Health & WellnessS


Light Saber

Feds yank genetically engineered crops from all Northeast refuges

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Washington, DC - The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has agreed to stop planting genetically engineered (GE) crops on all its refuges within a dozen Northeastern states, according to a settlement agreement in a lawsuit brought by conservation and food safety groups. Because the federal government would not agree to end illegal GE agriculture in refuges nationally, new litigation is being prepared in other regions where as many as 75 other national wildlife refuges now growing GE crops are vulnerable to similar suits.

The lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Delaware, filed by the Widener Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic on behalf of Delaware Audubon Society, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Center for Food Safety, charged that the Fish & Wildlife Service had illegally entered into Cooperative Farming Agreements with private parties, allowing hundreds of acres on its Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware to be plowed over without the environmental review required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

In settling the suit, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service promised to revoke any authorization for further GE agriculture at Bombay Hook and the four other refuges with GE crops: the Rappahannock River Valley Refuge and the Eastern Shore of Virginia Refuge, Montezuma Refuge in New York and Blackwater Refuge of Maryland, unless and until an appropriate NEPA analysis is completed - a condition that has yet to be met for GE agriculture on a National Wildlife Refuge.

Syringe

Grandmother dies from swine flu after she has the jab

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© Liverpool Daily PostEleanor Carruthers, 68, had the flu vaccine in October but died after catching the swine strain.

A grandmother-of-three thought she was safe from swine flu after she had the vaccine months ago.

But Eleanor Carruthers, 68, from Merseyside became the latest victim of the outbreak on Saturday.

Mrs Carruthers was seriously ill with emphysema and lung cancer, but had had the flu vaccination in October to protect her from the illness.

Despite the step, she was rushed to the Royal Liverpool Hospital last week and later died. H1N1 (swine flu) was recorded as one of the main causes of her death.

Black Cat

Germany bans 934 more farms in dioxin scare

dioxin
© Unknown

Berlin - Germany's dioxin-tainted food scandal widened Saturday, as authorities banned another 934 farms from selling eggs, poultry and pork after finding out that one company had hidden its deliveries of contaminated livestock feed.

Prosecutors in Lower Saxony state have opened an investigation after finding out about the tainted feed deliveries to those farms, Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner said.

"This is a scandal within the scandal," she said.

Magic Hat

How to become diabetic in 5 easy steps

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If you would like to become diabetic in as short a time as possible, or if you have someone you don't like--ex-spouse, nasty neighbor, cranky mother-in-law--whose health you'd like to booby trap, then here's an easy-to-follow 5-step plan to make you or your target diabetic.

1) Cut your fat and eat healthy, whole grains--Yes, reduce satiety-inducing foods and replace the calories with appetite-increasing foods, such as whole grain bread, that skyrocket blood sugar higher than a candy bar.

2) Consume one or more servings of juice or soda per day--The fructose from the sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup will grow visceral fat and cultivate resistance to insulin.

3) Follow the Institute of Medicine's advice on vitamin D--Take no more than 600 units vitamin D per day. This will allow abnormal levels of insulin resistance to persist, driving up blood sugar, grow visceral fat, and allow abnormal inflammatory phenomena to persist.

Butterfly

9 Steps to Reverse Dementia and Memory Loss as You Age

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Recently, I spoke on a panel for PBS TV at the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) convention in Boston. The topic was dementia.

There was a woman with mild cognitive impairment on the panel. Her condition is sort of like pre-Alzheimer's disease. Everyone on the panel - including the Harvard neurologist - agreed that memory loss is NOT a normal part of aging. The sad part was that the panel didn't have much to offer people in the way of prevention. Their only solution was just a very bad and pretty ineffective selection of drugs with lots of side effects.

But there is another way to think about brain aging. The brain responds to all the same insults as the rest of the body - stress, poor diet, toxins, lack of exercise or sleep, nutritional deficiencies, and more. All we have to do is give the brain a tune-up and we can see miracles. In today's blog I will give you nine tips that will allow you to do that. But first, let's look a little more closely at the magnitude of this problem.

Dementia on the Rise

Dementia is a big problem and growing every day. Ten percent of 65-year olds, 25 percent of 75-year olds, and 50 percent of 85-year olds will get Alzheimer's disease - at a cost of $60 billion a year to society. Worse, the number of people with Alzheimer's is predicted to triple in the next few decades. It is now the seventh leading cause of death.(i)

Comment: For more information on detoxification and healing, visit our diet and health forum. To learn more about the importance of breathing exercises to relieve stress, detox the mind and body and enhance relaxation visit the Éiriú Eolas Stress Control, Healing and Rejuvenation Program here.


Pills

Placebo Effect Works Without the Bluff

Doctors may be able to invoke the same benefits of placebos without the deception.
The Gist

- Even when patients know they're just taking a placebo, they can still see an improvement in their symptoms.

- Doctors sometimes prescribe actual drugs to patients just for the placebo effect, even if they don't think the particular drug will help the patient.

