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Health & Wellness
Our understanding of what causes cancer has undergone something akin to a Copernican revolution in the past decade. Biological fatalism has been the predominant force in medicine over the past half century, where most conditions including cancer were believed predestined 'in the genes,' and therefore impossible to reverse. Instead of looking for root cause resolution of disease (RCRD), we resigned ourselves to 'finding it early' and in the case of cancer, when doing so (even when it was benign), we waged war against it, quite literally using weapons grade materials (mustard gas- and nuclear materials-derived agents). Now, however, in this post-Genomic era, factors above (epi-) the control of the genes - epigenetic factors - are taking center stage; these include environmental exposures, stress, nutritional factors, and various lifestyle-based variables that are within the ambit of our control and volition, and which are often reversible.
Despite its clear importance, sleep seems to be one of the first things we sacrifice when the going gets tough.
Are you sleeping properly? Are our modern habits interfering with this essential life process?
How can we maximize the benefits of sleep to insure greater health and vitality?
All these topics and more will be discussed in today's Health and Wellness show. Also included will be Zoya's Pet Health segment.
Running Time: 01:24:00
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No one would accuse Yehuda Shoenfeld of being a quack. The Israeli clinician has spent more than three decades studying the human immune system and is at the pinnacle of his profession. You might say he is more foundation than fringe in his specialty; he wrote the textbooks. The Mosaic of Autoimmunity, Autoantibodies, Diagnostic Criteria in Autoimmune Diseases, Infection and Autoimmunity, Cancer and Autoimmunity - the list is 25 titles long and some of them are cornerstones of clinical practice. Hardly surprising that Shoenfeld has been called the "Godfather of Autoimmunology" - the study of the immune system turned on itself in a wide array of diseases from type 1 diabetes to ulcerative colitis and multiple sclerosis.
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Doctors believe the illness may be linked to a rise in cases of microcephaly in infants
A virus believed to cause under-developed brains and skulls in newborn babies has sparked a public health emergency in Brazil and the Caribbean.
The Zika virus, a mosquito-borne disease similar to dengue fever, was first identified on Easter Island, Chile in February last year and has since spread to Brazil, Columbia and the Caribbean.
On Monday, the Caribbean Public Health Agency confirmed five cases of the Zika virus in a territory of the Caribbean Community, according to Liverostrum News Agency.
The territory where the cases were confirmed has not been revealed.
Reports say the disease surveillance system operated by one of the community's members, Grenada, has since been heightened and health officials are on alert.
Doctors are now investigating whether the virus could be linked to a rise in cases of microcephaly in infants, after the Brazilian health ministry confirmed nearly 400 cases of newborns with abnormally small heads in an infected region of north-east Brazil, according to the Telegraph.
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The amount of money spent is a boon to the television stations and one of the reasons mainstream news media often buries news that is unfavorable to pharmaceutical companies. They don't want to bite the hand that feeds them.
Aside from obvious corruption, the naiveté of the American people regarding pharmaceutical companies is astounding. Although some reports of the pharmaceutical companies' flagrant disregard for human lives are publicized and stories of them being fined billions of dollars for civil and criminal activities should concern us, somehow we don't connect the dots. The same company that may have been fined billions for corruption regarding another drug also makes vaccines, but we are told vaccines are safe and, therefore, believe what we want to hear.
Comment: Hopefully the recent article Breaking Big Pharma: Doctors call for immediate drug advertising ban will help consumers look at drugs more critically and demand full information before they succumb to Big Pharma drugs with serious side effects!
During a recent vote at the annual meeting in Atlanta, the nation's American Medical Association decided that they were going to call for a ban on consumer drug commercials in magazines and television commercials.
This vote "reflects concerns among physicians about the negative impact of commercially driven promotions, and the role that marketing costs play in fueling escalating drug prices," said AMA Board Chair-elect Patrice A. Harris in a statement announcing the votes result. "Direct-to-consumer advertising also inflates demand for new and more expensive drugs, even when these drugs may not be appropriate."
Karen Emsile is a Scottish writer, artist and photographer. She has been car-jacked in Barcelona, lost in the Alps, and harassed by fake police in Cuba, but still loves the adventurer’s life. She is based in Spain.
It is 4.18am and I am awake. Such early waking is often viewed as a disorder, a glitch in the body's natural rhythm - a sign of depression or anxiety. It is true that when I wake at 4am I have a whirring mind. And, even though I am a happy person, if I lie in the dark my thoughts veer towards worry. I have found it better to get up than to lie in bed teetering on the edge of nocturnal lunacy.
For some, the winter is hardly "the most wonderful time of the year."
Seasonal affective disorder is a condition that affects nearly 10 million American adults and can make a few months out of the year feel downright unbearable. It's common to feel bouts of the winter blues, but those with seasonal depression may experience symptoms and low moods that sometimes make everyday tasks feel impossible.
Here are a couple of things to keep in mind about seasonal affective disorder, its treatment options and how it affects people's daily lives.
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Candida albicans in its round and filamentous (stringy) shapes.
Candida albicans in its round and filamentous (stringy) shapes.
A regular resident of our microbiome -- and especially ubiquitous in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients -the Candida albicans fungus is an "opportunistic pathogen." This means it usually leaves us alone, but can turn against us if our immune system becomes compromised. In fact, this fungus is among the most common causes of bloodstream infections, such as sepsis. As the population living with weakened immune systems has risen substantially over the past two decades -- people living with HIV, having organ transplants or undergoing cancer chemotherapy are some examples -- opportunistic fungal pathogens like this one have become an even greater threat. This is especially alarming considering we don't have any surefire anti-fungal drug to stop them.
Comment: Actually, iodine, an inexpensive and vitally important micro-nutrient has been found to destroy pathogens, molds, fungi, parasites, and malaria. For more information on the life-saving properties of iodine therapy, read:
"Fungi have a staggering impact on human health, infecting billions of people around the world and killing 1.5 million every year -- that's in the range of tuberculosis and malaria," says Leah Cowen, lead researcher on the study, University of Toronto Molecular Genetics professor and Canada Research Chair in Microbial Genomics and Infectious Disease. "And yet, they are underappreciated and not well understood."
Candida albicans is a particularly wily fungus. Its signature maneuver is shapeshifting -- it can morph from a round, single-celled yeast into a long stringy structure, allowing it to adapt to different environments and making it exceptionally harmful. For this study, researchers analyzed 89 mucus samples from 28 cystic fibrosis patients, using both high-throughput genetic sequencing as well as culture-based analysis. Candida albicans was predictably prevalent.
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