Health & WellnessS


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Spicy Alternatives to Preventive Medicine

Sanchita Sharma
hindustantimes.com
Sun, 19 Dec 2010 13:33 UTC
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Being healthy is not always about deprivation and working out. Simpler ways exist, and among the easiest path to health is the spice route. British researchers are the latest to add to growing scientific evidence that popular Indian spices and tubers such as garlic, turmeric, onions and ginger protect against a clutch of diseases.

The newest scientific validation came on Friday from researchers at King's College London, who report that garlic, onions and leeks protect against osteoarthritis, or age-related degeneration of the joints. The findings, published in the British Medical Journal Musculoskeletal Disorders Journal, said a compound called diallyl disulphide found in smelly bulbs lowered cartilage-damaging enzymes in the body. So effective was it that they recommend diallyl disulphide be made part of the treatments to manage osteoarthritis, which is so far managed with pain relief or joint replacement, when all else fails.
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Bug

Alert: New MRSA Strain Found on Isle of Man

Kathy Jones
Med India
Sat, 25 Dec 2010 12:54 UTC
perti dish
© Unknown

Scientists are reporting that a new strain of the superbug Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that predominately affects young, fit and healthy people has been detected on the Isle of Man.

The island's Department of Health confirmed a small number of cases of a bacterium called MRSA USA 300.

The department added it was mainly transmitted at sports centres, gyms, swimming pools and spas, was resistant to many antibiotics and could cause serious infection.

"Bacteria are particularly good at adapting to their environment and through mutations in their DNA, which they are able to share with other bacteria, they can become resistant to antibiotics that are being utilised in healthcare environments," the Telegraph quoted Katie Laird of the Leicester's De Montfort University, as saying.

"The new antibiotic resistant strain of MRSA USA 300 that has been isolated in the Isle of Man is unusual in that it affects the young, fit and healthy and is associated with sporting facilities rather than the hospital environment," said Laird.
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Syringe

Poison Alert: Vaccine to Prevent Anal Cancer Approved in U.S.


CBC News
Fri, 24 Dec 2010 02:19 UTC
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© Harry Cabluck/Associated PressGardasil is now approved in the U.S. to prevent cervical, vulvar, vaginal and anal cancer.
The Gardasil vaccine has received the regulatory green light in the U.S. to prevent anal cancer.

Merck & Co. and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the approval for people aged nine to 26.

"Treatment for anal cancer is challenging; the use of Gardasil as a method of prevention is important as it may result in fewer diagnoses and the subsequent surgery, radiation or chemotherapy that individuals need to endure," said Karen Midthun, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

Anal cancer is uncommon in the general population but the incidence is increasing, the FDA said.

The American Cancer Society estimates that about 5,300 people are diagnosed with anal cancer each year in the United States, with more women diagnosed than men.
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Red Flag

Pharmaceutical Scare Tactics: Herbal Medicines May be Risky for Kids


CBC News
Fri, 24 Dec 2010 09:55 UTC
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© The Associated PressA girl opens her mouth for a spray of herbal medicine to prevent a hand-foot-mouth disease in Fuyang, in central China's Anhui province, in March 2009. Complementary medicine experts warn that serious harm may occur when effective therapies are replaced by ineffective alternative therapies for children.
Giving alternative treatments such as homeopathic remedies instead of conventional medicines to children may have deadly side-effects in rare instances, a new analysis says.

Australian researchers monitored reports from pediatricians in Australia from 2001 to 2003 looking for suspected side-effects from alternative medicines like herbal treatments, vitamin supplements or naturopathic pills. They found 39 reports of side-effects including four deaths.

The study was published online Thursday in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, a specialist publication of the medical journal BMJ.

Unlike conventional medicines, whose side-effects are tracked by national surveillance systems, there are no such systems in place for alternative therapies.

Comment: The information below contains just some examples of how alternative medicine, such as homeopathy does more good than harm and why pharmaceutical companies are so against alternative medicine.

Could This 'Forbidden Medicine' Eliminate the Need for Drugs?

Homeopathy Heals in Africa

Homeopathy Successfully Treated Flu Epidemic of 1918

What "Skeptics" Really Believe about Vaccines, Medicine, Consciousness and the Universe

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Attention

Fluoride in Water Linked to Lower IQ in Children


prnewswire.com
Tue, 21 Dec 2010 15:15 UTC
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Is this the end of water fluoridation?

Exposure to fluoride may lower children's intelligence says a study pre-published in Environmental Health Perspectives, a publication of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Fluoride is added to 70% of U.S. public drinking water supplies.

