Health & WellnessS


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Gluten Sensitivity and the Impact on the Brain

David Perlmutter M.D.
Huffington Post
Sun, 21 Nov 2010 12:33 UTC
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© unknown
Several years ago, parents of a lovely nine-year-old girl, Karen, brought her to see me because she had poor memory. They indicated that she had difficulty in thinking and focusing, and because of these issues she was falling further and further behind in her school work. Interestingly, they stated that at times she was fine, while clearly at other times her brain function seemed to be different. They indicated that she had difficulty keeping her thoughts together and that she became profoundly frustrated when this would occur.

Because of her significant issues with academic performance, her parents elected to home school her. Her academic testing revealed that she was functioning at or below a third grade level in a variety of areas, including math skills, reading fluency, story recall and overall academic skills. Fortunately, she had no significant medical problems in her past and her overall physical, as well as neurological examinations were entirely normal. Routine, typical blood studies were unrevealing, so I was left to reconsider her history to see if there were any clues as to what might be causing this child's problems.

Comment: For more information about wheat and gluten intolerance read the following articles:

The Dark Side of Wheat - New Perspectives on Celiac Disease and Wheat Intolerance

Opening Pandora's Bread Box: The Critical Role of Wheat Lectin in Human Disease

The Critical Role of Wheat in Human Disease

Gluten: What You Don't Know Might Kill You

The Addictive Opioids in Wheat and Dairy Foods

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Wine

Mysterious Allergen in Wine That Causes Headaches, Stuffy Noses Identified


The Asian News International
Thu, 18 Nov 2010 00:00 UTC
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© Unknown
Scientists have identified the mysterious allergen in wine that causes headaches, stuffy noses, skin rash and other allergy symptoms.

The discovery opens to door to development of wine-making processes that minimize formation of the culprit glycoproteins and offer consumers low-allergenic wines.

Wine allergies occur in an estimated 8 percent of people worldwide. Only 1 percent of those involve sulfites, sulfur-containing substances that winemakers add to wine to prevent spoilage and also occur naturally.

But the wine components that trigger allergies in the remaining 7 percent are unclear.

Giuseppe Palmisano and colleagues suggest that glycoproteins - proteins coated with sugars produced naturally as grapes ferment - may be the culprit.

Their analysis of Italian Chardonnay uncovered 28 glycoproteins, some identified for the first time. The team found that many of the grape glycoproteins had structures similar to known allergens, including proteins that trigger allergic reactions to ragweed and latex.
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Cheeseburger

SOTT Focus: Big Fat Lies

Doug DiPasquale
Sott.net
Wed, 17 Nov 2010 05:16 UTC
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© Sott.net/Jason Martin
Earlier this year, fast food behemoth Kentucky Fried Chicken unleashed their latest atrocity onto an unsuspecting public: a junk food nightmare ominously titled the 'Double Down'. This artery-clogging 'sandwich' forgoes any of the conventions of a sandwich - like bread for example - and instead delivers only the goods: two pieces of trans fat deep-fried chicken envelope an over-processed piece of bacon and some sort of cheese-like sauce.

Reactions to KFC's announcement were mixed, as could be expected. Some hedonists lauded its approach with a great deal of fanfare while health experts expressed understandable disgust. This led to blog comments of the usual variety - those who warn of the dangers of consuming something like this and call for its ban, those who bring up the important fact that it is their right to eat like this, and then those whose plan for eating it can only be attributed to spite - eating out of spite being a model adaptation for self-preservation.
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Bug

Cholera and Dengue Fever: State health officials issue warnings of two diseases

Eric Glasser
WTSP
Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:13 UTC
monsanto
© wtsp

Tampa, Florida -- State health workers say it's official: Florida is now witnessing incidents of two diseases we haven't experienced in years, if not decades.

"It's of course important for Floridians in all parts of the state, but especially South Florida," says Dr. Carina Blackmore with the state's health department.

The diseases being discussed are cholera and dengue fever. Cholera is spread by unsanitary conditions. Dengue fever, by mosquitoes.

Comment: "Unknown to most Americans is that dengue fever has been the intense focus of US Army and CIA biological warfare researchers for over 50 years. Ed Regis notes in his excellent history of Fort Detrick, "The Biology of Doom," that as early as 1942 leading biochemists at the installation placed dengue fever on a long list for serious consideration as a possible weapon. In the early 1950s, Fort Detrick, in partnership with the CIA, launched a multi-million dollar research program under which dengue fever and several addition exotic diseases were studied for use in offensive biological warfare attacks. Assumably, because the virus is generally not lethal, program planners viewed it primarily as an incapacitant. Reads one CIA Project Artichoke document:
"Not all viruses have to be lethal ... the objective includes those that act as short-term and long-term incapacitants." Several CIA documents, as well as the findings of a 1975 Congressional committee, reveal that three sites in Florida, Key West, Panama City and Avon Park, as well as two other locations in central Florida, were used for experiments with mosquito-borne dengue fever and other biological substances."


