Health & WellnessS


Gear

The USDA's Organic Deception

organic produce
© Treehugger
Organic is organic, or is it? It would seem that it is all a matter of perspective when one takes a stroll through the mountains of documents on the FDA and USDA websites.

The word "organic" is fast becoming a high-dollar money-maker for corporations smart enough to jump on the bandwagon and start marketing their products as "made with organic ingredients," or "certified organic." Even Monsanto is taking advantage of this burgeoning market, and people naïve enough to believe that what we have traditionally thought of as pure, organic food, is still that way, are being duped.

It makes perfect sense, however, in a Machiavellian sort of way. Flood the food supply with poisons, then lead people to believe that the only safe choice left is USDA Certified Organic. Then buy up the organic companies one by one, and start changing the "organic" rules from the inside out via the bought and paid for government agencies so that you can reap the profits from those trying to escape the poisons.

So let's take a closer look at just what the word "organic" refers to according to these government agencies. You might be surprised at what we find. The fact that the very agencies (FDA and USDA), which are supposed to be protecting our organic food supply, are intensely active in its adulteration will become apparent.

Magnify

Fruit fly droppings give insight into human gut problems

fruit fly research
© Dr Irene Miguel-Aliaga
Clues about how the human gut helps regulate our appetite have come from a most unusual source - fruit fly faeces.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge are using the fruit fly to help understand aspects of human metabolism, including why pregnant women suffer from bloating and constipation, and even the link between a low calorie diet and longevity.

Although scientists have known for some time that there are as many as 500 million nerve cells in our gut, the sheer complexity that this presents means that little is known about the different types of nerve cell and their functions.

Now, researchers led by Dr Irene Miguel-Aliaga, with funding from the Wellcome Trust and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, have used the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, to investigate the function of these intestinal neurons. The fly has simpler versions of our nervous and digestive systems, which lend it to genetic manipulation. Their findings are published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

Alarm Clock

Stress of 21st century life puts Britons at greater risk of stroke, study warns

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© AlamyRising stress levels: British men and women could be more likely to suffer a stroke due to their fast-paced lives
Around one in seven Britons are feeling 'extremely stressed' as they start 2011 and are at a higher risk of suffering a stroke, new research out today suggests.

Almost one in five women and one in 10 men feel their stress levels are out of control, according to the poll of 2,000 people.

Experts warned that stress pushes up blood pressure, putting people at higher risk of stroke.

A poor diet and lack of exercise also contribute to the chances of suffering a stroke.

Stroke is the third commonest cause of death in England and Wales after heart disease and cancer, killing more than 67,000 people every year. An estimated 150,000 people annually suffer a stroke.

Health

Antibiotic found to relieve IBS, and what might work better

I see that a study has been published today in the New England Journal of Medicine [1] that concerns the condition irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). You can read a summary of the study here. This study tested the effect of an antibiotic (rifaximin) on individuals with IBS. Compared to placebo, two weeks of this antibiotic helped to reduce IBS symptoms, and this benefit was sustained for some weeks after the antibiotic was taken.

How might this work? Well, the antibiotic's benefits here almost certainly had something to do with the fact that imbalance in the organisms within the gut is a potential underlying factor in IBS. I have seen in my time in practice many individuals with IBS symptoms and normal stool test results (from conventional testing) who turn out to have significant imbalance in the gut when more sophisticated stool analysis is performed. Not uncommonly we find one or more of the following:

Syringe

Pharma Propaganda Alert: 'Fraud' Study Linked Autism to Vaccine

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© Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated PressA new report says Dr. Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues altered facts about patients in their study linking autism to the MMR vaccine.
The first study to link a childhood vaccine to autism was based on doctored information about the children involved, according to a new report.

The 1998 paper by Dr. Andrew Wakefield and colleagues was renounced by 10 of its 13 authors and later retracted by the medical journal Lancet , where it was published. Still, the suggestion that the MMR vaccination shot was connected to autism spooked parents worldwide and immunization rates for measles, mumps and rubella have never fully recovered.

A new examination has found, by comparing the reported diagnoses in the paper to hospital records, that Wakefield and colleagues altered facts about patients in their study.

The analysis, by British journalist Brian Deer, found that despite the claim in Wakefield's paper that the 12 children studied were normal until they had the MMR shot, five had previously documented developmental problems.

Deer also found that all the cases were variously misrepresented when he compared data from medical records and the children's parents.

Comment: We're led to believe that the report was fraud, while there are other reports that confirm autism rates have gone down since the removal of thimerosal in vaccines.

For more insight into the vaccination/autism controversy see:

The Autism-Vaccine Debate: Anything But Over

Checking links between vaccines and autism

Autism Rates Double in Children as Vaccines Poison an Entire Generation


Bug

Aspartame exposed - GM Bacteria used to create deadly sweetener

aspartame

The manufacturers of the most prevalent sweetener in the world have a secret, and it's not a sweet one. Aspartame, an artificial sweetener found in thousands of products worldwide, has been found to be created using genetically modified (GM) bacteria. What's even more shocking is how long this information has been known. A 1999 article by The Independent was the first to expose the abominable process in which aspartame was created. Ironically, the discovery was made around the same time as rich leaders around the globe met at the G8 Summit to discuss the safety of GM foods.

The 1999 investigation found that Monsanto, the largest biotech corporation in the world, often used GM bacteria to produce aspartame in their US production plants. The end result is a fusion between two of the largest health hazards to ever hit the food industry -- artificial sweeteners and an array of genetically altered organisms. Both have led to large-scale debate, with aspartame being the subject of multiple congressional hearings and scientific criticism. Scientists and health advocates are not the only ones to speak out against aspartame, however. The FDA received a flurry of complaints from consumers using NutraSweet, a product containing aspartame. Since 1992, the FDA has stopped documenting reports on the subject.

The process in which aspartame is created involves combining an amino acid known as phenylalanine with aspartic acid. First synthesized in 1965, aspartame requires bacteria for the sole purpose of producing phenylalanine. Monsanto discovered that through genetically altering this bacteria, phenylalanine could be created much more quickly. In the report by The Independent, Monsanto openly admitted that their mutated bacteria is a staple in the creation process of aspartame.

Health

Illnesses Linked to BP Oil Disaster: Widespread Sickness Due to Toxic Chemicals

gulf crabs
© Erika BlumenfeldIndependent scientists have confirmed that Gulf marine life is heavily contaminated by the dispersed oil and oil sheen in the water.
Despite BP having capped its well in the Gulf of Mexico in July, the health-related after-effects of the disaster subsist.

Gulf Coast residents and BP cleanup workers have linked the source of certain illnesses to chemicals present in BP's oil and the toxic dispersants used to sink it - illnesses that appear to be both spreading and worsening.

Dr. Rodney Soto, a medical doctor in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, has been testing and treating patients with high levels of oil-related chemicals in their blood stream. These are commonly referred to as Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's). Anthropogenic VOC's from BP's oil disaster are toxic and have negative chronic health effects.

Dr. Soto is finding disconcertingly consistent and high levels of toxic chemicals in every one of the patients he is testing.

"I'm regularly finding between five and seven VOCs in my patients," Dr. Soto told Al Jazeera. "These patients include people not directly involved in the oil clean-up, as well as residents that do not live right on the coast. These are clearly related to the oil disaster."

Chronic health effects

Lloyd Pearcey, from Bonsecour, Alabama, worked on a BP clean-up team as a foreman for four months.

During that time, he collected oil-soaked boom and drove a bulldozer "filled with the tar balls and tar mats we collected. Other times we stood in the water in Tyvek suits putting out shore boom with oil all over us. The fumes got to you."

"I just got my results from the blood tests," Pearcey told Al Jazeera, "I have the chemicals of the oil and dispersants in my blood."

Pearcey had experienced many of the now common symptoms of acute exposure to BP's chemicals.

Dr. Soto is testing his patients, and said he has ample documentation attesting to the levels of toxins people are being exposed to.

Dr. Soto classifies two types of symptom groups: acute exposure that includes skin and respiratory problems; and a second, larger group of people with no symptoms, but who still have toxicity. He believes the pathways of exposure occur through air, skin, and contaminated seafood.

Smoking

Health Benefits of Smoking Tobacco

native tobacco

Thanks to Surgeon General's Warning labels, public smoking bans, strict regulation of advertising, excise taxes, and public service messages, nearly everyone in America is fully aware of the many health risks associated with cigarette smoking. Ongoing research has continuously proven that smoking causes lung dysfunction, cancer, SIDS, heart disease, birth defects, preterm birth, and other serious health problems. Knowing this, the idea that cigarette smoking may offer health benefits may seem utterly absurd.

However, cigarette smoking has been confirmed to provide numerous benefits to the health of smokers. Surprisingly, the tobacco plant appears to have more to offer our bodies than a guarantee of certain death. Although the health benefits of smoking are far outweighed by the many very dire risks, tobacco may provide alternative relief or prevention for some diseases in certain individuals.

The most fascinating and widely recognized health benefit of smoking is its ability to seemingly alleviate symptoms of mental illnesses, including anxiety and schizophrenia. According to an article published in 1995 in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, schizophrenics have much higher smoking rates than people with other mental illnesses, and appear to use it as a method of self-medicating. The article postulates that nicotine found in cigarettes reduces psychiatric, cognitive, sensory, and physical effects of schizophrenia, and also provides relief of common side effects from antipsychotic drugs.

Hourglass

H1N1 Death Cluster In Greater Manchester Increases To 12

Manchester
© UnknownManchester, UK
A man from Trafford, a patient from Tameside, and a teenage boy, from Oldham, have died after suffering from swine flu and health bosses believe it also contributed to the death of a younger child, from Bury. Their deaths are expected to bring the death toll from H1N1 in Greater Manchester to twelve out of 36 nationally.

And 27 people, with serious complications caused by flu, are fighting for life in intensive care or high dependency wards in the region's hospitals. This is putting pressure on the region's hospitals - at times this week there have been no intensive care beds available at some of the region's flagship hospitals including the Manchester Royal Infirmary and the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital.

The above comments describe four more H1N1 deaths in the Greater Manchester area, increasing the number of reported H1N1 deaths to 12, or 1/3 of the UK total. Moreover, there are 27 additional patients with severe disease. This type of cluster signals a more aggressive H1N1, and sequences from such patients would be useful.

Beaker

Do Synthetic Food Colors Cause Hyperactivity?

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© Chris WalkerFood dyes, under federal scrutiny for decades, have been blamed for illnesses in humans
Food coloring is the reason glace cherries are red rather than beige and that children's tongues sometimes appear freakishly blue. But man-made dyes may do more than make processed food look vibrant and whimsical. Some blame the additives for triggering behavioral problems in youngsters.

Acting on research published in the Lancet, the European Parliament last year began requiring products containing synthetic food colors to carry warning labels saying that "consumption may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children."

Now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has scheduled a March hearing on whether food dyes adversely impact children's health. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, or CSPI, is asking the agency for a synthetic food-dye ban and to place warnings on products until the colors are removed.

The dyes are often used to enhance the appearance of sugary cereals, candies, sodas, fruit-flavored snacks, fast food and other products that are aimed at children and have little nutritional value, the CSPI said in a citizen's petition signed by 18 physicians and researchers. Since naturally derived alternatives exist, the continued use is hardly worth any potential risk, it said.