- The placebo effect could be the result of the doctor-patient relationship and the "exchange of healing symbols," according to one researcher.

Info

Unearthing Prehistoric Tumors, and Debate

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© Alena Sefcakova, Slovak National Museum, Bratislava, SlovakiaAn X-ray of vertebrae from a 50–to 60–year–old man exhumed from an early medieval cemetery in Slovakia showed damage from what paleopathologists believe was metastatic carcinoma – a cancer that began in the soft tissues of the body and spread to the bone.
When they excavated a Scythian burial mound in the Russian region of Tuva about 10 years ago, archaeologists literally struck gold. Crouched on the floor of a dark inner chamber were two skeletons, a man and a woman, surrounded by royal garb from 27 centuries ago: headdresses and capes adorned with gold horses, panthers and other sacred beasts.

But for paleopathologists - scholars of ancient disease - the richest treasure was the abundance of tumors that had riddled almost every bone of the man's body. The diagnosis: the oldest known case of metastasizing prostate cancer.

The prostate itself had disintegrated long ago. But malignant cells from the gland had migrated according to a familiar pattern and left identifiable scars. Proteins extracted from the bone tested positive for PSA, prostate specific antigen.

Often thought of as a modern disease, cancer has always been with us. Where scientists disagree is on how much it has been amplified by the sweet and bitter fruits of civilization. Over the decades archaeologists have made about 200 possible cancer sightings dating to prehistoric times. But considering the difficulties of extracting statistics from old bones, is that a little or a lot?

A recent report by two Egyptologists in the journal Nature Reviews: Cancer reviewed the literature, concluding that there is "a striking rarity of malignancies" in ancient human remains.

"The rarity of cancer in antiquity suggests that such factors are limited to societies that are affected by modern lifestyle issues such as tobacco use and pollution resulting from industrialization," wrote the authors, A. Rosalie David of the University of Manchester in England and Michael R. Zimmerman of Villanova University in Pennsylvania. Also on the list would be obesity, dietary habits, sexual and reproductive practices, and other factors often altered by civilization.

Comment: While this article has some interesting and valid points, one constant MSM propaganda remains: linking smoking to cancer. Readers are encouraged to read this article for a different perspective.


Pills

FDA Lowers Amount of Acetaminophen Allowed in Prescription Painkillers

Agency officials say action taken because of reports of severe liver damage

Hursday - U.S. health officials announced Thursday that they will lower the maximum amount of the pain reliever acetaminophen allowed in prescription opioid products such as Vicodin and Percocet because of reports of severe liver damage.

Over a period of three years, the upper threshold of acetaminophen in prescription drugs containing opioids such as codeine will be set at 325 milligrams per dose. Right now, such products can contain up to 750 milligrams of acetaminophen, Dr. Sandra Kweder, deputy director of the Office of New Drugs in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said during a Thursday news conference.

The FDA will also be mandating that such prescription combination products include "black box" warnings on their labels alerting users to the potential for liver damage.

Health

Microbes in Our Gut Regulate Genes That Control Obesity and Inflammation

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If you are looking to lose weight in the coming year, you may need help from an unexpected place: the bacteria in your gut. That's because scientists have discovered that the bacteria living in your intestines may play a far more significant role in weight loss and gastrointestinal problems than ever imagined.

In a new research report published online in The FASEB Journal, researchers show that a deficiency of Toll-like receptor 2 (Tlr2) -- used by mammals (including humans) to recognize resident microbes in the intestines -- leads to changes in gut bacteria that resemble those of lean animals and humans. This discovery builds on previous research demonstrating that a deficiency of TLR2 protects against obesity, while at the same time promoting gastrointestinal problems like excessive inflammation. It also shows that genes controlling TLR2 expression play a very important role in one's gastrointestinal health and weight management.

Comment: The best approach to balance gut flora is by dietary changes and nutritional supplements like probiotics. For more information, please visit our diet and health forum.


Attention

UCSF study identifies chemicals in pregnant women

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The bodies of virtually all U.S. pregnant women carry multiple chemicals, including some banned since the 1970s and others used in common products such as non-stick cookware, processed foods and personal care products, according to a new study from UCSF. The study marks the first time that the number of chemicals to which pregnant women are exposed has been counted.

Analyzing data for 163 chemicals, researchers detected polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides, perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), phenols, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), phthalates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and perchlorate in 99 to 100 percent of pregnant women. Among the chemicals found in the study group were PBDEs, compounds used as flame retardants now banned in many states including California, and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane ( DDT), an organochlorine pesticide banned in the United States in 1972.

Bisphenol A (BPA), which makes plastic hard and clear, and is found in epoxy resins that are used to line the inside of metal food and beverage cans, was identified in 96 percent of the women surveyed. Prenatal exposure to BPA has been linked to adverse health outcomes, affecting brain development and increasing susceptibility to cancer later in life, according to the researchers.

Findings will be published in Environmental Health Perspectives on Jan. 14, and now are available on an embargoed basis.

The study was not designed to identify direct connections to adverse health outcomes.