Health & WellnessS


Attention

Revealing Their Plans: US Officials Warn of Swine Flu Outbreak at Fairs


Agence France-Presse
Fri, 03 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC
Image
© Agence France-Presse/Tim SloanPigs rest in their holding pen at a county fair in Gaithersburg, Maryland in 2009. US health officials on Friday warned the public to be careful around pigs after an outbreak of flu among visitors to county fairs.
US health officials on Friday warned the public to be careful around pigs after an outbreak of flu among visitors to county fairs.

The virus does not appear to have evolved to the point where it spreads easily among humans, but it does contain a gene from the pandemic H1N1 flu that sickened millions worldwide in 2009 and 2010.

"We are concerned that... may confer the potential for the virus to infect or spread among humans to a greater extent," said Joseph Bresee, an influenza epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus was first detected in July 2011 and there have since been a total of 29 known cases -- 16 of them in the past three weeks -- in the United States.

It is a relatively mild flu -- everyone recovered and only three people were hospitalized. As a result, many more cases have likely occurred without being reported to health officials.
Read More...
Key

Solve Your Health Issues with a Ketogenic Diet


Ketogenic Diet Resource
Sun, 05 Aug 2012 12:08 UTC
steak and vegies
© Unknown
Ketogenic diets are powerful tools, and they can be life changing. Shifting to a low carb, fat burning diet can help you reduce your high blood pressure, banish heartburn, get rid of joint pain, and stop pre-diabetes in its tracks.

I used to have all those health conditions and worse, and I've reversed them all. You can too.

On this website, you'll find information on how these diets work, the right way to "do" the diet, and the details on how you can increase your energy and improve your health simply by changing the way you eat.

Read more at Ketogenic Resource Diet
Read More...
Cut

Low Carb Dieting Myths


Ketogentic Diet Resource
Sun, 05 Aug 2012 11:40 UTC
fingers crossed
© Unknown
The myths about low carb dieting and specifically ketogenic diets abound in the American collective consciousness. These are just a few of the most pervasive myths I've encountered, with explanations as to why they are incorrect and simply don't make sense, scientifically:

Myth 1: Carbs are an essential nutrient for good health.

This is the favorite phrase of the American Dietetic Association members. But as much as they like to repeat this, it's just not true scientifically. Essential nutrients are nutrients which your body cannot make, so they have to be obtained on a daily basis from your food sources.

There are essential proteins, and essential fatty acids, but there is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate. Your body can make all the carbohydrate it needs from protein and the glycerol that is part of fatty acids. However, the fact that they aren't essential doesn't mean that everyone should stop eating them completely.

There are people who can tolerate eating large amounts of carbohydrates on a daily basis. However, there are also people who can't. These people have a low tolerance for carbohydrates, and if they eat large quantities of them, they develop metabolic disorders like insulin resistance and diabetes.

If you can eat that many carbohydrates without developing any metabolic issues, go for it. I'm just saying that humans can get by without eating carbs and continue to maintain perfect health, because the body can use ketone bodies from fatty acids for fuel, if no carbohydrates are eaten.


Comment: Just a note that there is a lot of damage done by carbohydrates that takes many years to surface. So just because someone may think that they can tolerate large amounts of carbs because they don't see any negative affect now, doesn't mean that damage isn't being done.


Comment: Fiber is not all that good for us. Please read Fiber Menace to learn more about how fiber really affects your body.

Read More...
Popcorn

Artificial Butter Flavoring Ingredient Penetrates Blood-Brain Barrier

April McCarthy
PreventDisease.com
Fri, 03 Aug 2012 14:14 UTC
PopCorn
© PreventDisease.com
Scientists are beginning to understand one of life's enduring mysteries - Diacetyl (DA) is a chemical that imparts the buttery flavour in microwave popcorn. It has a disease named after it because many microwave popcorn factory workers exposed to it have developed a lung condition called diacetyl-induced bronchiolitis obliterans or "Popcorn worker's lung".

New evidence found that DA intensifies the damaging effects of an abnormal brain protein linked to Alzheimer's disease.

A new study raises concern about chronic exposure of workers in industry to the food flavoring ingredient used to produce the distinctive buttery flavor and aroma of microwave popcorn, margarines, snack foods, candy, baked goods, pet foods and other products. The study appears in ACS' journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.

Robert Vince and colleagues Swati More and Ashish Vartak explain that DA has been the focus of much research recently because it is linked to respiratory and other problems in workers at microwave popcorn and food-flavoring factories. DA gives microwave popcorn its distinctive buttery taste and aroma.

