Health & WellnessS


Syringe

In medical breakthrough, HIV-positive man 'cured' by stem cell transplant

David Edwards
Raw Story
Tue, 14 Dec 2010 22:32 UTC
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An HIV-positive man who received a stem cell transplant for leukemia has been cured of HIV infection, doctors announced recently.

While the case was first reported at the 2008 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston, doctors have now published an updated report in the journal Blood, which affirms extensive testing.

"It is reasonable to conclude that cure of HIV infection has been achieved in this patient," the doctors wrote.

In 2007, Timothy Ray Brown suffered a relapse of leukemia that required a stem cell tranplant. Brown, also known as "Berlin patient," was given stem cells from a donor that lacked the CCR5 receptor, "a condition that is present in less than 1 percent of Caucasians in northern and western Europe," according to London-based AidsMap.
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Sun

Sunscreen Chemicals Absorbed into Body, Found in 85 Percent of Human Milk samples

S. L. Baker
Natural News
Tue, 14 Dec 2010 16:55 UTC
sun screen
© Natural News
Before you apply creams, lotions, cosmetics and sunscreens to your skin, it might be a good idea to find out what's really in them. What's more, you need to know those ingredients aren't necessarily just coating the outside layers of your skin. For example, as NaturalNews previously reported, UCLA scientists have recently discovered nanoparticles in cosmetics and sunscreens can enter and wander throughout the body, potentially disrupting body functions on a sub-cellular level. And now, for the first time, a study just published in the international science journal Chemosphere has shown that a group of chemicals known as UV (for ultraviolet radiation) filters are turning up in humans internally -- and the phenomenon is widespread.

In fact, the investigation, conducted by a Swiss National Research Program called Endocrine Disrupters: Relevance to Humans, Animals and Ecosystems, found UV filters, which are common in cosmetics and sunscreens, were present in 85 percent of human milk samples tested. What does this mean for adults, much less babies taking in this contaminated milk? The alarming truth is, no one knows.
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Target

Senate Bill S510: Not About Food Safety

Ben Hewitt
foodfreedom.wordpress.com
Sat, 11 Dec 2010 12:53 UTC
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© foodfreedom.wordpress.com
A few folks have asked what I think of S510: The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act that just passed the Senate. The short answer is, "not much." The slightly longer answer is below.The even longer answer can be found in my forthcoming book, Making Supper Safe, where I explore even another aspect of food safety: The need for bacterial diversity in our food and our bodies.

As S510: Food Safety Modernization Act stumbles toward what it beginning to feel like inevitable passage, with support from progressive food personalities like Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, we would do well to consider the inherently weak assumptions that are propelling it forward.

It is often stated that foodborne illness kills more than 5,000 Americans annually, sends another 325,000 to the hospital, and provides a whopping 76 million of us an unwelcome opportunity to become overly familiar with the view from our toilet. It is less often stated that the 1999 study providing these numbers ends with a line that reads "unknown agents account for approximately 81% of foodborne illnesses and hospitalizations and 64% of deaths." In other words, a significant majority of assumed illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths are just that: Assumed. The numbers are merely extrapolated from estimates of all deaths by gastroenteritis of unknown cause. Indeed, the extrapolation accounts for 3,400 of the total study estimate of 5,194 deaths annually.
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Arrow Down

Pertussis: Investigating An Epidemic

Joanne Faryon
KPBS.org
Tue, 14 Dec 2010 12:20 UTC
Last month I took an unexpected trip to Amsterdam. Ironically, it was not California's Proposition 19 (the ballot initiative that would have legalized marijuana) that led me there, but the state's whooping cough epidemic.

Let me explain.

Before this summer, what I knew about whooping cough, I learned as a new mother when my son was immunized as an infant. I knew he needed three shots before he was six months old to be protected from the illness as a baby. I didn't know how dangerous the disease could be to infants, I just knew immunizing him could spare him from getting sick.

Now, 13 years later, after a state-wide epidemic has killed 10 babies, infected thousands, and lasted far longer than health officials had ever expected, I know more about the dangers and complexities of whooping cough than I should. After all, this is a disease that was nearly wiped out when I was a kid in the 1970's. Whooping cough or pertussis, is a respiratory illness caused by bacteria. It can be deadly to young babies and debilitating to adults. KPBS began reporting on the epidemic in early summer. By late summer when news releases indicated many of the children getting sick were up to date with their immunizations, we decided to look at the data. Who was getting sick? Were they immunized?
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Attention

Adult Flu Shot Vaccine Injury Nightmare: "Drug Store Disability" Could Happen to You

Dan Olmsted
Age of Autism
Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:57 UTC
On the whole, Lisa Marks Smith would rather have had the flu. Instead, the Cincinnati mom of two college-age sons got a mercury-containing flu shot that nearly killed her, led to paralysis, severe neurological problems, 24 days in the hospital - and a check from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program that attests to the truth of her story.

