Health & WellnessS


Bad Guys

WHO Scandal Exposed: Advisors Received Kickbacks from H1N1 Vaccine Manufacturers

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© NaturalNews
A stunning new report reveals that top scientists who convinced the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare H1N1 a global pandemic held close financial ties to the drug companies that profited from the sale of those vaccines. This report, published in the British Medical Journal, exposes the hidden ties that drove WHO to declare a pandemic, resulting in billions of dollars in profits for vaccine manufacturers.

Several key advisors who urged WHO to declare a pandemic received direct financial compensation from the very same vaccine manufacturers who received a windfall of profits from the pandemic announcement. During all this, WHO refused to disclose any conflicts of interests between its top advisors and the drug companies who would financially benefit from its decisions.

All the kickbacks, in other words, were swept under the table and kept silent, and WHO somehow didn't think it was important to let the world know that it was receiving policy advice from individuals who stood to make millions of dollars when a pandemic was declared.

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Exercise is Good Medicine for Preventing and Reducing an Angry Mood

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© iStockphoto
Numerous studies have examined the positive effects of exercise on improving mood. However, little research has been designed to investigate the effect of exercise on feelings of anger. A recent study presented at American College of Sports Medicine's 57th Annual Meeting in Baltimore discovered that exercise might have a beneficial affect on anger in men.

A research team assessed angry mood and emotions in 16 collegiate men high in "trait anger." The subjects viewed anger-inducing scenes before and after 30 minutes of leg-cycling exercise at 65 percent of their maximal oxygen uptake. The investigators measured oscillatory brain activity, the event-related late-positive potential (LPP), and self-reports of anger intensity during picture viewing.

"The major novel finding from this study is that exercise protected against angry mood induction, almost like taking aspirin to prevent a heart attack," said lead investigator Nathaniel Thom, Ph.D., a stress physiologist. "In other words, exercise really is like medicine. However, exercise did not change EEG responses during elicitation of angry emotions in our subjects."

Info

Online Games New Marketing Tool for Unhealthy Foods

UC Davis public health researchers have found that children, who are already saturated with television messages about unhealthy food choices, are the targets of a new medium used to sell high-fat, high-sugar foods: advergames.

Advergames are an entertaining blend of interactive animation, video content and advertising, exposing children for extended periods of time to online messages that primarily promote corporate branding and products.

The analysis, published in the May issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, leads its authors to recommend increased regulation of food companies that target youth.

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Junk-food Advertising Moves Online

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One of several games for kids on the Trix website
Here's more compelling evidence that food companies, putative key "partners" in the battle against obesity, aren't exactly acting in good faith. They may talk about calorie-cutting partnerships and donate money to healthy-living initiatives - but they don't put their real money where their collective mouth is.

I'm referring, of course, to the billions of dollars in advertising that Big Food directs at children every year. Even as pressure continues to grow for government restrictions, Big Food has already moved on. A study out of UC Davis (via Science Daily) shows that the new frontier in junk food advertising is the Internet, thanks to an explosion of so-called "advergames."

Attention

Toxic Chemicals Finding their Way into the Womb

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Five years ago Molly and Zachery Gray were in the midst of a dark, lonely spiral. It began with Molly's first miscarriage.

"It was a really emotional process of being so joyful and so happy and ready to make that step into parenthood and that being pulled away from you," said Molly, 32. "[The pregnancy is] happening and all of a sudden it's gone. It's really hard."

After a second miscarriage the Grays were on a desperate hunt for answers. After Molly got pregnant a third time, she heard about a small study to test the blood of pregnant women for chemicals. She signed up.

The Grays wondered, as many do, if chemicals in the environment could be to blame. The science on this matter cannot yet give them an answer.

A growing number of studies are finding hundreds of toxic chemicals in mothers' and, subsequently, their babies' bodies when they are born. While there is no science yet that demonstrates conclusive cause and effect between this mix of toxic chemicals children are born with and particular health problems, a range of studies are finding associations between elevated levels of chemicals in a baby's body and their development. Not definitive cause and effect, but associations.

