Health & WellnessS


Heart

Study shows that human hearts generate new cells after birth

Rob Graham
Boston Children's Hospital
Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:42 UTC
Findings on heart muscle growth could lead to novel approaches for treating heart failure in children.

Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital have found, for the first time that young humans (infants, children and adolescents) are capable of generating new heart muscle cells. These findings refute the long-held belief that the human heart grows after birth exclusively by enlargement of existing cells, and raise the possibility that scientists could stimulate production of new cells to repair injured hearts.

Findings of the study, "Cardiomyocyte proliferation contributes to post-natal heart growth in young humans," were published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Online Early Edition, the week of Jan 7-Jan 11, 2013. The study was led by Bernhard Kühn, MD, of the Department of Cardiology at Boston Children's.

Beginning in 2009, Dr. Kühn and his team looked at specimens from healthy human hearts, ranging in age from 0 to 59 years. Using several laboratory assays, they documented that cells in these hearts were still dividing after birth, significantly expanding the heart cell population. The cells regenerated at their highest rates during infancy. Regeneration declined after infancy, rose during the adolescent growth spurt, and continued up until around age 20.
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Health

Canadian E. coli outbreak linked to lettuce served at KFC, Taco Bell

Dan Flynn
Food Safety News
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 12:18 UTC
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At least 26 E. coli O157:H7 illnesses in northeastern Canada have now been linked to California-grown lettuce served at KFC and Taco Bell outlets, health officials say.

Dr. Frank Atherton, Nova Scotia's deputy chief medical officer, on Friday said health officials believe that is the "common source across three provinces" of the outbreak that sickened people beginning in late December.

The E. coli outbreak involves ten confirmed cases in Nova Scotia, six in neighboring New Brunswick, and ten more in Ontario. While the source of the contamination has been found, the cause is another story.

Atherton says some of the KFC/Taco Bell outlets have been inspected, as has their Ontario-based supplier, and no problems have been found. Federal inspectors have been called in to continue the investigation by moving further up the food chain.
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Heart

Top 5 reasons why bone broth is the bomb.

Sean Croxton
Underground Wellness
Wed, 17 Oct 2012 19:36 UTC
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This stuff is awesome.

Never in my life did I imagine I'd be so head over heels about a soup made from bones.

I guess you can say I have quite the man crush on the rich, brown liquid that fills my coffee cup each morning.

It makes me feel warm inside, and puts a little pep in my step.

And oh my, is it tasty!

But my fondness for bone broth goes well beyond its taste and warmth. There's a reason why it's called the magic elixir - and it's a darn shame that more people aren't drinking it.

There was a time, not long ago, when bone broth was a part of just about every meal we consumed in this country, as it provided the base for soups, gravies, and stews. Unfortunately, with the disappearance of the local butcher as well as the invention of brain-cell-killing MSG - which gave processed foods an artificial meaty flavor - preparing broth became a lost art.
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Cupcake Pink

Study: Saccharin and sugar found more addictive than cocaine

Sayer Ji
greenmedinfo.com
Thu, 10 Jan 2013 16:16 UTC
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Sugar and artificial sweeteners are so accessible, affordable and socially sanctioned, that few consider their habitual consumption to be a problem on the scale of say, addiction to cocaine. But if recent research is correct their addictive potential could be even worse.

Almost 40 years ago, William Duffy published a book called Sugar Blues which argued that refined sugar is an addictive drug and profoundly damaging to health. While over 1.6 million copies have been printed since its release in 1975, a common criticism of the book has been that it lacked sufficient scientific support.

Today, William Duffy's work is finding increasing support in the first-hand, peer-reviewed and published scientific literature itself. Not only is sugar drug-like in effect, but it may be more addictive than cocaine. Worse, many sugar-free synthetic sweeteners carry with them addictive properties and toxicities that are equal to, or may outweigh those of sugar.

Back in 2007, a revealing study titled, "Intense sweetness surpasses cocaine reward," found that when rats were given the option of choosing between water sweetened with saccharin and intravenous cocaine, the large majority of animals (94%) preferred the sweet taste of saccharin.[i] This preference for sweetness was not attributable to its unnatural ability to induce sweetness without calories, because the same preference was found with sucrose; nor was the preference for saccharin overcome by increasing doses of cocaine.
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Syringe

5 reasons why I'll never get a flu shot

Daisy Luther
Activist Post
Sat, 12 Jan 2013 16:03 UTC
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© thehomeopathiccollege.org
If you're looking for a deeply scientific treatise on the flu shot, this isn't it.

I'm not a chemist, a physician or someone with an advanced degree in biology. I'm just a mom with an Internet connection. I'm a person who has researched and compiled an assortment of worrisome facts that point in one direction: the flu shot is NOT beneficial.

Some of these reasons are backed up by science, and others are an acceptance of that little voice of reason whispering "Something just isn't right about this." As a reader, you are welcome to take my personal instinct with a grain of salt. I strongly encourage you to do your own independent research and come to your own conclusions. Look for sources that are not linked to the dollars being earned from these flu shots - no Big Pharma funded studies, no CDC, no FDA. Check out the funding for the studies that you cite and then judge the findings accordingly.
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Red Flag

Say no to Thimerosal, say no to the flu vaccine

Dr. Mark Sircus
Activist Post
Sun, 13 Jan 2013 14:53 UTC
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© casescorner.wordpress.comFlu Shots Contain More than 250 Times the EPAs Safety Limit for Mercury.
Saying no to vaccines in the face of the gale wind of propaganda and govern-mentally supported vaccine campaigns is high treason punishable to the point of having your kids taken away if you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

True medicine cries out against vaccines and all the harm they are doing to children and people around the globe, but we have medical authorities claiming them to offer deliverance when in reality they offer little of anything but further toxic attacks on the body and immune system.

