Health & WellnessS


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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Beaker

Amid Health Fears, Diet Coke Sweetener in Safety Spotlight

Sean Poulter
Mail Online
Fri, 27 May 2011 11:24 UTC
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A sweetener used in Diet Coke is to undergo a safety review over fears that it has harmful effects on human health.
An artificial sweetener used in Diet Coke is to undergo an urgent EU safety review.

Aspartame is ingested every day by millions of people around the world in more than 6,000 well-known brands of food, drink and medicine.

However, it has been the subject of a number of studies that appear to show harmful effects on human health.

One recent study linked diet drinks containing aspartame to premature births, while another suggested it could cause cancer.

To date, health watchdogs, including the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA), have ruled out any link to ill-health.

But after several MEPs asked for a new investigation following pressure from European health campaigners, EU Commission officials have now asked the EFSA to bring forward a review that had been planned for 2020.

The concern about artificial sweeteners such as aspartame relates to the fact that they contain methanol, a nerve toxin which can be metabolised in the body to form two more nerve toxins: formic acid and formaldehyde, the chemical used to preserve dead bodies.

Comment: In the US there have been numerous studies showing the serious health effects of Aspartame. For more information about how the FDA suppressed these studies, read the following articles:

The Deadly Neurotoxin Nearly EVERYONE Uses Daily (VIDEO)
America's Deadliest Sweetener Betrays Millions, Then Hoodwinks You With Name Change
Aspartame: The Politics of Food
A Dangerous Spin On The Cancer Risks Of Sugar-Free Sweeteners
Searle, Monsanto and Ajinomoto: Three Corporate Miscreants in the Toxic Junk Food Additive and Aspartame Business
ASPARTAME - The Silent Killer
FDA Hid Research That Damned Aspartame: Fatal Studies Should Have Blocked NutraSweet Approval

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Pills

Smoking-Pill Suicides Overlooked in Missing Reports

JoNel Aleccia
MSNBC.com
Fri, 27 May 2011 07:34 UTC
Drugmaker sent data to FDA through 'improper channels'

Hundreds of reports of suicides, psychotic reactions and other serious problems tied to the popular stop-smoking drug Chantix were left out of a crucial government safety review because Pfizer Inc., the drug's manufacturer, submitted years of data through "improper channels."

Some 150 suicides - more than doubling those previously known - were among 589 delayed reports of severe issues turned up in a new analysis by the non-profit Institute for Safe Medication Practices.

"We've had a major breakdown in safety surveillance," said Thomas J. Moore, the ISMP senior scientist who analyzed the data. The serious problems - including reports of completed suicides, suicide attempts, aggression and hostility and depression - had been mixed among some 26,000 records of non-serious side effects such as nausea and rashes, with some dating back to 2006, the year Chantix, or varenicline, was approved.

They echo previous claims that the drug can induce extreme reactions in people trying to quit cigarettes, including vivid nightmares, crippling depression and sudden, violent outbursts.

"It's really chilling," said Moore, who analyzed 26 Chantix reactions in a paper published in the September 2010 issue of the Journal of Pharmacotherapy. "This seems to unleash something in people. It can be violence to anything around."

Comment: All this anti-smoking hysteria for something that may not be harmful and in some cases may even be beneficial. For more information read Let's All Light Up!

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Attention

US: Toxic Mercury in Found in Skin-Lightening Creams

Maura Lerner
StarTribune/Wellness
Thu, 26 May 2011 07:55 UTC
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© Minnesota Dept. of HealthFasco skin lightening cream contains 4,600 parts per million of mercury, the Minnesota Health Department said after it conducted tests on this and other skin-lightening products.
Minnesota health officials warned consumers to stop using the products, which are extremely dangerous.

They have names like Fasco Herbal Cream and FC Lemon Herbal Whitening Cream. And they're widely sold in local immigrant communities, with labels saying they contain nothing more ominous than vitamins and natural plants.

