Health & WellnessS


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Childhood: Exercise Yields Dividends in the Classroom

Nicholas Bakalar
New York Times
Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:56 UTC
Image
© unknown
Physical exercise in children improves not only cardiovascular health but also academic performance, an analysis of several studies has found.

The review, published in The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, covered 14 prospective studies that included at least one measure of physical activity and one of cognitive skill or academic achievement.

Nine studies compared students based on participation in gym classes or organized sports, rather than on measurements of physical activity. These produced inconsistent conclusions.
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Health

Lower Your Cholesterol, Increase Your Diabetes Risk By 48%

Sayer Ji
GreenMedInfo
Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:00 UTC
Statin
© GreenMedInfo

A recent study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found that the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins increase the risk of diabetes within postmenopausal women by 48%.

This new finding adds to a growing body of clinical evidence that statin drugs are fundamentally diabetogenic, which is not surprising considering the National Library of Medicine contains peer-reviewed, published research on over 300 other known adverse effects associated with their use.

The profound irony here is that most of the morbidity and mortality associated with diabetes is due to cardiovascular complications. High blood sugar and its oxidation (glycation) contribute to damage to the blood vessels, particularly the arteries, resulting in endothelial dysfunction and associated neuropathies due to lack of blood flow to the nerves. Statin drugs, which are purported to reduce cardiovascular disease risk through lipid suppression, insofar as they contribute to insulin resistance, elevated blood sugar, and full-blown diabetes, are not only diabetogenic but cardiotoxic, as well.

Cardiotoxicity, in fact, is a characteristic property of this chemical class. Because the heart muscle is muscle, and because the most well-known adverse effect of statin drugs is their muscle-damaging (myotoxic) properties, it does not take more than commonsense to deduce that statin drugs are toxic to the heart muscle as well.
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Alarm Clock

Fracking Moratorium Urged by U.S. Doctors Until Health Studies Conducted

Alex Wayne
Bloomberg
Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:40 UTC
The U.S. should declare a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas in populated areas until the health effects are better understood, doctors said at a conference on the drilling process.

Gas producers should set up a foundation to finance studies on fracking and independent research is also needed, said Jerome Paulson, a pediatrician at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington. Top independent producers include Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) and Devon Energy Corp. (DVN), both of Oklahoma City, and Encana Corp. (ECA) of Calgary, according to Bloomberg Industries.

"We've got to push the pause button, and maybe we've got to push the stop button" on fracking, said Adam Law, an endocrinologist at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, in an interview at a conference in Arlington, Virginia that's the first to examine criteria for studying the process.

Fracking injects water, sand and chemicals into deep shale formations to free trapped natural gas. A boom in production with the method helped increase supplies, cutting prices 32 percent last year. The industry, though, hasn't disclosed enough information on chemicals used, Paulson said, raising concerns about tainted drinking water supplies and a call for peer- reviewed studies on the effects. The EPA is weighing nationwide regulation.
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Health

Research From 100+ Countries Proves Sunlight Prevents Cancer

Sayer Ji
GreenMedInfo
Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:00 UTC
The Sun
© GreenMedInfo

For the same reason that the conventional energy industry has not harnessed the full potential of solar energy (its free!), sunlight and its indispensable byproduct in our skin: vitamin D, represents a serious threat to the medical establishment, whose questionable and aggressive promotion of vaccination and drug-based strategies in place of inexpensive, safe and effective vitamin D supplementation (or better, carefully meted out recreation and sunlight exposure) for immunity, has many questioning their motives.

Vitamin D, after all, has a vital preventive role to play in hundreds of conditions, due to the fact that 1 in every 10 genes in the human body depends on adequate quantities of this gene-regulatory hormone to function optimally. In other words, the very genetic/epigenetic infrastructure of our health would fall apart without adequate levels.

Even the risk for developing cancer, one of the most feared health conditions of our time -- and the one the medical establishment has had the least success preventing and treating -- is intimately connected to your vitamin D status.

Indeed, a groundbreaking new meta-analysis on the sunlight-vitamin D connection, published in the journal Anticancer Research and based on data from over 100 countries, found that "a strong inverse correlations with solar UVB for 15 types of cancer," with weaker, though still significant evidence for the protective role of sunlight in 9 other cancers.
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People

Advice From Life's Graying Edge on Finishing With No Regrets

Jane E. Brody
The New York Times
Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:19 UTC
At 17, I wrote a speech titled, "When You Come to the End of Your Days, Will You Be Able to Write Your Own Epitaph?" It reflected the approach to life I adopted after my mother's untimely death from cancer at age 49. I chose to live each day as if it could be my last - but with a watchful eye on the future in case it wasn't.

My goal was, and still is, to die without regrets.

For more than 50 years, this course has served me well, including my decision to become a science journalist instead of pursuing what had promised to be a more lucrative and prestigious, but probably less enjoyable, career as a biochemist. I find joy each day in mundane things too often overlooked: sunrises and sunsets, an insect on a flower, crows chasing a hawk, a majestic tree, a child at play, an act of kindness toward a stranger.

