Health & WellnessS


Question

Has 'Organic' Been Oversized?

Stephanie Strom
New York Times
Sat, 07 Jul 2012 15:47 UTC
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© Stephen McGee for The New York TimesThe founder of Eden Foods, among the organic stock at the Eden headquarters in Clinton, Mich.
Michael J. Potter is one of the last little big men left in organic food.

More than 40 years ago, Mr. Potter bought into a hippie cafe and "whole earth" grocery here that has since morphed into a major organic foods producer and wholesaler, Eden Foods.

But one morning last May, he hopped on his motorcycle and took off across the Plains to challenge what organic food - or as he might have it, so-called organic food - has become since his tie-dye days in the Haight district of San Francisco.

The fact is, organic food has become a wildly lucrative business for Big Food and a premium-price-means-premium-profit section of the grocery store. The industry's image - contented cows grazing on the green hills of family-owned farms - is mostly pure fantasy. Or rather, pure marketing. Big Food, it turns out, has spawned what might be called Big Organic.
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Chalkboard

Strong Communication Between Brain and Muscle Requires Both Having the Protein LRP4


ScienceDaily
Wed, 11 Jul 2012 16:48 UTC
Communication between the brain and muscle must be strong for us to eat, breathe or walk. Now scientists have found that a protein known to be on the surface of muscle cells must be present in both tissues to ensure the conversation is robust.

Scientists at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University have shown that without LRP4 in muscle cells and neurons, communication between the two cells types is inefficient and short-lived.

Problems with the protein appear to contribute to disabling disorders such as myasthenia gravis and other forms of muscular dystrophy. The MCG scientists reported finding antibodies to LRP4 in the blood of about 2 percent of patients with muscle-degenerating myasthenia gravis in Archives of Neurology earlier this year.

Scientists know that LRP4 plays an important role in the muscle cell, where it receives cues from the brain cell that it's time to form the receptors that will be enable ongoing communication between the two, said Dr. Lin Mei, Director of the GHSU Institute of Molecular Medicine and Genetics and corresponding author of the study in the journal Neuron.
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Bacon

Nutrient cocktail improves memory in patients with early Alzheimer's


e! Science News
Tue, 10 Jul 2012 12:39 UTC
paleo food
A clinical trial of an Alzheimer's disease treatment developed at MIT has found that the nutrient cocktail can improve memory in patients with early Alzheimer's. The results confirm and expand the findings of an earlier trial of the nutritional supplement, which is designed to promote new connections between brain cells. Alzheimer's patients gradually lose those connections, known as synapses, leading to memory loss and other cognitive impairments. The supplement mixture, known as Souvenaid, appears to stimulate growth of new synapses, says Richard Wurtman, a professor emeritus of brain and cognitive sciences at MIT who invented the nutrient mixture.

"You want to improve the numbers of synapses, not by slowing their degradation -- though of course you'd love to do that too -- but rather by increasing the formation of the synapses," Wurtman says.

To do that, Wurtman came up with a mixture of three naturally occurring dietary compounds: choline, uridine and the omega-3 fatty acid DHA. Choline can be found in meats, nuts and eggs, and omega-3 fatty acids are found in a variety of sources, including fish, eggs, flaxseed and meat from grass-fed animals. Uridine is produced by the liver and kidney, and is present in some foods as a component of RNA.

Comment: The nutrients that are found to stimulate growth of synapses in the brain and can improve the mental functioning of, or prevent the onset of, Alzheimer's, are daily consumed by people who eat a paleo diet.

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Info

Sugar Dumbs Us Down


Alliance for Natural Health
Tue, 10 Jul 2012 17:45 UTC
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© Los Angeles Times
But new evidence shows that omega-3s may reverse sugar's brain damage.

Mainstream medicine is finally waking up to what the natural health community has known for quite a while. Sugar, particularly in the form of refined fructose, impairs one's cognitive ability. So far the evidence is limited to rats. But it is very likely that the results apply to humans too.

In a recent UCLA study, rats spent five days learning how to navigate a new maze. Then they were kept away from the maze and divided into two groups and fed different diets: one rich in omega-3 fatty acids from flaxseeds and fish oil, and one deficient in omega-3s. In both groups, the rats' drinking water was replaced with a syrup that was 15% fructose (most sodas are about 12% sugar). Six weeks later, the rats were put back into the maze to see how well they performed.

None of the rats were able to navigate the maze as quickly as they did six weeks earlier, though those on the high-omega-3 diet did significantly better than those in the other group.
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Health

Cranberry Products Associated With Prevention of Urinary Tract Infections


ScienceDaily
Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:59 UTC
Use of cranberry-containing products appears to be associated with prevention of urinary tract infections in some individuals, according to a study that reviewed the available medical literature and was published by Archives of Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are common bacterial infections and adult women are particularly susceptible. Cranberry-containing products have long been used as a "folk remedy" to prevent the condition, according to the study background.

