Health & WellnessS


Pills

America's most medicated state? West Virginia

Nathalie Tadena
MSNBC
Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:37 UTC
West Virginia has highest rate of prescription drug use in the country

Open the medicine cabinet in anyone's home, and chances are good you find at least a couple - and perhaps many - plastic prescription drug bottles.

Spending on prescription drugs in the U.S. multiplied nearly six times from $40.3 billion in 1990 to $234.1 billion in 2008, according to the nonprofit Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. From 1999 to 2009 the number of prescriptions dispensed rose 39% (from 2.8 billion to 3.9 billion) compared to a U.S. population growth of only 9% over the same period.

Who takes the most medication? In 2009 West Virginia had the highest prescription drug use of all states, according to data gathered from retail pharmacies and compiled by health care information company SDI.

Comment: The obvious missing correlation in this article is that of a diet high in gluten, dairy, sugar and processed foods to obesity, diabetes and heart disease. 18.4 prescription medications per person is more akin to poisoning than healing, complicating the issues of obesity, diabetes and heart disease even further.

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Roses

Ovulating women buy sexier clothing: study


Agence France Press
Tue, 17 Aug 2010 02:07 UTC
Women buy sexier clothes when they're ovulating, researchers from the University of Minnesota found in a study they say could impact how products associated with looks are marketed.

"The desire for women at peak fertility to unconsciously choose products that enhance appearance is driven by a desire to outdo attractive rival women," said Kristina Durante, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management and lead author of the study.
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Family

Study Finds: Risk to kids from toxic pesticides may be underestimated

Tom Laskawy
Grist
Thu, 12 Aug 2010 01:36 UTC
Image
© unknownBad for bugs - and for kids, too.
When kids eat conventionally grown fruits and vegetables, what level of pesticide residues are they taking in - and to what effect?

The answers to those questions remain murky, because little research has been done. But evidence is building that the way we think about pesticide risk, especially in children, is all wrong. A few years ago, scientists at Emory and the University of Washington showed that when children switched to organic fruits and vegetables, pesticide residue in their bodies (as measured in their urine) dropped significantly within days. But what wasn't clear at the time was the pesticide load in a typical kid's diet, since the scientists in the organic study had themselves established the diet given to the kids.

Now, Chensheng Lu, the lead scientist involved with the earlier study, has come out with a new one, along with a team of government and university researchers. This time, he and his team analyzed the pesticide residue on the fresh fruits and vegetables that parents gave their kids. The researchers analyzed the fruit-and-veg consumption of two groups of kids, one from Washington state and one from Georgia.
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Bulb

A Mindful Revolution in Education

Susan Kaiser Greenland
Huffington Post
Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:01 UTC
In my humble opinion, bringing the transformative practice of mindful awareness to children, teens and their families could revolutionize the world as we know it. There are great educational programs that teach valuable life-skills cradle to grave. But it's tough to use those life-skills in a crisis or other difficult situation unless you can: (a) Attend in a clearheaded way to inner and outer experience; (b) Tolerate any emotional discomfort that comes up in response to what you see; and (c) Purposefully respond in a way that is kind and compassionate to yourself and others. When kids, teens and adults systematically develop these three capacities through mindful awareness - attention, balance and compassion - they transform themselves and are better able to transform our world into a more peaceful, collaborative and caring place.
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Info

Fixing Technical Problems for a Good Night's Sleep

American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Eurekalert.org
Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:24 UTC
Image
© digitalplay.info
Getting a good night's sleep often comes down to technique. Avoiding late-night technology use and keeping a regular sleep schedule are two important techniques to heed as kids head back to school.

Recent studies found that adolescents used multiple forms of technology late into the night, including gaming systems, cell phones, and computers. As a result, they demonstrated difficulty staying awake and alert throughout the day.

"Any factor that deteriorates the quality or quantity of sleep will lead to difficulty with school performance and behavior problems," said William Kohler, MD, medical director at Florida Sleep Institute.
"When children stay up late at night texting in bed or playing computer games, they are increasing their risk for neurocognitive problems."
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Star

Chinese meditation technique shown to elevate brain function


Raw Story
Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:14 UTC
dalai lama

A Chinese-influenced meditation technique appears to help the brain regulate behavior after as little as 11 hours of practice, according to a study released Monday.

Researchers at the University of Oregon and Dalian University of Technology charted the effects of integrative body-mind training (IBMT), a technique adapted in the 1990s from traditional Chinese medicine and practiced by thousands in China.

The research to be published in the upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences involved 45 test subjects, about half of whom received IBMT, while a control group received relaxation training.

Imaging tests showed a greater number of connections in the anterior cingulate -- the part of the brain which regulates emotion and behavior -- among those who practiced meditation compared to subjects in the control group.

"The importance of our findings relates to the ability to make structural changes in a brain network related to self-regulation," said The University of Oregon's Michael Posner, a lead author on the study.

Comment: For more information about ancient meditation techniques please visit the Éiriú Eolas Website.

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Roses

The Toxic Five: Why Are They Still in Our Food?

Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
Sat, 14 Aug 2010 17:38 UTC
Dr. Shiv Chopra was a drug company insider and also worked for what is now Health Canada -- the Canadian equivalent of the FDA - for 35 years. In this interview he discusses the issue of food safety, and the toxic elements of our conventional food supply.

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Cheeseburger

Junk Food-Addicted Rats Chose to Starve Themselves Rather than Eat Healthy Food

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Unknown
A diet including unlimited amounts of junk food can cause rats to become so addicted to the unhealthy diet that they will starve themselves rather than go back to eating healthy food, researchers have discovered.

In a series of studies conducted over the course of three years and published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Scripps Florida scientists Paul Johnson and Paul Kenny have shown that rats' response to unlimited junk food closely parallels well-known patterns of drug addiction -- even down to the changes in brain chemistry.

"What we have are these core features of addiction, and these animals are hitting each one of these features," Kenny said.
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Cow Skull

Dead cow carcasses "resurrected" to produce cloned beef

Mike Adams
Natural News
Mon, 16 Aug 2010 09:57 UTC
We already know that cloned beef has entered the food supply both in the United States and the UK. Now, thanks to revelations from JR Simplot, a U.S. company specializing in the cloning of cows for beef production, we're learning that dead cows are cloned to produce the next generation of beef cattle.

Here's how it works: A large number of cows are slaughtered and then chopped into steaks that are tested for their flavor, texture and other qualities important to steak eaters. The source animal of each steak is recorded, and cells from that source carcass are preserved for possible cloning in case the steak turns out to taste good. Once all the steaks are gauged for their desirability, the dead cow carcasses from which the flesh was cut to produce the steaks are harvested for their DNA.

This DNA is then used to clone new cows who are fed, raised and slaughtered to see how their flesh steaks taste. This cycle is repeated through multiple generations in order to "evolve" cow clones with great-tasting flesh.
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Family

Canadian Parents Say WiFi Made Kids Sick


Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:48 UTC
Image
© Canadian PressParents in Barrie, Ont., are demanding the local school board turn off wireless internet in schools.
A group of central Ontario parents is demanding their children's schools turn off wireless internet before they head back to school next month, fearing the technology is making the kids sick.

Some parents in the Barrie, Ont., area say their children are showing a host of symptoms, ranging from headaches to dizziness and nausea and even racing heart rates.

They believe the Wi-Fi setup in their kids' elementary schools may be the problem.

The parents complain they can't get the Simcoe County school board or anyone else to take their concerns seriously, even though the children's symptoms all disappear on weekends when they aren't in school.
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