Health & WellnessS


Bacon n Eggs

From slight memory loss to dementia: How to avoid losing mental capacity

Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
Thu, 28 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
dementia, alzheimer's
Virtually everyone has forgetful moments, but how do you know if your memory lapses are the normal day-to-day variety or a sign of something more serious like dementia? It's a common concern, especially with increasing age.

Among Americans, the notion of losing mental capacity evokes twice as much fear as losing physical ability, and 60 percent of U.S. adults say they are very or somewhat worried about memory loss.1

On a bright note, most memory blips are nothing to panic over. As you get older, your brain's information-processing speed may decline, which means it may take you longer to recall who wrote the book you're reading or the name of your childhood playmate.

The word is on the tip of your tongue, but even if you can't recall it you're able to restructure your thoughts to get your message across. This is quite normal, as are so-called "senior moments," or as neuroscientists call them "maladaptive brain activity changes."

Examples include sending an email to the wrong person or forgetting about an appointment.

These occur because your brain perceives many of your daily tasks as patterns and may revert to its default mode network (DMN), the part of your brain responsible for your inward-focused thinking, such as daydreaming, during this time.

In short, your brain takes a mini time out when you actually need its focused attention, causing a minor, but completely normal, lapse in memory.

Memory Loss: When to Worry

If changes in your memory or thinking skills are severe enough to be noticed by your friends and family you could be facing mild cognitive impairment (MCI). MCI is a slight decline in cognitive abilities that increases your risk of developing more serious dementia, including Alzheimer's disease.

If your mental changes are so significant that they're interfering with your ability to function or live independently, it could be dementia. For instance, it's normal to have trouble finding the right word on occasion, but if you forget words frequently and repeat phrases and stories during a conversation, there could be a problem.

Comment: More dietary and lifestyle interventions that can help you maintain and even improve cognitive function:

Read More...
People 2

Study finds that sitting in front of computer for 8 hours day can increase the risk of premature death by 60%

Laura Donnelly
The Telegraph
Thu, 28 Jul 2016 16:36 UTC
cubicle
© BLOOMBERGSitting in front of a computer for eight hours a day could increase your risk of a premature death by 60 per cent
Office workers must exercise for one hour a day to combat the deadly risk of modern working lifestyles, a major Lancet study has found.

Research on more than one million adults found that sitting for at least eight hours a day could increase the risk of premature death by up to 60 per cent.

Scientists said sedentary lifestyles were now posing as great a threat to public health as smoking, and were causing more deaths than obesity.

They urged anyone spending hours at their desk to change their daily routine to take a five minute break every hour, as well as exercise at lunchtimes and evenings.

An hour of brisk walking or cycling spread over a day was enough to combat the dangers of eight hours sitting in the office, they said. Currently, public health advice in the UK recommends just half this level of activity. But almost half of women and one third of men fail to achieve even this.
Read More...
Muffin

Scientists finally acknowledge leaky gut implicated in gluten-sensitivity


Science Daily
Wed, 27 Jul 2016 15:17 UTC
Bread
© Timmary / FotoliaCeliac disease is an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the lining of the small intestine after someone who is genetically susceptible to the disorder ingests gluten from wheat, rye, or barley. This leads to a range of gastrointestinal symptoms, including abdominal pain, diarrhea, and bloating.
A new study may explain why people who do not have celiac disease or wheat allergy nevertheless experience a variety of gastrointestinal and extra-intestinal symptoms after ingesting wheat and related cereals. The findings suggest that these individuals have a weakened intestinal barrier, which leads to a body-wide inflammatory immune response.

Findings from the study, which was led by researchers from Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), were reported in the journal Gut.

"Our study shows that the symptoms reported by individuals with this condition are not imagined, as some people have suggested," said study co-author Peter H. Green, MD, the Phyllis and Ivan Seidenberg Professor of Medicine at CUMC and director of the Celiac Disease Center. "It demonstrates that there is a biological basis for these symptoms in a significant number of these patients."

