Health & WellnessS


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Genetic Study Reveals the Origins of Cavity-Causing Bacteria


ScienceDaily
Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:00 UTC
Researchers have uncovered the complete genetic make-up of the cavity-causing bacterium Bifidobacterium dentium Bd1, revealing the genetic adaptations that allow this microorganism to live and cause decay in the human oral cavity. The study, led by Marco Ventura's Probiogenomics laboratory at the University of Parma, and Prof. Douwe van Sinderen and Dr Paul O'Toole of the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre at University College Cork, is published December 24 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

Bifidobacteria, largely known as long-term beneficial gut bacteria, are often included as probiotic components of food to aid digestion and boost the immune system. However, not all species within the genus Bifidobacterium provide beneficial effects to the host's health. In fact, the Bifidobacterium dentium species is an opportunistic pathogen since it has been linked to the development of tooth decay.

The genome sequence of B. dentium Bd1 reveals how this microorganism has adapted to the oral environment through specialized nutrient acquisition features, acid tolerance, defences against antimicrobial substances and other gene products that increase fitness and competitiveness within the oral niche.
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Flashback Fluoride, The Lunatic Drug


American Patriot Friends Network
Thu, 10 Aug 2000 00:00 UTC
Tell a lie loud enough and long enough and people will believe it.
- Adolph Hitler

Earth is an insane asylum, to which the other planets deport their lunatics.
- Voltaire
Controversial fluoride is one of the basic ingredients in both PROZAC (FLUoxetene Hydrochloride) and Sarin nerve gas (Isopropyl-Methyl-Phosphoryl FLUoride).

Sodium fluoride, a hazardous-waste by-product from the manufacture of aluminum, is a common ingredient in rat and cockroach poisons, anesthetics, hypnotics, psychiatric drugs, and military nerve gas. It's historically been quite expensive to properly dispose of, until some aluminum industries with an overabundance of the stuff sold the public on the terrifically insane but highly profitable idea of buying it at a 20,000% markup, injecting it into our water supplies, and then DRINKING it.

Yes, a 20,000% markup: Fluoride-- intended only for human consumption by people under 14 years of age--is injected into our drinking water supply at approx. 1 part-per-million (ppm), but since we only drink 1/2 of one percent of the total water supply, the rest literally goes down the drain as a free hazardous-waste disposal for the chemical industry, where we PAY them so that we can flush their expensive hazardous waste down our toilets. How many salesmen dream of such a deal?
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Flashback The Real Story on Arsenic in Your Water

Neal Boortz
American Patriot Friends Network
Tue, 03 Apr 2001 00:00 UTC
At first it sounded pretty damming: George W. Bush had 86'ed an EPA regulation further limiting the amount of arsenic that could legally be found in America's drinking water.

For people who don't bother to look beyond the sensational headlines, this sounds mighty bad indeed! Everybody knows that arsenic is poisonous! Everybody knows that you can die from arsenic poisoning! Why, it's absolutely outrageous that President Bush would do such a thing! He's a madman!

I purposely avoided conversation on this particular subject this week until I could get a little more information.

OK, here goes. So everybody knows that arsenic is poison, right? Fine. Do you also know that arsenic is found naturally in broccoli and other vegetables? Do you know that most groundwater already contains arsenic? Did you know that at low levels arsenic is virtually harmless to the human body?
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Flashback The Price of Too Much Fluoride

Elga Mackie
EzineArticles
Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:00 UTC
Fluoride - Some interesting facts

"The first occurrence of fluoridated drinking water on Earth was found in Germany's Nazi prison camps. The Gestapo had little concern about fluoride's supposed effect on children's teeth; their alleged reason for mass-medicating water with sodium fluoride was to sterilize humans and force the people in their concentration camps into calm submission."

Ref : The Crime and Punishment of I. G. Farben by Joseph Borkin

USAF Major George R. Jordan testified before Un-American Activity committees of Congress in the 1950's that in his post as U.S.Soviet liaison officer, the Soviets openly admitted to...
"Using the fluoride in the water supplies in their gulags (concentration camps), to make the prisoners stupid, docile, and subservient."
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U.S. Expands Efforts to Regulate Meds in Water


MSNBS
Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:15 UTC
Image
© AP PhotoSteve Zaugg, a chemist at the National Water Quality Laboratory in Lakewood, Colo., holds a tray of samples of wastewater from a U.S. Geological Survey study that looks at discharges from pharmaceutical manufacturing plants.
EPA lists 13 pharmaceuticals as candidates for regulation

Federal regulators under President Barack Obama have sharply shifted course on long-standing policy toward pharmaceutical residues in the nation's drinking water, taking a critical first step toward regulating some of the contaminants while acknowledging they could threaten human health.

