An estimated 12.5 million people had some form of cancer in 2009, according to the American Cancer Society. Another 25.8 million have diabetes. These two preventable diseases are responsible for millions of deaths worldwide each year. In the constant battle to stay healthy, many of us know that too much sugar in the blood can lead to diabetes and that by controlling our diets we can both prevent and even reverse the disease. But, could the same be said for cancer?

According to researchers, sugar and cancer are indeed connected.

The Sugar-Cancer Connection

Obesity and high blood sugar are risk factors for diabetes. And diabetics have an estimated double risk of suffering a colon or pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Scientists say that the two facts are connected and that blood sugar could play a role in the development of cancer.

In one study published in the journal Molecular Cell, a team of researchers under Dr. Custodia Garcia-Jimenez, have identified how sugar could directly increase the cancer risk.

A recently-published Harvard University meta-analysis funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has concluded that children who live in areas with highly fluoridated water have "significantly lower" IQ scores than those who live in low fluoride areas.

In a 32-page report that can be downloaded free of charge from Environmental Health Perspectives, the researchers said:

A recent report from the U.S. National Research Council (NRC 2006) concluded that adverse effects of high fluoride concentrations in drinking water may be of concern and that additional research is warranted. Fluoride may cause neurotoxicity in laboratory animals, including effects on learning and memory ...

To summarize the available literature, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of published studies on increased fluoride exposure in drinking water and neurodevelopmental delays. We specifically targeted studies carried out in rural China that have not been widely disseminated, thus complementing the studies that have been included in previous reviews and risk assessment reports ...

Findings from our meta-analyses of 27 studies published over 22 years suggest an inverse association between high fluoride exposure and children's intelligence ... The results suggest that fluoride may be a developmental neurotoxicant that affects brain development at exposures much below those that can cause toxicity in adults ...

Serum-fluoride concentrations associated with high intakes from drinking-water may exceed 1 mg/L, or 50 Smol/L, thus more than 1000-times the levels of some other neurotoxicants that cause neurodevelopmental damage. Supporting the plausibility of our findings, rats exposed to 1 ppm (50 Smol/L) of water-fluoride for one year showed morphological alterations in the brain and increased levels of aluminum in brain tissue compared with controls ...

In conclusion, our results support the possibility of adverse effects of fluoride exposures on children's neurodevelopment. Future research should formally evaluate dose-response relations based on individual-level measures of exposure over time, including more precise prenatal exposure assessment and more extensive standardized measures of neurobehavioral performance, in addition to improving assessment and control of potential confounders.

Abbott Laboratories Shareholders Set To Vote on Non-GMO Policy

Shareholders of Abbott Laboratories will vote on whether the manufacturer of Similac, a leading brand of infant formula, should adopt a policy of sourcing ingredients that have not been genetically engineered.

The vast majority of corn and soy-based ingredients in processed foods in the United States, including infant formula, come from genetically engineered crops developed by Monsanto and other biotechnology companies. Dairy ingredients may come from dairy cows that were treated with genetically engineered bovine growth hormones.

The annual meeting, open to all owners of Abbott stock, takes place at Abbott Laboratories' headquarters in Abbott Park, IL on April 26.

Every once in a while a documentary comes along that really does a great job of reaching out and changing the mind of people who are skeptics. One such documentary is Statin Nation by director, Justin Smith. It's full of information that we've all heard over and over again, but it does it in such a way that nearly anybody will understand.

If you have friends or relatives that are skeptical of your way of life, send them this video, it's a fantastic introduction into what we know as the truth. It will at least open people eyes to the possibility that everything that we thought we knew about food was false and how data was manipulated in the name of profit. Some might call this a conspiracy theory, but it's pretty hard to disagree when you see the facts.

Nearly every expression of normal emotion can now be classified as a syndrome in need of medication

In May 2013, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) is scheduled to release its fifth Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) superseding the DSM-IV published in 1994 and revised in 2000. The new "psychiatry bible" has been criticized by many as a testament to the insanity of the industry itself. Virtually every emotion experienced by a human being - sadness, grief, anxiety, frustration, impatience, excitement - is now being classified as a "mental disorder" demanding chemical treatment with - you guessed it - pharmaceutical drugs.

Ironically, one of its harshest critics is Allen Frances M.D., professor emeritus from the Department of Psychiatry at Duke University who was chair of the DSM-IV Task Force.

"DSM-5 opens up the possibility that millions and millions of people currently considered normal will be diagnosed as having a mental disorder and will receive medication and stigma that they don't need," said Frances. "This is the saddest moment in my 45-year career of studying, practicing, and teaching psychiatry. [The] approval makes it likely that DSM-5 will start a . . . dozen or more new fads which will be detrimental to the misdiagnosed individuals and costly to our society."

The DSM is now larger than ever, and it includes Orwellian disorders such as "obedience defiance disorder" (ODD), defined as refusing to follow authority. Rapists who feel sexual arousal during their raping activities are given the excuse that they have "paraphilic coercive disorder" (PCD) and therefore are not responsible for their actions. You can also get diagnosed with "hoarding disorder" if you happen to stockpile food, water and ammunition, among other things. Being prepared for possible natural disasters now makes you a mental patient in the eyes of modern psychiatry.

The entire industry of psychiatry has become such a laughing stock that even many supporters of the industry are turning their backs in disgust. To many scientists today, psychiatry is no more "scientific" than astrology or palm reading, yet its practitioners call themselves "doctors" of psychiatry in order to sound credible.

