Common sleeping tablets and anxiety drugs taken by millions of patients has been linked to a 50 per cent increased risk of Alzheimer's disease, researchers have found.

Taking the drugs known as benzodiazepines, which include diazepam and lorazepam, for three months or more was linked with a greater chance of being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease five years later.

At least six million prescriptions were issued for the drugs in England last year and the researchers said the findings are important because of the large numbers of older people taking the medicines.

Researchers behind the study described the findings as being of "major importance for public health".

They warned that although it cannot be definitively proven that the drugs are causing Alzheimer's there is a strong 'suspicion of possible direct causation'.

The drugs should be not be taken for more than three months in light of these findings, the researchers said.

However, other experts said the results may reflect that people who are already in the early stages of Alzheimer's are often treated for sleep problems and anxiety and this is confusing the findings.

In a research paper published in the British Medical Journal, scientists from the University of Bordeaux and the University of Montreal behind the latest study said their findings were especially important "considering the prevalence and chronicity of benzodiazepine use in elderly populations and the high and increasing incidence of dementia in developed countries."

They said: "It is now crucial to encourage physicians to carefully balance the benefits and risks when initiating or renewing a treatment with benzodiazepines and related products in elderly patients."

The French and Canadian researchers examined data from Quebec from a period of at least six years and identified 1,796 cases of Alzheimer's disease which where then individually matched with 7,184 healthy people matched for age, sex, and duration of follow-up.

They found that past use of benzodiazepines was associated with a 51 per cent increased risk fo Alzheimer's disease. The link was stronger with longer exposure to the drugs or use of long-acting versions of the medicines.

In an accompanying editorial Professor Kristine Yaffe of the University of California at San Francisco and Professor Malaz Boustani of the Indiana University Centre for Aging Research, said that in 2012 the American Geriatrics Society included benzodiazepines in a list of drugs that should not be used in older people because of the side effects of brain function.

You are what you eat, the saying goes, and now a study conducted by researchers at UC Santa Barbara and the University of Pittsburgh suggests that the oft-repeated adage applies not just to physical health but to brain power as well.

In a paper published in the early online edition of the journal Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids, the researchers compared the fatty acid profiles of breast milk from women in over two dozen countries with how well children from those same countries performed on academic tests.

Their findings show that the amount of omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in a mother's milk -- fats found primarily in certain fish, nuts and seeds -- is the strongest predictor of test performance. It outweighs national income and the number of dollars spent per pupil in schools.

DHA alone accounted for about 20 percent of the differences in test scores among countries, the researchers found.

On the other hand, the amount of omega-6 fat in mother's milk -- fats that come from vegetable oils such as corn and soybean -- predict lower test scores. When the amount of DHA and linoleic acid (LA) -- the most common omega-6 fat -- were considered together, they explained nearly half of the differences in test scores. In countries where mother's diets contain more omega-6, the beneficial effects of DHA seem to be reduced.

As it turns out, according to a new "study," hospitals can greatly improve their flu vaccination rate among health care workers by using a mandatory employee vaccination policy.

This is according to a Henry Ford Health System study, funded by Henry Ford Health System and citing the "data" from Henry Ford Health System.

The upper echelon of Henry Ford, acting under their created task force, is attempting to pass off a "duh!" observation of authorities using power over subordinates as a true-blue health study. Yet, nowhere in the study is there any proof of reduction of disease or an increase in employee/patient health and safety.

The achievement lies in complete subjugation - a foregone conclusion when employers threaten career destruction, i.e.,"Inject this into your body every year, or no more food on the table - and no good reference for you!"

The gluten free aisle at the grocery store continues to grow along with the popularity of the gluten free diet. Unfortunately, the majority of the foods being sold are highly processed. Many of them contain genetically modified ingredients. Many of them contain other grains like corn and rice (glutens in these have been shown to create damage in celiacs). Many of them are cross contaminated with gluten.

