Welcome to Sott.net
Fri, 15 Oct 2021
The World for People who Think

Health & Wellness
Map

Magnify

This Is Your Brain on Cryptococcus: Pathogenic Fungus Loves Your Brain Sugar


ScienceDaily
Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:00 UTC
Image
© Wikimedia Commons
Cryptococcus
Highly dangerous Cryptococcus fungi love sugar and will consume it anywhere because it helps them reproduce. In particular, they thrive on a sugar called inositol which is abundant in the human brain and spinal cord.

To borrow inositol from a person's brain, the fungi have an expanded set of genes that encode for sugar transporter molecules. While a typical fungus has just two such genes, Cryptococcus have almost a dozen, according to Joseph Heitman, M.D., Ph.D., chairman of the Duke Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology.

"Inositol is abundant in the human brain and in the fluid that bathes it (cerebral spinal fluid), which may be why this fungus has a predilection to infect the brain and cause meningitis," Heitman said. "It has the machinery to efficiently move sugar molecules inside of its cells and thrive."
      Read More...
Magnify

Psychiatrists Say That Being Angry is a Mental Illness

Ethan A. Huff
NaturalNews
Wed, 07 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Pamela Davis Kivelson
Very Angry
Proposed updates to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) are prompting many to question whether or not the psychiatric profession itself has gone crazy. The latest additions to the alleged "mentally ill" could include hoarders, people who get angry every now and again, lazy people, and even those who get outraged over things like sex and violence on television.

Since its first publication back in 1952, the DSM has grown exponentially larger with each subsequent edition. Many people are lambasting the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for trying to establish virtually all behavior as some sort of mental disorder that should be treated with psychiatric drugs.

"For this latest revision they've set up a special task force to decide if behaviors like bitterness, extreme shopping or overuse of the internet should be included," explained Professor Christopher Lane to a reporter from the the U.K.'s Daily Mail. "The science underlying all this is very shaky to non-existent."
      Read More...
Magnify

Shyness is All in Your Brain, Study Says


LiveScience
Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:40 UTC
Image
© ParcPhotography
Shyness
Introverted individuals may process the world a bit differently, study finds

The brains of shy or introverted individuals might actually process the world differently than their more extroverted counterparts, a new study suggests.

About 20 percent of people are born with a personality trait called sensory perception sensitivity that can manifest itself as the tendency to be inhibited, or even neuroticism. The trait can be seen in some children who are "slow to warm up" in a situation but eventually join in, need little punishment, cry easily, ask unusual questions or have especially deep thoughts, the study researchers say.

The new results show that these highly sensitive individuals also pay more attention to detail, and have more activity in certain regions of their brains when trying to process visual information than those who are not classified as highly sensitive.

The study was conducted by researchers at Stony Brook University in New York, and Southwest University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, both in China. The results were published March 4 in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.

Individuals with this highly sensitive trait prefer to take longer to make decisions, are more conscientious, need more time to themselves in order to reflect, and are more easily bored with small talk, research suggests.
      Read More...
Magnify

USDA Protocols for Handling Food Contamination are Inadequate

Ethan A. Huff
NaturalNews
Wed, 07 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© USDA/FSIS
Most people are aware that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) handles food contamination outbreaks by removing the tainted product from the market and working to identify the source of contamination. When it comes to tainted products that have not yet reached consumers, however, the agency's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) could care less about investigating the source and cause of contamination.

Every time there is an outbreak, demands for increased regulation, food irradiation, and a host of other illogical solutions flood the airwaves and newspaper headlines. Politicians and the media begin their tirades about how regulatory agencies like the FDA and USDA need more power in order to properly ensure the safety of the food. None of them ever mention the fact that these agencies already have the ability to effectively regulate but are failing to do so because they are largely corrupt and wholly inept.

One would think that when the FSIS identifies a contaminated product, it would perform due diligence by investigating the source and cause of contamination, as well as whether or not other products from the same source are contaminated as well. Instead, the agency simply stops the item from reaching consumers and closes the case. Such a careless approach is likely one of the reasons why contaminated food reaches consumers.
      Read More...
Magnify

New study: Breast Cancer Deaths Lower in Areas Without Mammograms

S. L. Baker
NaturalNews
Wed, 07 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© NaturalNews
A 2005 study concluded that a push in Denmark to screen large numbers of women for breast cancer with mammography had reduced breast cancer deaths in Copenhagen by a whopping 25 percent. Sounds like proof that regular mammograms are truly life-savers, right? Wrong. Scientists from the Nordic Cochrane Center in Copenhagen and the Folkehelseinstituttet in Oslo have re-examined this pro-mammogram study along with additional data and come up with an entirely different conclusion.

First, they found that the scientific validity of the 2005 study doesn't hold up because the research was deeply flawed. Even more important: the new report shows there's no evidence mammography itself was the reason behind any reduction in breast cancer deaths. In fact, deaths from breast cancer were lower in areas where women didn't undergo those screening tests.