Comment: For more information on why wheat consumption can initiate a cascade of physiological issues, read the following:

Read More...
Smoking

All e-cigarettes emit harmful chemicals, but some emit more than others


Science Daily
Wed, 27 Jul 2016 14:40 UTC
E-cigarette researchers
© Paul Mueller/Berkeley LabBerkeley Lab researchers (from left) Lara Gundel, Marion Russell, Hugo Destaillats demonstrate filling a glass syringe with vapor from an e-cigarette.
While previous studies have found that electronic cigarettes emit toxic compounds, a new study from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has pinpointed the source of these emissions and shown how factors such as the temperature, type, and age of the device play a role in emission levels, information that could be valuable to both manufacturers and regulators seeking to minimize the health impacts of these increasingly popular devices.

The study, which was published in Environmental Science & Technology, found that the thermal decomposition of propylene glycol and glycerin, two solvents found in most "e-liquids" (the substance that is vaporized by the e-cigarette), leads to emissions of toxic chemicals such as acrolein and formaldehyde.

"Advocates of e-cigarettes say emissions are much lower than from conventional cigarettes, so you're better off using e-cigarettes," said Berkeley Lab researcher and the study's corresponding author Hugo Destaillats. "I would say, that may be true for certain users--for example, long time smokers that cannot quit--but the problem is, it doesn't mean that they're healthy. Regular cigarettes are super unhealthy. E-cigarettes are just unhealthy."


Comment: Contrary to popular belief, researchers have consistently failed to prove that smoking tobacco is the cause of any of the diseases it is associated with. In fact, smoking has actually been shown to significantly increase longevity, mitochondrial function, cognition, attention, motor skills, and memory. Numerous studies have also found an inverse association with numerous diseases including lung cancer, Alzheimers, Parkinsons, and ulcerative colitis (to name a few). For more information on the health benefits of smoking tobacco, see the following:
Read More...
Pills

Another reason to avoid statin drugs: Muscle wasting that may lead to Lou Gehrig's disease

Dr. Mercola
Mercola.com
Wed, 27 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
statin drugs
Tens of millions of people are taking drugs to lower their cholesterol levels. Most of those medications are in a drug class known as statins. Some doctors are even starting to recommend children use statin drugs to control their cholesterol levels.1 I couldn't disagree more.

The challenge with statin drugs is that they address surface issues with cholesterol in a simplistic manner. But your body is a complex organism that uses cholesterol every day to build new cell walls, in the formation of vitamin D and in the production of hormones.

Statin drugs are HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors. They function by blocking the enzyme in your liver that naturally produces cholesterol for your bodily functions.

The drug essentially reduces your total cholesterol number, without addressing your high-density lipoproteins (HDL), low-density lipoproteins (LDL), very low-density lipoproteins (VLDL) or triglyceride levels.

While your total cholesterol number gives you a general overview, it isn't the information needed to evaluate your risk of cardiovascular disease. Instead, you'll need to compare your HDL, LDL, VLDL and triglyceride numbers against your total cholesterol.

Statins May Trigger Neuromuscular Disease

Statin drugs are notorious for causing side effects like muscle damage and weakness. What has been less publicized is a potential link between statins and a progression of muscle wasting that may lead to a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Foundation Collaborating Centre for International Drug Monitoring receives safety reports associated with statin medications and has noted a disproportionately high number of patients with upper motor neuron lesions among those taking statin medications.2

Comment: Read more about the numerous and dangerous side effects of statins which have been called a medical tragedy:

Read More...
Info

CDC Official Dr. Barbara Bowman steps down after Coca-Cola ILSI scandal comes to light

Brandon Turbeville
Natural Blaze
Wed, 27 Jul 2016 15:03 UTC
coke
Two days after it was revealed that a veteran leader within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was assisting Coca-Cola and International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) in influencing world health authorities on issues related to sugar and beverage policy, Dr. Barbara Bowman has now stepped down from her position.

Dr. Barbara Bowman, the disgraced former director of the CDC's division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention began working with the CDC in 1992 and has since been involved with a number of different initiatives within that division which is charged with providing "public health leadership."

