Health & WellnessS


Lemon

Lemon juice could be a potentially safe and practical disinfectant against noroviruses


Science Daily
Tue, 25 Aug 2015 00:00 UTC
lemons
© Unknown
Noroviruses are the predominant cause of gastroenteritis outbreaks in community settings such as hospitals, cruise ships, and schools. The virus is extremely contagious and is mostly transmitted via "fecal-oral-route," i.e., through contaminated hands or contaminated food. Symptoms include violent and sudden onset of diarrhea, vomiting, and nausea.

"It is therefore important to provide a safe and harmless disinfectant against human norovirus," explains Grant Hansman, head of CHS junior research group at the German Cancer Research Center noroviruses and the University of Heidelberg. The group is funded by the CHS Foundation. Some older observations found that fruit extracts, such as orange or pomegranate juice, could reduce the infectivity of surrogate noroviruses.

This current study was a continuation of an earlier project conducted at the National Institutes of Health in the United States, where they discovered that citrate from a commercial company could bind to the norovirus capsid protein. "However, it was only by chance that this discovery was made, like a lot of scientific research, but it turns out to be very interesting." Dr Hansman explains.
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Syringe

Another corporate push for mandatory vaccines: This time in Canada

Dave Mihalovic
Waking Times
Wed, 26 Aug 2015 15:39 UTC
Image
As American legislators remain embroiled in draconian measures to enforce mandatory vaccination, leaders of Canada's largest doctors' group are calling for the same policies under heavy influence by the American Medical Association to change the way medicine is practiced in Canada.

There are more Medical Doctors Opposing Forced Vaccinations around the world.

At its annual meeting in Halifax, August 23-26 the 80,000 member group of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) is intending to vote on a "mandatory vaccination" resolution requiring that all children registering for school or daycare show proof they are fully vaccinated.

Under the guidance of some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, and in addition to calling for proof of vaccination, the CMA board is endorsing a multi-year plan to increase vaccination rates.
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Donut

Trans-fat, not saturated fat, is the real culprit in disease

Natasha Longo
Prevent Disease
Tue, 25 Aug 2015 21:53 UTC
doughnuts
The science that saturated fat alone causes heart disease is non-existent and more health experts and scientists have finally exposed the myth. According to an analysis of over 100 studies of dietary fat and cardiovascular health, saturated fats are not the problem, but trans fats are.

More physicians and medical specialists are speaking out on what really causes disease. World renown heart surgeon Dr. Dwight Lundell, made headlines when he stated the facts on the actual causes of heart disease. "As a heart surgeon with 25 years experience, having performed over 5,000 open-heart surgeries, today is my day to right the wrong with medical and scientific fact," he was quoted in a statement.

Most dietary advice recommends limiting the consumption of saturated fats, which are found in butter, meat and eggs, due to the risk of developing heart disease. But Russell de Souza of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and his team were unable to find a clear association between these fats and the chances of heart or cardiovascular disease.

Comment: It seems that that tide is turning on saturated fat. The question is, how long will it take for mainstream medicine to pass this information on to patients who need it the most?

Get Saturated: Four Reasons Saturated Fat is Healthy

The saturated fat myth

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Info

Researchers identify potential link between microbes in the throat and schizophrenia


Science Daily
Tue, 25 Aug 2015 00:00 UTC
schizophrenia microbiome changes
© vitanovski / FotoliaCould microbiome changes be a contributing factor to schizophrenia?
In the most comprehensive study to date, researchers at the George Washington University have identified a potential link between microbes (viruses, bacteria and fungi) in the throat and schizophrenia. This link may offer a way to identify causes and develop treatments of the disease and lead to new diagnostic tests.

"The oropharynx of schizophrenics seems to harbor different proportions of oral bacteria than healthy individuals," said Eduardo Castro-Nallar, a Ph.D. candidate at GW's Computational Biology Institute (CBI) and lead author of the study. "Specifically, our analyses revealed an association between microbes such as lactic-acid bacteria and schizophrenics."

Comment: Some doctors and researchers have theorized that certain psychiatric illnesses may in fact result from infections, and have successfully treated patients with antibiotics. Schizophrenia has been associated with a number of infections such as German measles, influenza, chicken pox, Herpes, common cold infection with fever, poliovirus infection, coxsackie virus infection, Lyme disease and Toxoplasmosis. Schizophrenia may thus be a "pathogenetic" autoimmune disorder, caused by pathogens, genes, and the immune system acting together, and perhaps preventable by pathogen elimination, or curable by the removal of culpable antibodies and antigens.