DA also forms naturally in fermented beverages such as beer, and gives some chardonnay wines a buttery taste. Vince's team realized that DA has an architecture similar to a substance that makes beta-amyloid proteins clump together in the brain -- clumping being a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. So they tested whether DA also could clump those proteins.
Read More...
Attention

Microchip-Laden Drugs Given FDA Approval

Sayer Ji
GreenMedInfo
Fri, 03 Aug 2012 13:00 UTC
RFID Embedded Drugs
© GreenMedInfo
Rumors regarding the development of a 'digital pill' with a microchip inside have been circulating for some time, but today, the FDA actually green lighted the product.

The company, Proteus Digital Health, gained FDA approval for its 1 square millimeter device (the size of a grain of sand), which it believes will "shift the care paradigm" into an era of digital medicine.

According to Proteus Digital Health's website:
Digital Medicines are the same pharmaceuticals you take today, with one small change: each pill also contains a tiny sensor that can communicate, via our digital health feedback system, vital information about your medication-taking behaviors and how your body is responding.
The company added "As a result, you can be sure you're taking your medicines as prescribed, while at the same time receiving unprecedented feedback on your physical response to treatment."

The aim of the "ingestible sensor" is to electronically verify patient compliance in taking the medication. Proteus Digital Health estimates that over 50% of patients do not get the full benefit from the pharmaceuticals they take because of taking the wrong dose or taking the medication
Read More...
Magic Wand

The Latest Discoveries in Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, and Epigenetics


Chris Kresser L.Ac
Wed, 11 Jul 2012 07:11 UTC
Image
© Chris Kresser
I've always been fascinated by genetics and epigenetics, and what the study of those topics can tell us about human health and nutrition. We touched on this area a few shows back in my interview with Mat LaLonde, but I decided to devote an entire episode to it. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed putting it together!

In this episode, we cover:

7:32 Debunking conventional wisdom about genetics
11:42 Has evolution actually accelerated in the last 10,000 years?
23:33 The role of environment in epigenetics and genetic mutations
36:16 The pros and cons of evolution's "light skin mutation"

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Full Text Transcript:

Steve Wright: Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Revolution Health Radio Show. I'm Steve Wright from SCDlifestyle.com, and with me is Chris Kresser, health detective and creator of ChrisKresser.com. Chris, what's going on?

Chris Kresser: I'm tired, Steve. Sylvie is getting a molar, and any of you who are parents out there, I'm sure, know what that's like, and I'm pretty thin in the sleep department these days.

Steve Wright: Ah, she's growing up fast.

Chris Kresser: Yeah, she's getting teeth just, like, back to back to back. She's gotten eight teeth in the past couple of months.

Steve Wright: Wow.

Chris Kresser: I don't know if it's all that bone broth we're eating, cod liver oil, or what, but it's been brutal on our sleep pattern, so if I nod off, just reach through the microphone and slap me around a little bit.
Read More...
Magic Wand

People With Allergies May Have Lower Risk of Brain Tumors


Research News
Sat, 04 Aug 2012 07:03 UTC
Image
© Unknown
New research adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting that there's a link between allergies and reduced risk of a serious type of cancer that starts in the brain. This study suggests the reduced risk is stronger among women than men, although men with certain allergy profiles also have a lower tumor risk.

The study also strengthens scientists' belief that something about having allergies or a related factor lowers the risk for this cancer. Because these tumors, called glioma, have the potential to suppress the immune system to allow them to grow, researchers have never been sure whether allergies reduce cancer risk or if, before diagnosis, these tumors interfere with the hypersensitive immune response to allergens.

Scientists conducting this study were able to analyze stored blood samples that were taken from patients decades before they were diagnosed with glioma. Men and women whose blood samples contained allergy-related antibodies had an almost 50 percent lower risk of developing glioma 20 years later compared to people without signs of allergies.
Read More...
Bacon

Ketogenic Diet (high-fat, low-carb) Has Neuroprotective and Disease-modifying Effects

Maciej Gasior,a Michael A. Rogawski,a and Adam L. Hartmana
US National Institute of Health
Fri, 03 Aug 2012 21:10 UTC
Image
© paleodietlifestyle.com
Abstract