Bowman's exit from the CDC comes after a number of her emails were revealed as having provided guidance to Alex Malaspina, former top Coca-Cola executive and strategist. Indeed, Malaspina, along with Coca-Cola helped found ILSI. The emails were revealed by virtue of a Freedom of Information Act request filed by U.S. Right to Know.

Comment: The International Life Sciences Institute is not the first 'health organization' leasing out integrity to Coca Cola:

Will big food control nutrition "Science?"
This week saw the release of another report, this time exposing the ties between the American Society of Nutrition (ASN)—whose membership includes some of the nation's leading nutrition scientists and researchers—and junk food giants like Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Monsanto, McDonald's, and Mars.
Among the report's findings:
  • Of the thirty-four scientific sessions at ASN's annual meeting, six were financially supported by PepsiCo.
  • The International Life Sciences Institute (a front group for Big Food and Big Pharma) sponsored a session on low-calorie sweeteners. Speakers included a scientific consultant for Ajinomoto, which produces aspartame.
  • The Grocery Manufacturers Association, a lobbying group for the food and beverage industries, sponsored a symposium on sodium intake, which referred to "putative health concerns."
  • For $35,000, junk food companies can sponsor a hospitality suite at the annual meeting, where corporate executives socialize with nutrition researchers.
  • Official spokespeople for ASN reportedly have ties to Coca-Cola, McDonald's, the American Beverage Association, General Mills, and Cadbury Schweppes.
  • ASN published an eighteen-page defense of processed food that appears to consist of numerous talking points for the junk food industry, such as this one: "There are no differences between the processing of foods at home or at a factory." Parents who work hard to make meals from scratch for their children deserve better than this.
  • ASN opposes an FDA-proposed policy to include added sugars on the Nutrition Facts panel, at a time when excessive sugar consumption is causing a national public health epidemic.


Read More...
Cheeseburger

The Standard American Diet may be shrinking people

Eric Niiler
Seeker.com
Mon, 25 Jul 2016 14:38 UTC
short tall
© ThinkStock
Americans kids' junk food diet is making them shorter as adults compared to the rest of the world. That's one finding from a massive new study of nearly 19 million people across the world.

On the eve of World War I, American men were third tallest on the planet. By 2014, they dropped to 37th, while U.S. women have slipped from 4th tallest to 42nd. While the average American grew throughout much of the century, that growth leveled off between 1974 and 1994, according to researchers from Imperial College London who presented their work at the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF2016) in Manchester and published in the journal eLife.

The main reason that we haven't kept up with adults of Netherlands, Belgium, Latvia and Estonia (ranked first through fourth) is that American children are eating too much crappy food, according to Majid Ezzati, professor of medicine at Imperial College. "There was a time that America was the land of plenty, but increasingly nutrition has become worse there," Ezzati said. "It has become a lot more unequal. Obesity in children has gone up."

In fact, childhood obesity among U.S. children has doubled in the past 30 years, and in 2012, more than one of three children and adolescents were either overweight or obese, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Pregnant women aren't getting proper nutrition either, said Elio Riboli, director of the school of public health at Imperial College, while kids don't eat enough milk or meat during early childhood through adolescence.

Other high-income countries that have leveled off include the United Kingdom, Finland and Japan. In comparison, Spain, Italy and many Latin American and East Asian nations are continuing to grow taller over time. The researchers analyzed data from nearly 19 million people living in 200 countries.
Read More...
Monkey Wrench

More mad science: GMO tomatoes tweaked to stay firm longer

Daniela Hernandez
The Wall Street Journal
Tue, 26 Jul 2016 21:09 UTC
GMO tweaked tomatoes
The genetic tweaks don't significantly affect color and may preserve flavor, according to a new study

In an attempt to produce plump, tasty tomatoes with longer shelf lives, scientists have successfully tweaked a gene that slows how quickly the fruits soften without affecting their size or color.

The genetically modified tomatoes, described in a paper published Monday in the journal Nature Biotechnology, didn't show telltale signs of softening, like pruned skin, 14 days after harvesting, compared with wrinkled ones from normal plants. To engineer them, the researchers turned to two DNA-altering techniques, including CRISPR-Cas 9, an editing tool used to snip out and replace unwanted genes.

