Chemicals found in cleaning products may be harming the health of children and adults, new research suggests.

A study shows that young people who are over-exposed to the soap agent triclosan are more likely to suffer allergies.

The chemical bisphenol A (BPA), which is used in plastics and to line food cans, may suppress the immune system of adults.

Green tea polyphenols combined with a form of vitamin D called alfacalcidol could boost bone structure and strength, according to a new study in mice.

The mixture may reverse damage to bones caused by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced chronic inflammation, which could in turn reduce the risk of osteoporosis.

Chronic inflammation causes bone loss through oxidative stress and excessive production of pro-inflammatory molecules.

According to NutraIngredients:

"The researchers reported that both extracted green tea polyphenols and alfacalcidol supplementations reversed LPS-induced changes in bone structure, whilst a combination of both was shown to sustain bone micro-architecture and strength."

Sources:

NutraIngredients November 2, 2010

Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry October 29, 2010

According to Carolyn Dean, MD, ND, life-threatening diseases such as diabetes once consigned to adults are becoming alarmingly common in childhood. Asthma, allergies, endocrine irregularities, behavioral problems and a host of other maladies in children have reached epidemic proportions. Nonetheless, Dr. Dean argues, prevention and reversal are possible with sound nutrition and common sense.

Dr. Dean's new booklet, Kids' Health - A Doctor's Guide for Parents, published by Better Nutrition magazine, offers clear-cut guidelines for achieving, maintaining or restoring children's health.

Here's a little something that can help you make it through the holidays.

I'd like to introduce you to magnesium, the fourth most abundant mineral in your body. Magnesium is the most critical mineral for coping with stress.

That's right. Number one for helping you handle stress.

With the adrenaline-fueled rush of shopping and partying, stress levels go up, up and away. Taking a little magnesium or eating magnesium-rich foods could help bring stress down to a manageable level, and even let you enjoy the holidays more.

Almost every child care book offers the same advice about a baby's first meal.

When infants are ready for solid food, experts say, start them first on rice cereal, available in a box, mixed with breast milk or formula. Babies have launched their eating careers this way for 60 years, says Alan Greene, a pediatrician at Stanford University's Lucile Packard Children Hospital.

In the 1950s, Greene says, baby food companies trumpeted the benefits of white rice cereal, telling mothers that it was easier for babies to digest than anything they could make at home. "The ads said, 'You can't feed children as well as we can,' " says Greene, author of Feeding Baby Green.

But David Ludwig, director of the Optimal Weight for Life program at Children's Hospital Boston, says "there's no scientific basis for this recommendation. That's a myth."

The International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology passed in a detailed report to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration alerting that due to mercury found in dental fillings, they evaluate that 67.2 million Americans go over the reference mercury exposure level. More concerning, if the California Environmental Protection Agency's benchmark is considered, then approximately 122 million Americans go over that dose level.

In contradiction to the FDA's ruling in 2009 that being exposed to fillings containing mercury has no underlying peril to health, this recent study conducted by G. Mark Richardson, Ph.D., of SNC-Lavalin, finds that mercury particles are constantly being absorbed by the body, as well as the brain. Extended contact with mercury can lead to kidney disease, crosses the blood brain separation and is neurotoxic.

Complementing the importance of this report is an amalgamation of over 100 studies published in the Journal of Alzheimers's Disease this month, that backs up the notion that mercury is a leading cause of Alzheimer's Disease.

By photographing tiny blood vessels in a person's eyes, researchers have found a way to link exposure to air pollution with a higher risk of heart disease, a study published Tuesday said.

"New digital photos of the retina revealed that otherwise healthy people exposed to high levels of air pollution had narrower retinal arterioles, an indication of a higher risk of heart disease," said the study in PLoS Medicine.

A person who was exposed to low level of pollution in a short time period showed the microvascular -- or extremely tiny -- blood vessels "of someone three years older," it said.

Someone who faced longer term exposure to high levels of pollution had the blood vessels of someone seven years older, it said.

"Such a change would translate to a three percent increase in heart disease for a woman living with high levels of air pollution as compared to a woman in a cleaner area," said Sara Adar, research assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

The use of paracetamol for infants may be linked to the development of allergies and asthma later on, according to a report.

But more research is needed to clarify this and the benefits of paracetamol use for fever control still outweigh the potential of later allergy development, said Julian Crane, a professor at Otago University in Wellington and author of the report.

"The problem is that paracetamol is given quite liberally to young children," he told Reuters.

"There's a lot of evidence suggesting that something is going on here. It's not completely clear-cut, that's the problem."

The report, which has appeared in Clinical and Experimental Allergy journal, is based on the New Zealand Asthma and Allergy Cohort Study, which investigated use of paracetamol for 505 infants in Christchurch and 914 five and six-year-olds in Christchurch to see if they developed signs of asthma or allergic sensitivity.

Nanoparticles these days are quietly being slipped into products and processes as diverse as electronics, healthcare products (like sunscreen), and pharmaceuticals to fight cancer.

But for all that promise, there's a dark side. In order to make nanoparticles like tiny gold nanoparticles or titanium dioxide nanoparticles, caustic chemicals frequently are required. Scientists are concerned that minute quantities of those chemicals could harm the human body, causing cancer or other diseases.

But a University of Missouri research team, led by MU Physics and Radiology Professor Kattesh Katti thinks they have a solution -- cinnamon.

The team mixed gold salts in water with cinnamon and discovered that they remarkably formed nanoparticles. Typically such particles form only when exposed to an electric field or when toxic chemicals are added to the mix.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers have captured pictures of the brain while patients experienced a pain stimulus with and without acupuncture to determine acupuncture's effect on how the brain processes pain. Results of the study, which the researchers say suggest the effectiveness of acupuncture, were presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

"Until now, the role of acupuncture in the perception and processing of pain has been controversial," said lead researcher Nina Theysohn, M.D., from the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology and Neuroradiology at University Hospital in Essen, Germany. "Functional MRI gives us the opportunity to directly observe areas of the brain that are activated during pain perception and see the variances that occur with acupuncture."

fMRI measures the tiny metabolic changes that take place in an active part of the brain, while a patient performs a task or is exposed to a specific external stimulus.

In the study, conducted in close collaboration with the Department of Complementary and Integrative Medicine at University of Duisburg-Essen, 18 healthy volunteers underwent fMRI while an electrical pain stimulus was attached to the left ankle. Acupuncture needles were then placed at three places on the right side, including between the toes, below the knee, and near the thumb. With the needles in place, fMRI was repeated while electrical currents were again directed at the left ankle. The researchers then compared the images and data obtained from the fMRI sessions with no acupuncture to those of the fMRI sessions with acupuncture.

"Activation of brain areas involved in pain perception was significantly reduced or modulated under acupuncture," Dr. Theysohn said.