According to Paul Connett, Ph.D., director of the Fluoride Action Network, "This is the 24th study that has found this association, but this study is stronger than the rest because the authors have controlled for key confounding variables and in addition to correlating lowered IQ with levels of fluoride in the water, the authors found a correlation between lowered IQ and fluoride levels in children's blood. This brings us closer to a cause and effect relationship between fluoride exposure and brain damage in children."
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Pills

The Year in Pills

Martha Rosenberg
Counterpunch
Fri, 24 Dec 2010 14:55 UTC
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2010 will go down as the year the diet pill Meridia and pain pill Darvon were withdrawn from the market and the heart-attack associated diabetes drug Avandia was severely restricted.

But it was also the year the Justice Department filed the first criminal, not civil, charges against a drug company executive. Lauren Stevens, a former VP and assistant general counsel at GlaxoSmithKline, hid some 1,000 instances of GSK-paid doctors illegally promoting Wellbutrin to other doctors, say authorities.

It was also the year prominent psychiatrists Charles Nemeroff and Alan Schatzberg were accused of writing an entire book for GSK called Recognition and Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders: A Psychopharmacology Handbook for Primary Care.
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Nuke

Did the Atom Bomb Test Fallout Cause Cancer?

Dr. Samuel Epstein
Huffington Post
Thu, 23 Dec 2010 14:12 UTC
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The huge mushroom clouds from atom bomb tests of the 1950s and 1960s are an unforgettable part of the American saga. The tests were cloaked in rhetoric typical of the Cold War, i.e. they were needed to achieve "superiority" over the Soviets in the event of a nuclear war.

But all the patriotic nuclear talk couldn't prevent widespread concern that nuclear war would kill tens of millions. But many were also troubled by fallout in the mushroom clouds, which contained huge amounts of over 100 deadly radioactive chemicals that traveled through the air across the continental U.S. Precipitation brought this fallout back to earth - and into the food chain and human bodies.

Concerns became so great that scientists and citizens began calling for studies of how much fallout was entering people's bodies, and how much harm it was causing - especially to the highly-sensitive fetuses, infants, and children. Dr. Herman Kalckar of the National Institutes of Health published an article in August 1958, calling for a baby tooth "census" - a program of collecting teeth and testing them in laboratories for fallout levels. In particular, Kalckar suggested that Strontium-90 be measured.
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Attention

City of Houston Shuts Down Two Radioactive Water Wells

Mark Greenblatt
KHou News
Thu, 23 Dec 2010 11:23 UTC
A radioactive water well that is controlled by the City of Houston, and that serves residents of Jersey Village, is no longer being used, according to the communications director for Houston Mayor Annise Parker.


On Monday, a KHOU-TV investigation revealed Jersey Village water well #3 was one of 10 water wells identified by recent federal tests as having tested high for a particularly damaging form of radiation called alpha radiation.

As recently as two weeks ago, city officials had said that same well, and nine others across the city, remained online and "available for use," even after being identified in a draft report by the United States Geological Survey as testing high for radioactive contaminants that are known to immediately increase risks for cancer.

In addition, the city says it is no longer using Spring Branch water well #6. That well was found to have smaller levels of radiation by the draft USGS report, but not enough to approach the legal limit. Instead, the federal agency found it had tested double the legal limit for arsenic, another carcinogen that can cause cancer and other ill health effects.
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People

Blue-green algae tested for treating ALS


University of South Florida
Tue, 21 Dec 2010 11:31 UTC
Nutritional supplementation with Spirulina, a nutrient-rich, blue-green algae, appeared to provide neuroprotective support for dying motor neurons in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, University of South Florida neuroscientists have found. Although more research is needed, they suggest that a spirulina-supplemented diet may provide clinical benefits for ALS patients.

A spirulina dietary supplement was shown to delay the onset of motor symptoms and disease progression, reducing inflammatory markers and motor neuron death in a G93A mouse model of ALS. Spirulina, an ancient food source used by the Aztecs, may have a dual antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect on motor neurons, the researchers said.
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Alarm Clock

Salinas, California: The Salad Bowl of Pesticides

Sheila Kaplan
politicsdaily.com
Wed, 22 Dec 2010 13:24 UTC
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Salinas Valley, California - Locals call this place the world's salad bowl. Dole, Naturipe and Fresh Express are here, where much of the global fruit and vegetable trade emerges in neat green fields just over the hills from the Pacific Coast.

The difficulties facing migrant workers who plant and pick the crops is an old story. But in Salinas, a new story is emerging - one with serious implications for the rest of the country and with an ending that has yet to be written.

It is here that University of California, Berkeley public health professor Brenda Eskenazi and her colleagues have spent the past 12 years studying mothers and children who are exposed to pesticides used in the fields.

The Center for Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS) is a joint project of UC Berkeley, the Natividad Medical Center, Clinica de Salud Del Valle de Salinas and other community organizations. Its goal is to assess exposure to pesticides and other pollutants in pregnant women and young children to determine the effects on their health, and to try to prevent contact with the chemicals.
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