The ketogenic diet has been in clinical use for over 80 years, primarily for the symptomatic treatment of epilepsy. A recent clinical study has raised the possibility that exposure to the ketogenic diet may confer long-lasting therapeutic benefits for patients with epilepsy. Moreover, there is evidence from uncontrolled clinical trials and studies in animal models that the ketogenic diet can provide symptomatic and disease-modifying activity in a broad range of neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, and may also be protective in traumatic brain injury and stroke. These observations are supported by studies in animal models and isolated cells that show that ketone bodies, especially β-hydroxybutyrate, confer neuroprotection against diverse types of cellular injury. This review summarizes the experimental, epidemiological and clinical evidence indicating that the ketogenic diet could have beneficial effects in a broad range of brain disorders characterized by the death of neurons. Although the mechanisms are not yet well defined, it is plausible that neuroprotection results from enhanced neuronal energy reserves, which improve the ability of neurons to resist metabolic challenges, and possibly through other actions including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. As the underlying mechanisms become better understood, it will be possible to develop alternative strategies that produce similar or even improved therapeutic effects without the need for exposure to an unpalatable and unhealthy, high-fat diet.

Comment: Notice the absolutely IGNORANT remark at the end of the abstract: "As
the underlying mechanisms become better understood, it will be possible to develop alternative strategies that produce similar or even improved therapeutic effects without the need for exposure to an unpalatable and unhealthy, high-fat diet."

Basically the authors are attempting to promote a "drug cure" to benefit Big Pharma, rather than recommending the obvious solution which is to eat a high-fat, low carbohydrate diet! Far from being unhealthy, high- fat / low-carb diets satisfy hunger, are much more palatable than eating vegetables, and have been shown to be helpful in controlling obesity, diabetes and a host of other ailments.

Benefits of a Paleo Diet
What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?
The Soft Science of Dietary Fat
Bittersweet Vindication for Atkins Diet
A Healthful Diet? Don't Forget the Fat

Read More...
Cheeseburger

Why is McDonald's the Official Restaurant of the Olympics?

Anthony Gucciardi
Activist Post
Fri, 03 Aug 2012 14:08 UTC
Image
McDonald's restaurants are the very epitome of poor health, with their McNuggets most notably containing chemicals used in breast implants and silly putty. So why have the Olympic games officials adopted the restaurant chain as their official restaurant of the Olympics?

Considering the Olympic games represent some of the most conditioned athletes across the globe, it seems quite bizarre that the face of the entire event would be that of Ronald McDonald.

With the media frenzy surrounding the Olympic games, it's easy to see why McDonald's continues to be a major sponsor (dishing out cash for over 35 years). A massive marketing opportunity is presented to the company that involves aligning itself with a 'healthy' and fit event. In fact, McDonald's is reaping the benefits as even some of the most decorated Olympic finalists are chomping down on their disease-linked frankenburgers. It was reported that 'the most highly decorated Olympian' Michael Phelps gorged himself at McDonald's after winning a gold medal at the Olympics.

Phelps and fellow gold medalist Ricky Berens reportedly ate a toxic feast of two Quarter Pounders with cheese, one six-piece McNugget (each of which contains 7 different ingredients to compose the fake chicken 'meat'), a medium McFlurry, and two medium french fries.

Great news for McDonald's, bad news for viewers.
Read More...
Beaker

1,300+ Chemicals Are Messing with Your Hormones

Leah Zerbe
Rodale.com
Sun, 03 Jun 2012 13:17 UTC
Image
Take a gander at the list of more than 1,300 potential hormone disrupting chemicals just released by researchers at The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, and you may not feel overly concerned at first. You might think, "Glyphosate? Dimethylbenzene? Benzoic acid? What's that got to do with me, and what exactly is a hormone disruptor, anyway?"

But the truth is, many of these industrial chemicals (which were never adequately tested for long-term health effects before being introduced to the general public) have found their way into products we come into contact with each and every day - pesticides in food, on our lawns, and inside our homes. These chemicals also lurk in food preservatives, in household dust, and in household products ranging from hairspray and shampoo to air fresheners and candles. Depending on when we're exposed, researchers now believe that certain hormone disruptors can set us up not only for developmental problems early in life, but also for hormone-related problems like obesity, infertility, certain cancers, and diabetes that may not surface until decades after exposure. Hormone-disrupting chemicals throw off our bodies' intricate systems for developing and regulating our bodily systems; these chemicals mess with our ability to function in a way our bodies did pre-Industrial Revolution.


Comment: Read more about why Endocrine Disruptors Really Do Suck

Read More...