Scientists have just identified a new reason why some curry dishes, made with spices humans have used for thousands of years, might be good for you.

New research at Oregon State University has discovered that curcumin, a compound found in the cooking spice turmeric, can cause a modest but measurable increase in levels of a protein that's known to be important in the "innate" immune system, helping to prevent infection in humans and other animals.

This cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide, or CAMP, is part of what helps our immune system fight off various bacteria, viruses or fungi even though they hadn't been encountered before.

Prior to this, it was known that CAMP levels were increased by vitamin D. Discovery of an alternative mechanism to influence or raise CAMP levels is of scientific interest and could open new research avenues in nutrition and pharmacology, scientists said.

Turmeric is a flavorful, orange-yellow spice and an important ingredient in many curries, commonly found in Indian, South Asian and Middle Eastern cuisine. It has also been used for 2,500 years as a medicinal compound in the Ayurvedic system of medicine in India - not to mention being part of some religious and wedding ceremonies. In India, turmeric is treated with reverence.

Despite a long-held scientific belief that much of the wiring of the brain is fixed by the time of adolescence, a new study shows that changes in sensory experience can cause massive rewiring of the brain, even as one ages. In addition, the study found that this rewiring involves fibers that supply the primary input to the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain that is responsible for sensory perception, motor control and cognition. These findings promise to open new avenues of research on brain remodeling and aging.

Published in the May 24, 2012 issue of Neuron, the study was conducted by researchers at the Max Planck Florida Institute (MPFI) and at Columbia University in New York.

"This study overturns decades-old beliefs that most of the brain is hard-wired before a critical period that ends when one is a young adult," said MPFI neuroscientist Marcel Oberlaender, PhD, first author on the paper. "By changing the nature of sensory experience, we were able to demonstrate that the brain can rewire, even at an advanced age. This may suggest that if one stops learning and experiencing new things as one ages, a substantial amount of connections within the brain may be lost."

Insomnia and other sleep disorders are quite common among people with cancer, occurring in about one out of every three cases on average.

In my clinical experience, most patients with advanced cancer have disorderly sleep, which can include difficulty entering into deep sleep, fitful sleep and nightmares, and serious trouble falling back to sleep after waking during the night. These disturbances tend to be more frequent during conventional treatment, and the resulting sleep deficits appear to account for much of the fatigue reported by people with cancer.

Stress and poor sleep often seem to go hand in hand. Pain and pain-killing medications can also disrupt sleep. However, while sleep problems are more common among people who feel stressed and in pain, they can also crop up when you have these things well under control. This is because the sleep disturbances that accompany cancer also reflect a fundamental form of imbalance, one that involves your entire physiology.

Calcium supplements might increase the risk of having a heart attack, and should be "taken with caution," concludes research published in the online issue of the journal Heart.

Furthermore, boosting overall calcium intake from dietary sources confers no significant advantage in terms of staving off heart disease and stroke, the findings indicate.

Going Gluten Free is Not Always Enough to Heal

Back in March I was invited as a guest on the BBC Radio 4 consumer affairs programme You and Yours to discuss diabetes. Up against me was a spokesperson/dietician from Diabetes UK (the UK's largest diabetes charity). My issue is that Diabetes UK gives diabetics incomplete and misleading information that is likely to make their blood sugar control harder and their risk of complications higher than they need be. I argued for a diet lower in carbohydrates that cause spikes in blood sugar, including many starchy carbohydrates. The Diabetes UK spokesperson trotted out the same, tired, nonsense about the essential nature of carbohydrate in the diet and the supposed hazards of ketosis (a natural state where fat is broken down to give rise to 'ketone' bodies which we can use for fuel - a process which probably occurs through the night in most of us, whether we're on a diet or not). You can read more about these issues here.

The idea that each meal should include starchy carbohydrate (as Diabetes UK posits) is ridiculous and dangerous, in my opinion. When individuals eschew this advice and eat meals comprised of say meat, fish, eggs and non-starchy vegetables (e.g. green leafy vegetables) then their blood sugar control is usually very good. There are many diabetics who have proved this for themselves by self-testing blood sugar levels before and for a couple of hours, say, after eating. Individuals adopting a low-carb diet will also generally see an improvement in levels of HbA1c (also known as glycosylated haemoglobin) which is a marker of overall blood sugar control over the last 3 months or so. Many diabetics, with the right diet, are able to get their HbA1c level into what would be regarded as the normal range. Don't be expecting such results by following the dietary advice dished out by Diabetes UK, though.

