Sleep - we spend about a third our lives doing it, we're the only mammal that willingly delays it, yet when it's disturbed, it can lead to a number of chronic illnesses including dementia, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and obesity. Sleep deprivation can also mess with your immune system, has been linked to metabolic diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes, and is implicated in Alzheimer's disease and many mental health problems including depression.

Recent research on sleep has uncovered some fascinating and important facts about it. Yet it seems few of us actually prioritize sleep as we should. Many, especially in the West, still view lack of sleep as a badge of honor - a sign of drive, ambition and achievement at the expense of sleep. Worse, good sleep is often characterized as a sign of sloth. But sleep is extremely important - some researchers even claim it's more important than diet or exercise. Getting our priorities in order in regards to sleep could be the most important thing we do for our health.

Join us on this episode of the Health and Wellness Show where discuss the recent research on sleep. And stay tuned for Zoya's Pet Health Segment, where she discusses Schrödingers cat.

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Storm clouds are gathering...

First the solution-leave the European Union. Do it soon. Don't knuckle under.

Europe is moving closer to mandatory vaccination. The drive is spearheaded by a collaboration between the European Union (EU) and Big Pharma companies.

Many citizens of EU member countries aren't even aware of what is happening. Key high-level meetings are being held in secret.

Those who are aware, and object to what is on the planning table, are being ignored.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) claims that last year's flu vaccine was a "grand success." Newly appointed CDC director Robert R. Redfield claimed the influenza A and B vaccines were 36 percent effective over 2017-2018 flu season. He tweeted praise on the vaccinated because they "reduced risk of getting sick with the flu and having to go to the doctor by about one-third."

Even though 36 percent effectiveness is scant and meaningless for a product that promises protection against serious disease, this number is NOT based on absolute risk reduction (ARR). Instead, the CDC bases its vaccine effectiveness numbers on something called relative risk reduction (RRR), a vague and misleading postulation that exaggerates the vaccine's effectiveness. Their numbers are then echoed by the mainstream media to hide the real failure of the flu vaccine.

A more accurate figure for vaccine efficacy can be calculated by configuring the absolute risk reduction. This figure, which we will calculate below, is only about one percent. On top of misrepresenting the data, the CDC omits five other important factors that should be considered in determining vaccine effectiveness, including genetic mutations of flu viruses in vaccines, the shedding of flu viruses from vaccines, weakened humoral immunity after vaccination, the importance of the individual's terrain in determining outcomes, and vaccine side effects, which can cause flu like illnesses, secondary infections, and neurological events. As we will explore, there is no reliable evidence linking flu vaccination to a flu reduction in the population. The shot actually causes harm to the vaccine recipient and is prone to shedding, increasing the likelihood that more people will become infected with mutated live virus strains.

Call them the in(side) crowd.

About 25 percent of Americans hardly ever venture outside, unaware or unconcerned about breathing only stale indoor air, a report says.

In an age when nearly everything can be found (and delivered) online - including food, entertainment and relationships - it's hardly surprising to discover an "indoor generation."

"We are increasingly turning into a generation of indoor people where the only time we get daylight and fresh air midweek is on the commute to work or school," Peter Foldbjerg, the head of daylight energy and indoor climate at Velux, a window manufacturing company, said in a statement.

According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, a nine-hour workday is the average for American wage-earners. When they return home on a typical day, 85 percent of women and 67 percent of men spend time doing work around the house.

Your skin is the largest and fastest growing organ. It essentially protects your body from the outside. It regulates your temperature and allows you to experience your environment through your senses. Many people care for the skin on their face by regularly exfoliating, cleansing and moisturizing. However, the skin on the rest of the body is often overlooked.

The appearance of your skin has a lot to do with your environment, irritation and nutrition. Healthy fats help to promote beautiful and healthy skin. Getting enough high-quality omega-3 fat helps prevent rough dry skin and vitamins provide protection against skin damage, including acne. Acne and moles are not the only lumps and bumps you may find on your skin, however. Some suffer from skin tags; little fleshy growths you may be tempted to pick at.

What Are Skin Tags?

These raised bumps are known as acrochordons or cutaneous tags by dermatologists.¹ While completely harmless, they can be especially annoying when they occur on your face or in areas of your body under consistent friction from clothing, such as around the neck, under the arms and near the groin.

Approximately 1 in 4 people will have skin tags at some point and they are especially common after age 50. These benign skin tumors may be removed for aesthetic or cosmetic reasons. There are a number of different over-the-counter methods that can be used, as well as a visit to the dermatologist. However, there are methods you should not use to remove skin tags at home.

Skin tags are connected to your skin by a thin stalk called a peduncle.² They are commonly found in both men and women and are likely the single most common bump found on an adult skin. An individual may have anywhere from one to hundreds of skin tags, although middle-aged, obese adults are most prone.

