Health & WellnessS


Rocket

Rocket fuel and the not so Safe Drinking Water Act

Alex Formuzis & Olga Naidenko
Environmental Working Group
Wed, 07 Sep 2016 18:17 UTC
rocket fuel
In a remarkable moment of courtroom candor, an attorney representing the Environmental Protection Agency admitted last week the EPA "blew it" in botched efforts to regulate a hazardous chemical in the drinking water of up to 17 million Americans.

The attorney, Emily Elizabeth Bretz of the U.S. Attorney's office for New York state, was responding to a lawsuit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council over the EPA's failure to set a legal tap water limit for perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel linked to impaired fetal and infant brain development and altered thyroid hormones in women.

The EPA first announced plans to regulate perchlorate in February 2011. Under the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act, the agency had two years to propose regulations and another 18 months to finalize them.

The reforms to the drinking water law solidified the EPA's authority to establish enforceable drinking water standards for previously unregulated contaminants. Yet the last time the EPA set a new legal tap water limit for a chemical pollutant was in 2000.
Read More...
Health

The anti-aging effects of human growth hormone

Eldon Dahl
Prevent Disease
Wed, 07 Sep 2016 18:14 UTC
running man
A number of studies have documented that the correction of human growth hormone (HGH) deficiency in men and women above the age of 30 can assist the body dramatically in improving everything from bone mass, energy, mood, cognitive function, immunity, sleep quality, libido, skin tone, fat loss, muscle mass and so much more. Alternatives to injections are growing in popularity and offer an aging population the opportunity to supplement safely and economically.

As children, we look forward to our birthdays, but there comes a certain age when they are no longer anticipated, partly because aging is associated with the negative effects of growing old: lack of energy, graying hair (if lucky enough to have hair), facial wrinkles, menopause, weight gain and flaccid muscle tissue, prostate issues and forgetfulness. With these thoughts in mind, it is no wonder birthdays for some are not joyous events. These conditions are connected with premature aging or aging at an advanced rate, but what if these conditions could be greatly lessened and not be so horrendous and worrisome? Wouldn't that take the edge off, if we could slow down the aging process? Aging is a part of life and as each calendar year passes it should be seen as an added blessing, especially if healthy and vibrant.

Once born, we begin to grow and for growth to happen we need adequate human growth hormone (HGH). HGH is produced by the anterior pituitary gland. Dwarfism is results of inadequate HGH release.

Comment: There are concerns regarding contaminants in human growth hormone obtained from animals. However, human growth hormone can be boosted naturally through weight lifting, high intensity interval training and intermittent fasting.

Read More...
Health

Social pressure a factor in abysmally low breastfeeding rates for UK mums


RT
Fri, 09 Sep 2016 17:18 UTC
breastfeeding
© Marco Bello / Reuters
Societal pressure to look good and go for a night out in the UK has resulted in the world's lowest breastfeeding rate, according to a public health expert.

Professor Amy Brown from Swansea University said new British mums are shamed into continuing with the lives they had before giving birth and that breastfeeding can become "overwhelming," reports the Telegraph.

The academic is now calling for a change in public attitudes towards breastfeeding in public, highlighting how the natural act is still seen as taboo by some Brits.

"Is the reason for the low figures because of physical problems? No," Brown said. "There are only two percent of women in the UK who are unable to breastfeed because of a physical problem or because of medication that they are on."
Read More...
SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: The Health & Wellness Show: The Gift of Fear: Gut Feelings, Intuition and Situational Awareness


Sott.net
Fri, 09 Sep 2016 14:00 UTC
waves
© Daiana Lorenz/Flickr
It's a jungle out there, as the saying goes, and there are those who aim to do us harm. Have you had feelings that something is not quite right, had niggling doubts or red flags about certain people and situations? Each of us were endowed with gut feelings that we can either ignore to our peril or use to our advantage.

On this episode of the Health and Wellness Show we discussed the difference between true fear and everyday worry and anxiety, learning to spot danger signals that women, in particular, and society, in general, have been taught to ignore. How can we cultivate our sense of intuition to keep us safe and avoid becoming victims to the predators out there? Join us as we share eye-opening stories about how the gift of fear can save your life.

Have you ever wondered if your pet can understand you? Stick around for Zoya's Pet Health Segment to find out!

Running Time: 01:42:12

Download: MP3

Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Control the food: The world according to Monsanto

James Hall
Waking Times
Wed, 07 Sep 2016 00:00 UTC
Monsanto crow
Corporate monopolies are not new, but ownership of patented grain seeds connotes that the control of the food supply is in the grasp of a private company. US supreme court rules in favor of Monsanto, "that a farmer in Indiana violated the intellectual property rights of the agricultural biotechnology titan Monsanto when he regrew the company's genetically modified and herbicide-resistant soybean seeds by planting second-generation seeds."

