Health & WellnessS


Health

Daylight-saving Time Leads To Less Sleep, More Injuries On The Job, Study Finds

Every March, most Americans welcome the switch to daylight saving time because of the longer days, but also dread losing an hour of sleep after they move their clocks forward. Now a new study shows that losing just an hour of sleep could pose some dangerous consequences for those in hazardous work environments.

The findings are reported in the September issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology, which is published by the American Psychological Association.

"One hour of lost sleep may not seem like a lot. But our findings suggest it could have an impact on people's ability to stay alert on the job and prevent serious injuries." said the article's lead author, Christopher Barnes, PhD. Barnes and co-author David Wagner, PhD, were both doctoral students in organizational behavior at Michigan State University when they conducted this research.

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Workplace Bullying Is Associated With Sleep Disturbances

A study in the Sept.1 issue of the journal Sleep shows that current or past exposure to workplace bullying is associated with increased sleep disturbances. Associations also were found between observed bullying and sleep disruption, indicating that bullying has detrimental effects even when it is experienced indirectly.

The study shows a high prevalence of workplace bullying, with 11 percent of women and nine percent of men experiencing "hostile behavior" in the work environment at least weekly and for at least six months during the previous 12 months. After adjustment for covariates such as age, occupation, weekly work hours and depressive symptoms, exposure to bullying was significantly associated with self-reported sleep disturbances.

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People Who Don't Own A Car And Live Near Fast Food At Greater Risk For Obesity

Living without a car in close proximity to fast food restaurants is associated with excess body mass index and weight gain, according to a University of Pittsburgh study available online and published in the September issue of the Journal of Urban Health. Indeed, adults in areas with high fast food concentration who didn't have a car were as much as 12 pounds heavier than those who lived in neighborhoods that lacked such restaurants.

"Owning a car is generally associated with a more sedentary lifestyle and excess weight gain because people spend more time in their cars and less time walking," said Sanae Inagami, M.D., study lead author and assistant professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Yet, when Inagami and her colleagues looked at whether a high concentration of fast food restaurants impacted this association, they found that not owning a car in areas where fast food was more readily available increased the risk of obesity.

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Rat Poison as Prescription Blood Thinner for 50 years

A Bloomberg report just told us that millions of people worldwide have been taking rat poison as a prescription blood thinner. It also said that the risk of bleeding in the brain with this drug called warfarin was one of the drug's most feared complications. It's interesting, because the medical establishment normally doesn't admit their drugs are poisons. In fact, they go to great lengths to hide this fact from people.

The only reason this is being admitted so openly is because they have another drug lined up to replace the rat poison. Just as a matter of curiosity, when was the last time you found that consuming rat poison created health? Or any type of poison for that matter?

Attention

Mercury in Fluorescent Light Bulbs Poisons Factory Workers

Energy efficiency for the First World comes at a high cost for factory workers in China, with high rates of mercury poisoning being reported among employees in the plants that make compact fluorescent light bulbs.

In an effort to reign in global warming caused by excessive greenhouse gas emissions, the European Union has passed a law mandating the phasing out of incandescent light bulbs in favor of the more energy-efficient compact fluorescents by 2012. This has contributed to a huge surge in demand for the bulbs, and a corresponding upswing in manufacturing.

Unfortunately, fluorescent bulbs require mercury to start the chemical reaction that produces the light. This mercury can pose a significant health hazard; the British government advises that if a compact fluorescent bulb breaks, the room should be evacuated for 15 minutes until the mercury vapors can disperse.

Comment: Watch also the video about the neuro-degenerative effects of mercury: Brain Neuron Degeneration via Mercury Poisoning. By the way, according to Wikipedia, dental amalgam fillings contain 43% to 54% of mercury.


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Finding Smells That Repel

If you're one of those people whom mosquitoes tend to favor, maybe it's because you aren't sufficiently stressed-out.

Insects have very keen powers of smell that direct them to their targets. But for researchers trying to figure out what attracts or repels the pests, sorting through the 300 to 400 distinct chemical odors that the human body produces has proved daunting.

Now scientists at Rothamsted Research in the U.K. have been making headway at understanding why some people can end up with dozens of bites after a backyard barbecue, while others remain unscathed. The researchers have identified a handful of the body's chemical odors - some of which may be related to stress - that are present in significantly larger concentrations in people that the bugs are happier to leave alone. If efforts to synthesize these particular chemicals are successful, the result could be an all-natural mosquito repellent that is more effective and safer than products currently available.

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Are wind farms a serious risk to your health?

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Living close to wind farms can lead to a greater risk of heart disease, panic attacks and migraines, according to a study. The farms can cause 'wind turbine syndrome', the symptoms of which also include tinnitus, vertigo and sleep deprivation, research to be published later this year claims.

Dr Nina Pierpoint, a leading New York paediatrician, says her five-year study of people living near wind turbines in the U.S., Britain, Italy, Ireland and Canada has led her to believe that they can also trigger nightmares in children and stop their brains developing properly.

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Cellphones Cause Brain Tumors, Says New Report By International EMF Collaborative

A new report, "Cellphones and Brain Tumors: 15 Reasons for Concern, Science, Spin and the Truth Behind Interphone," was released today by a collaborative of international EMF activists. Groups affiliated with the report include Powerwatch and the Radiation Research Trust in the U.K., and in the U.S., EMR Policy Institute, ElectromagenticHealth.org and The Peoples Initiative Foundation. Download the report here.

Attention

Shotgun Adoption: Coercive Practices of Christian Adoption Agencies

Carol Jordan, a 32-year-old pharmacy technician, was living in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1999 when she became pregnant. She'd already decided against abortion, but she was struggling financially and her boyfriend was unsupportive. Looking through the Yellow Pages for help, she spotted an ad under "crisis pregnancies" for Bethany Christian Services. Within hours of calling, Jordan (who asked to be identified with a pseudonym) was invited to Bethany's local office to discuss free housing and medical care.

Bethany, it turned out, did not simply specialize in counseling pregnant women. It is the nation's largest adoption agency, with more than eighty-five offices in fifteen countries.

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Study Proves Link Between Thimerosal and Autism Neurotoxicity

In a study just published, a causal connection between Thimerosal, the preservative often used in vaccines, and the brain pathology found in patients diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), has been established. The study, A Mitochondrial Dysfunction, Impaired Oxidative-Reduction Activity, Degeneration, and Death in Human Neuronal and Fetal Cells Induced by Low-Level Exposure to Thimerosal and Other Metal Compounds was published in the June 2009 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Toxicology & Environmental Toxicology.

In the study, it was found that the amounts of Thimerosal found in inoculations commonly given to infants in the 1990s and still in use today (though more limited) induced levels of cellular toxicity. This cellular damage was consistent with that found in studies of patients diagnosed with ASD.

Both studies found significant mitochondrial dysfunction, reduced cellular oxidative-reduction activity, cell degeneration, and cell death being tied to ASD. All of these contribute significantly to ASD diagnosis and are also often attributed to other childhood and early development maladies.