Health & WellnessS


Magic Wand

New study shows tumeric boosts memory

Jeremy Dean
Psych Central
Tue, 30 Dec 2014 19:46 UTC
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© MSPhotographic/Fotolia
One gram of turmeric at breakfast has been shown by a new study to improve memory in people with memory problems.

In the study itself participants were given 1 gram of turmeric mixed into their ordinary breakfasts (Lee et al., 2014).

Their working memory was tested before and some time after their breakfast, and the results were compared with a placebo-control condition.

Professor Wahlqvist, who led the Taiwanese study, explained the results:
"We found that this modest addition to breakfast improved working memory over six hours in older people with pre-diabetes."
Diabetes and memory problems are linked because having diabetes makes it more likely that a person will also develop dementia if the diabetes is not well controlled.

Turmeric is a yellow spice already widely used in cooking, especially in Asia.Its distinctive yellow colour is given to it by a substance called curcumin, which makes up between 3-6% of turmeric.It is the curcumin which is thought to have an active effect in reducing the memory problems associated with dementia.

Comment: See also:

Tumeric may encourage repair, growth of nerve cells in the brain - study

Health Benefits of Turmeric

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Health

Binge drinking disrupts immune system in young adults


ScienceDaily
Tue, 30 Dec 2014 19:00 UTC
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Binge drinking in young, healthy adults significantly disrupts the immune system.
Binge drinking in young, healthy adults significantly disrupts the immune system, according to a study led by a researcher now at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

Depending on their weight, study participants drank four or five shots of vodka. Twenty minutes after reaching peak intoxication, their immune systems revved up. But when measured again, at two hours and five hours after peak intoxication, their immune systems had become less active than when sober.

The study by Majid Afshar, MD, MSCR, and colleagues is published online ahead of print in Alcohol, an international, peer-reviewed journal.

Binge drinking increases the risk of falls, burns, gunshot wounds, car accidents and other traumatic injuries. One-third of trauma patients have alcohol in their systems.

In addition to increasing the risk of traumatic injuries, binge drinking impairs the body's ability to recover from such injuries. Previous studies have found, for example, that binge drinking delays wound healing, increases blood loss and makes patients more prone to pneumonia and infections from catheters. Binge drinkers also are more likely to die from traumatic injuries. The study led by Dr. Afshar illustrates another potentially harmful effect of binge drinking

Comment: Binge drinking is a very serious problem, you literally destroy and poison your own body. Being aware and having enough knowledge on how this affects your body is therefore very important.

Binge drinking 'damages memory'

Binge drinkers 'risking dementia'

Study: Nearly 14 million American women engage in binge drinking three times a month

Regular binge drinking can cause long-term brain damage

Binge drinking traps the brain in permanent adolescence

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Ambulance

Scottish Ebola patient transferred to London hospital

Severin Carrell, Libby Brooks and Lisa O'Carroll
The Guardian
Tue, 30 Dec 2014 17:28 UTC
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© Nick Dastoor Gartnavel hospital in Glasgow, where the patient was isolated on Monday morning.
A Scottish nurse was on the way to specialist facilities in London on Tuesday morning after being diagnosed with the Ebola virus.

The woman had been treated in an isolation unit in Glasgow after being diagnosed hours after arriving home from west Africa via a British Airways flight from Heathrow.

She was later transferred from Glasgow airport on a military-style plane in a quarantine tent surrounded by a group of health workers in full protection suits, bound for the Royal Free Hospital in north London.

A statement on the hospital's website said: "The Royal Free London can confirm that it is expecting to receive a patient who has tested positive for Ebola.

"The patient will be treated in the high level isolation unit (HLIU)."

The healthcare worker was admitted to Gartnavel hospital after feeling unwell with a fever at 7.50am on Monday morning, having flown into the city at 11.30pm on Sunday. She had spent the last month working as a volunteer with Save the Children in Sierra Leone to help combat the epidemic.

It is the first case of Ebola to be diagnosed on UK soil.

Comment: For a more accurate overview on how Ebola is transmitted, check out: Ebola: Fear, lies and the evidence (VIDEO)

Ebola outbreak rages on despite little media coverage

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Syringe

Chickenpox vaccine when mandated increases disease outbreak, South Korean study finds

Sayer Ji
GreenMedInfo
Sun, 28 Dec 2014 12:45 UTC
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© Unknown
Why, if the vaccines work, is South Korea experiencing year after year increases in chickenpox (varicella) outbreaks as their mandated vaccine uptake (97%) reaches close to universal compliance?