It is difficult to absorb the recent data released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, AHRQ, on the skyrocketing numbers of children diagnosed with "bipolar disorder" and not come to the conclusion that this startling information represents the never-ending harm initiated by the idiotic psychiatric theories of Harvard child psychiatrist, Dr. Joseph Biederman.

In order to fully grasp just how outrageous the data are, one first must remember that the now disgraced and marginalized Biederman is credited with being the ring leader for diagnosing the alleged bipolar disorder in very young children.

To add insult to injury, not only was Biederman the chief advocate of the now controversial diagnosis, but he is also credited with prescribing the most powerful antipsychotic drugs as treatment.

It was only due to a Congressional inquiry by Senator Charles E. Grassley that the apparent motive behind Biederman's childhood bipolar diagnosis was uncovered...money.

$1.6 million dollars was Biederman's take from the pharmaceutical companies for his "research." Most revealing, however, were court documents released in March of 2009, which disclose that Biederman reportedly had promised drug maker Johnson & Johnson in advance that his studies on the antipsychotic drug Risperdone (Risperdal) would prove the drug to be effective when used on preschool age children.

Biederman could never be accused of discrimination. The Harvard psychiatrist, who literally placed himself just one rung below God, was so drug money-friendly that his list of paymasters reads like a who's who of pharmaceutical giants, including Abbott Laboratories, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Novartis, Pfizer and Shire to name a few.

In general terms, the body likes to keep its physiological and biochemical parameters within a certain range - not too high and not too low. This applies to an endless stream of factors including blood sugar levels, temperature, blood pH, blood pressure and sodium levels. However, there are some doctors and researchers who believe that the normal rules do not apply to cholesterol, and specifically 'low density lipoprotein'-cholesterol (LDL-cholesterol).

There is a general belief that LDL-cholesterol is 'bad' and is largely responsible for the narrowing of the vessels and heart disease and cerebrovascular disease (the precursors of heart attack and stroke respectively). Using this line of thinking, then the lower we get cholesterol levels, the better.

Regular readers of this blog may know that cholesterol is an essential element in the body. It's in all cell membranes, and a major constituent of key components including several hormones and vitamin D (actually, vitamin D is a hormone, despite it being branded a 'vitamin').

I was recently reading that cholesterol may have a role in the body's ability to resist infection too. Some evidence for a protective role here comes from studies which link higher cholesterol levels with reduced risk of infection. In one study, for instance, over a 15-year period, those with higher initial levels of total cholesterol were found to be less likely to be admitted to a hospital with an infectious disease [1].

A shocking new study finds that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide, "...may be the most biologically disruptive chemical in our environment," capable of contributing to a wide range of fatal human diseases.

A new report published in the journal Entropy links the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide known as glyphosate with a wide range of fatal diseases.^[i]

Glyphosate is the world's most popular herbicide and is designed to kill all but genetically modified "Roundup Ready" plants, such as GM corn, soy, beet, cottonseed and canola. Over 180 million pounds of the chemical are now applied to US soils each year,^[ii] and while agrichemical manufacturers and government regulators have considered it 'relatively safe,' an expanding body of biomedical research indicates that it may cause over 30 distinct adverse health effects in exposed populations at far lower concentrations than used in agricultural applications.

Americans are increasingly skipping needed health care because they can't afford it, according to the Commonwealth Fund 2012 Biennial Health Insurance Survey.

Living Without Health Insurance

In 2012, 80 million people reported not seeing a doctor when sick or not filling a prescription because of cost. In 2003, 63 million people similarly reported skipping needed care due to cost. Accounting for the growth in population during those years, the percentages are 25.5 percent in 2012 versus 21.7 percent in 2003 - a rise of almost four percent.

The survey also found nearly half of all working-age U.S. adults - eighty-four million people - went without health insurance for a time last year or had out-of-pocket costs that were so high relative to their income they were considered underinsured.

On the other hand, the proportion of young adults ages 19-25 who were uninsured during the year fell from 48 percent to 41 percent between 2010 and 2012, reversing a nearly decade-long trend of rising uninsured rates in that age group. The authors of the survey, "Insuring the Future: Current Trends in Health Coverage and the Effects of Implementing the Affordable Care Act," believe this reversal is likely due to a provision in the 2010 Affordable Care Act allowing young adults to stay on their parents' health insurance until age 26.

The percentage of Americans who were uninsured, underinsured, or had gaps in their health coverage grew steadily between 2003 and 2010; however, between 2010 and 2012, the numbers specific to underinsured adults leveled off, according to the survey.

FASTING twice a week could be the key to a longer life by slashing the risk of a host of killer diseases.

Research shows dramatically cutting the amount of calories you eat for two days can keep obesity, heart disease and diabetes at bay.

The revolutionary weight-loss plan restricts calorie intake for 48 hours, like the Daily Express exclusive 48 Hour Diet by top nutritionist Amanda Hamilton, published last week.

She shared her easy to follow plan which promises to not just shift the pounds but improve general health and mental wellbeing.

Researchers have backed her methods of intermittent fasting and say it is as effective as weight loss surgery, without the cost or risk.

The scientific review suggests fasting diets may help those with diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

A review published in the British Journal of Diabetes and Vascular Disease by a team led by James Brown from Aston University in the West Midlands highlights evidence from clinical trials which shows fasting can limit inflammation, improve levels of sugars and fats in your circulation and cut blood pressure. By fasting, the body is more efficient in selecting which fuel to burn, improving metabolism.

The plan is to restrict calories on alternative days or on two specific days each week which are classed as "fasting days". On these, women usually aim to consume less than 500 calories and men less than 600. This type of intermittent fasting has been shown in trials to be at least as effective as counting calories every day to lose weight.