Health & WellnessS


Health

Hip Fractures Reaching "Epidemic" Proportions

Tim Chesser & Cameron Swift
The Telegraph UK
Wed, 22 Jun 2011 03:35 UTC
Consultant Surgeon Tim Chesser and elderly care specialist Professor Cameron Swift warn the number of hip fracture cases in the UK are set to rise.


The warning comes as a Government watchdog revealed that the NHS is treating elderly patients with broken hips as a "low priority" by failing to give them prompt and high-quality treatment that could extend their lives.

Half of those with hip fractures currently have to wait 36 hours in hospital, in pain and in fear, before undergoing surgery and in many cases junior doctors carry out their operations rather than more experienced staff, it is claimed.
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Health

Yale Researchers Find: 'Friendly' Bacteria Protect Against Type 1 Diabetes


opac.yale.edu
Sun, 21 Sep 2008 15:26 UTC
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© ecologyhealthcenter.net
In a dramatic illustration of the potential for microbes to prevent disease, researchers at Yale University and the University of Chicago showed that mice exposed to common stomach bacteria were protected against the development of Type I diabetes.

The findings, reported in the journal Nature, support the so-called "hygiene hypothesis" - the theory that a lack of exposure to parasites, bacteria and viruses in the developed world may lead to increased risk of diseases like allergies, asthma, and other disorders of the immune system. The results also suggest that exposure to some forms of bacteria might actually help prevent onset of Type I diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the patient's immune system launches an attack on cells in the pancreas that produce insulin.

The root causes of autoimmune disease have been the subject of intensive investigation by scientists around the world.
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Health

Aid Worker Diaries - Cholera outbreak in Cameroon


Plan International
Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:21 UTC
The cholera outbreak in Cameroon is falling under the radar in the international news. With events in Syria and Libya dominating the World News and a more substantial epidemic in Haiti, the fight against cholera in Cameroon is one of those forgotten emergencies. Dualta Roughneen of Plan Ireland has spent the last month working with Plan's team in Cameroon who are working to stop the outbreak turning into an epidemic.

Bibemi is a rural health district in the North Region of Cameroon. It takes about 19 hours to drive there from the capital, Yaoundé, along many dirt roads. Bibemi has been particularly hard hit by this outbreak. With a population of 90,000, there have been over 800 cases of cholera resulting in 62 deaths in the district. Not only is the number of cases per population far higher than other areas, but the fatality rate is extremely high at 7%. Of the total reported cases since April, 10% have been in Bibemi.
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Magnify

Should We Label GMO Foods?

Josh Corn
liveinthenow.com
Mon, 20 Jun 2011 14:24 UTC
Image
© unknown
A hundred years ago, pretty much all of the food Americans ate was essentially organic and local - and not surprisingly, much more nutritious. But with the advent of Big Agra and industrialized food production, we moved towards a food supply heavily modified for higher yields and higher profits. First came pesticides, which U.S. farmers began using just after World War II. Then came genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. The first genetically modified food crop was introduced in 1994, and since then, the introduction of new GMO crops has accelerated at an alarming rate.

Throughout these changes, very little consideration has been given to food labeling, and by and large, consumers have had no idea to what extent the food they buy is contaminated with pesticides or genetically modified. Ironically enough, we now label normal food as "organic" to separate it from pesticide-laden, genetically modified food, which requires no labeling at all.
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Magic Wand

A wise man's treatment for arthritis - frankincense?


Cardiff University
Wed, 01 Jun 2011 05:35 UTC
Image
© UnknownBoswellia carteri
The answer to treating painful arthritis could lie in an age old herbal remedy - frankincense, according to Cardiff University scientists.

Cardiff scientists have been examining the potential benefits of frankincense to help relieve and alleviate the symptoms of the condition.

"The search for new ways of relieving the symptoms of inflammatory arthritis and osteoarthritis is a long and difficult one," according to Dr Emma Blain, who leads the research with her co-investigators Professor Vic Duance from Cardiff University's School of Biosciences and Dr Ahmed Ali of the Compton Group.

"The South West of England and Wales has a long standing connection with the Somali community who have used extracts of frankincense as a traditional herbal remedy for arthritic conditions.
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Cow

Best of the Web: Does Meat Rot In Your Colon? No. What Does? Beans, Grains, and Vegetables!

J. Stranton
Gnolls.org
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:37 UTC
Image
© gnolls.org

How many times have we all heard this bunk myth repeated?
"Humans can't actually digest meat: it rots in the colon."

And its variant: "Meat takes 4-7 days to digest, because it has to rot in your stomach first."
(Some variations on this myth claim it takes up to two months!)
Like most vegetarian propaganda, it's not just false, it's an inversion of truth. As the proverb says, "When you point your finger, your other three fingers point back at you." Let's take a short trip through the digestive system to see why!

