Health & WellnessS


Book

The Demise of college presses?

Forget global warming and the inevitable ice age destined to follow it. Don't waste time worrying about a nuclear apocalypse or 2012. The end of human life on earth will be caused by something very different. When archaeologists in the distant future unearth the ruins of the last few dilapidated, abandoned bookstores and college presses left standing before the apocalypse, from amongst the rubble of forgotten strip-clubs, movie theaters and mega-churches, the answer to the demise of the previous supreme beings will become clear: They stopped reading.

Such premonitions are nothing new: In 2007 The Washington Post reported that one in four adults had not read one book that year, and in 2003 the Jenkins Group, an independent publishing firm, reported that 70 percent of adults had not entered a bookstore for five years. What should really be unnerving is the following: On Aug. 19, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that Rice University will close its campus press in September, consequently dismantling an essential medium for community and communication amongst the student body. Its closure obstructs a vital, time-honored bridge of correspondence between student and institution.

Magnify

Best of the Web: The Cancer Epidemic: Its Environmental Causes

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© Unknown
The World Health Organization is projecting that this year cancer will become the world's leading cause of death. Why the epidemic of cancer? Death certificates in United States show cancer as being the eighth leading cause of death in 1900.

Why has it skyrocketed to now surpass heart disease as number one?

Is it because people live longer and have to die of something? That's a factor, but not the prime reason as reflected by the jump in age-adjusted cancer being far above what could be expected from increased longevity. And it certainly doesn't explain the steep hike in childhood cancers. Is it lifestyle, diet and genetics, as we have often been told? They are factors, but not key reasons.

The cause of the cancer epidemic, as numerous studies have now documented, is largely environmental - the result of toxic substances in the water we drink, the food we eat, the consumer products we use, the air we breathe.

Comment: To learn more about the President's Cancer Panel read the following articles carried on SOTT:

New Alarm Bells About Chemicals and Cancer

New Research Revealed: Environmentally Caused Cancers Are 'Grossly Underestimated'


Recycle

Bottled Tea Comes Up Short In Antioxidant Tests

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© StockphotoIf you're looking for antioxidants in tea, you're better brewing your own rather than buying the bottled stuff.
Tea companies like to brag about the antioxidants in their bottled tea beverages.

Some even put the amount of antioxidants on the label. But if you think that you're getting a big dose of these natural chemicals from your favorite bottled brew, think again.

Reseachers tested bottled teas for antioxidants called polyphenols and found that most brands contain very little of them.

"Out of 49 samples, half of the bottle teas contain less then 10 milligrams of polyphenols," says Shiming Li, a natural products chemist at WellGen, a company that's working to develop foods for medical use.

Arrow Down

Hard to Stomach: A western diet promotes unhealthy gut bacteria in children

Family meals often descend into ritual battles over healthy greens: how many children must consume, and how many treats they will earn as a result. The stakes may be higher than parents realize. According to a study published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a sugary, fat-laden Western diet wreaks profound changes on children's gut bacteria, and could even promote the risk of asthma, allergies and other inflammatory diseases.

Rates of inflammatory disease have been rising for decades among adults and children alike. Puzzlingly, this increase has occurred largely in developed countries, bypassing poorer places. (Rural poverty brings many hardships; inflammatory bowel disease is not among them.) This has left scientists struggling to pinpoint exactly what about the rich world is making people sick. New data from Paolo Lionetti, of the University of Florence in Italy, supports the view that diet may be the culprit.

Info

Canola Oil is a Classic Example of Food Fraud

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Remember margarine? That was touted as healthier than butter several years ago. Though many have since caught on to that lie, it still persists somewhat. Margarine is as healthy as melted plastic. But it sure is cheap to produce! That was then, this is now. Could Canola oil's health claims compare with margarine's fraud?

There is evidence to support health food fraud with canola oil. Not buying it by the bottle is easy enough, but it appears in many prepared or processed foods, even those in health food stores. Because of Canola's marketing itself as a healthy option, it is recommended by many health food experts. Meanwhile, the health food industry sells and uses it as a healthy alternative despite growing evidence of toxic dangers.

Pills

Research Shows: Drug Addicts Get Hooked via Prescriptions, Keep Using 'To Feel Like a Better Person'

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If you want to know how people become addicted and why they keep using drugs, ask the people who are addicted.

Thirty-one of 75 patients hospitalized for opioid detoxification told University at Buffalo physicians they first got hooked on drugs legitimately prescribed for pain.

Another 24 began with a friend's left-over prescription pills or pilfered from a parent's
medicine cabinet. The remaining 20 patients said they got hooked on street drugs.

However, 92 percent of the patients in the study said they eventually bought drugs off the street, primarily heroin, because it is less expensive and more effective than prescriptions.

They continued using drugs because they "helped to take away my emotional pain and stress," "to feel normal," "to feel like a better person."

Bulb

Meditation is Proven to be the Serene Way to Get Smarter

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Integrative body-mind training boosts neuron connectivity in the part of the brain which regulates emotions and behavior
It has long being credited as the way to a serene mind. But scientists have now discovered that meditation physically enhances the brain.

Even a brief course of meditation strengthens connections between the regions of the brain that regulate our emotional responses, they found.

This could make it easier for us to keep calm, they said.

Chinese and U.S. researchers at the University of Oregon focused on effects of a meditation technique known as integrative body mind training, or IBMT.

Based on ancient Chinese medicine, IBMT combines posture, mental imagery and body relaxation and breathing techniques.

People

New Study Shows That Childless Women Succeed More Than Mothers in the Worplace

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- what do these women have in common?

Despite their widely varying political and personal experiences, all three of these powerful women do not have children, and some experts think this fact may have contributed directly to their successes.

A new study from the University of Chicago claims that childless women become more successful in the workplace than women with children.

Ambulance

US: Mental Health Problems Rampant In Kids Displaced by Katrina

Five years after Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast, the impact of the disaster continues to take a psychological toll on children, according to a new study.

The results show that more than 37 percent of children displaced by the disaster, which unfolded five years ago this week, have been diagnosed with depression, anxiety or behavioral and conduct disorders. These children were also five times more likely to experience emotional disturbances than kids not affected by the hurricane.

However, fewer than half of parents seeking mental health counseling for their children were able to access professional services.

Coffee

Coffee Addiction: How to Naturally Kick the Habit

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Coffee is probably the most consumed beverage on the planet and there are many reasons why. It's both a stimulant and a laxative. So it wakes you up and makes you go... in more ways than one. For marketing purposes, coffee is often cited as a high antioxidant beverage, which may account for a recent flood of media reports that coffee is a health drink!

But, let's face it, if you analyze any plant for its contents you are bound to find antioxidants. That's what plants have in abundance. It's their job to make antioxidants. Non-edible plants like willow bark, spruce needles, pine bark and birch wood are also high in antioxidants. That doesn't mean we have to eat them!

Whether coffee is good or bad is relative and based on the individual. Let me to help you decide whether you are addicted and what to do about it.