Health & WellnessS


Coffee

Research check: Can drinking coffee reduce your dementia risk?

Henry Brodaty
The Conversation
Fri, 14 Oct 2016 17:12 UTC
Coffee
© Tim Wright/Unsplash, CC BYMany reasons that weren’t explored may account for the findings that women who drank coffee decreased their risk of dementia.
Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, is a growing problem worldwide. There are 350,000 people with dementia in Australia and this is set to rise to 900,000 by 2050. There is no cure for Alzheimer's disease.

So if "coffee really can help to prevent dementia", as a headline by the Daily Mail last week suggested, that would be amazing. This is why the study on which the headline was based received so much interest.

It was reported on by publications such as the the Independent and websites dedicated to anti-ageing research.

According to the Daily Mail, the study showed:
Women over the age of 65 who had a normal caffeine intake were 36% less likely to develop a cognitive impairment.
Unfortunately there are many reasons not to get excited. The study was observational: a look back through data collected over many years. This means many reasons that weren't explored may account for the findings that women who drank coffee decreased their risk of dementia.

Comment: An interesting look at the flaws associated with observational studies, based on self assessment via questionnaires. As the author points out, this has lead to questionable results. It is worth noting that virtually ALL the research supposedly proving that smoking is harmful is also based on theses same observational studies and self assessment via questionnaires - which should, to the unbiased observer, lead to similar questions regarding the veracity of the results that have been published. That is not politically correct, so it does not happen.

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Pills

Researchers make breakthrough discovery for male birth control pill

Himanshu Goenka
International Business Times
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 10:20 UTC
birth control pills
© Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images
After decades of research, experiments and failure, scientists may have finally made the breakthrough needed to create a non-barrier contraception for men that doesn't require surgery. Yes, the birth control pill for men may finally become a reality.

Researchers at the University of Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom have come up with a new approach that may make men temporarily infertile. It uses a peptide — a short chain of amino acids — that inhibits the ability of the sperm to swim, making it impossible for it to fertilize the egg. In collaboration with scientists from Aveiro University in Portugal, the U.K. researchers created a cell-penetrating peptide that turns off the protein that allows the sperm to swim.

If the compound can be made into a successful contraceptive, its benefits could be significant. It would do away with much of the hormonal side effects that women who are on the pill face. It would also allow men to be more in control of their own fertility without having to go through a vasectomy, which even though reversible, is still a surgery.

Comment: We'll believe it when we see it. Here's a different version of a male birth control pill which is also looming on the horizon.

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Cult

The evils of industry lobbying: Profits before health?

Rishma Parpia
The Vaccine Reaction
Wed, 19 Oct 2016 23:24 UTC
industry lobbying
Most of the money that flows through the political system in America originates from special interest groups. Corporations, industry groups, labor unions and single-issue organizations spend billions of dollars each year on campaign contributions and lobbying to gain access to the government policy and law-making process with the ultimate goal of increasing their bottom line. This notion of "buying" influence has resulted in policies that may not be in the best interest of the public. This is particularly true with respect to health and vaccine policy.

The Sugar Industry's Influence in Skewing U.S. Public Health Policy

If you have been to any grocery store lately, you have noticed that the aisles are stocked with processed foods. If you go a step further and inspect the nutrition facts label on packaged foods, you will see that almost all products contain sugar. This is by no means an accident.

The sugar industry has a strong history of shaping nutrition policy in the U.S.1 Historically sugar producers have enjoyed federal support and protection in return for their significant lobbying and campaign contributions in Congress.2 For example, in the Farm Bill of 2008 that was ferociously lobbied by the sugar industry, Congress increased price supports for sugar producers while decreasing support for producers for all other crops.2 In fact, Congress guaranteed a price per pound for raw and refined sugar that they would pay to the sugar producers if they were unable to make a profit at market prices.2
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Health

The truth about mammograms: False positives, over-diagnosis, over-treatment and radiation-induced cancer

