Health & WellnessS


Cards

Pain relief - it is just an illusion

Richard Alleyne
The Daily Telegraph
Thu, 14 Apr 2011 02:00 UTC
It was supposed to be a trick of the mind to entertain the crowds, but a visual illusion that gives the impression your hand is being massaged could actually turn out to be an effective treatment for arthritis.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham demonstrating the trick at an open day were amazed when a number of pensioners told how it had miraculously reduced the pain in their joints.

The computer simulation was later tested on a sample of sufferers and in 85 per cent of cases it reduced their pain by 50 per cent.

The discovery was made by chance during a community open day at the university when visitors were invited to experience some of the body distortion illusions used in every day research.

A person places their hand inside a box containing a camera, which then projects the image in real-time onto a screen in front of them.

The subject then sees their fingers being apparently stretched and shrunk by someone gently pushing and pulling from the other side of the box.

It is supposed to just trick the mind into thinking your hand is being massaged - but it had the added bonus of relieving the pain of arthritis.
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Cow

Drug-Resistant Bacteria Found in 1/4 of US Meat, Poultry


Raw Story
Fri, 15 Apr 2011 20:15 UTC
meat @ grocery
© AFP
A sampling of grocery store meat in five US cities has shown a type of drug-resistant bacteria is contained in about one quarter of beef, chicken, pork and turkey for sale, a study said Friday.

Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria that can cause skin infections, pneumonia, sepsis or endocarditis in people with weak hearts, was found in 47 percent of samples, said the study in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The study drew fire from the meat industry, which pointed to the "small sample" taken and said its findings were misleading.

More than half -- 52 percent -- of the infected samples contained a tough strain of S. aureus that was resistant to at least three types of antibiotics.

Most of the time, the bacteria would be killed off during cooking, but risks of contamination can come from handling raw meat in the kitchen and touching other utensils, or from eating meat that is not fully cooked.
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Cow Skull

Drugs, Poisons and Metals in Our Meat - USDA Needs A Major Overhaul

David Kirby
Huffington Post
Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:52 UTC
Image
© animalwelfareapproved.org
Washington dumped some more bad news Friday afternoon when the USDA's Office of Inspector General issued a damning and unsettling report on the department's "National Residue Program for Cattle." It found gaping holes in the safety of American beef production, including residue of drugs, poisons and heavy metals in the meat we eat.

It's a stomach-turning, chilling read, even for a federal government document with the driest of titles: "Audit Report 24601-08-KC." And it's something that every omnivore in America should take the time to read.

"Based on our review, we found that the national residue program is not accomplishing its mission of monitoring the food supply for harmful residues," the USDA's oversight office wrote. The audit revealed that USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), along with the FDA and EPA, "have not established thresholds for many dangerous substances (e.g., copper or dioxin), which has resulted in meat with these substances being distributed in commerce."
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Syringe

People with diabetes have higher risk of heart disease

Gordon J. Rafool
NewsChief.com
Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:48 UTC
Diabetes is a condition in which a person's blood sugar is higher than what is accepted as normal. It is a condition that is increasing in the United States every year. It is a condition that is associated with age and increased weight. In recent years, diabetes has reached epidemic numbers in the United States. Recently published in one of the Nation's premier medical magazines was a study that looked at 5200 American men and women who participated in the on-going Framingham Heart Center. This study found that diabetic women had more than twice the risk of developing heart disease than non-diabetic women. The study went on to say that diabetic women, who already had heart disease, were more than twice as likely to die compared to non-diabetic women. Among men the researchers found that those with diabetes also had twice the risk of developing heart disease and faced a 1.7 times higher risk of dying after developing heart trouble compared with non-diabetic men. One of the most startling aspects of this study found that those 50 years and older, the diabetic men lived an average of 7.5 years less than men without diabetes.
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Ambulance

Stillbirth epidemic claims more lives each year than HIV-AIDS and malaria combined

Andre Picard
Globe and Mail
Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:17 UTC
Image
© Globe and Mail
When Christine Jonas-Simpson's son Ethan was born, there was an eerie quiet in the delivery room, and then a piercing wail.

"The only cry I heard was my own," she said sombrely.

Ethan was dead, "born still" in the language of grieving parents; "stillborn" in the medical vernacular. The umbilical cord was constricted, essentially suffocating the baby in the womb, a condition impossible to detect with an ultrasound.

Ms. Jonas-Simpson, who was almost 38 weeks pregnant, knew her son was dead before she went into labor. When he was born, she held Ethan in her arms, stroking his shock of curly red hair. So did her husband.

The nurses were wonderfully supportive, even explaining to Ethan's young siblings how his air tube was broken, something that could happen to an astronaut. The family was able to mourn on their terms.
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Butterfly

Mountain Healing

Charles Dickson, Ph.D.
Motherearthnews.com
Thu, 15 Apr 1999 16:00 UTC
Image
© FOTOLIAPretty and potent: Foxglove is the source of digitalis, a cardiac stimulant extracted from the leaves that has kept millions of heart patients alive.
From pretty and potent foxglove to the aromatic Oswego tea plant, the southern region of the Appalachian Mountains is home to a wealth of diverse medicinal flora with a rich history of healing.

