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Fri, 15 Oct 2021
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Empathy and Violence Have Similar Circuits in the Brain

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© Alan Cleaver
Empathy and violence have similar circuits in the brain.
Researchers from the University of Valencia, Spain, have resumed the brain structures involved with empathy, in other words the ability to put oneself in another person's position, and carried out a scientific review of them. They conclude that the brain circuits responsible for empathy are in part the same as those involved with violence.

"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".

Newspaper

EPA Tightens Rules on Pesticide Linked to Deaths

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© KSL-TV 5
A 4-year-old Rebecca Toone and her 15-month-old sister died from complications with exposure to a pesticide in their Layton home.
Federal officials have moved quickly to clamp down on the use of potent rodent-killing pesticides after one was linked to the deaths of two Utah girls earlier this year.

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.

Bad Guys

FDA Finally Admits That Asthma Drugs Can Actually Cause Serious Asthma Attacks

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© Getty Images
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently issued new restrictions for four popular long-acting asthma drugs. Novartis AG's Foradil, GlaxoSmithKline's Serevent and Advair, and AstraZeneca's Symbicort, all contain an ingredient that relaxes airway muscles in the lungs which can cause asthma-related death. If not accompanied by other asthma drugs to offset this life-threatening side effect, the consequences could be fatal.

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.

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Why Detoxification is Key to Upgrading Your Diet

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© Getty Images
Junk Food
Scientists recently found that changes in the brain happen with eating large amounts of junk food, and that junk food can be as addictive as cigarettes or heroin.

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.

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Soda Tax: Consider the Health Benefit and Paying for Healthcare

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© Getty Images
The new federal excise tax on soda and other sugary drinks is being considered by the Senate Finance Committee as they listen to proposals on how to pay for President Obama's universal health care plan, which is expected to cost more than $1 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that a three-cent tax would generate $24 billion over the next four years. The tax also has the full support of many in the health industry including Washington based Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which pressures food companies to make healthier products. Strong opposition is likely to come from an already tax burdened electorate and the beverage industry.

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.

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Enjoy Safer Grilling This Year with Rosemary and Cherries

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© Getty Images
For many of us, spring signals the start of grilling season. Unfortunately, grilling meat and cooking meat at high temperatures result in the formation of chemical compounds which may increase the risk of cancer. This year, if you find the urge to fire up the barbecue irresistible, the addition of either of a couple of common food items can greatly reduce the formation of such dangerous compounds: rosemary or tart cherries.

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.

Red Flag

Scientists Link Chemical in Baby Products to Birth Defects and Cancer

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A coalition of some of the world's leading scientists has urged the Government to ban gender-bending chemicals used in baby products.
Scientists yesterday called for a ban on a gender-bending chemical found in baby bottles and food containers.

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.

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.


Ambulance

9/11 rescuers' lungs still not getting better: Dust from towers' collapse likely cause

Most of the New York City firefighters and medics whose lungs were damaged by pulverized masonry and glass from the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center are not improving as time goes by, according to a new study.

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.

Butterfly

Meditative breathing may help manage chronic pain

Breathing
© Unknown
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.
A new study published in the journal Pain offers support for the benefits of yoga-style breathing and meditation to help control chronic pain.

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.

Comment: One of the most effective breathing techniques to achieve these results can be found here.


Health

Sleep apnea boosts stroke risk

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© Unknown
Obstructive sleep apnea, a condition in which breathing stops intermittently during sleep - is associated with an increased risk of stroke in middle-aged or older Americans, especially in men, according to a new study out of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. And that's a scary statistic, since, according to the National Sleep Foundation, 18 million people in the U.S. suffer from sleep apnea and many of them don't know it.

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).