Health & WellnessS


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Placebo Treatments Much Stronger than Previously Thought

Ethan A. Huff
NaturalNews
Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© Getty Images
A recent study published in the British medical journal, Lancet, has found that placebo, or fake, medical treatments exhibit a noticeable biological effect on patients. A panel of international researchers pored through a series of studies they believe illustrate concrete evidence that physical changes in patients occur in response to placebos.

One of the studies included in the research involved Parkinson's disease patients whose brains released dopamine in response to placebo treatment. The dopamine release triggered a series of other changes throughout the brain, resulting in improved health for these patients.

"When you think you're going to get a drug that helps, your brain reacts as if it's getting relief," explained Walter Brown, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Brown and Tufts University, in an interview. Brown believes that people with mild depression or anxiety are perfect candidates for placebo treatments because such patients benefit just as well from fake treatments as they do from drug treatments.
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Why it is Essential to Boost Glutathione and How to Naturally

Paul Fassa
NaturalNews
Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© AstroNutrition.com
The importance of glutathione or GSH, considered the master antioxidant and an important immune booster, has been discussed in previous Natural News articles. But this follow up clarifies the differences between externally administered glutathione and glutathione produced within the body's cells, and how to boost that production.

External Glutathione

Glutathione production wanes with aging, but GSH is what you really need as you age. It could be considered nature's dirty trick, but it's probably due more to the increased oxidative stress from our increasingly toxic environment.

There have been a couple of older famous TV and sports personalities mentioned in the news for using injected or IV glutathione. Naturally, there are more to whom youthfulness is important who can afford it that don't make the news. Glutathione does have desired anti-aging properties.

The IV or injections are very expensive, and require at least weekly applications since it circumvents the usual GSH production. It just quickly dies off. As a matter of fact, this type of treatment may further inhibit the body's ability to create and circulate GSH. It's like constantly recharging a battery when you need a new alternator.
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Practice Fun Exercise Routines for Good Health

Fleur Hupston
NaturalNews
Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© Getty ImagesTai Chi
Detest exercise? Tired of mind-numbingly boring minutes spent on a treadmill or endless laps up and down the pool? While the majority of us recognize that we must exercise for good health, many view exercise as just one more boring chore to add onto a day laden with "must-do" activities. Change your mindset and make exercise fun and exciting while getting the workout your body needs.

Dance Your Way to Fitness

For those who love to dance, try a Zumba Latin American dance class next time you are at the gym. Zumba is taught in 75 countries in six continents and is aligned with nationally and internationally recognized fitness organizations. People have so much fun learning to dance while toning legs, arms and raising the heart rate that they are generally disappointed when the class is over. It's more like a party than a workout.

The Zumba instructor may teach Latin dances such as the salsa, meringue, cumbia, cha-cha, belly dance, samba and Flamenco. Other dances such as African dance, hip-hip, or choreographed dances may be incorporated into the class. The instructor will continue to add onto the basic steps of each dance and teach more complicated rhythms and movements. High impact dances are combined with lower impact dances to keep the heart rate up and the muscles active. Zumba can be purchased on DVD to do at home.
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Bee Pollen: Nature Provides an Answer for Allergies

William Rudolph
NaturalNews
Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© Getty Images
It may seem counterintuitive to think that something with the word "pollen" in its title may actually be a powerful tool for combating pollen and other allergies. Yet the supporting evidence of bee pollen's prowess in helping people overcome seasonal and other allergy related conditions is impressive. In the early 90's, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa became an advocate for natural health, crediting bee pollen with helping him alleviate symptoms related to his own seasonal allergies.

Allergies result from our body's response to something it has been exposed to, such as chemicals, by-products of the natural world, things we eat, drink, or breathe, or anything that comes in contact with our skin. If the body reacts adversely, such as the case with allergies, the body will release antibodies or histamines. This response is how the immune system attempts to remove or marginalize the impact of the foreign body. With allergies, the body can develop a chronic histamine response, resulting in inflammation throughout the body's skin, membranes, tissues, lungs, etc.

