Health & WellnessS


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Music Training Enhances Brainstem Sensitivity to Speech Sounds, Neuroscientist Says


ScienceDaily
Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00 UTC
At a Feb. 20 press briefing held during the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting, a Northwestern University neuroscientist argued that music training has profound effects that shape the sensory system and should be a mainstay of K-12 education.

"Playing an instrument may help youngsters better process speech in noisy classrooms and more accurately interpret the nuances of language that are conveyed by subtle changes in the human voice," says Nina Kraus, Hugh Knowles Professor of Neurobiology, Physiology and Communication Sciences at Northwestern University.

"Cash-strapped school districts are making a mistake when they cut music from the K-12 curriculum," says Kraus, director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory in Northwestern's School of Communication.
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Roses

Hospitals Consider Banning Bedside Flower Bouquets

Mike Adams
NaturalNews
Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00 UTC
In an effort to prevent what they believe may cause patient health complications, some British hospitals have begun banning flower bouquets from hospital rooms. Citing the possibility of infection from bacteria in the water and the ill-conceived notion that flowers may use up all the oxygen in the room - even though plants actually release oxygen - some hospital officials are up in arms over the alleged dangers posed by plants.

Researchers from the Imperial College of London decided to survey hospital patients and staff to get their take on the situation. They found that most patients appreciate having flowers around while many staffers dislike them because they can be messy. Few made any correlation between plants and an increased risk for disease or infection.

Virtually all scientific research has shown that flowers pose no health risks to patients, yet many hospitals continue to cling to antiquated superstition that they are somehow dangerous to patients. The vast majority of studies have revealed that flowers have both immediate and long-term benefits for patients.
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Serious Birth Defects Linked to the Agricultural Chemical Atrazine

S. L. Baker
NaturalNews
Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00 UTC
Gastroschisis is a birth defect in which the intestines, and sometimes other organs, develop outside the fetal abdomen and poke out through an opening in the abdominal wall. Long considered a rare occurrence, gastroschisis has mysteriously been on the rise over the last three decades. In fact, the incidence of the defect has soared, increasing two to four times in the last 30 years. But why?

Researchers think they've found the answer. The culprit behind the suffering of babies born with this condition appears to be the agricultural chemical atrazine. That's the conclusion of a study just presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) held in Chicago.

Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle were alerted to a higher than normal number of cases in of the birth defect in babies born in eastern Washington. So they began investigating to see if the increased incidence was due to some kind of environmental exposure in that area.
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Low Vitamin D Levels Raises Blood Pressure

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00 UTC
Vitamin D deficiency may triple a person's risk of high blood pressure, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and presented at a meeting of the American Heart Association in Chicago.

"Our results indicate that early vitamin D deficiency may increase the long-term risk of high blood pressure in women at mid-life," researcher Flojaune Griffin said.

The researchers recruited 559 white women from Tecumseh, Michigan, who were between 24 and 44 years old when the study began in 1992. The participants' vitamin D blood levels were measured at the beginning of the study and once a year after that for 15 years.

At the beginning of the study, 5.5 percent of the women who were deficient in vitamin D suffered from high blood pressure, compared with only 2.8 percent of the women who had sufficient levels of the vitamin. At the end of the study in 2007, 10 percent of the women in the deficiency group had high blood pressure, compared with only 3.7 percent in the "sufficient" group.
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Lyme Disease: Traditional Chinese Medicine Offers Treatment for the Toxic Fire

Christopher Gussa
NaturalNews
Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00 UTC
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Lyme disease is treated as toxic fire. These fire toxins are treated with extreme heat clearing herbs. From the western point of view, fire toxins include aggressive entities such as bacterial and viral infections but are not limited to them. They can be amoebic parasites and even just toxins of chemical nature or metal particles. Likewise, from a western point of view, the heat clearing herbs have been proven to have a very effective anti-viral and antibacterial action as well as a "cleansing of the blood" effect on other small particles.

Below is a TCM protocol for Lyme Disease grouped into three parts:

Clearing The Toxic Fire (Killing The Bacterium)

Based on the best of TCM protocols, here is a "clear toxic heat" formula for use as an anti-toxin or "fire quenching agent." These amazing herbs have been successfully used against fire toxins such as malaria, pneumonia, diphtheria, septic angina, typhoid fever and others.
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Omega-3 Fatty Acids Prevent Heart Disease, Slow Aging and Delay Telomere Shortening

Melanie Grimes
NaturalNews
Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00 UTC
Research has now shown that adding Omega-3 fatty acids to the diet can increase the survival rate of those with coronary heart disease. Omega-3s have also been shown to slow down the aging process. The marker used to determine these findings was a part of the DNA strand called telomeres. The research concluded that high levels of Omega-3 fatty acids in the blood slowed the aging process by as much as five years.

