Health & WellnessS


Health

Australia: Whooping Cough Epidemic Hits Coast

Bianca Clare
Sunshine Coast Daily
Sat, 26 Feb 2011 12:47 UTC
girl with whooping cough
© n/a
The Sunshine Coast is in the midst of a whooping cough epidemic with an average of three new cases presenting every day this year.

Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, can cause cold-like symptoms for adults but is fatal for about one in 200 babies infected.

New Queensland Health figures show a total of 169 cases has been diagnosed by doctors since January 1.

Of these, 39 cases were in children aged under five and four were in children less than one year old. A record breaking 83 cases were diagnosed in December and 111 cases in November.

These figures come as the State Government yesterday announced the free whooping cough vaccination program would be extended.
Read More...
Sherlock

Mind Control: How Your Body Can Automatically Improve Depression

Dr. Mark Hyman
drhyman.com
Sat, 26 Feb 2011 11:59 UTC
Image
© n/a
Can your body affect your mind?

By making different food and lifestyle choices, can you rid yourself of depression, boost your mood or even improve more serious conditions such as ADHD, autism and more?

In my experience, the answer is YES and I'll show you precisely how in just a second.

But first, let me tell you about one of my patients, Sarah.

She's a very vibrant, smart young woman of 18 who had just finished high school with honors and was admitted to a top university.

Even more exciting, her passion for theater and acting had recently landed her the lead role in a real movie.

The future ahead of her was bright and full of possibilities.

So why had Sarah's distraught mother brought her to see me?

Well, over the previous few weeks, she had sunk into a debilitating depression.

It had gotten so bad that she wouldn't go out, didn't respond to friends' calls, and couldn't even get out of bed to watch television - which is pretty bad for a teenager!

Sarah couldn't concentrate or read. Worse, she couldn't learn the lines for her movie, which was the opportunity of a lifetime, and was to be shot in just a few short weeks.

There was every reason that Sarah should have been at the highest moment in her life. Everything was going right.

Everything - except that she found herself in a debilitating depression, unable to cope with life's simplest tasks, like getting out of bed and getting dressed.
Read More...
Beaker

Shoppers Wary of GM Foods Find They're Everywhere

Mary Clare Jalonick
Associated Press
Sat, 26 Feb 2011 11:47 UTC
GM & normal salmon
© APThis undated 2010 handout photo provided by AquaBounty Technologies shows two same-age salmon, one genetically modified, one normal.
You may not want to eat genetically engineered foods. Chances are, you are eating them anyway.

Genetically modified plants grown from seeds engineered in labs now provide much of the food we eat. Most corn, soybean and cotton crops grown in the United States have been genetically modified to resist pesticides or insects, and corn and soy are common food ingredients.

The Agriculture Department has approved three more genetically engineered crops in the past month, and the Food and Drug Administration could approve fast-growing genetically modified salmon for human consumption this year.

Agribusiness and the seed companies say their products help boost crop production, lower prices at the grocery store and feed the world, particularly in developing countries. The FDA and USDA say the engineered foods they've approved are safe - so safe, they don't even need to be labeled as such - and can't be significantly distinguished from conventional varieties.
Read More...
Arrow Up

A New Era of Medicine has Finally Arrived

Dr. Mark Hyman
drhyman.com
Sat, 26 Feb 2011 11:28 UTC
Image
© drhyman.com
Just because you have a diagnosis doesn't mean you know what's really wrong with you!

Don't believe that?

I didn't used to, either!

As a doctor, I was trained to believe that all people with the same diagnosis were the same.

That means, I thought that one person's asthma was the same as someone else's asthma and that depression was the same in everyone.

That made my job pretty easy - once I made the diagnosis, all I had to do was match the pill to the ill, the drug to the disease.

What's wrong with this approach?

When doctors practice medicine this way, we end up treating the NAME of a disease - not the CAUSE.

The truth is, everyone is different, even people with the same diagnosis.
Read More...
Question

Is Your Body Burning Up with Hidden Inflammation?


drhyman.com
Fri, 25 Feb 2011 11:06 UTC
Image
© drhyman.com
Could something as simple as a quick and easy blood test save your life?

Absolutely.

It is called a C-reactive protein test, and it measures the degree of HIDDEN inflammation in your body.

Finding out whether or not you are suffering from hidden inflammation is critical, because almost every modern disease is caused or affected by it.

If your immune system and its ability to quell inflammation in your body are impaired, watch out. You are headed toward illness and premature aging.

Fortunately, addressing the causes of inflammation and learning how to live an anti-inflammatory lifestyle can dramatically improve your health.
Read More...
Health

US: Plague Death Came Within Hours, Spurred by Scientist's Medical Condition

Tom Randall
Bloomberg
Fri, 25 Feb 2011 05:28 UTC
University of Chicago infectious disease specialist Ken Alexander still remembers the shock he felt almost 18 months ago when his pager shook with the message that a colleague had died from the plague.

