Health & WellnessS


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Avoid Refined Sugar, Prevent Breast Cancer Recurrence

Keith I. Block, MD
Huffington Post
Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:23 UTC
Several years ago, we saw tremendous growth in the consumption of fat-free and low-fat products. Believing we now had "healthier" versions of everything from salad dressings to our favorite desserts, these products began flying off the shelves, and formerly "forbidden" foods for those watching their diets became acceptable in their reduced fat versions. While perhaps reducing their fat intake, most consumers were unknowingly increasing their sugar intake, as refined sugar was the ingredient most often used in place of fat. The increased consumption of refined sugar can have serious health consequences, including a greater vulnerability to cancer, and possibly, even a worse outcome. Let me explain what happens when too much refined sugar and other food products are consumed.

If you ingest whole foods, insulin will be secreted slowly and the body will manage this well. Insulin is needed to carry glucose into your tissues and is essential for providing much needed fuel. However, ingest a candy bar, your favorite brand of cookies or 12 ounces of soda pop - what I like to refer to as carbonated belly wash - and the cells in your pancreas will respond with a surge of insulin.
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Researchers have Suggested: Green Tea Extract May Slow Leukemia

Rebecca Smith
Telegraph.co.uk
Sat, 05 Jun 2010 21:07 UTC
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© ALAMYGreen tea leaves
An extract taken from green tea reduces cancer cells in the blood of patients with a form of leukemia and may slow progression of the disease, a conference will hear.

Researchers at the prestigious Mayo Clinic in America have found that patients in the early stages of the most common form of leukemia may respond well to taken supplements of a green tea extract.

The chemical, epigallocatechin galeate (EGCG), was found more than two thirds of 42 patients in the trial showed a significant reduction in the number of leukemia cells in their blood or other signs the cancer was not spreading.
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Health

Reproductive Health Concerns in the Aftermath of the Gulf Oil Disaster

Lucinda Marshall
Truthout
Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:15 UTC
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© Jared Rodriguez Adapted: Trevor Bair, Bart van Damme)
Imagine that you are a woman living on or near the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Perhaps, you are pregnant or hope to be soon. And, perhaps, your partner is one of the fishermen who has been helping to clean up from the BP oil disaster. He comes home at night coughing and barely able to breath and his skin is irritated from contact with the oil.

Will exposure to the toxic chemicals in the oil and/or in the dispersants damage his sperm or your eggs, perhaps making it difficult to conceive? Could the chemicals damage the embryo you already carry, cause a miscarriage or birth defects? Is your newborn baby or young child at particular risk? Should pregnant women and children living near the Gulf take special precautions? And what if you don't even live near the gulf, could your reproductive health be impacted as well?

While all of these issues are valid concerns, there has been no substantive effort to address them in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon explosion. According to Dr. Riki Ott, a marine biologist who has worked extensively to study and raise awareness about the impact of oil spills on both the environment and on people, the ability to fight against toxic-ins is not fully developed in the womb or in children and, as a result, these populations are particularly vulnerable. "Pregnant woman and children should not be anywhere near this," she said in a phone interview.
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The Vaccine Firestorm


Alliance for Natural Health
Tue, 08 Jun 2010 19:08 UTC
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Last Friday's shocking news - the revelation of hidden financial ties and influence-peddling behind the World Health Organization's declaration of a worldwide H1N1 pandemic - is only one of our articles this week on the controversial issue of immunization. We'll tell you about flu vaccine deaths, fetal death and injury from mercury, a high government official formerly in charge of vaccines who now works for a drug and vaccine maker, and yet another tragic miscarriage of justice in the case of a pioneer of autism research.

Although the health issues involved are the most troubling, we show how the truth can be uncovered, as always, by heeding that old adage: "Follow the money."
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Health

Children of lesbian parents do better than their peers

Jim Giles
New Scientist
Tue, 08 Jun 2010 17:02 UTC
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© David Ellis/GettyKid lucked out
The children of lesbian parents outscore their peers on academic and social tests, according to results from the longest-running study of same-sex families.

The researchers behind the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study say the results should change attitudes to adoption of children by gay and lesbian couples, which is prohibited in some parts of the US.

The finding is based on 78 children who were all born to lesbian couples who used donor insemination to become pregnant and were interviewed and tested at age 17.

The new tests have left no doubt as to the success of these couples as parents, says Nanette Gartrell at the University of California, San Francisco, who has worked on the study since it began in 1986.

