Health & WellnessS


Pirates

Pharmacies Mislead Teens on Morning-After Pill

Stephanie Pappas
Live Science
Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:00 UTC
Birth Control Pills
© Melissa King, ShutterstockEmergency contraception pills contain the same hormones as birth control pills, above, but are more controversial.

Women who live in low-income neighborhoods are more likely than their wealthier counterparts to get misinformation about emergency contraception from their local pharmacies, a new study finds.

The results suggest that young women in areas where teen pregnancy rates are highest may struggle most in trying to get the morning-after pill, which can prevent ovulation - and thus pregnancy - after unprotected sex.

The pill, sold under the brand names ella, Next Choice and Plan B One-Step, made headlines this month when the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, overruled a Food and Drug Administration recommendation that teens younger than 17 be able to get emergency contraception over the counter. Currently, the pill is available at drug stores to women 17 and older, but younger teenagers must get a prescription. Emergency contraception pills become less effective as time passes after unprotected sex, so time is of the essence for women hoping to prevent a pregnancy.

For that reason, quick access to the pill is key. But Tracey Wilkinson, a general pediatric fellow at Boston Medical Center and the Boston University School of Medicine, had been hearing "weird things" about teens' attempts to get the pill - "things like prescriptions not showing up if they'd been sent electronically, or if they were an adolescent, they would have difficulty getting their prescriptions filled," Wilkinson told LiveScience.

The rumors spurred Wilkinson to look into how accessible the morning-after pill really is for teenagers. From September to December 2010, she and her colleagues had female research assistants call every pharmacy in Nashville, Tenn.; Philadelphia, Pa.; Cleveland, Ohio; Austin, Texas; and Portland, Ore.
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Health

Mystery of Victorian-era poet's illness deciphered after 150 years


Penn State Live
Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:07 UTC
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© UnknownElizabeth Barrett Browning
Known for her poetry, letters, love affair and marriage to Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning also left a legacy of unanswered questions about her lifelong chronic illness. Now, a Penn State anthropologist, with the aid of her daughter, may have unraveled the mystery.

Born in 1806, Barrett Browning suffered throughout her life from incapacitating weakness, heart palpitations, intense response to heat and cold, intense response to illnesses as mild as a cold, and general exhaustion in bouts that lasted from days to months or years. Her doctors were unable to diagnose or treat her illness, which apparently first appeared around age 13.

"Conjectures by modern biographers about Barrett Browning's condition include anorexia nervosa, neurasthenia; tuberculosis; pertussis, an encephalomyelitis; non-paralytic poliomyelitis; paralytic scoliosis, or the lifetime effects of injuries to her spine from falling from her horse in early adolescence; opium addiction; and mental illness, including anxiety and agoraphobia," Anne Buchanan, research associate in anthropology, reports in the current issue of Perspectives in Biology and Medicine.

Some even attribute her illness to defense against the inferior status and treatment of Victorian women, or simply to malingering.
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Red Flag

Banned in 27 Countries, Monsanto's rBGH Inhabits Many U.S. Dairy Products

Anthony Gucciardi
Activist Post
Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:28 UTC
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© Activist Post
Are you consuming Monsanto's genetically engineered growth hormone known as rBGH?

The synthetic hormone is created using molecules and DNA sequences that are a result of molecular cloning, which has been linked to breast and gastrointestinal cancer.

Unfortunately, it is estimated that around 1/3 of cows in the United States are injected with this synthetic hormone, which means that you have most likely been highly exposed to rBGH if you live in the U.S. or have eaten U.S. dairy products.

rBGH is actually a synthetic version of natural bovine somatotropin (BST), a hormone produced in cows' pituitary glands.
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Nuke

14,000 U.S. Deaths Tied to Fukushima Reactor Disaster Fallout


MarketWatch / Wall Street Journal
Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:06 UTC
rad symbol graphic
© clickpopmedia
Impact Seen As Roughly Comparable to Radiation-Related Deaths After Chernobyl; Infants Are Hardest Hit, With Continuing Research Showing Even Higher Possible Death Count.

