Health & WellnessS


Magnify

Scientists Find Walnuts Fight Prostate Cancer

S. L. Baker
NaturalNews
Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© NaturalNews
Walnuts are a rich plant source of omega-3s, the fatty acids also found in cold water fish like salmon. Omega-3s are known to lower the risk of a host of health problems from depression to heart disease. Walnuts are also loaded with gamma tocopherol (a form of vitamin E), phytochemicals known as polyphenols, and antioxidants. Now, for the first time, scientists have reported that these nutrient-rich nuts have the ability to reduce the size and growth of prostate cancer.

Scientists from the University of California-Davis just reported their discovery at the 239th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), being held in San Francisco this week. "Walnuts should be part of a prostate-healthy diet," Paul Davis, Ph.D., who headed the study, said in a statement to the media. "They should be part of a balanced diet that includes lots of fruits and vegetables."

Approximately 190,000 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year. According to the University of California-Davis scientists, research suggests that diet is among the most important factors in influencing a man's risk for developing prostate cancer. For example, there's evidence that eating tomatoes and drinking pomegranate juice may reduce the chance of ever having prostate cancer.
Read More...
Magnify

Poor Children More Likely To Be Put On Antipsychotic Drugs

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Getty Images
Poor children are vastly more likely to be given antipsychotic drugs than middle class children, and often for less serious conditions, according to a study conducted by researchers from Rutgers and Columbia Universities and released ahead of publication.

Researchers analyzed millions of Medicaid and private insurance claims from seven big states in 2001 and 2004, designing the sample to be representative of the overall U.S. population. They found that while 4 percent of Medicaid patients between the ages of six and 17 were being prescribed antipsychotics, fewer than 1 percent of children with private insurance were being given the drugs.

Previous research suggests that the rate of illness may be up to twice as high in children from poorer families, but even that fails to explain the fourfold difference in prescription rates seen in the current study.
Read More...
Bad Guys

Bayer Admits GMO Contamination Out of Control

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Bayer AGBayer AG
Drug and chemical giant Bayer AG has admitted that there is no way to stop the uncontrolled spread of its genetically modified crops.

"Even the best practices can't guarantee perfection," said Mark Ferguson, the company's defense lawyer in a recent trial.

Two Missouri farmers sued Bayer for contaminating their crop with modified genes from an experimental strain of rice engineered to be resistant to the company's Liberty-brand herbicide. The contamination occurred in 2006, during an open field test of the new rice, which was not approved for human consumption. According to the plaintiffs' lawyer, Don Downing, genetic material from the unapproved rice contaminated more than 30 percent of all rice cropland in the United States.

Comment: For more information, read: Harvard professor says it's crucial population is reduced through GMO foods and The Big GMO Cover-Up.

Read More...
USA

Report Says Contaminated Meat is in Supermarkets

Ron Claiborne, Dan Childs, and Hanna Siegel
ABC News
Wed, 14 Apr 2010 10:00 UTC
Bad Beef
© ABC NewsBeef contaminated with toxic heavy metals, pesticides and antibiotics is making its way into the nation's supermarkets, according to a new report.
It is a frightening picture: beef contaminated with toxic heavy metals, pesticides and antibiotics making its way into the nation's supermarkets.

Phyllis K. Fong, the Agriculture Department's inspector general, looked at how beef is tested for harmful substances.

According to her new report, inspectors charged with checking cattle for disease and meat for contaminants were, "unable to determine if meat has unacceptable levels of... potentially hazardous substances [and do] not test for pesticides... determined to be of high risk."

The inspectors also failed to test beef for 23 pesticides, the report says.

The study -- entitled the "National Residue Program for Cattle Audit Report" -- says there are no standards for how much of certain dangerous substances, such as copper and highly toxic dioxin, is too much for someone to eat. As a result, meat containing these substances has gotten into the nation's food supply, it finds.
Read More...
Light Saber

ANH-USA Victory! Supplements Are Exempted From Codex Language in Food Safety Bill


Alliance for Natural Health
Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:29 UTC
Image
The FDA Food Modernization Act (S. 510), also referred to as the "Food Safety" bill, has been modified to exempt dietary supplements from language that otherwise creates a slippery slope toward U.S. harmonization with Codex Alimentarius. ANH-USA worked to protect the natural health community from this dangerous provision that threatened access to high quality, therapeutic supplement doses by working with key senators to modify the language, now for the second time.

The most worrisome provision of the bill initially required the Food and Drug Agency (FDA) to recommend that U.S. foreign Herbal supplements trading partners harmonize with Codex. This odd language was no doubt very intentional. How could we recommend harmonization to other countries if we rejected it for the U.S.? So in effect we were committing ourselves to a much more restrictive regulatory regime for supplements.

As the Senate moved forward with the Food Safety bill, Senator Harkin (D-IA), committee chair, working closely with Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), promised to see what could be done to make absolutely clear this legislation was not intended to impact our access to dietary supplements. At that time, Senator Harkin modified the Codex provision, asking the FDA to consider "whether and how" to recommend U.S. foreign trading partners harmonize. This was a very important change and a tremendous show of support from both Senators, but we were still concerned that the inclusion of Codex language in the bill could be used to support future U.S. harmonization with Codex standards on dietary supplements.
Read More...
Pills

Towards Treating Female Sexual Dysfunction: Research Reveals Secrets of Female Sexual Arousal


PhysOrg
Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:00 UTC
Image
© Gaea Times Image Gallery
By using a novel prototype drug, researchers have discovered more about the mechanisms underlying female sexual arousal. These findings are published today in the British Journal of Pharmacology.

