If you're having embarrassing digestive problems such as stomach cramping, bloating, smelly gas or "the runs," you may be confused as to why. You've probably heard that the root cause of your intestinal woes could include that you're lactose intolerant, allergic to wheat products, have a sensitive stomach or you're getting older and some foods just "don't agree with you" anymore.
Scientific research now shows that little-known proteins called lectins could be behind your uncomfortable... embarrassing... even painful intestinal issues. And if you're eating a traditional American diet your body is probably loaded with lectins found in...
* Nightshade plants such as tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant
* Wheat, rye, oats and barley malt
* Legumes
* All beans including soy and peanut
* Eggs
* All milk products, cheese, yogurt and kefir
Health & Wellness
© Image Source/Rex Features
Contains more than just water
Contains more than just water
Three letters lie at the heart of our modern world: BPA. Short for bisphenol A, a synthetic oestrogen, a staggering 3 billion kilograms of the stuff is produced annually, with an estimated value of $500,000 per hour to the global economy.
BPA is used in the production of a hard and transparent form of polycarbonate plastic used to create food and drink containers and other consumer goods. It is also used in the epoxy resins that line metal food cans, and as an ingredient in dental sealants.
In fact, we are so consistently exposed to BPA that over 90 per cent of us excrete BPA metabolites in our urine at any given time. How exactly BPA enters the human body is not yet clear, although eating food kept in BPA-containing packaging, breathing household dust and handling plastics that contain BPA may all contribute to our daily exposure. Currently, BPA is not listed on food or drink labels so millions of people have no way of knowing their daily exposure.
BPA was first reported in the scientific literature in the 1930s as a synthetic oestrogen, and it is this property that has led to most of the subsequent controversy. Laboratory studies show that, at the right dose, BPA can act as a hormone mimic, binding not only to oestrogen receptors but to other related receptors, too. However, this "active" dose has been furiously contested in what has become an intense scientific dispute.
© reachingwomendaily
Women with low libidos have a different mental response to intimate situations than those with a 'normal' sex drive, researchers have found.
MRI scans show that women diagnosed with what is termed hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) - defined as a distressing lack of sexual desire - have different patterns of brain activity.
Certain areas of the brain that normally light up when thinking about sex fail to do so in women with HSDD, found medics at Wayne State University in Detroit, US, while other areas that don't normally light up, do.
Dr Michael Diamond, of the university's department of obstetrics and gynaecology, described the finding as potentially the first "significant evidence" that the controversial condition does exist as a physiological disorder.
This month, October, is Non-GMO Month. I find most people are really confused about what a GMO is and where GMOs are found. Some people tend to think that GMO seeds are similar to the type of hybridization that has been going on amongst gardeners for centuries. Not true! The type of genetic modification that happens to create GMO seeds involves the forceful insertion of things like E.coli genes or genes that produce glyphosphate (an herbicide) or cause Roundup resistance (allowing farmers to dump more Roundup onto the plants) into corn and soybeans and cotton.
Sometimes symptoms or medical conditions can have complex causes and cures, but sometimes they're dead simple. For example, if someone is suffering from a tendency to cramping in their muscles, there's a pretty good chance they're low on magnesium and upping magnesium levels in the body will really help to alleviate or even stop their symptoms. The same is true of the condition dubbed 'restless legs syndrome'.
In early October, three men were abducted and tortured by members of the Latin King Goonies gang in New York City's South Bronx. Piles of cans of Four Loko were found at the scene. One of the many forms of torture to which the gang subjected one of the men - who was attacked for being gay - was forcing him to consume 10 cans of the beverage.
Four Loko tastes fruity to mask the alcohol content. That fact, along with the kid-friendly packaging and price ($2 to $3 a can), makes it a hit with binge-drinking teens. And like other popular alcopops that have come before it - Sparks, Steel Reserve 211 and Joose - Four Loko, made by Phusion Projects, contains a lot of alcohol and a lot of caffeine. It's 12% alcohol by volume (that's more than twice what's in an equal amount of Budweiser) and it has an unspecified amount of caffeine, though common energy drinks have about two to three times as much caffeine as a Coke. Four Loko also has a bunch of other energy-boosting ingredients like guarana and taurine.
© h.koppdelaney
Benefits of Meditation
Benefits of Meditation
Contemplative neuroscience is a new field that backs up this claim. It deals with the brain science of meditation and is being led by Richard Davidson, a psychologist who has been practicing meditation for decades.
"We all know that if you engage in certain kinds of exercise on a regular basis you can strengthen certain muscle groups in predictable ways," he said.
"Strengthening neural systems is not fundamentally different. "It's basically replacing certain habits of mind with other habits," Davidson also added.
Comment: Another form of meditation that showed proven benefits, check out the Éiriú Eolas Breathing and Meditation program, which can be found here
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Stephen B. Liggett, M.D., lead author of the study and professor of medicine and physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine; Deepak A. Deshpande, Ph.D., author of the study and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine; and John Hopkins University researchers Steven S. An and James S. K. Sham have discovered bitter taste receptors in the human lungs on accident while studying human lung muscle receptors, which regulate airway relaxation and contraction.
"The detection of functioning taste receptors on smooth muscle of the bronchus in the lungs was so unexpected that we were at first quite skeptical ourselves," said Liggett.
© Unknown
Now, there is an interesting fight between the United States and India over a move by Colgate Palmolive to patent an ancient recipe for herbal toothpaste. The Indians say that the recipe has been used for hundreds, if not thousands, of years by Indians and would now be claimed as the property of the company.
The recipe including clove oil, camphor, black pepper and spearmint is used widely in India and could be the start of companies claiming ownership of Indian folk medicines.
Colgate was granted the patent in the U.S. in June and insists that the recipe is a groundbreaking "red herbal dentifrice." It is likely to argue that the addition of red iron oxide distinguishes its product from the traditional recipe.
© Unknown
Hurry boys! Start bailing!
Hurry boys! Start bailing!
Monsanto Co. is paying farmers to increase the number of herbicides they're using. The rebate program is designed to prevent more acrage from getting infested with weeds that are resistant to one particularly popular herbicide, Roundup.What a beautiful system: 1) A magical chemical that magically kills all plant life. 2) A crop genetically engineered to be resistant to the magical chemical. 3) A wise and powerful corporation who manufactured the magic chemical and controlled the genetically engineered seed. Profits abounded (for the wise and powerful corporation). Farmers enjoyed fields so perfectly clear of weeds, as to be unimaginable before the term, "Roundup Ready" hit the late night TV commercial airwaves.
Comment: For more information on fibromyalgia and magnesium benefits, please visit our diet and health forum.