A burst of significant announcements in recent weeks reflects an expanded government effort to deal with pharmaceuticals as environmental pollutants:
  • For the first time, the Environmental Protection Agency has listed some pharmaceuticals as candidates for regulation in drinking water. The agency also has launched a survey to check for scores of drugs at water treatment plants across the nation.
  • The Food and Drug Administration has updated its list of waste drugs that should be flushed down the toilet, but the agency has also declared a goal of working toward the return of all unused medicines.
  • The National Toxicology Program is conducting research to clarify how human health may be harmed by drugs at low environmental levels.
The Associated Press reported last year that the drinking water of at least 51 million Americans contains minute concentrations of a multitude of drugs. Water utilities, replying to an AP questionnaire, acknowledged the presence of antibiotics, sedatives, sex hormones and dozens of other drugs in their supplies.
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Natural swine flu defence found

Rebecca Smith
The Telegraph
Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:19 UTC
swine flu natural defence
© APNatural defence against swine flu found by scientists
Scientists found that the virus-fighting proteins protected against swine flu when levels were increased.

When the proteins were removed the swine flu virus was able to multiply in the body unchecked.

The accidental discovery may help to explain why some people develop serious symptoms when they contract flu and others do not.

The protein, IFITM3, and although it appeared to be connected to the functioning of the immune system, how it worked and what it did had never been understood.
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More People Could Have "Mad Cow Disease" Than Previously Thought

Sarah Boseley
The Guardian
Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:29 UTC
Unusual case of 30-year-old man prompts scientists to reassess prevalence of vCJD.

More people may be incubating variant CJD, the human version of so-called "mad cow disease", than was previously thought, according to scientists who today report an unusual case of the disease. All those tested worldwide since 1994 when the first cases were identified have been MM homozygous.

However, a 30-year-old man who died of vCJD in January this year was found to have a different genetic makeup from the rest of the 200 or so people diagnosed around the world, and identified as MV heterozygous.

Six months before the man was diagnosed with the disease, he had been admitted to hospital suffering from personality changes, unsteadiness in walking that became progressively worse, and intellectual decline. He told doctors he had severe leg pain and memory problems. Two months later, he developed visual hallucinations. The symptoms got progressively worse and an MRI scan confirmed vCJD .
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How Flu Succeeds


ScienceDaily
Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:00 UTC
Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham), Mount Sinai School of Medicine (Mount Sinai), the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (Salk) and the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) have identified 295 human cell factors that influenza A strains must harness to infect a cell, including the currently circulating swine-origin H1N1. The team also identified small molecule compounds that act on several of these factors and inhibit viral replication, pointing to new ways to treat flu.

These findings were published online on December 21 in the journal Nature.

Influenza A virus contains only enough genetic information (RNA) to produce 11 proteins and must co-opt host cellular machinery to complete its life cycle. Sumit Chanda, Ph.D., of Burnham, Megan Shaw, Ph.D., of Mount Sinai, John Young, Ph.D., of Salk, Yingyao Zhou, Ph.D., of GNF and others used RNAi screening technology to selectively turn off more than 19,000 human genes to determine which human factors facilitate viral entry, uncoating, nuclear import, viral replication and other necessary functions of the virus.
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Two Genes Discovered That Drive Aggressive Brain Cancers


ScienceDaily
Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:00 UTC
A team of Columbia scientists have discovered two genes that, when simultaneously activated, are responsible for the most aggressive forms of human brain cancer.

This finding was made possible by the assembly of the first comprehensive network of molecular interactions that determine the behavior of these cancer cells, a map so complex and elusive that, until now, it could not be constructed. The discovery may lead to completely novel strategies to diagnose and treat these incurable tumors.

The findings will be published in an advanced online edition of Nature on Dec. 23, 2009, by a team of Columbia scientists led by Antonio Iavarone, M.D., associate professor of neurology in the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Andrea Califano, Ph.D., director of the Columbia Initiative in Systems Biology.
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Meditation Reduces Heart Disease Deaths

Ethan Huff
Natural News
Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:00 UTC
The Medical College of Wisconsin in conjunction with Maharishi University in Iowa funded a study about the effects of transcendental meditation on health. Researchers discovered that over the course of nine years, the group assigned to meditate saw a 47 percent reduction in strokes, heart attacks and deaths.

Two groups of African-Americans were assigned either to meditate or to make certain lifestyle changes. The group told to meditate was instructed to do so twice a day for 20 minutes. The other group was given instruction on traditional methods to reduce the risk of heart disease. After nine years, 20 incidences of stroke, heart attack, or death occurred in the meditation group while 31 incidences occurred in the health education group.

Dr. Robert Schneider, lead author of the study and the director of the Centre for Natural Medicine and Prevention at Maharishi University, stated that the meditation group experienced an overall reduction in blood pressure as well as a significant reduction in psychological stress. Supporters of transcendental meditation claim that the study proves the long-term positive effects of the practice on those who participate in it.

Comment: One of the most effective breathing techniques to aid in these results can be found here.

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