Health & WellnessS


Beaker

Fake 'sweetener' with fake 'safety' claim could spell another real disaster

Bill Bonvie
foodidentitytheft.com
Tue, 18 Mar 2014 15:29 UTC
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The phantom flavoring agent we've told you about in past blogs is now reportedly available as a food and beverage additive, and should be coming soon to a supermarket near you.

It's even been given a name - Sweetmyx.

Only don't expect to see that name listed among the ingredients of products that contain it. More than likely, it will simply be another "artificial flavor" or perhaps an "artificial sweetener," with the only other clue to its presence being a magical reduction in calories. And while it will be making its debut in beverages manufactured by Pepsi, a Swiss company is reported to be finding ways to use it in all kinds of other processed foods.

But you might be relieved to hear it was declared safe - or at least "generally recognized as safe," or GRAS. And that, of course, means the Food and Drug Administration has conferred an official stamp of safety on it, right?

Well, not exactly.
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Red Flag

A river of doubt

Heather White
Environmental Working Group
Wed, 19 Mar 2014 14:50 UTC
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Elk River
When 300,000 West Virginians went without water for three weeks earlier this year, most Americans were shocked to learn that health officials and the government didn't know much about the licorice-smelling chemical that had leaked from a storage facility into the Elk River near Charleston. Hundreds of residents contacted the state's Poison Control Center to report nausea, vomiting and rashes. Weeks after officials lifted the water ban, complaints of the licorice odor continue and the long-term health effects of the coal-processing substance - 4-methylcyclohexanemethanol (Crude MCHM) - are still unknown.

Here's why: When Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1976, the new law assumed that Crude MCHM and the nearly 62,000 other chemicals then on the market were safe. Following the spill, the company that makes Crude MCHM, Eastman Chemical, released a handful of safety studies, but it wasn't required to assess the chemical's safety or share its research with regulators.

Comment: Read more about the West Virginia chemical spill:

Chemical spill shuts off water to 300K in West Virginia
Don't drink the water: Chemical spill contaminates tap water in West Virginia
West Virginia official says residents are breathing cancer-causing agent after chemical spill
Hospital admissions over West Virginia chem spill double even after water declared safe
Freedom Industries' shady operations, the company behind the West Virginia chemical spill
Audio recording reveals Freedom Industries made false hazardous statements during West Virginia chemical spill

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Syringe

Centers for Disease Control: Measles outbreaks - almost 400 percent increase in reported cases

Gillian Mohney
ABC News
Wed, 19 Mar 2014 15:06 UTC
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© BBC
Measles, a highly contagious and dangerous virus, was thought to have been eradicated from the U.S. with vaccines -- but in recent years outbreaks have been occurring at an alarming rate.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports there was an average of 83 measles cases annually from 2001 to 2011, however for 2014 there have already been 79 cases reported. This is the second year in a row with an increased number of measles cases, in 2013 there were 189 cases of measles reported.

The increase has left health officials and health care centers working to keep infected patients contained and separate from vulnerable populations as they seek treatment.

After an outbreak in northern Manhattan, New York-Presbyterian Hospital sent an email on March 12 to its staff that "nearly 600 patients had potentially been exposed to measles," according to the New York Times. Additionally the Times reported that the email said "many of our clinical staff have never seen a case of measles."

The New York City Department of Health said the outbreak affected 20 people in northern Manhattan. However, the Department said that although people were exposed at different medical facilities, no one has gotten sick from a hospital patient.

Comment: Vaccines are toxic to the body doing much more harm than good. You can strengthen the immune system naturally through a high fat, low carb diet and by detoxifying your body. For details, visit the diet and health section of our forum.

Almost 800 adverse reactions to swine flu vaccine identified
Exposing the FDA's Vaccine Injury Cover-up: An Interview With Walter Kyle
Shock CDC Study: Flu vaccine ineffective in 91% of seniors

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Pills

Israeli drug company agrees to pay $27.6 million for U.S. psychiatrist's overprescribing of anti-psychotic


AllGove
Fri, 14 Mar 2014 13:05 UTC
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© AP/Dan BaliltyIsrael's Big Pharma dirty money, at the expense of the most vulnerable...
An Illinois doctor who had become notorious for overprescribing a powerful antipsychotic medication was paid to push the drug by its Israeli manufacturer, according government prosecutors who have settled the case out of court.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. has agreed to pay more than $27.6 million to settle allegations that it provided Chicago psychiatrist Michael Reinstein with financial incentives to prescribe clozapine to patients.

Clozapine can cause serious side effects, including seizures, heart-muscle inflammation and a reduction in white blood cells.

Reinstein was found to have prescribed more clozapine to patients in Medicaid's Illinois program than all of the doctors in the Medicaid programs of Texas, Florida and North Carolina combined, according to ProPublica.

The investigative news website also reported that Reinstein had prescribed the drug to Medicare patients, despite the risks clozapine poses to the elderly.

At least three of the doctor's patients died of clozapine intoxication.
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Heart - Black

Health insurance premiums rising faster after Obamacare than in the previous eight years

Sarah Hurtubise
The Daily Caller
Tue, 18 Mar 2014 13:28 UTC
Obamacare
© Desconocido
Health insurance premiums have risen more after Obamacare than the average premium increases over the eight years before it became law, according to the private health exchange eHealthInsurance.

The individual market for health insurance has seen premiums rise by 39 percent since February 2013, eHealth reports. Without a subsidy, the average individual premium is now $274 a month. Families have been hit even harder with an average increase of 56 percent over the same period - average premiums are now $663 per family, over $426 last year.

