Health & WellnessS


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Genetic Breakthrough Findings Often Bogus, Even When in Medical Journals

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Many scientific "breakthroughs" widely reported in the popular press are actually false, warn researchers Marcus Munafo of the University of Bristol and Jonathan Flint of Oxford University, writing in The Guardian.

"The social environment in which research occurs places scientists under pressure to perform, measured by the amount and quality of publications, and success in attracting research funding from government and charitable agencies," the scientists write.

This pressure encourages researchers to find some exciting conclusion to report, the authors write, even if that conclusion is probably false.
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Bad Guys

Britain Becoming Nation of Pill-Poppers as Medication Rates Skyrocket

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Prescription rates in the United Kingdom have been rising rapidly, showing an increasing reliance on pharmaceuticals to treat everything from allergies to obesity, according to a report released by the National Health Service (NHS) Information Center.

The NHS data show that 842.5 million prescriptions were dispensed in the country in 2008, which comes out to 16.4 prescription items per person. This marks a significant (5.8 percent) increase over 2007. When compared with figures from a decade earlier, the rise is even more astonishing: 64.1 percent more prescriptions were filled in 2008 than in 1998.

These figures cannot be explained by rising population. In 2007, 15.6 prescriptions were dispensed per person; in 1998, only 10.5 were.
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How to Avoid Olive Oil Deceptions that Harm Health

Paul Fassa
NaturalNews
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
When you buy olive oil labeled "Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil," you think you're getting the best of all possible salad oils. If it is what the label says, especially if it's from Italy, you assume that you are getting the healthiest oil possible.

But is that really true?

There have been several cases of fraud discovered in the olive oil industry over the last two decades. Hardly anyone gets prosecuted, although a lot of doctored oil gets destroyed.
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Twenty Percent of Hospital Patients Have Diabetes

Ethan Huff
NaturalNews
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
The National Health Service (NHS) of the U.K. recently conducted an audit of its hospital patients and found that 20 percent of them have diabetes. Many of these patients had been admitted to the hospital to be treated for conditions caused directly by the disease, illustrating the tremendous social burden being caused by the obesity-related illness.

While not all diabetes patients had been admitted for the treatment of diabetes-related conditions, many had been, including for things like kidney failure, ulcers, nerve damage, heart attacks and strokes. Those with diabetes are 500 more prone to suffer from a heart attack or stroke.

Even among those with diabetes who had been admitted for other unrelated conditions, the report showed that these patients generally remained in the hospital for a longer period of time than did those without diabetes. Experts are concerned that the burgeoning rates of both obesity and diabetes are placing enormous strain on Britain's health care system.
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Obesity: Trouble is Caused by Eating Quickly

Matthew Denos
NaturalNews
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
Have you ever been told to eat your food slowly? Parents often encourage their children to eat at a moderate rate and chew their food completely. It turns out that this is good advice.

Recent research, conducted by three independent groups, suggests that eating slowly actually reduces caloric intake and may help curb the growing problem of obesity.

Fast Eaters Eat More

In 2008, Andrade published a study in the Journal of American Dietetic Association, which shed light on the question of eating quickly. According to Andrade's research, the rate at which a person eats affects how many calories he ingests. Two test groups were used in the study. Each group was given a large portion of food and told to eat as much as wanted.
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Four Natural Ways Help You Look and Feel Younger

Kim Evans
NaturalNews
Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:00 UTC
At a time in history when all the rage is in looking and feeling young, there are a couple of things to understand. Most important: looking and feeling young doesn't come from pills or chemical based potions. It comes from healthy, chemical-free living and a body that's well nourished with appropriate foods and oils - and one that's free of toxic waste. If you're ready to take some simple steps to shave a few years off your appearance and start feeling better than ever, here are some easy ways to get started.

1) Eat coconut oil daily and use it as your body lotion.

Coconut oil keeps your skin soft and supple, and of course, the smoothness of the skin is often associated with a younger appearance. Coconut oil can be used both internally and externally for this purpose. Coconut oil also helps detoxify the body which means to remove harmful substances from the body. Cultures that use coconut oil regularly have markedly decreased disease rates. And of course, a body that's free of disease will feel much younger than one that's riddled with it.

2) Detoxify your body to remove acids and waste.

Most people don't understand how much toxic waste is stored inside the body. Common estimates are that the average person has ten or more pounds of stored filth - just in the colon. But unfortunately, these days the waste isn't even contained in the colon - it's often throughout the body.
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Family

Employers penalizing bad habits

Cheryl Powell
The Columbus Dispatch
Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:51 UTC
If you smoke or refuse to participate in programs to improve your health, it might cost you in the future.

A growing number of U.S. companies want to start penalizing workers for unhealthy behaviors, according to a recent study from Hewitt Associates, a national human-resources consulting firm.

The study found nearly half of 600 large U.S. companies surveyed already use or plan to use financial penalties during the next three to five years for employees who don't participate in health-improvement programs, such as smoking cessation or biometric screenings.
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Ambulance

Junk food 'as addictive as heroin and smoking'

Andrew Hough
Telegraph UK
Mon, 29 Mar 2010 20:01 UTC
Bingeing on junk food is as addictive as smoking or taking drugs and could cause compulsive eating and obesity, a study has found.

Telegraph uk junk food
© Photo: PAThe study suggests for the first time that our brains may react in the same way to junk food as they do to drugs.
American researchers found burgers, chips and sausages programmed a human brain into craving even more sugar, salt and fat laden food.

Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida found laboratory rats became addicted on a bad diet just like people who became dependent on cocaine and heroin.

While the findings cannot be directly transferred to human obesity, it found that overconsumption of high-calorie food triggered addiction-like responses in the brain.
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Attention

US: Doctors cited in performing a c-section on false pregnancy

Jennifer Calhoun
The Fayetteville Observer
Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:30 UTC
Two Fayetteville gynecologists were issued public letters of concern by the North Carolina Medical Board after a woman who was not pregnant was induced for labor and given a cesarean section.

Dr. Dorrette Grant and Dr. Gerianne Geszler received the letters in January regarding a patient suffering from pseudocyesis, a disorder in which a patient has a false pregnancy that can be caused by emotional factors, tumors or an endocrine disorder.

The incident happened at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in November 2008 when a woman exhibiting signs of pregnancy went to the hospital with her husband asking for a cesarean section, Geszler said Tuesday.

Geszler was the attending on-call supervisor at the time. A resident in her charge made the pregnancy diagnosis, Geszler said.

As a result, Grant attempted to perform a C-section on the patient after a failed attempt at inducing labor, the board letters said.
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Study: People would donate kidneys for payment

Katharine Lackey
USA Today
Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:33 UTC
Paying people for living kidney donations would increase the supply of the organs and would not result in a disproportionate number of poor donors, a study by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center concludes.

The study, published this month in the Annals of Internal Medicine, asked 342 participants whether they would donate a kidney with varying payments of $0, $10,000 and $100,000. The study called for a real-world test of a regulated payment system.

The possibility of payments nearly doubled the number of participants in the study who said they would donate a kidney to a stranger, but it did not influence those with lower income levels more than those with higher incomes, according to Scott Halpern, one of the study's authors and senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics.
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