Health & WellnessS


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Sex-changing chemicals found in Potomac River - But For God's Sake! Don't Smoke!

Washington - Chemicals known to change the sexual characteristics of fish and other animals have been found in West Virginia tributaries of the Potomac River, which runs through Washington, D.C. and surrounding areas, the U.S. Geological Survey said on Wednesday.

An investigation into fish that had both male and female characteristics turned up a range of chemicals including pesticides, flame retardants, and personal-care products, the USGS said.

Comment: It's always interesting to read about the thousands of health destroying environmental pollutants being pumped into our bodies, but instead of addressing these issues with restrictions on the big corporations making billions and trillions off of our suffering, instead they go after tobacco - and blame everything on that! Because, of course, stopping smoking is laid on the consumer, while no stopping of anything is laid on the industries.

A bit unequal, don't you think?


Heart

The science of sex

Brain scans of women reaching orgasm have cast new light on how the mind and nervous system work.

Health

Nations starting to Ban Aspartame

Both Indonesia and South Africa are leading the world in firmly moving towards prohibiting this chemical for medical reasons: aspartame is an excitotoxin and causes brain damage. The sugar substitute breaks down in the body producing 3 toxic substances: methanol (wood alcohol which can cause blindness), formaldhehyde, and diketopiperazine, which causes brain tumors. Jakarta Indy repost.

Health

Renewed evidence suggests statin/Parkinson's link

Washington - New research showing a strong link between Parkinson's disease and low levels of "bad" cholesterol are so worrying that U.S. researchers are launching a study to look into it.

The team at the University of North Carolina is planning clinical trials involving thousands of people to see whether statin drugs, which lower low density lipoprotein, or LDL, might actually cause Parkinson's in some people.

Bizarro Earth

Anti-cancer chicken eggs produced (nothing could go wrong with this plan)

The Roslin Institute, near Edinburgh, says it has produced five generations of birds that can produce useful levels of life-saving proteins in egg whites.

Comment: A number of GM animals are now being used as drug factories - see this article for more: The first medicine produced from a genetically modified animal has been recommended for use in Europe. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5041298.stm


Heart - Black

US woman dies after water contest

A Californian woman who took part in a water-drinking contest to win a video game system has died of water intoxication, tests have shown.

Heart - Black

Horror story About Second Model to Die from Anorexia in 2006

When Ana Carolina Reston arrived for her first foreign fashion shoot, the 8st model was warned she was too fat. Two years later, and two stone lighter, she died from complications arising from anorexia. Tom Phillips reports from Sao Paulo on the tragic waste of a woman whose childhood dreams of being a cover girl came true - but for all the wrong reasons

Jundiai town, Sao Paulo, Brazil. A brown-haired teenage girl walks on to the stage at the local beauty contest. Below, her parents, wedged at the front of a cheering audience, clap enthusiastically as a judge slips a green and white sash over their daughter's head and pronounces her the Queen of Jundiai, 1999. Her mother wasn't surprised: 'The other girls were podgy and had bottoms,' she said later. 'She won because she was slim and elegant.'

It doesn't seem an earth-shattering achievement. But for 13-year-old Ana Carolina Reston Marcan it was one step nearer her dream of becoming a supermodel. It would take Reston (who dropped Marcan from her professional name) seven years to 'arrive', by which time she would be working as far afield as Hong Kong and Japan, for designers as well known as Giorgio Armani and Dior.

Magnify

Abnormal Proteins Linked To Schizophrenia Found In Body Tissue

A new study suggests biochemical changes associated with schizophrenia aren't limited to the central nervous system and that the disease could have more encompassing effects throughout the body than previously thought. The findings, scheduled for publication in the January 2007 issue of the American Chemical Society's Journal of Proteome Research, could lead to better diagnostic testing for the disease and could help explain why those afflicted with it are more prone to type II diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and other chronic health problems.

Star

Sleep problems, nightmares linked to suicide: study

New York - Sleep disturbances, especially nightmares, are common among people who have attempted suicide, new study findings show.

"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on an association between nightmares and suicidality in suicide attempters," co-author Nisse Sjstrm, RN of Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gteborg, Sweden, and colleagues write. However, they add that "our findings of an association between nightmares and suicidality does not imply causality."

Question

Dishing the dirt on organic food

Britain's agricultural industry was split last night over claims there is no conclusive evidence that organic food is healthier than products grown by conventional methods.

The row was triggered by comments made by David Miliband, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who described organic produce as "a lifestyle choice" and insisted that food grown with the use of pesticides and other chemicals should not be regarded as second-best.