A team of researchers based at Pfizer's labs in Sandwich, Kent, found that electrically stimulating the pelvic nerve increases blood flow to the genitalia, and that this effect was enhanced if they also gave a prototype drug (UK-414,495). They believe that the drug acts by blocking the breakdown of an internal chemical messenger that plays a key role in increasing blood flow during sexual arousal.

When women become aroused, blood flow increases to the vagina, labia and clitoris. This causes the organs to swell, and the vagina to relax, as well as increasing vaginal lubrication and the sensitivity of the genitalia.

Female sexual arousal disorder (FSAD) affects up to 40% of women irrespective of age. These women find that their genital organs do not respond to sexual stimulation, they find arousal difficult and this causes them to become distressed.
Read More...
Magnify

Antidepressant Use Increases Risk of Stroke

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© iStockphoto
Taking antidepressants may significantly increase the risk of stroke in post-menopausal women, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Bridget O'Connell of Mind, who was not involved in the study, noted that antidepressants are already known to carry a wide range of side effects that vary highly from individual to individual.

The study relied on data from the Women's Health Initiative study, which was responsible for proving that hormone replacement therapy significantly increased the risk of heart attack, stroke, cancer and death in postmenopausal women.

The researchers studied 136,293 women between the ages of 50 and 79 for an average of six years each. They found that those taking antidepressants were 45 percent more likely to suffer from a stroke in that time than women not taking the drugs, and 32 percent more likely to die from any cause.
Read More...
Magnify

Why Do Women Remain in Abusive Relationships?


Medical News Today
Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© DoSomething.org
It's well known that many women remain in abusive relationships with their male partners. A new study by researchers in Toronto and New York suggests that many who live with chronic psychological abuse still see certain positive traits in their abusers - such as dependability and being affectionate - which may partly explain why they stay.

"We wanted to see whether survey information from women who were not currently seeking treatment or counseling for relationship abuse could be a reliable source for identifying specific types of male abusers," says Patricia O'Campo, a social epidemiologist and director of the Centre for Research on Inner City Health at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto.

She adds that past research has underscored abused women's personal evaluations of their intimate relationships - specifically, their commitment to the relationships and positive feelings about the abuser and/or the relationship - as critical in their decisions to continue or terminate abusive relationships. "We wanted to learn more," says Dr. O'Campo, who co-authored the study with researchers from Adelphi University in Garden City, New York.
Read More...
Magnify

Diet Alone Will Not Likely Lead to Significant Weight Loss, Study Suggests


ScienceDaily
Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© Getty Images
Newly published research by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University demonstrates that simply reducing caloric intake is not enough to promote significant weight loss. This appears to be due to a natural compensatory mechanism that reduces a person's physical activity in response to a reduction in calories.

The research is published in the April edition of the American Journal of Physiology -- Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.

"In the midst of America's obesity epidemic, physicians frequently advise their patients to reduce the number of calories they are consuming on a daily basis. This research shows that simply dieting will not likely cause substantial weight loss. Instead, diet and exercise must be combined to achieve this goal," explained Judy Cameron Ph.D., a senior scientist at OHSU's Oregon National Primate Research Center, and a professor of behavioral neuroscience and obstetrics & gynecology in the OHSU School of Medicine, as well as a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh.
Read More...
Magnify

Migratory Birds Are Teaching Humans About the Benefits of Superfood Berries

S. L. Baker
NaturalNews
Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Image
© NaturalNews
Birds such as sparrows, thrushes and warblers are apparently experts on preventing disease and optimizing their bodies to deal with stress. If that sounds like an exaggeration, consider this: scientists at the University of Rhode Island (URI) have discovered these migratory birds eat certain nutrient-packed berries instead of their usual diet of bugs at certain times of the year. Why would this change in eating habits be beneficial? It turns out, according to the URI researchers, that the superfood fruit the birds eat offers protection against oxidative stress that occurs during long flights. This news is important because oxidative stress is known to trigger inflammation and a host of serious diseases -- in both birds and humans.

The new research, recently announced at the American Chemical Society's 239th national meeting held last month in San Francisco, revealed that birds stopping over on Block Island specifically go after arrow-wood berries which contain more anti-oxidants and pigments than the 11 other berries that grow on the island. That means the migratory birds somehow know to specifically zero in on arrow-wood berries, the richest source of nutrients in the area.

Navindra Seeram, assistant professor of pharmacy and head of the Bioactive Botanical Research Laboratory at URI, and Scott McWilliams, a URI professor of wildlife ecology and physiology who has studied migratory birds for over a decade, are researching migratory birds' eating habits to see how this knowledge could help human health. The two teamed up after McWilliams learned that Seeram was researching oxidative stress and inflammation and the effects berry fruits can have on reducing those disease-linked problems in people. Anti-oxidants found in berries are believed to play an important role in preventing cancer and other serious diseases.
Read More...