Health & WellnessS


Frog

EPA Fails To Inform Public About Weed-Killer In Drinking Water

Danielle Ivory
Huffington Post
Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:23 UTC
One of the nation's most widely-used herbicides has been found to exceed federal safety limits in drinking water in four states, but water customers have not been told and the Environmental Protection Agency has not published the results.

Records that tracked the amount of the weed-killer atrazine in about 150 watersheds from 2003 through 2008 were obtained by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund under the Freedom of Information Act. An analysis found that yearly average levels of atrazine in drinking water violated the federal standard at least ten times in communities in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Kansas, all states where farmers rely heavily on the herbicide.

In addition, more than 40 water systems in those states showed spikes in atrazine levels that normally would have triggered automatic notification of customers. In none of those cases were residents alerted.
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Health

Research Sheds Light On Sudden Death In People With High Cholesterol


Science Daily
Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:53 UTC
Cholesterol can affect the flow of the electrical currents that generate the heart beat, according to a study by two UBC cardiovascular researchers funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of BC & Yukon. The research team has just published the important discovery about the causes of cardiac arrhythmias (abnormal heartbeats) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Together with a group from Paris, France, UBC researchers David Fedida and Jodene Eldstrom found that too much cholesterol can affect the electrical currents, perhaps causing the heart to start beating out of rhythm or even stop beating. In contrast, reducing the cholesterol normalized the structures underlying the electrical activity, thus promoting a regular and healthy heartbeat.
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Cut

US Health Officials Consider Pushing Routine Circumcision In Baby Boys

Catharine Paddock
Medical News Today
Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:11 UTC
US health officials are considering whether to promote routine circumcision for all baby boys born in the country as a way to reduce the spread of HIV; a topic that is giving rise to considerable debate in anticipation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's official draft recommendations on the subject that are due out at the end of the year.

The New York Times reported online yesterday, in an article that will appear in today's print edition, that experts are also considering whether circumcision should also be offered to adult heterosexual men whose sexual behaviour puts them at higher risk of infection.

The reasons behind the consideration stem from several studies in support of male circumcision as a way to reduce HIV spread.

Comment: You don't suppose Bill Gates might be pushing this at the CDC?

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Magnify

Discovery to Aid Study of Biological Structures, Molecules


ScienceDaily
Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:00 UTC
Virus
© Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, SpainThe images in "a" and "c" show the topography, and the image in "b" shows the different stiffness properties of the balloonlike head, stiff collar and hollow tail of the Phi29 virus, called a bacteriophage because it infects bacteria.
Researchers in the United States and Spain have discovered that a tool widely used in nanoscale imaging works differently in watery environments, a step toward better using the instrument to study biological molecules and structures.

The researchers demonstrated their new understanding of how the instrument - the atomic force microscope - works in water to show detailed properties of a bacterial membrane and a virus called Phi29, said Arvind Raman, a Purdue professor of mechanical engineering.

"People using this kind of instrument to study biological structures need to know how it works in the natural watery environments of molecules and how to interpret images," he said.

An atomic force microscope uses a tiny vibrating probe to yield information about materials and surfaces on the scale of nanometers, or billionths of a meter. Because the instrument enables scientists to "see" objects far smaller than possible using light microscopes, it could be ideal for studying molecules, cell membranes and other biological structures.
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Magnify

When Cells Run Out of Fuel


PhysOrg
Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:00 UTC
Parkinson's disease is caused by the degeneration of neurons in the midbrain. The mechanisms leading to the loss of these neurons, however, are largely unknown. Recent research revealed that about ten per cent of cases are caused by defects in so-called Parkinson-associated genes. Furthermore, mitochondria, the cellular powerhouses, seem to play a major role.

New results from researchers at the LMU Munich under the lead of associate professor Dr. Konstanze Winklhofer and Professor Christian Haass connect both phenomena, showing that two Parkinson genes maintain the function of mitochondria. "Diseases like Parkinson's where at least some cases are unambiguously related to the dysfunction of specific genes offer a promising research opportunity," explains biochemist Dr. Konstanze Winklhofer "When we understand the function of these genes, we can learn a lot about the causes of the disease, its progress and possible new therapies." Professor Wolfgang Wurst and his group of the Institute for Developmental Genetics at the Helmholtz Center Munich also contributed to this work. (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 21 August, 2009)

