Health & WellnessS


Heart - Black

UK hospital caught falsifying records to meet government cancer treatment targets

Diane Taylor
The Guardian
Sat, 09 Nov 2013 14:30 UTC
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© Nick Ansell/PAAt least 6,000 patients at Colchester general hospital may have had their records falsified to meet treatment targets.
At least 6,000 patients could be affected in scandal at Colchester general hospital as inquiry looks at CEO's role in bullying

The scandal over cancer treatment at a leading hospital has widened after it emerged that its own officials now fear that at least 6,000 patients may have had their records falsified to meet treatment targets.

Investigations by the Observer into the crisis at Colchester general hospital have also established that inquiries into whether staff were bullied into changing records will include the questioning of the hospital's chief executive, Gordon Coutts.

It emerged last week that the hospital's cancer unit is being investigated by police after staff said they had been "pressured or bullied" into changing data relating to patients in order to meet targets for cancer treatment. The healthcare watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), said the records of 22 patients, out of a sample of 61 that were examined, had been altered to conceal the fact that they had faced "extensive" delays for treatment, which in some cases could have put their lives at risk.

Data was changed to make it appear that the hospital was meeting national cancer targets, which demand that patients wait no more than 62 days from urgent GP referral to completion of the first phase of treatment.

Initially it was reported that the records of the 22 patients appeared to have been changed and that 30 patients or next of kin had been written to, offering to review their treatment. However, sources close to the investigation now say that 6,000 or more patients referred to the Essex hospital between 2010 and 2013 may be caught up in the scandal.
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Life Preserver

"Hidden caves" in the brain open up during sleep to wash away toxins

Jeremy Dean
PsyBlog
Mon, 11 Nov 2013 09:23 UTC
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© HaoJan Chang“Hidden caves” that open up in the brain may help explain sleep’s amazing restorative powers.
A new study published in the prestigious journal, Science, has found that the brain may wash away toxins built up over the day during sleep.

The research discovered "hidden caves" inside the brain, which open up during sleep, allowing cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to flush out potential neurotoxins, like β-amyloid, which has been associated with Alzheimer's disease.

To reach their discovery, researchers injected mice's brains with a dye and monitored the flow while they were awake, asleep and anaesthetised (Xie et al., 2013).

One of the study's authors, Dr Maiken Nedergaard, explained the results:
"We were surprised by how little flow there was into the brain when the mice were awake. It suggested that the space between brain cells changed greatly between conscious and unconscious states."
For a long time the real physiological purpose of sleep has remained a mystery.

We know that lack of sleep causes all kinds of psychological problems like poor learning, decision-making and so on.
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Syringe

Rise in Autism rates go hand-in-hand with increased vaccinations

Paul Fassa
Natural Society
Mon, 11 Nov 2013 03:31 UTC
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Another effort to discount vaccinations as a source of autism has gone into research to prove defective genes as the major culprit. Some epidemiological studies based on twins with autism spectrum disorders was done as early as the mid-1970s. Since then, autism has increased 40-fold. All this from a sudden case of bad genes? This rapid autism rise has coincided with a dramatic increase of early childhood vaccination schedules over the same period, which has been an almost four-fold increase.

The gene theory does not explain how healthy babies suddenly became autistic after undergoing part of an intense series of vaccinations, some shots with multiple-vaccines, at newly born or toddler age.

As a matter of fact, there is very little effort to objectively pursue the autism-vaccination connection. Gene research opposition to the gene theories of autism, or gene theories of many diseases, comes from those who consider environmental causes as primary causal factors, not vaccinations.

Comment: How Safe Are Vaccines? Read the following SOTT articles to learn more:

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Monkey Wrench

USDA 'Organic-Washing': Another way to mislead the U.S. consumer?

Sayer Ji
Greenmedinfo.com
Sat, 09 Nov 2013 03:19 UTC
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USDA organic certification affords the U.S. consumer one of the only food quality protections available today, but does it really guarantee a product is chemical free?

