Health & WellnessS


Book

Book Review: The Case Against Fluoride

Paul Connett, James Beck & Spedding Micklem
Chelseagreen.com
Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:16 UTC
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© Chelseagreen.com
How Hazardous Waste Ended Up in Our Drinking Water and the Bad Science and Powerful Politics That Keep It There

Arvid Carlsson, Nobel Laureate in Medicine or Physiology (2000) and Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology, University of Gothenburg writes:
"Sweden rejected fluoridation in the 1970s and, in this excellent book, these three scientists have confirmed the wisdom of that decision. Our children have not suffered greater tooth decay, as World Health Organization figures attest, and in turn our citizens have not borne the other hazards fluoride may cause. In any case, since fluoride is readily available in toothpaste, you don't have to force it on people."
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Magnify

Breast cancer awareness campaigns push women into treatment unnecessarily

Christie Aschwanden
Los Angeles Times
Sat, 02 Oct 2010 17:12 UTC
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© Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles TimesDespite the pink ribbon push, cancer deaths have dropped only slightly
As predictably as the leaves turn yellow in autumn, America turns pink each October with the arrival of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. From shopping malls to football stadiums, the campaign's signature pink ribbons seem to be everywhere. Yet some experts are questioning whether this awareness campaign is truly helping women with breast cancer.

The stark reality is that in the 26 years since the campaign began, deaths from breast cancer have dropped only slightly - about 2% per year, starting in 1990. According to the National Breast Cancer Coalition in Washington, D.C., 117 women in the U.S. died of breast cancer every day in 1991; today that number is 110.

"I don't think people understand the lack of progress," says Fran Visco, the coalition's president.
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Attention

GM Foods More Dangerous for Children than Adults


Dr. Mercola
Wed, 29 Sep 2010 01:39 UTC
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© academicsreview.org
Excerpted from Jeffrey M. Smith's Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods

"Swapping genes between organisms can produce unknown toxic effects and allergies that are most likely to affect children." - Vyvyan Howard, expert in infant toxico-pathology at Liverpool University Hospital, United Kingdom

Changes in nutrition have a greater impact on the structure and functioning of young, fast-growing bodies. More of the food is converted to build organs and tissues, whereas adults convert more to energy and store this as fat.

The UK Royal Society said that genetic modification "could lead to unpredicted harmful changes in the nutritional state of foods" and recommended that potential health effects of GM foods be rigorously researched before being fed to pregnant or breast-feeding women and babies." Epidemiologist Eric Brunner said that "small changes to the nutritional content might have effects on infant bowel function."
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Cheeseburger

Proof! Palmers Island bans junk food for two weeks: Immediate improvement seen

confoodnet
YouTube
Sat, 02 Aug 2008 01:05 UTC
See what happens when a small school in Australia goes food additive free for just two weeks - kids, parents & teachers all see big improvements.

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Video

Video: 'What's Wrong with Our Food System' By 11 Year Old Birke Baehr


foodfreedom.wordpress.com
Sun, 26 Sep 2010 19:48 UTC
Eleven-year-old Birke Baehr gives a five-minute TED Talk, promoting a decentralized food system.
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Alarm Clock

Raising Awareness of Methadone's Danger

Kate Santich
Los Angeles Times
Mon, 27 Sep 2010 19:25 UTC
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© mothersagainstmedicalabuse.org
A mother makes a mission of raising awareness among teens, parents and others after her son dies from a lethal mix of drugs.

Jonathan Lucas Levine should be celebrating his 21st birthday this month. Probably he would be in college by now, studying to be a math professor or perhaps a psychologist. Surely he would have plenty of friends. The way other kids used to follow him around, his mom dubbed him the Pied Piper.

Instead, Donna Levine sits in her Orlando, Fla., apartment surrounded by photos of her only child and tries not to cry again. Three years ago this month, at 18, Jonathan died of a drug overdose.

