Health & WellnessS


Health

Man who binged on energy drinks for three weeks diagnosed with acute hepatitis

energy drinks
© AP
A 50-year-old construction worker who consumed four to five energy drinks a day for three weeks was recently diagnosed with acute hepatitis, a condition characterized by liver inflammation. While not the first case of its kind, the incident points the largely ignored dangers of excess niacin consumption.

A new case report published in the British Medical Journal highlights the need for consumers to be aware of all the ingredients found in popular food and drink items, and to avoid the over-consumption of dietary supplements. Doctors who treated the unnamed man believe his sudden bout of hepatitis was caused by his excessive energy drink consumption, which included the ingestion of copious amounts vitamin B3, also known as niacin.

As a construction worker, the man began to consume energy drinks to help him power through his labor-intensive workday. Aside from hitting the energy drinks with unusual fervor, he didn't make any other changes to his eating and drinking habits. Soon afterwards, the man started to become unusually fatigued, and he began to experience abdominal pain. When this turned to nausea and vomiting, he figured he had the flu—but the man became particularly alarmed when he developed dark urine and jaundice (his skin was turning yellow). Wisely, he went to the emergency department.

Health

Fluoridegate: Activists in Georgia receive support from former UN Ambassador

contaminated water
Anti-fluoridation activists in Georgia received a major boost of support when former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under Jimmy Carter, Andrew Young, sent a letter to Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and House Speaker David Ralston demanding hearings to investigate why water fluoridation is being continued in the state despite all the reasons to end it.

Ambassador Young is asking for a written response. His letter was also sent to the CEO of the American Water Works Association, David LaFrance.

"What's clear to me is that we need a repeal of Georgia's water fluoridation law, and hearings to look into how fluoridation has continued all these years, long after there were plenty of reasons to end it," Ambassador Young wrote.

Comment: It will be interesting to see if anything comes of it. Dallas ended their flouridation program, why not Georgia?


Health

More evidence that calcium supplementation is useless for the bones and dangerous for the heart

calcium
© sasimoto / Fotolia
Calcium's heart protective benefits are well documented and high total calcium intake from food is linked with a lower risk of clogged arteries. However, calcium intake from supplements, specifically inferior forms of the mineral, are not absorbed and actually decrease the digestibility of other nutrients, while increasing the risk of coronary artery calcification (CAC), a ten-year follow-up of over 5000 adults has found.

Those with the highest total calcium intakes from foods compared to the lowest intakes generally have a minimum of a 20% lower risk of CAC. If we take too much Calcium (and to a slightly lesser degree, Magnesium) at once, it will cause the body pH to rise, and the body is quick to dump calcium and other minerals to check the rise in alkalinity, but where does the calcium go?

A 2004 study showed that people with excess calcium in their coronary artery and who take statins have a 17-fold higher risk of heart attacks than do those with lower arterial calcium levels; researchers concluded that the two most definitive indicators of heart attack were LDL levels and calcium build-up.

Comment:


Health

Johnson & Johnson loses again in baby powder cancer case

baby powder
In the latest development in the Johnson & Johnson talcum powder saga, a St. Louis jury has awarded a California woman over $70 million dollars as a result of her lawsuit claiming that years of using Johnson & Johnson's caused her to be stricken by cancer. The trial began on September 26th and ended on October 27th.

The plaintiff, Deborah Giannecchini of Medesto California was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012. The lawsuit accused Johnson & Johnson of negligent conduct in the manufacture and marketing of its product.

Giannecchini's lawyer told the Associated Press, "We are pleased the jury did the right thing. They once again reaffirmed the need for Johnson & Johnson to warn the public of the ovarian cancer risk associated with its product."

Comment: See also:


Syringe

The toxic and flawed science behind flu vaccines

toxic flu vaccine
Joshua Hadfield was a normal, healthy developing child as a toddler. In the midst of the 2010 H1N1 swine flu frenzy and fear mongering about the horrible consequences children face if left unvaccinated, the Hadfield's had Joshua vaccinated with Glaxo's Pandermrix influenza vaccine. Within weeks, Joshua could barely wake up, sleeping up to nineteen hours a day. Laughter would trigger seizures.

Joshua was diagnosed with narcolepsy, "an incurable, debilitating condition" associated with acute brain damage.[1] Today we can look back at Pandermrix as a horrible vaccine. Research indicates that it was associated with a 1400% increase in narcolepsy risk. More recently, a team of Finnish scientists at Finland's National Institute for Health and Welfare, recorded 800 cases of narcolepsy associated with this vaccine. Vaccine ingredients other than the engineered viral antigen are most often believed to be the primary culprits to adverse vaccine reactions. The Finnish research, on the other hand, indicated that the vaccine's altered viral nucleotide likely contributed to the sudden rise in sleeping sickness.[2]

Although Pandermrix was pulled from the market, it should never have been approved and released in the first place. This is a classic case of regulatory negligence by health officials and the WHO which promulgates flu vaccines around the world. Like all vaccines, which are now commonly fast tracked through government health regulatory bodies for rapid release upon the public, it should have been tested more thoroughly and more rigorously reviewed.

