Health & WellnessS


Heart

Rheumatoid arthritis linked to irregular heartbeat and stroke


Hindustan Times
Sat, 10 Mar 2012 15:24 UTC
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© Unknown
Arthritis sufferers have 40 percent higher risk of developing erratic heartbeat which can trigger heart attacks and death, warn researchers. The researchers believe the inflammation of joints in arthritis may cause irregular heartbeat, known as atrial fibrillation, besides formation of blood clots and stroke.

Rheumatoid arthritis tends to strike between the ages of 40 and 70 years and is more common amongst women than men. It is the result of the immune system attacking cells lining the joints, making them swollen, stiff and very painful, reported online journal BMJ.com.

Copenhagen University scientists studied more than four million people of whom 18,250 had rheumatoid arthritis over a period of five years, and found those afflicted were 40 percent at higher risk of atrial fibrillation and 30 percent higher risk of strokes than the general public.

Comment: SOTT recommends a high-fat, animal-based Paleo diet to heal arthritis, inflammation and other autoimmune diseases. Also, see the following articles for more information:

You've Been Living A Lie: The Story Of Saturated Fat And Cholesterol

The Big Lie: "Saturated Fats Are Bad For You"

Wrongly Convicted? The Case for Saturated Fat

Higher saturated fat intakes found to be associated with a reduced risk of dying from cardiovascular disease

Saturated Fat is Good for You

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Attention

Pain Killers Carry Risks For Veterans With Post-Traumatic Stress

James Dao
New York Times
Wed, 07 Mar 2012 14:36 UTC
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© trendsupdates.com
Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder are more likely to be prescribed opioid pain killers than other veterans with pain problems and more likely to use the opioids in risky ways, according to a study published Wednesday by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, also found that veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who were prescribed opioids for pain - and particularly those with post-traumatic stress disorder - had a higher prevalence of "adverse clinical outcomes," like overdoses, self-inflicted injuries and injuries caused by accidents or fighting.

The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense have for years been trying to reduce the use of opioid pain therapy among active duty troops and veterans amid reports of over-medication, addiction, rampant drug abuse and accidental deaths caused by overdoses or toxic mixing of medications.
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Sun

Solar flare: The sun touches our psyche

Jacqueline Marshall
Washington Times Online
Sat, 10 Mar 2012 12:48 UTC
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© Nick Russill
Washington: Maybe it is time to wear tin foil on our heads. With high electromagnetic activity from the sun coming this way, our human electromagnetic fields may start glowing.

Even if we do not begin incandescing, scientists have noticed correlations between solar flares and moods.

Solar Effects

From 1948 to 1997, the Institute of North Industrial Ecology Problems in Russia found that geomagnetic activity showed three seasonal peaks each of those years (March to May, in July, and in October). Every peak matched an increased incidence of anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and suicide in the city Kirovsk.

One explanation for the correlation is that solar storms desynchronize our circadian rhythm (biological clock). The pineal gland in our brain is affected by the electromagnetic activity.

This causes the gland to produce excess melatonin, and melatonin is the brain's built in "downer" that helps us sleep.

"The circadian regulatory system depends on repeated environmental cues to [synchronize] internal clocks," says psychiatrist Kelly Posner, Columbia University. "Magnetic fields may be one of these environmental cues."
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Health

Avoid Any Products Containing Aborted Fetal Cells

Dave Mihalovic
Prevent Disease
Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:41 UTC
Fetus
© Prevent Disease.com

Many opposing viewpoints have been raised on the morality of using consumer products which are cultivated on aborted fetal cell lines. Regardless of your position on abortion, the fact that there is an entire industry around the manufacture of foods, beverages and medical products which routinely utilize aborted fetal tissue should be a cause for great concern.

There has always been a great deal of excitement within the medical community regarding the use of fetal tissue for transplantation and for the manufacture of vaccines.

Fetal tissue technology has evolved tremendously in the two decades especially in the area of treating various neural and endocrinal diseases.

However, serious ethical questions are being raised as to the source and procurement of the necessary tissue. While some experts in the medical community forecast unlimited potential for fetal tissue technology, others have expressed deep concern as to the limits to the ethical and moral dynamics of the issue. Where is the line drawn?
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Health

Drug-Induced Birth Linked To C-Sections & Fetal Harm

Sayer Ji
GreenMedInfo
Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:00 UTC
Pregnant Woman
© GreenMedInfo

A new study in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Gynaecology confirms what many who have undergone a hospital birth already know: the use of the labor-inducing drug pitocin (synthetic oxytocin) leads to great pain and suffering, including serious adverse, unintended health effects to both mother and infant.

The study looked at trends in oxytocin use for women in New South Wales noting an overall increase of oxytocin use from 10,291 (36.5%) of births in 1998 to 14,440 (45.4%) in 2008, and which was linked to the following outcomes:
  • Increased use of regional analgesia (65 vs. 22% control group*)
  • Increased use of instruments for delivery (21 to 18% control group*)
  • Increased use of Cesarean section (29 to 14% control group*)
    • *control group did not receive oxytocin
The researchers concluded that synthetic oxytocin use increased "severe" maternal and neonatal morbidity.
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Ambulance

The Dangerous Myths of Fukushima: Exposing the "No Harm" Mantra

Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman
Counterpunch
Fri, 09 Mar 2012 14:06 UTC
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Ionizing Radiation Impact
The myth that Fukushima radiation levels were too low to harm humans persists, a year after the meltdown. A March 2, 2012 New York Times article quoted Vanderbilt University professor John Boice: "there's no opportunity for conducting epidemiological studies that have any chance for success - the doses are just too low." Wolfgang Weiss of the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation also recently said doses observed in screening of Japanese people "are very low."

