Health & WellnessS


Cheeseburger

Best of the Web: Global Warming Fraudsters Now Say 'Go Veggie' To Save Planet

Sean Poulter
The Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 22 Oct 2010 02:11 UTC
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© Unknown
Wholesale changes to the nation's diet, with a move towards vegetarian food and away from beef and cheese, have been recommended by Government advisers.

A report commissioned by the Food Standards Agency suggests radical changes to what we eat and even how we cook.

These include eating more seasonal produce to reduce transportation and switching to microwave ovens and pressure cookers to use less energy in preparing food.

Out would go beef, cheese, sugary foods and drinks such as tea, coffee and cocoa. In would come vegetables and pulses, together with yoghurt.

The FSA says the switch is necessary as part of a move to a diet that is low in greenhouse gases (GHG), which are associated with climate change.

The report, compiled by a team from the University of East Anglia, suggests that schools, hospitals and other public bodies should be expected to lead a change in national behaviour by putting low-GHG food on their menus.

The university was at the centre of allegations last year that it had manipulated climate change data to magnify the problem.

Comment: So we're expected to believe a climate report from a University department accused of cooking climate data?

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Magnify

Younger Brains Are Easier to Rewire - Brain Regions Can Switch Functions


ScienceDaily
Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:00 UTC
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© iStockphoto/Vasiliy YakobchukScientists offer evidence that it is easier to rewire the brain early in life. Researchers found that a small part of the brain's visual cortex that processes motion became reorganized only in the brains of subjects who had been born blind, not those who became blind later in life.
A new paper from MIT neuroscientists, in collaboration with Alvaro Pascual-Leone at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, offers evidence that it is easier to rewire the brain early in life. The researchers found that a small part of the brain's visual cortex that processes motion became reorganized only in the brains of subjects who had been born blind, not those who became blind later in life.

The new findings, described in the Oct. 14 issue of the journal Current Biology, shed light on how the brain wires itself during the first few years of life, and could help scientists understand how to optimize the brain's ability to be rewired later in life. That could become increasingly important as medical advances make it possible for congenitally blind people to have their sight restored, said MIT postdoctoral associate Marina Bedny, lead author of the paper.

In the 1950s and '60s, scientists began to think that certain brain functions develop normally only if an individual is exposed to relevant information, such as language or visual information, within a specific time period early in life. After that, they theorized, the brain loses the ability to change in response to new input.

Animal studies supported this theory. For example, cats blindfolded during the first months of life are unable to see normally after the blindfolds are removed. Similar periods of blindfolding in adulthood have no effect on vision.
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Bug

How Bedbugs Invaded New York

Ed Pilkington
The Guardian, UK
Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:55 UTC
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© Guardian Imaging/Getty ImagesSleepless in Manhattan...bedbugs are on the march across New York City.
New York City is under attack from a mass infestation of bedbugs that is leaving a trail of itching, sleep deprivation and panic in its wake.

Since the early days of moving pictures, a favourite staple of Hollywood has been to imagine New York city being invaded by nasty creatures that hide in dark corners. The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, one of the first monster films, starred a dinosaur that emerges from hibernation to crunch its way up Fifth Avenue, spreading mayhem in its wake. Then, of course, there was King Kong perched atop the Empire State Building. More recently, the zombies roaming Washington Square in search of Will Smith in I Am Legend were classics of the form, as was the aliens who lopped off the head of Lady Liberty in Cloverfield.

Having been raised on all these celluloid enactments of non-human invasion, you would have thought that New Yorkers would be pretty unfazed when the real thing happens. But, judging by the increasingly hysterical headlines that have been blasted across the pages of the New York Post in the last few weeks, that's not the case.

For the truth is that the city really is under attack this time, and its residents are starting to panic.
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Health

The Addictive Opioids in Wheat and Dairy Foods.

Brad Weeks, MD
Weeks MD
Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:51 UTC
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¿Ya tomaste tu dosis diaria?
In Short ;

Wheat- and dairy products contain opioid peptides influencing endorphin receptors in the brain. These peptides are physically addictive, causing dependence, asthma, obesity, apathy, ignorance and numbness. The same goes for beta-carbolines from prepared food.

To be sharp and investigative, you ought to consume neither dairy- nor wheat-products. You don't need those 'foods' at all. (see site4 and 13/plants)

To obtain all required nutrients and to remain sharp and investigative; consume as much fruits (there are about 6000 different fruits), and some fresh raw animal food regularly (like sashimi or egg yolk). And for munch-food; only consume what you really, really love to eat (and not because they say it's healthy), containing little protein, but much fat and / or sugar, satisfying your cravings for munch-food.
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Bad Guys

Monsanto Roundup Linked to Birth Defects in New Study

Aaron Turpen
NaturalNews
Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:00 UTC
Everybody's favorite genetically modified seed and biotech company, Monsanto, has yet again proven their lovability. The world's poster child for corporate manipulation and deceit [1] was the focus of a new study looking at their top-selling product, Roundup herbicides.

The study was conducted by Professor Andres Carrasco and an international team of scientists and researchers at the Laboratorio de Embriolagia Molecular at the University of Buenos Aires and was published by the American Chemical Society in August.[2] It focused on glyphosate, the prime ingredient of Roundup and the most widely-used broad spectrum herbicide in use worldwide. Glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) are also the focus of most of Monsanto's herbicide-tolerant (HT-ready) genetically modified seeds (GM or GMO).

