Health & WellnessS


Attention

Lipsticks contain lead, consumer group says

Lipsticks tested by a U.S. consumer rights group found that more than half contained lead and some popular brands including Cover Girl, L'Oreal and Christian Dior had more lead than others, the group said on Thursday.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics said tests on 33 brand-name red lipsticks by the Bodycote Testing Group in Santa Fe Spring, California, found that 61 percent had detectable lead levels of 0.03 to 0.65 parts per million (ppm).

Lipstick, like candy, is ingested. The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a coalition of public health, environmental and women's groups, said the FDA has not set a limit for lead in lipstick.

Comment: Oh, and we should trust the word of the makers of lipstick, that it is safe. Why is it always needed to add some poison into most products, when it is wholly unnecessary? They wouldn't want to kill us, would they?


Health

Team to probe 'mysterious' fever

Madurai, India - A high-level medical team from the Institute of Child Health (ICH), Chennai, will be here on Thursday to investigate the mysterious 'tongue blisters' that have claimed the lives of two children at O. Alangulam, about 20 km from here.

©K. Ganesan
EXAMINATION: P. Padmanaban (left), Director of Public Health, looking at an affected boy at O. Alangulam near Madurai on Wednesday.

Health

Tobacco Smoke Dispelled as Factor in MS Progression

GRONINGEN, Netherlands -- Smoking has been overrated as an important factor in spurring multiple sclerosis progression and disability, researchers here said.

Smoking was not associated with primary or secondary MS progression on any measures except for some weak associations with disability, found Marcus Koch, M.D., of the University Medical Center Groningen here, and colleagues, in a large cohort study in the Oct. 9 issue of Neurology.


Health

Alcohol and cancer: is drinking the new smoking?

Researchers at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) have clarified the link between alcohol consumption and the risk of head and neck cancers, showing that people who stop drinking can significantly reduce their cancer risk.



According to CAMH Principal Investigator Dr. Jürgen Rehm, existing research consistently shows a relationship between alcohol consumption and an increased risk for cancer of the esophagus, larynx and oral cavity.Dr. Rehm and his team analyzed epidemiological literature from 1966 to 2006 to further investigate this association and their results, published in the September issue of the International Journal of Cancer, showed that:


Health

How Hospitals Systematically Harm People

Visiting the hospital is supposed to heal people, but it's hard to get better in a place that uses toxic chemicals and serves processed food. Is change on the way?

The minute you're admitted into the hospital, you confront a disturbing paradox: Most hospitals aren't particularly healthy places. As a patient, you're likely to encounter toxic chemicals, eat lousy food, breathe unhealthy air and suffer stress triggered by an often-dismal and alienating environment. Even worse, you may find yourself at the mercy of drug-resistant "super bugs" or overworked staff members who make mistakes -- all in a place that's supposed to help you heal. It's enough to make you sick. And sometimes it does.

Health

Lead found in toys, backpacks in U.S. stores

WASHINGTON - A Curious George doll bought at Toys "R" Us was found to be tainted with 10 times the legally-allowed lead level, and vinyl lunch boxes and backpacks also had high amounts of lead, the nonprofit group Center for Environmental Health said on Wednesday.

Evil Rays

Big Pharmaceuticals now target pets! New doggy diet drug to combat pet obesity

A new diet drug for dogs which can cut their weight by a fifth is no substitute for a regular walks and good food, vets said last night.

Slentrol is billed as a weight loss drug for plump pooches whose owners can't resist giving them fattening treats or simply don't have time to exercise them.

But the Royal Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals said pills are not the way to tackle the growing weight problem among Britain's 6.8million pet dogs.


Comment: This is just another way for the pharmaceutical companies to make more money. It would be far healthier for the pets if owners were educated on just how much it harms pets to have excess weight. Rather then going for the quick fix, that, most likely, has unpleasant side effects.


Comment: The pharmaceutical companies are just trying to open up another market of revenue. The health of your pet is not what they are interested in. They are only interested in fattening up their bank accounts.

Like it was said by the RSPCA, drugs are not the answer to an over-weight pet. Educating the owners is what is needed.


Sheeple

Californian city Bans Smoking In Some Homes

The Belmont City Council on Tuesday night adopted a landmark ordinance regulating secondhand smoke in the city.

The ordinance passed on a 3-2 vote and will go into effect in 30 days, according to City Manager Jack Crist.

The ordinance was introduced by the City Council on Sept. 11, and then approved with a few wording changes at its Sept. 25 meeting.

Comment: Police state measures are in place to regulate and control the citizens every move. And the sheeple accepts these measures willingly!

Read Let's all light up!


Red Flag

Painkillers in Short Supply in Poor Countries



©Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
Doing Without: A hospital in Sierra Leone, where painkillers often are not available.

A survey of specialists in Africa, Asia and Latin America has produced a disturbing portrait of the difficulties in offering pain relief to the dying in poor countries. Many suffer routine shortages of painkillers, and the majority of specialists got no training in pain relief or opioid use during their medical education.

Info

Diet and Fat: A Severe Case of Mistaken Consensus



©Viktor Koen

In 1988, the surgeon general, C. Everett Koop, proclaimed ice cream to a be public-health menace right up there with cigarettes. Alluding to his office's famous 1964 report on the perils of smoking, Dr. Koop announced that the American diet was a problem of "comparable" magnitude, chiefly because of the high-fat foods that were causing coronary heart disease and other deadly ailments.

He introduced his report with these words: "The depth of the science base underlying its findings is even more impressive than that for tobacco and health in 1964."

Comment: We suspect that there's much more that the medical community agrees on, and we came to believe and live by, due to "informational cascade". Which, one must bare in mind, it starts from those in power and then "cascades" to reach each household.