Dave Murphy, Executive Director and founder of Food Democracy Now, explains the ultimate outcome.
"Today, the Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the corporate takeover of our food supply, in a huge win for Monsanto, and a major loss for America's farmers and consumers. Monsanto has long engaged in an effort to subvert family farmers that do not use their genetically-engineered seeds and the Court has now handed corporations even more control over what our families eat.
Read More...
Microscope 2

Microbes & you: A partnership millions of years old

Dyani Lewis
cosmosmagazine.com
Thu, 08 Sep 2016 18:04 UTC
microbes
We are not alone. Our bodies are teeming metropolises of microscopic life - and the microbes that call us home influence everything from bowel to brain.

Over the past decade, technological advances in the lab have allowed us to take a census of our microbial entourage - known as the microbiota - like never before. Instead of seeing only the small fraction of microbes from our skin or poo that blossom on a petri dish, we can now blend, extract and read the genetic essence - the DNA - of all microbes, called the microbiome, to get a better idea of who's there.

The picture that has emerged is one of staggering complexity. From nostrils to armpits, wisdom teeth to bowels, lungs to vaginas, unique communities of bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites have got us covered.

"Every single surface of our body is colonised with microbes," says Laura Cox, a biologist at the Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston in the US.

Bacteria alone are as numerous as the cells of our own body. The genes they harbour dwarf our own genetic endowment more than a hundred times over. Together, we work in concert in what some consider a 'super-organism' - with our existence as reliant on theirs as theirs is on us.


Comment: Gardening your microbiome: Self as superorganism


Gut microbes synthesise vitamins, while those on our skin earn their keep by eating dead cells and transforming oils into natural moisturiser. And microbes everywhere play a role in keeping harmful pathogens at bay.
Read More...
Health

Functional medicine tips from a naturopathic doctor

Catherine J. Frompovich
Activist Post
Thu, 08 Sep 2016 16:52 UTC
Deb Heald, ND
In July 2016, I published another book, Eat to Beat Disease, Foods Medicinal Qualities, which talks about how food 'works' in the body not only as nutrition but how it impacts either health or disease. In numerous places in that book, I stress the relevance of "individual body chemistry" or what some healthcare professionals would consider "balance," something very few eaters and even conventional physicians delve into or learning about to balance body chemistry.

One of the most thorough interviews I've come across on the Internet is a video with Naturopathic Physician Deb Heald, ND, of Canada, wherein she discusses many of the food-nutrition-health alignments that I covered in Eat to Beat Disease, which I can't thank her enough for doing. Here are some of the points of interest that I noted while listening to that almost 48 minute video.
Read More...
Alarm Clock

More vaccine extremism in America: Doctors could soon drop patients who don't vaccinate their kids

Susan K. Livio
Raw Story
Wed, 07 Sep 2016 16:22 UTC
Small child receives vaccination
The American Academy of Pediatrics last week issued a dramatic statement to its members: It's OK to stop seeing families who refuse their shots.

The Academy also urged states to repeal laws that have allowed parents to use religion as an excuse for not getting their children inoculated.

New Jersey has a liberal religious exemption policy, allowing parents and guardians to submit a signed statement indicating "immunization interferes with the free exercise of the pupil's religious rights." No other documentation is required. The number of unvaccinated students is slowly climbing in the state.

An attempt to make it tougher for New Jersey families to get the religious exemption by requiring they explain how vaccines "would violate, contradict, or otherwise be inconsistent" with their religion failed in the last legislative session.

The number of New Jersey children whose parents have requested a religious exemption has grown nearly 600 percent, from 1,641 in the 2005-06 academic year to 9,506 in the 2014-15 year, according to the state Department of Health.

Comment: Defending your rights: Religious exemption to vaccination
The Declaration of Independence begins with, "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." That Declaration was a rejection of oppression by a ruling aristocracy and the pledge that this country would uphold the unalienable natural right to life and liberty that belongs to every person.

240 years later, we find ourselves again fighting for freedom from oppression because we have allowed the rise of a new ruling aristocracy, an elitist class of privileged citizens who want the legal right to judge, shame, segregate, discriminate against and punish fellow citizens who do not share their beliefs. Nowhere is this truth more self evident than in the oppressive implementation of one-size-fits-all mandatory vaccination laws that fail to respect biodiversity or human rights and crush citizen opposition, in violation of the informed consent ethic and freedom of thought, speech, conscience and religious belief.

In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with what Congress said in 1986, and that is: government licensed vaccines are "unavoidably unsafe" and pharmaceutical corporations should not be liable for vaccine injuries and deaths. 30 31 Today, when your child dies or is permanently brain injured after vaccination or the vaccine fails to protect your child, you cannot hold the vaccine manufacturer or the doctor who gave the vaccine accountable in court in front of a jury of your peers. With this free pass, in 2011 and 2012 the multi-billion dollar vaccine machine powered by medical trade, industry and government rolled into the legislatures of Washington, Vermont and other states with the goal of eliminating religious and conscience vaccine exemptions that have been in place in the U.S. for more than half a century. 32 In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with what Congress said in 1986, and that is: government licensed vaccines are "unavoidably unsafe" and pharmaceutical corporations should not be liable for vaccine injuries and deaths. 30 31 Today, when your child dies or is permanently brain injured after vaccination or the vaccine fails to protect your child, you cannot hold the vaccine manufacturer or the doctor who gave the vaccine accountable in court in front of a jury of your peers.

