The ongoing destruction of the globe's rainforests has been brought into devastating focus by the Amazonian blazes. One of the chief mainstream responses has been: "Stop eating meat."

On the face of it, that's an understandable response. Much forest destruction is caused by agriculture, mostly livestock farming. About 80% of Amazonian soya grown is for cattle feed. About 60% of the cleared land is used for pasture. Horrendous. But "Stop eating meat" is a simplistic response that ignores the bigger problem: destructive agriculture.

We've been increasingly dividing diets into plant vs animal. It's a split that fits nicely into social media virtue-signaling and current (insanely misguided) nutritional advice. It's an ideological division. Viewing this sort of compartmentalising through the prism of rainforest concerns highlights its unhelpfulness.

A mystery disease is estimated to have killed dozens of dogs in Norway in the last few days - with officials unsure what is causing the spread of the illness.

The Norwegian Food Safety Authority confirmed another six cases of dogs falling ill on Saturday, of which two had already died.

The illness has struck pets across the country from the northern province of Nordland to cities like Trondheim Bergen and Oslo, where the majority of cases have been reported.

All of those to have died experienced the same symptoms of vomiting and diarrhoea.

Autopsies of the first three dogs to have died is yet to prove what is causing the sickness, with veterinarians considering the potential for viral, bacterial, fungal and parasitic causes.

U.S. health officials are urging people to avoid e-cigarettes while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigates 450 cases of lung illness and five deaths that may be linked to chemical exposure while vaping.

The cases span 33 different states, with deaths confirmed in California, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Oregon, according to the CDC.

The disease has not been connected to a specific e-cig device, liquid, pod or cartridge, but officials said all reported cases involve people with a history of vaping. Many of the sufferers said they had been inhaling THC, the primary element of marijuana. It's unclear whether the illness is a new phenomenon, or if cases before this year were unreported.

"We're all wondering if this is new or just newly recognized," Dr. Dana Meaney-Delman of the CDC told reporters Friday, according to the Associated Press.

New York state, which has reported 34 cases of severe lung disease, said its health department is investigating vitamin E acetate, which it found in both nicotine- and THC-based products. Vitamin E acetate is a commonly available nutritional supplement, and while it's not known to cause harm when ingested as a vitamin supplement or applied to the skin, the health effects of inhaling the oil are unclear.

People who eat vegan and vegetarian diets have a lower risk of heart disease and a higher risk of stroke, a major study suggests.

They had 10 fewer cases of heart disease and three more strokes per 1,000 people compared with the meat-eaters.

The research, published in the British Medical Journal, looked at 48,000 people for up to 18 years.

However, it cannot prove whether the effect is down to their diet or some other aspect of their lifestyle.

Welcome to GMO 2.0, a new generation of genetic modification that promises even more than the previous GM technologies. Scientists using the "second generation" of genetic manipulation technology have used gene-editing to alter the DNA of breed of cattle so that they supposedly do not grow horns. At around the same time another group of scientists claim to have injected human cells into monkeys to create chimeras, who they say have increased intelligence. Earlier this year a group of Chinese researchers claimed to have deliberately gene-edited monkey clones with a mental disturbance.

Most will remember the Chinese scientist last year who shocked the world claiming to have genetically modified human embryos to be immune to HIV infection. What was shocking was not the science, which many experts claimed was underwhelming and sloppy, but the simple fact that he had undertaken this endeavor under the radar.

Few people realized then, but this incident has brought it home, that all this is taking place almost entirely without any serious health and safety regulation, nor have the ethical implications been fully explored. GMO 2.0 makes the process of genetic modification much simpler and, as a result, much more in reach for those with less training and understanding. It really seems like we're on the precipice of home genetic modification kits, designer babies and all the other horror stories science fiction has been warning us of for decades.

Join us on this episode of Objective:Health as we discuss the implications of this new gene tech. Do we really want to be on this train?

And stay tuned for Zoya's Pet Health Segment as she tells us all about the ups and downs of pet hedgehogs.


And check us out on Brighteon!


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Two deaths in the US have now been attributed to vaping-related lung conditions, and state governments are taking actions to crack down on the types of e-cigarettes available. Here's what you need to know about this mysterious illness and the response to the outbreak.

How did these deaths occur?

In July, an Illinois resident developed a lung infection and died after using a vaping device that contained marijuana oil. Yesterday, officials in Oregon said that a resident of the state who used e-cigarettes had also died after being hospitalised for a severe lung infection. It's not clear why these respiratory problems led to the people's deaths. It could be that something either in the e-cigarette or the substances smoked through them caused serious inflammation of the lungs.

Has anyone else got ill from vaping?

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that as of 27 August, 215 possible cases of vaping-related severe lung disease have been reported by 25 states. In addition to the deaths in Illinois and Oregon, this multistate outbreak includes people who have reported coughs, shortness of breath, chest pain, fever, fatigue, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. These symptoms developed over days or weeks. Some people turn up to hospital with symptoms that look like pneumonia, and have been put on ventilators or treated in intensive care units.

Here's some less-than refreshing news about soda: even sugar-free versions were associated with a higher risk of death in a study of 452,000 people in 10 countries.

The study, published Tuesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that people who drank two or more glasses of soft drinks per day were more likely to die from all types of ailments, compared with people who drank less than one glass per month.

"Results of this study appear to support ongoing public-health measures to reduce the consumption of soft drinks," the researchers concluded.

A second person in the country has died after developing a severe lung illness that is believed to be linked to vaping, as health officials continue to grapple with the dangers of e-cigarette use and the exact cause of the deaths.

The victim, whose name and age was not made public, died in Oregon in July after using an e-cigarette or vaping device that contained marijuana, according to the state's Health Authority.

Officials with the agency said the person's symptoms were consistent with the hundreds of similar cases of respiratory illnesses that have been reported in the U.S., most of which are affecting teenagers and young adults.

Michigan is set to become the first US state to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, according to an announcement Wednesday by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The ban gives sellers 30 days to comply and lasts six months -- though the governor can decide to renew it. This includes sales in brick-and-mortar stores, as well as online sales.

Citing these products' appeal to kids, Whitmer also ordered the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to "ban misleading marketing of vaping products, including the use of terms like 'clean,' 'safe,' and 'healthy' that perpetuate beliefs that these products are harmless," the announcement said.

"As governor, my number one priority is keeping our kids safe," Whitmer said in the statement. "And right now, companies selling vaping products are using candy flavors to hook children on nicotine and misleading claims to promote the belief that these products are safe. That ends today."

A VEGAN or vegetarian diet could leave you at greater risk of having a stroke, according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal.

Research conducted by the University of Oxford found vegans and vegetarians are less likely to suffer from coronary heart disease than meat-eater but are at greater risk of having a stroke.

Data from more than 48,000 adults with no history of heart disease or stroke, all of whom signed up to a wider study running from 1993 and 2001, were analysed.

Quizzed on various aspects of their lifestyle and medical history, participants were asked to classify themselves as either meat-eaters (24,428 people), vegetarians and vegans (16,254 people) or pescatarians (7,506 people).

They were then asked some of the questions again in 2010, including whether they had switched diets.

Throughout the study the health of the participants was monitored through medical records up until March 2016. During that period there were 2,820 reported cases of coronary heart disease and 1,072 cases of stroke.