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Tue, 19 Oct 2021
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Smoking

The devious plan of anti-smoking campaigns to control people and stop them from using their brain

Jacob Sullum
Forbes
Thu, 19 Dec 2013 05:17 UTC
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'Smoking is bad because the government sez so'
Several years ago I was talking to an epidemiologist who is skeptical of the idea that smokers pose a mortal threat to people in their vicinity. Although he supported workplace smoking bans, he was frustrated by the willingness of so many anti-tobacco activists and public health officials to overlook or minimize the weakness of the scientific case that secondhand smoke causes fatal illnesses such as lung cancer and heart disease. He wondered when it would be possible to have a calm, rational discussion of the issue, one in which skeptics would not be automatically dismissed as tools of the tobacco industry. I suggested that such a conversation might take place once smoking bans became ubiquitous, at which point the political stakes would be lower. Judging from a recent article in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, headlined "No Clear Link Between Passive Smoking and Lung Cancer," that conversation may have begun.

The article describes a large prospective study that "confirmed a strong association between cigarette smoking and lung cancer but found no link between the disease and secondhand smoke." The study tracked more than 76,000 women, 901 of whom eventually developed lung cancer.

Comment: The reality is, that there are many health advantages to smoking. Makes us wonder why something so beneficial would be demonized so strongly. Read the following articles to learn more:

Let's All Light Up!

5 Health Benefits of Smoking

Nicotine Lessens Symptoms Of Depression In Nonsmokers

Nicotine helps Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Patients

Brain Researchers: Smoking increases intelligence

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Cell Phone

What's Wi-Fi doing to us? Experiment finds that shrubs die when placed next to wireless routers

Ellie Zolfagharifard and Ben Spencer
Daily Mail
Tue, 17 Dec 2013 15:00 UTC
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An experiment in Denmark claims to show that Wi-Fi signals are powerful enough to kill cress seeds after just 12 days of exposure.
A group of schoolgirls claims to have made a scientific breakthrough that shows wifi signals could damage your health - by experimenting with cress.

In a twist on the traditional science project of growing cress on a paper plate, the 15-year-olds set out to test whether mobile phone signals could be harmful.

They say the result could affect millions of people around the world.

Pupil Lea Nielsen said: 'We all thought we experienced concentration problems in school if we slept with our mobile phones at the bedside, and sometimes we also found it difficult sleeping.'

However, because they were not able to monitor their brain activity at their school in Denmark, they chose to monitor plants near wireless routers, which emit similar radio waves to mobile phones.

Comment: Cause for concern:

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Health

CHIKV virus similar to Dengue Fever reported on St. Martin in the Caribbean

David McFadden
Associated Press
Wed, 18 Dec 2013 13:42 UTC
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© drrajeshkgupta.com
Chikungunya
U.S. health authorities have issued a travel advisory for the French Caribbean dependency of St. Martin because of a mosquito-borne viral disease that is apparently being spread locally at the start of the winter tourist season.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday it is closely following reports of the chikungunya virus among residents of the French side of a tiny island in the northeast Caribbean marketed as the "The Friendly Island." It's the first time the disease typically found in Africa and Asia has been reported in the Western Hemisphere among people who have not traveled recently, suggesting that the virus is now being carried by infected island mosquitoes.

"Microbes know no boundaries, and the appearance of the chikungunya virus in the Western Hemisphere represents another threat to health security," CDC Director Tom Frieden said in a statement.
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Beaker

European Union officials warn of health risks from pesticides common on U.S. fruits and vegetables

Alex Formuzis
Environmental Working Group
Wed, 18 Dec 2013 17:40 UTC
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The decision by Europe's top food safety agency to call for new restrictions on two pesticides common on conventionally-grown U.S. produce because they "may affect the developing human nervous system" in young children underscores the danger of reliance on pesticides, Environmental Working Group said today.

The two chemicals, acetamiprid and imidacloprid, are from the neonicotinoid family of pesticides believed contribute to the widespread death of honeybee colonies.

In its latest round of testing, released earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture detected residues of both these neurotoxic pesticides on a number of conventional fruits and vegetables, including apples, baby food pears, lettuce and sweet bell peppers.
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Penis Pump

FDA sez: ADHD medicine can cause long and painful erections

Jon David Kahn
breitbart.com
Wed, 18 Dec 2013 15:21 UTC
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The Food and Drug Administration released a safety announcement yesterday warning that methylphenidate products, one type of stimulant drug used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), may in rare instances cause priapism: a persistent and usually painful erection lasting more than four hours and occuring without sexual stimulation. Methylphenidate can be found in treatments such as Ritalin, Concerta and Daytrana.

