Health & WellnessS


Attention

President's Cancer Panel Warns of Toxic Effects of BPA

Dr. Samuel Epstein & Gail S. Prins, PhD
Huffington Post
Tue, 25 May 2010 15:52 UTC
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Bisphenol-A (BPA) is widely used as a plasticizer in polycarbonate baby bottles, besides adult personal care and cosmetic products, food can linings, microwave oven dishes, dental sealants and also medical devices. Other recently recognized major sources are cash register and credit-card receipts, which are coated with microscopic powdered BPA, and which many of us handle daily.

The 2010 President's Cancer Panel report explicitly cited BPA as a "chemical of concern," and warned that "more than 130 studies have linked BPA to breast cancer, obesity, and other disorders." The Panel rejected the March 2009 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) safety assessment of BPA as "incomplete and unreliable because it failed to consider all the relevant scientific works." The Panel also warned that FDA's "safety assessment on BPA" had been rejected by a March 2009 consortium of independent experts from academia, government and industry. The Panel report further emphasized that "science at the FDA is deficient, and the Agency is not prepared to meet regulatory responsibilities."
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Red Flag

Toxic Glue Used in Supermarket Food Packaging 'Poses Severe Risk to Health'

Amy Oliver
Daily Mail
Wed, 26 May 2010 15:38 UTC
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Toxic: A chemical used in the packaging of supermarket food can seep through and contaminate meat and vegetables, according to a study (posed by model)

Supermarket food is at risk of being contaminated by a 'highly toxic' chemical found in the glue of packaging labels.

The chemical, which is in the same class of toxicity as mercury, asbestos and hydrochloric acid, can seep through and contaminate food, according to a study.

It has been found in high levels on some of the sticky labels attached to packages of fresh meat, vegetables and tubs of sauce.
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Pills

Veterans' Sudden Cardiac Deaths Are Not Suicides or Overdoses


PRNewswire
Wed, 19 May 2010 14:17 UTC
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El Cajon, California - Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD today announced the results of his research into the "series" of veterans' deaths acknowledged by the Surgeon General of the Army.

Upon reading the May 24, 2008, Charleston (WV) Gazette article "Vets taking Post Traumatic Stress Disorder drugs die in sleep," Baughman began to investigate why these reported deaths were "different." And, why they were likely, the "tip of an iceberg."

Andrew White, Eric Layne, Nicholas Endicott and Derek Johnson were four West Virginia veterans who died in their sleep in early 2008. Baughman's research suggests that they did not commit suicide and did not overdose as suggested by the military. All were diagnosed with PTSD. All seemed "normal" when they went to bed. And, all were on Klonopin (a benzodiazepine), Paxil (an SSRI antidepressant) and Seroquel (an antipsychotic).
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Study Reveals Huge Overdiagnosis of Cancer Causing Unnecessary Treatment and Suffering

S. L. Baker
NaturalNews
Wed, 26 May 2010 00:00 UTC
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© NaturalNews
Imagine being told your imaging tests are back and there's bad news. You have cancer. To save your life, your doctor says, you must submit to surgery, chemo, radiation and a host of additional tests and prescription drugs. Of course, there's no guarantee the malignancy will be totally stopped or that the cancer treatment won't cause both immediate and long-term health consequences.

Now imagine the same scenario -- only it turns out the tests were misinterpreted and you really didn't have any sort of life-threatening cancer in the first place. This goof-up must be extremely rare, right? After all, in the high tech world of modern day mainstream medicine, dangerous malignant tumors are accurately spotted, correct?

Wrong.
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Facebook's Green Data Center Powered by Dirty Coal

Ethan A. Huff
NaturalNews
Wed, 26 May 2010 00:00 UTC
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© Facebook
The popular social networking site Facebook recently announced that its new data center in Prineville, Oregon, is "among the greenest in the industry", despite the fact that the energy company which is providing power to the facility is fueled primarily by coal. Upon hearing the news, several groups, including Change.org and Greenpeace, have begun hurling a firestorm of criticism against the company for allegedly deceiving the public.

Coal is one of the dirtiest, most destructive fossil fuels in the world. The burning of it to produce energy is responsible for polluting the air and causing acid rain, releasing toxic heavy metals into the environment, and tainting soil and water supplies. Coal mining operations are also destructive to the land and environment around them, especially if not properly re-mediated.

Trends have been moving away from dirty fuel sources towards clean, renewable energies like solar and wind power. Facebook, however, has decided not only to contract with a company that derives most of its energy from coal, but also to market the operation as "green". The decision is both irresponsible and dishonest.
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Bad Guys

Drug Companies Intentionally Leave Out Required Side Effects Information on Drug Ads

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Wed, 26 May 2010 00:00 UTC
The FDA has sent warning letters to four pharmaceutical companies citing them for omitting and minimizing information about risks and exaggerating potential benefits in material promoting their drugs.

The letters order the companies to cease banned marketing behaviors and instruct their employees on rules for promotions, but do not impose any fines or other sanctions.

Among the companies reprimanded are Amylin Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly & Co. for their diabetes drug Byetta. The FDA letter notes that at a meeting of the Endocrine Society in June, an Amylin representative told an FDA employee that the drug caused 80 percent of patients to lose seven to eight pounds in 30 weeks of treatment. When the FDA representative asked about the source of that claim, he was provided with copies of two published studies that did not support it.
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Cookie

A National Outrage: Our Tax Dollars Subsidize Foods that make us Fat and Unhealthy

Tony Isaacs
Natural News
Wed, 19 May 2010 18:10 UTC
At the same time that our Surgeon General has declared we have an epidemic of obesity, our government is using our tax dollars to cater to special interests and to subsidize the very foods that are making us fat. Thanks to lobbying, Congress chooses to subsidize foods that we're supposed to eat less of.

Take a look at these numbers which tell how the percentage of federal food subsidies spending is allocated:
  • Meat/Dairy - 73.8 percent
  • Grains - 13.2 percent
  • Sugar/Oil/Starch/Alcohol - 10.7 percent
  • Nuts/Legumes - 1.9 percent
  • Vegetables/Fruits - 0.4 percent
Just 2.3 percent of subsidies go to nuts, legumes, fruits and vegetables while 84.5% goes to meat, dairy, sugar, oil, starch and alcohol. Is it any wonder that a salad often costs you more than a Big Mac?
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Study Finds High Level of Bacteria in Bottled Water in Canada

Garth Hogan
American Society for Microbiology
Tue, 25 May 2010 14:20 UTC
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© Getty Images
A Montreal study finds heterotrophic bacteria counts, in more than 70 percent of bottled water samples, exceed the recommended limits specified by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP). Researchers from Ccrest laboratories report their results today at the 110th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in San Diego.

"Despite having the cleanest tap water a large number of urban Canadians are switching over to bottled water for their daily hydration requirements. Unsurprisingly, the consumer assumes that since bottled water carries a price tag, it is purer and safer than most tap water," says Sonish Azam, a researcher on the study.

Regulatory bodies such as Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Health Canada have not set a limit for the heterotrophic bacteria counts in bottled drinking water. However, according to the USP not more than 500 colony forming units (cfu) per milliliter should be present in drinking water.
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9/11-Linked Miscarriages Suggest Boys More Vulnerable to Stress

Emily Sohn
Discovery News
Tue, 25 May 2010 09:29 UTC
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© iStockPhotoAfter 9/11 there was a disproportionate number of miscarriages among women carrying male babies.
The stress of 9/11 may have increased the number of boy babies that miscarried, and the effect extended far beyond New York City.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, there was a small but real rise in the number of miscarriages across the country -- especially for women who were pregnant with boys.

The finding adds to evidence that boys are more vulnerable to stress than girls while in the womb. The study also affirms that the tragic events of 9/11 deeply affected people far beyond the limits of New York City.

"The stress of a mother affects the fetus, and it's not just these individual stressors like whether you had a divorce or lost your job, but also these ambient stressors, like the economy and September 11," said Tim Bruckner, a population health researcher at the University of California, Irvine. "The effects resonated across the entire society. We were essentially bereaving what we saw on TV."
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Sugary Drinks, Hypertension Linked


PressTV
Tue, 25 May 2010 08:22 UTC
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© Getty Images
Cutting back on sweetened beverages is associated with a considerable reduction in blood pressure levels and consequently the risk of developing various diseases.

Latest figures have revealed that high blood pressure, also known as the "neglected disease," accounts for one in every six deaths and $73 billion a year in health costs in the US.

According to a study published in Circulation, lowering the consumption of sugary drinks can tackle high blood pressure in overweight individuals.

Drinking one less soft drink per day is associated with a 1.8 and 1.1 millimeters of mercury drop in systolic and diastolic blood pressure respectively.

"Our findings suggest that reducing sugar-sweetened beverages and sugar consumption may be an important dietary strategy to lower blood pressure and further reduce other blood pressure-related diseases," said lead researcher Liwei Chen, adding that the less soft drink is consumed per day, the lower would be an individual's blood pressure levels.
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