Health & WellnessS


Ambulance

Let's end the prescription drug death epidemic

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Deaths from prescription drug overdoses have been called the "silent epidemic" for years, and now, with one American dying every 19 minutes from an accidental prescription drug overdose,1 it's being described as "the biggest man-made epidemic in the United States."2
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, associate chief of neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital and CNN's chief medical correspondent, recently highlighted the gravity of this issue, as many Americans don't think twice about taking powerful pain-relieving drugs like morphine and Oxycontin.
But if you thought there was a chance they might kill you... the situation would most certainly change, and that's why getting the word out about this leading cause of death is more important now than ever before.

Beaker

Chlorine in tap water linked to increase in number of people developing food allergies

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Much of the water supply in Britain is chlorinated to kill germs, although experts say it is at much lower levels than in the U.S.
Chlorine in tap water has been linked to the rising number of people developing food allergies, a study has revealed.

The chemical, which is used to treat drinking water and is also present in commonly-available pesticides and household items, may weaken food tolerance in some individuals.

Researchers found adults with high levels of dichlorophenol - a chemical by-product of chlorine - in their urine, were up to 80 per cent more likely to have a food allergy.

Britain has seen a rise in food allergies in recent years, with up to ten million adults claiming to be unable to eat a variety of foods from milk to mustard - although scientists believe the figure may be exaggerated by the 'worried well'.

Studies also estimate that four per cent of children have a food allergy. A rising number are diagnosed with gut allergies linked to common foods such as cow's milk, wheat, soya, eggs, celery, kiwi fruit and other fruit and vegetables.

Food allergy can take the form of a sudden life-threatening reaction known as anaphylaxis, as well as eczema or an itchy rash. Much of the water supply in Britain is chlorinated to kill germs, although experts say it is at much lower levels than in the US.

Eggs Fried

High cholesterol levels predict higher survival rates in patients with acute coronary syndromes

This study was published in Clinical Cardiology 2009 Sep;32(9):E22-8

Study title and authors:
Hypercholesterolemia paradox in relation to mortality in acute coronary syndrome.
Wang TY, Newby LK, Chen AY, Mulgund J, Roe MT, Sonel AF, Bhatt DL, DeLong ER, Ohman EM, Gibler WB, Peterson ED.
Division of Cardiology, Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27705, USA. wang0085@mc.duke.edu

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19645040

This study investigated the association of cholesterol levels with in-hospital death rates in patients with acute coronary syndromes. (Acute coronary syndromes is an umbrella term for situations where the blood supplied to the heart muscle is suddenly blocked). The study included 84,429 patients with acute coronary syndromes and examined data regarding patients with (i) a history of existing high cholesterol and (ii) newly in-hospital diagnosed high cholesterol.

Bomb

Mycotoxins: The hidden hormone danger in our food supply

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© farmweeknow.com
Over 30 years ago, scientists observed mycotoxin contaminated animal feed (grains) interfering with normal sexual development in young female pigs, resulting in estrogenic syndromes and precocious puberty. Recent human research in the U.S. is now confirming that the contamination of our food supply with fungal toxins is adversely affecting the sexual development of young girls.

Grains, once considered the foundation of the USDA's food pyramid, have recently come under scrutiny due to their purported evolutionary incompatibility (e.g. Paleodiet), their co-option by biotech and agricultural corporations (e.g. Monsanto's Franken-Corn), as well as the fact that they convert to "sugar" within the body, to name but a few of a growing list of concerns. But there may be a more underlying problem affecting all grains, including both organic and conventional varieties, that Nature herself produces, and it goes by the name of Mycotoxins.

Comment: Sayer Ji has done an excellent job pointing out the connection between Mycotoxins and precocious puberty. Read the following articles for a deeper look at 'the contamination of our food supply with fungal toxins; adversely affecting the sexual development of young girls.'

Girls Hit Puberty Earlier than Ever, and Doctors Aren't Sure Why
Puberty in Girls Hastened by Harmful Chemicals
Puberty Before Age 10: A New 'Normal'?
Study: More U.S. Girls Starting Puberty Earlier Than Ever
The Alarming Reason Why More Girls are Starting Puberty Early


Cow

The drug store in American meat

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© counterpunch.org
Food consumers seldom hear about the drugs oestradiol-17, zeranol, trenbolone acetate and melengestrol acetate and the names are certainly not on meat labels. But those synthetic growth hormones are central to U.S. meat production, especially beef, and the reason Europe has banned a lot of U.S. meat since 1989.

Zeranol, widely used as a growth promoter in the U.S. beef industry, is known for its "ability to stimulate growth and proliferation of human breast tumor cells" like the "known carcinogen diethylstilbestrol (DES)," says the Breast Cancer Fund, a group dedicated to identifying and eliminating environmental causes of breast cancer. Zeranol may "play a critical role in mammary tumorigenesis" and "be a risk factor for breast cancer," agrees a recent paper from the College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering at China Agricultural University in Beijing.

