Health & Wellness
Bees have been dying off around the world for more than a decade now, a phenomenon that has been named "Colony Collapse Disorder," or CCD.
The U.S. and the U.K. both reported losing a third of their honeybees in 2010. Italy lost half.
The die-offs have spread to China and India, in addition to many other countries.
A third of the U.S. food supply requires the assistance of the honeybee.
The collapse of bee colonies is probably multifactorial, rather than a response to one type of toxic assault.
© unknown
They argue that added sugar in all forms - sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup alike - is as perilous to public health as a controlled substance like alcohol. Bolstering their argument with statistics on obesity and other chronic disease, as well as evidence that our bodies process sugar in a way that is harmful to our health, they advocate for regulation to temper sugar consumption worldwide.
The researchers' main impetus came from a 2010 United Nations report revealing, for the first time, that more people are dying from chronic, non-communicable diseases, so-called "lifestyle diseases" like heart disease, than from infectious disease.
"The UN announcement targets tobacco, alcohol and diet as the central risk factors in non-communicable disease," wrote the researchers. "Two of these three - tobacco and alcohol - are regulated by governments to protect public health, leaving one of the primary culprits behind this worldwide health crisis unchecked."
A healthy thyroid is a critical component of one's overall health, and many people are struggling with thyroid disorders such as hypothyroidism, specifically Hashimoto's autoimmune thyroiditis. In this autoimmune condition, the immune system attacks the thyroid gland, with the resulting inflammation leading to an underactive thyroid gland or hypothyroidism. Hashimoto's disease is the most common form of hypothyroidism and was the first condition ever to be classified as an autoimmune disease.
I've written extensively about thyroid health, focusing on a multitude of environmental factors that may effect thyroid function, including gluten, gut health, stress, excess iodine, and vitamin D deficiency. I've also discussed why dietary changes are always the first step in treating Hashimoto's, and why replacement thyroid hormone is often necessary for a successful outcome.
There is yet another nutritional factor that may play a role in thyroid health: selenium.
Selenium deficiency is not thought to be common in healthy adults, but is more likely to be found in those with digestive health issues causing poor absorption of nutrients, such as Crohn's or celiac disease, or those with serious inflammation due to chronic infection. 1,2 It is thought that selenium deficiency does not specifically cause illness by itself, but that it makes the body more susceptible to illnesses caused by other nutritional, biochemical or infectious stresses, due to its role in immune function.3 Adequate selenium nutrition supports efficient thyroid hormone synthesis and metabolism and protects the thyroid gland from damage from excessive iodine exposure.4
I've written extensively about thyroid health, focusing on a multitude of environmental factors that may effect thyroid function, including gluten, gut health, stress, excess iodine, and vitamin D deficiency. I've also discussed why dietary changes are always the first step in treating Hashimoto's, and why replacement thyroid hormone is often necessary for a successful outcome.
There is yet another nutritional factor that may play a role in thyroid health: selenium.
Selenium deficiency is not thought to be common in healthy adults, but is more likely to be found in those with digestive health issues causing poor absorption of nutrients, such as Crohn's or celiac disease, or those with serious inflammation due to chronic infection. 1,2 It is thought that selenium deficiency does not specifically cause illness by itself, but that it makes the body more susceptible to illnesses caused by other nutritional, biochemical or infectious stresses, due to its role in immune function.3 Adequate selenium nutrition supports efficient thyroid hormone synthesis and metabolism and protects the thyroid gland from damage from excessive iodine exposure.4
© Nick Michael
Frederick vom Saal, professor of biological sciences, poses for a portrait in his laboratory in Lefevre Hall at MU on Nov. 13. Vom Saal has researched the effects of industrial chemicals, such as bisphenol A, which acts as an endocrine disruptor, that can enter the human body and mimic hormones. Low levels of endocrine disruptors can be found in household goods and the environment, but according to Vom Saal's research, even small exposure to such chemicals can have drastic effects on biological systems.
Frederick vom Saal, professor of biological sciences, poses for a portrait in his laboratory in Lefevre Hall at MU on Nov. 13. Vom Saal has researched the effects of industrial chemicals, such as bisphenol A, which acts as an endocrine disruptor, that can enter the human body and mimic hormones. Low levels of endocrine disruptors can be found in household goods and the environment, but according to Vom Saal's research, even small exposure to such chemicals can have drastic effects on biological systems.
He's accomplished the laboratory part, which resulted in dozens of scientific papers outlining the negative effects of bisphenol-A, an endocrine disruptor found in plastics.
Endocrine disruptors are everywhere in the environment: in plastics, food cans, clothing fabrics, furniture and household and beauty products.
Now he's doing the communicator's part, trying to convince U.S. authorities to regulate the chemicals.
© GreenMedInfo
The scientific literature indicates that there are at least two dozen adverse health effects linked to exposure to mineral oil, a crude oil derivative. New research indicates these fat-soluble hydrocarbons are accumulating to disturbing levels in our bodies, and affecting newborns by contaminating breast milk.
