Health & WellnessS


Bad Guys

Toxic Corexit Dispersant Chemicals Remained Secret as Feds Colluded with Big Business

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:00 UTC
After weeks of silence on the issue, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally decided to go public with the list of ingredients used to manufacture Corexit, the chemical dispersant used by BP in the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. There are two things about this announcement that deserve our attention: First, the ingredients that have been disclosed are extremely toxic, and second, why did the EPA protect the oil industry's "trade secrets" for so long by refusing to disclose these ingredients until now?

As reported in the New York Times, Brian Turnbaugh, a policy analyst at OMB Watch said, "EPA had the authority to act all along; its decision to now disclose the ingredients demonstrates this. Yet it took a public outcry and weeks of complaints for the agency to act and place the public's interest ahead of corporate interests."

On the toxicity question, you could hardly find a more dangerous combination of poisons to dump into the Gulf of Mexico than what has been revealed in Corexit. The Corexit 9527 product has been designated a "chronic and acute health hazard" by the EPA. It is made with 2-butoxyethanol, a highly toxic chemical that has long been linked to the health problems of cleanup crews who worked on the Exxon Valdez spill.
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Bad Guys

America Infects the World with Its False Beliefs About Mental Illness

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:00 UTC
U.S. ideas of mental illness are spreading around the world, leading to an actual change in the kinds of mental disorders experienced in other cultures.

In contrast to the view held by modern psychiatry, the forms of madness have varied widely throughout space and time -- including such unique phenomena as "amok," in which men from certain Southeast Asian cultures would go into a murderous rage then forget about it; zar, in which Middle Easterners would experience dissociative episodes marked by laughing, shouting and singing; and a wave of leg paralysis that struck European women in the late 1800s.

"We might think of the culture as possessing a 'symptom repertoire' -- a range of physical symptoms available to the unconscious mind for the physical expression of psychological conflict," wrote Edward Shorter of the University of Toronto in his book, Paralysis: The Rise and Fall of a 'Hysterical' Symptom.
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Newspaper

Swedish Girl Grows Her Face Back After Side Effect to Pharmaceuticals Caused Her Face to Fall Off

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:00 UTC
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© CatersEva Uhlin has finally recovered her looks.
Four years after a rare drug reaction caused her face to turn black and fall off, 19-year-old Eva Uhlin has beaten the odds and made a nearly full recovery.

In September 2005, Uhlin took a capsule of acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol and marketed in the United States as Tylenol) to bring down a fever. The combination of her virus and the drug, however, produced a rare condition known as Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis. When she woke up the next day, blisters were spreading all over her body, including her face.

"It was terrifying, because at the time they didn't know what was wrong with me or what would happen to me," she said. "When I looked in the mirror ... I didn't recognize myself."

Uhlin's skin began to burn, scab, blister and fall off on her face, arms, back, chest and stomach. Her lips actually grew together, making it impossible for her to open her mouth.
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Info

BPA Present in Most Canned Foods


NewsInferno
Fri, 11 Jun 2010 06:53 UTC
Readers of this blog are familiar with issues surrounding the highly ubiquitous and estrogenic chemical bisphenol A - known commonly as BPA - a compound in nearly every consumer product. Now, headlines are discussing what we have long been saying: BPA can be found in most canned foods. Here is how BPA works inside canned foods, explained Reuters: The thin epoxy resin layer rests between the food and the metal, which serves to prevent rust.

According to Shanna Swan, a professor and researcher at the University of Rochester in New York, BPA exposure from canned food, "is far more extensive" than, say, from plastic bottles. "It's particularly concerning when it's lining infant formula cans," quoted Reuters. Although a known carrier of the controversial chemical, plastic bottles are not the only item containing the plastic hardener known for its use in polycarbonate manufacturing. BPA is also found in beverage cans, a wide array of plastic products, thermal paper, and resins used in nautical paint, an issue in our aquatic environment.

BPA imitates the hormone estrogen and acts as an anti-androgen, which means, even in the smallest of amounts, BPA affects sexual development and processes, especially in developing fetuses, infants, and children, explained Science Daily previously.
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Pills

Overuse of Antibiotics Spurs Vicious Cycle


Dr. Mercola
Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:11 UTC
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Patients who are over-prescribed antibiotics may develop drug resistance that lasts up to a year. This puts both them and the larger population at risk.

The more antibiotics are prescribed for coughs and flu-like illnesses, the more bacteria become resistant in a vicious cycle.

According to Reuters:
"Medical experts say overuse of antibiotics in Europe, the United States and other wealthy regions is building widespread resistance in and threatening vital medical treatments from hip replacements and cancer therapies, to intensive care."
Sources:

Reuters May 18, 2010
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Arrow Up

White Tea May Contain More Health Benefits Than Green Tea

Deanna Sletten
examiner.com
Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:49 UTC
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© Matthew BowdenWhite tea has been found to have a higher concentration of antioxidants than green tea.
Some studies have shown that white tea contains a greater concentration of polyphenols (catechins) than green tea and may contain more health benefits because of this. Three studies found white tea to be beneficial for the prevention of colon cancer, obesity and even aging.

