Health & WellnessS


Health

Tanzania: Brain Anomaly Affects Children

Jaffar Mjasiri
Tanzania Daily News
Fri, 08 Jul 2011 21:19 UTC
Image
© UnknownMuhimbili Orthopaedic Institute
There are ten patients admitted at Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute (MOI) in Dar es Salaam with an excessive accumulation of a clear, watery fluid in their brains and spinal cords - an abnormal medical condition known as hydrocephalus.

Speaking to the Daily News, Ms Germana Gaspa, a registered nurse who works in the Paediatrician Ward, said that the patients were sent in from upcountry hospitals mainly from Dodoma, Singida, Lindi and Mtwara.

"Most of the patients, however, come from central Tanzania where the problem is rampant," she said. She added that the patients start developing the complication during infancy.

Public Relations Department records at MOI show that more than 100 patients suffering from this ailment have so far attended outpatient clinics at the institute. A Public Relations Officer, Mr Frank Matua, said that it was only MOI that could handle this problem.

He said that a study on hydrocephalus began recently and medical doctors are still collecting data. "It will not be too long before the medical experts release a full report on the prevalence of the ailment," said the PRO.
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Wine

Stress and alcohol 'feed' each other


The University of Chicago
Fri, 15 Jul 2011 03:25 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Acute stress is thought to precipitate alcohol drinking. Yet the ways that acute stress can increase alcohol consumption are unclear. A new study investigated whether different phases of response to an acute stressor can alter the subjective effects of alcohol. Findings indicate bi-directional relationships between alcohol and stress.

Results will be published in the October 2011 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.

"Anecdotal reports suggest that alcohol dampens the physiological or negative emotional effects of stress but this has been hard to demonstrate in the lab," said Emma Childs, research associate at The University of Chicago and corresponding author for the study. "Another way that stress could increase drinking is by altering alcohol's effects. For example, if stress reduces the intoxicating effects of alcohol, individuals may drink more alcohol to produce the same effect.

Comment: There is much better and non-toxic way to relief anxiety and reduce your stress. It will also help you to heal emotional wounds; anything that may hinder or prevent you from leading a healthy and fulfilling life.

To learn more about Vagus Nerve Stimulation, through breathing exercises, and naturally producing the stress reducing and mood enhancing hormone Oxytocin in the brain, visit the Éiriú Eolas Stress Control, Healing and Rejuvenation Program here.

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Attention

Mystery Diarrhea Outbreak in Yuma County, Arizona and Mexico

Bob McClay
KTAR
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:21 UTC
Image
© unknown
The Centers for Disease Control is helping Arizona and Mexico health authorities investigate a diarrhea outbreak.

It started back in May.

"We've seen some increases in our campylobacter infection, which is a real fancy name for a diarrheal kind of infection," said Becky Brooks, director of the Yuma County Public Health Services District. "It causes diarrhea, sometimes abdominal pain and fever."

Brooks said there have been 36 cases in Yuma County in the past two months. Normally, there are 28 cases in an entire year. Fifteen cases also are being studied in the northern Mexican state of Sonora which borders Arizona.
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Beaker

Perchlorate and The Post-Organic Era

Sayer Ji
GreenMed Info
Thu, 23 Jun 2011 21:44 UTC
perchlorate molecule
© Unknown
Perchlorate is an environmental pollutant primarily associated with releases by defense contractors, military operations and aerospace programs, as it is a key ingredient in rocket fuel. It is now found in virtually all humans tested, and it is continually making its way up the food chain through ground and drinking water, into feed and edible plants, animals products, milk and breast milk - contaminating conventional and organically grown food, alike. It is now distributed widely throughout North America, as depicted by the image below:

perchlorate in the US
© Unknown
The Colorado River is so thoroughly contaminated with perchlorate (1.5-8 micrograms per Liter) that 90% of the lettuce consumed during the winter months in the United States produced in the Lower Colorado River region contains this powerful endocrine disruptor. (Source).
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Beaker

Eight glasses of water a day is "nonsense"

Seth Abramovitch
Gawker
Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:39 UTC
water
© LAT, image via Shutterstock
Are you one of millions of Americans who looks down with pride at the powerful stream of colorless, translucent fluid flowing out of your body every time your empty your bladder? Who takes great personal satisfaction in knowing you've downed enough bottled water in a single day to satisfy the hydration needs of your average circus elephant? Well, a new study suggests you might be wasting your time.

Chugging eight glasses of water per day, as many health professionals and nutritionists recommend, is said to do many wonderful things for your health - from preventing urinary tract infections to improving skin tone, promoting weight loss, regulating your digestion, and increasing concentration.
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Nuke

Nuclear Radiation Exposure Concerns Mount for Mothers in Japan


Womens News Network
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 23:36 UTC
Image
© Wendy TannerJapan mother and child.

As parents from Fukushima prefecture line up in Tokyo for public protests and a more recent 7.0 level earthquake hit off shore of the east coast of Honshu, Japan on July 9, the latest data on nuclear power reveals: the amount of radiation inside the plant's reactor has reached much higher than originally expected levels. Current released figures through JAIN - Japan Atomic Industrial Forum show 4,000 millisieverts per hour of radiation on June 4 was measured in Reactor No. 1 through a steam release rising from a crevice in the floor.

But what do the figures mean? And what does it mean for mothers and women who are pregnant in regions that are highly impacted by six damaged nuclear reactors with three complete core melt-down failures at the Fukushima plant?

