Health & WellnessS


Attention

Study: Toxin from Genetically Modified Crops Found in Human Blood

Dinesh C. Sharma
India Today
Wed, 11 May 2011 18:47 UTC
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© indiatodayBt toxin is widely used in genetically modified crops.
Fresh doubts have arisen about the safety of genetically modified crops, with a new study reporting presence of Bt toxin, used widely in GM crops, in human blood for the first time.

Genetically modified crops include genes extracted from bacteria to make them resistant to pest attacks.

These genes make crops toxic to pests but are claimed to pose no danger to the environment and human health. Genetically modified brinjal (eggplant), whose commercial release was stopped a year ago, has a toxin derived from a soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis ( Bt).

Comment: For more information about toxins in Genetically Modified foods and the serious effects on overall health and wellness read the following article: Genetically Engineered Crops May Produce Herbicide Inside Our Intestines

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Magnify

Supermarket Meat Crawling with Bacteria, Packed with Drugs, Heavy Metals and Poison

William Douglass, M.D.
douglassreport.com
Mon, 16 May 2011 18:36 UTC
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© foodfreedom.wordpress.com
Sell a little healthy raw milk to a willing consumer, and you can expect cops to burst through the door with their guns drawn - but you can pass off tainted meat on unsuspecting customers all day long, and the feds won't do a thing about it.

Case in point: The latest study in Clinical Infectious Diseases, which showed that up to HALF of all supermarket meat is contaminated with bacteria - and half of those are resistant to multiple antibiotics.

Researchers bought 136 packages of beef, chicken, pork, and turkey from 26 supermarkets in five cities - and what they found would even make someone with an iron stomach a bit queasy.

Tests revealed that 47 percent of the meat was contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus. Nearly all of the samples were resistant to one antibiotic, and 52 percent were resistant to at least three different drugs.
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People

Apparent Immunity Gene 'Cures' Bay Area Man Of AIDS


Columbia Broadcasting System San Francisco
Mon, 16 May 2011 18:02 UTC
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© Associated Press
San Francisco, California - A 45-year-old man now living in the Bay Area may be the first person ever cured of the deadly disease AIDS, the result of the discovery of an apparent HIV immunity gene.

Timothy Ray Brown tested positive for HIV back in 1995, but has now entered scientific journals as the first man in world history to have that HIV virus completely eliminated from his body in what doctors call a "functional cure."

Brown was living in Berlin, Germany back in 2007, dealing with HIV and leukemia, when scientists there gave him a bone marrow stem cell transplant that had astounding results.

"I quit taking my HIV medication the day that I got the transplant and haven't had to take any since," said Brown, who has been dubbed "The Berlin Patient" by the medical community.

Brown's amazing progress continues to be monitored by doctors at San Francisco General Hospital and at the University of California at San Francisco medical center.
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Info

Modern Etiquette: Tips on How to Reform a Rude World

Mary Mitchell
Reuters
Mon, 16 May 2011 11:00 UTC
Rudeness is epidemic all over today. And I'm not even talking about cyber-rudeness.

People steal each other's cabs. Telephone receptionists are nasty. Sales clerks act like they're doing you a favor when you buy something. Waiters exhibit an attitude. Vicious gossip sells newspapers. Decency is considered boring.

Look outside and you'll see litter everywhere except in trash cans. Sit down in a restaurant and you'll find gum is underneath every table. Go into an office and you'll see bosses who don't treat their teams like human beings - foregoing simple little things like acknowledging their presence with introductions to visitors and clients.

The list could go on forever. I know because I pay a lot of attention to these things. I also know because any number of people call or write to tell me their latest manners travesties.

And all of it begs a question.
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Blackbox

Bizarre beauty practices

Dinna Chan Vasquez
Manila Standard Today
Mon, 16 May 2011 07:00 UTC
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© Unknown
Hair stylist Orlando Pita is said to be an advocate of not shampooing one's hair regularly. Instead he just rinses his mane with water and oils it afterward.

Cindy (not her real name) has an unusual facial once a month. Whenever Cindy gets her period, she takes some menstrual blood and slathers it on her face. She then leaves this on her face for 30 minutes. According to Cindy, this strange ritual makes her skin soft and supple.

In Japan, a spa offers a bath where noodle-shaped spa treatments are placed in bath water that contains elements from pork broth supplied by a nearby noodle shop. Taking a dip in the noodle bath is said to be good for the health as ingredients in the broth such as pepper collagen help improve the bather's metabolism and cleanse the skin.

In China, foot binding was inflicted on female children so that they would achieve the much-coveted lotus feet. Bandages were used to raise the instep of the feet and shorten their length. The foot would remain bound with straps in order to keep the instep in place, and eventually, over several years, the foot would become permanently deformed.
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Alarm Clock

Disturbing! Babies given anti-obesity drugs in the womb


The Telegraph
Wed, 11 May 2011 07:00 UTC
baby
© ALAMYDoctors hope it will prevent the birth of oversized babies, thereby reducing the need for caesarean sections

Babies to be given diet drug in the womb to stop them being born overweight in trial described as 'disturbing' by weight loss groups.

One hundred obese mums-to-be will be given Metformin as part of a three-year study to tackle obesity rates and reduce the number of difficult births.

