Health & WellnessS


Health

Obesity Epidemic In USA Continues To Spread - A Serious Problem In The South

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© Unknown
Despite new initiatives aimed at various sectors of society, including schools and restaurants, obesity rates did not drop in one single US state last year, and rose in 16 of them. Twelve states have 30%+ obesity rates today, compared to just one in 2007, according to F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2011. The report was created by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Trust for America's Health.

Nine of the ten states in the South have the highest obesity rates in America, while those in the West and Northeast have the lowest. For seven years running, Mississippi is in first place. The only state with an obesity rate of less than 20% is Colorado.

Comment: For more information regarding some causes of obesity, see these Sott links:

Common Chemicals May be Feeding Obesity Epidemic

Eliminating Junk Foods at Schools May Help Prevent Childhood Obesity

This article outlines what types of fats are healthy versus what helps to cause obesity:

Everything About Fat


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The Worlds Largest Human Experiment: GMOs, Roundup, and the Monsanto Monstrosity

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© tickergrail.blogspot.com
Informed consent is one of the most basic aspects of patient-physician relations, as well as subject-researcher relations in the case of research. This involves making the patient aware of and verifying that they understand the risks, benefits, facts, and the future implications of the procedure or test they are going to be subjected to.

In the case of genetically modified organisms we have not been made aware of the risks. In fact, the GMO industry has deliberately hidden the real dangers behind the seeds and herbicides they peddle.

The Food and Drug Administration of the United States of America has defined informed consent in the following bureaucratic jargon:
Except as provided in 50.23 and 50.24, no investigator may involve a human being as a subject in research covered by these regulations unless the investigator has obtained the legally effective informed consent of the subject or the subject's legally authorized representative. An investigator shall seek such consent only under circumstances that provide the prospective subject or the representative sufficient opportunity to consider whether or not to participate and that minimize the possibility of coercion or undue influence. The information that is given to the subject or the representative shall be in language understandable to the subject or the representative. No informed consent, whether oral or written, may include any exculpatory language through which the subject or the representative is made to waive or appear to waive any of the subject's legal rights, or releases or appears to release the investigator, the sponsor, the institution, or its agents from liability for negligence.
Under all of these definitions, including the exceptions which you can peruse at the above linked official website, what Monsanto is doing with GM crops and their Roundup products are ethically wrong and illegal.

Smoking

No smoking signs raise craving

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Smokers who see a "no smoking" sign are driven to crave a cigarette, research suggests.

A study presented at the British Psychological Society in Glasgow found that when smokers were shown scenes where no smoking signs were visible they were subconsciously drawn to having a cigarette because the idea of smoking had been put in their head. Researchers said was ironic.

The researchers recruited a group of smokers who were shown 25 pictures of everyday scenes on the street and in cafés and bars. In around seven of the images, no smoking signs were included in their usual locations.

Health

Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea Strain Emerges

Gonorrhoea
© Getty ImagesAn electron micrograph of a Neisseria gonorrhoeae -- the cause of the sexually-transmitted disease gonorrhoea. A new strain has emerged that is resistance to antibiotics.

For the first time, international researchers have identified a strain of gonorrhea that is resistant to treatment with antibiotics, scientists announced at a sex disease research conference Monday.

The common bacterial infection, often called the "clap," has until now been easily treatable with antibiotics but if left alone can cause infertility in women and painful urination and a pus-oozing infection in men.

"This is both an alarming and a predictable discovery," said Magnus Unemo of the Swedish Reference Laboratory for Pathogenic Neisseria.

"Since antibiotics became the standard treatment for gonorrhea in the 1940s, this bacterium has shown a remarkable capacity to develop resistance mechanisms to all drugs introduced to control it."

Details of the discovery were to be released by Unemo and colleagues at the 19th conference of the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Disease Research, on from July 10-13 in Quebec City, Canada.

Health

Ozone - It's good and bad

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© Unknown
A stagnant air mass is going to bring heat and humidity to the Miami Valley. Not only will it be hot and humid but with little wind we are going to have pollution problems. The Regional Air Pollution Control Agency (RAPCA) has issued an Air Pollution Advisory for the Dayton metro area.

You may have heard about 'ozone action days' and the ozone layer. One is bad the other is good. Confusing because how can something be good and bad at the same time? Well it all depends on WHERE the ozone is in our atmosphere.

First the GOOD ozone -
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© NASA

In the stratosphere (about 10-30miles above the earth's surface) sits a gas called ozone. It's made up of three oxygen molecules (yes I know - chemistry 101 is coming back to haunt you and me). Ozone blocks about 99% of the sun's harmful ultraviolet light radiation. So high in our atmosphere ozone is a good thing because it keeps us safe from the sun's UV radiation. So we want lots of ozone above us.

