Health & WellnessS


Health

Ultrasound risks: The perils of peeking into the womb

Kelly Brogan, M.D.
Greenmedinfo.com
Tue, 15 Jul 2014 11:30 UTC
Image
© Greenmedinfo.com
"Clinical use of diagnostic ultrasound imaging during pregnancy has a long history of safety and diagnostic utility, as supported by numerous human case reports and epidemiological studies.However, there exist in vivo studies linking large but clinically relevant doses of ultrasound applied to mouse fetuses in utero to altered learning, memory, and neuroanatomy of those mice."

How may doctors and unknowing patients be colluding to harm unborn babies? This recent study suggests that the seemingly benign practice of obstetrical ultrasonography is one practice that deserves urgent reassessment. Researchers exposed pregnant mice at 14.5 days gestation (a neurologically vulnerable window) to 30 minutes of fetal ultrasound and assessed the pups' behavior at 3 weeks of age. They found that the exposed pups were significantly less interested in social interactions and had significant levels of behavioral hyperactivity, in the presence of an unfamiliar mouse.

Why Did Ultrasounds Become Routine?

Today's children have been exposed to an unprecedented level of ultrasound technology, both in frequency and intensity. In 2001, 67% of pregnant women had at least 1 ultrasound, and in 2009, that percentage jumped to 99.8% with an average of 3 per woman. What accounts for this increase? Do we have evidence to suggest that this intervention is saving lives, changing outcomes, and that it is safe? What about safety in the settings it is applied most frequently, such as advanced maternal age, metabolic syndromes, and complications? Could these higher risk pregnancies represent a category of fetus that is more vulnerable to potential side effects of an intervention like ultrasound?

Comment: Learnmore about the safety of ultrasounds below:

If Ultrasound Destroys Sperm, Why is it Safe for a Fetus?
Natural Childbirth (Part 2A): Is Ultrasound Necessary & Effective in Pregnancy?
Natural Childbirth (Part 2B): Ultrasound Not as Safe as Commonly Thought
Ultrasound Shown To Exert Remote Control Of Brain Circuits
Ultrasound sends neurons down wrong path

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Bomb

Drug resistant tuberculosis, leprosy and polio crossing the border?

Gina Loudon
Govtslaves
Thu, 10 Jul 2014 00:00 UTC
Border protest, police fed agent
© www.dcclothesline.comProtesters in Murrieta, CA are told that federal marshals will be bringing the riot gear: "It's going to get ugly."
One of the organizers of the Murrieta, California, blockade, through which several buses loaded with illegal aliens were stopped from entering the city, is warning that the "humanitarian crisis" created by the surge of illegals entering the United States is going to turn out to be a "crisis" for Americans.

Because of drug-resistance tuberculosis, polio, leprosy and other diseases that are accompanying the newcomers.

The crisis on the border stems from a surge of illegal aliens, many children, who are arriving in the United States and turning themselves over the federal authorities to obtain housing, food, medical services and more. Critics of the Obama administration say it's because his special plan to defer deportation action for young illegal aliens is attracting them from points in Central America where there are crime and health problems.

Comment: A more reliable source states: "The vast majority of Central Americans are vaccinated against all these diseases, in fact, better-vaccinated than Texan kids. We fear them not because they are actually sick, but because of powerful anti-immigration narratives that link foreigners to disease." Upshot...we should fear the fear mongers, the contents of the vaccines and the mosquitos which know no borders!

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Health

Unsuccesful experimental stem cell treatment causes woman to grow parts of a nose on her spine

Daniel Cooper
engadger
Wed, 16 Jul 2014 00:00 UTC
noseback
© Unknown
Stem cells are seen as one of modern medicine's most promising magic bullets, but that doesn't mean that we understand them. A paralyzed woman from the US has learned this the hard way, after an experimental treatment caused her to grow a nose-like tumor on her back. The unnamed person took part in a trial whereby stem cells from her nose were applied to her spine in the hope that it could repair the nerve damage that led to her paralysis. Unfortunately, the treatment was unsuccessful and, eight years later, the subject found worsening pain in that same area. When surgeons operated, they found a tumor comprised of nasal tissue that was producing a thick substance that was remarkably close to mucus.
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Attention

Sweet Necessity: The perils of sugar addiction

Cathy Cassata
The Fix
Thu, 17 Jul 2014 15:32 UTC
Image
© Shutterstock
Telling a sugar addict to stop eating sugar is like telling an alcoholic to stop drinking.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You've heard it before - sugar is bad for you. But, just how bad? According to Action on Sugar, a group of leading medical and nutrition experts, the sweet substance is bad enough that earlier this year, the group called for a 20-30% reduction in sugar added to packaged and processed foods over the next three to five years. Action on Sugar estimates that this change would result in a reduction of about 100 calories each person eats daily, and over time would reverse the obesity epidemic.

