Health & WellnessS


Health

Mercury in Fish Harms Immune System

Roxanne Karimi and Wendy Hessler
Environmental Health News
Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:17 UTC
Mercury Poison
© Paul-in-London / flickr

Adults exposed to methylmercury through a fish diet have immune system changes similar to those seen in more highly exposed gold mine workers, according to a study of Brazilians living in the Amazon River Basin.

The results from the fish-eating exposures could be relevant to other places, including those in the United States where people regularly eat fish with higher mercury levels.

The results show that immune system effects are not limited to those who are highly exposed through gold mining jobs, but also occur in adults who eat fish contaminated with higher levels of mercury. The nutrient selenium - with its long-debated role in immune function - offered no clear protection against the mercury induced changes.

The findings add more details of how mercury alters the immune system and specific antibodies in those exposed to the pollutant through diet. Whether these changes in the immune system lead to health problems is unknown.
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Magnify

B12 Deficiency Linked with Brain Shrinkage in Later Life


drbriffa.com
Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:04 UTC
Image
© successfulhealthcoach.com
Vitamin B12 is a nutrient found naturally in animal products such as meat, fish and eggs. The nutrient is perhaps best known for its relationship with a condition known as 'pernicious anaemia' - a form of anaemia caused by B12 deficiency which itself is caused by impaired absorption of B12 from the gut. However, for some time now there has been specific interest in the role the B12 plays in brain function. In particular, B12 deficiency is believed to play a potential role in the declining brain function (cognitive impairment) often seen in ageing.

One of the proposed mechanisms here concerns 'homocysteine' - an amino acid that is linked with adverse effects on health including cardiovascular issues such as heart disease and stroke. Low levels of B12 can cause raised levels of homocysteine (as can low levels of other nutrients including folic acid and vitamin B6). Measuring homocysteine levels is sometimes used as a proxy for B12 status.
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Health

Another Reason You Shouldn't Go Nuts on Nuts

Chris Kresser
Chris Kresser.com
Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:42 UTC
Nuts
© Chris Kresser.com

In a previous article,1 I suggested that nut consumption should be limited or moderated because of the high levels of omega-6 fat many of them contain. But there's another reason you shouldn't make nuts a staple of your diet.

One of the main principles of the Paleo diet is to avoid eating grains and legumes because of the food toxins they contain. One of those toxins, phytic acid (a.k.a. phytate), is emphasized as one of the greatest offenders.

But what is often not mentioned in books or websites about the Paleo diet is that nuts are often as high or even higher in phytic acid than grains. In fact, nuts decrease iron absorption even more than wheat bread.2 This is ironic because a lot of people on the Paleo diet - who go to great lengths to avoid food toxins - are chowing down nut like they're going out of style.
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Bulb

Zinc found critical within the brain to improve memory and cognition

John Phillip
NaturalNews
Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:00 UTC
Brian
© NaturalNews
Zinc is an essential mineral known to improve skin tone, aid wound healing, fight cancer and shorten the length of the common cold. Researchers publishing in the journal Neuron now identify the crucial role this super-nutrient plays in support of memory formation and cognitive stability. Additionally, they have found that zinc may also play a part in controlling the devastating occurrence of epileptic seizures. For the first time, scientists have been able to watch zinc in action as the nutrient regulates communications between neurons and the hippocampus to improve memory and learning capabilities. Ensuring proper intake of zinc is an important step toward optimal brain function and may prevent cognitive decline as we age.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center and chemists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology collaborated to study the effects of zinc on brain function. Scientists experimenting with mice used a chemical that binds with zinc to eliminate it from the brain of the test animals. They found that in the absence of the mineral, communications between neurons was significantly diminished and that zinc is vital for controlling the efficiency between nerve cells in the hippocampus.
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Health

Prostate Supplement Proven Useless

Justin Rohrlich
Minyanville
Thu, 29 Sep 2011 12:42 UTC
Useless Supplement
© Minyanville
A new study published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, has debunked claims that saw palmetto is an effective treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH.

According to Science Daily, "Many older U.S. men take saw palmetto extract in an attempt to reduce bothersome symptoms of a swollen prostate, including frequent urination and a sense of urgency." The journal goes on to explain that saw palmetto's "use in Europe is even more widespread because doctors often recommend saw palmetto over more traditional drug treatments."

BPH can be treated with Merck's Proscar or GlaxoSmithKline's Avodart. However, Dr. Gerald Andriole and his team found that the supplement provides exactly zero benefit for sufferers of BPH.

"Now we know that even very high doses of saw palmetto make absolutely no difference," Andriole said. "Men should not spend their money on this herbal supplement as a way to reduce symptoms of enlarged prostate because it clearly does not work any better than a sugar pill."

Dr. Ruth Kava of the American Council on Science and Health is less than surprised.

