Health & WellnessS


Cut

Male Circumcision Leads to a Bad Sex Life

Niels Ebdrup
Science Nordic
Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:47 UTC
sex
© ColourboxThe Danish study is the first one ever to look into what effect male circumcision has on their female partners.
Circumcised men have more difficulties reaching orgasm, and their female partners experience more vaginal pains and an inferior sex life, a new study shows.

If a man is circumcised, he faces an increased risk of experiencing delayed orgasm, and his female partner has an increased risk of not feeling sexually fulfilled.

This is the clear-cut conclusion of a new Danish research article, which has received international attention.

Some 5,000 sexually active men and women were surveyed about their experiences and possible problems with their sex lives. With a specific focus on circumcised men and their women, the results are startling.
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Health

Antibiotic Resistance Marching Across Europe

Natasha Gilbert
Nature
Tue, 22 Nov 2011 20:21 UTC
Bacteria
© Southampton General Hospital / SPLCertain strains of the bacterium Clostridium difficile are resistant to antibiotics, and can prove fatal.

Our last line of defence against hospital 'superbugs' is faltering, with resistance to the antibiotics usually used to tackle intractable pneumonia and urinary tract infections on the rise and spreading across European countries.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Solna, Sweden, announced last week that 29 new cases of bacteria resistant to the broad-spectrum carbapenem antibiotics had been reported across a total of six European Union (EU) countries between early October 2010 and the end of March 2011.

The figures coincide with the publication, on 17 November, of a European Commission strategy to tackle antibiotic resistance. The plan sets out 12 recommendations, including strengthening surveillance systems to better track and report cases of resistance, providing advice on the "prudent" use of antibiotics in human and veterinary medicine - including correct dosage - and launching research initiatives focused on better understanding how resistance arises and developing new antibiotics.

Tackling antibiotic resistance "is now critical, with the establishment of resistance to the last line of antibiotics being reported to the ECDC from several European countries for the first time", Marc Sprenger, ECDC director, told reporters at a press conference. "Failure to act will mean that treatment options for patients will be severely limited."
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Attention

Death in Days: Beware of This Bacteria

Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:58 UTC

Dr. Meryl Nass is one of the leading experts on the anthrax vaccine, which is relatively obscure yet has an interesting history, with which Dr. Nass is very familiar.

Her interest in the anthrax vaccine goes back to 1988.

She was a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) when students at the University of Massachusetts looking into the University's Pentagon contracts discovered a researcher who had previously worked at Fort Detrick and was doing work on anthrax.

"They thought this was probably germ warfare research and asked my group to look at it and help them understand it," she says.

She was tasked with the investigation.
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Health

Two Vitamin C Tablets Every Day Could Save 200,000 Lives Every Year


Orthomolecular Medicine News Service
Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:31 UTC
Image
© Victor B/Fotolia.com
Ascorbate Supplementation Reduces Heart Failure

New research has reported that risk of heart failure decreases with increasing blood levels of vitamin C [1]. Persons with the lowest plasma levels of ascorbate had the highest risk of heart failure, and persons with the highest levels of vitamin C had the lowest risk of heart failure.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) there are about 600,000 deaths from heart disease each year. [2] This is an enormous number. The definition of heart failure used by the study authors was on the basis of drugs prescribed, which would include all forms of heart disease that cause death. This agrees well with the CDC definition.

Specifically, the study found that each 20 micromole/liter (μmol/L) increase in plasma vitamin C was associated with a 9% reduction in death from heart failure. That works out to 54,000 fewer deaths from heart failure for each increase in 20 μmol/L plasma vitamin C. If everyone took high enough doses of vitamin C to reach the highest quartile (80 μmol/L), that would work out to approximately 216,000 fewer deaths per year. Just from taking vitamin C.
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Light Saber

Flashback Cuba prevents annual epidemic among 2.5m people using homeopathy


HomeopathyResource
Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:16 UTC
homeopathy
A remarkable successful use of homeopathic prophylaxis was reported from a Cuban conference. Of course, the exact numbers and results are still to be published. Cuba has its own vaccine production and instead of using a conventional medical vaccine homeopathic remedies were distributed to prevent the usual Leptospirosis outbreak after tropical flooding. The results were phenomenally excellent!

The CDC describes Leptospirosis as:
Leptospirosis is a bacterial disease that affects humans and animals. It is caused by bacteria of the genus Leptospira. In humans it causes a wide range of symptoms, and some infected persons may have no symptoms at all. Symptoms of leptospirosis include high fever, severe headache, chills, muscle aches, and vomiting, and may include jaundice (yellow skin and eyes), red eyes, abdominal pain, diarrhea, or a rash. If the disease is not treated, the patient could develop kidney damage, meningitis (inflammation of the membrane around the brain and spinal cord), liver failure, and respiratory distress.
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Evil Rays

Canadian Panel Nixes Mammograms for Women in Their 40s

Charles Bankhead
Med Page Today
Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Insiders Health
Women ages 40 to 49 do not need routine breast cancer screening with mammography, according to a Canadian preventive care task force.