Comment: Addicted to Sugar? Not sure? Take the Sugar Addiction Quiz.

SOTT.NET has carried many excellent articles about the negative health effects of sugar consumption/addiction:

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Magic Wand

Medicinal benefits of tea

Andreea Nica
Alternet
Wed, 16 Jul 2014 15:25 UTC
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© Africa Studio
While some swear by the aromatic, medicinal nature of tea, studies now suggest that tea can help improve quality of life, promote longevity, and help with many illnesses and health conditions.

The idea that tea is good for you originated in China over 4,000 years ago, and word quickly spread to Portugal, India and Britain. Over the last decade, the health advantages of various teas have even garnered interest among researchers. Today, tea is offered in a diverse range of flavors and is brewed with many combinations of herbs and plants. With stress inhibiting substances, cancer-fighting properties, and disease-fighting flavonoids, the medicinal benefits of tea are worth investigating and pursuing.
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Cookies

Top ten most health destroying nutrition lies ever told

Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
Wed, 16 Jul 2014 00:00 UTC
There is no shortage of health advice out there, and no shortage of bad advice to go along with it. Some misguided notions are harmless - but others are outright dangerous and can lead you down the road to chronic health problems and may even trim years off your life.

It is critically important to decipher fact from fiction. Many nutrition myths get repeated over and over until they are mistaken for truth, especially when perpetually spread by public health authorities.


But the good news is that slowly, the real truth finally appears to be reaching mainstream audiences, as evidenced by the eagerness of satirists to take a jab at the food industry, as in the clever Coca-Cola parody featured above.

In an article addressing destructive nutrition lies, Kris Gunnars of Authority Nutrition1 is among those admirably trying to bust the dangerous dietary myths that continue being spread by so many nutritionists. I agree with the majority of his points, but have added a few others that I believe to be important. Read on for my own top 10 list, which builds upon his.
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Bacon n Eggs

Forget low-fat diets: Saturated fats are good for you and we should all be feasting on fat

Dr. Michael Mosley
Mail Online
Thu, 17 Jul 2014 15:47 UTC
eggs
Back on the menu: Eggs are now celebrated for their protein content while adding butter to potatoes can prevent a spike in blood sugar levels
Milk, cheese, butter, cream - in fact all saturated fats - are bad for you. Or so I believed ever since my days as a medical student nearly 30 years ago.

During that time I assured friends and family that saturated fat would clog their arteries as surely as lard down a drain. So, too, would it make them pile on the pounds.

Recently, however, I have been forced to do a U-turn. It is time to apologise for all that useless advice I've been dishing out about fat.

New studies have not only failed to find a convincing link between saturated fat and heart disease, they have shattered other long-held anti-fat beliefs, too.

We now have compelling evidence that low-fat diets rarely work and that eating the right kind of fat is not only good for your heart but may also help you lose weight.

So why the sudden change? And what is making us fat?

The roots of our current confusion lie in a paper by an American scientist called Ancel Keys in 1953. It covered the increasingly common problem of clogged arteries.

Keys included a simple graph comparing fat consumption and deaths from heart disease in men from six different countries. Americans, who ate a lot of fat, were far more likely to have a heart attack than the Japanese, who ate little fat. Case solved. Or was it?

Other scientists began wondering why Keys chose to focus on just six countries when he had access to data for 22. If places like France and Germany were included the link between heart disease and fat consumption became much weaker. These were, after all, countries with high fat consumption, but relatively modest rates of heart disease.

In fact, as a renowned British scientist called John Yudkin pointed out, there was actually a much stronger link between sugar consumption and heart disease.

Comment: Numerous studies have now found that there is no link between saturated fat and heart disease. In fact it has been found that following a high-fat ketogenic diet can help people lose weight and is also helpful in ameliorating diseases such as epilepsy and Alzheimer's, among others. For more information on the diet see the articles below and visit our forum discussion on the Ketogenic diet.

Solve Your Health Issues with a Ketogenic Diet
Is the Ketogenic Diet the cure for multiple diseases?
Ketogenic Diet (high-fat, low-carb) Has Neuroprotective and Disease-modifying Effects
Diet for cancer cure: Starving cancer ketogenic diet a key to recovery

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Pills

Oxford academic warns against statin drugs

Sophie Borland
The Guardian
Wed, 16 Jul 2014 07:38 UTC
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© AlamyLeading GPs, cardiologists and academics are concerned about statin drug side effects which include memory problems, cancer and dizziness.
Giving statins to five million more patients is 'foolhardy' and 'unsafe', according to an Oxford academic.