In 2005, the varicella (chickenpox) vaccine was mandated in South Korean for infants at 12 to 15 months of age. Despite near universal vaccine uptake (97% by 2011)[1], rather than see a reduced burden of chickenpox in South Korea as would be expected, no substantial decreases have been observed there nationwide. Quite to the contrary, the number of varicella patients reported to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) increased from 22.6 cases per 100,000 in 2006 to 71.6 cases per 100,000 in 2011.

The obvious question emerges: If the chickenpox vaccine is effective, why is a population whose vaccination rates have been steadily increasing year after year seeing increasing rates of breakthrough infection?

Comment: For more information on the ineffectiveness of vaccines, see:

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Health

Scientist at MIT warns that GMOs will cause half of all children to be autistic by 2025


Alliance For Natural Health USA
Tue, 23 Dec 2014 12:59 UTC
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Evidence points to glyphosate toxicity from the overuse of Monsanto's Roundup herbicide on our food.

For over three decades, Stephanie Seneff, PhD, has researched biology and technology, over the years publishing over 170 scholarly peer-reviewed articles. In recent years she has concentrated on the relationship between nutrition and health, tackling such topics as Alzheimer's, autism, and cardiovascular diseases, as well as the impact of nutritional deficiencies and environmental toxins on human health.

At a conference last Thursday, in a special panel discussion about GMOs, she took the audience by surprise when she declared, "At today's rate, by 2025, one in two children will be autistic." She noted that the side effects of autism closely mimic those of glyphosate toxicity, and presented data showing a remarkably consistent correlation between the use of Roundup on crops (and the creation of Roundup-ready GMO crop seeds) with rising rates of autism. Children with autism have biomarkers indicative of excessive glyphosate, including zinc and iron deficiency, low serum sulfate, seizures, and mitochondrial disorder.

A fellow panelist reported that after Dr. Seneff's presentation, "All of the 70 or so people in attendance were squirming, likely because they now had serious misgivings about serving their kids, or themselves, anything with corn or soy, which are nearly all genetically modified and thus tainted with Roundup and its glyphosate."

Dr. Seneff noted the ubiquity of glyphosate's use. Because it is used on corn and soy, all soft drinks and candies sweetened with corn syrup and all chips and cereals that contain soy fillers have small amounts of glyphosate in them, as do our beef and poultry since cattle and chicken are fed GMO corn or soy. Wheat is often sprayed with Roundup just prior to being harvested, which means that all non-organic bread and wheat products would also be sources of glyphosate toxicity. The amount of glyphosate in each product may not be large, but the cumulative effect (especially with as much processed food as Americans eat) could be devastating. A recent study shows that pregnant women living near farms where pesticides are applied have a 60% increased risk of children having an autism spectrum disorder.
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Heart

Are some diets 'mass murder'?

Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
drmalcolmkendrick.org
Mon, 22 Dec 2014 03:30 UTC
Bacon n Eggs
© www.primalbody-primalmind.com
Yes, hallelujah, the headline on a paper in the BMJ by Richard Smith, the previous editor of the journal. He has finally, if belatedly, come to realise that the dietary advice that has dominated western medicine for the last fifty years, or so, is complete nonsense.

This damascene conversion is mainly due to the fact that he read Nina Teicholz's book The Big Fat Surprise. As he states:
'...the forensic demolition of the hypothesis that saturated fat is the cause of cardiovascular disease is impressive. Indeed, the book is deeply disturbing in showing how overenthusiastic scientists, massive conflicts of interest, and politically driven policy makers can make deeply damaging mistakes.

Over 40 years I've come to recognise which I might have known from the beginning - that science is a human activity with the error, self-deception, grandiosity, bias, self-interest, cruelty, fraud, and theft that is inherent in all human activities (together with some saintliness), but this book shook me.'
The amazing thing, to me, is not the Richard Smith has finally realised the diet-heart hypothesis is a complete crock. The amazing thing is that it still holds sway, despite the fact that it was never based on anything other than the propaganda of a power-mad egotist (Ancel Keys). Any evidence that saturated fat, or any other fat consumption, causes heart disease has always been weak at best, more usually non-existent, or just flatly contradictory.

Many years ago Dr George Mann (who was running the Framingham Study at the time) stated that:
'The diet-heart idea - the notion that saturated fats and cholesterol cause heart disease - is the greatest scientific deception of our times...The public is being deceived by the greatest health scam of the century,'
And what effect did this comment have? Well, none. In 2008 the Food and Agricultural Organisation concluded the "there is no probable or convincing evidence" that a high level of fat in the diet causes heart disease.
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Stop

RoundUp: Boycott, ban & criminalize

Jon Rappoport
Activist Post
Mon, 29 Dec 2014 02:06 UTC
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© grampsagainstcramps.com
Glyphosate is the primary active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup.

There is no official figure for the amount of glyphosate used every year in the world. One estimate? 650,000 tonnes, which works out to a staggering 1.3 billion pounds.