Between 2005 and 2013, average premiums for individual plans increased 37 percent and average family premiums were upped 31 percent. So they have risen faster under Obamacare than in the previous eight years.
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Info

Painkiller study helps tackle national problem of legal drug addiction

Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
Thu, 23 Jan 2014 14:46 UTC
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The war against illegal drug use has been going on for decades, but now it seems the "war on drugs" should have a new target... Legal drug addiction is taking lives in record numbers.

In the UK, 1 million people are addicted to over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription painkillers and tranquilizers; that's significantly more than the number addicted to illegal drugs.1

In the US, it's a similar story. There were four times more deaths among women from prescription painkiller overdose than for cocaine and heroin deaths combined in 2010.2

Legal drug addiction is tricky because it often starts out with a prescription obtained from a doctor. Many people find themselves addicted to painkillers before they even realize what's happened, often after taking the drugs to recover from surgery or treat chronic back, or other, pain.
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Document

Peer-reviewed medical journal officially classifies Fluoride as a neurotoxin

Arjun Walia
Collective-evolution.com
Wed, 19 Mar 2014 14:23 UTC
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© fluoridealert.org
Fluoride awareness is really taking off, it's just another example of what we can do as one collective human race when we come together and create awareness on topics we all feel need more critical examination. Many don't consider information to be significant unless published in a peer-review journal. This simply isn't true, it's a stigmatism that has led a lot of great independent research by experts, for experts, that still goes through a review process to be ignored.

A ground breaking publication in one of the top main-stream medical journals has now added six additional substances into its classification of neurotoxicants, and one of them is fluoride.(1) Fluoride is commonly used in dental products, and still remains as an additive in the drinking water supply of numerous communities all over the world. Although activism has been successful in removing it in many countries, cities and communities, some still remain who have yet to take action, one for example, is Toronto, a city of five million plus people.

Comment: Information on fluoride isn't really new - A recap on the poisoning of the public:

Fluoride 'Can Affect Brain'
Fluoride: Worse than We Thought
Fluoridation is the Ultimate Deception
Top Scientist: Fluoride Already Shown to Cause 10,000 Cancer Deaths
3,000 Professionals Petition to Remove Fluoride from Drinking Water

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Health

Precise reason for health benefits of dark chocolate: Thank hungry gut microbes


sciencedaily.com
Tue, 18 Mar 2014 14:16 UTC
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© Alliance / FotoliaThe health benefits of eating dark chocolate have been extolled for centuries, but the exact reason has remained a mystery -- until now. Researchers have just reported that certain bacteria in the stomach gobble the chocolate and ferment it into anti-inflammatory compounds that are good for the heart.
The health benefits of eating dark chocolate have been extolled for centuries, but the exact reason has remained a mystery - until now. Researchers have just reported that certain bacteria in the stomach gobble the chocolate and ferment it into anti-inflammatory compounds that are good for the heart.

Their findings were unveiled at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). The meeting is being held at the Dallas Convention Center and area hotels through Thursday.

"We found that there are two kinds of microbes in the gut: the 'good' ones and the 'bad' ones," explained Maria Moore, an undergraduate student and one of the study's researchers.

"The good microbes, such as Bifidobacterium and lactic acid bacteria, feast on chocolate," she said. "When you eat dark chocolate, they grow and ferment it, producing compounds that are anti-inflammatory." The other bacteria in the gut are associated with inflammation and can cause gas, bloating, diarrhea and constipation. These include some Clostridia and some E. coli.
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Bacon n Eggs

What did our ancient ancestors actually eat?

Mark Sisson
Mark's Daily Apple
Wed, 19 Mar 2014 10:59 UTC
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The density of brain-and-baby-specific nutrients found in fish and shellfish made these foods perhaps the most important to the earliest humans.
A few weeks ago, I made the point that even though we may not have access to our paleolithic ancestors' (yes, all of them) food journals, and even though there were many different paleolithic diets depending on climate, latitude, topography and other environmental contexts, the ancestral eating paradigm remains viable, helpful, and relevant to contemporary interests. That almost goes without saying, right? It's kind of why we're all here, reading this and other blogs, and asking the butcher for lamb tongues and goat spleens with straight faces. This stuff works.

But make no mistake: we may not know the day-to-day eating habits of our ancestors, but we know some things. And we can use what we know, drawing on several lines of evidence, to make some educated estimates.

The best place to start is, well, the place where it all started: East Africa, the cradle of human evolution. More specifically, let's look at the Lake Turkana, Rift Valley, Omo River part of Ethiopia and Tanzania, which is where the oldest known remains of modern homo sapiens - dating back 200,000 years - were found. It's a beautiful place. I mean just look at it. No wonder we hunkered down there for thousands of years.
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Health

Losing Sleep Kills Brain Cells and Can Lead to Permanent Brain Damage

Shannon Firth
US News and World Report
Tue, 18 Mar 2014 02:20 UTC
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Late-shift workers, students and other night owls take note - a new sleep study from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania has shown for the first time that extended periods of sleeplessness can lead to irreversible brain damage.

While previous studies have shown cognitive performance declines after sleep loss, the latest research challenges the long-held notion that a "sleep debt" could be recovered by makeup rest. Researchers at UPenn and collaborators at Peking University have found extended periods of wakefulness actually kill some neurons and cause damage to others.

Scientists knew there were certain neurons in the brain stem that are awake when we are awake and "sleep when we sleep," says Dr. Sigrid Veasey, a study author and professor at UPenn's Perelman School of Medicine.

"This gave us an indication that maybe [the cells] needed their rest," she says. "We hypothesized that the cells that were going to be the most likely to get injured would be some of the cells that are active during wakefulness."
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