A recent study published in Biomed Central Gastroenterology confirms that avoiding these processed foods improves healing in those who have previously gone traditionally gluten free and not responded (this is often referred to as non responsive disease). A summary of the study is below:

Patients with persistent symptoms and/or villous atrophy despite strict adherence to a gluten-free diet (GFD) have non-responsive celiac disease (NRCD). A subset of these patients has refractory celiac disease (RCD), yet some NRCD patients may simply be reacting to gluten cross-contamination. Here we describe the effects of a 3-6 month diet of whole, unprocessed foods, termed the Gluten Contamination Elimination Diet (GCED), on NRCD.

Prior to the GCED, all patients were interviewed by an experienced dietitian and no sources of hidden gluten ingestion were identified.

Sources:BMC Gastroenterol. 2013 Feb 28;13:40. doi: 10.1186/1471-230X-13-40.

Dr. Taya Varteresian, a board certified psychiatrist working for the Veterans Administration, is the lead publisher in an article in the journal Current Psychiatry Reports titled: Natural products and supplements for geriatric depression and cognitive disorders: an evaluation of the research.

According to the abstract, more and more elderly people are starting to use "Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) for late-life mood and cognitive disorders." This obviously concerns psychiatrists, since their main remedies for "cognitive disorders" are powerful anti-psychotic drugs. They are not trained in natural supplements, therefore they apparently felt the need to educate other psychiatrists about the "side effects and indications for various natural products" so that psychiatrists could "protect their patients."

Unfortunately, the patients probably need protection against the powerful arsenal of psychiatric drugs more than they do against harmless natural supplements and foods!

This is particularly true regarding anti-psychotic drugs prescribed to veterans, where the rate of suicide is far above the rate among the general population. More service members die by suicide than in combat, with 22 veterans killing themselves every single day. Obviously our pharma-based mental health system is not helping veterans, as suicide is a side effect of many anti-psychotic drugs.

So what are these dangerous supplements and "CAM products" that the field of psychiatry feels the need to warn fellow doctors about? According to the abstract they are: "omega-3 fatty acids, ginkgo biloba, SAMe, St John's wort, B vitamins and vitamin D, huperzine, caprylidene, and coconut oil." If these supplements are bringing about positive changes in the lives of elderly folks, it is not surprising that they are competing with Big Pharma drugs, which have a multitude of side effects, and little or no effect on cognitive diseases like Alzheimer's. Unfortunately, Medicare and insurance companies will cover the toxic drugs, which the medical system admits kill over 100,000 people a year (not including suicides or other secondary deaths), but they will not cover natural products that have few or no side effects, but are often far more effective.

If this list is indicative of natural remedies that are effective and present competition to Big Pharma, it might be well worth the time to do your own research into each one rather than trust a doctor who has been trained by Big Pharma-funded psychiatrists to advise you on natural supplements and foods. The largest criminal convictions in modern times are against the pharmaceutical companies selling these powerful drugs through the pseudo-science of psychiatry, often through deception and "off label" prescriptions for conditions the drugs were never tested against. (See: Pharmaceutical companies now among largest corporate criminals in the world: no better than white-collar drug dealers.) Their list of "dangerous" natural products might be unwittingly tipping you off to the most successful natural products to combat mental disease.

We have often reported here at Health Impact News on the testimonials of families who have successfully incorporated coconut oil and a high-fat diet into the lives of seniors suffering from mental illness with great success. (See: New Alzheimer's Drugs Continue to Fail Where Coconut Oil Shines)

More resilient people tend to have a higher pain tolerance.

Resilience, a person's ability to overcome adverse circumstances, is the main quality associated with pain tolerance among patients and their adjustment to chronic pain. This is the result of a new study carried out at the University of Málaga that shows that the effect of gender on this ability is not as significant as originally thought.

Over the years a number of clinical trials have shown important gender differences with regard to susceptibility to pain through illness, effectiveness of medications and recovery after anaesthetic. Furthermore, these results coincide with general lore where it is often said that women tolerate pain better than men.