Professor Klim McPherson warned that too little is known about the side effects of the drugs which include type 2 diabetes and muscular pain.

Tomorrow, the NHS watchdog NICE is expected to publish new guidelines urging GPs to offer them to anyone with a 10 per cent risk of developing heart disease within a decade.

Presently they are only given to those with a 20 per cent risk and around seven million Britons take them.

They cost as little as 10p a day and work by lowering cholesterol in the blood, thereby preventing the arteries becoming clogged with fatty deposits.


Comment: This alone speaks of the ignorance in both mainstream medicine and the media. Lowering cholesterol actually increases the risk of cardiovascular disease in the very studies used to "prove" that cholesterol was bad. Get Big Fat Surprise, read it, and give it to your health care provider.

Hopefully people will catch up with the official science that fat is not bad and we won't have to wait five more decades of the same nonsense that is killing scores of people around the world right now.

If you really want to decrease your risk of cardiovascular disease, cut down on carbs drastically and avoid GMOs, soy, gluten/grains AND vegetable oils. People with heart attacks usually had a meal cooked in vegetable oils prior to the event. Make sure you don't have iron overload as well. Forget about the saturated animal fat is bad, on the contrary, it is protective!

For more information, see:

-It's official - Time to drop hazardous low fat guidelines
-Saturated fat heart disease 'myth': UK cardiologist calls for change in public health advice on saturated fat


Comment: How about the following to portray the absurdity of this debate: Statin drugs are related with microalbuminuria and aortic and coronary artery calcification, the very things they aim to prevent. We guess it is like with everything else in this world, war is peace, black is white, up is down and paper money rocks... See:

- Statin Drugs Linked to Arthritis, Heart Trouble and Over 300 Adverse Health Effects
- Statin Drugs Found To Accelerate Arterial Calcification
- Vascular surgeons write a damning report about lowering cholesterol drugs

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Fireball

Death toll from Ebola in West Africa rises to 603 since February


Yahoo! News
Tue, 15 Jul 2014 07:47 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Umaru Fofana
The death toll from an Ebola outbreak in West Africa has risen to 603 since February, with at least 68 deaths reported from three countries in the region in the last week alone, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.

WHO said there were 85 new cases between July 8-12, highlighting continued high levels of transmission. International and local medics were struggling to get access to communities as many residents feared outsiders were spreading rather than fighting Ebola.

"It's very difficult for us to get into communities where there is hostility to outsiders," WHO spokesman Dan Epstein told a news briefing in Geneva. "We still face rumours, and suspicion and hostility. ... People are isolated, they're afraid, they're scared."

Sierra Leone recorded the highest number of deaths, which include confirmed, probable and suspect cases of Ebola, with 52. Liberia reported 13 and Guinea 3, according to the WHO figures.

Comment:
Black Death found to be Ebola-like virus
Finally catching up - Could the Black Death actually have been an Ebola-like virus?
Ebola outbreak 'most challenging' ever: 90% fatality, no vaccine, cure or treatment
Rats and fleas myth laid to rest as researchers conclude Black Death plague was spread by air-borne pathogens
New Light on the Black Death: The Cosmic Connection

Read More...
Syringe

California officials see spike in whooping cough cases

Tony Lopez
CBS News - Sacramento
Wed, 16 Jul 2014 20:18 UTC
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© Contra Costa Times/Dan HondaWhooping cough vaccine
Little Rebecca Hall hasn't had so much as a fever in her 14 months of life. Her mom Nakayla says it's because she's been diligent with her daughter's immunization schedule.

"It's completely important. she's gotten all of her vaccinations and she hasn't been sick once," she said.

But health officials are concerned, because Yolo County is seeing a spike in whooping cough cases stronger than the rise in other California counties.

"It's most concerning because infants can become seriously ill and die from pertussis," said Dr. Constance Caldwell with the Yolo County Health Department.

She's puzzled by the spike, because nearly 95 percent of kids in Yolo County public schools are vaccinated.

"We have not seen the dramatic decline in the use of vaccine in this county that some other counties have seen," she said.

Comment: Whooping cough evolving in the world thanks to the vaccine
Read more critical information on vaccinations here:

Doctor Calls for Truth on Vaccines
Vaccines: Crossing Immunological Boundaries
Polish study: No historical benefit in vaccines
Parents Distrust, Delay Vaccines, Survey Finds
Historical Data Shows Vaccines are Not what Saved Us
More parents claim vaccine-autism link
Historical Facts About the Dangers (and Failures) of Vaccines

Read More...