The number of tomatoes growing on genetically modified and normal plants was roughly the same. Plus, the modified plants and normal controls had similar amounts of molecules known to affect taste, color, and smell, according to the study.

Comment: Read more about the frightening implications of 'gene editing'
The US Food and Drug Administration approved the nation's first genetically modified animal in 2015 - GMO salmon - and scientists can't wait to add more to the batch. Head of development biology at the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute, Professor Bruce Whitelaw has produced swine fever-resistant pigs through a new gene-editing technique. Yeah, he wants to see them also approved by the FDA. [1]

Whitelaw says that much more work is required to refine what he calls a 'precise' process.
"It's a swap of sequence. It's a .00000001 percent change, which is a tiny portion," he adds. "The technology has allowed us to add in and create very precise breeding."
Though these are the claims of many in the biotech industry, gene-editing and other 'cutting-edge' genetic modification techniques don't always work out as they plan. With GM plants bred to resist pests in the field, the industry inadvertently (some argue purposefully) created super bugs, requiring more and more toxic chemicals to be sprayed.

When you consider how long our genes have developed under natural conditions, scientists are really amateurs, hacking away at the genome. Then there are the ethical considerations. One researcher has even proposed modifying the elephant genome to produce a cold-adapted replica of the long-extinct woolly mammoth. [2]


Read More...
Attention

Mandated vaccines will be a toxic reality of a Killary Clinton administration

Tami Canal
March Against Monsanto
Mon, 25 Jul 2016 21:24 UTC
Clinton vaccines
If Hillary Clinton is elected president of the United States, there will be a national mandatory vaccine program.

It is painfully evident with her selection for vice president and the mention of some nefarious players in the mandated vaccine battle that the former secretary likely intends to appoint to her cabinet.

For starters, the potential future vice president Tim Kaine is a huge shill for the pharmaceutical industry. He has collected tens of thousands of dollars in "campaign contributions" and signed heinous laws in favor of his Big Pharma friends - like that one time he signed a law mandating the HPV vaccine for 6th grade girls in Virginia.

I wonder if the Virginia HPV mandate had anything to do with Kaine's buddies at Merck and the announcement to "invest $57 million to expand the role its Elkton facility plays in producing Gardasil, Merck's cervical cancer vaccine." (Source)
"It's critical that Merck has sufficient production capacity to meet growing worldwide demand for its medicines and vaccines," said Dr. Charles Vencill, plant manager. "We appreciate the ongoing support of the Kaine administration and local officials to make this additional expansion possible."



Comment: Hillary's running mate,Tim Kaine forced 6th grade girls to get Gardasil vaccine


In other alarming news this week, Hillary made mention of her desire to work specifically with Rep. Frederika Wilson. This is terribly concerning considering this is the very woman who introduced the national version of California's SB277. Mandated vaccines for all!
"The health and safety of children must be our top priority. Children who are not vaccinated put themselves and others in danger of acquiring and spreading preventable diseases. That is why I introduced the Vaccinate All Children Act because requiring vaccinations for students will save lives and protect future generations," said Congresswoman Wilson.
People need to realize that laws are being implemented in states all over this country that will deny our kids the right to attend a daycare or a public school unless they are current on the CDC's vaccine schedule.

Comment: Read more about Vaccines: Science in the Authoritarian state: Remember! The Pharmaceutical industry is one of the largest sponsors of the dying mainstream media, and since they also have more lobbyists than any other industry influencing U.S. government policy, they continue to grow their market.

Read More...
Bulb

Study: Computer-based Brain training can reduce dementia by half


PsyBlog
Tue, 26 Jul 2016 00:00 UTC
Hyper active brain
© Shutterstock
Until now brain training has proved more of a fad than a useful a treatment.

Computer-based brain training can halve the incidence of dementia, a surprising new study finds.

So far brain training has proved more of a fad than a useful a treatment.

But now research carried out over 10 years has found that a relatively small amount of brain training reduced older people's chances of developing dementia dramatically.

For the study, healthy older adults did 10 brain training sessions of just over an hour.
Read More...