Vandita
AnonHQ
Sun, 23 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC
mammogram
In 2016, an estimated 246,660 new cases of invasive breast cancer, 61,000 new cases of non-invasive breast cancer, and 40,450 breast cancer deaths are expected to be recorded in the United States alone. With the rising rates of breast cancer, mammography has gained popularity globally as the most effective screening technique to detect the most common cancer among women.
I believe that if you did have a tumor, the last thing you would want to do is crush that tumor between two plates, because that would spread it. — Dr. Sarah Mybill, General Practitioner
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention insists mammograms are the best way to find breast cancer early, when it is easier to treat and before it is big enough to feel or cause symptoms. Having regular mammograms can lower the risk of dying from breast cancer, claims the leading national public health institute of the United States.
I think if a woman from the age of 50 has a mammogram every year, or every two years, she's going to get breast cancer as a direct result from that. — Dr. Patrick Kingsley, Clinical Ecologist
This, despite the fact that the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recently excluded mammography for women under 50 - based on scientific evidence of limited efficacy in reducing breast cancer mortality for women between 40 and 49 - the IARC working group further noted that early detection of breast cancer through mammography screening have important harmful outcomes such as false positive results, over-diagnosis, over-treatment and radiation-induced cancer.

Comment: Mammography screening boosts the profits of the medical cartel by providing them more patients as breast cancer screenings result in an increase in breast cancer mortality and accelerate the epidemic of cancer.

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Bulb

Light therapy device for SAD sufferers invented by creative high schoolers

Jake Van Der Borne
Natural Blaze
Sun, 23 Oct 2016 23:37 UTC
winter blues
An inventive team of high school students has created a new light therapy device that may provide relief for the millions of people who suffer from a seasonal form of depression.

As the days shorten and fall gives in to winter, bouts of the "winter blues" aren't uncommon. But a more serious form of winter depression known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) can make the colder, darker months a long period of misery for many.

What is SAD?

When the seasons change and the length of daylight hours varies, there is a shift in our circadian rhythms. This can cause our "biological clocks" to be out of sync with our daily schedules, and can have dramatic effects on our overall wellness. The most difficult months for SAD sufferers in the Northern Hemisphere are January and February, and younger people and women tend to be at higher risk.

Comment: Tips to beat the winter blues

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Pistol

Go figure: Murder or accident?

Dr. David Healy
davidhealy.org
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 13:29 UTC
opioids
Harold Shipman was a doctor in Britain, who was arrested for murder in 1998. He turned out to be a true Angel of Death, the most prolific known serial killer, who killed it is thought between two and three hundred of his patients by prescribing opioids in large doses.

After his trial and conviction and jailing, he committed suicide in jail with no-one any the wiser as to why he had behaved the way he did.

His killing spree led to a change in medicine's regulatory apparatus, ostensibly to ensure this couldn't happen again. Boxes were put in place, and mandatory courses on a range of issues from consent to continuing education. All of this takes time away from seeing people. But if Shipman's case held any lesson it is that he was assiduous at ticking the boxes that registration bodies like the General Medical Council in Britain put in place. The system probably makes a future Shipman more rather than less likely.

Short of doctors who have been struck off for proven cases of negligent care or abuse of patients, we might all on average be safer with doctors the regulator is having problems with, who for the most part are more keen on seeing patients than spending time ticking boxes, rather than with the doctors who are in good standing with the regulator. But what can the system do? We, the public, won't let it do nothing.

Comment: The answer is simple. They are murderers as well, even in a worse category than Shipman.

Unprecedented and horrific: Deaths from heroin use & overdose have tripled in the U.S.

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Top Secret

Vaccine cover up & fraud continues: CDC's flagrant refusal of a court subpoena

Catherine J. Frompovich
Activist Post
Sat, 22 Oct 2016 14:54 UTC
vaccine coverup

"On Sept. 22, in a letter from CDC Director Thomas Freiden, [Frieden] CDC denied Smith's request. Smith explained that 'this denial was a disappointment but not a surprise, since the inescapable implication of Dr. Thompson's testimony is that the agency fraudulently altered the science to undermine autism cases worth potentially $1 trillion in compensation ordered by Congress'." [8]

There must be something either in the water or the air in Washington, DC - the federal district and government agencies, in particular, or Atlanta, Georgia - that enables federal employees and bureaucrats to break the law and not be held accountable! Isn't that interesting? One such exceptional example is the circus of events that surrounds the Democrat's presidential candidate's actions as Secretary of State deleting over 30,000 emails from her personal email server, plus not being able to remember 'things' under testimony to the FBI's investigation!