Four million individuals are estimated to suffer from Parkinson's disease worldwide. This neurodegenerative disorder is characterized by rigid muscles, uncontrollable tremor and slowing - or even loss of - voluntary movements. It is caused by the death of nerve cells in a midbrain area called substantia nigra. These neurons secrete dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in the control of movements. Thus, a loss of dopamine-producing neurons causes a dysbalance in the regulation of movements.
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Strong Link Found Between Concussions and Brain Tissue Injury

Deirdre Branley
Eurek Alert!
Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:00 UTC
Brain
© Albert Einstein College of MedicineColored areas show locations of brain injury, including injury to the frontal lobe, in a patient with mild traumatic brain injury.
Imaging technique could speed diagnosis and improve outcomes

Concussions, whether from an accident, sporting event, or combat, can lead to permanent loss of higher level mental processes. Scientists have debated for centuries whether concussions involve structural damage to brain tissue or whether physiological changes that merely impair the way brain cells function, explain this loss. Now, for the first time, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have linked areas of brain injury to specific altered mental processes caused by concussions.

The research, described in the August 26 edition of Radiology, provides compelling evidence that concussions involve brain damage. The findings suggest that diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), the brain scanning method used by the Einstein scientists, could help in diagnosing concussions and in assessing the effectiveness of treatments.

"DTI has been used to look at other brain disorders, but this is the first study to focus on concussions," said Michael Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., associate director of the Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center (MRRC) and associate professor of radiology, of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and of neuroscience at Einstein and lead author of the study. "It proved to be a powerful tool for detecting the subtle brain damage that we found to be associated with concussions."
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Some Brain Tumors may be Mediated by Tiny Filament on Cells

Jennifer O'Brien
Medical News Today
Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:00 UTC
UCSF scientists have discovered that a tiny filament extending from cells, until recently regarded as a remnant of evolution, may play a role in the most common malignant brain tumor in children.

The study, conducted in mice and in human brain tissue of medulloblastomas, coincides with a study by another team of UCSF scientists showing that the structure, known as primary cilium, also may play a role in basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer.

The findings, both reported online on August 23, 2009 in Nature Medicine, are the first direct evidence of a role of primary cilia in cancer, which the researchers say could lead to a new strategy for diagnosing subtypes of cancers and to potential targets for therapy.
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Eating Prebiotics is Essential for Health and Wellbeing

Alex Howard
Natural News
Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:00 UTC
Awareness of the link between diet and health has led to an increase in foods that promote well-being. Prebiotics are components present in food which give health by supporting the gastrointestinal tract (GI), and by giving the body what it needs to defend itself and promote health and well-being.

Prebiotics are a type of fiber which can help protect the body against food poisoning and intestinal and colon problems. Most importantly, pre-biotics are food for our "good" gut bacteria. As a result they promote the growth of these healthy bacteria and help inhibit overgrowth of pathogenic ones.

Typically, prebiotics are carbohydrates, but the definition does not preclude non-carbohydrates. The most prevalent forms of prebiotics are nutritionally classed as soluble fiber. To some extent, many forms of dietary fiber exhibit some level of prebiotic effect.
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Coffee

Flashback Caffeine Consumption Hikes Blood Sugar Levels by 8 Percent for Diabetics

David Gutierrez
Natural News
Thu, 12 Jun 2008 08:36 UTC
Diabetics who consume caffeine may experience a significant increase in blood sugar, according to a new study conducted by researchers from Duke University Medical School and published in the journal Diabetes Care.
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Syringe

The vaccine is far more deadly than the swine flu

Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Prof. Joe Cummins
Institute of Science in Society
Mon, 27 Jul 2009 01:21 UTC
A swine flu outbreak occurred in Mexico and the United States in April 2009 and spread rapidly around the world by human-to human transmission. The new type A H1N1 influenza virus is unlike any that had been previously isolated [1, 2], judging from the first data released in May. It is a messy combination of sequences from bird, human and swine flu virus lineages from North America and Eurasia. A senior virologist based in Canberra, Australia, told the press he thought that the virus could have been created in the laboratory and released by accident [3]. Some even suggest it was made intentionally as a bioweapon [4], while others blame the intensive livestock industry and extensive trafficking of love animals over long distances, which provide plenty of opportunity for generating exotic recombinants [5]. But what worries the public most is the mass vaccination programmes governments are putting in place to combat the emerging pandemic, which could well be worse than the pandemic itself.
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