Views like these are political, not scientific, virtually identical to what the nuclear industry cheerleaders claim. Nuclear Energy Institute spokesperson Tony Pietrangelo issued a statement in June that "no health effects are expected among the Japanese people as a result of the events at Fukushima."

In their haste to choke off all consideration of harm from Fukushima radiation, nuclear plant owners and their willing dupes in the scientific community built a castle against invaders - those open-minded researchers who would first conduct objective research BEFORE rushing to judgment. The pro-nuclear chants of "no harm" and "no studies needed" are intended to be permanent, as part of damage control created by a dangerous technology that has produced yet another catastrophe.

But just one year after Fukushima, the "no harm" mantra is now being crowded by evidence - evidence to the contrary.
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Health

Circumcision Risks Too Great Says Surgeon

Jarrod Booker
NZ Herald
Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:52 UTC
Surgeon
© ThinkstockCircumcision may not be as beneficial as it seems.

An Auckland paediatric surgeon has hit out against calls for routine circumcision of newborn boys, saying the risks of the painful "non-consensual mutilation" far outweigh any benefits.

Dr Neil Price, of Starship Children's Health, questioned a study led by Sydney University professor of medicine Brian Morris which claimed evidence in favour of infant circumcision was overwhelming.

Dr Price said any health benefit was very small when put into context and compared to the risk of complications such as bleeding and damage to the penis.

He also questioned the ethics of performing such a "painful procedure on a non-consenting infant".

"If anyone believes that this is not painful they should just listen to the screams that accompany blood testing and immunisation in babies and they should get an idea that 'yes, infants do feel pain'."

About 10 per cent of New Zealand's male babies are circumcised - often for cultural or religious reasons.

The Government pays for the procedure only for medical reasons, such as frequent infections.
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Health

Cancer and Coke: Carcinogen Removed to Avoid Warning Label

Anthony Gucciardi
Natural Society
Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:32 UTC
Cola Cans
© Natural Society

In a move to avoid being slapped with a cancer warning label, Coca-Cola is making an emergency recipe alteration that involves removing a known carcinogen from the mix. Showing that the company is more interested in preserving sales than actually ridding its products of known cancer-causing substances, the company chose to remove the toxic ingredient to avoid the warning label - not to actively protect the health of the consumer. The compound (used for the drinks' caramel coloring), known as 4-methylimidazole (4-MI or 4-MEI), has been ousted by the Center for Sciences in the Public Interest as a powerful carcinogen.

In fact, the Coca-Cola company even denied the cancer link, stating that the findings by CSPI and others were simply untrue. Calling the warning label 'scientifically unfounded', Coca-Cola says that there is no public health risk that justifies any change.
"While we believe that there is no public health risk that justifies any such change, we did ask our caramel suppliers to take this step so that our products would not be subject to the requirement of a scientifically unfounded warning," Coca-Cola representative Diana Garza-Ciarlante told the Associated Press news agency.
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Beaker

Epigenetics: Toxic Chemicals Affect Three Generations


Chemical Watch
Thu, 08 Mar 2012 06:31 UTC
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Scientists have concluded that a variety of environmental toxicants can have negative effects on the next three generations of offspring of exposed animals, by causing epigenetic changes to their genome.

Researchers from Washington State University investigated the effects of several chemicals on the offspring of exposed female rats, including the dioxin TCDD and a mixture of bisphenol A and phthalates in addition to pesticides and jet-fuel. The results showed that all the chemicals caused epigenetic changes in the genome of up to three generations of offspring. Also observed in non-exposed offspring were effects such as females reaching puberty earlier, increased rates in the decay and death of sperm cells and lower numbers of ovarian follicles that later become eggs.

The scientists therefore concluded that the ability to promote transgenerational disease is not unique to a small number of chemicals, but instead might be a characteristic of many environmental compounds.

The research is published in the journal PLoS ONE.
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Beaker

Aluminium - The Silent Killer

Liz Bestic
The Telegraph
Mon, 05 Mar 2012 01:30 UTC
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© GuzelianFears: Aluminium expert Prof Chris Exley says he is concerned about the metal's ubiquity - in water, food packaging, vaccines, drugs and food and drink
Fresh concerns following the 1988 Camelford water pollution disaster will be aired this week.

Twenty-four years ago, one of the UK's most notorious pollution disasters occurred. At a water treatment works on the edge of Bodmin Moor, 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate leaked into the water supply serving the nearby town of Camelford.

Years of bitter disputes followed, with people who had drunk the water complaining of health problems. There were government inquiries, accusations of a cover-up - and, in 2004, the death of Carole Cross. This 58-year-old Camelford resident died from a rare and aggressive form of Alzheimer's, and her brain was found to contain unusually high levels of aluminium.

The inquest into the cause of Mrs Cross's death, delayed twice in the past few years, is set to report this week. Among those who will be watching the outcome with interest is Professor Chris Exley, who was called in nearly eight years ago to examine Mrs Cross's brain (it contained 23 micrograms of aluminium per gram of brain, compared to normal levels of 0‑2mcg).

But Prof Exley, a world-renowned expert on aluminium, hopes the inquest will do more than finally establish the truth about why Mrs Cross died (he is convinced that aluminium from the drinking water played a role in her mental deterioration). He also hopes it will highlight how little we know about the implications for our health of the most prolific metal on the planet.

Aluminium, he argues, is now added to or used in almost everything we eat, drink, inject or absorb. At high levels, it is an established neurotoxin - yet no one knows whether the levels we are ingesting are safe.
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