A new study demonstrates the dynamic role cilia play in guiding the migration of neurons in the embryonic brain. Cilia are tiny hair-like structures on the surfaces of cells, but here they are acting more like radio antennae.

In developing mouse embryos, researchers were able to see cilia extending and retracting as neurons migrate. The cilia appear to be receiving signals needed for neurons to find their places.

Genetic mutations that cause the neurodevelopmental disorder Joubert syndrome interfere with these migratory functions of cilia, the researchers show. The finding suggests that problems with neuron migration may explain some aspects of Joubert syndrome patients' symptoms.

The results were published in the journal Developmental Cell.

"The most surprising thing was how dynamic the cilia are," says Tamara Caspary, PhD, assistant professor of human genetics at Emory University School of Medicine. "As interneurons migrate into the developing cerebral cortex, they move in steps. When they pause, we could see the cilia extending, as if the interneurons are trying to figure out where to go next."

A new Northwestern University study shows the power of language in infants' ability to understand the intentions of others.

As the babies watched intently, an experimenter produced an unusual behavior--she used her forehead to turn on a light. But how did babies interpret this behavior? Did they see it as an intentional act, as something worthy of imitating? Or did they see it as a fluke? To answer this question, the experimenter gave 14-month-old infants an opportunity to play with the light themselves.

The results, based on two experiments, show that introducing a novel word for the impending novel event had a powerful effect on the infants' tendency to imitate the behavior. Infants were more likely to imitate behavior, however unconventional, if it had been named, than if it remained unnamed, the study shows.

When the experimenter announced her unusual behavior ("I'm going to blick the light"), infants imitated her. But when she did not provide a name, they did not follow suit.

Sciatic pain, or sciatica, occurs off and on with many people. Sometimes it's mistaken for lower back pain or leg cramps. When it does, the tendency is to stay in bed and gulp down some ibuprofen or other OTC (over the counter) pharmaceutical.

But sciatica is a symptom of another problem that is pinching or creating pressure on the sciatic nerve. It's not a diagnosed condition itself. The sciatic nerve is the largest single nerve in the human body. It runs down each leg from the lower spine all the way to the feet, providing movement, feeling, and strength to either leg.

Sciatica symptoms can include sharp painful burning sensations or cramping. Sometimes there can be tingling sensations and numbness in different areas of the buttock, leg or foot. The wording is singular because usually sciatica occurs on one side or the other, not in both legs simultaneously.

Did you know that while the United States makes up only five percent of the world's population, we consume over 50 percent of all the world's pharmaceutical drugs?

This sobering statistic and much more is revealed in Jeff Hays' documentary film, Doctored.

The primary focus of the film is on the chiropractic profession and its long-standing struggle to be recognized as authentic health professionals. In the 1980's, chiropractors were still by and large viewed as quacks whose treatments were unscientific and potentially dangerous. Worse yet, chiropractors were also derided as 'cultists' at a time when Charles Manson and his cult followers wrought terror in California, and Jim Jones persuaded his followers to drink the Kool-Aid spiked with deadly poison.

Yes, chiropractors were tossed in with this charming lot!

However, this bizarre consensus reality in which chiropractors were deemed "unscientific cultists" on par with some of the most heinous criminals in US history was, as the evidence shows, doctored by the medical industry at the behest of Big Pharma. As stated in the beginning of the film:

"There's been a deliberate campaign to label anybody who doesn't sell or distribute drugs, surgery or radiation as a quack."

As the Eastern Seaboard recovers from Hurricane Sandy, states and local communities are working to clean up the mess left by the superstorm. It isn't just a matter of aesthetics, but one of publichealth.

Even after the initial fury of the storm has passed, Sandy's lingering health effects could be felt for months and longer.

Flooding always carries the danger of sewage-tainted overflow, which can cause digestive disorders, rashes and infections. After hurricanes Katrina and Rita, scientists found that species of bacteria from the Vibrio family, often responsible for cholera, were abundant in Lake Pontchartrain shortly after floodwaters receded, though there was no long-term bloom. Many construction workers working in hurricane-devastated parts of New Orleans also experienced skin disorders as a result of mites that multiplied in flooded buildings.

Sewage can even cause respiratory problems if it dries and becomes airborne particles. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene recommends keeping children, pets, and people with compromised immune systems away from contaminated areas until they have been cleaned and disinfected.

Most fabrics can be disinfected by laundering with detergent or dry cleaning. Leather shoes are the exception, according to health officials.

There is a profound misunderstanding in the mass market today about the value of certified organic food. The question is not whether the 40% or more you pay at the register for an organic product is really worth the added vitamin, mineral and phytonutrient content you receive.

Even though organic food does usually have considerably higher nutrient density, it is not always the positive quality of what it contains that makes it so special. Rather, it is what you know the organic food does not contain, or what has not happened to it on its journey to your table, that makes buying organic a no-brainer to the educated consumer. Let me explain.

