An independent scientific panel approved by the DuPont company as part of a class action lawsuit has linked an industrial chemical known as C-8 or PFOA to kidney and testicular cancer in humans.

"Widespread pollution by PFOA should be a wake-up call that our chemical regulation system is severely broken," said Olga V. Naidenko, Ph.D., a senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group. "It is particularly urgent for the Environmental Protection Agency to develop a legal limit for drinking water pollution by PFOA, which is currently unregulated and never should have come to market."

EWG has campaigned for nine years to curb the use of PFOA, a toxic perfluorinated chemical whose full name is perfluorooctanoic acid, and to impose a strict cap on its presence in drinking water. As well, EWG has advocated reforms to the federal Toxic Substances Control Act that would require pre-market safety testing of all chemicals.

Emissions of PFOA, once manufactured by DuPont to produce non-stick coatings, have polluted the water of at least nine states and the District of Columbia. As a result of widespread pollution, PFOA and related chemicals are now found in the bodies of more than 99 percent of Americans. Pollution has been particularly pronounced around Parkersburg, W.Va., where a DuPont plant emitted PFOA into the air and Ohio River from the 1950s until recently. Emissions from the plant have been largely eliminated over the past several years under a phase-out agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency and DuPont.

Alarming new research published in the journal Neurotoxicology and Teratology supports the emerging connection between glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide, and neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson's disease and Parkinsonian disorders.

Published this month (April, 2012), the new study entitled "Glyphosate induced cell death through apoptotic and authophagic mechanisms," investigated the potential brain-damaging effects of herbicides, which the authors stated "have been recognized as the main environmental factor associated with neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson's disease."

They found that glyphosate inhibited the viability of differentiated test cells (PC12, adrenal medula derived), in both dose-and-time dependent manners. The researchers also found that "glyphosate induced cell death via authophagy pathways in addition to activating apoptotic pathways."

In a study published last year in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers put five San Francisco families on a three-day diet of food that hadn't been in contact with plastic. When they compared urine samples before and after the diet, the scientists were stunned to see what a difference a few days could make: The participants' levels of bisphenol A (BPA), which is used to harden polycarbonate plastic, plunged - by two-thirds, on average - while those of the phthalate DEHP, which imparts flexibility to plastics, dropped by more than half.

The findings seemed to confirm what many experts suspected: Plastic food packaging is a major source of these potentially harmful chemicals, which most Americans harbor in their bodies. Other studies have shown phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates) passing into food from processing equipment and food-prep gloves, gaskets and seals on non-plastic containers, inks used on labels - which can permeate packaging - and even the plastic film used in agriculture.

Although it is a central premise of the whole Wheat Belly argument, I fear that some people haven't fully gotten the message:

Modern wheat is an opiate.

And, of course, I don't mean that wheat is an opiate in the sense that you like it so much that you feel you are addicted. Wheat is truly addictive.

Wheat is addictive in the sense that it comes to dominate thoughts and behaviors. Wheat is addictive in the sense that, if you don't have any for several hours, you start to get nervous, foggy, tremulous, and start desperately seeking out another "hit" of crackers, bagels, or bread, even if it's the few stale 3-month old crackers at the bottom of the box. Wheat is addictive in the sense that there is a distinct withdrawal syndrome characterized by overwhelming fatigue, mental "fog," inability to exercise, even depression that lasts several days, occasionally several weeks. Wheat is addictive in the sense that the withdrawal process can be provoked by administering an opiate-blocking drug such as naloxone or naltrexone.

A Toronto man is being treated for the first case of rabies in a human in the city in more than 80 years, CBC News has learned.

The 41-year-old man had been working as a bartender in the Dominican Republic for four months.

He had already reported symptoms at the end of last month in the Dominican Republic where he was seen three times at a resort clinic.

His condition worsened to the point that he was having trouble swallowing and was afraid of food, water and even the air.

He returned to Toronto a week ago by airplane. He was taken to hospital by police after behaving erratically at the airport.

His symptoms worsened by April 11, and on April 12, samples were sent for testing. It was then determined he had rabies, a virus that attacks the brain and nervous system.

Dr. Donald Low, the medical director of the public health laboratories at the arms-length government agency Public Health Ontario, said rabies in humans is rare.

It's no secret that the FDA is responsible for some of the most vastly detrimental products on the consumer market, but did you know that they are capable of raiding and confiscating 'potentially harmful' substances that only they arbitrate as such for you and me?

Indeed, the FDA, known benefactors of big pharma, have been succeeding in their rampage across natural health remedy stores, and they could be coming to your town next. After an alleged complaint against the 'Notion-n-things' store in Missouri, the State department of Health and Senior Services managed to embargo the company's herbal products. Only as recently as three weeks ago did the district judge sign the order for seizure of those products.