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X

Flashback 8 more deaths connected to HPV vaccine: Adverse reactions from Gardasil number in thousands


World Net Daily
Sat, 06 Oct 2007 02:55 UTC
vaccine
© Unknown
Another eight deaths in just the past few months are being connected to Gardasil, Merck & Co.'s vaccine that targets the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus and is being considered by many states as mandatory for all schoolgirls, according to documents released by Judicial Watch.

There also have been another 1,824 adverse reactions to the drug, bringing the "known total" of such problems to 3,461, according to the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption.

"In light of this information, it is disturbing that state and local governments might mandate in any way this vaccine for young girls," said Tom Fitton, the group's president. "These adverse reactions reports suggest the vaccine not only causes serious side effects, but might even be fatal."
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Pills

Flashback Documentary Reveals the Unhealthy Profits of the Pharmaceutical Industry


The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:00 UTC
The United States health-care industry is the world's biggest - with $300 billion a year spent on prescription drugs alone, and rising. But recent months have seen health scandal after health scandal, with some of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies fined billions of dollars.

These cases are beginning to reveal vast corruption in the drug industry, with revelations of fraud, of cover-ups of fatal side effects and huge kickbacks paid to doctors. Our investigation reveals the story of how health-care became unhealthy profit.
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Book

Killer Coke: A Review of The Coke Machine

Jerusha Klemperer
Civil Eats
Thu, 18 Nov 2010 18:26 UTC
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© Civileats
My dirty truth is that I have a collection of Coke bottles from around the world: one from Mexico, one with Arabic script, one covered in unrecognizable lettering and filled with Yugoslavian beach glass, and so on. I was a teenager when I amassed them and totally oblivious to the implications behind this international menagerie of emptied glass. This drink was everywhere, tailored slightly through variations in local water and variations in bottle size, but ultimately the same. I loved that I could find it anywhere.

Michael Blanding's book, The Coke Machine: The Dirty Truth Behind the World's Favorite Soft Drink aims to tell the real story behind that happy global picture of people who speak different languages, have different skin color, but happily drink Coke. His story begins in 1886, with Coke's origin as a snake oil tonic, and extends all the way up to its present incarnation as a multinational beverage corporation.
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Cow

3 Lies Big Food Wants You to Believe


Dr. Mercola
Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:43 UTC
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© Cafothebook.org
Lie #1: Industrial Food is Cheap

The retail prices may be low, but they fail to include impacts on human health, the environment, and other shared public assets.

You will ultimately foot a much bigger bill, paying your part of hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, medical expenses, insurance premiums, declining property values, and mounting cleanup costs.

Lie #2: Industrial Food is Efficient

Industrial food animal producers rely on heavily subsidized agriculture, large infusions of capital, and lax enforcement of regulations. High productivity and domination of market share should not be confused with efficiency. When you measure total cost per unit of production, or even net profit per animal, you find that confinement operations come with hidden costs.

Lie #3: Industrial Food is Healthy

Industrial animal food production heightens the risk of the spread of food-borne illnesses. And it is no coincidence that rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity are at an all-time high. What's more, respiratory diseases and outbreaks of illnesses are increasingly common among CAFO and slaughterhouse workers - and spill over into neighboring communities.

According to AlterNet:
"Food production that is safe for the environment, humane to animals, and sound for workers and communities gives us the best chance for a food system that is safe and healthy for eaters and producers alike."
Source

AlterNet October 21, 2010
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Bug

First cholera case in Florida found in Naples area

Bob LaMendola
Sun Sentinel
Thu, 18 Nov 2010 15:11 UTC
A Naples-area woman has been confirmed as the first Floridian to contract cholera after visiting Haiti, and other potential cases in other areas also are being tested, state health officials said Wednesday.

But Department of Health doctors said the woman's infection poses virtually no risk to the public in Florida because U.S. sewer and water systems eliminate the bacteria from drinking water, which is primarily how it spreads.

"We don't anticipate we will see any transmission as a result of exposure in Haiti in Florida or anywhere else in the U.S. ... because our water and sanitiation system minimizes the risk," said Dr. Thomas Torok, a disease investigator with the health department.

The only real risk to Floridians would occur if they had direct contact with bodily fluids from an infected person, including if the patient worked in a job with public contact, cholera experts said. The woman does not work in such a job.
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Light Saber

Vitamin C: A life-saving treatment for sepsis

Kathy Wallis
University of Western Ontario
Thu, 18 Nov 2010 07:02 UTC
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Physicians caring for patients with sepsis may soon have a new safe and cost-effective treatment for this life-threatening illness. Research led by Dr. Karel Tyml and his colleagues at The University of Western Ontario and Lawson Health Research Institute have found that vitamin C can not only prevent the onset of sepsis, but can reverse the disease.

Sepsis is caused by a bacterial infection that can begin anywhere in your body. Your immune system goes into overdrive, overwhelming normal processes in your blood. The result is that small blood clots form, blocking blood flow to vital organs. This can lead to organ failure. Babies, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems are most likely to get sepsis. But even healthy people can become deathly ill from the disease.

According to Dr. Tyml, a professor at Western's Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, patients with severe sepsis have a high mortality rate, nearly 40 percent, because there is no effective treatment.

Comment: Alternative medicine has already been saving lives with this treatment for the longest time. For more information, please read our forum discussion on Vitamin C.

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