With this free pass, in 2011 and 2012 the multi-billion dollar vaccine machine powered by medical trade, industry and government rolled into the legislatures of Washington, Vermont and other states with the goal of eliminating religious and conscience vaccine exemptions that have been in place in the U.S. for more than half a century. 32 NVIC has worked with families and other grassroots organizations to protect vaccine exemptions in 15 states but, in 2015, Vermont lost the conscience exemption and California lost the personal belief exemption protecting both exercise of conscience and religious beliefs. 33


Read More...
Health

Treating chronic pain through awareness of its psychological origins

Mark Sisson
Mark's Daily Apple
Tue, 06 Sep 2016 00:00 UTC
back pain
We like instant gratification. Who doesn't? You desire a thing, you want it as soon as possible. This is entirely rational. The food looks good, you're (relatively) hungry, so let's eat. That gadget would be fun to play with, you've got the money (or credit) for it, so let's buy it. This is why we sign up for and can never relinquish our Amazon Prime same-day shipping, why we demand antibiotics for viral infections, and why we can purchase and collect entire buckets of fried chicken without ever leaving our cars. We don't like to wait if we don't have to. And we rarely have to wait. This extends to how we deal with physical pain: my arm hurts, I want this pain to go away right now, so I'll take a painkiller.

The problem with this approach to pain is that the quick solutions rarely work like they do for other physiological messages. Hunger is simple. You put something in your mouth, chew, and swallow. Hunger gone. But pain is complex. Pain is communication. When something hurts, your nervous system is telling you that something is wrong with your body (that stove is hot, your ankle is sprained, you pulled your hamstring) and you should fix it (pull your hand away, elevate and stay off your ankle, warm-up before you sprint next time). People born without the ability to feel pain are extremely vulnerable to death and dismemberment. It might sound cool to live without pain, but we desperately need it to survive.

Acute pain can usually be trusted. Chronic pain is trickier. There may have been initial tissue damage, but instead of decreasing the pain as the damage healed, it increased: chronic pain usually gets worse, not better.

Comment: Treating chronic pain often involves a multi-pronged approach. Hidden inflammation in the body may be one reason that pain doesn't resolve after an injury has healed. Diet plays a crucial role so it's important to avoid inflammatory foods such as GMO's, refined or processed foods, nightshades, sugars, gluten, and dairy.

See also:

Read More...
Arrow Down

Dangerous products present in daily use health and beauty aids

Jean Perier
New Eastern Outlook
Thu, 08 Sep 2016 00:17 UTC
Make-Up
© New Eastern Outlook
In today's highly controversial and aggressive world, virtually anything can present a threat to the life of a human being, not just wars, climate change, or short-sighted and often criminal actions of certain politicians.

As it has been shown by a number of scientific studies, the activities of a number of American corporations present a very real threat the well-being of the population mainly due to the use of genetically modified substances in their products while manufacturing substandard health and beauty aids. The truth is that it's the people of developing countries that are being affected by these fraudulent business practices the most, since Western corporations try to suppress any information about the health effects of their products to obtain maximum profit.

At the end of the twentieth century British scientists have come to a sensational conclusion that parabens are capable of penetrating the skin barrier and are being accumulated in the tissues of the body, causing cancer, hormone system failures, endocrine system suppression, and skin diseases. Research made this finding while studying malignant tumors in breast tissue, all of which contained parabens, Later on, these findings were confirmed by Canadian and French scientists.

Parabens are artificial preservatives that are often used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry by a number of Western corporations. Even though they are effectively increasing the shelf life of a product, while remaining relatively cheap to use, parabens pose a serious threat to human health and well-being. From time to time one can come across articles on the harmful effects of parabens in Europe and the United States, forcing certain companies to replace parabens with less harmful preservatives. However, the markets of developing countries, especially those with hot and humid climates, are flooded with Western cosmetic products that contain the dangerous substance.

In order to attract international attention to this danger, the French Le Monde went as far as to publish a list of the 400 Western pharmaceutical products containing parabens and that are, therefore, dangerous for use or consumption. In this list one may find the baby cream Biafine, cough medicines as Clarix, Codotussyl, Drill, Hexapneumine, Humex, Pectosan, and Rhinathiol, stomach relief medicine such as Maalox, Gaviscon, Josacine, and antibiotic Zinnat, along with a list of other drugs produced by Western corporations and actively advertised for mass consumption.
Read More...