"Just as beta-carotene's supposedly beneficial impact on lung cancer was disproven, saw palmetto doesn't pass muster when it comes to treating BPH symptoms," she points out in the council's newsletter. "Just because these things are 'natural,' doesn't mean they actually work."
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Question

Namibia: Mysterious Disease Kills Four

Loide Jason and Fifi Rhodes
All Africa
Thu, 29 Sep 2011 08:56 UTC
Four Hakahana residents died from a mysterious illness that caused a strange rash and caused hemorrhaging through the nose, eyes and other body openings.

Three died over the past three days while two shack dwellers are fighting for their lives in a city hospital and several others have been discharged from hospital.

One died last week.

The strange disease that causes its victims to bleed and pass excessive blood in their urine and fecal matter has left doctors at Katutura State Hospital baffled.

Medical authorities are also trying to find the source of the swiftly-killing disease that has struck terror at Hakahana.
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Info

More Deaths Expected in Cantaloupe-Related Listeria Outbreak: CDC

Rachael Rettner
MyHealthNewsDaily
Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:50 UTC
Listeria bacterium
© CDC / Dr. Balasubr Swaminathan; Peggy HayesA Listeria bacterium infecting tissue.

The death toll from listeriosis infections linked to contaminated cantaloupes is expected to rise in the coming weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today.

So far, the outbreak has sickened 72 people and killed at least 13, the CDC said.

"This is the deadliest outbreak of a foodborne disease that we've identified in more than a decade," Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, said at a news conference today.

Here's what you need to know about the new outbreak:
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Alarm Clock

Forget Everything You Thought You Knew About Fat

Alan Graham (with Alfred Lehmberg)
Alien View
Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:48 UTC
Bacon
© freeloosedirt / Flickr
We are being lied to (perhaps explicably!) by doctors and dieticians concerning FAT. This is unfortunate because in this country we have an essential fatty acid deficiency which is epidemic in proportion. Because essential fatty acid (EFAs) deficiencies can result in virtually every disease afflicting a person, it is easy to hide the true root of a disease's problem... and doctors can continue to sell the hapless individual expensive, dangerous, and ineffective pharmaceuticals a person doesn't want or shouldn't need!

-You- must become semi-knowledgeable about fats because what you don't know can provoke illness, even kill you... or, at best (!) make you stupid. Here are just a few of the lies about FAT addressed in this paper:

1. Saturated fat is bad.
2. Unsaturated vegetable oil is good.
3. Margarine is more healthful than butter.
4. Coconut oil is bad.
5. Canola oil is better than olive oil.
6. One can meet EFA requirements through diet alone.
7. (Recent lie) Trans-fatty acids are now considered as bad as saturated fat.
8. (Another recent lie) The American Heart Association is concerned about your heart!

The following will answer the above misstatements of fact and provide the reasons why we're being lied too...
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Attention

Don't Buy Genetically Engineered Red Herring

Roberta Actor-Thomas
record-bee.com
Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:38 UTC
Image
© infiniteglobalwellness.info
In his "Straight Poop" Green Chain column, Norm Benson uses a strange urban legend having nothing to do with labeling to confuse readers about the need to label GE food.

A basic rule of economics is that if buyers can't obtain complete and truthful information, it's not really a competitive free market. Neither big corporations nor the government can tell us that we aren't smart enough to be told what we're buying.

The "inconvenient truth" is that genetic engineering (GE) is not the same as selective breeding or natural cross-pollination. It's a new and dangerous technology that's causing health and environmental problems. Unlabeled GE food is banned in most countries where the government has to pay for people's health care - just think about the implications of that.

The policies governing the release of GE crops into our food supply were written 20 years ago when many scientists still thought that one gene caused each genetic trait, a hypothesis that was disproved by the Human Genome Project. They thought 90 percent of our DNA was "junk DNA" that had no function.

Geneticists still know little about what is now called non-coding DNA, but it does perform essential functions such as regulation of protein-coding sequences. Guess it's true - God doesn't make junk.
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Info

Explained: What Are GMOs?

Priya Advani
Huffington Post
Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:58 UTC
Image
© glogster.com
I spent the past month speaking to random people everywhere that I went. I asked all of them the same question, "Do you know what GMO stands for and what it is?" While some people either knew what it was or at least had heard of it, I was surprised by the number of people who had never heard of GMO. This article is dedicated to those of you who looked at me with wonder, and then shook your head "no."

A GMO (genetically modified organism) is the result of a laboratory process where genes from the DNA of one species are extracted and artificially forced into the genes of an unrelated plant or animal. The foreign genes may come from bacteria, viruses, insects, animals or even humans. Since this involves the transfer of genes, GMOs are also known as "transgenic" organisms.

The genetic engineering technology was developed in the 1970s. In the early 1990s, the tomato was one of the first to be victim of this technology. The anti-freeze genes from an Arctic fish were forced into tomato DNA, allowing the plants to survive frost. Fortunately, this type of tomato was not introduced into the marketplace. Actually, it never left the lab.(1)
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