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Tea: 6 brilliant effects on the brain

Jeremy Dean
PsyBlog
Fri, 22 Nov 2013 09:54 UTC
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© Thomas Abbs
It’s about more than just caffeine: two other components of tea may provide important benefits to the brain.
The British are rightly famous for their tea drinking.

They - I should say 'we', as, yes, your humble author is a Brit - manage to down 165 million cups every day, and there are only 62 million of us.

Only the Irish drink more tea than us per person.

We all know about the effects of caffeine on the brain, but research has found two more ingredients of tea with important effects...

1. Green tea may help fight Alzheimer's

Scientists have found that a natural component of green tea may eventually provide a way of curing Alzheimer's disease (Rushworth et al., 2013).

Early-stage research has found that a component of green tea - epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) - can disrupt the built up of plaques in the brain, which is what causes brain cells to die. Eventually this may help lead to a cure for the crippling disease.

2. Old brains love tea

While we'll have to wait for the Alzheimer's research to progress, tea has been shown to have more immediate effects.

A study of 2,031 people aged between 70 and 74 found that those who drank tea - which contain micronutrient polyphenols, like EGCG - had better cognitive performance (Nurk et al., 2009).

Polyphenols are also contained in red wine, cocoa and coffee.
      Read More...
Syringe

Flu vaccination is most certainly not a 'no-brainer'

Dr John Briffa
drbriffa.com
Fri, 22 Nov 2013 09:46 UTC
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The winter heralds 'flu season', and many will be urged to get them themselves adequately protected through vaccination. A recent piece in the British Medical Journal [1] by Dr Peter Doshi (from the John Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, US) makes the point that public health campaigns often present flu vaccination as a no-brainer: we're all at risk of flu and its complications, the flu shot is risk free, and vaccination saves lives. However, as Peter Doshi goes on to explain, all these assertions are open to question.

Dr Doshi questions the trend for increasing numbers of people being defined as 'at risk'. In 1960, this definition only applied to individuals aged 65 or older. By 2010, this definition had extended to everyone over six months of age.

It is often claimed that flu vaccination saves lives. This claim is based on so-called 'epidemiological' evidence which finds that those who receive the flu vaccine are less likely to die than those who don't. Risk reductions of 30 - 50 per cent are sometimes quoted. However, as Peter Doshi points out, flu only accounts for about 5 per cent of wintertime deaths. How, on earth, then can flu vaccination reduce the overall risk of death by those previously quoted figures? Answer: it can't.
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Syringe

Fail: Infant Hep B vaccines perform shamefully; time to end them?

Sayer Ji
Greenmedinfo.com
Sat, 16 Nov 2013 09:33 UTC
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An eye-opening new study published in the Journal of Viral Hepatitis reveals that conventional hepatitis B vaccine- and hepatitis B immunoglobulin-based treatment for infants of mothers who tested positive for hepatitis B infection is nothing near "95% effective in preventing infection and its chronic consequences" that the World Health Organization (WHO) and a myriad of health organizations around the world claim it to be. [i] To the contrary, researchers were able to detect through highly sensitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) DNA testing that 42% of the infants still had 'occult' hepatitis B infection, 24 months after initiating treatment at birth, despite the fact that the vaccine reduced the incidence of overt infection.

In the researchers' own words: "The results of this large prospective longitudinal study show that 42% of babies born of HBsAg-positive mothers develop occult HBV infection, which is not prevented by administration of recombinant HBV vaccine to the newborn." [italics added]

This study not only clearly calls into question the standard of care for preventing hepatitis B infection in infants born to infected mothers, but it also challenges core tenets of vaccinology, including hepatitis B vaccine safety and effectiveness.
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X