In 1776, while the Declaration of Independence was being drafted, the great French botanist Andre Michaux stood atop North Carolina's Grandfather Mountain and sang the French national anthem. It was a moment that represented the culmination of years of exploration into the magnificent variety of plants that flourish in the southern Appalachians - a concentration of flora unequaled on the North American continent or even in the whole of Europe.

As significant as was the work of Michaux, Native American tribes such as the Cherokee and the Catawba had been roaming the lush hillsides and gorges for centuries before his time, discovering a multitude of uses for these plants - one of the most significant being medicinal. The region is a veritable outdoor pharmacy of medicinal plants, which were not only part of the recipes of yesterday's tribal medicine men, but continue to occupy a place in today's pharmacopoeias. In fact, so important are the botanical sources of modern medicines that environmental scientist G. Tyler Miller has estimated that 40 percent of all the medicine on the shelves of today's drugstores have plant origins.

While any attempt at a complete listing of known medicinal plants of the southern Appalachians might require volumes, a brief walk along their paths will, I hope, serve to illustrate the enormous impact the area has had on modern medical practice.
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Cow Skull

"There is no safe dose of radiation"


GreenMed Info
Fri, 15 Apr 2011 10:40 UTC
Fukushima radiation fire
© Unknown
"There is no safe dose of radiation"
~ Prof. Edward P. Radford, Physician and Epidemiologist

While a highly coordinated effort is underway by the nuclear industry, mainstream media, medical establishment and world governments to define, justify and reinforce a "safe level of radioactivity" pertaining to the air, the water, the food, and our bodies, the unspoken truth contained within the precautionary principle that there is no safe dose of radiation, nor a safe level of exposure to the 200+ radioisotopes released by the Fukushima reactor complex meltdown, is but an inaudible whisper in the cacophony of a world dominated by universal deception.

north pacific jet stream
© Unknown
Regardless of whether we chose to pay attention or not, over the past month a massive number of radiotoxic and genotoxic particles have been released into the atmosphere, oceans and biosphere, and due to the continuous westerly circular flow of the Jet stream no one in the Northern latitudes will be spared some degree of exposure as time proceeds.

bioaccumulation radiation food chain
© UnknownBioaccumulation radiation in the food chain
The question of exposure should not be "if" but "when," and "how" we deal with it once it happens. Cesium-137 for instance, has a half-life of 30 years (90 years later 12.5% of its radioactivity remains), and due to its similarity to potassium will make its way up the food chain bioaccumulating and distributing broadly in the tissues of both plants and animals as it goes. Eventually all such radioisotopes must meet mankind who is perched precariously on top of an unsustainable, highly toxic food pyramid of his own making, and from which he has an exceedingly difficult time escaping and/or detoxifying.
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Magnify

Fluoride 'Can Affect Brain'

John Anthony
stuff.co.nz
Wed, 13 Apr 2011 20:05 UTC
Image
© redactednews.blogspot.com
New Plymouth will have fewer geniuses and more "mentally handicapped" people if the town keeps fluoride in its water supply.

Those are the findings of Cambridge University graduate professor of chemistry Paul Connett, a director of the international Fluoride Action Network.

He has traveled the world spreading his message that fluoridation of water supplies is ineffective, dangerous to health and lowers IQ.

Last night, he spoke to more than 80 people at the Plymouth International Hotel as part of his nationwide book promotion tour.

His visit comes as the New Plymouth District Council starts consultation to decide how much fluoride should be in its water supply.

Comment: Additional articles about Fluoride:

The Case Against Fluoride: Toxifying the Tap
Fluoride: Worse than We Thought
The Price of Too Much Fluoride

Videos about Fluoride:

Video: History of the Fluoride Deception
US doctors expose fluoride as poison, want it banned from water supply
What is a poison like fluoride doing in our tap water?

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Magnify

New Study Sheds Light On Mysterious Processes Of ADHD


RTT News
Wed, 13 Apr 2011 16:15 UTC
Image
A recent study into ADHD symptoms have connected the disorder with deficient brain activity. Researchers showed that children diagnosed with ADHD have more difficulty completing simple tasks because the strength of signal their brain produces is less than that of a child not diagnosed.

Researchers asked children to make a counting movement with one hand; then, the researchers watched for movement in the other, inactive hand. Children diagnosed with ADHD were more likely to "mirror" the counting motion of the active hand with the inactive hand.

Researchers then looked at brain scans taken during the exercise and found that the distracted mirroring was owed to the brain's inability to effectively shut down the inactive side of the body.

"The findings reveal that even at an unconscious level, these children are struggling with controlling and inhibiting unwanted actions and behavior," researcher Stewart Mostofsky, MD, of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, said in a news release.
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Health

Doctors Often Wouldn't Follow Their Own Advice: Study


HealthDay
Wed, 13 Apr 2011 16:27 UTC
When it came to their own well-being, large percentage chose a different option, research shows

When faced with a choice of treatments, primary care doctors often choose a different option than they would recommend to their patients, a new study finds.

In fact, physicians who were surveyed in the research more often chose a treatment in which they were more likely to have long-term repercussions, such as paralysis, than to die.

But when it came to advising their patients, doctors were more likely to urge the treatment with a greater chance of death vs. the one with non-lethal adverse effects, say researchers publishing their findings in the April 11 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
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