Chih-Hung Wang, M.D., of National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, and colleagues reviewed the available medical literature to reevaluate cranberry-containing products for the prevention of UTI.
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Question

We Have Happy Pills, Anxiety Drugs, and Therapists Galore: So Why Are We More Stressed and Depressed Than Ever?

Andrew Weil, M.D.
Alternet
Tue, 03 Jul 2012 16:20 UTC
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© Alternet
More of us than ever are discontented and not experiencing optimum emotional well-being. Why is the vast enterprise of professional mental health unable to help us feel better?

An alternative to the old talking cure is expanding the knowledge base of psychotherapy as we recognize the role that exercise, nutrition, spirituality, mind-body approaches, and lifestyle can play in enhancing our clinical effectiveness. Epidemic depression is occurring at a time when the field of mental health appears very robust. There are more mental health professionals treating more people than ever before in history: psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, licensed social workers, counselors, and therapists of all kinds. We have a powerful "therapeutic arsenal" of drugs to make us happier, calmer, and saner. When I leaf through the pharmaceutical ads that take up so much space in psychiatric journals, I get the feeling that we should all be in great emotional health. Depression and anxiety should be as fully conquered as smallpox and polio. But more of us than ever are discontented and not experiencing optimum emotional well-being. What is wrong with this picture? Why is the vast enterprise of professional mental health unable to help us feel better?

I want you to consider the possibility that the basic assumptions of mainstream psychiatric medicine are obsolete and no longer serve us well. Those assumptions constitute the biomedical model of mental health and dominate the whole field.
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Health

Doctors Overlook Chemical Illnesses, Study Finds


ScienceDaily
Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:45 UTC
Chemical intolerance contributes to the illnesses of 1 in 5 patients but the condition seldom figures in their diagnosis, according to clinical research directed by a UT Medicine San Antonio physician.

Clinical tools are available to identify chemical intolerance but health care practitioners may not be using them, lead author David Katerndahl, M.D., M.A., said. The study is in the July 9 issue of Annals of Family Medicine. UT Medicine is the clinical practice of the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio.
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Magnify

Health Benefits of Chlorella: The Disease Fighting Powers

Elizabeth Renter
Natural Society
Mon, 09 Jul 2012 15:54 UTC
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© GETTY
New research from Japan suggests that this green Chlorella - an algae could be effective in fighting major lifestyle diseases.
It's green, grows in the fresh waters of Australia and Southeast Asia, and it may be one of the most nutritionally valuable food sources out there. What I'm talking about is chlorella; and due to the many health benefits of chlorella, it has gained incredible popularity over the past few years.

Health Benefits of Chlorella

Usually taken in a capsule or put in smoothies and other recipes as a powder, this green algae is being credited with all sorts of health benefits. From reducing body fat to helping ward off metabolic syndrome, this little green algae is powerful far beyond its unassuming appearance.

It's tiny - about three to eight micrometers in diameter. After being harvested from fresh water ponds it has to be dried and crushed, and right now there are many supplement and natural foods companies getting in on the chlorella action.

Comment: Additional information about the benefits of Chlorella:

This Single Cell Plant Actually Expels Mercury from Your Body
Chlorella can Replace a Closet Full of Expensive Supplements
Chlorella: A Superfood That Helps Remove Mercury From Your Tissues in Weeks
Is Chlorella One of Nature's Most Powerful Detoxification Tools?

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Attention

Shocking Health Effects of Commonly Used Pesticide: Brain Problems, Sexual Deformities and Paralysis

Martha Rosenberg
Alternet
Thu, 05 Jul 2012 15:13 UTC
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sakhorn/Shutterstock.com
Dow's pesticide Dursban was banned for home use, but continues to be sprayed on our food despite horrific health threats.

Endocrine disruptors, synthetic chemicals that mimic and interfere with natural hormones, lurk everywhere from canned foods and microwave popcorn bags to cosmetics and carpet-cleaning solutions. The chemicals, which include pesticides, fire retardants and plastics, are in thermal store receipts, antibacterial detergents and toothpaste (like Colgate's Total with triclosan) and the plastic BPA which Washington state banned in baby bottles. Endocrine disruptors are linked to breast cancer, infertility, low sperm counts, genital deformities, early puberty and diabetes in humans and alarming mutations in wildlife. They are also suspected in the epidemic of behavior and learning problems in children which has coincided, many say, with wide endocrine disruptor use.
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Health

Acupuncture for Children Shows Promise as Pain Treatment

Kelsey Coy
Natural Society
Tue, 10 Jul 2012 14:54 UTC
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When I was still a student, I remember a discussion with one of the teachers at my acupuncture school, whose population was at least 90% of Chinese or Korean descent. "Americans are really afraid of needles," she informed me, not in a derisive or aggressive way, but as more of a curiosity. "When we treat Americans, we must use the smallest needles." I laughed like I always do, but now that I am a practicing clinician, I have frequently recalled her observation as I see people squirm at the mere mention of my pointy specialty (all the while, people can stand even larger cortisone shots. The truth is, though, that acupuncture for children and adults can be extremely beneficial.
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