Since the time of Edward Jenner's primitive inoculation experiments to combat smallpox, and its countless aftermath of deaths throughout the 19th century, modern vaccine science has failed to learn its lessons. The failure of proper regulatory oversight has resulted in Joshua and other British citizens becoming disabled for life. The British government has paid out over 63 million pounds to cover lawsuits to Pandermrix victims. Glaxo has never admitted its flu vaccine caused brain damage. And this begs the question as to why it was withdrawn since it was the corporation's single flagship vaccine against the swine flu.[3]

Comment: A shot never worth taking: The flu vaccine


Attention

Poor work-life balance leads to poor health later in life

Workplace stress
© unknownToo much work has adverse health effects.
Due to the increasing pressure of modern life and despite the adverse effects it has on our health, we tend to get less sleep and work more. A new study shows that a poor work-life balance in midlife may have negative consequences decades later.

Several studies have shown that long working hours are bad for one's health, with adverse effects on cardiovascular and mental health.

Conversely, flexible working hours and schedules that employees have more control over have been shown to have positive effects on health and well-being.

Despite this, many of us still have a poor work-life balance, and we tend to sleep less. In 1910, a "normal" sleeping schedule was considered an average of 9 hours per night, while today, this has fallen to around 7 hours.

Damaging effects include a higher risk of stroke, coronary heart disease, and mental disorders, such as anxiety and depression.

Some studies have shown that individuals who work 55 hours or more per week have a 1.3 times higher risk of stroke than those working standard hours.

Comment: See also:


Laptop

Are you addicted to social media? Six questions

people on phones
© unknown
Yes, you spend a lot of time on social media. You might even check your phone every few minutes to see how many people have liked your latest Facebook post. But are you addicted? And even if you are, what's the big deal?

"Our devotion to technology and social media has changed how we interact with others, and that's not necessarily a good thing," said James Roberts, Ph.D., The Ben H. Williams Professor of Marketing in Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business. "Yes, there are advantages to technology. But our obsession with smartphones and the lives we live via our social media channels can come at a cost to our real-life relationships."

Roberts is known internationally for his research on smartphone addiction and how technology (smartphones, specifically) affects relationships and stress levels. He is the author of the book "Too Much of a Good Thing: Are you Addicted to your Smartphone?"

Comment: See also:


Brain

Brain changes seen in youth football players without concussion

Football children
© Good Housekeeping
Researchers have found measurable brain changes in children after a single season of playing youth football, even without a concussion diagnosis, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology.

According to USA Football, there are approximately 3 million young athletes participating in organized tackle football across the country. Numerous reports have emerged in recent years about the possible risks of brain injury while playing youth sports and the effects it may have on developing brains. However, most of the research has looked at changes in the brain as a result of concussion.

"Most investigators believe that concussions are bad for the brain, but what about the hundreds of head impacts during a season of football that don't lead to a clinically diagnosed concussion? We wanted to see if cumulative sub-concussive head impacts have any effects on the developing brain," said the study's lead author, Christopher T. Whitlow, M.D., Ph.D., M.H.A., associate professor and chief of neuroradiology at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Comment: See also: Trying to Reduce Head Injuries, Youth Football Limits Practices


Pills

Number of children and adolescents hospitalized for prescription opioid poisoning has doubled since 1997

opioids
© John Moore / Getty Images North America / AFP
The number of children and adolescents hospitalized for prescription opioid poisoning more than doubled over the last two decades, according to a new study. The trend is part of endemic opioid abuse in the US.

Researchers analyzed pediatric hospital discharge records every three years from 1997 to 2012, identifying 13,052 cases of children or adolescents hospitalized for opioid poisoning. Records from the same time frame were also gathered for teens ages 15 to 19 whose opioid poisoning was due to heroin.

For children ages 1 to 19, opioid-poisoning hospitalizations went up by 165 percent (1.40 to 3.71 per 100,000 children) in the time period analyzed, according the study, National Trends in Hospitalizations for Opioid Poisonings Among Children and Adolescents, 1997 to 2012, published October 31 on the website of the JAMA Pediatrics. There was a 205 percent jump (0.86 to 2.62 per 100,000 children) for children ages 1 to 4, and an increase of 176 percent (3.69 to 10.17 per 100,000 children) for teens ages 15 to 19, the study found.

Poisonings from heroin for teens ages 15 to 19 went up by 161 percent (0.96 to 2.51 per 100,000 children), while poisoning from methadone increased by 950 percent (0.10 to 1.05 per 100,000 children), according to the study, led by Julie R. Gaither of the Yale School of Medicine.

Pills

Former DEA chief: Congress protects Big Pharma and fuels the opioid crisis

drug money, pharma drugs
Congress would rather protect the profits of pharmaceutical companies than the health of those addicted to dangerous opioid drugs, says a former head of the DEA responsible for preventing abuse of medications.

Joseph Rannazzisi, former Deputy Assistant Administrator at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, asserts Big Pharma and its lobbyists have a "stranglehold" on legislators in Congress and have engineered the protection of a $9 billion per year industry over the health of American citizens, according to a report from the Guardian.

"Congress would rather listen to people who had a profit motive rather than a public health and safety motive," he said, according to the outlet. "As long as the industry has this stranglehold through lobbyists, nothing's going to change."

Rannazzisi explained lobbyists have spent millions thwarting legislative and policy efforts to provide guidelines for reducing the prescribing of opioid medications closely related to heroin — and helped limit the DEA's powers to discipline those who dispense unusually high dosages of the same.

Comment: Further reading: