A chemical widely used in plastic packaging and food containers may be toxic to the central nervous system by interfering with a key gene involved in the development of nerve cells, a study suggests.

Scientists have found that bisphenol A (BPA), which is used in a variety of consumer products ranging from fizzy-drink cans to food mixers, affects the function of a gene called Kcc2 which is involved in the growth of neurons, or nerve cells, in the brain and spinal cord.

The study, based on rats and human neurons grown in the laboratory, found female nerve cells more susceptible to BPA than male neurons. This might explain why certain neurodevelopmental disorders in humans are more common in females, such as Rett syndrome, a severe form of autism found only in girls, the scientists said.

New Yorkers get hooked up to IVs for a sunburns, hangovers, and even a quick energy boost, but is receiving intravenous medication for a common ailment a good idea?

Most people might expect to see IV drips in hospitals, and emergency rooms, but they are routinely showing up in spa settings as well.

"You walk in and you get it and you're relaxing in a chair," Valerie Yost said.

Yost, a patient at an IV clinic, recently told CBS 2′s Kristine Johnson that she was looking for an energy boost.

"When you walk out you're just fresh and ready for what the day brings you," she said.

Other patients said they hope that the combination of vitamins and minerals will help cure their exhaustion.

"I've been really feeling very fatigued," Elwanda Young said.

Yost and Young are part of a growing trend of people who seek out customized, intravenous cocktails at wellness centers and spas across the country. Experts told CBS 2 that the formula of vitamins and minerals could provide instant relief for a number of ailments.

"It's applicable to many different ailments; dehydration, sunburns, poor nutrition, extreme activity, or even hangovers," said Dr. Johnny Parvani of Reviv Medical Spa.

Experts say IV therapy was introduced 50 years ago. Today it is used as a complimentary treatment for everything from arthritis to asthma, Dr. Marcia Harris explained.

Researchers say link between consumption of sugar and diabetes is independent from obesity

Sugar is behind the global explosion in type 2 diabetes, say researchers who claim it plays a uniquely damaging role in causing a disease that experts fear could overwhelm the NHS.

Obesity is usually cited as the main driver of diabetes. But a new study by US medical researchers identifies sugar as a predictor of diabetes separately from obesity.

The findings, published in the scientific journal Plos One, do not claim that sugar causes obesity. But they are significant because they pinpoint it as being closely associated with diabetes, a disease that at least 2.7 million Britons already have.

Researchers led by Sanjay Basu, an assistant professor at Stanford University school of medicine, examined the availability of sugar and diabetes rates from 175 countries worldwide over the last decade.

"We're not diminishing the importance of obesity at all, but these data suggest that at a population level there are additional factors that contribute to diabetes risk besides obesity and total calorie intake, and that sugar appears to play a prominent role," said Basu.

According to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, sugar poses a health risk - contributing to around 35 million deaths globally each year. So high is sugar's toxicity that it should now be considered a potentially toxic substance like alcohol and tobacco. Its link with the onset of diabetes is such that punitive regulations, such as a tax on all foods and drinks that contain "added'' sugar, are now warranted, the researchers concluded. They also recommend banning sales in or near schools, as well as placing age limits on the sale of such products.

Sugar's harmful effects do not stop at diabetes, metabolic syndrome, hyper- and hypoglycemia, GERD and heart disease. Sugar and cancer are locked in a death grip, yet oncologists often fail to do what's necessary to stop their patients from feeding their cancers with sweets.

Whereas many within the mainstream medical community insist on promoting the belief that the link between certain types of food with an increased risk of cancer is "weak" or only "nominally significant." They believe that research "linking foodstuffs to cancer reveals no valid medical patterns." We also find such superficial attitudes promoted in the medical press - all of which lack any kind of medical depth.

Female followers of the Wheat Belly arguments who have endometriosis often report marked relief with wheat elimination. I, too, have witnessed this, though it is outside of my day-to-day experience (in heart issues).

There is a recent study that, while retrospective, suggests that the success we have been observing is not an accident. Here's what they found (full abstract here):

Gluten-free diet: a new strategy for management of painful endometriosis related symptoms?
Marziali M, Venza M, Lazzaro S, Lazzaro A, Micossi C, Stolfi VM.

Pelvic pain affects 4% to 39% of women and accounts for 10-40% of all outpatient gynecologic visits. The etiology of painful endometriosis has not been fully delineated. No studies have been published concerning gluten-free diet administered to achieved relief of painful symptoms endometriosis-related. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the effectiveness for the outcomes of endometriosis-related pain and quality of life of gluten-free diet in a follow-up of 12 months in patients with chronic pelvic pain endometriosis-related.

Two hundred seven patients with severe painful endometriosis-related symptoms entered the study. At enrollment, the baseline values of painful symptoms were assessed by Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for dysmenorrhoea [painful menses], non-menstrual pelvic pain, and dyspareunia [painful sexual intercourse]. According to VAS, pain severity was scored from 0-10; 0 indicating the absence of pain, and 1-4, 5-7 and 8-10 mild, moderate and severe, respectively. A gluten-free diet was submitted to all patients and a new evaluation was performed after 12 months of diet. Student's t-test was used for statistical analysis.

At 12 month follow-up, 156 patients (75%) reported statistically significant change in painful symptoms (P<0.005), 51 patients (25%) reported not improvement of symptoms. No patients reported worsening of pain. A considerable increase of scores for all domains of physical functioning, general health perception, vitality, social functioning, and mental health was observed in all patients (P<0.005).

Conclusion: In our experience, painful symptoms of endometriosis decrease after 12 months of gluten free diet.

The latest, and most likely program theory of aging is the telomere shortening theory. Telomeres are the end-cap segments of DNA (our genetic material). Each time a cell replicates, a small piece of DNA is taken off the end of the chromosome. The shorter the telomere gets, the more it affects gene expression. The result is cellular aging and an increased risk for immune dysfunction, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and other degenerative diseases.

Background information

The key to extending maximal human lifespan will ultimately involve preserving or restoring telomere length to the DNA (as well as decreasing chromosomal damage, cellular oxidation and many other factors). Several measures have already been shown to achieve this goal:

• Simply adopting a comprehensive dietary and lifestyle change consistent with good health has been shown to preserve telomere length.
• Physical exercise has been shown to be associated with preserving telomere length.
• Meditation has been shown to preserve telomere length by reducing the negative effects of stress.
• Higher vitamin D levels are associated with longer telomeres
• Since levels of inflammatory markers in the blood correlate with telomere shortening, natural strategies that reduce inflammation are very important in reducing the rate of telomere shortening.

Missed or wrong diagnoses are common in primary care and may put some patients at risk of serious complications, according to a U.S. study.

Mistakes in surgery and medication prescribing have been at the center of patient safety efforts, but researchers whose findings appeared in JAMA Internal Medicine said less attention has been paid to missed diagnoses in the doctor's office.

Because of how common they are, those errors may lead to more patient injuries and deaths than other mistakes, according to David Newman-Toker from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, who co-wrote a commentary on the study.

"We have every reason to believe that diagnostic errors are a major, major public health problem," Newman-Toker told Reuters Health. "You're really talking about at least 150,000 people per year, deaths or disabilities that are resulting from this problem."

For the study, researchers used electronic health records to track 190 diagnostic errors made during primary care visits at one of two healthcare facilities. In each of those cases, the misdiagnosed patient was hospitalized or turned up back at the office or emergency room within two weeks.

Want to know the Sensa secret to weight loss?

We thought so . . . now let us explain.

If you're somewhat of a weight loss veteran, and have access to the net, you will surely have come across all the Sensa hullaballoo by now.

Wherever you look, it's "Sensa this" and "Sensa that," with every second health related website or blog having published at least one Sensa review. And the manufacturers (Alan Hirsch and co.) make some pretty outrageous claims indeed. They say that just by sprinkling this product over your food, you can lose in excess of 30 pounds within a six month period, yet there's no concrete evidence to support this. There may be a better option though.

So what is SENSA Exactly?

Sensa is commonly referred to as The Sprinkle Diet, although the Sensa weight loss regime isn't really a diet as such, but something you would add to your current diet. Sensa sprinklings are in fact flavor-enhancing 'flakes' made from maltodextrin, tribasic calcium phosphate, silicon dioxide, and flavorings. You simply sprinkle a dash over your food (as you would salt or pepper) and it then amplifies both scent and flavor. Sensa is actually meant to work using your sense of smell, tricking your brain and belly into thinking that you're full.

Does SENSA Actually Work?

Well, if you look around on the net you'll find a wealth of Sensa weight loss information, advertising, reviews, etc., with some suggesting that Sensa is the best thing since sliced bread in terms of weight loss. But questions need to be asked as some claims seem too good to be true.

They state that Sensa is 'clinically proven' to work - this is not entirely true. In fact, Dr. Hirsch maintains that there was a 'study' reviewed by peers of The Endocrine Society supporting the claim that test subjects lost 30lbs+ using Sensa, yet The Endocrine Society says they never reviewed such a study.

Some super diets are too good to be true, don't get caught up in marketing hype.

Two powerful dairy organizations, The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), are petitioning the Food and Drug Administration to allow aspartame and other artificial sweeteners to be added to milk and other dairy products without a label.

The FDA currently allows the dairy industry to use "nutritive sweeteners" including sugar and high fructose corn syrup in many of their products. Nutritive sweeteners are defined as sweeteners with calories.

This petition officially seeks to amend the standard of identification for milk, cream, and 17 other dairy products like yogurt, sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, and others to provide for the use of any "safe and suitable sweetener" on the market.

A first-of-its kind national survey of medical students and residents finds that despite recent efforts by medical schools and academic medical centers to restrict access of pharmaceutical sales representatives to medical trainees, medical students and residents still commonly receive meals, gifts, and industry-sponsored educational materials. The study was completed by a team of researchers led by fourth-year Harvard Medical School student Kirsten Austad and Aaron Kesselheim, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., an internist and health policy researcher in the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Brigham and Women's Hospital and is scheduled to publish online this week in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

"In medical school and residency, as trainees are learning the fundamentals of their profession, there is a need to ensure the education they receive is as unbiased as possible," said Dr. Kesselheim. "However, it is well known that promotional information and gifts from pharmaceutical companies can encourage non-evidence-based prescribing. Though many institutions have tried to insulate trainees from these effects, trainees' exposure to industry promotion is still quite high."