Breast cancer screening for women of average risk in that age group results in a "relatively small" mortality benefit, which may be countered by an increased risk of overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment.

Comment: For more information about the dangers of routine screening read:

Cancer Screening is Essentially Useless; Experts Finally Begin Questioning Sanity of "Routine Screening"

New study: Breast Cancer Deaths Lower in Areas Without Mammograms

Women being conned about breast cancer screening

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Pills

What Drugs Was Your Thanksgiving Turkey On?

Martha Rosenberg
AlterNet
Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
Antibiotics and other drugs are common in the turkey that thousands of Americans eat every day.

So far, 2011 has not been a great year for turkey producers. In May, an article in Clinical Infectious Diseases reported that half of U.S. meat from major grocery chains--turkey, beef, chicken and pork--harbors antibiotic resistant staph germs commonly called MRSA. Turkey had twice and even three times the MRSA of all other meats, in another study.

In June, Pfizer announced it was ending arsenic-containing chicken feed which no one realized they were eating anyway, but its arsenic-containing Histostat, fed to turkeys, continues. Poultry growers use inorganic arsenic, a recognized carcinogen, for "growth promotion, feed efficiency and improved pigmentation," says the FDA. Yum.
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Magnify

Nanoparticles Used as Additives in Diesel Fuels Can Travel from Lungs to Liver


Science Daily
Thu, 17 Nov 2011 05:00 UTC
Image
© The Chemical Society of JapanSols of spherical cerium oxide nanoparticles
Recent studies conducted at Marshall University have demonstrated that nanoparticles of cerium oxide -- common diesel fuel additives used to increase the fuel efficiency of automobile engines -- can travel from the lungs to the liver and that this process is associated with liver damage.

The data in the study by Dr. Eric R. Blough and his colleagues at Marshall's Center for Diagnostic Nanosystems indicate there is a dose-dependent increase in the concentration of cerium in the liver of animals that had been exposed to the nanoparticles, which are only about 1/40,000 times as large as the width of a human hair. These increases in cerium were associated with elevations of liver enzymes in the blood and histological evidence consistent with liver damage. The research was published in the October 13 issue of the peer-reviewed research journal International Journal of Nanomedicine.

Cerium oxide is widely used as a polishing agent for glass mirrors, television tubes and ophthalmic lenses. Cerium oxide nanoparticles are used in the automobile industry to increase fuel efficiency and reduce particulate emissions. Some studies have found that cerium oxide nanoparticles may also be capable of acting as antioxidants, leading researchers to suggest these particles may also be useful for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disease and radiation-induced tissue damage.
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Attention

Common Infections Will Be 'Untreatable' If Antibiotic Misuse Continues

Tom Levitt
The Ecologist
Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:34 UTC
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© The EcologistCampaigners want to cut antibiotic use by 50 per cent in pigs, poultry and other livestock
Scientists in new warning on post-antibiotic age as campaigners call for stronger controls on excessive use in intensive farming

The world is being pushed towards the unthinkable scenario of untreatable infections, warns a new paper published in the medical journal Lancet, blaming a decline in new drug discoveries and the rising numbers of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

In the EU alone, 25,000 patients die every year from infections caused by drug resistant bacteria.

As well as investment into new antibiotics, there are growing calls for a crackdown on the misuse of existing antibiotics.

The biggest problem is seen as unnecessary use in human medicine but, the excessive use of antibiotics in intensive farming units, particularly pig and poultry farms, is seen as a growing threat.
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Health

95% of Soy Products May be Damaging Your Health

Andre Evans
Natural Society
Mon, 21 Nov 2011 11:28 UTC
Bowl of Noodles
© Natural Society

Soy has been pushed as a popular health food for a very long time. Used by vegetarians and vegans as an alternative to meats, and applied to a score of other health foods, soy foods have been popularized and commercialized as one of the ultimate health foods. However, around 95% of soy can actually be damaging to your health.

Soy is the second most genetically modified crop following corn. This means that unless otherwise noted, the vast majority of soy products that a health conscious consumer is using are actually causing them harm due to the unnatural and volatile process of genetic modification.

With 95% of all soy crops being genetically modified in order to be made 'Monsanto Roundup Ready,' not only are you receiving genetically defiled food, but food saturated with pesticides. Using genetic modification, most soy plants are tailored to resist high levels of toxic pesticide spraying that would kill a normal plant rapidly. The pervasive nature of GMO contamination threatens to spoil even organic soy plants.

But even still, soy in its base, unfermented form does little in substituting for real animal proteins, providing adequate nutrition, and contains estrogenic isoflavones that interfere with the body's ability to produce hormone properly.
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