Canadian Mikhaila Peterson shares more than DNA and a depressive tendency with her famous father, Dr Jordan Peterson, the Toronto University psychology professor, author of the best-selling 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote for Chaos and self-proclaimed "professor against political correctness".

Father and daughter have also become global poster children for the benefits of a carnivorous diet. Both credit it with reversing all symptoms of debilitating autoimmune illnesses and depression that plagued them for decades.

A wholly carnivorous diet is on the extreme end of the low-carbohydrate, high-fat (LCHF) spectrum. It is also a "ketogenic" diet, in which the body turns fat into ketone bodies to use for fuel, instead of glucose.

California's rates for sexually transmitted diseases have hit record highs and San Francisco's numbers are even worse, according to recent data released by the California Department of Public Health.

In the last five years, California's rates of gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis have increased 45 percent.

In 2017, the number of people in The City affected by syphilis increased 25.5 percent, which translates to 292 new cases in The City, compared to 20 percent statewide. The 970 new chlamydia cases in The City resulted in a 12 percent increase compared to the state's 9 percent jump. However, the local increase in the number of gonorrhea cases, 10.7 percent, to 554 new cases, was not as dramatic as the state's 16 percent spike.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health is pushing for people to use more condoms and working to increase access to screenings, according to Dr. Susan Philip, director of the department's disease prevention and control branch.

"We're going to have to be really innovative," Philip said. "Remind people about the basics like condom use and also offer new ways for people to access that screening and treatment if needed."

It's a conundrum that has stumped scientists for centuries, but now researchers say they have taken a tantalising step forward in the quest to tackle the common cold.

The scourge of workplace, home and school playground, the common cold is predominantly caused by the rhinovirus. But attempts to thwart the pathogen by vaccination or antiviral drugs face a number of difficulties - not least because the virus comes in many forms and can mutate rapidly leading to drug resistance.

But now scientists say they have discovered a way to nobble the virus that could one day help those with conditions such as asthma and cystic fibrosis, for whom a cold is not merely a nuisance but a serious health risk.

The trick, the authors say, is to develop drugs that interact with one of the enzymes within our cells - an approach that makes it harder for the virus to become drug-resistant.

"Viruses hijack the host to make more copies of themselves. This enzyme is one of the host enzymes that the virus hijacks," said Roberto Solari, visiting professor at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, and a co-author of the study.

This past March, Graham Mitchell, a 48-year-old British psychiatric nurse, hanged himself in his garden. During the subsequent inquest, family members expressed surprise at Mitchell's decision to commit suicide, as reported by the Macclesfield Express. They knew Mitchell's mental health had deteriorated, as he'd become noticeably depressed in the wake of a few personal setbacks. During the weeks before his death, Mitchell's sister said he seemed shell-shocked.

But the inquest revealed issues of which Mitchell's family was unaware, including his longtime struggle with chronic insomnia. In recent years, his shift-work schedule had apparently amplified his battle with rest.

The story mentioned Mitchell's insomnia several times, but didn't flesh out the dialectical relationship between disturbed sleep, mental disorders and suicide, perhaps understandably.

For anyone unfamiliar with the term ghee, another name for it is clarified butter. One difference between ghee and regular butter is that the former doesn't have as many dairy proteins, and there are a host of health advocates who maintain that ghee is the healthier option. Starting with pure butter made from cow's milk, the ghee-making process involves heating and separating liquid fats from the milk solids, which become caramelized, and removing the milk solids (which also removes most of the lactose).

Ghee has been used in traditional cooking in India, Pakistan and Southeast Asia for eons, as an oil and as an ingredient, but it's also an Ayurvedic go-to for herbal ointments, massage and as a medicinal to remedy rashes and burns. While butter isn't bad for you (especially in comparison with vegetable oil, margarine and the multitude of erroneous, mass-marketed options introduced in the 1960s), ghee, which started as butter, may be the better choice.

For one thing, ghee, heated longer than most clarified butter, is darker and has a nuttier flavor, as well as a higher smoke point, making it easier and healthier for sautéing. In fact, including ghee in your diet may bring benefits for several areas, including your heart. Ghee is made up of about 50 percent saturated fat, which was considered a bad thing until the medical community and nutritionists began realizing that fat - including saturated fat - is good for you.

Interestingly, breast milk contains 54 percent saturated fat. Good fat like this is vital to proper development and your body can't function without it. Even the American Heart Association recommends that people get 5 or 6 percent of their daily food intake from saturated fat, which is still far too low (you actually need upward of 50 to 70 percent healthy fat in your diet for optimal health), but butter deliciously helps to fulfill that requirement.¹

So the "clarified" part is at least part of what makes ghee better than butter, but still, there are caveats. It's also helpful to understand that "milk," produced as it typically is in the U.S. today, contains elements that weren't (or shouldn't be) meant for human consumption. To explore all the facets of what ghee is, you must first start with milk.