Millions of healthy people - including shy or defiant children, grieving relatives and people with fetishes - may be wrongly labeled mentally ill by a new international diagnostic manual, specialists said on Thursday.

In a damning analysis of an upcoming revision of the influential Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health experts said its new categories and "tick-box" diagnosis systems were at best "silly" and at worst "worrying and dangerous."

Some diagnoses - for conditions like "oppositional defiant disorder" and "apathy syndrome" - risk devaluing the seriousness of mental illness and medicalising behaviors most people would consider normal or just mildly eccentric, the experts said.

Maintaining proper balance of healthy gut flora is a crucial yet widely misunderstood component of human health. While the development of antibiotics has lengthened our lifespans, our excessive and inappropriate use of these drugs may be causing serious long-term consequences we are only now becoming fully aware of.

These consequences not only affect our individual health, but may even be causing permanent changes to the microflora of all people from generation to generation.

Martin Blaser's recent (2011) article published in Nature highlights the potentially dangerous long-term consequences that arise from the rampant overuse of antibiotics. (1) He argues that changes in our microbiota may even be promoting the transmission of deadly organisms, as one of the important roles of an intact microflora is to resist colonization by pathogenic organisms.

Blaser also points out that not only does the individual use of antibiotics cause permanent changes in the gut flora, but that infants born to women given antibiotics during pregnancy, or the 30% of children delivered via cesarean section, may be starting life with a significantly altered and insufficient level of friendly gut flora. (2) This is a serious concern because lack of diversity in friendly gut bacteria has been shown to contribute to a large number of diseases and complications.

Unfortunately, even a single course of antibiotics can permanently alter the gut flora.

Say the words "fungal infection" and most people think of athlete's foot. But fungal infections are actually the root cause of many illnesses - from sinusitis to kidney disease. Fungi invade through our lungs, skin and digestive tract. Food, especially grains and peanuts, is rampant with fungi. Once inside our bodies, fungi can survive indefinitely. Fungal infections have been documented in every body part except teeth. What's more, they are an area of medicine that is largely ignored by conventional physicians. Here's what you need to know to protect yourself...

The New England Journal of Medicine recently published the photograph to the left. It is of a 55-year-old man with Type 1 diabetes who has been injecting insulin under the skin of his belly for more than 30 years. Those who inject insulin regularly are often advised to 'rotate' (vary) the site of injections. One reason for this is that if they don't, they can run the risk of developing 'lipohypertrophy' - enlargement of fat cells local to where the insulin is injected. The picture is a graphic example of this condition.

I don't believe that the best way for people to lose weight is to consciously restrict how much they eat. I have no issue with people eating less, I just believe that, for the best results, it needs to be done in a way that is both easy and sustainable. For the most part an essential component here is a regime that does not induce undue hunger. My preference is generally for a carbohydrate controlled diet 'primal' diet. Such a diet will usually provide enough protein to keep the appetite sated, while allowing fat loss from fat tissues which can then 'feed' the body, thereby potentially quelling appetite through this mechanism too.

The stated mission of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is to protect and promote public health through the regulation of everything from food products to pharmaceutical drugs. Based on the agency's actions (or perhaps their severe lack of real action) however, it is quite apparent that this government organization has a blatant disregard for your health and is most certainly not in the business of 'promoting' health. Here are 4 ways in which the FDA has gone against public health and safety.

1. FDA Sits Back as You Consume Mercury in Your Food

The FDA, despite having full access to the studies that were heavily publicized even on mainstream media websites, apparently feels that carcinogenic mercury tainting the food supply is nothing to worry about. Found to be present in over a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products, research has shown that you are most likely consuming mercury if you consume processed food items or many beverage products. High-fructose corn syrup is a main carrier of the harmful element, which is especially concerning when you consider the fact that the average American consumed 37.8 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup in 2008!

Despite experts speaking out and calling on the FDA to come to the aid of the public, the FDA still does nothing.

"Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high-fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply," the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Dr. David Wallinga, a co-author of both studies, said in a prepared statement.

Often marketed as Equal and Nutrasweet, aspartame is a well-known neurotoxic sweetener used in many food products.

This cancer-causing artificial sweetener is threatening the health of populations worldwide, and has even been found to be created using genetically modified bacteria.

While most individuals know about aspartame and its dangers, there is another, lesser known sweetener in the food supply that many people don't know about - Neotame.

Neotame: An Unknown Artificial Sweetener Lurking in Your Food

Introduced by biotech giant Monsanto, Neotame was created as a new sweetener and flavor enhancer to be used in food products. On July 9, 2002, the United States Food and Drug Administration decided that Neotame's safety and functionality made it available for consumption, thus resulting in its approval. What's concerning is, while Neotame has a similar structure to aspartame, the chemicals used in its manufacturing process seem to make the sweetener even more toxic than aspartame.

Researchers studied 2,510 children aged 10, 12 and 15.

Children who display multiple psychosomatic symptoms, such as regular aches and pains and sleep and appetite problems, are more than twice as likely to be experiencing physical abuse at home than children who do not display symptoms, according to a study in the March edition of Acta Paediatrica.

Swedish researchers who studied 2,510 children aged 10, 12 and 15 from 44 schools found a strong association between reported physical abuse and three or more psychosomatic symptoms. The association was highest in children who were physically abused and also witnessed intimate partner violence (IPV). However, there was no significant association between IPV on its own and multiple symptoms.

"The children were asked if they had experienced any of the following symptoms at least twice in the last month: stomach ache, headache, sleeplessness, dizziness, back pain and loss of appetite" explains co-author Professor Staffan Janson from the Division of Public Health Sciences at Karlstad University, Sweden.

Cell phones - an incredibly convenient device that make our lives infinitely easier. While these phones have created great steps forward in communication, talking on them comes at a price.

The massive increase in cellular phone use in our current society has resulted in a large degree of research examining the potential negative health effects they have on humans. Very recent research has shown that microwave radiation emitted by cellular devices negatively influences fetal brains.

The experiment took 32 pregnant rats and divided them into 4 different groups, with one of them receiving no exposure to microwave radiation. The other three groups were exposed to different intensities of microwave radiation from cellular phones, with each of them being subjected for different amounts of time.

A new study published in the journal Respirology reveals that a high level of soft drink consumption is associated with asthma and/or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Led by Zumin Shi, MD, PhD, of the University of Adelaide, researchers conducted computer assisted telephone interviewing among 16,907 participants aged 16 years and older in South Australia between March 2008 and June 2010 inquiring about soft drink consumption. Soft drinks comprised Coke, lemonade, flavored mineral water, Powerade, and Gatorade etc.

Results showed that one in ten adults drink more than half a liter of soft drink daily in South Australia. The amount of soft drink consumption is associated with an increased chance of asthma and/or COPD. There exists a dose-response relationship, which means the more soft drink one consumes, the higher the chance of having these diseases.