Telomeres

Telomeres are part of the DNA. They sit at the end of chromosomes, looking like red caps on the end of the DNA strands. Sometimes described as "plastic tips of shoelaces", telomeres protect the genes and help them to divide properly. Telomeres shorten with age. They also shorten from infection, smoking, lack of exercise, and obesity. Previous research has identified a relationship between short telomeres, congestive heart failure, and strokes. Additional studies showed that short telomeres are a risk factor for coronary heart disease.
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BPA Plastics and PBDEs Increase Concerns for Infertility

Brett Brown
NaturalNews
Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00 UTC
Infertility is not an easy issue for any couple to deal with. For some this miracle of life can become a daunting task, and a failure to conceive has been the cause of many separations. Research has shown that due to the increase of plastics being used infertility rates are on the rise. Recent research has also indicated that PBDEs, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, are of increasing concern on how they affect health and fertility in both men and women.

PBDEs

PBDEs are chemical flame retardants that are applied to many things such as foam furniture, carpets, fabrics, plastics, and electronics. In a study published in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal, PBDE blood levels were measured in 223 women. The women with the higher levels of PBDE blood concentration experienced a longer delay before pregnancy. Each tenfold increase in blood concentration of PBDEs was linked to a 30% decrease in the likelihood of becoming pregnant each month.

Previous studies suggest that 97% of Americans have detectable levels of this substance in their blood. PBDEs have been shown to mimic estrogen, and also to have a negative effect on the thyroid hormone. Too high or too low thyroid hormone levels can impair fertility.
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Bayer Pesticide Banned Over Threat to Honeybees

Ethan A. Huff
NaturalNews
Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00 UTC
A U.S. District Judge from Manhattan has banned the sale of spirotetramat, a pesticide produced by Bayer CropScience. Citing allegations by environmental groups and commercial beekeepers that the pesticide is toxic and is killing off the nation's honeybee population, Judge Denise Cote has declared that sales of spirotetramat must cease after January 15.

According to Cote, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did not follow proper procedure when approving spirotetramat. The EPA did not take public comment about the pesticide before approving it and the agency failed to publish both the Bayer application and the approval documents in the Federal Register. The EPA and Bayer CropScience have 60 days to appeal the decision.

According to Bayer CropScience, spirotetramat is perfectly safe and does not harm honeybees, insisting that the pesticide has been extensively tested. The company laments the fact that the chemical was banned because of procedural faults but did not indicate how it would proceed.
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Evil Rays

California bill calls for cell phone radiation disclosure


PuppetGov
Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:18 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Californians may soon easily know how much radiation is being emitted by their cellular phones under legislation introduced at the Capitol on Thursday.

The bill, authored by state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, would require manufacturers to print the radiation information on packaging and instruction manuals and for retailers to display that information on the sales floor.

Leno praised the technological advancements of cell phones. But, he said, "they also emit radio frequency radiation that does have human health effects." He called the legislation "a very modest proposal."

There is no scientific proof that cell phones cause cancer or other ailments, according to the Federal Communications Commission, though the federal government is monitoring the results of studies worldwide, according to the commission's Web site.
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Fish

Dolphins Offer Clues To Diabetes Treatment

Rachel Ehrenberg
ScienceNews
Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:45 UTC
Dolphin
© unknown
Fish might be brain food, but it doesn't supply the high levels of fuel needed to keep a dolphin brain functioning. New research adds to evidence suggesting that bottlenose dolphins go into a harmless diabetic state during overnight fasting, thereby maintaining high levels of glucose in the blood. The research, presented at a news briefing February 18 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, suggests that dolphins may be a good model for studying diabetes and could offer insights into treating the disease in people.

Carbohydrates typically provide animals a glucose fix. But dolphin diets are high in protein and very low in glucose-rich carbs. Dolphins may have a "diabetic switch" that "helps keep the brain well-fed" even when they haven't eaten for a while, said veterinary epidemiologist Stephanie Venn-Watson of the National Marine Mammal Foundation in San Diego. "Brains need sugar to function, but a diet of fish has no sugar," she said.

The proposed fasting "switch" may allow dolphins to turn this diabetic state on and off. In people with type 2 diabetes, high levels of blood glucose result from insulin resistance. These individuals don't respond to signals from their own insulin, which tell body tissues to absorb glucose from the blood. But in dolphins, what in people look like dangerously high levels of circulating glucose may provide fuel for dolphins' big brains during the fasting period between dinner and breakfast, Venn-Watson explained.
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