Health & WellnessS


Heart - Black

Psychological Trauma Tied to Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Rick Nauert
Psychcentral.com
Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:15 UTC
A new study suggests the cumulative effects of psychological and emotional traumas may contribute to adult irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

In the study, Mayo Clinic researchers found that childhood and adult traumas - such as the death of a loved one, divorce, natural disaster, house fire or car accident, physical or mental abuse - are more common among adults with IBS, but to a lesser degree among affected and unaffected case relatives.

In addition, general life traumas were more commonly reported than physical, emotional or sexual abuse. Of the 2623 study participants, patients reported more traumas over a lifetime than controls - with traumas common before age 18 as well as after age 18.

Comment: Never mind that the most likely cause is gluten and casein with a big helping of irritating fiber. The Paleo diet quickly and easily cures IBS.

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Health

Autism Can Be an 'Advantage,' Researcher Says

Rachael Rettner
MyHealthNewsDaily
Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:59 UTC
Autism
© MyHealthNewsDaily

People with autism have advantages, in some ways, over people without the condition, and scientists need to stop viewing the traits of autism as flaws that need to be corrected, one autism researcher argues.

By seeing autism's differences as defects, researchers may fail to fully understand the condition, said Dr. Laurent Mottron, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal.

"Recent data and my own personal experience suggest it's time to start thinking of autism as an advantage in some spheres, not a cross to bear," Mottron wrote in a commentary published today (Nov. 2) in the journal Nature.

For instance, when researchers see activation in regions of autistic people's brains that differ from others' brains, they report these differences as deficits, "rather than evidence simply of their alternative, yet sometimes successful, brain organization," Mottron said.

By emphasizing the strengths of people with autism, deciphering how people with autism learn and avoiding language that frames autism as a defect, researchers can shape the discussion of autism in society, Mottron said.
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Attention

US: The C-section boom

Dr. Adam Wolfberg
The Boston Globe
Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:58 UTC
The heavy double doors swung open with a clunk, and a short, dark-haired woman walked uncomfortably onto the labor and delivery ward at Tufts Medical Center. Her husband was at her elbow, supporting her and looking concerned. Just then, she groaned, tightened her face, and braced herself against the wall as another contraction began. One week past her due date, the woman appeared to be in active labor. But after a pair of nurses got her into a blue hospital gown and she was examined by the resident physicians, it turned out that her cervix was dilated only 1 centimeter.

I was the obstetrician on hospital duty that Sunday morning, so I introduced myself and learned that the patient, pregnant with her first child, wished to have as few interventions as possible. Respecting her desire, we decided to reevaluate her in a few hours to see how her labor had progressed.

But would she get her wish? Thirty years ago, the caesarean rate in the United States was 17.9 percent; the most recent government figures now put that rate at 32.9 percent. For first-time mothers, the rate is around 26.5 percent. Put another way, the odds were greater than 1 in 4 that this woman would end up not with the natural delivery she wanted, but with a surgical delivery in one of the two operating rooms down the hall.
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Attention

More Deaths from Pharmaceutical Painkillers than Cocaine and Heroin Combined

Anthony Gucciardi
Natural Society
Wed, 02 Nov 2011 10:59 UTC
Drugs
© Natural Society

More Americans died in 2008 from pharmaceutical painkiller overdose than fatalities from illegal drugs like cocaine and heroin combined. Responsible for nearly 15,000 deaths in 2008, prescription painkillers have become wildly popular among Americans. The news comes after a previous report found drugs to outnumber traffic accidents in fatalities. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics, as of last year more than 12 million were on prescription painkillers purely for the high they cause instead of their intended medical purpose.

Many of these individuals obtain the drugs by eliciting prescriptions from several doctors, known as 'doctor shopping' within the community. Others purchase them from underground drug rings and illegal online pharmacies, bringing the ingredients into question. It is no wonder that the amount of painkillers made available at pharmacies and even doctors' offices has quadrupled from 1999 to 2010. In fact, the CDC has blamed irresponsible doctors for unnecessarily prescribing painkillers to patients who do not need them:
"More of a problem is now created by a few irresponsible doctors than drug pushers on street corners," CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden told reporters in a phone briefing.
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Heart - Black

Loneliness Affects Sleep Quality

Rick Nauert
Psychcentral.com
Wed, 02 Nov 2011 07:17 UTC
Image
© Unknown
A new study quantifies something many can confirm - that loneliness can hinder a normal night's sleep.

In turn, the poor sleep can adversely affect our health, say researchers from the University of Chicago.

"It's not just a product of very lonely individuals having poor sleep. The relationship between loneliness and restless sleep appears to operate across the range of perceived connectedness," said lead author Lianne Kurina, Ph.D.
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Attention

Merck's Profits Explode as Government-Backed HPV Shot Gardasil Sales Skyrocket

Anthony Gucciardi
Natural Society
Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:43 UTC
Big Pharma
© Natural Society

Mega drug manufacturer Merck & Co. is reporting a major increase in third-quarter profits due in part to the skyrocketing sales of death-linked HPV shot Gardasil - up 41 percent to $445 million thanks to government backing and a hugely successful yet deceptive ad campaigns targeted at unsuspecting parents and children. The overall value of Merck shares rose 80 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $35.11. The numbers are up from a year ago, when the company was hit with huge acquisition and legal charges. Of course behind the monetary surge in Gardasil sales is the horribly corrupt marketing and political techniques used to boost Merck out of economic downfall.

