Health & WellnessS


Syringe

Vaccination's Vexed Link to Autism

Marj Lefroy
Sydney Morning Herald
Wed, 14 Sep 2011 17:39 UTC
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© Sydney Morning HeraldEnvironmental factors ... vaccination may have a role in the development of some types of autism.

Vaccines and autism: why this curious case is not closed

For many parents, childhood vaccinations are this century's abortion debate - highly divisive and driving a wedge between friends and neighbors. In the red corner are those banging the 'vaccinate at any cost' drum, and in the blue corner a collection of concerned parents and carers who say they're dealing with the damage done.

For people in the pro-vaccination camp, the fact that there is even a debate to be had is vexing. "What's wrong with these irresponsible parents?" they say. "So educated and yet so stupid! Don't they know that MMR study was discredited? And how can you take a Playboy Bunny seriously?" But there are reasons why the case of the curious link between vaccinations and autism is not closed, and Andrew Wakefield and Jenny McCarthy are not necessarily two of them.
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Beaker

Hormone-Mimics In Plastic Water Bottles


Science Daily
Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:17 UTC
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© treehugger.comBisphenol A (BPA) — a chemical commonly found in hard plastics.
Plastic packaging is not without its downsides, and if you thought mineral water was 'clean', it may be time to think again. According to Martin Wagner and Jörg Oehlmann from the Department of Aquatic Ecotoxicology at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, plastic mineral water bottles contaminate drinking water with estrogenic chemicals.

In an analysis of commercially available mineral waters, the researchers found evidence of estrogenic compounds leaching out of the plastic packaging into the water. What's more, these chemicals are potent in vivo and result in an increased development of embryos in the New Zealand mud snail. These findings, which show for the first time that substances leaching out of plastic food packaging materials act as functional estrogens, are published in Springer's journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research.

Comment: For more information about the correlation between BPA and health concerns read the following articles:

President's Cancer Panel Warns of Toxic Effects of BPA
Study: Human Exposure to BPA 'Grossly Underestimated'
BPA Report Details Chemical's Hazards
Human Placenta Cells Die After BPA Exposure
BPA Should Be Avoided, Federal Official Says
The Real Story Behind Bisphenol A

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Attention

Consumer Concerns About Hormones in Food


envirocancer.cornell.edu
Thu, 01 Jun 2000 16:01 UTC
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© blog.mysanantonio.com
What are hormones?

Hormones are chemicals that are produced naturally in the bodies of all animals, including humans. They are chemical messages released into the blood by hormone-producing organs that travel to and affect different parts of the body. Hormones may be produced in small amounts, but they control important body functions such as growth, development and reproduction.

Hormones can have different chemistry. They can be steroids or proteins. Steroid hormones are active in the body when eaten. For example, birth control pills are steroid hormones and can be taken orally. In contrast, protein hormones are broken down in the stomach, and lose their ability to act in the body when eaten. Therefore, ordinarily, protein hormones need to be injected into the body to have an effect. For example, insulin is a protein hormone. Diabetic patients need to be injected with insulin for treatment.

Why are hormones used in food production?

Certain hormones can make young animals gain weight faster. They help reduce the waiting time and the amount of feed eaten by an animal before slaughter in meat industries. In dairy cows, hormones can be used to increase milk production. Thus, hormones can increase the profitability of the meat and dairy industries.
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Attention

Highly Toxic Mercury Present in Processed Foods, Yet FDA Does Nothing

Anthony Gucciardi
Natural Society
Sat, 17 Dec 2011 13:06 UTC
FDA Mercury Poisoning
© Natural Society

Why has the FDA ignored the fact that mercury, an element that is highly toxic in all forms, was found in a large number of brand-name processed foods? Specifically, the mercury content was found to be contained in high-fructose corn syrup, which also reportedly contains genetically modified ingredients. Instead of addressing this major public health concern, the FDA is focusing their time on crushing beneficial supplements through ridiculous NDI regulations that threaten the entire infrastructure of the nutraceuticals industry.

Researchers from two U.S. studies reported that about half of tested samples of high-fructose corn syrup contained mercury. Mercury was also found in nearly a third of 55 popular brand-name food and beverage products which listed high-fructose corn syrup as the first-or-second-highest labeled ingredient.

Following the report, organizations like the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy called on the FDA for immediate action:
"Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high-fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply," the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Dr. David Wallinga, a co-author of both studies, said in a prepared statement.
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Extinguisher

There's Flame Retardant in Mountain Dew and Other Sodas

Casey Chan
Gizmodo
Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:40 UTC
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© treehugger.com
Mountain Dew. The oh so sweet is it yellow? is it green? nectar of the geek gods and fuel for gamers has flame retardant in it. Yup. Mountain Dew, along with 10 percent of sodas in the US, contains brominated vegetable oil (BVO), a flame retardant chemical banned in Europe and Japan.

The flame retardant, BVO, is currently listed as an ingredient in various citrus soft drinks such as: Mountain Dew, Squirt, Fanta Orange, Sunkist Pineapple, Gatorade Thirst Quencher Orange, Powerade Strawberry Lemonade and Fresca Original Citrus.

But why and what for? According to the Environmental Health News, BVO contains "bromine atoms which weigh down the citrus flavoring so it mixes with sugar water" instead of floating to the top. Basically, BVO gives soda more consistent flavoring. That sounds good! But BVO is also added to polystyrene foam cushions in furniture and plastics in electronics because BVO can slow down the chemical reactions that cause a fire. Yuck. Is that what we want to be drinking?
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Arrow Up

Is Being Healthy a Revolutionary Act?

