Scientists at Pennsylvania State University used the gene-altering technique Crispr to create a white-button mushroom that doesn't turn brown as quickly, meaning it can sit in your fridge for longer than usual. And that mushroom may well be in your fridge soon. Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture sent the lab a letter giving the mushrooms a thumbs up, thus, for the first time, clearing a food altered with Crispr.

This is a really big deal—and not just for mushroom lovers.

"The new technology," University of Minnesota biologist Daniel F. Voytas told Scientific American last month, "is necessitating a rethinking of what a GMO is."

Belgium officials continue to disregard safety concerns, brought forth by numerous third-party agencies and even the German government in regards to two very old and flawed nuclear power plants operating in the region.

Belgium's Tihange 2 and Doel 3 reactors were found to have defects, "micro cracks," in the reactor walls in 2012, prompting Germany to file formal requests with the Belgians to shut-down the reactors before another Chernobyl happens. However, the outreach has been ignored and the Belgium Health Minister issued the most queer response.

With the "Affordable Care Act" now fully in place, the middle class is feeling the squeeze yet again through higher insurance costs, making quality health care unaffordable for many. On top of that, pharmaceutical drug prices continue to increase, especially cancer drugs which have skyrocketed.

Since 2000, the average monthly cost of oral cancer drugs went from $1,869 per month to $11,325 per month. Some of these drugs can extend a cancer patient's life, although it may drain their life savings.

As we are well aware, pharmaceutical corporations are major power players in Washington, teaming up with government to squash competition through patent monopolies and fleece the public. The U.S. is one of only two countries where "direct-to-consumer" drug advertising is allowed, and the effects are plastered all over American TV.

You and your teeth could be victims of "creative diagnosis."

My household's level of confidence in dentistry is at an all-time low. About six months ago, my dentist informed me that my "bunny teeth" were likely getting in the way of my professional success, a problem he could correct with a (pricey) cosmetic procedure. If I let him fix my teeth, he told me, he was sure I would start "dressing better." A few months later, my husband scheduled a basic cleaning with a new dentist. Once they had him in the chair and looked at his teeth, they informed him that the regular cleaning wouldn't do at all: He would need to reschedule for an $800 deep cleaning. No thanks.

We were convinced we must look like suckers—until I came across an op-ed in ADA News, the official publication of the American Dental Association. The article, by longtime pediatric dentist Jeffrey Camm, described a disturbing trend he called "creative diagnosis"—the peddling of unnecessary treatments. William van Dyk, a Northern California dentist of 41 years, saw Camm's op-ed and wrote in: "I especially love the patients that come in for second opinions after the previous dentist found multiple thousands of dollars in necessary treatment where nothing had been found six months earlier. And, when we look, there is nothing to diagnose."

At Costco's recent shareholder meeting, CEO Craig Jelinek touted the vast amounts of food the company sold last year, from 83 million rotisserie chickens to $6.1 billion worth of produce.

As for organics, one of the fastest-growing categories in food sales and one in which Costco has become a major player?

"We cannot get enough organics to stay in business day in and day out," Jelinek told the gathered investors.

So to boost its supply, Costco is trying something new: It's working with farmers to help them buy land and equipment to grow organics.

Supporters of atomic power, who are not scientists, have been able to broadcast their opinions to the public with hellacious titles such as 'Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics: Putting Indian Point Hysteria in Perspective' by attorney and lobbyist Jerry Kremer for the Huffington Post. In an effort to combat misinformation and keep you informed, Fairewinds reached out to international radiation expert Dr. Ian Fairlie to clear up the false assurances and scientific denial spread by the nuclear industry and its chums.

Tritium, the radioactive isotope and bi-product of nuclear power generation, is making headlines with notable leaks at 75% of all the reactors in the United States, including Indian Point in New York, and Turkey Point in Florida. Speaking with renowned British scientist, Dr. Ian Fairlie, the Fairewinds Crew confirms the magnitude and true risk of tritium to the human body in its three various forms: tritiated water, tritiated air, and organically-bound tritium.

Many people are already aware of the mumps outbreak at Harvard University that has spread to forty students, developing in recent weeks from two isolated cases that were discovered on campus earlier this year in late February. ^[1]

The irony of this outbreak is that it has occurred only among vaccinated students.

The MMR vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella has long been the subject of controversy, with its connection to autism, earning a starring role in the highly publicized recent documentary Vaxxed.