Patients at Liverpool Women's Hospital will be given the drug to reduce the food supply to their unborn babies, although it will not help the mums themselves to lose weight.

Leading the trial, senior lecturer in obstetrics, Dr Andrew Weeks, said: "It is about trying to improve outcomes in pregnancy for women who are overweight.

"The problem is babies tend to be larger and many of the downsides of being overweight during pregnancy relate to the birth."
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Health

Medicinal Benefits of Kitchen Herbs

Kate Merena
ModernOrganix.com
Tue, 10 May 2011 00:00 UTC
Article removed at request of author:
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Cloud Lightning

Twister tutorial: Don't let the myths about tornadoes fool you

Tom Siemers
Bemidji Pioneer
Sat, 14 May 2011 12:00 UTC
You've no doubt heard the stories regarding tornadoes - they don't strike big cities; they can't cross rivers and lakes; they're attracted to trailer parks. The fact is tornadoes can strike anywhere, including the northwoods.

Last summer Bemidji residents were startled by tornado sirens. On July 23 weather spotters reported a tornado on the ground northeast of the Turtle River area. The first Minnesota tornado of 2011 touched down in St. Michael on Tuesday. Minnesota led the nation in 2010 with 145 reported tornadoes (including 48 on June 17) - blowing away second-place Texas, which reported 105 tornadoes.

The National Weather Service office in Grand Forks is responsible for issuing severe weather watches and warnings. However, it is the on-duty patrol sergeant who is responsible for determining when conditions warrant sounding the warning sirens in the city of Bemidji, according to Christopher Muller, Beltrami County Assistant Emergency Management Director. Muller said warning sirens outside of the city are sounded at the discretion of on-duty communications officers.

The sirens in Bemidji are activated whenever storms are anticipated to produce winds greater than 70 mph, when the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning, or when trained weather spotters observe a tornado. Muller emphasizes that outdoor warning sirens are intended to warn people who are outdoors and are not intended to provide warnings inside buildings.

A weather alert radio is a smart investment. They are inexpensive and modern units can be programmed to only alert you to local weather warnings.
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Syringe

Australia: Doctors Warn Parents to Keep Newborns at Home as Wooping Cough Epidemic Escalates

Jane Hansen
The Sunday Telegraph
Sun, 15 May 2011 12:00 UTC
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© Brian Pamphilon.The Sunday Telegraph David and Toni McCaffery with baby Sarah who lost their daughter Dana to whooping cough.
Doctors have warned parents to keep newborn babies at home to protect them from a whooping cough epidemic triggered by the "chardonnay set and alternatives".

There have been 4580 cases of whooping cough so far this year, new data from NSW Health reveals.

Northern Sydney and South Eastern Sydney have led the way in this year's resurgent epidemic, recording the highest incidence of whooping cough, with 669 and 522 cases respectively. The Illawarra region was next highest followed by Western Sydney and Southern Sydney.

National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance deputy director Dr Rob Menzies said it was unsurprising which suburbs had the highest rates of infection.

"It's a phenomenon where highly educated people feel they need to do their own research on what is best for their child and there is scepticism of official government policy," he said.

Comment: Parents would be wise to consider the risks of vaccines and to do their own research. There is an ongoing controversy about the dangers and efficacy of vaccines. The following quote is from from Roger R. Gervais, D.C., N.D., a naturopathic physician. The full article may be found here.
Finally, there is understandable concern among public health officials and parents alike as to what would happen without the vaccines. In the case of at least one (the Pertussis vaccine), the vaccine, which is known or suspected of causing infantile encephalitis and sudden infant death syndrome, would appear to be worse than the disease. It has also been implicated in bacterial infections including meningitis.

Many years ago, Sweden banned the Pertussis vaccine because of these dangers. For similar reasons, Japan delays the vaccine until after two years of age, whereas in North America, it is usually administered at two months of age. Both Sweden and Japan are credited with having the lowest infant mortality rates in the world. This fact would tend to discredit claims that the Pertussis vaccine is necessary to prevent an escalation of infant mortality in North America.


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Family

Self-Compassion: The Most Important Life Skill?

Robin Nixon
LiveScience
Sun, 15 May 2011 13:15 UTC
mother and son
© Justin JinKristin Neff with her son Rowan.
A charming animated baby, Kristin Neff's son Rowan retreated into himself as a toddler, losing his few words and becoming prone to inexplicable screaming fits.

There are numerous ways Neff could have reacted to Rowan's 2004 diagnosis of autism. She could have buried her emotions, become despondent or immediately found something to blame.

But Neff, an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, was in the midst of pioneering psychological research on self-compassion. And her findings suddenly proved invaluable to her personal life. Being sympathetic and kind to herself let her cope constructively and offered insight into how to parent her struggling son.

Neff wrote about it all in "Self-Compassion" (William Morrow, 2011), released this April. And a budding field of research has psychologists are finding that self-compassion may be the most important life skill, imparting resilience, courage, energy and creativity.

It's also a skill many people lack.

Self-compassion is often misunderstood as being soft and indulgent; and the phrase alone would probably turn the stomach of Amy Chua, whose book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (Penguin, 2011) re-stoked the debate about how strict or lenient we should be with our kids and with ourselves.

But psychological research says neither side of this debate wins.
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