According to the Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission the total release of radioactive iodine-131 to date is now equal to 630,000 terabecquerels, a figure that has caused numerous public and private safety concerns in Japan.

Parents along Japan's eastern region are now facing increased worries about their children, especially the youngest members of the family.

Some mothers who feel they have been exposed to levels of radiation that could cause their breast milk to be compromised are also making decisions away from breast feeding their infants. Even the possibility of compromised powdered milk, used to feed infants, is being scrutinized.

Current radiation release figures from TEPCO, the power company that operates and manages the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant now reveals that larger than originally reported releases of radiation at 770,000 terabecquerels did happen, a level that may hold much more significance as the disabled plant is expected to continue to release radioactive isotopes over an extended period of time.

Comment: The reader should keep in mind that the government and MSM have been downplaying the effects of radiation on people since this event began.

Read these articles for more information:

Radiation Protection: Your Child and Your Pregnancy...

Japan Radiation Survey Shows 1 In 20 Fukushima Children Will Develop Thyroid Cancer

There is no 'safe' exposure to radiation

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Health

Even BPA-Free Plastic Not Always Safe

Emily Sohn
Discovery News
Fri, 15 Jul 2011 10:33 UTC
Plastic Container
© iStockPhotoSome plastic containers are safe, others aren't. And there's currently no way to know which are which.

The elimination of the chemical BPA from plastic baby bottles, water bottles and other types of food and beverage packaging has given many people a sense of control over the plastics in their lives and the potential health risks involved.

But a BPA-free label doesn't mean a product is harmless, suggests a new study. When scientists conducted lab tests on more than 20 top-brand baby bottles along with more than 450 plastic food and beverage-packages, virtually all leached chemicals that acted like the hormone estrogen, even though many were free of BPA.

The new study, along with other work, suggests that the public's attention on BPA has been misguided. It now looks like there are thousands of possible chemicals in all sorts of plastics that act just like BPA. Called endocrine disruptors, these chemicals falsely tell the body's cells that the hormone estrogen is around, potentially causing all sorts of troubling developmental and reproductive consequences.

"Baby bottles, plastic bags, plastic wrap, clamshell food containers, stand-up pouches: Just about anything you can think of that's made of plastic that food or beverages are wrapped up in, we found this activity," said study author Stuart Yaniger, vice president of research and product development at PlastiPure, a technology company that works on developing safe plastics but gets most of its funding from government agencies. "It was shocking to us."

"The message is not anti-plastic," he said, adding that it is very easy to make plastic without estrogenic properties. "Plastics are good, but they can be made safer."
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Magnify

Lyme Disease - Why Lyme is the Mystery Disease

Leo Galland, M.D.
pilladvised.com
Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:12 UTC
Image
© hometownoneonta.allotsego.com
Summer is peak season for transmission of Lyme disease.

The only known transporter of Lyme disease bacteria, the deer tick, goes through the most infectious stage of its life cycle in the summer. But you don't need to be in contact with a deer to get a deer tick bite and Lyme disease.

Deer ticks can hitch a ride on small animals and land right in your backyard.

Here is a case study that highlights why Lyme disease is a mystery illness.
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Bulb

Best of the Web: Going Against the Grain Towards Better Health


Greenmedinfo.com
Wed, 22 Jun 2011 11:38 UTC
Image
© greenmedinfo.com
Grains are often called the "staff of life," having a sort of credibility that is biblical in proportion. So prevalent is the perception that grains make for "good food" that the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) - which is the United Nation's international agency for defeating hunger - uses a head of wheat as its emblem, with the Latin Fiat Panis or "Let There Be Bread" as its motto.

Despite the rather lofty secular position a loaf of whole grain bread may hold in the international community, the biblical record actually shows that the first foods mentioned in the Bible were the Herbs and Fruit Trees (Genesis 1:29), and that by punishment for sin God gave man bread:
"...cursed is the ground for thy sake;...In the sweat of thy face shalt though eat bread, till though return unto the ground..." (Genesis 3:17,19).
The inherent wisdom of this biblical message has long been forgotten and today, according to the USDA MyPlate, grains should constitute a sizeable sector of our diet in the form of "bread, cereal, rice, and pasta." Many of us, whose hyper-agrarian taste buds and gastrointestinal tracts have never once gone a day without some grain-derived morsel of bread or cracker, find ourselves expressing our dependency on these foods in telling, half confessionary phrases like: "I'm starving for a piece of bread," or "that pizza is to die for," forgetting that among non-agrarian peoples, grains were universally considered a last resort, or, starvation food only.
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2 + 2 = 4

MSG: The Flavor Enhancer That Sickens In Two Ways


Greenmedinfo.com
Thu, 16 Jun 2011 11:18 UTC
Image
© greenmedinfo.com
Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) contributes to illness in two distinct ways: 1) It makes food that is bad for us taste really, really, really good. 2) It is a toxic chemical that directly damages neurological tissue, as well as induces generalized endocrine disruption throughout the body associated with metabolic syndrome.

So, What is Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)?

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a commonly used "flavor enhancer," and so powerful that arguably you could spray it on roadkill and it would taste good. This omnipresent ingredient in modern mass market food takes advantage of our biologically hard-wired taste receptors, and makes it very hard to stop eating the foods "seasoned" with this ingredient. In fact, it is doubtful that without the MSG trick many of these mass market processed foods would be palatable enough to maintain their status as economically viable commodities.
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