Health & WellnessS


Family

Freedom Foods

Nora Lawrence
Cultural Survival
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:40 UTC
Image
© Nora Lawrence
Food does more than nourish our bodies. It lifts our spirits, nurtures our minds, and comforts our souls.

As any weary traveler who has ever longed for a home-cooked meal can attest, food connects us to our families and communities by reminding us where we come from and - just for a moment - transports us back to a place of familiarity, trust, and comfort.

But in many Indigenous communities across North America, this pivotal aspect of both health and culture is slipping away. Knowledge of traditional agricultural techniques, food sources, and preparation has become increasingly scarce as the pressures of urbanization, poverty, and modern lifestyles push many individuals and communities towards processed and artificial foods.

This phenomenon has caused more than the obvious health problems like diabetes and obesity; it has also hindered the ability of many communities to observe their religious and spiritual ceremonies and has driven a generational wedge between those community members who connect to traditional food and those who have never known its importance or pleasure.
Read More...
Coffee

Drinking Coffee, Decaf and Tea Regularly Associated With a Reduced Risk of Diabetes


ScienceDaily
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00 UTC
Image
© iStockphotoNew research suggests that drinking more coffee (regular or decaffeinated) or tea appears to lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Drinking more coffee (regular or decaffeinated) or tea appears to lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to an analysis of previous studies reported in the December 14/28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, JAMA.

By the year 2025, approximately 380 million individuals worldwide will be affected by type 2 diabetes.

Despite considerable research attention, the role of specific dietary and lifestyle factors remains uncertain, although obesity and physical inactivity have consistently been reported to raise the risk of diabetes mellitus. A previously published meta-analysis suggested drinking more coffee may be linked with a reduced risk, but the amount of available information has more than doubled since.

Rachel Huxley, D.Phil, of The George Institute for International Health, University of Sydney, Australia, and colleagues identified 18 studies involving 457,922 participants and assessing the association between coffee consumption and diabetes risk published between 1966 and 2009.
Read More...
Magnify

Witnesses to Bullying May Face More Mental Health Risks Than Bullies and Victims


ScienceDaily
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00 UTC
Students who watch as their peers endure the verbal or physical abuses of another student could become as psychologically distressed, if not more so, by the events than the victims themselves, new research suggests.

Bullies and bystanders may also be more likely to take drugs and drink alcohol, according to the findings, which are reported in the December issue of School Psychology Quarterly, published by the American Psychological Association.

"It's well documented that children and adolescents who are exposed to violence within their families or outside of school are at a greater risk for mental health problems than those children who are not exposed to any violence," said the study's lead author, Ian Rivers, PhD. "It should not be a surprise that violence at school will pose the same kind of risk."
Read More...
Magnify

Sand Playground Surfaces Reduce Risk of Arm Fractures from Falls, Study Shows


ScienceDaily
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00 UTC
School playgrounds fitted with granite sand surfacing significantly reduce the risk of children fracturing arms in comparison with wood fibre surfaces, according to a randomized trial published this week in the open-access journal PLoS Medicine.

Even in well maintained playgrounds there is always a risk of injury -- in the United States alone, 200,000 children are treated for playground injuries a year. Andrew Howard (of the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada) and colleagues examined the rate of arm fracture as a result of falls on to two types of playground surface -- granite sand and engineered wood fibre. Despite standards for the type and depth of surfaces used in school playgrounds, there is little information about the ability of different surfaces to prevent injuries. The researchers took advantage of planned playground replacement by the Toronto School District Board in a number of schools to perform a randomized controlled trial of the two surfaces in preventing injuries.

Over two and a half years, the researchers found that of the 19 schools that complied with the surface they were randomly assigned to, falls from height onto wood fibre surface resulted in more arm fractures than falls from height onto granite sand. The risk of an arm fracture was 4.9 times higher on a wood fibre surface compared to a granite sand playground. The rate of arm fracture and other injuries that were not as a result of falling from height did not vary between the surfaces.
Read More...
Magnify

Brain Plaques in Healthy Individuals Linked to Increased Alzheimer's Risk


ScienceDaily
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00 UTC
Scientists have long assumed that amyloid brain plaques found in autopsies of Alzheimer's patients are harmful and cause Alzheimer's disease. But autopsies of people with no signs of mental impairment have also revealed brain plaques, challenging this theory.

Now, for the first time, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have shown that brain plaques in apparently healthy individuals are associated with increased risk of diagnosis with Alzheimer's disease years later.

In two studies published this month in Archives of Neurology, scientists report that volunteers with brain plaques were more likely to have declining scores on annual cognitive tests, to show signs of shrinkage in a key brain area affected by Alzheimer's and to eventually be diagnosed with the disease.
Read More...
Einstein

Brainstorming Works Best in Less Specialized Efforts, Study Finds


ScienceDaily
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00 UTC
Applying brainstorming techniques to new product development works best when the collaboration employs participants from varied specialties gathering to develop a less complex product, according to the Management Insights feature in the current issue of Management Science, the flagship journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®).