Why is such a drug, that requires "Appropriate Personal Protective Equipment" for use - "laboratory coat, gloves, safety glasses and mask" - routinely used in U.S. meat production and not even labeled?

Bacon

When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail

"When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail." No where is this statement more true than in medicine. A perfect example is in the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

If a doctor suspects their patient may be diabetic, they can run an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), in which the patient is given a glucose load, and subsequent blood response is measured to see how effectively the glucose is cleared from the blood. In a non-diabetic, the blood sugar only rises a relatively small amount, as the intact and functional beta cells of the pancreas secrete just the right amount of insulin to reduce the blood sugar levels to normal levels.

If a person is given an OGTT and their blood sugar spikes more than expected, then by definition they are glucose intolerant. They have failed their OGTT, and cannot tolerate carbohydrates the way a non-diabetic can.

Magnify

Study: Stress causes shrinking in important parts of the brain

 brain X-ray
© MARCO LONGARI/AFP/Getty ImagesFile photo of a brain X-ray.
A new study has found that living a stressful life may lead to shrinking in important parts of the brain.

Researchers at Yale University saw reductions in the amount of gray matter in parts of the brain that control physiological and emotional functioning in those who endured significant amounts of stress.

According to a press release on Yale's website, the study observed over 100 healthy participants by conducting magnetic resonance imaging scans while they answered questions about potentially traumatic life events, including the losing of a loved one, job or home.

"They found that even the brains of subjects who had only recently experienced a stressful life event showed markedly lower gray matter in portions of the ... area of the brain that regulates not only emotions and self-control, but physiological functions such as blood pressure and glucose levels," the release stated.

Comment: For more information about an easy way to combat stress, check out the Eiriu Eolas Stress Control, Healing and Rejuvenation Program here.


Magic Wand

Extended sleep reduces pain sensitivity

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© Unknown
Increasing sleep time improves daytime alertness and reduces pain sensitivity.

A new study suggests that extending nightly sleep in mildly sleepy, healthy adults increases daytime alertness and reduces pain sensitivity.

"Our results suggest the importance of adequate sleep in various chronic pain conditions or in preparation for elective surgical procedures," said Timothy Roehrs, PhD, the study's principal investigator and lead author. "We were surprised by the magnitude of the reduction in pain sensitivity, when compared to the reduction produced by taking codeine."

The study, appearing in the December issue of the journal SLEEP, involved 18 healthy, pain-free, sleepy volunteers. They were randomly assigned to four nights of either maintaining their habitual sleep time or extending their sleep time by spending 10 hours in bed per night. Objective daytime sleepiness was measured using the multiple sleep latency test (MSLT), and pain sensitivity was assessed using a radiant heat stimulus.

Sun

Vitamin D tied to women's cognitive performance

Two new studies appearing in the Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences show that vitamin D may be a vital component for the cognitive health of women as they age.

Higher vitamin D dietary intake is associated with a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, according to research conducted by a team led by Cedric Annweiler, MD, PhD, at the Angers University Hospital in France.

Similarly, investigators led by Yelena Slinin, MD, MS, at the VA Medical Center in Minneapolis found that low vitamin D levels among older women are associated with higher odds of global cognitive impairment and a higher risk of global cognitive decline.

Slinin's group based its analysis on 6,257 community-dwelling older women who had vitamin D levels measured during the Study of Osteopathic Fractures and whose cognitive function was tested by the Mini-Mental State Examination and/or Trail Making Test Part B.

Cow Skull

Livestock falling ill in fracking regions

cow on Jacki Schilke's ranch
© Jacki SchilkeThis cow on Jacki Schilke's ranch in northeast North Dakota lost most of its tail, one of many ailments that afflicted her cattle after hydrofracturing, or fracking, began in the nearby Bakken Shale.
In the midst of the domestic energy boom, livestock on farms near oil- and gas-drilling operations nationwide have been quietly falling sick and dying. While scientists have yet to isolate cause and effect, many suspect chemicals used in drilling and hydrofracking (or "fracking") operations are poisoning animals through the air, water or soil.

Earlier this year, Michelle Bamberger, an Ithaca, N.Y., veterinarian, and Robert Oswald, a professor of molecular medicine at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine, published the first and only peer-reviewed report to suggest a link between fracking and illness in food animals.

The authors compiled 24 case studies of farmers in six shale-gas states whose livestock experienced neurological, reproductive and acute gastrointestinal problems after being exposed - either accidentally or incidentally - to fracking chemicals in the water or air. The article, published in New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health, describes how scores of animals died over the course of several years. Fracking industry proponents challenged the study, since the authors neither identified the farmers nor ran controlled experiments to determine how specific fracking compounds might affect livestock.

The death toll is insignificant when measured against the nation's livestock population (some 97 million beef cattle go to market each year), but environmental advocates believe these animals constitute an early warning.