Review finds diet soda to be health destroyer

Elizabeth Renter
Natural Society
Thu, 21 Nov 2013 07:10 UTC
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It's hardly surprising to learn that diet soda is dangerous or that it "may do more harm than good. We've been reporting on the dangers of diet soda here for a long while now. Well, recently researchers from Purdue reviewed a dozen studies all published within the last five years on the health risks of consuming diet soda. They published their findings in an opinion piece in Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism (pdf); it was there they revealed their "shock" over their findings.
"Honestly, I thought that diet soda would be marginally better compared to regular soda in terms of health," said the author Susan Swithers. "But in reality it has a counterintuitive effect...We've gotten to a place where it is normal to drink diet soda because people have the false impression that it is healthier than indulging in a regular soda. But research is now very clear that we need to also be mindful of how much fake sugar they are consuming."
The researchers wrote:
"The negative impact of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages on weight and other health outcomes has been increasingly recognized; therefore, many people have turned to high-intensity sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin as a way to reduce the risk of these consequences. However, accumulating evidence suggests that frequent consumers of these sugar substitutes may also be at increased risk of excessive weight gain, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease."
As a result, they set out to discuss the previous findings and attempt to explain how diet soda does serious damage to the body.
      Read More...
Cell Phone

Gadget-obsessed Britons are more stressed than ever because they just can't switch off

Emma Innes
The Daily Mail,UK
Wed, 20 Nov 2013 09:05 UTC
  • People are 30% more stressed now than before smartphones were invented
  • Constant e-mails and texts from friends and bosses prevent them relaxing
  • Around 65% of people say they prefer being digitally switched off
Gadget-obsessed Britons who are constantly connected to the internet are more stressed than ever before, new research has revealed.

Never being able to switch off and having nowhere to hide from friends and employers makes people 30 per cent more stressed today than they were before smartphones and tablets existed.

Ever-present emails, texts and other forms of instant communication creep into downtime and prevent people relaxing.

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Gadget-obsessed Britons who are constantly connected to the Internet are more stressed than ever before
The devices are meant to alleviate pressure by providing communication on the move but Frances Booth, one of the leading digital distraction authors, said they actually add to people's woes.

In her research she monitored the stress levels of 15 adults, aged under 40, who spent one week with their usual digital devices, and one week without them.
      Read More...
Bizarro Earth

1 in 5 nursing home residents still prescribed dangerous antipsychotic drugs despite $2.2 billion legal settlement

Howard Gleckman
Forbes
Wed, 20 Nov 2013 04:56 UTC
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“More than one out of every five nursing home residents is still being given powerful antipsychotic drugs despite a growing consensus that they are inappropriate and often dangerous.”
More than one out of every five nursing home residents is still being given powerful antipsychotic drugs despite a growing consensus that they are inappropriate and often dangerous. These drugs frequently are given to "calm" dementia patients even though many are approved only for the treatment of diseases such as schizophrenia.

Despite a federal initiative, a $2.2 billion legal settlement by a major drugmaker earlier this month, and the support of many nursing home and consumer organizations, it has been extremely difficult to reduce the overuse of these drugs.

In March, 2012, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services kicked off an effort aimed at reducing nursing home use of antipsychotic drugs from nearly 24 percent to about 20 percent by the end of that year. When it missed the target, CMS pushed back the goal to the end of 2013. Usage is declining, but the agency says that more than 21 percent of long-stay nursing home residents are still getting these drugs. A coalition of patient advocates estimates that represents more than 300,000 residents.
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Heart

Stress reduction through meditation may aid in slowing progression of Alzheimer's disease

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
PsyPost
Wed, 20 Nov 2013 15:12 UTC
Meditation
© n/a
It's well known that the brains of meditators change, but it's not entirely clear what those changes mean or how the changes might benefit the meditator. A new pilot study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center suggests that the brain changes associated with meditation and stress reduction may play an important role in slowing the progression of age-related cognitive disorders like Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.

"We know that approximately 50 percent of people diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment - the intermediate stage between the expected declines of normal aging and the more serious cognitive deterioration associated with dementia - may develop dementia within five years. And unfortunately, we know there are currently no FDA approved medications that can stop that progression," says first author Rebecca Erwin Wells, MD, MPH, who conducted her research as a fellow in Integrative Medicine at BIDMC and Harvard Medical School. "We also know that as people age, there's a high correlation between perceived stress and Alzheimer's disease, so we wanted to know if stress reduction through meditation might improve cognitive reserve."