What's a consumer to do today? Between cause - and patently false-marketing, looking beneath the surface appearances of product packaging and advertising becomes a necessity, lest we harm ourselves or the environment unknowingly, or support industries that don't have our best interests in mind.

You may already know about green-washing, pink-washing and so-called gene-washing (i.e. 'natural' labeled products containing GMOs), but prepare yourself for the next level of @%@#!% with "organic-washing."

We hit upon this topic recently in our exposé on USDA organic baby formula containing a chemical ingredient used as a pesticide, but the problem extends to many other "certified organic" products and brands on the market.
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Footprints

Millions Against Monsanto: Five lessons from the battle against GMOs

Ronnie Cummins
Organic Consumers Association
Mon, 11 Nov 2013 03:01 UTC
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Twenty years after the controversial introduction of unlabeled and untested genetically engineered foods and crops, opposition to GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) and Monsanto has created one of the largest netroots-grassroots movements in the U.S.

There are arguably more important issues facing us today than the battle against Frankenfoods. The climate crisis and corporate control over the government and media come to mind. But the rapidly growing anti-GMO Movement illustrates the powerful synergy that can develop from the combined use of social media, marketplace pressure and political action. Recent developments in this sector indicate that out-of-control corporations, media, politicians and the proverbial "one percent" can be outsmarted and outmaneuvered. And quite possibly defeated.

In the wake of high-stakes multi-million dollar GMO labeling ballot initiatives in California in 2012, and Washington State in 2013, an army of organic food and natural health activists have put Corporate America and the political elite on the defensive. We've demonstrated that aggressive populist issue-framing; unconventional "inside-outside" coalition-building; marketplace pressure; and online list-building, mobilization and fundraising - strategically channeled into local and state-based political action - can begin to even up the odds between David and Goliath.
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Arrow Down

Former pro-GMO scientist speaks out against GMO dangers

Elizabeth Renter
Natural Society
Sun, 10 Nov 2013 02:08 UTC
As mounting evidence shows genetically modified foods have dangerous health and environmental repercussions, the number of scientists willing to step forward and speak out against them is similarly growing. Dr. Thierry Vrain is just the latest of many scientists to buck Monsanto and their hired goons, changing his stance on GMOs and shouting their dangers to anyone that will listen.
Dr. Thierry Vrain
© Natural Society
Dr. Vrain is a former research scientist for Agriculture Canada. It was his job as scientist of his institute to address the public and others, assuring them of the safety of genetically engineered crops and foods. Now, 10 years after his retirement, he's changed his tune.
"In the last 10 years I have changed my position. I started paying attention to the flow of published studies coming from Europe, some from prestigious labs and published in prestigious scientific journals, that questioned the impact and safety of engineered food.

I refute the claims of the biotechnology companies that their engineered crops yield more, that they require less pesticide applications, that they have no impact on the environment and of course that they are safe to eat."
The studies commissioned by Monsanto understandably come to the conclusion that genetically modified foods and crops are both safe for the environment and safe for people. They are commissioned by the people who want that outcome. Studies from objective researchers, however, often come to very different conclusions.
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Life Preserver

Your ancestors didn't sleep like you


Slumber Wise
Thu, 16 May 2013 08:47 UTC
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Ok, maybe your grandparents probably slept like you. And your great, great-grandparents. But once you go back before the 1800s, sleep starts to look a lot different. Your ancestors slept in a way that modern sleepers would find bizarre - they slept twice. And so can you.

The history

The existence of our sleeping twice per night was first uncovered by Roger Ekirch, professor of History at Virginia Tech.

His research found that we didn't always sleep in one eight hour chunk. We used to sleep in two shorter periods, over a longer range of night. This range was about 12 hours long, and began with a sleep of three to four hours, wakefulness of two to three hours, then sleep again until morning.

