious implications for girls' physical and emotional health. There are fears that early puberty could put girls at higher risk of breast cancer and heart disease because of the increased exposure to estrogen.

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New Research: Probiotic Found in Breast Milk Benefits Nerves in Gut, Calms Digestive Disorders

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© NaturalNews
Probiotics are beneficial microorganisms similar to the "friendly" bacteria found naturally in the body's digestive system. According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), there's evidence from a variety of studies that probiotic formulations can help treat diarrhea, urinary tract infections, irritable bowel syndrome and dermatitis (eczema) in children; probiotics may reduce the recurrence of bladder cancer, too.

Now Canadian researchers have published research in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) journal that explains why certain strains of probiotics are particularly soothing to indigestion related problems. It turns out the probiotic strain Lactobacillus reuteri, which occurs in the gut of many mammals and is found in human breast milk, immediately and directly affects nerves in the gut.

For their study, scientist Wolfgang Kunze of the McMaster Brain-Body Institute and Department of Psychiatry at St. Joseph's Healthcare in Ontario, Canada, and his research team took isolated pieces of small intestine removed from healthy and previously untreated mice. Then they added Lactobacillus reuteri to a warm salt solution which was sent flowing through the lumen, or hollow part, of the intestine. The pressure caused by natural contractions in the intestine sections was measured before, during and after adding the probiotic-containing solution. The scientists tested the electrical activity of single intestinal sensory nerve cells, as well.

Cheeseburger

British Children "Getting Fatter at Twice the Rate of American Youngsters"

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© AlamyThe study showed that British children spent more on snacks than those in America.
British children are getting fatter at twice the rate of those in America and spending far more on unhealthy snacks, new figures suggest.

Researchers found that British children were spending double the amount on sugary products, snacks and treats as those living in the United States.

Experts said the findings showed that the government's drive to cut the rate of obesity among children had failed.

Figures published on Thursday found British children spent an average £372 on sweets and chocolates every year, equivalent to about 850 Mars bars.

The research, from Datamonitor, an independent research company, found American children spent just £150 per year on similar treats.

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Eating Meat May Cause Severe Allergic Reactions in Some People

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© Getty Images
Meat allergies may be much more common than previously thought and may even induce potentially fatal anaphylaxis in some people, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Virginia and presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in New Orleans.

The researchers tested three groups of people across the U.S. Southeast with a history of recurrent anaphylaxis without known cause for an immune reaction to alpha-gal, a kind of sugar found in mammal meat.

Although most allergic reactions are caused by proteins, scientists recently discovered that alpha-gal is responsible for anaphylactic reactions to cetuximab, a cancer drug. Further studies revealed that people who experience immune responses to alpha-gal also develop allergic symptoms within three to six hours of eating mammalian meat.

Phoenix

Study Shows Courage Sparks Certain Parts of Brain

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© Getty Images
Finding could lead to treatment for fear, researchers say

Scientists have uncovered new details about brain mechanisms associated with courage.

Israeli researchers used functional MRI to scan brain activity in volunteers as they decided whether to move either a toy bear or a live corn snake closer or farther away from them. Prior to the study, the participants had been classified as "fearful" or "fearless" based on a questionnaire about snake fears.

The scans showed that activity increased in an area of the brain called the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) when participants chose to act courageously.

The findings appear in the June 24 issue of the journal Neuron.

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Memory Links to 40 Winks

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© Getty ImagesSleep enhances our ability to remember to do something in the future, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis.
When it comes to executing items on tomorrow's to-do list, it's best to think it over, then "sleep on it," say psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis.

People who sleep after processing and storing a memory carry out their intentions much better than people who try to execute their plan before getting to sleep. The researchers have shown that sleep enhances our ability to remember to do something in the future, a skill known as prospective memory.

Moreover, researchers studying the relationship between memory and sleep say that our ability to carry out our intentions is not so much a function of how firmly that intention has been embedded in our memories. Rather, the trigger that helps carry out our intentions is usually a place, situation or circumstance - some context encountered the next day - that sparks the recall of an intended action.

These are the key findings from a study published online this month in Psychological Science of the relationship between memory and sleep. Researchers Michael Scullin, doctoral candidate in psychology, and his adviser, Mark McDaniel, PhD, professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences, are focusing on "prospective memory" - things we intend to do - as opposed to "retrospective memory" - things that have happened in the past.

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Botox Linked to Weakened Ability to Experience Emotions

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© Unknown
US researchers suggest that people who have undergone Botox treatments not only change their appearance but may also have a weakened ability to experience emotions.

Joshua Davis and Ann Senghas, professors of psychology from Barnard College at Columbia University in New York, and colleagues, wrote about their findings in a paper published online in the journal Emotions on 10 June.

Although it has been over a century since William James, an American pioneer of psychology proposed a theory of emotion that stated unless it can be expressed physically in the body it doesn't really exist, nowadays referred to as the facial feedback hypothesis (FFH), attempts to test it have been inconclusive.