Eventually, most of us learn valuable lessons about how to conduct a successful and satisfying life. But for far too many people, the learning comes too late to help them avoid painful mistakes and decades of wasted time and effort.
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Health

Nicotine May Help Combat Memory Loss

Cory Hatch
MyHealthNewsDaily
Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:30 UTC
Brain Circulation
© Skypixel | Dreamstime

Nicotine could help people with early memory loss maintain or improve their attention and memory, a new study suggests.

Study participants with mild memory problems who received nicotine performed better six months later at tasks such as reacting to a stimulus on a computer screen and memorizing a paragraph, according to the study.

The results are important because doctors have gotten better at diagnosing dementia while the condition is still in its early stages, said study co-author Dr. Paul Newhouse, a professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

"The earlier you can intervene, the better," Newhouse said. "We want to treat people as early as we can and save as much brain function as we can."

The study is published today (Jan. 9) in the journal Neurology.

Comment: Let's All Light Up!

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Health

How Too Much Calcium Can Break Your Bones

Sayer Ji
GreenMedInfo
Mon, 09 Jan 2012 07:00 UTC
Broken Bone
© GreenMedInfo

Did you know that most calcium supplements on the market today are basically limestone? Yes, that's chalk. Conceal it within a capsule, a slickly glazed tablet, or in the form of a silky smooth liquid, and it is magically transformed into a "calcium supplement": easy to swallow, "good for the bones" and a very profitable commodity for both the dietary supplement and mining industries. After all, a sizable portion of the Earth's crust is composed of the stuff.

Calcium carbonate comes very cheap. But does it work? A review published in Osteoporosis International Aug. 2008 concluded that calcium monotherapy (without vitamin d) actually increases the rate of fracture in women. If we believe the results of this study, it would appear that calcium alone may do nothing to prevent bone fracture or the loss of bone quality. Were this the end of the story, we might write off the $100 or more we spend on calcium supplements every year as a loss, and start drinking more milk. Not so quick!

In the Harvard Nurses' Health Study, a review tracking 78,000 nurses for 12 years found that the more cow's milk they consumed, the higher rate of bone fracture they experienced; in the study, the relative risk of hip fracture was 45% higher in those women who drank two or more glasses of milk per day versus those who drank one glass or less. In fact, in countries where both dairy consumption and overall calcium levels in the diet are the lowest, bone fracture rates are also the lowest; conversely, in cultures like the United States where calcium consumption is among the highest in the world, so too are the fracture rates among the highest (see: The China Study).
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Health

Fluoride: Calcifier of the Soul

Sayer Ji
GreenMedInfo
Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:00 UTC
Pineal Gland
© GreenMedInfo

The Discovery

Research published in 2001 showed that fluoride (F) deposits in the pineal gland with age and is associated with enhanced gland calcification. Eleven aged cadavares were dissected and their pineal glands assayed:
"There was a positive correlation between pineal F and pineal Ca (r = 0.73, p<0.02) but no correlation between pineal F and bone F. By old age, the pineal gland has readily accumulated F and its F/Ca ratio is higher than bone." Source
What Is The Pineal Gland?

The pineal gland is a small endocrine gland in the vertebrate brain, and is sometimes called the "third eye" as it is a light sensitive, centrally-located organ with cellular features resembling the human retina.

One article describes the role of the pineal gland in more technical terms here:
"The role of the nonvisual photoreception is to synchronise periodic functions of living organisms to the environmental light periods in order to help survival of various species in different biotopes" Source
The pineal gland is best known for its role in producing the hormone melatonin from serotonin (triggered by the absence of light) and affects wake/sleep patterns and seasonal/circadian rhythms. Like a tiny pea-sized pine cone it is located near the center of the brain, between the two hemispheres and is a unique brain structure insofar as it is not protected by the blood-brain-barrier. This may also explain why it is uniquely sensitive to calcification via fluoride exposure.
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Info

The 10 Most Stressful Careers

Chad Brooks
BusinessNewsDaily
Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:38 UTC
Soldier
© BusinessNewsDaily

Plenty of people probably think of their own job is the most stressful, but a new poll shows that distinction goes to members of the military and firefighters.

The 2012 CareerCast.com Job Stress Report found that enlisted military soldiers have the most stressful job; medical records technicians ranked as the least stressful.

Not surprising, the five most stressful jobs all come with significant on-the-job dangers. The second five might be more surprising.

The list is as follows:
  • Soldiers
  • Firefighters
  • Airline pilots
  • Military generals
  • Police officers
  • Event coordinators
  • Public relations executives
  • Corporate executives
  • Photojournalists
  • Taxi drivers
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X

Mystery disease kills 100 in Uganda


Zeenews
Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:38 UTC
Image
© Unknown
A mystery disease has killed over 100 people and infected more than 2,000 in northern Uganda.

The disease, first reported in September 2009, has since been dubbed "nodding disease" as it leaves its victims nodding, Xinhua reported.

Spread over the region's five districts, the disease is characterised by head nodding, mental retardation and stunted growth and affects children and young adults. It causes young children and adolescents to nod violently while eating.

Scientists are to launch a series of investigations as the previous efforts couldn't identify the disease's cause.
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