An estimated 14,000 excess deaths in the United States are linked to the radioactive fallout from the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan, according to a major new article in the December 2011 edition of the International Journal of Health Services. This is the first peer-reviewed study published in a medical journal documenting the health hazards of Fukushima.

Authors Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman note that their estimate of 14,000 excess U.S. deaths in the 14 weeks after the Fukushima meltdowns is comparable to the 16,500 excess deaths in the 17 weeks after the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986. The rise in reported deaths after Fukushima was largest among U.S. infants under age one. The 2010-2011 increase for infant deaths in the spring was 1.8 percent, compared to a decrease of 8.37 percent in the preceding 14 weeks.The IJHS article will be published Tuesday and will be available online as of 11 a.m. EST here.
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Bacon

Saturated Fat Can Help to Lower The Rates of Heart Disease

David Evans
Healthy Diets and Science
Sun, 18 Dec 2011 21:10 UTC
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This study was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine 2011 Dec 6;155(11):742-50

Study title and authors:
Association of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol with incident cardiovascular events in women, by low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and apolipoprotein b100 levels: a cohort study.

Mora S, Buring JE, Ridker PM, Cui Y.
The Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, and Merck & Co., North Wales, Pennsylvania.

This study can be accessed here.

26,861 initially healthy women, aged 45 years or older at the start of the study, were followed for approximately 11 years to determine the association between high density lipoprotein-cholesterol or apolipoprotein A-I levels and cardiovascular disease across a range of low density lipoprotein-cholesterol levels.
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Magnify

The Age of Autism: The Amish Anomaly

Dan Olmsted
United Press International
Mon, 18 Apr 2011 18:07 UTC
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© cbsnews.com
Where are the autistic Amish? Here in Lancaster County, heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, there should be well over 100 with some form of the disorder.

I have come here to find them, but so far my mission has failed, and the very few I have identified raise some very interesting questions about some widely held views on autism.

The mainstream scientific consensus says autism is a complex genetic disorder, one that has been around for millennia at roughly the same prevalence. That prevalence is now considered to be 1 in every 166 children born in the United States.

Applying that model to Lancaster County, there ought to be 130 Amish men, women and children here with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Well over 100, in rough terms.

Comment: For more information about the Amish and Autism read the following article:

The Amish Don't Get Autism But They Do Get Bio-Terrorism

The following article provides important information about the connection between mercury poisoning and autism:

How To Cure Autism and The Time Bomb Of Mercury Poisoning
The Cover-Up

If there were a preventative for autism, which was grounded in the realization that vaccines were the primary cause, would it ever be made known by the very media powerhouses that are funded by Big Pharma more than any other industry? The vaccine industry is expected to grow to a 34 billion dollar industry by 2012. People who have never researched Big Pharma cannot grasp the corruption of this industry, its regulators in government, or its Big Media partners.

Despite studies showing an unquestionable link between ethyl mercury and autism, the mainstream media tends to favor studies which have shown the opposite. What is interesting is that all studies used to deny the autism link to mercury poisoning were funded by pharmaceutical companies, doctors who have vaccine patents, or governmental agencies promoting vaccines. All of them. We shall let that speak for itself. Of course, mainstream media sources are also funded by pharmaceutical companies as their main source of advertising. Commercial sponsors have a massive impact on what the news media reveals, and pharmaceutical companies are their most lucrative advertising partners.


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Beaker

US: Two deaths from brain-eating amoeba linked to sinus remedy for colds

Claire Bates
MailOnline
Sun, 18 Dec 2011 18:33 UTC
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© ALAMYA model holds a neti pot: It is used to relieve nasal congestion of cold and allergy sufferers
A sinus-flushing device used to relieve colds and allergies has been linked to a deadly brain-eating amoeba.

Louisiana's state health department issued a warning about neti pots - which look like mini watering cans, that are used by pouring salty water through one nostril.

