Health & WellnessS


Cheeseburger

Why Quick, Cheap Food Is Actually More Expensive

Dr. Mark Hyman
Huffington Post
Sat, 14 Aug 2010 22:05 UTC
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© Slow Food Movement
I was in a grocery store yesterday. While I was squeezing avocados to pick just the right ones for my family's dinner salad, I overheard a conversation from a couple that had also picked up an avocado.

"Oh, these avocados look good, let's get some."

Then looking up at the price, they said, "Two for five dollars!" Dejected, they put the live avocado back and walked away from the vegetable aisle toward the aisles full of dead, boxed, canned, packaged goods where they can buy thousands of calories of poor-quality, nutrient-poor, factory-made, processed foods filled with sugar, fat, and salt for the same five dollars. This is the scenario millions of Americans struggling to feed their families face every day.

The odd paradox is that food insecurity - not knowing where the next meal is coming from or not having enough money to adequately feed your family - leads to obesity, diabetes and chronic disease. Examining this paradox may help us advocate for policies that make producing fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole other foods cheaper, while rethinking the almost $300 billion in government subsides that support the production of cheap, processed food derived from corn and soy.
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Attention

Chemical Regulations and the Modern Mattress: The Stuff of Nightmares

Barry Cik
greenbiz.com
Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:53 UTC
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© unknown
I've spent the last 30 years as an environmental engineer, but it wasn't until I became a grandfather that I fully understood the extent to which industrial chemicals had invaded the American home.

My rude awakening came when my wife sent me to buy a crib mattress for our first grandchild. I was appalled by what I found; the crib mattresses were full of industrial chemicals. Because of my environmental engineering background, I knew how harmful these chemicals could be to a developing child.

No one sets out to make toxic baby mattresses; it just evolved that way. As just one example, nearly all baby mattresses are covered with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to make them waterproof. Because PVC is rigid, manufacturers mix in a class of chemicals called phthalates to soften the PVC. When added to PVC, phthalates don't stay put; they leach into the air, making children more vulnerable to asthma, reproductive harm and cancer. One short-sighted decision leads to another and, before you know it, you've got a very unhealthy baby mattress.
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Info

Brain Scans Show How Meditation Calms Pain

Alan Mozes
USA Today
Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:43 UTC
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© Jon Rou, Emory UniversityDr. Giuseppe Pagnoni is a zen monk researcher who did a mediation in an MRI machine study in 2008.
People who routinely practice meditation may be better able to deal with pain because their brains are less focused on anticipating pain, a new British study suggests.

The finding is a potential boon to the estimated 40% of people who are unable to adequately manage their chronic pain. It is based on an analysis involving people who practice a variety of meditation formats, and experience with meditation as a whole ranged from just a few months to several decades.

Only those individuals who had engaged in a long-term commitment to meditation were found to have gained an advantage with respect to pain relative to non-meditators.

"Meditation is becoming increasingly popular as a way to treat chronic illness such as the pain caused by arthritis," study author Dr. Christopher Brown, from the University of Manchester's School of Translational Medicine, said in a university news release.
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People

Study: Prayer Actually Heals


Newsmax Health
Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:53 UTC
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© Unknown
Prayer heals when it's close-up and personal, and there's a study to prove it.

It's not just any kind of prayer, but "proximal intercessory prayer," or PIP - when one or more people pray for someone in that person's presence and often with physical contact - that was found by a team of doctors, scientists, and religious experts to have remarkable results in healing some patients.

A team of medical doctors and scientists led by Indiana University professor of religion Candy Gunther Brown found in the study, conducted in rural Mozambique, that prayer brought "highly significant" improvements to hearing-impaired participants and significant changes to the visually impaired.

Fourteen hard-of-hearing and 11 visually impaired study participants were recruited at meetings of pentecostal Christian groups in three Mozambican villages and one town.
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Cow

U.S. Unsure if Cloned Meat has been Sold in North America

Sarah Schmidt
calgaryhearld.com
Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:08 UTC
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© Suzanne Plunkett, ReutersDemonstrators wearing masks depicting Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, protest against cloning animals for food, in London August 6, 2010. The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture on Tuesday said he doesn’t know whether cloned cows or their offspring have made it into the North American food supply.
The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture on Tuesday said he doesn't know whether cloned cows or their offspring have made it into the North American food supply.

But Tom Vilsack, in Ottawa to talk trade with food exporters and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, emphasized that if they have, the animals are safe to eat.

"I can't say today that I can answer your question in an affirmative or negative way. I don't know. What I do know is that we know all the research, all of the review of this is suggested that this is safe," Vilsack told reporters, pointing to an assessment of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.


Comment: Vilsack mentions twice in the statements above that cloned animals are safe to eat, copying word for word the FDA statement in January 2008:

FDA to clear cloned livestock for consumers
The U.S. Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) is expected to declare as early as next week that meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring is safe to eat, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday...

The decision would come after more than six years of wrestling with the question and would be a milestone for a small cadre of biotech companies that want to make a business out of producing cloned farm animals.
Vilsack and the FDA keep claiming the safety of cloned meat, but do not provide any data to support such claims.

Comment: The public has made biotechnology an issue and consumers want Genetically Engineered Food Labeled:

'Cloned Beef' On Store Shelves Causes Stir In Britain
The cloning "scandal," as it's been dubbed, has been a top headline all week. It's not illegal to sell meat and dairy products derived from cloned animals in Britain. But such products are supposed to be sold as a novelty food - like kangaroo meat or chocolate-covered African bees - and licensed and labeled accordingly.
Illegal Cloned Cow's Milk On Sale In UK
Despite deep unease among consumers, the milk is not being labelled or identified in any way, leaving shoppers in the dark about what they are drinking.