The FDA presently supports and actively promotes the use of cobalt-60 culled from nuclear reactors as a form of "electronic pasteurization" on all domestically produced conventional food. They claim it makes the food "safer."¹ The use of euphemisms like "food additive" and "pasteurization" to describe the process of blasting food with inordinately high levels of gamma-radiation can not obviate the fact that the very same death-rays generated by thermonuclear warfare to destroy life are now being applied to food to "make it safer." This sort of Orwellian logic, e.g. WAR is PEACE, is the bread and butter of State-sponsored industry propaganda.

This is not a hypochondriac's ranting, as we aren't talking here about small amounts of radiation. The level of gamma-radiation used starts at 1 KiloGray (equivalent to 16,700,000 chest x-rays or 333 times a human lethal dose) and goes all the way up to 30 KiloGray (500,000,000 chest x-rays or 10,000 times a human lethal dose). The following table is a list of foods that are increasingly being "nuked" for your protection.
When you buy conventional food, there is little assurance that it has not been irradiated. Although labeling requirements specify that irradiated food sold in stores should have the international symbol - the Radura - affixed to it, oversight is particularly poor in this regard, and restaurant food and processed food containing irradiated ingredients are not legally required to be labeled as such.

One of the fundamental symptoms used to diagnose celiac disease is villous atrophy. This finding is identified by doctors by performing an intestinal biopsy. Despite it's known flaws, this test is used as a gold standard for the diagnosis of celiac disease. So the following scenario is quite common:

1. Patient complains of gastric pain, bloating, diarrhea, etc
2. Patient visits GI doctor
3. GI doctor runs tests including a biopsy
4. Biopsy shows villous atrophy
5. Patient is told to avoid wheat, barley, and rye

The incorrect assumption in the scenario above is that the patient has villous atrophy caused by gluten (gliadin) in wheat, barley, and rye. Why is the assumption incorrect? Other types of food proteins can also cause villous atrophy. The study below is one of many proving this point...

What if 90% of the peer-reviewed clinical research, the holy grail of the conventional medical system, is exaggerated, or worse, completely false?

A seismic shift is occurring in the field of evidence-based medicine that a rare few are aware of, but which will (and likely already does) affect everyone, as the standard of medical care today largely follows from this model.

The very life's blood of 'evidence-based' medicine -- peer-reviewed and published clinical research results - which legitimizes the entire infrastructure and superstructure upon which conventional medical knowledge and practice is erected, has been revealed as mostly and patently false.

Case in point: in a 2005 essay, "Why Most Published Research Findings are False," and which is the most downloaded document of all time on PLoS, the Public Library of Medicine's peer-reviewed, open access journal, John P. A Ioannidis explains in detail how "It can be proven that most claimed research findings are false." And that "for many current scientific fields, claimed research findings may often be simply accurate measures of the prevailing bias."

The Atlantic published a piece on Ioannidis' work, back in 2010, titled "Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science," well worth reading, and which opened with "Much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong. So why are doctors - to a striking extent - still drawing upon misinformation in their everyday practice?"

Teenagers who binge drink risk trapping their brains in permanent adolescence and lay the groundwork for alcoholism, new research shows.

A new study has looked at the effect of excessive binge drinking during adolescence on a particular receptor in the brain. It found irreversibly altered the brain, keeping it in an adolescent state.

And the earlier in life someone starts bingeing, the worse the possible outcomes.

"Because it inhibits part of the brain's development, binge drinking over time keeps people in an emotionally immature state," Queensland University of Technology Professor Selena Bartlett says.

"This often leads to huge problems when in their 30s and 40s when people come face to face with the demands of life."

Your dentist doesn't want you to know, and the American Dental Association (ADA) sure doesn't want us to tell you of the many dangers of root canals. After all, it's a multi-billion dollar industry. Any tainting of the root canal image could cost them serious cash, so (like Big Pharma) they deny there's any problems at all. Unfortunately for them, more and more people are being awakened to the trouble with traditional medicine and dentistry, so their industry will be taking a hit.

The Alliance for Natural Health says there are more than 25 million root canals performed in the United States each year, with 41,000 being performed every single day. And the number of dentists who discuss the true dangers of these procedures before they do them can probably be counted on one hand.

So, what is wrong with a root canal?

A root canal essentially removes the live pulp from a tooth and replaces it with a synthetic material. This stops the tooth from appearing to rot away, it does away with the internal damage that could be causing a toothache, the damage from an untreated cavity. But, while your dentist would have you think the root canal solves your problems - it really isn't that simple.

In addition to the central root of the tooth, where the dentist removes the tissue during a root canal, there are thousands of tiny side canals that aren't touched by your doctor. When the root is removed, the nerves in these side canals die. They rot. They fester and become a breeding ground for bacteria and infection.