Dr. Mark Hyman
drhyman.com
Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
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REVOLUTIONS BUBBLE OUT OF INJUSTICE. Social, political, economic, spiritual, and physical oppression drives people to rise up against violations of basic human rights. Working with Partners in Health this year, after the earthquake in Haiti, I learned from Dr. Paul Farmer that health is among the most neglected of human rights.

The injustices that violate our health as a human right occur not just in impoverished countries like Haiti, but are embedded in 21st century America. And we are exporting disease across the globe, where the overweight - now 1.7 billion large - outnumber the malnourished.

I would argue not only that health is a neglected human right, but that it is a right that has been taken from us.

Our health has been hijacked - slowly, quietly and often deliberately over the past century.

Our social, political and economic conditions support obesity and disease. Habits and the default choices in our society are built into the fabric of every segment of our society - families, homes, schools, workplaces, and places of worship, our government institutions and health care centers.

Our current food, social, and community environments make it hard for us to make healthy choices. In fact, staying healthy has become almost impossible, which is why almost three quarters of Americans are overweight and one in two Americans have one or more chronic diseases.

If you are healthy today, you are increasingly in the minority. But we can get healthy and reclaim our lives and wellbeing.
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Attention

Lectins, Gluten, Rheumatoid Arthritis, & Molecular Mimicry

Dr. Osborne
Glutenfreesociety.org
Sat, 17 Dec 2011 10:40 UTC
I recently had an opportunity to sit down with Fox News and discuss the concept of food inducing autoimmune disease...

On that same note, the following review study discusses the correlation between food proteins, lectins, autoimmune inflammation, and the concept of molecular mimicry...
Despite the almost universal clinical observation that inflammation of the gut is frequently associated with inflammation of the joints and vice versa, the nature of this relationship remains elusive. In the present review, we provide evidence for how the interaction of dietary lectins with enterocytes and lymphocytes may facilitate the translocation of both dietary and gut-derived pathogenic antigens to peripheral tissues, which in turn causes persistent peripheral antigenic stimulation. In genetically susceptible individuals, this antigenic stimulation may ultimately result in the expression of overt rheumatoid arthritis (RA) via molecular mimicry, a process whereby foreign peptides, similar in structure to endogenous peptides, may cause antibodies or T-lymphocytes to cross-react with both foreign and endogenous peptides and thereby break immunological tolerance. By eliminating dietary elements, particularly lectins, which adversely influence both enterocyte and lymphocyte structure and function, it is proposed that the peripheral antigenic stimulus (both pathogenic and dietary) will be reduced and thereby result in a diminution of disease symptoms in certain patients with RA.
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Heart

Fever Appears to Rev Up the Immune System

Dr. John Briffa
Drbriffa.com
Sat, 17 Dec 2011 10:18 UTC
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© babble.com
Let's imagine you're walking around barefoot and stub your big toe hard on the leg of a table. It hurts. That's a pain (quite literally), but at least it's telling you you've done something you might want to avoid doing too often. And should that pain persist in the form of inflammation, there's a chance you are going to be a bit more protective of that toe while it heals. Look at it like that, and there's an argument for seeing pain as a positive thing.

This is a simple example of how the body generates symptoms that, while inconvenient, are to the betterment of the body and the healing process. Another example is fever.

One of the normal symptoms and signs of infection is raised body temperature. I've read and been told several times that fever 'helps the immune system do its job', and there now appears to be some evidence that this is indeed the case. In a study published recently in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, higher body temperature in mice was found to lead to greater numbers of cells known as CD8+ T cells that have the ability to kill cells infected with a virus (as well as tumour cells) [1].

Comment: For more information, also read: Do Not Kill a Fever: Fever Kills Viruses

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Ambulance

US: South Carolina Has First Human Rabies Case in 50 Years

Harriet McLeod
Reuters
Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00 UTC
A middle-aged woman in South Carolina has contracted the state's first case of human rabies in more than 50 years, health officials said on Friday.

"There are only about one to three cases of human rabies each year in this country," said Dr. Eric Brenner, epidemiologist with the state Department of Health and Environmental Control's Bureau of Disease Control.

"Tragically, rabies almost always ends in death," he said in a statement.

Brenner said health officials believe the woman likely was bitten by a bat that entered her home a few months ago.

"The rabies virus travels slowly through the body until it reaches the brain and central nervous system and produces serious initial symptoms including headache, difficulty swallowing, seizures, anxiety, agitation and confusion," he said. "Most patients die within a few weeks after the onset of these symptoms."
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Attention

The Dangers of Soy Are Real - and Much Worse Than You Might Think


naturalhealthstrategies.com
Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:49 UTC
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© unknown
Promoting soy foods as health foods while ignoring the dangers of soy and soy derivatives should be considered a crime against humanity. If you think this statement is too extreme, read this article to the end, and then see what you think!

The dangers of soy are thoroughly documented in the scientific literature, which makes it hard to believe that many health and fitness communities and counselors, and most health food stores, still promote soy products as ultra-healthy foods.

Hopefully this harmful misrepresentation of soy foods will begin to change as the dangers of soy become better known.

Comment: For a more in depth look at The Truth about Soy read the following articles:

Soy: Dark Side of a "Health Food"
95% of Soy Products May be Damaging Your Health
Not Soy Fast
Is Soy the Ticket to Good Health or Infertility? Here's the Scoop
Confused About Soy?: Soy Dangers Summarized
The War on Soy: Why the 'Miracle Food' May Be a Health Risk and Environmental Nightmare

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