Smith has come to see first-hand how carelessly flu shots are administered, how dangerous the mercury that remains in most of them can be, how little public health officials actually seem to care when the worst happens, why the worst may not be so rare after all - even how similar the side effects can be to symptoms of autism.

She talked to Age of Autism about her ordeal, which began in 2005, in the hope of sparing others.

******
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Arrow Down

US life expectancy continues to plummet, but not because of inadequate health care


NaturalNews.com
Tue, 14 Dec 2010 11:16 UTC
A new report published in the journal Health Affairs says the U.S. has dropped to 49th place in overall life expectancy among the nations of the world. The report blames the nation's failing health care system and lack of universal health coverage as the culprit. But the true causes of America's poor health include things like its broken food system, overuse of chemical pesticides, and dependence on pharmaceutical drugs -- all of which are poisoning the population and the environment, and lowering lifespans.

In 1999, the World Health Organization (WHO) ranked the U.S. 24th in the world for overall life expectancy. But over the past decade, that ranking has dropped 25 spots, and experts have been scrambling to come up with an answer as to why this is the case.

Authors of a recent study allege that the "uniquely inefficient" health care system in the U.S. is to blame, and in a sense they are right. The U.S. health care system promotes disease rather than health. But on the other hand, the authors miss the point because their sentiment seems to suggest that universal health will solve the problem when, in reality, it will only make it worse.
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Mr. Potato

US students mourn alcohol and caffeine drink Four Loko

Rajini Vaidyanathan
BBC News
Mon, 13 Dec 2010 17:36 UTC
Four Loko
© Getty ImagesThe makers of Four Loko have removed caffeine from the drink amid health fears
Alcopops containing caffeine and alcohol have been removed from the shelves in the US, following reports of students becoming dangerously drunk. The move comes amid anxiety about similar drinks in countries from Scotland to Mexico.

A few weeks ago in New York a group of college students gathered at a vigil. They sang songs, and held candles as they mourned the passing of a friend.

The scene can be seen on YouTube. What makes it slightly surreal is that the gathered crowd is lamenting the demise of an alcoholic drink, Four Loko.

From Monday, Four Loko will no longer exist in its original incarnation - as a mix of alcohol and caffeine in a can - on the orders of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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Video

Four Tablespoons of This "Brain Food" May Prevent Alzheimer's


Dr. Mercola
Mon, 13 Dec 2010 15:04 UTC

Watch these videos featuring Dr. Mary Newport to learn about an amazing discovery which could potentially be a "cure" for Alzheimer's and memory loss.

Source

Coconut Ketones July 22, 2008
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Magnify

FDA to Review Science Behind Ruling on Mercury in Dental Fillings

Andrew Zajac
Los Angeles Times
Fri, 10 Dec 2010 14:13 UTC
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© physorg.comMercury in dental fillings
Consumer and dental groups challenged the FDA's analysis that determined mercury released from fillings doesn't cause harm.

Less than 18 months after concluding that mercury in dental fillings was not harmful to patients, the Food and Drug Administration is reviewing the scientific basis for its decision.

A panel of outside experts will meet next week to consider challenges from four consumer and dental groups to the analysis that FDA used to justify its conclusion that mercury released from dental amalgam fillings is too low to cause harm.

Agency officials said Thursday there's no new evidence contradicting that assessment, and that "at this time FDA is not modifying its existing guidance."

The FDA's position is supported by the American Dental Assn., which says that treatment decisions should be left to patients and their dentists.
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Attention

Practicing Medicine on Death Row

Robert Wilbur
Truthout
Thu, 09 Dec 2010 13:50 UTC
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© pikimota
Execution by lethal injection has shone a harsh light on the complicity of health professionals - physicians, nurses and paramedics - in carrying out capital punishment. In a 2001 survey in the prestigious journal, Archives of Internal Medicine, an astonishing 41 percent of physicians surveyed said that they would assist or even carry out an execution by lethal injection and there is little evidence that the percentage has changed significantly since then. Deborah W. Denno JD, PhD, a leading scholar of death penalty litigation at the Fordham University School of Law in New York City, remarked that physician participation in executions is more prevalent than one might think, although exact numbers are not available because of the secrecy surrounding executions. And this does not even include the nurses and paramedics (also known as Emergency Medical Technicians or EMTs) who head up the execution teams in many states. Interestingly, the leadership of several major organizations have taken a more enlightened view on executions than many of their members.

Execution medicine is not a new specialty. Two centuries ago, physicians helped to design the guillotine, which remains an iconic symbol of the French Revolution. In the United States, hanging was the punishment of choice until 1890, when New York State carried out the first execution with the electric chair - invented by a physician, touted for its humaneness by an oral surgeon and carried out secretly by Thomas Alva Edison.
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