A half-hour later, Alexander was sitting at a table in the dean's office with researchers, lawyers, administrators and campus security officers, he recalled in an interview. The stricken colleague, Malcolm Casadaban, a 60-year-old genetics and cell biology professor, had checked into a hospital five days earlier and died within hours. Lab results were positive for the plague, and the university's "biosafety fire alarm" had been triggered, Alexander said.

"The first question was: Do we think this is real," Alexander, chief of infectious diseases at the university's pediatrics department, said yesterday in a telephone interview. "The answer was yes. So the onus was upon us to do two things; to notify the health infrastructure and act as if this were a worst-case scenario."
Read More...
Vader

US: Breathing Technique Proven Cure for Asthma


healthnewsdigest.com
Tue, 22 Feb 2011 03:05 UTC
Woodstock, NY -- There's a safe, nonmedical treatment for asthma, long used in other countries, that's just now gaining recognition in the US as asthmatics get cured with it. It's called the Buteyko Method, and it's been used in Russia for more than five decades.

Leading Buteyko advocates and practitioners Sasha and Thomas Yakovlev-Fredricksen say the Buteyko Method is gaining traction here in the US. Even New York Times health writer Jane Brody, who rarely covers "alternative treatments," has written in praise of this one (link).

Asthma has reached epidemic proportions in the US. The CDC states that more than 17 million Americans suffer from asthma -- including 1 in 10 children. The good news? The Buteyko Method is a safe, natural, and proven cure for asthma.

Comment: We would guess that the reason the Buteyko Method is 'unknown' in the US is because it would reduce Big-Pharma's profits

Read More...
Cow Skull

Stamford Speaker Touts Prehistoric Diet

Felicia Hunter
The Daily Stamford
Thu, 24 Feb 2011 05:57 UTC
Image
© Flickr-maureen_sillFruits, vegetables, meat and nuts are all part of the caveman diet.
No grains, no dairy, no salt. No way? Try it, says an author who touts the benefits of a diet consisting mainly of meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, nuts and roots. It's the Paleolithic approach to eating - more popularly known as the caveman diet. Author J. Alexander delineates the diet's advantages in his book, "The Prehistoric Diet: For the Modern Man and Woman." He'll discuss it at Stamford First Bank on Monday, Feb. 28, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Alexander says that by adhering to the caveman diet, he morphed from overweight to lean, healthy and happy. The natural weight-loss aspect of the diet helps people trim down without the aid of surgery or diet pills, he says. He'll sign copies of his book during the event at the bank.
Read More...
Alarm Clock

Home Temp, Sleep Loss Linked to Obesity


The Times of India
Fri, 25 Feb 2011 04:30 UTC
Image
© Thinkstock photos/Getty ImagesHome temperature, sleep loss linked to obesity
An Italian study has suggested that living in a cooler home and getting a decent night's sleep could help rein in the obesity epidemic.

A research team, led by Simona Bo at the University of Turin in Italy, found the odds of a person becoming obese declined by 30 per cent for each hour of sleep they managed, reports the Daily Mail.

Meanwhile, those who liked living in a toasty hot house were twice as likely to become obese as those who kept their homes no warmer than 20C.

These findings held true even when factors such as physical activity level and TV watching were taken into account.

The study followed more than a thousand middle-aged adults over six years.

Dr Bo and her colleagues, said: "Relatively unexplored contributors to the obesity and diabetes epidemics may include sleep restriction, increased house temperature, television watching, consumption of restaurant meals, use of air-conditioning and use of anti-depressant drugs."
Read More...
Health

Gluten linked to asthma in study


My Fox Tampa Bay
Fri, 25 Feb 2011 03:46 UTC
As the number of children diagnosed with asthma continue to rise, many point to environmental factors like pollen and pollution.

But now new research is saying, for some, the problem may be less about what we breathe and more about what we eat.

According to a new study, gluten sensitivity, also called Celiac Disease, can increase asthma risk by 60 percent.

Gluten is a protein found in lots of things we eat, like cakes, cookies, pasta, spices and even gravy. It comes from the grains used to make some of our favorite foods: wheat, barley, and rye.

Symptoms include abdominal cramping, bloating, diarrhea, and anemia.

The most accurate way to diagnose the problem is with an invasive test called an endoscopy. And that's one reason, some say, 97-percent of the people with the problem have no idea they have it.


Gluten linked to asthma in study: MyFoxTAMPABAY.com

Comment: Gluten sensitivity can lead to over 300 different diseases other than celiac disease. For more information on this topic see this tutorial.

Read More...