At least two people have died and a further seven exposed to a deadly strain of drug-resistant superbug bacteria at a hospital on the UCLA campus. Authorities are notifying 179 more people that have potentially been exposed.

The enterobacteriaceae (CRE) can be fatal in as many as half of all cases if the bacteria reach the bloodstream.

The university discovered the outbreak last month, while running tests on a patient. It will now test the other 179 people it believes to be infected. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention are currently assisting the LA County Department of Public Health in investigating further effects.

Doctors at the Ronald Reagan Medical Center, where the outbreak occurred, believe the moment of infection happened "during complex endoscopic procedures that took place between October 2014 and January 2015," according to CBS.

"These outbreaks at UCLA and other hospitals could collectively be the most significant instance of disease transmission ever linked to a contaminated reusable medical instrument," believes Larence Muscarella, a safety consultant at Ronald Reagan.

Although the scopes were sterilized in accordance with standard procedure, their very construction carries with it a risk of bacterial buildup. It turns out the scope could have transmitted the infection during a procedure "to diagnose and treat pancreaticobiliary diseases," at least that is the working theory at this time.

Over 500,000 people annually have scopes inserted into their bodies to treat infections and diseases occurring in the digestive system. The clinic is receiving high praise for spotting the infection early and enabling treatment. But there is ongoing debate about proper disinfection of the scopes, with some saying that conventional techniques aren't suited to the scopes' design.

A new paper challenges the prevailing opinion that depression is related to low levels of serotonin in the gaps between nerve cells in the brain.

This theory has predominated for nearly 50 years and has led to the development of the commonly prescribed anti-depressant medications called selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, or SSRIs. But it has never been proven.

The science behind many anti-depressant medications appears to be backwards, say the authors of a paper posted by the journal Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.

SSRIs keep the neurotransmitter's (serotonin) levels high by blocking its re-absorption into the cells that release it.

But those serotonin-boosting medications actually make it harder for patients to recover, especially in the short term, said lead author Paul Andrews, an assistant professor of psychology, neuroscience & behavior at McMaster University in Canada.

"It's time we rethink what we are doing," Andrews says. "We are taking people who are suffering from the most common forms of depression, and instead of helping them, it appears we are putting an obstacle in their path to recovery."

Are you drinking beverages out of antifreeze containers and chewing on horse meat in your pre-packaged 'hamburgers?' As it turns out, new evidence from an Interpol investigation reveals that many 'brand-name' food items may actually be comprised of some very different ingredients than advertised. All in all, the food investigators seized a whopping 2,500 tons of fake food from within the food supply.

The reports are hitting the media from the UK to Thailand, which are two of the nations included in new operations through which government officials are cracking down on entire factories churning out phony food items. In the U.K., for example, there exists a major issue in which producers were selling fake 'brand-name vodka' in antifreeze containers that had been chemically treated to remove the repulsive smell. Unsurprisingly, alcohol was actually the most highly counterfeited substance of them all.

Others included:

• Seafood
• Mineral water
• Dietary supplements
• Mozzarella
• Pharmaceutical drugs
• Eggs
• Dried fruit
• Cooking oil

And that's just a partial list of items seized from over 47 different countries by a joint operation conducted by Interpol and Europol over a two month period. And according to Time magazine's take on the results, we are still dealing with several thousand tons of fake items on the market — ranging from common grocery items to extravagant imports.

I'm absolutely mortified at how people have become so polarized over the question of "Do I or don't I vaccinate myself and my family?"

It seems as though people have lost sight of the fact that this is NOT a right or wrong question, it's simply a choice.

The reason for the conundrum is quite simple. For the last 100 years (or so), people have had academic/industry experts/government/media tell us what to think, what to buy, what to put in our bodies, all with "good intentions" because they know what's best for you.

A study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, compared the practice (mindfulness meditation) with sleep hygiene education (SHE) - a program designed to change poor sleeping habits and set up a bedtime routine. Mindfulness meditation led to a greater improvement in sleep quality.