References are scattered throughout literature, court documents, personal papers, and the ephemera of the past. What is surprising is not that people slept in two sessions, but that the concept was so incredibly common. Two-piece sleeping was the standard, accepted way to sleep.

"It's not just the number of references - it is the way they refer to it, as if it was common knowledge," Ekirch says.

An English doctor wrote, for example, that the ideal time for study and contemplation was between "first sleep" and "second sleep." Chaucer tells of a character in the Canterbury Tales that goes to bed following her "firste sleep." And, explaining the reason why working class conceived more children, a doctor from the 1500s reported that they typically had sex after their first sleep.

Comment: For more information, see our forum discussion Are You Getting Enough Sleep? Sleeping properly?

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Post-It Note

This pretty much sums up the broken medical system

Justin Smith
Statin Nation
Sun, 10 Nov 2013 07:20 UTC
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The cholesterol-lowering medication Crestor (rosuvastatin) was the most prescribed medication in the United States during the last 12 months. As reported by Medscape Medical News in response to research completed by IMS Health.

Crestor topped the list of the most prescribed medications, with 23.7 million prescriptions. In terms of sales, Crestor was 5th on the list with total sales of 5.3 billion USD.

One of the reasons why Crestor has become so popular, is the JUPITER trial. In 2008, pharmaceutical companies and much of the world's media trumpeted the results of the JUPITER trial, which involved the use of Crestor for people with elevated levels of C-reactive Protein (a marker of systemic inflammation).

The results of the JUPITER trial are summarised below in the video excerpt from $TATIN NATION. An honest assessment of the published trial data shows that Crestor did not provide any meaningful benefit. That's before we even start to look at the adverse effects of Crestor, which included an increase in the risk for type 2 diabetes. However, the situation is even worse than we think.

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Family

Where in the world are people most depressed?


The Guardian
Fri, 08 Nov 2013 03:40 UTC
People who think depression is a western malaise might be surprised by the results of a new study

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Depressive disorders by country. Graphic from the 'Burden of Depressive Disorders by Country, Sex, Age, and Year: Findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010' research paper
For those who think of depression as a byproduct of the vapidity of western materialism, this latest study by researchers in Queensland might come as something of a shock. Depression simply isn't that picky. And when it comes to depressive disorders, parts of north Africa and the Middle East suffer more than North America and western Europe.

According to the researchers, who gathered pre-existing data on clinical diagnoses up to 2010, Algeria, Libya, Syria and Afghanistan fared worse for the cumulative number of years their citizens lived with the disability of depression (YLD). (For the Middle East countries, bear in mind that this relates to data gathered before the Arab spring turned lives upside down).


Comment: Libya, Syria and Afghanistan, all war torn countries devastated by the U.S. empire, hardly any surprise then, that the inhabitants are 'depressed'.


Japan fared the best, along with Australia and New Zealand. The researchers caveated their work by acknowledging that data is patchy from some parts of the world. Intriguingly, the UK and US - countries in which reporting on mental illness and cultural reflections of depression are rapidly multiplying - appear to be far less badly afflicted than parts of Africa and eastern Europe.
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Health

Kidney damage in first responders linked to 9/11

Lauren Woods
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Sat, 09 Nov 2013 14:53 UTC
New research findings of WTC-CHEST Program at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai presented at the 2013 American Society of Nephrology Meeting during National Kidney Week.

For the first time, researchers have linked high levels of inhaled particulate matter by first responders at Ground Zero to kidney damage. Researchers from the WTC-CHEST Program, a subset of the World Trade Center Health Program Clinical Center for Excellence at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, presented their new findings at the 2013 American Society of Nephrology meeting on Nov. 9 during National Kidney Week.

After the 9/11 tragedy, first responders at Ground Zero were exposed to varying levels of a dust cloud of air filled with cement dust, smoke, glass fibers, and heavy metals. The WTC-CHEST Program at Mount Sinai has previously linked this particulate matter exposure to lung and heart abnormalities. However, its effects on the kidney health of first responders have never been explored until now.
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