However, a new study led by researchers at Malaga University with the aim of analysing the differences between men and women in terms of their experience with chronic pain has dispelled this theory, revealing that these differences are minimal.

More than 300 people a year in the UK and Ireland report they have been conscious during surgery - despite being given general anaesthesia.
Led by the Royal College of Anaesthetists and Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, researchers studied 3 million operations over a period of one year.

More than 300 people in the UK reported "waking up" during surgery and said they could feel pain and hear conversations, but could neither move nor communicate with doctors, the report revealed.

In the largest study of its kind, scientists suggest this happens in one in every 19,000 operations, mainly because of certain administered drugs.

Prof Tim Cook, at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, who led the research, said: "For the vast majority it should be reassuring that patients report they were conscious during operations so infrequently. However for a small number of patients this can be a highly distressing experience."

He added, "I hope this report will ensure anesthesiologists pay even greater attention to preventing episodes of awareness."

What does an informed parent look like? We'll show you.

Below is a letter written by Bob O'Kane, a concerned parent, to his pediatrician about vaccines and the danger they pose to his child. This letter is one great example of how to approach your doctor, especially if you have looked into the matter further and are uncomfortable with their stance on the topic.

The name of the doctor has been intentionally omitted.

As the Ebola outbreak in West Africa grows worse, the Homeland Security Department is being faulted for mismanaging its supply of protective equipment and antiviral medical countermeasures, a watchdog found.

DHS Inspector General John Roth warned in a report dated Aug. 26 and sent to Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that DHS "did not develop and implement stockpile replenishment plans or inventory controls to monitor stockpiles, have adequate contract oversight processes, or ensure compliance with department guidelines" to assure supplies of respirators, surgical masks and hand sanitizer.

Congress in 2006 appropriated $47 million for DHS to plan, train and prepare for a possible pandemic, the inspector general noted. But without proper replenishment plans or inventory controls, DHS "has no assurance that the supplies on hand remain effective," said the report, prepared after numerous interviews and site visits to storage facilities.

Examples of poor control include ordering 16 million surgical masks without demonstrating a need for that quantity; 4,184 bottles of hand sanitizer that have expired (84 percent of the supply); and a storehouse of antiviral drugs of which 81 percent will expire by the end of 2015.

The department also failed to develop alternative use plans for the supplies, the watchdog said.

"DHS and its components do not know where its personal protective equipment is located, how much it has, and the usability of the stockpiles that exist," the report said. "DHS is responsible for ensuring it is adequately prepared to continue critical operations in the event of a pandemic."

The watchdog made 11 recommendations for improving management of the stockpiles. DHS agreed with them all, but argued that the auditors "overemphasized the final level of controls rather than viewing them in their role as last in a hierarchy of controls."

There is an 18 percent chance that a case of the Ebola virus will reach the United States by the end of September, according to a study published on Tuesday in PLOS Currents: Outbreaks.

Despite restrictions reducing travel in and out of the infected countries by 80 percent, the study, which analyzes global flight patterns, suggests that a case of Ebola in the U.S. is becoming increasingly harder to avoid. It also lists the chance of the virus reaching the United Kingdom between 25 and 28 percent.

The analysis also warns that if the current West African outbreak is not contained the likelihood of the virus reaching Europe and the U.S. will "increase consistently."

The study lists just a five percent chance of Ebola occurring in the U.S. today, suggesting that the disease is far from contained to countries in West Africa. According to numbers obtained by the World Health Organization, there have been an estimated 3,685 cases and 1,841 deaths from the virus since the outbreak began.

Although two Americans - Dr. Kent Brantley and Nancy Writebol - have been treated for Ebola in the U.S., both of them contracted the disease while working in Liberia. Doctors suggested that better medical care contributed to their eventual recovery.

A third infected American working in Liberia, Dr. Richard A. Sacra, is on his way to the U.S. for treatment.