A look at bee pollen's nutritional composition shows that it is comprised of approximately 35% protein, including all 22 known amino acids found in the body. It is also rich in vitamins, (particularly B vitamins), all 28 minerals found in the body (especially zinc), and is loaded with health-promoting enzymes, something largely lacking in the Standard American Diet(S.A.D.). One nutrient of particular importance is quercetin. Known for its ability to minimize or neutralize the histamine response, quercetin may be a primary reason for bee pollen's capacity to alleviate inflammation caused by hay fever or other common allergy-causing substances.
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Bad Guys

America Does Not Have a Shortage of Doctors, It Has an Excess of Disease

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
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© NaturalNews
Now that health reform relying on monopolized pharmaceutical medicine has become the law of the land across America, the mainstream media is reporting on a sudden shortage of doctors. The nearly one million doctors who already treat a sick, diseased population is no longer enough, it seems, and medical schools are ramping up to churn out more doctors to treat yet more disease. There are never enough doctors to go around when everybody's sick, it seems...

What we're witnessing here is a massive expansion of the sick-care industry which already swallows 20 percent of the U.S. economy. Over the next few years, that percentage will rise to 25 percent, then 30 percent, and this financial sinkhole called "mainstream medicine" may even hit one-third of the entire national economy.

That puts the U.S. in a dire financial situation. If a third of the economic productivity is being spent on sickness and disease, and another third (or so) is being spent on war and imperialism, and another third is spent on debt interest and social security, then where do you get the money to actually build roads and schools, pay government employees or administer the business of government?

The answer, of course, is that you simply print more money and keep on spending -- a sure path to currency hyperinflation.
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Moderate stress good for foetus: Study


Indian Express
Mon, 12 Apr 2010 17:16 UTC
fetus
© Unknown
Stress is not always bad as commonly believed. Moderate stress during pregnancy boosts foetal brain development, a new study has claimed.

In a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland showed that stress during pregnancy inhibits neural growth.

For the research, the team led by Janet DiPietro examined 112 healthy pregnant women three times during their third trimester and asked them about their stress levels, Child Development journal reported.
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Green Light

Fried breakfast is healthiest start to day, say scientists


The Telegraph
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:20 UTC
breakfast
© Press Association
A breakfast of bacon, sausages, eggs, and beans could be the healthiest start to the day, according to new research.

Scientists believe that breakfast programmes the metabolism for the rest of the day, and a fatty meal will help the body break down fat later on.

Carbohydrate rich foods in contrast appear mainly to prepare the body to break down only carbohydrates, the International Journal of Obesity reports.
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Attention

Lung cancer deadlier to blacks: Racial disparities call out for action

Misti Crane
The Columbus Dispatch
Tue, 13 Apr 2010 02:52 UTC
Despite lower smoking rates, African-Americans are more likely to get lung cancer than whites and more likely to die from it. In a report released yesterday, the American Lung Association called for greater attention to that and other differences and better efforts to eliminate them.

African-Americans are also more likely to find out they have cancer when the disease is more advanced, likely to wait longer between diagnosis and treatment, more likely to refuse treatment and more likely to die in the hospital after surgery.

Access to health care and insurance, and socioeconomic factors such as education and income, play roles - as do genetics and cultural views on health care. Bias and prejudice also persist, the report says.
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'Growing Concern' Over Marketing Tainted Beef

Peter Eisler
USA TODAY
Tue, 13 Apr 2010 14:21 UTC
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© Tim Dillon, USA TODAYBeef containing harmful pesticides, veterinary antibiotics and heavy metals is being sold to the public because federal agencies have failed to set limits for the contaminants or adequately test for them, a federal audit finds.
Washington - Beef containing harmful pesticides, veterinary antibiotics and heavy metals is being sold to the public because federal agencies have failed to set limits for the contaminants or adequately test for them, a federal audit finds.

A program set up to test beef for chemical residues "is not accomplishing its mission of monitoring the food supply for ... dangerous substances, which has resulted in meat with these substances being distributed in commerce," says the audit by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Inspector General.
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Attention

Reality TV Can Be Bad for Your Health


The Daily Mail
Tue, 13 Apr 2010 08:17 UTC
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© AlamyReality check: bad manners and annoying reality TV programmes raise our blood pressure, increasing the risk of health problems, a new survey has revealed.
Rudeness and bad manners are pesky aspects of everyday life we would rather avoid.

But, instead of calmly ignoring poor behaviour, almost eight of ten of us let it get under our skin, according to a survey.

Queue jumping was one of the most common cause of irritation, with 66 per cent saying it made their blood boil. Even reality TV was enough to make people see red.

The poll found that 61 per cent of those questioned were irritated by poor driving, while 40 per cent admitted they became angry when they heard someone speaking too loudly on a mobile phone.

Reality TV shows such as Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! angered 38 per cent of men - but only 27 per cent of women.
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