FBI Director James Comey seems to have drunk some of the 'cool aid', water or breathed too deeply because of his unbelievable exoneration of Hillary Clinton's obvious illegal and criminal actions, which other government employees had them land in prison, John Kiriakou being one CIA employee about whom I wrote [1].

However, nothing seems to match the chutzpah, or impudence, of government employees than what goes on within the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention AND the U.S. Food and Drug Administration!
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Bacon n Eggs

Focusing on the pleasure of eating can lead to choosing smaller portion sizes

Karen Foster
Prevent Disease
Mon, 24 Oct 2016 11:32 UTC
obesity MRI
The rapid rise in portion sizes in the west has gone hand in hand with rising rates of obesity. No country in the world has the quantity of fast food outlets with the diversity of portions sizes as the United States. To curb supersizing, governments and public health institutions have advocated portion size limits and health warnings, but they have had limited success. Many European nations can teach the west a thing or two about eating. They pursue cuisine which is full of flavor and high in satisfaction. They don't believe in low-fat, low-carb, low-taste, or low-calorie, but they do believe in enjoying their food, taking the time to eat at the table, knowing when to stop eating and educating their children about food.

Overall calories, the types of foods we eat, decreased expenditure and an loss of self-integrity are the biggest contributors to plus-sized cultures. Due the nature of our metabolic inefficiency, more people than ever before have tremendous challenges in losing weight and keeping it off.

Consumers feel they are being infantilized and food marketers feel they're being squeezed as they typically extract higher profits from bigger portions.
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Info

Zika virus found to change human cells - report


RT
Sat, 22 Oct 2016 16:24 UTC
Zika virus
© Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters 451
Everything we know about Zika fever may change due to a discovery from the University of California, San Diego's School of Medicine. The disease only recently became public knowledge and has been the subject of a significant amount of scientific study.

One alarming aspect of the Zika virus is the insidious way it can damage neurological and immunological functions and also cause developmental defects in newborn infants, such as microcephaly. But a recent study from UC San Diego could help scientists develop drugs to lower the risk of birth defects in pregnant women who become infected.

Researchers found that the disease actually changes a part of human genetic material to "hide in plain sight," Tariq Rana, the lead author of the study and a professor of pediatrics at UC San Diego, told USA Today. In a study published in the journal Cell host & Microbe, Rana and her fellow researchers explain that Zika may cause birth defects when it enters a human cell.

Comment: See also:

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Cult

Australia begins persecution of anti-vax nurses and midwives - calls for public to turn them in

Brandon Turbeville
Natural Blaze
Sat, 22 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC
vaccination aussie
While Australia whines about the lack of democracy and freedom in places like Syria, it is doing everything in its power to ensure that nothing resembling either of those things is allowed within its own borders.

Apparently having found itself in a race with France, Germany, the UK and the United States, for which country can eliminate personal liberties, freedom of speech - or even thought - while launching wars all across the world on the basis of protecting those things, Australia is proving itself to be a capable competitor.

The examples of Australia's thought control policies are legion, but the most recent is surrounding the vaccination hysteria in the ability of free adults to choose whether or not they accept toxic chemicals (or life-saving medicines with no side effects) into their bodies.

According to a report by the Guardian, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia has announced a fatwa of jihad against nurses and midwives who discourage vaccination or are critical of vaccines.

Comment: The swell of legal and social anti-vaxxer persecution has taken on international proportions of late - especially among Western countries and governments so obviously in bed with Big Pharma. See our recent Focus piece on these developments in the U.S. and continue to keep note of how this situation continues to worsen...

Vaccine State USA: Mandatory vaccinations are here - California law requires total compliance

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