Health

Scientists find first superbug strain of gonorrhea

London - Scientists have found a "superbug" strain of gonorrhea in Japan that is resistant to all recommended antibiotics and say it could transform a once easily treatable infection into a global public health threat.

The new strain of the sexually transmitted disease -- called H041 -- cannot be killed by any currently recommended treatments for gonorrhea, leaving doctors with no other option than to try medicines so far untested against the disease.

Magnus Unemo of the Swedish Reference Laboratory for Pathogenic Neisseria, who discovered the strain with colleagues from Japan in samples from Kyoto, described it as both "alarming" and "predictable."

Cheeseburger

'A Ticking Timebomb': Teenage Girls' Junk Food Diet Leaves Them Starved of Vitamins

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© dailymail.co.uk'Ticking timebomb': Teenage girls' junk food diets are harmful.
A typical teenager probably thinks nothing of a diet packed with pizza, sweets and sugary drinks.

But by that age what they eat is already taking a severe toll on their health, research shows.

Millions of teenagers are dangerously low in key vitamins and minerals, experts have warned - with girls faring worst.

An appetite for junk food is feeding a 'ticking timebomb' of disease and ill health, researchers have concluded.

They found teenagers of both sexes were among the biggest guzzlers of salt, alcohol and sugar-laden soft drinks.

Info

U.S. Bill Would Let Federal Health Researchers Ban Certain Chemicals

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© CNN HealthEach generation of children is exposed to more chemicals in the womb.
A new bill could alter the landscape of chemical regulation in the United States by empowering researchers to take swift action against the most potentially harmful chemicals in use today.

The bill, to be introduced later this month, would give the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and a panel of experts selected by the director, the power to ban up to 10 chemicals from commerce each year by categorizing them as being of high concern.

Those chemicals would become unlawful to use 24 months after receiving that designation.

Among the chemicals that could be subject to a ban is bisphenol A, or BPA, a hormone-disrupting substance widely used in plastics that has been the target of controversy in recent months.

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Do the Chemicals That Turn Soda Brown Also Cause Cancer?

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© istock
Soda is bad for your health. But it may be even worse than you'd thought. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the "caramel coloring" used in Coke, Pepsi and other sodas is carcinogenic.

The artificial brown coloring is made by reacting corn sugar with ammonia and sulfites under high pressures and at high temperatures. This produces the chemicals 2-methylimidazole and 4-methylimidazole, which have been found to cause lung, liver and thyroid cancer in lab rats and mice.

Time Magazine reports:
"According to California's regulators, a level of more than 16 micrograms per day would pose a significant risk - meaning it could result in at least one excess case of cancer per 100,000 exposed people.

Given that there are roughly 130 micrograms of 4-MI per 12-ounce can of soda - and given that the average American drinks 14 ounces of soda a day, with young men drinking far more - that would mean that most of us would be at some risk."
The FDA responded to the charge by saying:
"4-MI is not a threat to human health. There is no evidence that 4-MI causes cancer in humans. No health regulatory agency around the globe, including the Food and Drug Administration, has said that 4-MI is a human carcinogen. This petition is nothing more than another attempt to scare consumers by an advocacy group long-dedicated to attacking the food and beverage industry."
Sources

Time Magazine February 17, 2011

NIH Study January 2007

CSPI Petition to FDA February 16, 2011

Pills

Ritalin for children is "quick fix" and should be reviewed, demand educational psychologists

Ritalin
© Sean O’CarrolA image from Sean O'Carroll's exhibition entitled 'Ritalin'
Ritalin and other psychotropic medication for children are a "quick fix" and the government should urgently review their use, psychologists have urged.

The Association of Educational Psychologists (AEP) fears there is insufficient data on the effects such drugs have on child development. Further research is urgently needed, it says.

The AEP's demand is despite the fact that a European Medicines Agency (EMA) investigation into methylphenidate drugs, which include psychotropics Ritalin, Concerta, Equasym, Medikinet and Rubifen - had previously stated that the benefits of such drugs outweigh any negative effects for children diagnosed with ADHD and other conduct disorders..

Plus, UK doctors have been advised by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence not to prescribe methylphenidate as a first-line treatment for children diagnosed with ADHD.

But the AEP - which represents UK educational psychologists - fears there will be an increase of methylphenidate prescribing because the number of official psychological disorders for children is set to increase.