Well-adapted children

Compared with a group of control adolescents born to heterosexual parents with similar educational and financial backgrounds, the children of lesbian couples scored better on academic and social tests and lower on measures of rule-breaking and aggression.
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Suicides Rise Among Boomers in United States

Patricia Cohen
The New York Times
Fri, 04 Jun 2010 00:00 UTC
For the second year in a row, middle-aged adults have registered the highest suicide rate in the country, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Historically, the eldest segment of the population, those 80 and older, have had the highest rates of suicide in the United States. Starting in 2006, however, the suicide rate among men and women between the ages of 45 and 54 was the highest of any age group.

The most recent figures released, from 2007, reveal that the 45-to-54 age group had a suicide rate of 17.6 per every 100,000 people. The second highest was the 75-to-84 age range, with a rate of 16.4, followed by those between 35 and 44, with a 16.3.

The rate for 45- to 54-year-olds in 2006 was 17.2 per 100,000 people, and in 2005 it was 16.3.
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Breast Cancer Cells Destroyed by Peach and Plum Extracts

Sherry Baker
NaturalNews
Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:00 UTC
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© iStockphotoPeaches
Even the most aggressive types of breast cancer cells couldn't stand up to treatments with peach and plum extracts. That's the outcome of a natural fruit-derived treatment tested in the Texas AgriLife Research Lab which resulted in cancer cells dying while normal cells were not harmed at all.

"It was a differential effect which is what you're looking for because in current cancer treatment with chemotherapy, the substance kills all cells, so it is really tough on the body," Dr. David Byrne, an AgriLife Research plant breeder and scientist, said in a press statement. "Here, there is a five-fold difference in the toxic intensity. You can put it at a level where it will kill the cancer cells -- the very aggressive ones -- and not the normal ones."

So what could be in peaches and plums (fruits known as "stone" fruits because of their large, stone-like seeds) that zaps even the most deadly breast cancer cells? In their study, which was published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, Dr. Byrne and fellow AgriLife food scientist Dr. Luis Cisneros-Zevallos concluded two phenolic compounds were responsible for the cancer cell deaths.
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Western Diet Promotes Depression in Women

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:00 UTC
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© Blend Images LLCResearch found mood disorders were more common among women who ate high-fat and sugary foods
Women who eat a typical Western diet high in junk food may increase their risk of suffering from mood disorders such as depression, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Melbourne and published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Researchers gathered psychiatric evaluations of 925 women between the ages of 20 to 93 over the course of ten years, then compared them to data collected on the participants' diets. They found that women who ate a diet high in white bread, hamburgers, pizza, chips, beer, flavored dairy beverages and sugary foods were 50 percent more likely to suffer from depression or anxiety than women who did not eat such a diet.

In contrast, women who ate what the researchers classified as a traditional Australian diet, high in vegetables, fruit, beef, lamb, fish and whole grains, were 30 percent less likely to suffer from mood disorders than women who did not follow the Australian diet.

The connections between the diets and the risk of mood disorders remained strong even after researchers adjusted for potential confounding factors such as education, age, socioeconomic status, weight, physical activity, and alcohol and tobacco consumption.

Initially, the researchers found a lowered risk of mood disorders in women who consumed large quantities of salads, fruits, fish, tofu, beans, nuts, yogurt and red wine, but this association disappeared after they adjusted for confounding factors.
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Doctors Are Addicted to "Every Drug Under the Sun"

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:00 UTC
Doctors suffer in secret from a wide range of physical and mental health problems including addiction, according to the findings of a new health program in the United Kingdom.

The Practitioner Health Program (PHP) was set up in response to concerns that health professionals were self-medicating or avoiding treatment for serious health problems, out of fear of being stigmatized if they visited a colleague for help. The program provides confidential health services, and so far has been judged a success.

"From the number of patients accessing PHP during its first year, it's clear there is a need for this highly specialized service," said England's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson.
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America Today: Medicated Drivers, Toxic Foods and Counterfeit Money Supply

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:00 UTC
There are a great many reasons to love America. For one thing, Freedom of Speech remains largely intact in the USA (although the FDA has struck a serious blow to the principle with its ongoing censorship of free speech about nutritional supplements). We also have a diverse culture of people who are by and large friendly people. This was brought home to me recently when I was traveling through the Gulf Coast region, talking to people on the street about the BP oil spill. Virtually everyone was friendly, and I found I could walk right up to all sorts of people -- from the country fisherman in Biloxi Mississippi to the street-drumming entertainers in New Orleans -- and they were all happy to chat.

America offers a lot to be thankful for, but there are also some serious problems that are eroding the very things that make America great. Those problems are the subject of my most recent CounterThink Cartoon called "America Today" which portrays six of the most serious problems threatening America's future.

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© NaturalNews
Below, I explain each of these six big problems and why they threaten the future of America as we know it.
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