Among the mix of chemicals in his system was methadone - a drug that is readily available, relatively cheap and legal. The medical examiner ruled that methadone was the key ingredient that made the overdose lethal.
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Heart

A Harvest of Healing

Maria Rodale
foodfreedom.wordpress.com
Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:54 UTC
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© Rodale Institute
Why do we do it - garden - when it makes us sweaty, sore, and often cranky? By the end of the harvest season, our faces are red from cooking tomatoes and putting up food either into the pantry or the freezer. Our hands are calloused and nails dirty. And yet...and yet...when it's all said and done and autumn winds chill the night air, what we're left with, besides a stocked-up pantry, is a deep feeling of strength and satisfaction. It's true. With gardening, we harvest more than food and flowers; we harvest health and healing.

It starts with the health that comes just from physical activity: Gardening is proven to be great exercise. And that, I think, comes from our stubbornness; gardeners want to have things a certain way, so we find superhuman strength to move plants, rocks, logs, or whatever else it takes to make our gardens just right. All that weight lifting, bending, and stretching, while leaving us sore the next day, also builds good bone strength and muscles - especially as we age. I bet there are few gardeners who have sufficient vitamin D thanks to gardening in the sun (and occasional rainfall)!
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Health

Celiac Disease Rate Is "Growing", Particularly Among Elderly, Study Reveals


Science Daily
Mon, 27 Sep 2010 10:45 UTC
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© n/aMaybe everybody should get one of these?
Working to solve the puzzle of when people develop celiac disease has led researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine Center for Celiac Research to some surprising findings. They have found that the autoimmune disorder is on the rise with evidence of increasing cases in the elderly. An epidemiological study published September 27 in the Annals of Medicine supports both trends -- with interesting implications for possible treatment and prevention.

"You're never too old to develop celiac disease," says Alessio Fasano, M.D., director of the University of Maryland's Mucosal Biology Research Center and the celiac research center, which led the study. The Universita Politecnica delle Marche in Ancona, Italy; the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; the Women & Children's Hospital of Buffalo; and Quest Diagnostics Inc. of San Juan Capistrano, Calif., also participated.
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Cookie

Researchers Show That The Human Genome Is Helpless In The Face Of Chocolate


Science Daily
Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:00 UTC
Chocolate DNA
© na
Knowing that extreme sensitivity to some bitter tastes is genetically-driven, researchers in the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine tried to find out if genetic taste markers might prevent some women from enjoying bitter chocolate or bitter espresso coffee. Dr. Adam Drewnowski, director of the school's Nutritional Sciences Program, says the study by graduate student Agnes Ly and himself showed that any aversion to bitter taste, genetic or not, was easily overcome by the addition of a little sugar or a lot of fat. The study was published in the January issue of Chemical Sense, an Oxford University Press journal.

"Human genetics is not destiny, particularly when it comes to a love for coffee and chocolate," Drewnowski said. "All the women tested, regardless of their ability to taste bitterness, enjoyed chocolate. But the ones who were more sensitive to bitter flavors would drink lattés, rather than straight espresso coffee."
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Shoe

Aerobic Exercise Can Nurture Sweet Dreams

Dorene Internicola
The Globe & Mail
Mon, 27 Sep 2010 23:02 UTC
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© therunningpeople.com
Sleepless and sedentary? Instead of counting sheep in a field, try running through a meadow.

Experts agree that an aerobic exercise routine during the day can keep you from tossing and turning at night, even if they're not sure why.

"The bottom line is we really don't know why people tell us that exercise helps them sleep," said David Davila of the U.S.-based National Sleep Foundation.

"But if people are normally active, reaching their aerobic goals, chances are they will sleep the right amount for what they need."

Dr. Davila, who practices sleep medicine in Little Rock, Arkansas, said the low-grade sleep deprivation suffered by many time-pressed, under-rested adults has a cumulative effect.

"People have more car accidents and what they call 'presentee-ism', or poor performance, at work," he said. "There are fallouts for the average person."
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