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What Brain Scans Can Tell Us About Marriage

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© Luke Frazza/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesLake Idyll In 2000, Tipper and Al Gore gave no sign of problems
The sudden breakup of Al and Tipper Gore's seemingly idyllic marriage was the latest and among the sharpest reminders that the only two people who know what's going on in a marriage are the two people who are in it.

The truth is that most marriages, even our own, are something of a mystery to outsiders.

Several years ago, a marriage researcher - Robert W. Levenson, director of the psychophysiology laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley - and his colleagues produced a video of 10 couples talking and bickering. Dr. Levenson knew at the time that five of the couples had been in troubled relationships and eventually divorced. He showed the video to 200 people, including pastors, marriage therapists and relationship scientists, asking them to spot the doomed marriages. They guessed wrong half the time.

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World Health Organization Scientists Linked to Swine Flu Vaccine Makers

Scientists who advised the World Health Organization on its influenza policies and recommendations - including the decision to proclaim the so-called swine flu a "pandemic" had close ties to companies that manufacture vaccines and antiviral medicines like Tamiflu, a fact that WHO did not publicly disclose.

The links between the advisors and the companies that make money from vaccines and flu treatments were detailed in a report published online by the British medical journal BMJ, which investigated the advisors' role in WHO's policy.

The report by Deborah Cohen, features editor of BMJ, and Philip Carter, a journalist with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London, acknowledged that flu experts do "need to work with industry to develop the best possible drugs for illnesses," but said that allowing industry experts to have a role in the formulation of public health policy was a slippery slope.

Light Saber

Tobacco companies take New York City to court over false claims

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© Savulich for NewsFascist scare tactics: NYC's lies are being challenged in court
Tobacco companies have taken the city of New York to court in reaction to anti-smoking signs that illustrate the various health hazards of smoking.

The New York Health Department developed three different signs that show the harmful effects of smoking on the body last December, requiring all cigarette sellers in the city to display at least one warning sign at the cash register or next to the cigarettes.

The lawsuit claims that by forcing the signs, which bear messages such as "smoking causes tooth decay," on vendors, the city is violating their rights.

"The government may not force private parties to carry messages beyond purely uncontroversial factual statements that are designed to prevent consumer deception," said the lawsuit cited by Reuters.

"The signs ... do not describe the risks of smoking in purely factual terms. Instead, the signs force tobacco manufacturers and retailers to communicate vivid images at the point of sale," the suit said.

Heart

10-Year-Old Slashes Cholesterol by Not Eating School Lunches

Garland, Texas - On the outside, Mary Harris looks like a typical 10-year-old girl. But three months ago she was diagnosed with high cholesterol and a body mass index that was too high.

"This is her good cholesterol," Dr. Jane Sadler says while pointing to Mary's chart.

The Baylor-Garland doctor added that Mary was trending towards trouble and wrote a prescription that didn't have anything to do with a drugstore--she told Mary to stop eating school lunches and be more active.

"This is a kid who took ownership of her health, Dr. Sadler said. "This is a family that took ownership in their childs health and adopted a lifestyle that would improve her whole way of living."

Mary didn't just run with it--she walked with it. Instead of catching a ride home from school, she walks a mile with her friends and now she eats lots of fruits and vegetables instead of chips and sodas.

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Hidden Chemicals in Perfume and Cologne

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A rose may be a rose. But that rose-like fragrance in your perfume may be something else entirely, concocted from any number of the fragrance industry's 3,100 stock chemical ingredients, the blend of which is almost always kept hidden from the consumer.

Makers of popular perfumes, colognes and body sprays market their scents with terms like "floral," "exotic," or "musky," but they don't disclose that many scents are actually a complex cocktail of natural essences and synthetic chemicals - often petrochemicals. Laboratory tests commissioned by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and analyzed by Environmental Working Group revealed 38 secret chemicals in 17 name brand fragrance products, topped by American Eagle Seventy Seven with 24, Chanel Coco with 18, and Britney Spears Curious and Giorgio Armani Acqua Di Gio with 17.

The average fragrance product tested contained 14 secret chemicals not listed on the label. Among them are chemicals associated with hormone disruption and allergic reactions, and many substances that have not been assessed for safety in personal care products.