But on Wednesday, Minnesota health officials said they detected dangerous and illegal levels of mercury in almost a dozen types of skin-lightening products. They warned consumers to avoid all skin-lightening products unless they can be sure they're mercury-free.

Some of the samples tested by the state Health Department contained more than 33,000 times the permissible level of mercury, so much that they urged consumers to treat the products as hazardous waste.

"It's a very significant level," said Aggie Leitheiser, assistant commissioner of health.

So far, no known illnesses have been linked to the products in Minnesota, Leitheiser said. But she said mercury can be extremely dangerous, especially to pregnant women and young children, because it can damage the kidneys and nervous system.

Leitheiser said the products seem to be marketed largely to minority groups, but that they're also sold to treat freckles and age spots, which means anyone might use them.

Comment: Mercury is a deadly toxin. Dr. Mark Hyman discusses mercury toxicity and how to rid the body of this toxin here:

Many cosmetics are loaded with other toxic chemicals and often they are not disclosed on the packaging - it would be wise to educate yourself before using them. Read more here:

The Ugly Side of Beauty, Some Cosmetics Can Be Toxic
The Danger of Toxic Consumer Products, Fragrances
Everyday Products Are Filled With Toxins - And We're Not Doing a Thing About It
The Chemicals In Your Cosmetics

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Beaker

Bacterial Ecosystems Divide People Into 3 Groups, Scientists Say

Carl Zimmer
The Cornucopia Institute
Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:00 UTC
In the early 1900s, scientists discovered that each person belonged to one of four blood types. Now they have discovered a new way to classify humanity: by bacteria. Each human being is host to thousands of different species of microbes. Yet a group of scientists now report just three distinct ecosystems in the guts of people they have studied.

Blood type, meet bug type.

"It's an important advance," said Rob Knight, a biologist at the University of Colorado, who was not involved in the research. "It's the first indication that human gut ecosystems may fall into distinct types."

The researchers, led by Peer Bork of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, found no link between what they called enterotypes and the ethnic background of the European, American and Japanese subjects they studied.

Nor could they find a connection to sex, weight, health or age. They are now exploring other explanations. One possibility is that the guts, or intestines, of infants are randomly colonized by different pioneering species of microbes.

The microbes alter the gut so that only certain species can follow them.

Whatever the cause of the different enterotypes, they may end up having discrete effects on people's health. Gut microbes aid in food digestion and synthesize vitamins, using enzymes our own cells cannot make.
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Health

Why Salt Doesn't Deserve its Bad Rap

Kristin Wartman
Grist
Thu, 26 May 2011 18:26 UTC
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© GristA good pinch of this won't do you any harm.
For something that's so often mixed with anti-caking agents, salt takes a lot of lumps in the American imagination. Like fat, people tend to think of it as an unnecessary additive - something to be avoided by seeking out processed foods that are "free" of it. But also like fat, salt is an essential component of the human diet - one that has been transformed into unhealthy forms by the food industry.

Historically, though, salt was prized. Its reputation can be found in phrases like, "Worth one's salt," meaning, "Worth one's pay," since people were often paid in salt and the word itself is derived from the Latin salarium, or salary.

Those days are long over. Doctors and dietitians, along with the USDA dietary guidelines, recommend eating a diet low in sodium to prevent high blood pressure, risk of cardiovascular disease, and stroke; and doctors have been putting their patients on low-salt diets since the 1970s. But a new study, published in the May 4 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), found that low-salt diets actually increase the risk of death from heart attack and stroke - and in fact don't prevent high blood pressure.
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Magnify

Scientists identify source of lethal bug in Germany


Monsters and Critics
Thu, 26 May 2011 16:23 UTC
German experts Thursday identified Spanish cucumbers as the source of a virulent super-bacterium that has killed three people and left hundreds ill.

Hamburg's hygiene institute discovered the bacterium on three cucumbers from Spain, the city's Health Senator Cornelia Pruefer-Storcks said.

'It cannot be ruled out that other food produce is a possible source of infection,' Pruefer-Storcks said.
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