Comment: Talk about another stellular example of Ritalin Gone Wrong! Could our world get anymore bizarre?! Aside from the fact that Big Pharma and the FDA gladly engage in the Wholesale Sedation of America's Youth, even after a Psychiatrist admitted on his death bed that ADHD was a fictitious disease, the fact that the FDA released a safety announcement regarding this particular side effect of Ritalin is kinda surprising. The FDA seems to have missed the other safety concerns of Ritalin listed below:

Ritalin Linked With Sudden Death of Children
ADHD Drugs: Hallucinations Not Uncommon
Pediatric Ritalin Use May Affect Developing Brain, New Study Suggests
ADHD Drugs Proven Absolutely Useless for Children - Plus, They Stunt Growth
Mainstream Media and Medical Journals Pushing ADHD Drugs for Six-year-olds
"I think in 10 years time we will ask ourselves what we were thinking giving these children amphetamines."
Ritalin for children is "quick fix" and should be reviewed, demand educational psychologists
Ritalin May Cause Changes In Brain's Reward Areas; Effects May Overlap With Those Of Cocaine

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Airplane

Travel decreases risk of heart attacks, improves brain

Chris Erskine
latimes.com
Tue, 17 Dec 2013 15:09 UTC
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© Dan Dennison / Getty Images
Why travel? Browsing shops like these in London may have health benefits.
Traveling keeps you young. Or at least healthier.

That's the finding of a new study linking travel to decreased risks of heart attack and depression and even the promotion of brain health.

The Global Commission on Aging and Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, in partnership with the U.S. Travel Assn., has released research that shows travel offers the same sort of physical and cognitive benefits as crossword puzzles or museum visits.
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Pills

What are the risks of 'coming off statins'?

John Briffa
drbriffa.com
Thu, 12 Dec 2013 10:12 UTC
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The statin industry is the utmost medical tragedy of all times.
Once upon a time, the rhetoric around statins was relentlessly positive. More recently, though, I think there's been increasing numbers of doctors and commentators expressing concern about the limited effectiveness of statins, as well as their known but perhaps under-recognised risks. A few weeks back an Australian documentary aired that featured several quite-conventional doctors and academics who expressed considerable scepticism about statins. You can see the documentary on YouTube:


I've noticed reports this week from doctors who have expressed concern that since the airing of this documentary, many patients have taken matters into their own hands and stopped their medication. The general tone of these reports is been that the documentary has encouraged individuals to put their lives in perilous danger. But let's leave the rhetoric aside for the moment. What are the real risks of stopping statin medication? Does stopping a statin really increase the risk that someone will 'have a heart attack and die'?

Comment: For more data on the absurdity of taking statin drugs, see: Statins are associated with triple the risk of coronary artery and aortic calcification. Yes, the statin industry is the utmost medical tragedy of all times.

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Cookies

Can't remember where you left the keys? One week of junk food may be enough to damage your memory

Rachel Barclay
Healthline
Tue, 17 Dec 2013 22:34 UTC
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A new study from the University of New South Wales in Australia published in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity shows that just one week of eating an unhealthy diet is enough to cause lasting memory impairment in rats.

For a week, the rats were given access to a bottle of sugar water in addition to a healthy diet, or were fed a cafeteria-like diet loaded with cakes, cookies, and fat. Although only the rats on the cafeteria diet gained weight, both groups of rats had memory impairments compared with control animals who ate only healthy foods, suggesting that weight gain alone wasn't to blame for their memory lapses.

Poor Diet Damages the Hippocampus

The rats had little trouble with object recognition, a type of memory that involves a brain region called the perirhinal cortex. But they did far worse with place recognition, a type of memory that involves a brain region called the hippocampus, which is responsible for many types of memory formation, including retaining new facts.
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Ambulance

Study says fracking chemicals interfere with endocrine functions, linked to heightened risks of cancer, low fertility rates and decreased sperm quality


RT America
Tue, 17 Dec 2013 20:42 UTC
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© AFP Photo / Getty Images / Spencer Platt


Equipment used for the extraction of natural gas is viewed at a hydraulic fracturing site

Researchers at the University of Missouri and the United States Geological Survey say that chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, could be causing serious hormonal disorders in humans.

A new report published in the latest edition of the journal Endocrinology examines a dozen chemicals used regularly in fracking - an increasingly commonplace practice of releasing natural gas from within the Earth by blasting a cocktail containing millions of gallons of water and other components deep underground.

The researchers say that there are hundreds of different ingredients used in various fracking formulas, but a considerable chunk of them are suspected of being endocrine disrupting chemicals, or EDCs - chemicals that can interfere with the human body's endocrine functions and have been linked to heightened risks of cancer, low fertility rates and decreased sperm quality.

These chemicals "could raise the risk of reproductive, metabolic, neurological and other diseases, especially in children who are exposed to EDCs," co-author Susan Nagel of the University of Missouri's School of Medicine said in a statement released this week by The Endocrine Society.

"The rapid expansion in drilling operations utilizing hydraulic fracturing increases the potential for environmental contamination with the hundreds of hazardous chemicals used," her group's report reads in part.

"With fracking on the rise, populations may face greater health risks from increased endocrine-disrupting chemical exposure," Nagel added.
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X

Mystery illness claims 4 lives in Montgomery County, Texas

Drew Karedes
KHOU 11
Tue, 17 Dec 2013 16:27 UTC
Officials with the Montgomery County Health Department are on a mission to find out more about a mystery flu-like illness.


So far, half of the people who have come down with it have died.

According to the health department, all of the patients have had flu-like and/or pneumonia like symptoms. However, all of them have tested negative for the flu.

There have been eight confirmed patients ranging in age from 41 to 68. Four of those patients have died.
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