The Argentinian study looked at how GBH affects vertebrate embryos in development. Treated during incubation with a dilute 1/5,000 GBH, the embryos showed several abnormalities in bone development, particularly in the skull and vertebrae. The animal embryos used were frogs and chickens.
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Sherlock

New Theory Links Depression to Chronic Brain Inflammation


ScienceDaily
Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:00 UTC
Chronic depression is an adaptive, reparative neurobiological process gone wrong, say two University of California, San Diego School of Medicine researchers, positing in a new theory that the debilitating mental state originates from more ancient mechanisms used by the body to deal with physical injury, such as pain, tissue repair and convalescent behavior.

In a paper published in the September online edition of Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, Athina Markou, PhD, professor of psychiatry, and Karen Wager-Smith, a post-doctoral researcher, integrate evidence from diverse clinical, biological and behavioral studies to create a novel theory they hope will lead to a shift in thinking about depression.

"In contrast to other biological theories of depression, we started with a slightly different question," said Wager-Smith. "Other theories address the question: 'What is malfunctioning in depression?' We took a step back and asked the question: 'What is the biology of the proper function of the depressive response?' Once we had a theoretical model for the biology of a well-functioning depressive response, it helped make sense of all the myriad differences between depressed and non-depressed subjects that the biomedical approach has painstakingly amassed."
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Oscar

Flashback 11-Year-Old Boy Uncovers What's Wrong with America's Food System

Sarah Parsons
Food.Change.org
Tue, 28 Sep 2010 10:30 UTC
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© histman via Flickr
American consumers, farmers, Big Ag, and the federal government may want to take advice from an 11-year-old kid. A little schoolboy just dropped some serious knowledge on what's wrong with the country's food system.

Birke Baehr, an 11-year-old kid from Asheville, N.C., recently gave a five-minute speech at the "TEDx: Next Generation Asheville" event. When I first saw the link for this YouTube video, I was admittedly skeptical - this kid couldn't possibly describe the ins and outs of America's crippled food system in little more than five minutes. Heck, famed foodies and top dogs at the Department of Agriculture can't accomplish that feat. Plus, kids acting like adults seriously creep me out (I'm looking at you, Dakota Fanning).

But then Baehr began. "It seems to me like corporations are always trying to get kids like me to get their parents to buy stuff that really isn't good for us or the planet," Baehr said at the beginning of his presentation. A solid point that's lost on many youth (which is the whole point of deceptive marketing tactics that lure kids into wanting junk food). I was admittedly intrigued by where the tyke was headed with all this. (Watch Baehr's speech after the break).
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Info

Fructose Intolerance Common in Children With Functional Abdominal Pain


Science Daily
Mon, 18 Oct 2010 06:23 UTC
Fructose intolerance, or fructose malabsorption, is common in children with recurrent or functional abdominal pain, but the condition can be effectively managed with a low‐fructose diet, according to the results of a new study unveiled at the American College of Gastroenterology's (ACG) 75th Annual Scientific meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
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Health

Lectins and Auto Immune Disease

Denis Van Loan D.D.S.
wegohealth
Tue, 19 Oct 2010 05:03 UTC
What are lectins? Lectins are proteins that adhere to components of a plant's immune system. Lectins are natural plant guardians that help fight molds, parasites and disease agents. Most of these invaders have a sugar molecule component. The lectin attaches to this and this compound blocks the foreign invader's activity and the metabolism of the sugar molecule.

Michael Cutler, M.D. is a board certified family physician who has a special interest in digestive disorders and degenerative diseases. He himself was a victim of digestive problems that caused him to lose part of his intestine. He is a source of much of the following information.

Most plant foods that we eat have lectins in them. These lectins are tenacious and highly resistant to breakdown. For instance the heat of baking or cooking does not easily destroy them.

Lectins do their damage when they hook up with sugar molecules found in your intestine or in the blood. When bound to the sugar molecule they render it inactive and useless. Even worse, since they are designed for plants, they easily become foreign invaders in your body. The union of the lectin with the sugar molecule compromises the human immune system; because the lectin compound is perceived as a foreigner.

This unrecognized alien now becomes an enemy to launch attack against. This causes an immune response to a false enemy. The human immune system attacks this lectin compound and in the process causes chronic inflammation.
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Hourglass

Genetic Test Could Pinpoint When Women Will Go Through the Menopause

Richard Alleyne
The Telegraph, UK
Sun, 17 Oct 2010 18:01 UTC
several, women
© AlamyThe test will eventually be able to predict within five years when women will go through menopause
Women could soon be able to take a genetic test in their twenties which will predict how long they can delay having children, a new study suggests.

Researchers have found a group of genes that are linked to when women go through the menopause and so the age when they will stop being fertile.

It is hoped the test, which will cost around £50, will be available within a decade and be eventually able to predict within five years when women will go through the change.

"The ultimate goal is one day be able to predict when someone is going through the menopause," said the study leader Dr Anna Murray from the University of Exeter Peninsula Medical School.

"It is estimated that a woman's ability to conceive decreases on average 10 years before she starts the menopause.
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