Health & WellnessS


Magic Wand

Acupuncture of Benefit to Those with Unexplained Symptoms


The Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry
Sun, 29 May 2011 00:00 UTC
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© Unknown
Attending frequently with medically unexplained symptoms is distressing for both patient and doctor and effective treatment or management options are limited: one in five patients have symptoms that remain unexplained by conventional medicine. Studies have shown that the cost to the NHS of managing the treatment of a patient with medically unexplained symptoms can be twice that of a patient with a diagnosis.

A research team from the Institute of Health Services Research, Peninsula Medical School, University of Exeter, has carried out a randomised control trial and a linked interview study regarding 80 such patients from GP practices across London, to investigate their experiences of having five-element acupuncture added to their usual care. This is the first trial of traditional acupuncture for people with unexplained symptoms.

The results of the research are published in the British Journal of General Practice. They reveal that acupuncture had a significant and sustained benefit for these patients and consequently acupuncture could be safely added to the therapies used by practitioners when treating frequently attending patients with medically unexplained symptoms.

The patient group was made up of 80 adults, 80 per cent female with an average age of 50 years and from a variety of ethnic backgrounds who had consulted their GP at least eight times in the past year. Nearly 60 per cent reported musculoskeletal health problems, of which almost two-thirds had been present for a year.
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Health

What Happens in Crohn's Disease?


Health.com
Fri, 11 Mar 2011 15:33 UTC
Crohns disease
© Healthwise, Inc.Crohn's disease can affect any part of the digestive tract (which goes from the mouth to the anus). Most common is Crohn's disease that affects the ileum (the part of the small intestine that joins the large intestine). But Crohn's disease can be in multiple places in the digestive tract at the same time.

This picture shows Crohn's disease that is affecting the ileum and parts of the large intestine (colon), including the rectum. This kind of disease pattern is called ileocolitis.
Crohn's Disease is an ongoing (chronic) condition that may flare up throughout your life. The course of the disease varies greatly from one person to another. Some people may have only mild symptoms, while others may have severe symptoms or complications that, in unusual cases, may be life-threatening.

Crohn's disease may be mild, moderate, severe, or not active (in remission). It may be defined by the part of the digestive tract involved, such as the rectum and anus (perianal disease) or the area where the small intestine joins the large intestine (ileocecal disease). Some people may have features of both Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, the other major type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Crohn's disease can cause symptoms outside the digestive tract, such as joint pain, eye problems, a skin rash, or liver disease.

Comment: For more information see:

Healing Your Gastrointestinal Tract

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Arrow Down

Lethal 'Cucumber Bug' Spreads to UK


News.com
Sun, 29 May 2011 05:05 UTC
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© Agence France-PresseCucumbers from Spain are one of the sources responsible for an outbreak in Germany of E.Coli.
  • E.Coli strain has killed nine in Germany
  • 300 people hospitalised with the deadly bug
  • Warning not to eat cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes
A German in Britain has been diagnosed with a potentially lethal strain of E.coli, believed to originate in organic cucumbers.

The bacteria have killed nine people in Germany, and almost 300 people have been admitted to the hospital there. Cases have also been reported in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.

The outbreak is believed to have originated in organic cucumbers grown in Spain, although there also are suggestions the bacteria have been found in cucumbers grown in the Netherlands.

The UK Food Standards Agency has confirmed that the offending cucumbers have not been on sale at any outlets in the UK.

The advice now to people travelling to Germany is not to eat cucumbers, raw tomatoes or lettuce.

The British Health Protection Authority (HPA) confirmed that three German nationals currently in Britain have fallen ill and one is confirmed to have the infection behind the outbreak.

A spokeswoman for the HPA said the outbreak in Germany was "very, very serious" and although the bug was infectious, there had been no reports of secondary infection yet in the UK.