Manufactured by Monsanto and a number of other companies, glyphosate use spiked after the introduction of Monsanto's GMO Roundup Ready food crops in the 1990s.

Here is a sprinkle of information about glyphosate. To say it's sobering is a vast understatement. Keep in mind that the medical cartel, which would call a mother's touch a disease if it could get away with it, has no name for any disease or disorder caused by glyphosate. In other words, the cartel doesn't acknowledge its existence.
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Attention

North Sierra Leone in five-day Ebola lockdown


Daily Mail
Fri, 26 Dec 2014 21:05 UTC
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© Evan Schneider UN/AFP/FileA medic listens as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon gives a speech during his visit an Ebola treatment unit in Freetown on December 19, 2014.
Deputy communication minister Theo Nicol said "the lockdown for five days... is meant for us to get an accurate picture of the situation," adding: "Other districts will carry on with their own individual lockdown after this if they deemed it necessary."

Ebola has killed more than 7,500 people, almost all of them in west Africa.

Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea are the three nations worst-hit by the epidemic, and Sierra Leone recently overtook Liberia as the country with the highest number of Ebola infections.

Kamara said shops and markets would be closed throughout the period, and "no unauthorised vehicles or motorcycle taxis" would be allowed to circulate "except those officially assigned to Ebola-related assignments."

Among "key objectives" is to allow health workers to identify patients, Kamara said.

Sierra Leone declared a state of emergency on July 31 after the Ebola outbreak and imposed restrictions on the movement of people.

As of Wednesday six of the country's 14 departments have these restrictions in place.

On December 12, the government announced a restriction on large Christmas and New Year gatherings.

Several residents in the country's north told AFP by telephone that locals had largely been conforming to the new strictures.

Comment: Despite the low interest in the mainstream media, the Ebola outbreak continues without a clear end in sight.

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Monkey Wrench

Horrific 'cures' for mental illness through the ages

Larry Schwartz
Alternet
Tue, 16 Dec 2014 22:04 UTC
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© Shutterstock
Ice pick through the eye socket, anyone?

If it wasn't already clear to the public at large, the recent suicide of comedian Robin Williams drove home the point: mental illness can be devastating. It is hardly limited to people we sometimes see on the street railing against apparent voices in their heads, or obsessive-compulsive television characters like "Monk." It is widespread and debilitating and it can kill. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 1 in 17 Americans, including children, are dealing with serious mental illnesses like depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. That's 6% of the population, almost 2 million people.

In any given year 1 in 4 American adults experience some kind of mental health issue. The U.S. Surgeon General reported that 1 in 10 children suffer some form of mental illness, disrupting home and school lives around them. Mental illness is responsible for 4 out of every 10 cases of disability in the country. It often affects adolescents and young adults, and the cost to society is enormous, over $100 billion a year in the U.S. alone, from disability, unemployment, drug abuse, suicide, homelessness, and prison incarceration.
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Clipboard

USDA Report: Pesticide residues on over half of food tested


Beyond Pesticides
Tue, 23 Dec 2014 21:16 UTC
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© beyondpesticides.org
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has posted a report on its data from the 2013 Pesticide Data Program (PDP) Annual Summary, concluding that although over half of the food tested by the agency for pesticide residues last year showed detectable levels of pesticides, these levels are below the tolerances established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and do not pose a safety concern. The residues reflect a pesticide use and exposure pattern that raises hazard scenarios that are not fully evaluated by EPA for chemical mixtures, synergistic effects, impacts on people and environments with high risk factors, and certain critical health endpoints, such as endocrine disruption.

Excluding water, of the 9,990 samples analyzed, 23.5 percent had one pesticide detected and 36 percent had more than one pesticide. Residues exceeding tolerances were detected in 0.23 percent (23 samples out of 9,990) of the samples tested. Of these 23 samples, 17 were imported and 6 were domestic. Residues with no established tolerances were found in 3.0 percent of samples, of which 50.2 percent were domestic and 49.2 percent imported.

Comment: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) statement that said 'pesticide levels do not pose a safety concern' is ridiculous! Daily reports are coming to light about the serious negative health effects of pesticide residues on food. Recently a documentary was released that depicts the growing concern about 'unacceptable levels' of (toxic) chemicals in the human body:

Documentary: 'Unacceptable Levels' - The chemicals in our bodies; how they got there and what to do about it
Study after study reveals the negative health impact of the chemical concoction that we encounter daily in our foods, in our environment, and in consumer products.

To create this debut documentary, one man and his camera traveled extensively to find and interview top minds in the fields of science, advocacy, and law. Weaving their testimonies into a compelling narrative, Brown presents us with the story of how the chemical revolution brought us to where we are, and of where, if we're not vigilant, it may take us.


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