When it comes to Gardasil, Merck is more concerned about pushing the shot on children and generating a profit than examining the true effects of the shot. Merck pushes Gardasil on children through omission of facts, political bribery, and blatant lies.

How could Merck sell Gardasil in such high quantities despite documentation linking it to 3,589 harmful reactions and 16 deaths between May 2009 and September 2010 alone? Well, Merck likes to pretend that the death link does not exist. Furthermore, Merck uses monetary incentive, also considered bribery, to ensure that Gardasil legislation is swiftly passed by key legislators. Because when it comes to generating profit, Merck has no concern for the health of the individual - especially the target demographic of boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 12.
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Nuke

Gamma-Irradiated, Virus-Sprayed Frakenfoods

Sayer Ji
Greenmedinfo.com
Mon, 20 Jun 2011 17:40 UTC
Image
© mindfully.org
There is a profound misunderstanding in the mass market today about the value of certified organic food. The question is not whether the 30% or more you pay at the register for an organic product is really worth the added vitamin, mineral and phyto-nutrient content you receive. Even though organic food does usually have considerably higher nutrient density, it is not always the positive quality of what it contains that makes it so special. Rather, it is what you know the organic food does not contain, or what has not happened to it on its journey to your table, that makes buying organic a no-brainer to the educated consumer. Let me explain.

The FDA presently supports and actively promotes the use of Cobalt-60 culled from Nuclear Reactors as a form of "electronic pasteurization" on all domestically produced conventional food. The use of euphemisms like "food additive" and "pasteurization" to describe the process of blasting food with high levels of gamma-radiation can not obviate the fact that the very same death-rays generated by thermonuclear warfare to destroy life are now being applied to food to "make it safer." This sort of Orwellian logic, e.g. WAR is PEACE, is the bread and butter of State-sponsored industry propaganda.
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Arrow Up

Public Awareness Results in Increased Removal of Fluoride from Community Water

Dr. Mark Sircus
Activist Post
Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:15 UTC
Image
© blog.imva.info
A growing number of communities are choosing to stop adding fluoride to their water systems, even though the federal government and federal health officials maintain their full support of this practice. It was an insane idea from the beginning to add toxic fluoride to the public's water supply and now that money is getting scarce more people are willing to confront and stop paying for this medical insanity.

Such has been the grip of medical and dental terrorism that it is taking a financial collapse to finally put a stop to the horror of enforcing the mass administration of a medication on men, women and children without control for dosage, side effects or preexisting medical conditions.
200 jurisdictions from Georgia to Alaska that have chosen to end the practice in the last four years, motivated both by tight budgets and by skepticism about its benefits. - New York Times
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Mr. Potato

SOTT Focus: GMO Researchers Attacked, Evidence Denied, and a Population at Risk

Jeffrey M Smith
Sott.net
Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:00 UTC
Image
Biologist Arpad Pusztai had more than 300 articles and 12 books to his credit and was the world's top expert in his field. But when he accidentally discovered that genetically modified (GM) foods are dangerous, he became the biotech industry's bad-boy poster child, setting an example for other scientists thinking about blowing the whistle.

In the early 1990s, Dr. Pusztai was awarded a $3 million grant by the UK government to design the system for safety-testing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). His team included more than 20 scientists working at three facilities, including the Rowett Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland, the top nutritional research lab in the UK, and his employer for the previous 35 years. The results of Pusztai's work were supposed to become the required testing protocols for all of Europe. But when he fed supposedly harmless GM potatoes to rats, things didn't go as planned.

Within just 10 days, the animals developed potentially pre-cancerous cell growth, smaller brains, livers and testicles, partially atrophied livers, and damaged immune systems. Moreover, the cause was almost certainly side effects from the process of genetic engineering itself. In other words, the GM foods on the market, which are created from the same process, might have similar affects on humans.

With permission from his director, Pusztai was interviewed on TV and expressed his concerns about GM foods. He became a hero at his institute - for two days. Then came the phone calls from the pro-GMO prime minister's office to the institute's director. The next morning, Pusztai was fired. He was silenced with threats of a lawsuit, his team was dismantled, and the protocols never implemented. His institute, the biotech industry, and the UK government, together launched a smear campaign to destroy Pusztai's reputation.
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Info

Ignore the Politics: We Would All Be Healthier Without Table Sugar

Marion Nestle
The Atlantic
Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:57 UTC
Image
© Aivolie/Shutterstock
Both the Sugar Association and Corn Refiners are waging costly legal battles, but they only care about corporate profits, not public health.

The public relations firm for the Sugar Association, Levick Strategic Communications, sent me a press release celebrating the victory of sugar producers against corn refiners over the question of whether high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) can be renamed "corn sugar."

A federal judge ruled that the case brought by the Sugar Association against the Corn Refiners can proceed to trial. If you want the details, see the judge's "order denying in part and granting in part defendents' motion to dismiss", and "order granting defendents' motion to strike."
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