A UNICEF campaign to vaccinate Nigeria's youth against polio may have been a front for sterilizing the nation. Dr. Haruna Kaita, a pharmaceutical scientist and Dean of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, took samples of the vaccine to labs in India for analysis.
Using WHO-recommended technologies like Gas Chromatography (GC) and Radio-Immuno assay, Dr. Kaita, upon analysis, found evidence of serious contamination. "Some of the things we discovered in the vaccines are harmful, toxic; some have direct effects on the human reproductive system," he said in an interview with Kaduna's Weekly Trust. "I and some other professional colleagues who are Indians who were in the Lab could not believe the discovery," he said.
Diabetes, a disease caused by failure of the pancreas to generate insulin, is a major health problem in the United States. The number of diabetics, both juvenile-onset (Type I) and adult-onset (Type Il), is increasing every year.
The Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. estimates that diabetics make up 5 percent of the US population, or 13 million persons. Of these 85-90 percent (11,375,000) are adult onset, which is more or less controlled by diet, oral medication, and exercise; the other 1015 percent (1,625,000) require daily injections of insulin.
While the US population has approximately doubled since the 1940s, the number of diabetics has risen more than 20 times since 1946. Diabetics consume about 15 percent of all health care costs, again according to Metropolitan Life. It is the third or fourth leading cause of death (160,000 deaths in 1994), and the disease leads to cardiovascular complications, stroke, gangrene of the extremities requiring amputation, kidney failure, and blindness. It is the leading cause of blindness in adults. Twenty-percent of cases of kidney failure are due to diabetes, and most patients undergoing kidney dialysis are diabetics. Nearly 50 percent of all nontraumatic foot and leg amputations are caused by diabetes. Maternal diabetes is a major cause of birth defects and infant mortality. Diabetics are 2 to 4 times more likely to develop heart disease than non-diabetics. Diabetics spend twice as many days in hospitals as other patients, and it is the fourth leading cause of visits to physicians' offices.
The best fictional example of a man with the 'dark triad' of traits, is James Bond
Bad boys, it seems, really do get all the girls. Women might claim they want caring, thoughtful types but scientists have discovered what they really want - self-obsessed, lying psychopaths.
A study has found that men with the "dark triad" of traits - narcissism, thrill- seeking and deceitfulness - are likely to have a larger number of sexual affairs.
A Japanese Research team is working on genetically engineering mosquitoes to deliver vaccines. These are the flying vaccines of the future. Far fetched? Bill Gates doesn't think so. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2008 allotted a $100,000 grant to this research team for just that project. This is from the Association of Fund Raising Professionals, Washington Chapter website.
Far more people in China suffer from mental disease than previously suspected, with most going untreated, according to a major study unveiled Friday.
The largest health survey of its kind ever conducted in China estimates that 173 million adults have some type of mental disorder, and that 158 million of them -- 91 percent -- have never received professional help.
In many middle-income countries, including China, neuropsychiatric conditions are the leading cause of ill health in both men and women, easily outstripping infectious and cardiovascular disease, according to the study.
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Wheatgrass is an amazingly nutrient dense food. Dr. Earp-Thomas once said that, "15 pounds of wheatgrass is the equivalent of 350 pounds of carrots, lettuce, celery and so forth." Wheatgrass contains no less than thirteen vitamins and all 20 essential amino acids. It also contains chlorophyll which has some proven health and anti-cancer properties.
A prominent researcher on wheatgrass, Dr. Thelma Arthur has done research showing that the consumption of wheatgrass juice can help in detoxifying the blood and strengthening the immune system. Chlorophyll plays a key role in detoxifying the liver which is where the blood is purified.
Straddling the brawny sweep of the St. Lawrence River, where New York, Quebec and Ontario meet, the territory called Akwesasne has long provided fish that feed the 12,000 members of the Mohawk Nation there.
But the junction of their ancestral legacy with their region's industrial legacy has exposed the Mohawk to high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.
Now research suggests that the human health risk and gender-bending potential of these widespread and long-lasting pollutants are greater than previously recognized, and the Mohawk aren't the only ones who should worry.
There's a jumbled, increasingly hysterical tone to the health care debate going on in Washington. On each side of the uproar lie powerful and opposing interests: on one side the giant corporations who make billions of dollars via the status quo; and on the other, the majority of working people who suffer immensely from it.
Creating a health care "compromise" between these two interests is of course impossible, but seeing the politicians in Congress attempt one is at least good entertainment.
And although neither party within the two-party system represents the interests of working people, they nonetheless understand the immense importance of health care for the vast majority of Americans, and the political/social effects another major letdown will have. They are thus begrudgingly forced to consider the desires of ordinary people.
© Getty Hungarian weightlifter Janos Baranyai begins his attempt to snatch 148kg in his third lift in the men's 77-kg division
Men with stronger muscles from regular weight training are up to 40 percent less likely to die from cancer than men who do not pump iron, according to new research.
The findings, by an international team of researchers, suggest muscular strength is as important as staying slim and eating healthily when it comes to protecting the body against deadly tumours.
The scientists who came up with the findings are recommending men weight train at least twice a week, exercising muscle groups in both the upper and lower body.
Psychopathy is a personality disorder manifested in people who use a mixture of charm, manipulation, intimidation, and occasionally violence to control others, in order to satisfy their own selfish needs. Although the concept of psychopathy has been known for centuries, the FBI leads the world in the research effort to develop a series of assessment tools, to evaluate the personality traits and behaviors attributable to psychopaths.
Interpersonal traits include glibness, superficial charm, a grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, and the manipulation of others. The affective traits include a lack of remorse and/or guilt, shallow affect, a lack of empathy, and failure to accept responsibility. The lifestyle behaviors include stimulation-seeking behavior, impulsivity, irresponsibility, parasitic orientation, and a lack of realistic life goals.
