Health & WellnessS


Bacon n Eggs

The fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?

Shelly Fan
Scientific American
Tue, 01 Oct 2013 02:33 UTC
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© Renée S. Suen on FlickrIt’s not bacon; it’s therapy!
Disclaimer: First things first. Please note that I am in no way endorsing nutritional ketosis as a supplement to, or a replacement for medication. As you'll see below, data exploring the potential neuroprotective effects of ketosis are still scarce, and we don't yet know the side effects of a long-term ketogenic diet. This post talks about the SCIENCE behind ketosis, and is not meant in any way as medical advice.

The ketogenic diet is a nutritionist's nightmare. High in saturated fat and VERY low in carbohydrates, "keto" is adopted by a growing population to paradoxically promote weight loss and mental well-being. Drinking coffee with butter? Eating a block of cream cheese? Little to no fruit? To the uninitiated, keto defies all common sense, inviting skeptics to wave it off as an unnatural "bacon-and-steak" fad diet.

Yet versions of the ketogenic diet have been used to successfully treat drug-resistant epilepsy in children since the 1920s - potentially even back in the biblical ages. Emerging evidence from animal models and clinical trials suggest keto may be therapeutically used in many other neurological disorders, including head ache, neurodegenerative diseases, sleep disorders, bipolar disorder, autism and brain cancer. With no apparent side effects.

Sound too good to be true? I feel ya! Where are these neuroprotective effects coming from? What's going on in the brain on a ketogenic diet?

Comment: Remember folks, you heard it first on SOTT.net!

While it's good to see the keto diet receive some of the attention it deserves in a big scientific publication, there is in fact more than enough evidence for any reasonable person to conclude that this is the way towards good health - pharmaceuticals be damned!

For more information on the healing effects of a ketogenic diet, see:

The Ketogenic Diet - An Overview
Ketogenic Diet Reduces Symptoms of Alzheimer's
Ketogenic Diet (high-fat, low-carb) Has Neuroprotective and Disease-modifying Effects
Beyond weight loss: a review of the therapeutic uses of very-low-carbohydrate (ketogenic) diets
Is the Ketogenic Diet the cure for multiple diseases?
Solve Your Health Issues with a Ketogenic Diet

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Dollar

Disgusting: Even huge $11 billion fines don't stop Big Pharma

Christina Sarich
NaturalSociety
Tue, 01 Oct 2013 06:33 UTC
Big Pharma
© Natural Society

What would you say if 10 of the top 26 pharmaceutical companies had been telling you bold faced lies about the drugs they sell you? Would you be upset? Irritated? Maybe on a good day, bemused? According to 2 papers published by one of the most prestigious medical journals - The New England Journal of Medicine - even seemingly-astronomical fines aren't keeping Big Pharma honest.

In just the past several years, this industry has been fined more than $11 billion dollars for putting people's health in serious detriment - but to no avail. A leopard really doesn't change its spots.

When GlaxoSmithKline was fined $2 billion, do you think it made them change their ways? They kept right on bribing doctors and their families with VIP tickets to see Madonna in concert or fully-paid vacations to tropical getaways like Hawaii in order to get them to prescribe their drugs. Prosecutors said 'safety took a backseat to profit.'

However, is a measly $2 billion really much more than a slap on the wrist to a company who enjoys billions in sales annually, with profits that have more than tripled in just the past three years?
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Rocket

Number of 0-5 year olds on psychotropic drugs skyrockets 42% since 2009


CCHR International
Mon, 30 Sep 2013 03:39 UTC
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While the national media has been running that the use of psychotropic drugs in children has decreased based on a "sample study" of only 43,000 kids, the fact is, according to data obtained from IMS Health, the number of children 0-5 on psychiatric drugs has increased 42% since 2009. In 2012, there were 1,085,410 children aged 0-5 on psychiatric drugs, which is the highest the number has been in the last decade.

With this increase, parents are quite simply not being given accurate information about psychiatric labels (mental disorders) or the drugs being prescribed to "treat" their children. For more information, visit CCHR's Parents Know Your Rights page, which includes all documented risks of the psychiatric drugs prescribed to children, as well as non-harmful medical alternatives.

Also watch: The drugging of our children - 0 to 5 year olds. Please watch it and share it.

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Pills

Grapeseed extract is better than Chemotherapy

Christina Sarich
Soren Dreier
Mon, 30 Sep 2013 00:00 UTC
grape seed
© Unknown
Thanks to research coming out of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, and published in the medical journal Cancer Letters, those suffering from colon and rectal cancers might soon be able to ditch the cancer-causing 'medicine' called chemotherapy, and instead utilize a simple herbal extract with better success.

Grapeseed extract (GSE) has recently been proven to prohibit cancerous cell growth and to instigate cancer cell death.

The bioactive compounds in grapeseed extract are what make chemotherapy seem like an archaic form of treatment, especially considering that chemo and radiation treatments can backfire and cause cancer to come back from remission 10 times stronger than when it was first detected.

These treatments kill healthy cells, but GSE compounds including curcumin and resveratrol leave healthy cells in tact while demolishing cancerous ones.

GSE is so effective that it treats stage IV cancers with astonishing success. One of the doctors involved with the study stated, "It required less than half the concentration of GSE to suppress cell growth and kill 50 percent of stage IV cells than it did to achieve similar results in the stage II cells."
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Document

Report urges OB/GYNs to ask pregnant women about exposure to risky environmental chemicals


Washington Post
Mon, 23 Sep 2013 16:58 UTC
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© cbsnews.com
From mercury to pesticides, Americans are exposed daily to environmental chemicals that could harm reproductive health, the nation's largest groups of obstetricians and fertility specialists said Monday.