Dr. Dilys Morgan, head of the gastrointestinal, emerging and zoonotic infections department at the HPA, said, "The HPA is actively monitoring the situation very carefully and liaising with the authorities in Germany, the European Centre for Disease Control and the World Health Organization as to the cause of the outbreak. E.coli bacteria like these are responsible for the outbreak across Europe."
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Attention

German E.coli Outbreak Death Toll Rises to 10

Annika Breidthardt
Reuters
Sun, 29 May 2011 09:34 UTC
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© ReutersA woman buys cucumbers at a market in El Alquian in southeastern Spain
A virulent form of E.coli bacteria blamed on infected cucumbers from Spain has killed 10 people in Germany and sickened 300, health officials said on Sunday while warning people not to eat suspect vegetables.

European health experts on Saturday said the outbreak of hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), which affects the blood, kidneys and, in severe cases, the nervous system, was the largest ever in Germany and the biggest of its kind worldwide.

An 86-year-old female patient died on Saturday, taking the toll of victims to 10, the University Hospital Luebeck said on Sunday.

The hospital in northern Germany said it was treating about 70 patients, including the dead woman's husband, for the infection and was expecting to receive 10 new cases a day.

Health officials have advised people in Germany to avoid eating cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce and some of these products have been removed from shop shelves.
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Smoking

Encroaching Fascism: New York Adds Parks and Beaches to Smoking Ban


The Telegraph, UK
Tue, 24 May 2011 08:52 UTC
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© Getty ImagesNew York's City Council voted in February to broaden the city's smoking prohibitions
New York City has added the city's parks and beaches to the list of places where smoking is banned.

The ban, which officials hope will prevent problems caused by second-hand smoke, adds to the city's 2003 ban on cigarettes in bars and restaurants.

The new law will not be enforced by police but by some 200 parks personnel who watch over the city's 29,000 acres of park land and beaches. Violators face a $50 fine but officials say the ban is meant to be largely self-enforcing.

"We don't think that people should be exposed to those chemicals when they go to a park to enjoy the fresh air," city Health Commissioner Thomas Farley told Reuters.


Comment: Oh yeah, like the air in New York City is just pure and toxin-free!

Saleswoman Polonia Jourdain, sitting on a park bench with her eight-month-old nephew, said she was happy with the ban.

"I don't want to smell smoke wherever I go," said Jourdain, 17. "The smell of cigarettes makes me nauseous and gives me headaches."

New York's City Council voted in February to broaden the city's smoking prohibitions to cover its 1,700 parks, beaches, boardwalks and pedestrian plazas, such as Times Square.

Comment: Lies, Damned Lies & 400,000 Smoking-related Deaths: Cooking the Data in the Fascists' Anti-Smoking Crusade

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Syringe

Warning to Parents: This Vaccine Linked to Sudden Infant Death...


Dr. Mercola
Thu, 19 May 2011 14:26 UTC
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© drmercola.com
The hepatitis B vaccine is given to U.S. infants at birth. But there is impressive evidence that for a preventive measure, hepatitis B vaccine is remarkable for the frequency, variety, and severity of complications from its use.

Hepatitis B vaccine has been shown in many peer-reviewed research papers to be associated with numerous infant deaths in the U.S. and Europe, multiple sclerosis and numerous chronic autoimmune disorders.

According to Child Health Safety, the U.S. government admitted as much when a Court found in favor of a plaintiff (deceased by the time the decision was made) who had developed systemic lupus erythematosus:
"Tambra Harris ... filed a petition for compensation alleging that she suffered certain injuries as a result of receiving a vaccination. Among the injuries petitioner alleged that she had suffered as a result of receiving a hepatitis B vaccination was systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) ... A lump sum of $475,000.00 in the form of a check payable to petitioner as Administratrix of the Estate of Tambra Harris."
Since parents' concerns about childhood vaccine safety have greatly increased during the past five years, a new report also suggests that pediatricians and family physicians should figure out ways to spend LESS time talking with them about it.
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Cow Skull

SOTT Focus: Paradise Lost

Zoran Janković, DVM
Sott.net
Sun, 29 May 2011 00:00 UTC
[This article originally appeared in Issue 13 of Sott.net's The Dot Connector Magazine]

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While examining the available literature on health and nutrition from an evolutionary standpoint, one comes to the inevitable conclusion that, as far as diet is concerned, human beings entered a blind alley thousands of years ago. Even if by some miracle humanity as whole was to completely reorganize its diet overnight, an important question remains - have we engineered our environment beyond the point of no return?