How did they get there? Mineral oil is legally allowed to be added to our foods, drugs and cosmetics, where they accumulate in our bodies over time, with the highest concentrations found in our fat deposits. One autopsy study performed in 1985, revealed that 48% of the livers and 46% of the spleens of the 465 autopsies analyzed showed signs of mineral-oil induced lipogranuloma (a nodule of necrotic, fatty tissue associated with granulomatous inflammation or a foreign-body reaction around a deposit of an oily substance), indicating just how widespread pathological tissue changes associated with exposure reallly are.
In the United States, the FDA has approved mineral for use in cosmetic products, as well as a food additive up to 10 mg/kg a day. For a 150 lb adult (68.03 kilograms) this is the equivalent of 680 milligrams a day, or 248 grams (over half a pound!) a year.
© NBC
A 36-year-old is now experiencing the same odd verbal and motor tics first reported in teenage girls who live in LeRoy.
A 36-year-old is now experiencing the same odd verbal and motor tics first reported in teenage girls who live in LeRoy.
Nurse practitioner Marge Fitzsimmons, who has spent her whole life in LeRoy, N.Y., lives just a few miles from the school the teens attend.
"It started out with sudden head jerks in the middle of October," Fitzsimmons told NBC News, the tics occasionally interfering with her ability to talk.
It got so bad she had to leave her job working with developmentally disabled patients until the tics subside.
"The motor tics wouldn't stop, and the vocal tics started, and I went to one of the bosses and said I have to go."
© healthandenergy.com
Children and young adults from areas with highly polluted air in Mexico had physical and genetic changes in their brains akin to those found in adults with Alzheimer's disease.
The changes seen are surprising because they are not supposed to occur in younger brains. Alzheimer's afflicts older adults and those in middle age with specific family genetics. Experts are not sure what causes the onset in older age but think environment might play a role.
This study builds on a growing body of research suggesting that air pollution exposure can affect the brain. Previous studies have found links between air pollution exposure and signs of inflammation - a basic body response that indicates injury - in dog and mice brains.
© Unknown
In a commentary published in Wednesday's issue of the journal Nature, doctors from the University of California, San Francisco, say that rising global rates of major killers such as heart disease and Type 2 diabetes aren't caused by obesity as commonly thought.
Instead, obesity is a marker for those health problems, and sugar is the true culprit, Dr. Robert Lustig, Laura Schmidt and Claire Brindis said.
"We recognize that societal intervention to reduce the supply and demand for sugar faces an uphill political battle against a powerful sugar lobby," they wrote.
Measures such as smoking bans in public places, the use of designated drivers and the addition of condom dispensers in public washrooms were also battlegrounds that are now taken for granted for public health, the authors said in calling for sugar regulations.
Millions of people around the world take medications known as statins to lower their cholesterol.
The current value of the cholesterol-lowering drug industry is estimated at around $29 billion -- and this is clearly a conservative estimate considering spending on cholesterol drugs in the United States alone reached nearly $19 billion in 2010.
But have the facts about cholesterol and heart disease been distorted by drug companies eager to increase their profits?
A new documentary film project is underway to look for answers, and get the truth out about cholesterol once and for all...
Why Haven't You Heard the Truth About Cholesterol?
There may be $29 billion very good reasons why ... and this is the premise behind the new documentary film $29 Billion Reasons to Lie About Cholesterol (based on a book by the same name, authored by Justin Smith). As the film's synopsis explains:
"So many resources are currently directed at cholesterol-lowering, however, a huge body of evidence suggests that this cholesterol-lowering is having little or no effect on people's health. In fact, it may even be doing more harm than good.Could it be possible that nearly everything your doctor and the media is telling you about high cholesterol and how it relates to saturated fats, heart disease and strokes is wrong?
We want to present the facts about cholesterol to the general public. These facts are fully supported by published studies within the medical literature, but unfortunately they are hardly ever discussed.
The pharmaceutical industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year promoting the idea that high cholesterol causes heart disease. The other side of the story receives very little attention. As a result, even doctors may have been misled; since they have only been exposed to the pharmaceutical industry's viewpoint."
Absolutely!
© redOrbit
A new congressional report accuses tanning salons of misleading their customers to try and gain business.
The probe found that tanning salons are downplaying the risks of tanning in beds, and promoting benefits that do not exist to its younger clients that do not know any better.
The investigation by the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee found that nearly all indoor tanning salons contacted denied the known risks of indoor tanning, and four out of five salons claimed it is beneficial to a person's health.
The committee posed as fair-skinned 16-year-old girls, contacting 300 indoor tanning salons throughout the U.S.
They found that 90 percent of the salons told the "girls" that indoor tanning did not pose health risks, and more than half the salons denied that indoor tanning increased the risk of cancer.
The report said that many salons described these statements as "rumors" and "hype", and over three-quarters of salons said it actually is beneficial to the health of a teenage girl.
Comment: Read The Facts About Bisphenol A, in addition to the negative health effects associated with this endocrine disruptor:
The Real Story Behind Bisphenol A
President's Cancer Panel Warns of Toxic Effects of BPA
Study: Human Exposure to BPA 'Grossly Underestimated'
BPA Report Details Chemical's Hazards