The Danish research team looked at annual changes in breast cancer deaths in two Danish regions where breast cancer screening programs were offered to the public and compared this to data collected in non-screened regions throughout the rest of the country. To get a broad picture of the trend toward more or less breast cancer mortality, they analyzed breast malignancy rates in the decade before the screening was started and also looked at the ten years after screening was introduced.
      Read More...
Magnify

Latest Study: Diabetes Drugs Do Not Work; Diet and Exercise Are Still Best

Tony Isaacs
NaturalNews
Wed, 07 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Getty Images
According to a recent study the latest "magic bullet" drug therapy for diabetes and heart disease does not come close to working as advertised. In fact, researchers found that the combination of the high blood pressure drug valsartan and the anti-diabetes drug nateglinide failed to reduce the risk of heart attack at all and valsartan was only slightly successful in slowing the development of type II diabetes.

Lead researcher Robert M Califf from Duke University School of Medicine stated: "This is a sobering confirmation of the need to continue to focus on lifestyle improvements."

In the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that when compared to a placebo, valsartan and nateglinide failed to statistically reduce the incidence of either extended cardiovascular risk or core cardiovascular risk. The cumulative incidence of diabetes was 33.1% in the valsartan group, as compared with 36.8% in the placebo group.
      Read More...
Magnify

Expectant Mothers Reduce Diabetes Risk in Newborns by Eating More Vegetables

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Wed, 07 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© iStockphoto
Women who eat more vegetables while pregnant significantly reduce their children's risk of developing Type 1 diabetes, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Gothenburg and Linkoping University in Sweden, and published in the journal Pediatric Diabetes.

"This is the first study to show a link between vegetable intake during pregnancy and the risk of the child subsequently developing Type 1 diabetes," researcher Hilde Brekke said. "Nor can this protection be explained by other measured dietary factors or other known risk factors."

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that develops when the immune system produces antibodies that attack the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Researchers tested the blood of 6,000 five-year-old children for these antibodies, and compared the results to their mothers' self-reported vegetable intakes during pregnancy.
      Read More...
Magnify

Seaweed Could Hold Key to Natural Weight Loss

Sherry Baker
NaturalNews
Wed, 07 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Goggle Images
Seaweed
Scientists at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom have discovered a substance that reduces fat uptake in the body by more than 75 percent. This potential obesity fighter isn't a drug but a natural substance found in seaweed.

The research team, headed by Dr. Iain Brownlee and Professor Jeff Pearson, tested more than 60 different fibers in the laboratory to see how effective they were in absorbing fat. The results? The scientists found that alginate, a natural fiber in sea kelp, blocks the body from absorbing fat far more effectively than anti-obesity treatments currently sold over the counter.

"There are countless claims about miracle cures for weight loss but only a few cases offer any sound scientific evidence to back up these claims," Dr Brownlee said in a press statement. "The aim of this study was to put these products to the test and our initial findings are that alginates significantly reduce fat digestion."
      Read More...
Magnify

Eat and Juice to Keep Alzheimer's Away

M. Thornley
NaturalNews
Wed, 07 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Getty Images
A 10-year study named the Kame Project found Alzheimer's risk 76 percent lower among those who drank juices more than three times a week. As reported by Susan Sharma, MD, in "Fruit Lowers Risk," April 27-May 3, 2008, in Dementia Weekly, the skins of fruit and vegetables are high in phenols, chemicals that "mop up" free radicals believed to cause the damage seen in Alzheimer's.

Researchers followed approximately 2,000 Japanese Americans in Hiroshima, Japan; Oahu, Hawaii; and Seattle for 10 years. Participants underwent a physical examination beginning in 1992, and their mental function was tested every two years.

Those who drank juice three or more times per week experienced a 76 percent reduced risk for Alzheimer's. Those who drank juice once or twice a week experienced a 16 percent reduced risk. These results suggested to researchers that polyphenols, a type of anti-oxidant, might have a protective effect on the brain, preventing or reducing dementia or Alzheimer's.
      Read More...
Heart - Black

Acedia: Struggling with "Bad Thought"

Kathleen Norris
CNN
Tue, 06 Apr 2010 08:16 UTC
Image
© CNN
On a recent trip across America, what surprised me most was the number of people -- over 200 in one city, 80 to 150 elsewhere -- who wanted to discuss this odd word, "acedia."

It's an ancient term signifying profound indifference and inability to care about things that matter, even to the extent that you no longer care that you can't care.

I liken it to spiritual morphine: You know the pain is there but can't rouse yourself to give a damn.

The concept of acedia was developed by Christians in the fourth century who had fled to the deserts of the Middle East, opting for a simple life in rebellion against a newly legal, wealthy and politically powerful church. Today, we would say that they went off the grid.

These men and women quickly discovered that although they had left material possessions behind, they hadn't shed their inner demons. They developed a sophisticated psychology of the "eight bad thoughts" that commonly troubled them, the most spiritually devastating of which were acedia, anger and pride.
      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts