Health & WellnessS


Magnify

If Ultrasound Destroys Sperm, Why is it Safe for a Fetus?

Image
© NaturalNews
Ultrasound is extremely damaging to the health of any unborn child (fetus). The natural health community has been warning about ultrasound for years, but mainstream medicine, which consistently fails to recognize the harm it causes, insists ultrasound is perfectly safe and can't possibly harm the health of a fetus.

Now, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is funding a project that aims to temporarily sterilize men by blasting their scrotums with ultrasound. The burst of ultrasound energy, it turns out, disrupts the normal biological function of the testes, making the man infertile for six months.

Ultrasound, in other words, contains enough energy to temporarily deaden the testes and basically destroy sperm function for half a year. So why is it considered "safe" to blast an unborn baby with the same frequencies?

Magnify

High-intensity interval training is twice as effective as regular exercise

Image
© Getty Images
Recent research is indicating that traditional approaches to exercise that involve spending hours in the gym every day may not be the best way to stay strong and healthy. Interval training, a high-intensity type of workout that was originally created for Olympic athletes, may actually be twice as effective as regular exercise, and it can be done in a fraction of the time.

Most people are familiar with workout regimens that claim to build strength and endurance in mere minutes a day. Though seemingly deceptive, there may be more truth to such claims than one would have originally thought, depending on the technique. A few minutes of strenuous exercise a couple days out of the week is actually more effective than spending an hour or two every day in the gym.

According to Jan Helgerud, an exercise expert at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, interval training is far superior to traditional exercise. She believes that everyday people should aim to do four, four-minute workout sets with three-minute recovery times in between. In order to maximize results and achieve optimal muscle response, these sets should be intense and somewhat straining to the body.

Magnify

Bolivia Launches "Coca-Colla" Drink Made from Medicinal Coca Plant

Image
© Dado Galdieri/AP Photo
The Bolivian government has announced plans to launch a carbonated soft drink called Coca-Colla, to be made with actual coca leaves.

The name (pronounced koka koya) is an allusion to Colla suyu, the quadrant of the Inca empire that contained the modern territory of Bolivia.

The plan for the beverage was submitted by coca farmers from the country's Chapare region as part of a wider initiative to increase production of the plant. President Evo Morales, a former coca grower and head of the Chapare cocalero union, has made increased commercialization of the plant a key part of his plan for the country's economic development.

Coca leaves, chewed or brewed into tea, have been a part of Andean cultures for thousands of years. The plant is considered sacred by indigenous people and is also prized for its nutritional and medicinal benefits. According to Morales, an estimated 10 million people chew the leaves throughout the Andes.

Magnify

The Best, and Worst, Laundry Detergents with 1,4-dioxane Contamination

Image
© ECOS
One of the major issues being tackled by consumer watchdog groups this year is the presence of 1,4-dioxane, a synthetic petrochemical carcinogen, in consumer products. Since hair care products, cleaning formulas and laundry detergents are all susceptible to containing this toxic chemical byproduct, which is not listed on product labels, David Steinman from the Green Patriot Working Group (GPWG) began a study in 2007 to see which consumer products are the worst offenders.

This year, his organization along with the Organic Consumers Association (OCA), released the results of a portion of the study conducted last year on laundry detergents.

When cleaning products and detergents are processed using ethoxylation, a cheap technique that lessens the severity of the harsher ingredients, 1,4-dioxane is created. Since it is considered a byproduct of ethylene oxide reacting with other ingredients, 1,4-dioxane is technically considered a contaminant and thus does not have to be included on product labeling. As a result, consumers are largely unaware of its presence in major household products.

Bad Guys

U.S. Senate Votes to Maintain Big Pharma's Monopoly by Blocking Competitive Imports

The United States Senate recently rejected two separate proposals that would have allowed the importation of cheaper medication from other countries, apparently in order to preserve a deal between the pharmaceutical industry and the White House.

The proposals were part of a wider effort to reform the U.S. healthcare system, in large part by cutting unnecessary costs.

Drug importation was first proposed by Sen. Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, in an amendment to the healthcare bill. The amendment would have allowed U.S. wholesale and retail drug distributors, including pharmacies, to import products from Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan or New Zealand, where price controls keep drug costs much lower than in the United States. The amendment eventually gained more than 24 sponsors from both major parties.

"This issue isn't rocket science," Dorgan said. "The American people are charged the highest prices in the world. They want Congress to stand up for their interests and do something about it."

Bizarro Earth

Being Born into the Mainstream World is a Very Dangerous Activity

Image
© Tom Q/Flickr
Coming into this world is more difficult and hazardous than ever before. Newborns are subjected to disposable diapers that cause severe rashes and burns while going through a battery of scheduled vaccinations that inoculate them with an array of toxins and poisons. Fluoride is appearing in baby water and formulas, and New York City is setting a precedent toward making midwife home delivery illegal.

Burning Diapers

In an Internet firestorm thousands of upset mothers complain about disposable diapers that create severe rashes and even burns. Two lawsuits are awaiting class action status, and it appears that an attorney's website trying to garner a class action lawsuit may have been hacked. Meanwhile, facebook forums and a Consumer Affairs website are loading up with mothers sharing horror stories of their infant children with those diapers.

The company, usually associated with soaps, accused of selling dangerous disposable diapers defends its position and implies the mothers are basically bonkers. Attempts to mollify complaints usually include a coupon for the same product! But many of the upset mothers assert that all the rashes and burns, many so severe that blisters and bleeding have occurred, disappeared as soon as different brand disposable diapers were used.

Info

Michael Pollan Chronicles the Rise of the Food Movement

Image
© Watershed Media
In what is ostensibly a five-book review for the June 10 New York Review of Books, journalist Michael Pollan has an epic essay charting the emergence and character of the food movement. Or, as he puts it, "'movements.' It is unified, for now at least, by little more than the recognition that industrial food production is in need of reform, "because its social/environmental/public health/animal welfare/gastronomic costs are too high." (Pollan, of course, has been indispensable to the rise of this movement, even though he omits his 2006 best-seller, The Omnivore's Dilemma, from his list of its catalysts - among them Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation and Marion Nestle's Food Politics.)

Red Flag

Strawberry Show Down: No Methyl Iodide with My Shortcake, Please

Image
Commercially grown strawberries and tomatoes in California could start getting an unhealthy dose of the highly toxic fumigant methyl iodide, a known carcinogen, neurotoxin, and thyroid disruptor. Among scientists' greatest concerns is the pesticide's ability to cause spontaneous abortion late in pregnancy. So you might be surprised to hear that the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) recently issued a proposed decision to approve methyl iodide for use just months after a state-commissioned study warned that any agricultural use "would result in exposures to a large number of the public and thus would have a significant adverse impact on the public health" adding that, "adequate control of human exposure would be difficult, if not impossible."

Strawberries are already near the top of the Environmental Working Group's Dirty Dozen (13 pesticides were detected on a single sample) and recently, a high-level Presidential Cancer Panel recommended reducing chemical exposure by choosing fruits and vegetables grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers (i.e., organic).

Arrow Up

Beetroot Juice Found to Boost Stamina

Image
Beetroot juice boosts stamina by making muscles more fuel-efficient, scientists have found.

Last year the same researchers reported that the juice can increase physical endurance. The study focused on men aged 19 to 38 cycling on exercise bikes. Drinking 500ml of beetroot juice a day for a week enabled them to cycle 16 per cent longer before getting tired out. Now the scientists believe they understand how the beetroot boost works.

Question

Will Workers in the Gulf Be the Next Victims of Environmentally Induced Cancer?

Image
© a.drian via Flickr
There are many lessons to draw from the disaster in the gulf. Let one be this: quick, decisive action in the name of prevention is a lot easier than massive clean up.

As we all watch the oil continue to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, many of us are also watching the stories of the workers unfold: those who were aboard the Deepwater Horizon, those who are helping in the cleanup, and the thousands of people whose livelihood is being wiped out along with the ecosystem of the gulf.

The story of the workers on the oil rig illustrates the life and times of many workers in the US today. Told to buck up, take responsibility and to be happy for the jobs they have, workers are often lacking basic training and protections from the materials and in many cases, especially for low wage workers, they can be fired at any time. We all keep working, despite the hazards, to feed our families and keep a roof over our heads.