The dairy farmer involved said he wanted to remain anonymous because the British public regards cloning as so distasteful that buyers would stop taking his milk.
European Union Votes for Labels on Nano, Cloned and GM food
Canada refuses to label cloned meat 'organic'
European Parliament votes to ban cloned animal meat

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Pills

Antibiotics' Efficiency Wanes Due to Global Spread of Drug-Resistant Bacteria

Sarah Boseley
The Guardian
Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:11 UTC
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© Murdo Macleod/The GuardianThe efficiency of antibiotics is decreasing due to the spread of a bacterial gene conferring high levels of drug resistance.
International travel and medical tourism have led to the rapid, global spread of drug-resistant bacteria that may presage the end of antibiotics and leave doctors struggling to treat infected patients, scientists warn today.

A new gene conferring high levels of resistance to almost all antibiotics has been found to be widespread in forms of gut bacteria that can cause potentially life-threatening pneumonia and urinary tract infections.

In just three years, says Professor Tim Walsh of Cardiff University who discovered the gene, it has grown in prevalence from being rarely observed at all to existing in between 1% and 3% in patients with Enterobacteriaceae infections in India.
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Health

Tylenol linked to asthma in teens

Thomas H. Maugh II
LATimes.com
Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:29 UTC
A new study shows that adolescents who take acetaminophen, better known as Tylenol, have a higher risk of asthma, allergic nasal conditions and the skin disorder eczema.

A major new international study released Friday has found that adolescents who take acetaminophen, better known under the brand name Tylenol, have a higher risk of asthma, allergic nasal conditions and the skin disorder eczema. Those who took the common painkiller as infrequently as once a month had twice the normal risk of developing the disorders. Experts noted, however, that the study does not show that the drug causes the problems. In fact, some said, it is equally likely that the children were taking the drug because they were already suffering from asthma.

Acetaminophen is widely viewed as a very safe drug - one reason why hospitals use it routinely as a painkiller instead of aspirin or ibuprofen. The major problem associated with it is liver damage caused by overdoses. Recently, however, there has been a growing drumbeat about possible dangers from the drug. One study, for example, found that acetaminophen increased the risk of hearing loss in men. And some others have hinted that the drug is linked to asthma in newborns whose mothers used the drug during pregnancy and in young children exposed to it.
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Bulb

Better Sleep Through Meditation


Health.com
Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:46 UTC
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Anyone who's ever experienced a fitful night of sleep knows that "just relax" is easier said than done. But do-it-yourself meditation practices may help you prepare for rest, and put worries or discomfort behind you.

These techniques work best when done right before bed, in a quiet, calming environment. But you can also practice them several times a day, recommends Joyce Walsleben, PhD, associate professor at New York University School of Medicine.
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Info

BPA Report Details Chemical's Hazards


NewsInferno
Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:34 UTC
Yesterday, a Maine-based environmental group - Toxics Action Center - released "The Latest Science on Bisphenol A - January to July 2010." The report precedes Maine's Board of Environmental Protection's public hearing by one week; the meeting concerns a statewide ban on Bisphenol A (BPA), the group noted on its Web site.

BPA is a ubiquitous polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resin found in a wide variety of consumer products, including common paper receipts, as well as in water as a result of aquatic paints. BPA can be found in appliances and windshields; aluminum can linings; baby bottles, infant formula, and sippy cups; eyeglasses; some dental sealants; water bottles; cars; and DVD and CD cases. As a component, BPA can be verified if the item contains recycling number 7. Over six billion pounds of BPA are produced annually.

The report contains the must current collection of published scientific literature - from January through June 2010 - regarding the health impacts of BPA, said Toxics Action. Of 81 studies included in the compilation, the vast majority - 75 in all - conclude that not only are humans exposed to the chemical but that there exist negative health reactions connected to exposure to BPA, wrote Toxics Action.
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Magnify

The Fluoride Fraud

Abby Martin
mediaroots.org
Sat, 24 Jul 2010 21:29 UTC
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© unknown
When was the last time you stopped to think about the one thing you can't live without? I don't mean the Internet - I'm talking about water. Without clean drinking water, life could not go on. This is why it's so important that we know what is in our water. For the past sixty-five years, city governments nationwide have been adding a controversial substance called fluoride to municipal water supplies.

You probably recognize the word fluoride from the back of your toothpaste tube or from your visits to the dentist. But the fluoride added to our water is not the same as that in our toothpaste. The chemical added to our water is a fluorine compound called hexafluorosilicic acid that is generated as a by-product from the phosphate fertilizer industry.

Phosphates are minerals that are used to make fertilizer, and phosphate mining industry is a giant moneymaker. Fluoride is created by the production of fertilizer as well as in the manufacturing of steel, aluminum, glass, and cement. Previously, the lack of government regulation allowed gaseous fluoride to move through factory smokestacks and straight into our atmosphere. Now, environmental regulations require giant filtration systems called "scrubbers" atop the stacks to keep these toxic chemicals from escaping into the air. Fluorosilicic acid is then extracted from these scrubbers and condensed to a water-based solution which is packaged unrefined and sold to city governments for the purpose of water fluoridation.

Comment: For a much more in depth look at the health risks associated with fluoride read the following articles:

3,000 Professionals Petition to Remove Fluoride from Drinking Water
Fluoride: Worse than We Thought
The Price of Too Much Fluoride
Information on fluoride isn't really new -- A recap on the poisoning of the public
Fluoride Accumulates in Pineal Gland

Videos about Fluoride:

Video: History of the Fluoride Deception
US doctors expose fluoride as poison, want it banned from water supply
What is a poison like fluoride doing in our tap water?

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