Health & WellnessS


Bomb

West Dublin: Phone mast fears grow as more locals suffer cancer

Geraldine Gittens
Herald.ie
Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:43 UTC
Residents of a West Dublin housing estate, which lies next to a phone mast, are calling on the HSE to conduct a full health assessment in the area after an apparently large number of cancer diagnoses.

Neighbours in St Ronan's Gardens, Neilstown, and leaders of Mast Action Clondalkin (MAC) are continuing to voice their concerns about the mobile phone mast which stands in their local garda station.

"We did a survey of 150 houses and 38 people in those houses had cancer," says Gino Kelly, a member of MAC. "It's a very preliminary study but we went around and asked questions."
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Life Preserver

Flashback Hacking Your Body's Bacteria for Better Health

Brandon Keim
Wired
Thu, 26 Apr 2007 17:09 UTC
Modern humans are bacteria-killing machines. We assassinate microbes with hand soap, mouthwash and bathroom cleaners. It feels clean and right.

But some scientists say we're overdoing it. All this killing may actually cause diseases like eczema, irritable bowel syndrome and even diabetes. The answer, they say, is counterintuitive: Feed patients bacteria.

"Probiotics (pills containing bacteria) have resulted in complete elimination of eczema in 80 percent of the people we've treated," says Dr. Joseph E. Pizzorno Jr., a practicing physician and former member of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy. Pizzorno says he's used probiotics to treat irritable bowel disease, acne and even premenstrual syndrome. "It's unusual for me to see a patient with a chronic disease that doesn't respond to probiotics."

Comment: This is indeed the tip of the iceberg. For more information you are invited to visit our forum discussion.

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Health

Purple Tomatoes, Rich In Health-Protecting Anthocyanins, Developed With Help Of Snapdragons


Science Daily
Mon, 27 Oct 2008 04:28 UTC
Scientists have expressed genes from snapdragon in tomatoes to grow purple tomatoes high in health-protecting anthocyanins.

Anthocyanins are naturally occurring pigments found at particularly high levels in berries such as blackberry, cranberry and chokeberry. Scientists are investigating ways to increase the levels of health-promoting compounds in more commonly eaten fruits and vegetables.
Purple, high anthocyanin tomatoes and red wild-type tomatoes
© John Innes CentrePurple, high anthocyanin tomatoes and red wild-type tomatoes.

"Most people do not eat 5 portions of fruits and vegetables a day, but they can get more benefit from those they do eat if common fruit and veg can be developed that are higher in bioactive compounds," says Prof Cathie Martin from the John Innes Centre.
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Red Flag

Study: Many pesticides in EU may damage human brain

Alister Doyle
Reuters
Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:12 UTC
Many pesticides used in the European Union may damage brain growth in foetuses and young children, according to a study published Friday.

The study urged the European Union to tighten restrictions.

"Toxicity to the brain is not routinely included in testing pesticides," Philippe Grandjean of the Havard School of Public Health and the University of Southern Denmark told Reuters.
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Light Sabers

Memory Lapses Come When 2 Parts of Brain Compete


HealthDay News
Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:08 UTC
Researchers say finding could lead to treatment for compulsive, addictive disorders

Competition between two areas of the brain involved in learning may explain common memory lapses, suggest Yale University researchers, who add that their findings may help lead to new treatments for drug abusers and people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
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Attention

Toxic Bile Damages The Liver


ScienceDaily
Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:04 UTC
Researchers at the Heidelberg University Hospital have discovered a new genetic disease that can lead to severe liver damage. Because a protective component of the bile is missing, the liver cells are exposed to the toxic components of the bile, resulting in cirrhosis of liver, a transformation of liver cells into connective tissue with a gradual loss of liver function.
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Health

Common Cold Virus Alters Body's Genes

Amanda Gardner
HealthDay
Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:05 UTC
It may not be the cure for the common cold, but it may set the stage for a cure.

Canadian and U.S. researchers have found that the human rhinovirus, long blamed for causing the common cold, doesn't actually cause those annoying sniffles, sneezes, and coughs.

Instead, the ubiquitous virus alters genes in the body, which then results in the misery that afflicts most people every year or so, according to a study in the first November issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
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Health

How Breastfeeding Transfers Immunity To Babies


Science Daily
Mon, 27 Oct 2008 05:10 UTC
A BYU-Harvard-Stanford research team has identified a molecule that is key to mothers' ability to pass along immunity to intestinal infections to their babies through breast milk.

The study highlights an amazing change that takes place in a mother's body when she begins producing breast milk. For years before her pregnancy, cells that produce antibodies against intestinal infections travel around her circulatory system as if it were a highway and regularly take an "off-ramp" to her intestine. There they stand ready to defend against infections such as cholera or rotavirus. But once she begins lactating, some of these same antibody-producing cells suddenly begin taking a different "off-ramp," so to speak, that leads to the mammary glands. That way, when her baby nurses, the antibodies go straight to his intestine and offer protection while he builds up his own immunity.
BYU microbiology professor Eric Wilson
© Brigham Young UniversityBYU microbiology professor Eric Wilson led a research team that included undergraduates Kathryn Distelhorst (r) and Elizabeth Nielsen Low that showed how breastfeeding passes mothers' immunity on to babies.

This is why previous studies have shown that formula-fed infants have twice the incidence of diarrheal illness as breast-fed infants.

Until now, scientists did not know how the mother's body signaled the antibody-producing cells to take the different off-ramp. The new study identifies the molecule that gives them the green light.
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Health

Acupuncture Used For Animal Ailments


Science Daily
Mon, 27 Oct 2008 04:19 UTC
Needles are often equated with pain and discomfort; however, for a horse named Gypsy the tiny sharp objects brought about much needed relief as Dr. Mark Crisman, a professor in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech, administered acupuncture therapy.
Dr. Mark Crisman
© Virginia TechDr. Mark Crisman administers acupuncture therapy.

Gypsy had an infection in her ankle and Crisman was using acupuncture -- along with traditional therapy -- to help strengthen her bones and immune system, and provide pain relief.

Acupuncture, which has its roots in eastern countries, is a technique of inserting and manipulating very fine needles into specific points on the body with the intention of relieving pain and other therapeutic purposes. This ancient practice has long been used among human patients and, over the past few decades, has gained popularity and recognition in veterinary medicine.
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Cow

Nearly quarter of Beijing infants fed tainted milk: report


Agence France-Presse
Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:52 UTC
Nearly one quarter of Beijing families have fed their children milk contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine, state press reported Sunday.

In an indication of the scale of the tainted milk scandal that has rocked the country, more than 74,000 of nearly 308,000 households questioned in the capital said their children were fed the products before they were taken off the shelves, the Beijing News reported.

So far at least four infants have died in China, and 53,000 sickened across the country, from drinking milk tainted with melamine. Normally used in making plastics and glue, melamine was added to baby milk formula and other dairy products to make them appear richer in protein.
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