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Syringe

Best of the Web: Swine Flu Swindle: Mass Vaccination


Journal of Whole Food and Nutritional HEalth
Wed, 13 May 2009 17:31 UTC
infant vaccination
© UnknownInfants can get up to 20 Vaccinations in their first 6 months.
More talk and planning for mass flu vaccinations, not one but perhaps three this year, is getting under my skin. The vaccines are neither safe or effective, studies show. Kids now get up to 48 shots - 20 or so in the first 6 months of life. In the last century, the major vax programs were introduced near the natural end of the epidemics.

A survey of 274 studies conducted by researchers from the internationally prestigious Cochrane Vaccine Field in Italy, and published in the British Medical Journal on October 28, 2006 stated that flu vaccines have not been shown to be effective or safe. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the National Vaccine Information Center is calling on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to stop recommending annual flu immunization.

The latest crystal-ball decree (May 8, 2009) out of the World Health Organization and the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) is that 2 billion humans (one-third of Earth's population) could be infected this fall and winter with the current swine flu virus or its genetic derivatives. It is now being considered to rush and make 600 million doses of a vaccine. The federal government may be asking Americans to receive not one flu vaccine, but three. That's quite an overreaction, given two somewhat related deaths in the U.S. and a few hundred folks running a fever with some diarrhea.
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Magnify

A Genetic Clue to Why Autism Affects Boys More

Alice Park
Time.com
Wed, 20 May 2009 17:22 UTC
Among the many mysteries that befuddle autism researchers: why the disorder affects boys four times more often than girls. But in new findings reported online today by the journal Molecular Psychiatry, researchers say they have found a genetic clue that may help explain the disparity.

The newly discovered autism-risk gene, identified by authors as CACNA1G, is more common in boys than in girls (why that's so is still not clear), and the authors suggest it plays a role in boys' increased risk of the developmental disorder. CACNA1G, which sits on chromosome 17, amid other genes that have been previously linked to autism, is responsible for regulating the flow of calcium into and out of cells. Nerve cells in the brain rely on calcium to become activated, and research suggests that imbalances in the mineral can result in the overstimulation of neural connections and create developmental problems, such as autism and even epilepsy, which is also a common feature of autism.
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Green Light

Research suggests children can recover from autism

Lindsey Tanner
Associated Press
Wed, 20 May 2009 17:18 UTC
Leo Lytel was diagnosed with autism as a toddler. But by age 9 he had overcome the disorder.

His progress is part of a growing body of research that suggests at least 10 percent of children with autism can "recover" from it - most of them after undergoing years of intensive behavioral therapy.

Skeptics question the phenomenon, but University of Connecticut psychology professor Deborah Fein is among those convinced it's real.
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Health

Magnesium proves impressive at protecting the brain

Kerri Knox
Natural News
Wed, 20 May 2009 08:24 UTC
Magnesium is a powerhouse. It is inexpensive and is used to treat a vast array of medical problems, often better than any drug or medical procedure available. The latest feather in magnesium's cap is its newly discovered ability to protect the brain and improve the neurologic outcomes of infants and adults who have had oxygen deprivation to their brains. Pretty impressive for a cheap mineral present in practically every multivitamin supplement on the market.

Magnesium is a simple element, abbreviated Mg, and is number 12 on the Table of the Elements. It is only present in small amounts in the body, yet it is imperative for many bodily processes and is essential for several lifesaving emergency treatments in the hospital in cases where there are simply no other procedures or drugs that exist to help.
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People

Rapid Weight Loss in Seniors Signals Higher Dementia Risk


Forbes.com
Wed, 20 May 2009 04:46 UTC
Researcher notes it may be less a cause of cognitive decline than a sign of it

Losing weight rapidly late in life seems to signal a greater risk of experiencing some form of dementia, new research suggests.

For older adults, "basically, we saw that if you are thinner or are losing weight at a faster rate, then you are at a higher risk of developing dementia," said study author Tiffany F. Hughes, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
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Magnify

HRT-breast Cancer Risk Stays Same, Regardless Of Family History


ScienceDaily
Wed, 20 May 2009 04:27 UTC
The risk of developing breast cancer due to taking hormone replacement therapy appears to be the same for women with a family history of the disease and without a family history, a University of Rochester Medical Center study concluded.

