Health & Wellness
"Just as our species could be considered the most violent, since we are capable of serial killings, genocide and other atrocities, we are also the most empathetic species, which would seem to be the other side of the coin", Luis Moya Albiol, lead author of the study and a researcher at the UV, tells SINC.
This study, published in the most recent issue of the Revista de Neurología, concludes that the prefrontal and temporal cortex, the amygdala and other features of the limbic system (such as insulin and the cingulated cortex) play "a fundamental role in all situations in which empathy appears".

A 4-year-old Rebecca Toone and her 15-month-old sister died from complications with exposure to a pesticide in their Layton home.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said aluminum and magnesium fumigants can no longer be used near homes. The agency added other regulations about where they can be used outside and what kinds of warnings must be posted when the fumigants are applied.
EPA officials said Thursday they had planned to review the pesticides in the coming years as part of normal procedures.
"Obviously this tragedy in Utah kicked us into high gear," said Marty Monell, EPA's deputy director in the office of pesticide programs.
These drugs have long contained a label that reads, "increases risk of asthma-related death", but apparently this warning is not enough for this extreme class of medications. Known as long-acting beta-agonists (LABAs), these asthma drugs are used by roughly six million asthma sufferers to combat asthma symptoms. Ironically, LABAs are so dangerous that, if not combined with other asthma drugs, can actually cause an asthma attack.
It defies logic to try to figure out how asthma drugs that can kill people by causing severe asthma attacks are considered to be useful and effective medicine. Instead of pulling these dangerous drugs from the market entirely as it should, the FDA is ordering that stronger labels be affixed to warn doctors and physicians about the extreme risks associated with taking the drugs. It is unclear from the agency's press release exactly how it intends to strengthen the drugs' current death warning.
That's bad news for the well-being of junk food eating folks, but fortunately, there's a solution that makes getting off junk foods much easier. Not surprisingly, the same solution is also effective for those breaking other addictive habits, like smoking or doing heroin. This solution is simply to detoxify your body to remove the remnants of the addictive substances that linger inside. Detoxification is key because those remnants are what are causing the cravings. Therefore, by removing them, you can end the cravings to make upgrading your diet much easier.
One important thing to understand about food cravings is that we crave what's already inside us - and crave what were used to eating. So, if you're used to eating pizza and hamburgers regularly, you'll crave them. It's because small particles of them from previous meals are still in your body.
A look at other addictive habits like smoking and drugs offers more insight into what the body craves. Put it this way: a heroin addict doesn't crave heroin before he's tried it. He only craves it because particles of it remain in his body. The same applies for cravings of cigarettes. Nobody has ever craved a cigarette before first smoking one. People only crave cigarettes after the chemicals and molecules from them are already inside the body. With these addictive habits too, when you remove the molecules that are causing the cravings through detoxification, you can effectively end the cravings.
Michael Jacobson of the CSPI states, "Soft drinks are nutritionally worthless...[and] are directly related to weight gain, partly because beverages are more conducive to weight gain than solid foods." "Beverage companies market more than 14 billion gallons of calorie-laden soft drinks annually. That is equivalent to about 506 12-oz. servings per year, for every man, woman, and child." He contends that consumption would be less by around one percent and overall health would be improved for each penny tax on a 12 ounce drink. He goes on to say that $1.5 billion could be raised annually with this tax.
The obesity epidemic in the United States, according to the journal Archives of Internal Medicine, costs the United States an estimated $147 billion a year in health costs.
Chief among the cancer causing compounds produced by cooking meats are heterocyclic amines (HCAs), which are classified by the National Toxicology Program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as human carcinogens that increase the risk of cancer. Researchers at Kansas State University recently studied adding rosemary extract to ground beef. In addition to alcohol, the rosemary extracts contained a mixture of rosmarinic acid, carnosol, and carnosic acid. The researchers were not sure how or if the compounds worked but they found that adding the extracts reduced the HCA levels anywhere from 30 to 100 percent.
In another study published this month in the International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition, researchers in Saudi Arabia found that the total amount of HCAs in grilled chicken was reduced seven-fold when 2% rosemary extract was added. The researchers also found that two other dangerous compounds created during cooking were inhibited to non-detectable levels.

A coalition of some of the world's leading scientists has urged the Government to ban gender-bending chemicals used in baby products.
They said clear evidence from four studies linked bisphenol A to cancer, birth defects and heart disease.
Last week Denmark became the first EU country to ban the chemical in food and drink containers for the under threes.
Some scientists believe bisphenol A, or BPA, interferes with the hormonal system by copying oestrogen.
Although some animal studies have shown it to be safe, others have linked it to diseases such as breast cancer, liver damage, obesity, diabetes and infertility.
The results are based on breathing tests from nearly 11,000 firefighters who were at ground zero in the first two weeks when the dust cloud was thickest. Of the firefighters who didn't smoke, 13 percent were still scoring below normal up to seven years later, the study found.
That number was down from 18 percent who initially tested below normal after the attack, said researchers at the New York City Fire Department and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Among emergency medical technicians, the numbers were worse. Of the nearly 2,000 EMTs included in the analysis, 22 percent of the nonsmokers scored below normal on their most recent breathing test.
The research, in today's New England Journal of Medicine, dims hopes that workers who developed respiratory problems after being exposed to the trade center's remnants would gradually return to normal.

A new study, completed by scientists at ASU and the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, is the first to directly examine the benefits of breathing rate on physical and emotional reaction to pain. The benefit of slow breathing in relieving pain was greatest in healthy women.
The research, completed by scientists at Arizona State University and the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, is the first to directly examine the benefits of breathing rate on physical and emotional reaction to pain.
In essence, the researchers put meditation to the test. During the study trials, participants where subjected to brief pulses of moderately painful heat on their palms. They were asked to report what they felt in three ways: how strong was the pain, how unpleasant was the pain, and how much the pain affected their emotional state.
Researchers compiled data from the famous Sleep Heart Health Study and looked at stroke risk in 5,422 participants aged 40 years and older without a history of stroke. At the start of the study, participants performed a standard at-home sleep test that determined whether they had sleep apnea and, if so, the severity of the sleep apnea. Participants were followed for an average of nine years. During that period, a total of 193 participants had a stroke - 85 men (of 2,462 men enrolled) and 108 women (out of 2,960 enrolled).










Comment: Clearly the problem is not just with baby products. BPA is used in a wide variety of household appliances that are used for heating and cooking water and food. 90% of people have it in their bodies. It is very likely in the water supply in most countries. It is toxic, and potentially deadly to humans. Stop using plastic to heat food and water.