Medical truth is obviously against deliberately poisoning people, but don't tell that to anyone at the FDA whose staff falls all over itself to promote the most dangerous drugs ever known to mankind. Vaccines are loaded with crude materials that will never make anyone well. Poisons usually have the habit of poisoning people and the amount of mercury in the influenza vaccine is dangerous no matter what these un-trustable medical officials say.

Mercury is much more toxic than lead but there is not a doctor in the world stupid or crazy enough to inject lead into children's veins, yet there are plenty who will gladly with a smile inject mercury.
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Beaker

Death by Fungi?

Dr Sircus
Dr Sircus.com
Thu, 10 Jan 2013 21:57 UTC
In Nature this month there is an essay about natural catastrophes that might overtake us. One of these focuses on the threat posed by local fungus populations:

Although viruses and bacteria grab more attention, fungi are the planet's biggest killers. Of all the pathogens being tracked, fungi have caused more than 70% of the recorded global and regional extinctions, and now threaten amphibians, bats and bees. The Irish potato famine in the 1840s showed just how devastating such pathogens can be. Phytophthora infestans (an organism similar to and often grouped with fungi) wiped out as much as three-quarters of the potato crop in Ireland and led to the death of one million people.

Researchers estimate that there are 1.5-5 million species of fungi in the world, but only 100,000 have been identified. Reports of new types of fungal infection in plants and animals have risen nearly tenfold since 1995.

Fungi are dreadful enemies. During their life cycle fungi depend on other living beings, which must be exploited to different degrees for their feeding. Fungi can develop from the hyphae, the more or less beak-shaped specialized structures that allow the penetration of the host. The shape of a fungus is never defined; it is imposed by the environment in which the fungus develops. Fungi are capable of implementing an infinite number of modifications to their own metabolism in order to overcome the defense mechanism of the host. These modifications are implemented through plasmatic and biochemical actions as well as by a volumetric increase (hypertrophy) and numerical hyperplasia[1] of the cells that have been attacked.

In 1999, Meinolf Karthaus, MD watched three different children with leukemia suddenly go into remission upon receiving a triple antifungal drug cocktail for their "secondary" fungal infections.[2]
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Health

Beijing choked by pollution at dangerous levels


Raw Story
Sat, 12 Jan 2013 14:46 UTC
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Dense smog shrouded Beijing on Saturday, with pollution at hazardous levels for a second day and residents advised to stay indoors, state media said.

The municipal environment warning centre issued an alert advising the elderly, children, and those suffering respiratory or cardiovascular illness to avoid going out or doing strenuous exercise, Xinhua reported.

Those who did venture out wore facemasks for protection, with visibility low, the skyline shrouded, and the sun hidden in the smog.

Air quality in Beijing showed airborne particles with a diameter small enough to deeply penetrate the lungs at a reading of 456 micrograms per cubic metre, the warning centre said.
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Health

New York Governor Cuomo declares flu a public health emergency


timesunion.com
Sat, 12 Jan 2013 14:23 UTC
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© TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/GETTY IMAGESMary Ann Werner from New York is given a flu shot by Medical Assistant Klarisa Feliciano at the medical offices of Yaffe Ruden & Associates in New York on Jan. 10, 2013.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has declared a state public health emergency in response to the severe flu season and has issued an executive order allowing pharmacists to give flu vaccines to those between six month and 18 years of age, in addition to those who are older.

The order suspends for the next 30 days the section of State Education Law that limits pharmacists to administering immunizations only to those ages 18 and older.

Comment: While our government may rely on vaccines as a way to look like they are trying to help heal the sick, vaccines are not the perfect remedy that state and media make it out to be. It would be far better for people to look at changes in their diet instead of relying on the government to heal them, a government which clearly is not focused on taking care of its citizens. Here are just a few stories collected on SOTT regarding the dangers of vaccines:

Over forty children paralyzed by vaccines in one village
The entire vaccine industry is being exposed for unproven assumptions and misrepresentations of data
The shocking lack of evidence supporting flu vaccines
Still think vaccines are good: Two chicken vaccines combine to form deadly virus
Vaccines are causing mutations that may jeopardize the health of future generations

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Health

America is totally sick right now: Flu, whooping cough and 'winter vomiting disease'

David Ferguson
Raw Story
Sat, 12 Jan 2013 13:10 UTC
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The United States is currently in the grip of three separate epidemics. According to LiveScience.com, influenza, whooping cough and norovirus - a stomach virus that causes diarrhea, vomiting and cramping - are all currently storming through the population, and some experts warn that the flu season is just getting started and will only get worse from here.

MyHealthNewsDaily.com explained that the flu epidemic is particularly bad this year because the main strain circulating, influenza A (H3N2), is a nasty one. Flu seasons caused by influenza A tend to have a higher number of hospitalizations and deaths than other strains.

Also, this year flu season started early, in the first week of December rather than the fist week of January as it normally does. It was the earliest start to a flu season since winter of 2003-2004.

Twenty-nine states and New York City are reporting higher than average levels of flu activity. CNN reported on Friday that 18 children have died already this flu season, and the U.S. is still at the early stages of the year's outbreak.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, told CNN on Thursday that the country is in the midst of a full-blown epidemic, but that the disease is "still on the uptick."
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