Remember, this is the same organization that has declared walnuts to be illegal drugs.

The three products now in custody of the FDA are Chickweed Healing Salve, a product based on comfrey; To-Mor-Gone, a product developed for the treatment of cancer; and R.E.P., a natural remedy for various headaches and sinus infections. The FDA's only reasoning for seizure of the products is that they do not have properly labeled information, something that they are far too concerned with rather than for the health of the American people.

To relieve the annoying itch of insect bites, your best bet may be the simple application of ice to numb the bitten area and reduce inflammation.

Spring is in the air. And so are those dang insects, hungry for a blood meal. The victim can wind up with a bunch of bites, red and itchy. So what drugs can quench that itch? Maybe none, according to a study in the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin. ["Management of simple insect bites: Where's the evidence?"]

With the blockbuster cholesterol-lowering class of drugs known as statins being widely promoted for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease, despite their having over 300 documented adverse health effects (including heart failure!), how does chocolate sound as a viable, heart-friendly alternative?

We already connect amorously with chocolate (to the tune of 6 billion lbs of cocoa consumed annually worldwide), revealing in heart-felt expressions like "I love it," and "this is to die for!" how comfortable we are with publicly declaring our affection. But did you know that while it makes our emotional hearts sing, it may actually keep our physical hearts happy, alive and ticking longer, as well?

Indeed, back in 2006, researchers found that for elderly men, eating cocoa intake was inversely associated with blood pressure and 15-year cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. When compared with the lowest tertile (lowest 33%) of cocoa intake, the adjusted relative risk for men in the highest tertile was .50 for cardiovascular mortality, or a 50% reduction, and .53 for all-cause mortality, or a 47% reduction. Not bad considering the median cocoa intake among users was 2.11 grams per day, or just one half an ounce a week.

Anything that can reduce your risk of dying from all causes by 50%, which is not an expensive and potentially dangerous drug, but a food, should be be taken seriously, even if -- paradoxically -- it is usually found in the candy section of the grocery store.

There is no shortage of solid, human clinical research supporting the consumption of cocoa, the signature ingredient in chocolate, for the reduction of both cardiovascular disease risk factors, and "hard" cardiovascular outcomes, e.g. hypertension, endothelial dysfunction, insulin resistance, low HDL, stroke, heart disease, etc. GreenMedInfo.com has made 30 such studies available to view on its cocoa page.

The remarkable thing about the research on chocolate is that its consumption appears to improve the pathological condition of the blood vessels known as endothelial dysfunction, and which is believed to be at the root of the problem of plaque accumulation in the arteries, as well as elevated blood lipids. Statins may in fact exert their greatly exaggerated health benefits not by suppressing lipids (as popularly advertised), but by acting as a mild vasodilator through enhancing nitric oxide concentrations in the lining of the blood vessels (endothelium).

Report cites prevalence of high-fructose corn syrup in US diet as possible contributor to alarming epidemic

A new study by Clinical Epigenetics, a peer-reviewed journal that focuses largely on diseases, has found that the rise in autism in the United States could be linked to the industrial food system, specifically the prevalence of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in the American diet. The study, published yesterday online, explores how mineral deficiencies could impact how the human body rids itself of common toxic chemicals like mercury and pesticides. The report comes just after a different report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, documented a startling rise in autism in the United States.

"To better address the explosion of autism, it's critical we consider how unhealthy diets interfere with the body's ability to eliminate toxic chemicals, and ultimately our risk for developing long-term health problems like autism." said Dr. David Wallinga, a study co-author and physician at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

The report's key findings:

• Autism and related disorders affect brain development. The current study sought to determine how environmental and dietary factors, like HFCS consumption, might combine to contribute to the disorder.
• Consumption of HFCS, for example, is linked to the dietary loss of zinc, which interferes with the elimination of heavy metals from the body. Many heavy metals like mercury, arsenic and cadmium are potent toxins with adverse effects on brain development in the young.
• HFCS consumption can also impact levels of other beneficial minerals, including calcium. Loss of calcium further exacerbates the detrimental effects of exposure to lead on brain development in fetuses and children.
• Inadequate levels of calcium in the body can also impair its ability to expel organophosphates, a class of pesticides long recognized by the EPA and independent scientists as especially toxic to the young developing brain.

Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) researchers have found that sleep restriction and circadian disruption impairs glucose regulation and metabolism.

Too little sleep or sleep patterns that are inconsistent with our body's "internal biological clock", such as when performing shift work, may lead to increased risk of diabetes and obesity. Previous research has found the same thing in short-term lab studies and epidemiological studies.

However, unlike epidemiological studies, this new Harvard/BWH study provides support by examining humans in a controlled lab environment over a prolonged period, and altering the timing of sleep, mimicking shift work or recurrent jet lag. The study was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.