It follows two recent deaths - a 51-year-old woman and a 20-year-old man from the 'brain-eating amoeba' Naegleria fowleri.

It is thought the amoeba entered their brains when they used the devices.

Both victims are thought to have used tap water, instead of distilled or sterilised water as recommended by the manufacturers.

Dr Raoult Ratard, Louisiana State Epidemiologist, said: 'If you are irrigating, flushing, or rinsing your sinuses, for example, by using a neti pot, use distilled, sterile or previously boiled water to make up the irrigation solution.

Comment: Tap water would be safe for drinking if Fluoride and other industrial pollutants were not present.

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Syringe

Vaccination's Vexed Link to Autism

Marj Lefroy
Sydney Morning Herald
Wed, 14 Sep 2011 17:39 UTC
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© Sydney Morning HeraldEnvironmental factors ... vaccination may have a role in the development of some types of autism.

Vaccines and autism: why this curious case is not closed

For many parents, childhood vaccinations are this century's abortion debate - highly divisive and driving a wedge between friends and neighbors. In the red corner are those banging the 'vaccinate at any cost' drum, and in the blue corner a collection of concerned parents and carers who say they're dealing with the damage done.

For people in the pro-vaccination camp, the fact that there is even a debate to be had is vexing. "What's wrong with these irresponsible parents?" they say. "So educated and yet so stupid! Don't they know that MMR study was discredited? And how can you take a Playboy Bunny seriously?" But there are reasons why the case of the curious link between vaccinations and autism is not closed, and Andrew Wakefield and Jenny McCarthy are not necessarily two of them.
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Beaker

Hormone-Mimics In Plastic Water Bottles


Science Daily
Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:17 UTC
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© treehugger.comBisphenol A (BPA) — a chemical commonly found in hard plastics.
Plastic packaging is not without its downsides, and if you thought mineral water was 'clean', it may be time to think again. According to Martin Wagner and Jörg Oehlmann from the Department of Aquatic Ecotoxicology at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, plastic mineral water bottles contaminate drinking water with estrogenic chemicals.

In an analysis of commercially available mineral waters, the researchers found evidence of estrogenic compounds leaching out of the plastic packaging into the water. What's more, these chemicals are potent in vivo and result in an increased development of embryos in the New Zealand mud snail. These findings, which show for the first time that substances leaching out of plastic food packaging materials act as functional estrogens, are published in Springer's journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research.

Comment: For more information about the correlation between BPA and health concerns read the following articles:

President's Cancer Panel Warns of Toxic Effects of BPA
Study: Human Exposure to BPA 'Grossly Underestimated'
BPA Report Details Chemical's Hazards
Human Placenta Cells Die After BPA Exposure
BPA Should Be Avoided, Federal Official Says
The Real Story Behind Bisphenol A

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Attention

Consumer Concerns About Hormones in Food


envirocancer.cornell.edu
Thu, 01 Jun 2000 16:01 UTC
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© blog.mysanantonio.com
What are hormones?

Hormones are chemicals that are produced naturally in the bodies of all animals, including humans. They are chemical messages released into the blood by hormone-producing organs that travel to and affect different parts of the body. Hormones may be produced in small amounts, but they control important body functions such as growth, development and reproduction.

Hormones can have different chemistry. They can be steroids or proteins. Steroid hormones are active in the body when eaten. For example, birth control pills are steroid hormones and can be taken orally. In contrast, protein hormones are broken down in the stomach, and lose their ability to act in the body when eaten. Therefore, ordinarily, protein hormones need to be injected into the body to have an effect. For example, insulin is a protein hormone. Diabetic patients need to be injected with insulin for treatment.

Why are hormones used in food production?

Certain hormones can make young animals gain weight faster. They help reduce the waiting time and the amount of feed eaten by an animal before slaughter in meat industries. In dairy cows, hormones can be used to increase milk production. Thus, hormones can increase the profitability of the meat and dairy industries.
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