Contrary to the popular belief held by many anthropologists that agriculture is one of man's greatest achievements, there is an increasing body of evidence which suggests that the human race actually set out on the path of self-destruction when it embraced agrarian societies.

The picture now emerging is that the switch from hunting and gathering occurred suddenly and was followed by a sharp drop in life expectancy. Ancient human bones found in archaeological layers dated since the adoption of agriculture reveal increased prevalence of disease and lesser numbers of aged people. For centuries after the adoption of agriculture, these bones also tell the stories of greater numbers of violent deaths when compared with bone remains from pre-agrarian hunter-gatherer societies. There is an undeniable echo of the Garden of Eden story here. This is, in fact, one of the greatest puzzles of prehistory. Why did agriculture catch on so fast?
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Info

Reverse Sad: Why springtime can be bad for depression sufferers

Stephanie Hegarty
BBC
Sun, 29 May 2011 04:38 UTC
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© UnknownNot everyone is cheered by spring
While the arrival of spring heralds a new lease of life and energy for most people, for those suffering from depression the effect can be drastically different.

Harvard psychiatrist John Sharp has done extensive research into the effects that the changing seasons have on our mental health and emotional well-being.

In his book, The Emotional Calendar, Sharp outlines how physical, psychological and socio-cultural factors influence the way we feel.

"Most people do feel an increase in exuberance, energy, optimism, excitement, maybe a restlessness and sleeplessness that can come from what the Americans call spring fever," he told the BBC World Service's Health Check programme.
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Attention

Best of the Web: 7 Secret Ways We Are Being Poisoned


Activist Post
Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:31 UTC
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© Activist Post
The objectivism of the scientific method seems to have been hijacked by corporations who often pay for scientists to support their products, as well as politicians who move through the revolving door between the private and public sector. Even worse is that sometimes the consumer protection agencies themselves are complicit.

The trust placed by consumers in scientific studies and Federal oversight committees has been violated in service to profit so that products are allowed to enter the marketplace with reduced safety standards. The synthetic chemicals we encounter on a daily basis in our food, water, and environment are increasingly shown to be disastrous to our physical and mental well-being. Volumes can be written - indeed have been written - by experts in both mainstream and alternative medicine who have documented the sleight of hand used to hoodwink consumers and threaten our health. The categories below are worth deeper investigation as prime examples of what we might face as a species if this chemical bombardment continues.
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Question

Now That the FDA Itself has Found BPA in Canned Foods, Will it Regulate the Poison?

Tom Philpott
Grist
Thu, 26 May 2011 19:05 UTC
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© GristOh, yes we can: It's time for the FDA to act on its own information regarding canned foods and BPA
The next time an FDA panel convenes to discuss whether to ban BPA, the endocrine-disrupting industrial chemical used in can liners, it will have new data to consider - a study by the agency's own scientists. In a just-released report, they tested a range of commonly used canned foods, from peas to chili, and found "detectable" levels of BPA in 71 of 78 samples.

Given that millions of Americans consume these foods daily and that the dangers of BPA have been known for years now, you might think there's a broad range of studies looking at the question of BPA leaching into everyday foods. Not so. The FDA researchers surveyed the literature, and found a glaring hole. They write:
It was clear that there were no large scale studies of the U.S. market and that there were significant data gaps for highly consumed canned foods, such as chili, pastas and pork and beans.
So now the gap has been filled and we know that a broad swath of the public is exposed regularly to a toxin known to cause harm at extremely low levels. Will the FDA now act to banish it?
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