The results of the study appeared online October 10 in Neuroscience Letters.

Comment: There is one proven technique that can assist you with managing pain, reducing stress, calming and focusing your mind, creating better links between body and mind and thus improving quality of life, increasing sense of connection with others in your community. It will help you to have improved overall health, a stronger immune system, better impulse control, reduced inflammation, etc. It will also help you to heal emotional wounds; anything that may hinder or prevent you from leading a healthy and fulfilling life.

Visit the Éiriú Eolas site or participate on the forum to learn more about the scientific background of this program and then try it out for yourselves, free of charge.

      Read More...
Arrow Down

Canadian mother fined for not 'balancing' child's lunch with Ritz Crackers


PreventDisease
Wed, 20 Nov 2013 12:45 UTC
A mother who thought she was sending her children to school with a decent homemade, whole-food lunch was shocked to find a penalty note from school officials informing her that the lunch of roast beef, potatoes, carrots, oranges and milk she provided was "unbalanced" and therefore had to be supplemented with Ritz crackers.

Balanced Meal
© PreventDisease
It's quite possible that the single most ridiculous school lunch policy on the planet comes courtesy of a strange interpretation of the Canadian province of Manitoba's Government Early Learning and Child Care lunch regulations.

Apparently if a child's lunch is deemed "unbalanced", where "balance" refers to ensuring that a lunch conforms to the proportions of food groups as laid out by Canada's awful Food Guide, then that child's lunch is "supplemented", and their parent is fined.
      Read More...
Evil Rays

Smart meters - correcting the gross misinformation


La Maison du 21e siecle / Waking Times
Sat, 02 Mar 2013 01:28 UTC
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© Unknown
Quebec-based magazine La Maison du 21e siecle asked physician David O. Carpenter, former founding dean of the University at Albany (NY)'s School of Public Health, to comment on a letter published in the Montreal daily Le Devoir last May 24.

This letter claimed wireless smart meters pose no risk to public health. Some forty international experts contributed to the following rebuttal.

We, the undersigned are a group of scientists and health professionals who together have coauthored hundreds of peer-reviewed studies on the health effects of electromagnetic fields (EMFs). We wish to correct some of the gross misinformation found in the letter regarding wireless "smart" meters that was published in the Montreal daily Le Devoir on May 24.

Submitted by a group Quebec engineers, physicists and chemists, the letter in question reflects an obvious lack of understanding of the science behind the health impacts of the radiofrequency (RF)/microwave EMFs emitted by these meters.

The statement that « Thousands of studies, both epidemiological and experimental in humans, show no increase in cancer cases as a result of exposure to radio waves of low intensity... » is false (1). In fact, only a few such studies - two dozen case-control studies of mobile phone use, certainly not thousands, have reported no elevations of cancer, and most were funded by the wireless industry.

In addition, these reassuring studies contained significant experimental design flaws, mainly the fact that the populations followed were too small and were followed for a too short period of time.
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Bacon

Singer Debbie Gibson regains health by detoxing from sugar, alcohol and processed food

Joanne Eglash
Examiner
Mon, 18 Nov 2013 22:09 UTC
Image
© Getty Images
At 43, singer Debbie Gibson looks about a decade younger. How does she maintain that rock star body? She revealed her secrets to Us Weekly on November 16.

It took numerous health problems to make Debbie decide that her unwise diet choices had to change.

"I was constantly going to the doctor," says Debbie, who once suffered from acid reflux and relied on anti-anxiety meds Prozac and Xanax. "I finally realized my food choices were affecting my health."

Debbie chose a phased diet that began with a month-long detox from sugar, alcohol and processed food. After that, she gradually added in new foods. The goal: Determining which foods caused her problems. (Learn more about elimination diets and Dr. Mehmet Oz's explanation of how they help you find hidden food allergies by clicking here.)

"You become a scientist about your own body, to find out what your tolerances are, so you don't wake up one day and go, 'Why do I feel underwater today? What did I eat?'," explains Debbie.
      Read More...
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