White Tea's Production Makes it More Effective

White tea is made from the same species of plant (Camellia sinensis) as other leaf teas but the processing of white tea is different. White tea leaves and buds are picked when they are young and then immediately steamed and dried to maintain the optimum freshness. Not only does this give white tea a lighter, smoother flavor, it also helps it to maintain a higher concentration of antioxidants than green tea. Green tea is made of mature tea leaves which are picked, steamed or fried and then rolled. The processing of the leaves of green tea can make it lose some of its healing properties.
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Info

EPA Says: Endosulfan to be banned, poses 'unacceptable risks' to farm workers and wildlife

Marla Cone
Environmental Health News
Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:00 UTC
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Workers in California's Salinas Valley pick summer crops. Endosulfan is used primarily on vegetables, fruits and cotton.
The EPA, declaring that endosulfan is unsafe for farm workers, moves to ban one of the last organochlorine pesticides left in the United States. Like DDT, endosulfan accumulates in the environment and in the bodies of people and wildlife, and is transported around the world to remote places. EPA officials on Wednesday announced that "pesticide products containing endosulfan do not meet the standard for registration" and pose "unacceptable risks" to farm workers and wildlife. The decision reverses one made in 2002 that triggered a lawsuit from farm labor unions and environmental activists.

Endosulfan is a chlorinated insecticide that is chemically similar to DDT, which was banned nearly 40 years ago. Like DDT, endosulfan builds up in the environment and in the bodies of people and wildlife, and it is transported around the world via winds and currents. Nearly all other organochlorine pesticides already have been banned.
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Bell

A Life Engulfed by Pesticides

Barry Estabrook
The Atlantic
Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:45 UTC
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© Barry Estabrook
Leaning on her cane, Linda Lee matter-of-factly listed her medical conditions: diabetes, lupus, high blood pressure, emphysema, and arthritis. She had her hip replaced and her gall bladder removed. Her kidneys failed, so she had a transplant. She also had two corneal implants. Asked what caused her woes, the 57-year-old resident of Apopka, Florida, doesn't hesitate: for nearly a decade as a farm laborer on the shores of Lake Apopka in the 1970s and 1980s, she was routinely exposed to agricultural chemicals.

Sadly, Lee is in no way unusual among the roughly 2,500 African Americans, Haitians, and Mexicans with whom she toiled. In a survey of workers conducted in 2006 - eight years after the Apopka farms were closed - the Farmworker Association of Florida found that 92 percent of respondents had been exposed to pesticides through a combination of aerial spraying, wind drift, touching plants still wet with pesticides, or inhaling pesticides. They reported arthritis, throat problems, diabetes, persistent coughing, recurring rashes, miscarriages, birth defects, and childhood developmental difficulties - all conditions that research studies have linked to chemicals applied in the area.
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Red Flag

Study Finds: Tailpipe fumes are five times worse for bikers than for drivers

Jonathan Hiskes
Grist
Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:28 UTC
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© Joel Mann via Flickr.Parked cars separate this Montreal cycle track from cars - and, researchers hope, from their tailpipe fumes.
Well this is a bummer: A Belgian study finds that bicyclists on urban streets inhale tens of millions of toxic nanoparticles with each breath, taking in five times as much as drivers and pedestrians on the same streets.

The U.K. Times reports on the new research:
Because they are exerting themselves, cyclists breathe harder and faster than other road users. The study found that they suck in about 1,000 cubic cm with each breath, meaning they may inhale tens of millions of the particles each time they fill their lungs, and billions during a whole journey.

"This is the first time anyone has counted the particles while also measuring people's breathing during city commuting. It showed that cyclists can inhale an astonishing number of pollutant particles in one journey," said Luc Int Panis of the transport research institute at Hasselt University in Belgium, who led the study.
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Magnify

New Research: Electropollution Can Cause Diabetes (Type-3)

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
Thu, 10 Jun 2010 00:00 UTC
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© NaturalNews
Most people are familiar with type-1 diabetes and type-2 diabetes, but did you know researchers have discovered a third type of diabetes? Type-3 diabetes, as they are calling it, affects people who are extra sensitive to electrical devices that emit "dirty" electricity.

Type-3 diabetics actually experience spikes in blood sugar and an increased heart rate when exposed to electrical pollution ("electropollution") from things like computers, televisions, cordless and mobile phones, and even compact fluorescent light bulbs.

Dr. Magda Havas, a PhD from Trent University in Canada, recently published the results of a study she conducted on the relationship between electromagnetic fields and diabetes in Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine. In it, she explains how she and her team came to discover this about why electropollution is so dangerous for many people.
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