Now, you will learn why the MMR vaccine has more reasons to be criticized than just for its role in creating symptoms of autism in children.

One day we will all wonder why we ever made detergents so toxic--after all they are going on the clothes we put on our backs. A new study conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy of the Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital and the Central Ohio Poison Center found that exposure to laundry detergent packets is more dangerous to young children than exposure to other types of laundry and dishwasher detergent.

David Steinman, an environmental health consumer advocate with the Green Patriot Working Group (GPWG) and former representative at the National Academy of Sciences, has been on a mission since 2007 to organize product testing for the petrochemical 1,4-dioxane in your personal care and household cleaning products. They found about two-thirds of the laundry detergents tested contained 1,4-dioxane.

Understanding the cocktail of chemicals that fuel our consciousness

As we dive into the complex and beautiful neurochemical cocktail that fuels our brains, serotonin is a bit of an enigma. Research shows that serotonin plays an important role in regulating mood, appetite, sleep, and dreaming. It can have both a sedating or stimulating effect and this is somehow related to the flow of thoughts through your mind. Though neuroscience is in its infancy, we can still gain a lot of personal insight through exploring research being conducted across a number of fields, and comparing it to what we have felt or experienced internally.

So what is serotonin? It is a neurotransmitter, which means its a type of chemical that relays brain signals from one area of the brain to another. Nearly every one of the 40 million brain cells we have, are influenced either directly or indirectly by serotonin. Many researchers believe an imbalance in serotonin levels leads to depression. If there are any biochemical glitches like a shortage of tryptophan, the chemical from which serotonin is made, or a lack of receptor sites able to receive serotonin, or serotonin is unable to reach the receptor sites, then researchers say this can cause depression, as well as Obsessive Compulsive Disorders, anxiety, panic and excess anger.

Learn if mold is messing with your body — and how you can clear up the trouble.

When Jill Carnahan started getting winded walking up the stairs, she knew she had a problem.

Carnahan, 39, a functional-medicine doctor, was an avid runner, but beginning in the summer of 2014, she couldn't complete daily tasks without feeling fatigued, out of breath, and weak. She was also getting headaches and catching every virus going around her Boulder, Colo., community.

"I had my suspicions it was mold," says Carnahan, who had treated mold-related illnesses in her patients. "But I didn't want it to be."

Carnahan says she was "in denial for a long time" about the source of her health problems, because she knew a mold diagnosis would likely mean her workplace or home was infested, and the fix was not a simple one.

Even in an arid state like Colorado, mold can wreak havoc on buildings. After Boulder was hit with flooding in 2013, Carnahan saw the first symptoms of mold illness in her patients — respiratory problems, exercise intolerance, a weakened immune system, and new-onset asthma.

When Carnahan started recognizing similar patterns in herself, she tested her urine for mycotoxins, often present after mold exposure. The test was positive.

"A physician cannot base a diagnosis solely on the urine test," she says, "so I had an inspector come to my work and home." They found evidence of toxic mold in her office building.

Few others in her medical practice noticed any ill effects. But it turns out that Carnahan had won an unlucky genetic lottery that makes her susceptible to mold illness. About 25 percent of the population falls into this category.

"People like me are really the canaries in the coal mine," says Carnahan. "We get very sick, and others can be fine."

Because of Carnahan's genetic makeup, her body cannot clear biotoxins easily. Mold experts believe the problem lies in the immune system's response genes. People with this condition usually host a higher "toxic burden" than others because they retain toxins the body would normally clear. This is how Carnahan could get sick from the mold in her building while her colleagues were unaffected.

Carnahan found another office space in January 2015. "Even office papers and documents brought from the old building made me sick," she says. "I had to completely start over."

She began an extensive protocol that included dietary changes, nutritional supplements, and detoxifying binding agents to help clear biotoxins from her body.

Nine months after starting treatment, she still follows a strict anti-mold diet, avoiding sugar, most grains, processed food, mushrooms, cheese, and alcohol. Her list of daily supplements remains "two pages long." But she says she's 80 percent better and has begun to exercise again.

Carnahan is fortunate: She knew to look for mold as a source of her health issues. For most people, mold-related illnesses remain mysterious and undiagnosed — though this is starting to change. Read on to discover what medical experts are learning about problems with mold, and what they suggest we do about it.