The report urges doctors to push for stricter environmental policies to better identify and reduce exposure to chemicals that prove truly risky. But it's likely to scare pregnant women in the meantime.

That's because during the first prenatal visit, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists wants doctors to ask mothers-to-be about their exposure to different chemicals. They're also supposed to teach women how to avoid some considered most worrisome during pregnancy.
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Video

Harvard researchers address obesity and toxic food

Dr. Mercola
mercola.com
Thu, 26 Sep 2013 16:30 UTC

A staggering two-thirds of Americans are now overweight, and according to the American Heart Association,1 five percent of American children can now be considered "severely obese," which puts their health at grave risk.

One in four Americans are either diabetic or pre-diabetic, and an estimated 110,000 Americans die as a result of obesity-related ailments each year. This includes cancer, about one-third of which are directly related to obesity.

Carb-rich processed foods, along with rarely ever fasting, are primary drivers of these statistics, and while many blame Americans' overindulgence of processed junk foods on lack of self control, scientists are now starting to reveal the truly addictive nature of such foods.
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Sherlock

Scientists critical of European Union chemical policy have industry ties

Stéphane Horel & Brian Bienkowski
Environmental Health News
Mon, 23 Sep 2013 14:11 UTC
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© canyon289/flickrA variety of chemicals, including bisphenol A and pesticides, would be regulated under the proposed EU strategy.

Seventeen scientists who have criticized plans in Europe to regulate endocrine-disrupting chemicals have past or current ties to regulated industries.

An investigation by Environmental Health News reveals that of 18 toxicology journal editors who signed a controversial editorial, 17 have collaborated with the chemical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, tobacco, pesticide or biotechnology industries. Some have received research funds from industry associations, while some have served as industry consultants or advisors. [Read about the scientists here.]

The stakes are high in the controversy because it involves the European Union's strategy to regulate hormone-altering chemicals - the first attempt in the world to do so. The new rules would have sweeping, global ramifications because all companies that sell a variety of products in Europe would have to comply.
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Pills

Medical Madness: Cholesterol drugs linked to eye damage, JAMA study confirms anew

Sayer Ji
Greenmedinfo.com
Fri, 27 Sep 2013 09:30 UTC
Cholesterol Drugs Linked To Eye Damage, JAMA Study Confirms Anew
© Unknown
A new study published in JAMA Ophthalmology titled, "Association of Statin Use With Cataracts: A Propensity Score-Matched Analysis," reveals that the top-grossing, cholesterol-lowering drug class known as statins is significantly increasing the risk of cataracts within exposed populations.[1]

Statin-induced eye damage will be a surprising finding to some, especially to statin drug advocates who have argued that the purported 'antioxidant' effects of statins 'may slow the natural aging process of the lens.' This latter, strictly theoretical benefit is increasingly being disproved by the biomedical literature. In fact, last year, we reported in an article titled, "Blind To The Truth: The Eye-Damaging Effects of Statins," on findings published in Optometry and Vision Science, revealing that statin drugs users have a 48% higher risk of pathological eye lens changes commonly associated with cataract formation.
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Info

Multiple sclerosis researchers celebrate breakthrough gene discovery


The Guardian, UK
Sun, 29 Sep 2013 22:51 UTC
Multiple Sclerosis
© David Levene for the GuardianWe have doubled the number of genes that we now know are associated with MS,' says Associate Professor David Booth.
A milestone has been reached on the path to finding a cure for multiple sclerosis, researchers believe.

A group of international scientists, including an Australian contingent, has discovered 48 previously unknown genes that influence the risk of developing the disease.

MS, which attacks the central nervous system and can have an impact on mobility, balance and sensation, affects 23,000 Australians.

The discovery is a big step towards finding a cure and further treatment for the debilitating condition, according to University of Sydney associate professor David Booth, who led the Australian and New Zealand component of the study.

"The exciting thing about this is we have doubled the number of genes that we now know are associated with MS," he said. "What that means is every one of those new genes is potentially providing us with a new way to understand the disease and to come up with new therapies for the disease."

Researchers believe the findings underline the central role the immune system plays in the development of MS.
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Pills

3 scary misconceptions about one of the most widely prescribed drugs for heart attack prevention

Alison Rose Levy
Alternet
Wed, 25 Sep 2013 09:10 UTC
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With statin medications, used to prevent heart attacks, among the most widely prescribed drugs in the U.S., most people make certain assumptions:
  1. There is solid science for their use.
  2. There is no doubt that their targeted mechanism of action prevents a heart attack.
  3. No less costly approaches exist.
None of these is entirely true.

When it comes to any widespread medical treatment, most people want to trust that the health recommendations they receive are for their benefit. People don't want to have to evaluate the credibility of their doctor's medical advice, no less the premises of the healthcare system. While many treatments are effective, it's not wise to overlook that the economic motive sometimes intrudes in the health equation. This occurs because the interlocking sectors of the current healthcare system blur important ethical boundaries, and in some cases erase them.

The intrusion of economics into health science is most noticeable in the gaps between health claims and actual outcomes. When seemingly "evidence-based" research is shaped by market considerations, healthcare treatments may fall short in delivering favorable aggregate health results. In this article, I'll explore the gap through the disputed science, and protectionism accorded one of the most widely prescribed medications in the conventional medical arsenal: Statin drugs.

Comment: For more information see:

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