Research shows that the food you eat can have a profound effect on your mental health. So, regardless of your mental health problems, the importance of addressing your diet simply cannot be overstated.

In a very real sense, you have two brains — one in your head, and one in your gut. Both are created from the same tissue during fetal development, and they're connected via your vagus nerve, the tenth cranial nerve that runs from your brain stem to your abdomen.

It is now well established that the vagus nerve is the primary route your gut bacteria use to transmit information to your brain, which helps explain why mental health appears to be so intricately connected to your gut microbiome ¹ — the bacteria and other microbes living in your gut.

The human gut harbors a teeming menagerie of over 100 trillion microorganisms, and researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have discovered that exercising early in life can alter that microbial community for the better, promoting healthier brain and metabolic activity over the course of a lifetime.

The research, which was recently published in the journal Immunology and Cell Biology, indicates that there may be a window of opportunity during early human development to optimize the chances of better lifelong health.

"Exercise affects many aspects of health, both metabolic and mental, and people are only now starting to look at the plasticity of these gut microbes," said Monika Fleshner, a professor in CU-Boulder's Department of Integrative Physiology and the senior author of the new study. "That is one of the novel aspects of this research."

Microbes take up residence within human intestines shortly after birth and are vital to the development of the immune system and various neural functions. These microbes can add as many 5 million genes to a person's overall genetic profile and thus have tremendous power to influence aspects of human physiology.

The Yurok Tribe—California's largest tribe with roughly 5,000 enrolled members—passed a historic ban on genetically modified (GMOs) crops and salmon.

For decades the concerns surrounding the fluoridation of our water supply have been derided as absurd. If you tried to claim that fluoride might not be an appropriate substance for maintaining dental health, you were called a quack. Or worse, if you tried to suggest that fluoridated water was actually harmful to overall human health, you were called a conspiracy theorist.

You really couldn't broach the subject without being compared to General Ripper from Dr. Strangelove. If you think fluoride is bad for you, then surely you must think its presence in our water supply is part of a communist plot to sap your precious bodily fluids.

However, as time goes on and more studies are conducted on the subject, laymen and experts alike are beginning to realize that at the very least, this substance is completely useless for combating tooth decay. Even The Guardian recently published a piece that documents the evidence against its efficacy.

In our modern days rarely anyone considers that being cold is a nice experience. People subconsciously cringe at the idea of being cold in any way and avoid that unpleasant experience. But they don't understand that being cold now and then can actually have highly positive and beneficial effects on the body and the overall health.

On the other hand, there are other people who actually spend some time immersing themselves in cold water, especially during the winter; others do winter swimming, and yet another group of people (due to lack of natural resources) may just take a cold shower on a daily basis. The ordinary person may wonder why anyone would want to experience something so unpleasant, but after reading this article you may change your mind, if you've never came across the idea of getting cold regularly. In the end of the article you will know if cold water is good or bad for you.

Microbiology lab technician Tasha Sturm decided to do something kinda cool with a handprint: see what kind of bacteria is on it.

Sturm, who works at Cabrillo College, told me the first lab project that students at her college do is swab something in the classroom — like the bottom of a shoe or a cellphone — and incubate the plates to see what kinds of bacteria grow all around us.

Years ago, she thought her kids might find it interesting to know what kinds of germs were on their hands. Plus, since it provided such a good lesson for her class, each year she has her kids make a handprint of bacteria — literally.

So what is all of that stuff?

"The large swirly blob in the lower right ... is more than likely a Bacillus spp," Sturm said, and "the colored colonies are either Serratia or Micrococcus or yeast — normally found in the environment or skin."

"The white circular colonies are more than likely Staphylococcus spp, which again is normally found on the skin. The organism seen between the thumb and pointer finger is a contaminant."

As of June, 2013, 30,352 adverse reactions to HPV vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix have been reported to VAERS, the U.S. vaccine adverse events reporting system. Adverse reactions include 10,557 ER visits, 6,032 who failed to recover, 952 disabled, 64 cases of cervical cancer and 140 deaths. Consider this the tip of the iceberg as only 1 to 10% of vaccine reactions and injuries are reported to the U.S. government data base. Canada has no comparable vaccine reaction and injury data base that is accessible to the public. ^1,11

As noted by NVIC (National Vaccine Information Center):

"After Gardasil was licensed and three doses recommended for 11-12 year old girls and teenagers, there were thousands of reports of sudden collapse with unconsciousness within 24 hours, seizures, muscle pain and weakness, disabling fatigue, Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS), facial paralysis, brain inflammation, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, blood clots, optic neuritis, multiple sclerosis, strokes, heart and other serious health problems, including death, following receipt of Gardasil vaccine." ²

Merck is pushing for a dog flu epidemic this year, likely because human flu numbers are way down. Flu shot numbers are also down due to years of complete failures. But now Merck has put up signs warning that "dogs can get flu, too." The sign clearly encourages that we all take our dogs in for a flu shot.

Until a little more than one hundred years ago, the single controlling force for all of the complex processes that go on in the human body was thought to be the nervous system. But there were too many phenomena that, when carefully analyzed, seemed to have no relationship to the nervous system, too many differences in people --- in size and energy, for example --- that could not be accounted for satisfactorily in terms of nervous activity alone. The explanation was to be found in certain glands, the endocrines, of which the thyroid is one and, in fact, one of the first to be discovered. Because commonly used tests for thyroid function are not accurate particularly when it comes to mild and even some moderate forms of hypothyroidism, and many if not most of those with low thyroid function remain undiscovered.

Since the hormones of the thyroid gland regulate metabolism in every cell of the body, a deficiency of thyroid hormones can affect virtually all bodily functions. The degree of severity of symptoms in the adult range from mild deficiency states which are not detectable with standard blood tests (subclinical hypothyroidism) to severe deficiency states which can be life-threatening (myxedema). There is an old medical saying that just a few grains of thyroid hormone can make the difference between an idiot and an Einstein. It aptly characterizes the thyroid as a quickener of the tempo of life. All of the endocrine glands play remarkable roles in the body's economy. Unlike the many millions of other glands such as the sweat glands in the skin, the salivary glands in the mouth, the tear glands in the eyes, which perform only local functions, the endocrine glands pour their hormone secretions into the bloodstream which carries them to all parts of the body. From the pea-sized pituitary gland at the base of the brain come hormones that influence growth, sexual development, uterine contraction in childbirth, and milk release afterward. The adrenals, rising like mushrooms from atop the kidneys, pour out more than a score of hormones, including hydrocortisone and adrenaline needed for the body's response to stress and injury. Also in the endocrine system are the sex glands - ovaries and testes; the pineal gland in the brain whose hormones play a role in nerve and brain functioning; the thymus behind the breastbone which appears to be involved in establishing the body's immunity function; and areas in the pancreas, the islets of Langerhans, which secrete insulin.

Officially, Big Food is not worried about the small number of "fringe" food activists who object to cruel, unhealthful and environmentally destructive products. But unofficially, it is a different story. American Egg Board CEO Joanne Ivy stepped down in apparent disgrace this fall when a 2013 email she wrote to a consultant saying the board was accepting "your offer to make that phone call to keep Just Mayo off Whole Foods shelves," was revealed. Just Mayo is an egg-free and vegan product from San Francisco start-up Hampton Creek. Whole Foods still sells it.


Why is Ivy's attempt to quash competition reason to step down? As a USDA commodity "checkoff" program, the egg board is a quasi-government agency not supposed to be playing dirty retail tricks.