When new products will be highly technical, a better way to develop them is for specialists to do their work in private and collaborate through 'nominal' groups, the study says.

"The Effects of Problem Structure and Team Diversity on Brainstorming Effectiveness" is by Stylianos Kavadias of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Svenja C. Sommer of HEC Paris.
Read More...
Attention

BPA Should Be Avoided, Federal Official Says


NewsInferno
Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:14 UTC
As the country awaits word from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on the safety of the controversial industrial chemical bisphenol A - BPA - the head of a key federal agency head warns that ingesting BPA be avoided, especially by women who are pregnant, infants, and children.

"There are plenty of reasonable alternatives," said Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Toxicology Program, in an interview with the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel (JSOnline). Birnbaum noted that she is not a physician, but that her involvement with BPA studies has her concerned about its adverse effects, said JSOnline. Birnbaum said consumers should be "absolutely" worried about BPA's effects quoted JSOnline.

Last week, Birnbaum gave testimony before a Senate panel, comparing the chemical to "lead, mercury, and polychlorinated biphenyls," said JSOnline. Those chemicals have been found to be extremely dangerous to human health at low doses. Meanwhile, the NIEHS will be investing $30 million over two years to research the toxin and its effects on what Birnbaum described as "all stages of development," said JSOnline.

Developed in the 1930s, the estrogenic mimicker - originally developed as a replacement for the hormone, said JSOnline - appears to wreak havoc on the body's' endocrine system. Today, in urine tests, BPA is found in the overwhelming majority of Americans, more than 93 percent and was recently found to be present in the vast majority of newborns.

BPA has been connected to increased risks of brain, reproductive, cardiac, and immune system diseases and disorders; problems with liver function testing; interruptions in chemotherapy treatment; and links with serious health problems.
Read More...
Magnify

Study Verifies Mammography Screenings Cause Cancer

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:00 UTC
A new study presented on December 1 at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) verified that annual mammography screenings may be responsible for causing breast cancer in women who are predisposed to the disease. Epidemiologist Marijke C. Jansen-van der Weide from the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands suggests that doctors should be very cautious when screening younger women, especially those under age 30.

There are many conflicting reports about the benefits of mammography screenings, particularly among younger women below the age of 40. Because there is a high risk among women with genetic or familial predispositions to breast cancer when getting mammograms, Dr. Jansen-van der Weide and her research team are suggesting that these women get an alternative screening. Ultrasounds, MRIs, and heat thermography screenings are some alternatives that do not expose patients to radiation.

The study evaluated women in the high-risk group and determined that low-dose mammography radiation increased these women's risk of developing breast cancer by 150 percent. Women under 20 who have had at least five mammograms are 2.5 times more likely to develop breast cancer than high-risk women who have never undergone low-dose mammography screenings.
Read More...
Arrow Up

Nearsightedness Increasing in the United States

Nathan Seppa
Science News
Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:06 UTC
Image
© T. DubeVision tests done in the 1970s on volunteers and repeated on a separate group of people from 1999 to 2004 found more nearsightedness in the recent years.
Study suggests growth of more than 60 percent since the 1970s

It looks like nearsightedness is on the rise in the United States.

Researchers tapped into a wide-ranging health survey to rate vision in the population in the early 1970s and roughly 30 years later. They compared eyesight information for more than 4,400 people tested in 1971 and 1972 with data from another set of 8,300 people tested from 1999 to 2004.

This broad survey showed that 25 percent of those examined in the early 1970s were deemed to be nearsighted, compared with 42 percent examined three decades later, the researchers report in the December Archives of Ophthalmology. That's an increase of 66 percent.

Myopia severity also increased, with moderate nearsightedness doubling between the two time periods and severe cases, although uncommon, also rising sharply. Mild myopia cases increased slightly, from about 13 percent to 18 percent.
Read More...
Family

Child diabetes blamed on food sweetener fructose syrup

Lois Rogers
Times On Line UK
Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:51 UTC
Image
© Stewart Williams

Fructose syrup is increasingly being used as a substitute for more expensive types of sugar
Scientists have proved for the first time that a cheap form of sugar used in thousands of food products and soft drinks can damage human metabolism and is fuelling the obesity crisis.

Fructose, a sweetener derived from corn, can cause dangerous growths of fat cells around vital organs and is able to trigger the early stages of diabetes and heart disease.

It has increasingly been used as a substitute for more expensive types of sugar in yoghurts, cakes, salad dressing and cereals. Even some fruit drinks that sound healthy contain fructose.
Read More...