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Even low levels of weekly exercise drive down blood pressure


BMJ-British Medical Journal
Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:19 UTC
Randomized controlled trial of home-based walking programs at and below current recommended levels of exercise in sedentary adults

Even low levels of weekly exercise drive down blood pressure and boost overall fitness, suggests a small study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

To stave off ill health, adults are currently recommended to indulge in 30 minutes of moderately strenuous exercise on at least five days of the week.

But few people meet these recommendations, with lack of time cited as the most common reason for failing to do so.

The study authors invited 106 healthy but sedentary civil servants between the ages of 40 and 60 to take part in an exercise programme for 12 weeks.
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Health

Flashback The link between monosodium glutamate (MSG) and obesity

Dani Veracity
NewsTarget.com
Sat, 09 Jul 2005 13:46 UTC
If fried snack chips had a warning printed right on the bag that said, "Warning: these chips will make you obese," would you still buy them? Would you still eat them? Well, in a sense, you do see that warning on chips; just read the ingredient list. Research suggests that monosodium glutamate causes obesity, making unhealthy snacks even unhealthier than you may have suspected.

I'm sure you already know that tortilla and potato chips aren't health foods, right? They're made with fried fats, they almost always harbor hidden toxic chemicals (acrylamides), and if they're flavored, they usually contain monosodium glutamate (MSG). This is basically a recipe for obesity.

But how does MSG cause obesity? Like aspartame, MSG is an excitotoxin, a substance that overexcites neurons to the point of cell damage and, eventually, cell death. Humans lack a blood-brain barrier in the hypothalamus, which allows excitotoxins to enter the brain and cause damage, according to Dr. Russell L. Blaylock in his book Excitotoxins. According to animal studies, MSG creates a lesion in the hypothalamus that correlates with abnormal development, including obesity, short stature and sexual reproduction problems.
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Red Flag

UK: How do we tackle the rise in the number of children on anti-depressants?


The Independent
Mon, 13 Aug 2007 22:19 UTC
The tragic side effects include suicide, addiction and self-harm

When Stephen Bailey was eight years old, he was prescribed Librium by his doctor. That was the beginning of a 24-year addiction to mind-altering drugs which, Bailey says, changed the course of his life and saw him descend into a world of fits, screaming and violence whenever he tried to withdraw. A commonly-used tranquilliser, Librium is one of the benzodiazepine family, and was prescribed to calm Bailey after he suffered from migraines and flashing lights in response to a routine set of vaccinations.
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Evil Rays

The Hidden Dangers of Cell Phone Radiation

Sue Kovach
LE Magazine August 2007
Mon, 13 Aug 2007 16:37 UTC
Every day, we're swimming in a sea of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) produced by electrical appliances, power lines, wiring in buildings, and a slew of other technologies that are part of modern life. From the dishwasher and microwave oven in the kitchen and the clock radio next to your bed, to the cellular phone you hold to your ear - sometimes for hours each day - exposure to EMR is growing and becoming a serious health threat.

But there's a huge public health crisis looming from one particular threat: EMR from cellular phones - both the radiation from the handsets and from the tower-based antennas carrying the signals - which studies have linked to development of brain tumors, genetic damage, and other exposure-related conditions.1-9 Yet the government and a well-funded cell phone industry media machine continue to mislead the unwary public about the dangers of a product used by billions of people. Most recently, a Danish epidemiological study announced to great fanfare the inaccurate conclusion that cell phone use is completely safe.10
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Health

Bali bird flu deaths spark tourism fears

Kate Benson and Mark Forbes in Jakarta
Sydney Morning Herald
Mon, 13 Aug 2007 12:26 UTC
AUSTRALIAN health officials are on alert after a deadly outbreak of bird flu on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali.

The finding is another blow to Indonesia's tourism industry, still struggling to recover from the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings.
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Wolf

Study: Full moon fills veterinary offices with suddenly ill dogs, cats

Katy Human
Detroit news
Sat, 11 Aug 2007 15:49 UTC
When the full moon rises, dogs and cats go wild -- and get hurt.

Dogs and cats suffering heart attacks, seizures and trauma end up at Colorado State University's Veterinary Medical Center emergency room in Fort Collins in higher numbers around the full moon, according to a study.
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Coffee

To gain muscle and lose fat, drink milk: study


McMaster University
Wed, 08 Aug 2007 08:21 UTC
Part of an ongoing study into the impact of drinking milk after heavy weightlifting has found that milk helps exercisers burn more fat.

The study by researchers at McMaster University and published today in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, was conducted by the Department of Kinesiology's Exercise Metabolism Research Group, lead by Stuart Phillips.

The researchers took three groups of young men 18 to 30 years of age - 56 in total - and put them through a rigorous, five-day-per-week weightlifting program over a 12-week period. Following their workouts, study participants drank either two cups of skim milk, a soy beverage with equivalent amounts of protein and energy, or a carbohydrate beverage with an equivalent amount of energy, which was roughly the same as drinking 600 to 700 milliliters of a typical sports drink.
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Info

Stress may leave your mouth a mess


American Academy of Periodontology
Sat, 11 Aug 2007 04:52 UTC
A literature review published in the August issue of the Journal of Periodontology (JOP) saw a strong relationship between stress and periodontal diseases; 57% of the studies included in the review showed a positive relationship between periodontal diseases and psychological factors such as stress, distress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness.

"More research is needed to determine the definitive relationship between stress and periodontal diseases," said study author Daiane Peruzzo, PhD. "However, patients who minimize stress may be at less risk for periodontal diseases."
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Info

Some women benefit more from exercise when emphasis is on health, not appearance


The Ohio State University
Fri, 10 Aug 2007 13:38 UTC
A new study suggests that women with chronic issues with their body-image are more likely to benefit from an exercise class where the instructor emphasizes the health benefits of the workout over improved appearance, even if those women chose the class in hopes of improving their physique.

Researchers studied nearly 100 college-aged women who had social physique anxiety - a disorder in which someone chronically worries that others are critiquing his or her body.
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Magic Wand

Genetic variation helps to understand predisposition to schizophrenia


American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Fri, 10 Aug 2007 13:34 UTC
Scientists have provided new insight into how a gene is related to schizophrenia. In a study to be published in the August 17 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Amanda J. Law, Medical Research Council Fellow and Associate Professor at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, and Visiting Scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), along with colleagues at NIH describe for the first time a genetic variation that causes a gene to be overexpressed in the human brain. These results may provide a new way to design better drugs to treat schizophrenia.

"Although the exact causes of schizophrenia are yet to be determined, scientists agree that the disease is in part due to genetic variations," Law says. "These variations are not simple to understand because they don't directly disturb the function of proteins. In our study, we identified some clues as to what goes wrong with one of these DNA variations."
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