"Addressing moderate sleep disturbances and sleep-related daytime dysfunction using community-accessible programs is a promising public health approach," write the study authors.

However, they add, despite the medical consequences of sleep problems, they often go untreated in older adults.

Sleeping problems are widespread in the US among older adults, with half of the population aged 55 and older estimated to have some form of sleeping problem, including problems with initiating and maintaining sleep.

Disturbances in the sleep of older adults are associated with numerous health and social problems, including depression, fatigue, mood disturbances and reduced quality of life.

In an attempt to curb the mass rush for food change and reform, psychiatry has green lighted a public relations push to spread awareness about their new buzzword orthorexia nervosa, defined as "a pathological obsession for biologically pure and healthy nutrition." In other words, experts are saying that our demand for nutrient-dense, healthful food is a mental disorder that must be treated.

CNN, Fast Company, Popular Science, and other top outlets have all began to trumpet the talking points on cue relatively recently:

"Orthorexia nervosa is a label designated to those who are concerned about eating healthy. Characterized by disordered eating fueled by a desire for "clean" or "healthy" foods, those diagnosed with the condition are overly pre-occupied with the nutritional makeup of what they eat".

In short, if you turn your back on low quality, corporate food containing known cancer causing toxic additives and a rich history of dishonesty rooted in a continuous "profits over people" modus operandi, then you may suffer from a mental illness. The cherry on top is that if you have the pseudo-science labeled disorder of orthorexia nervosa, you will be prescribed known toxic, pharmaceutical drugs from some of the same conglomerate corporations that you are trying to avoid by eating healthy in the first place.

Orthorexia has not yet found its way into the latest edition of the psychiatric bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), yet is commonly being lumped in with other eating disorders. Stepping back and looking at the ones pushing this label on us shows highly questionable motives.

Virtually everyone would agree that exercise improves health, but the mechanisms by which it actually produces those benefits have been challenging to tease out.

Fitness research has come a long way though, and modern science has made a number of interesting observations that help explain how exercise affects your body to improve your health.

Part of the answer lies in its ability to affect genetic expression; activating some genes, and deactivating others. A previous New York Times article¹ delved into the latest research on this front, noting that:

"The human genome is astonishingly complex and dynamic, with genes constantly turning on or off, depending on what biochemical signals they receive from the body. When genes are turned on, they express proteins that prompt physiological responses elsewhere in the body."

Researchers from Abraxis LLC and Boston University have further confirmed that the world's most used herbicide - glyphosate - is widespread in food products around the globe. The researchers tested honey, pancake and corn syrup, soy sauce, soy milk and tofu purchased in the Philadelphia, US metropolitan area.

Find the full published survey here
The minimum limit of quantification (LOQ) of the method were determined for honey, pancake syrup, and corn syrup to be 15 ppb; soy sauce, soy milk, and tofu 75 ppb. This means that even if the results were negative for some products they could have also contained glyphosate at levels under the minimum limit.

A powerful 'skunk-like' form of cannabis is linked to a quarter of new cases of psychosis, according to a study.

Researchers at King's College London found the potent form of the Class B drug increased the risk of suffering a serious psychotic episode for daily users by five times - and tripled the risk for casual users.

"This paper suggests that we could prevent almost one quarter of cases of psychosis if no one smoked high potency cannabis. This could save young patients a lot of suffering and the NHS a lot of money," said Sir Robin Murray, Professor of Psychiatric Research at Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's.

The six-year project followed 800 people aged between 18 and 65 in south London, including 410 who had suffered psychosis and 370 healthy patients.

"Compared with those who never used cannabis, individuals who mostly used skunk-like cannabis were nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed with a psychotic disorder if they used it less than once per week, almost three times as likely if they used it at weekends, and more than five times as likely if they were daily users," the paper states.

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