Recently, I came across what looks like a whole better on-line resource for individuals with diabetes known as diabetes.co.uk. Diabetes.co.uk (not to be confused with Dabetes UK) describes itself as: "your resource for diabetes, diabetics, diabetes research and education; the leading community website and forum for people with diabetes". On the homepage, it states: "Diabetes.co.uk is growing as a community of diabetics and non-diabetics alike, offering their own support and first hand knowledge." I like this last bit, because I'm a great believer in listening to what people who have had success in controlling their diabetes have to say. I don't have diabetes so I'm not in the best place to judge what works. However, I've seen countless individuals report excellent results on adopting a low-carb diet, and it's these experiences (plus some science) which has led me to conclude this way of eating is, overall, the best for people with diabetes.

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. -- Doctors are scheduled to amputate a Milledgeville man's leg because it's infected with the flesh-eating bacteria.

That's according to the man's son, Mike Bales of Dacula. He said his dad, Paul Bales lives on Lake Sinclair near Milledgeville and injured his leg when he slipped and fell on his dock May 2.

Paul Bales bandaged the cut and went golfing the next day but started feeling pain in his leg.

He was admitted to the Oconee Regional Medical Center on May 5, then sent to the Medical Center of Central Georgia a week later.

You likely don't agree that we should eat more sugar. Neither do I.

Then why is the gluten-free industry promoting foods that are worse than table sugar? Gluten-free foods are made with:

• Rice starch (or brown rice starch)
• Tapioca starch
• Cornstarch
• Potato starch

in place of wheat and gluten. People go gluten-free because of some real or perceived sensitivity to gluten, and they replace wheat and gluten with gluten-free foods. Big mistake. These gluten-free ingredients:

• Send blood sugar sky-high. From a blood sugar standpoint, wheat is bad. Few foods are worse for blood sugar than wheat - except for gluten-free foods made with these junk carbohydrate ingredients.
• Cause insulin resistance - the fundamental process that leads to diabetes.
• Grow abdominal visceral fat - the inflamed fat, expressed on the surface as a "muffin top," that causes hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
• Trigger high triglycerides - which thereby leads to formation of small LDL particles that cause heart attack.
• Trigger the phenomena of glycation, i.e., glucose modification of proteins, that leads to cataracts, knee and hip arthritis, hypertension, and heart disease.

Cholesterol in the body is carried around the bloodstream in the form of what are called 'lipoproteins'. The two main lipoproteins are so-called low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-cholesterol) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-cholesterol). Conventional wisdom tells us that HDL-C is a marker for cholesterol being cleared from the inside of the arteries, while LDL-C has the capacity to deposit itself in the artery wall. Because of this, HDL-C and LDL-C are often dubbed 'good' and 'bad' cholesterol respectively.

Many doctors have been encouraged to focus on LDL-C, and ensure that their patients' levels of this substance remain below a predetermined set point. However, the fact remains that no studies have ever tested the effect of treating LDL-C levels (with medication and/or diet) to below a certain point. It will seem far-fetched to some that the core strategy used in cholesterol management has not been adequately tested, and things get even more unbelievable when it turns out that LDL-C is not even a particularly good marker for heart disease.

The US Food & Drug Admin. just approved a drug made from genetically modified carrots to treat Gaucher, a rare disease found mostly among Ashkenazi Jews. Out of a global population of 6.8 billion, an estimated range of 60-100,000 people carry the recessive gene for it, though not all are symptomatic.

The incidence of Gaucher is so rare, in fact, that to approve a GMO carrot for this purpose makes no sense, raising the specter of some unstated plan.

As expected when humans ingest active foreign DNA, one of the side effects of the FDA-approved drug, Elelyso®, is anaphylactic shock, among other allergic reactions.

Gaucher develops in offspring of parents who both carry and pass on a recessive gene that prevents development of an enzyme that allows "harmful substances to build up in the liver, spleen, bones, and bone marrow," explains the A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia. "The substances prevent cells and organs from working properly."

The recessive gene only appears in 6-10 percent of Ashkenazi Jews, who number just over 10 million today.

Several rare genetic diseases are linked to Ashkenazi Jews, who account for 80 percent of all Jews, reports the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, "including Tay-Sachs, Gaucher disease, Bloom syndrome, Idiopathic torsion dystonia, Familial dysautonomia, Factor XI deficiency, and more. For many of these disorders in which a causative gene has been identified, a specific mutation was found to be the cause of most cases of the disease in Ashkenazi Jews."

Dr. Mercola reacted with shock to the news, writing, "I don't even want to think about the potential ramifications of this decision. Many may not know this, but Monsanto, well-known as the leader in biotechnology and genetically engineered foods, is also invested in the medical industry."