The study, published online this week in the journal Epidemiology, adds to the evolving picture of what factors, either alone or in combination, boost breast cancer risk among postmenopausal women. It also refutes the notion, held by many in the medical community, that a familial predisposition to breast cancer enhances the carcinogenic effects of estrogen.

"Although we know that family history is a risk factor, we don't know yet what it is about family history that conveys the risk," said Robert E. Gramling, M.D., D.Sc., assistant professor of Family Medicine and of Community and Preventive Medicine at URMC. "Some have proposed that it might be an increased sensitivity to estrogen, but our data did not support that notion. In fact, this study suggests the causal pathway based on family history is probably not estrogen sensitivity."
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Blackbox

Practice makes perfect: Are athletes prone to OCD?

Peter Aldhous
New Scientist
Wed, 20 May 2009 04:26 UTC
Kelly MacDonald dreams of Olympic glory. But when her Canadian diving teammates competed at the Beijing games, MacDonald was absent. Her entry on the Diving Plongeon Canada website states that she has been "sidelined with injuries".

However, this week, MacDonald has spoken out for the first time about the real reason for her interrupted athletic career: obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD.

Elite athletes often adhere to rituals and superstitions, which may help them control anxiety (see our round-up of sports star superstitions). An obsessive nature may also keep an athlete training after others call it a day. But when do these traits veer into illness? That was the question raised on 18 May at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, in a session held to raise awareness of what may be an unrecognised epidemic.
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Attention

Flashback Monsanto Report Sheds Light on Damaging Foods


Dr. Mercola
Sat, 30 Jul 2005 00:01 UTC
Image
The public may finally be getting an idea of just how damaging genetically modified (GM) foods can be.

That's because, thanks to a German court ruling, the biotech company Monsanto was ordered to publicly expose a controversial report about its Mon 863 variety of corn. (Mon 863 was genetically engineered to produce a form of a pesticide called bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), designed to attack a corn pest called the root worm.)

The data verified claims made by prominent scientists who found animals that ate the GM corn developed severe side effects in the blood, kidney and liver and that humans eating the corn might also be at risk.
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Red Flag

Can Wearing Your Bra Cause Cancer?


Dr. Mercola
Tue, 19 May 2009 17:27 UTC
Image
There's little doubt that a bra is an important support device, particularly for women with large breasts who may suffer serious discomfort and even pain otherwise.

However, wearing certain types of bras might not be in your best interest. In fact, if you're in the habit of wearing the most popular styles, you may be setting yourself up for some potentially serious health problems.
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Syringe

Swine Flu Bumps Up Price Of Chinese Spice

Louisa Lim
National Public Radio
Mon, 18 May 2009 04:56 UTC
star anise
© Louisa Lim/NPRThe Chinese spice star anise contains shikimic acid, one of the active components in Tamiflu. Roughly 90 percent of the world's star anise is from China.
The star-shaped, licorice-smelling spice is normally used in stews and five-spice powder.

The swine flu outbreak has infected more than 8,000 people worldwide. In China, only three confirmed cases have been reported so far, but a surprising group of people is feeling the virus' economic impact.

Spice prices in a dusty covered market in Shanghai may seem an unlikely barometer of the level of public panic about new pandemic flus. But many people here believe that a star-shaped spice is a silver bullet against swine flu, and before that, bird flu. It's star anise, an orangey-red, licorice-smelling spice normally used in stews and five-spice powder.

The reason, as a spokesman for the drug-maker Roche explains, is that there are only two ways to produce the active ingredient for the flu-fighting drug Tamiflu - and one of them depends on star anise.

"One of the most important ingredients for Tamiflu is shikimic acid," says the spokesman, Cao Yong. "This stuff can be developed from star anise and the fermentation process in E. coli. That's the link."

Thirty pounds of star anise pods produce only one pound of shikimic acid. And 90 percent of the world's star anise is from China. Four years ago, when bird flu was the next big pandemic threat, a star anise shortage caused bottlenecks in Tamiflu production.
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