A Trip Through The Human Digestive System (abridged)

Briefly, the function of digestion is to break food down as far as possible - hopefully into individual fats, amino acids (the building blocks of protein), and sugars (the building blocks of carbohydrates) which can be absorbed through the intestinal wall and used by our bodies.
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Bizarro Earth

Why eating 'light' crisps could make you gain MORE weight than opting for full-fat varieties


Dailymail.co.uk
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:53 UTC
Image
© AlamyTucking in: Opting for 'light' crisps can encourage you to eat more than if you stick with the full-fat variety, a study has found.
Dieters who try to cut their calorie consumption by picking low-fat versions of their favourite snacks should be wary, scientists say.

They found that opting for 'light' crisps could encourage you to gain more weight by increasing hunger pangs.

Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana studied the effect of synthetic fat substitutes by comparing high-calorie Pringles crisps with low-calorie Pringles Light crisps.

They said their surprising results challenged the conventional wisdom that foods made with fat substitutes aided weight loss.

Lead author Dr Susan E. Swithers, said: 'Our research showed that fat substitutes can interfere with the body's ability to regulate food intake, which can lead to inefficient use of calories and weight gain.'

The team put two groups of rats on separate high and low-fat diets. They then fed half of each group normal Pringles and offered the other half a mix of normal and low-fat crisps.

The Pringles Light chips, which are available in the U.S but not the UK, are made with olestra - a synthetic fat substitute that has zero calories and passes through the body undigested.

The team found that those on the high-fat diet gained more weight and developed more fatty tissue if they ate the low-fat crisps.

Comment: To learn more about the role of healthy fats in diet, see these Sott links:

Why high fat diets are not fattening

Your Brain On Ketones: How a High-fat Diet Can Help the Brain Work Better

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Cheeseburger

More Frankenfoods: Many Companies Eager to Use Nano in Food, But Few Admit It

Andrew Schneider
Food Safety News
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 16:34 UTC
Nanofood 1
© Food Safety Network
More than 15,000 food scientists, chefs, recipe developers and purveyors of spices, flavorings and additives met here last week to examine the newest innovations in the cook's pot and on grocery shelves.

Nanoparticles, which could revolutionize steps all along the path from the farm to the table, were discussed openly and with passion in many of the scientific sessions of the Institute of Food Technologists annual conference.

But in the huge exhibition hall, among the thousand of displays of the newest advancements in the food industry, nano was rarely being promoted as the exciting science it may well be. Its absence was perplexing.

Food Safety News patrolled the sprawling Food Expo questioning likely users of the new technology. The enthusiastic company sales reps and scientists saw the "press" tags affixed to our convention passes and suddenly had very little to say. It was akin to not talking about the crazy aunt at the family reunion.
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Attention

Dishwashers Could Harbor Harmful Fungus


RedOrbit
Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:17 UTC
DishWasher
© RedOrbit
Scientists have found that harmful fungal pathogens are enduring high temperatures, aggressive doses of detergents and rinsing salts, and both acid and alkaline types of water to take residency in dishwashers.

The scientists took samples of the fungi in 189 homes in 101 cities on six continents.

They said 56 percent of the dishwashers contained the black yeasts called Exophiala dermatitis along with its cousin fungus E. phaeomuriformis on the rubber seal on the appliance door.

The study said both species "are known to be able to cause systemic disease in humans and frequently colonize the lungs of patients with cystic fibrosis,"

According to the scientists, the fungi are "extremophile" organisms that are rarely found in nature. This suggests they have found an evolutionary benefit by occupying a dishwasher, which provides a warm and moist home.

The study did not focus on whether the dishwasher fungi had been any threat to health.
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Arrow Up

Why it is not surprising? Study shows high prevalence and severity of childhood food allergy in the US


Children's Memorial Hospital
Mon, 20 Jun 2011 09:20 UTC
A national study of food allergies in the US, the largest of its kind, finds that more children have food allergies than previously reported.

The study, published in the July issue of Pediatrics, and headed by Ruchi Gupta, MD, MPH, an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a pediatrician at Children's Memorial Hospital, shows food allergy affects 8 percent of children under 18 years of age, or about 5.9 million children in the US. Of those, 38.7 percent had a history of severe reactions, and 30.4 percent had multiple food allergies. Children with food allergies were most commonly allergic to peanuts (25.2 percent), milk (21.1 percent) and shellfish (17.2 percent).

"The large, population-based nature of this study shows that pediatric food allergy is a significant and growing problem in our society," said Dr. Gupta. "Based on our data, about 1 in every 13 children has a food allergy. What's more, nearly 2 out of every 5 affected children suffer from a severe food-allergy. For these children, accidental ingestion of an allergenic food may lead to difficulty breathing, a sharp drop in blood pressure, and even death. Now that we understand just how far-reaching the problem of food allergy truly is, we can begin taking the necessary steps to keep these children safe."

Comment: It shouldn't be surprising that food allergies are a growing problem in US, since kids are being literally fed with junk.

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