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Bulb

Ancient knowledge confirmed: Acupuncture very effective at treating Hypertension & Blood Pressure

April McCarthy
Prevent Disease
Fri, 21 Aug 2015 17:04 UTC
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Emerging evidence from a research study shows acupuncture may be an effective treatment for hypertension. Acupuncture regulates blood pressure, blood flow and body temperature. Patients with hypertension treated with acupuncture experienced drops in their blood pressure that lasted up to a month and a half, researchers with the Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine have found.

Their work is the first to scientifically confirm that this ancient Chinese practice is beneficial in treating mild to moderate hypertension, and it indicates that regular use could help people control their blood pressure and lessen their risk of stroke and heart disease.

Comment: Read more about the benefits of Acupuncture:

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Snakes in Suits

EPA knew about dangers of toxic water potentially spilling out of Colorado mine in 2014


RT
Tue, 25 Aug 2015 16:42 UTC
Image
© EPA / ReutersYellow mine waste water is seen at the entrance to the Gold King Mine in San Juan County, Colorado, in this picture released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) taken August 5, 2015
The Environmental Protection Agency knew about the danger of toxic water potentially spilling out of Colorado's Gold King Mine more than a year ago, new internal documents show. It's unclear what, if anything, the agency did to reduce the risk.


Comment: They knew, but didn't care. Any organization with a conscience would not have kept this information from the public nor would they have allowed the mine to be excavated. The EPA, like most government institutions, is without conscience.


Released on Friday, the documents show that no maintenance had been conducted at the mine since 1999, and in a document dated June 2014, officials warned that a 1995 mine portal collapse, as well as other subsequent internal collapses, made the mine more susceptible to "blow-out."

"This condition has likely caused impounding of water behind the collapse," the document reads. "Conditions may exist that could result in a blow-out of the blockages and cause a release of large volumes of contaminated mine waters and sediment from inside the mine, which contain concentrated heavy metals."

Meanwhile, a document from May 2015 also described the potential for a "blow-out" with the exact same terms. This document was created by a contractor working for the EPA called Environmental Restoration.

Earlier in August, a spill of some 3 million gallons of contaminated mine waste flooded into Cement Creek and eventually made its way into the Animas River, turning the waterway a bright yellow-orange color. The leak was caused when an EPA contractor conducting an investigation tried to excavate the mine's entrance.

Comment: See also:

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Health

Where the Black Death is most common in the U.S.

Tanya Lewis
businessinsider.com
Wed, 19 Aug 2015 14:02 UTC
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© CDCOne dot placed in the county of exposure for each plague case.
A second case of suspected plague has been reported in Yosemite, California, barely more than a week after a child contracted the disease after visiting the park.

Also known as the Black Death, this is the same bacterium (Yersinia pestis) that wiped out millions of people in the 14th century. While the disease is rare in the U.S., it's not defunct. On average, we'll see seven cases per year:
Image
© CDC
The reason for the 1983 spike you see in the chart above could have been a result of cool moist weather in the western US, which may have allowed fleas to survive for longer and extended the length of the plague season in some areas.

You can get infected from a flea bite or contact with infected tissues or fluids from handling an animal — such as a squirrel, chipmunk, or other rodent — that is sick with or died from the disease. You can also get it from inhaling droplets in the breath of infected cats or humans.

Most of the cases tend to crop up in the rural West, especially in southern Colorado, northern New Mexico, northern Arizona, California, southern Oregon, and western Nevada — places that rodents that carry the disease call home.


Comment: Rodents probably had very little to do with the spread of the Black Death. There is a growing body of evidence that the plague has a cosmic connection:

An infection causes flu-like symptoms such as high fever, chills, nausea, weakness and swollen lymph nodes in the neck, armpit, or groin.

Comment: See also:

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Pills

Over the counter drugs: What are they doing to your brain?

Catherine J. Frompovich
Activist Post
Mon, 24 Aug 2015 13:12 UTC
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© health.howstuffworks.com
Are you an OTC drug junkie? Frankly, most folks today are because they are dealing with some sort of ailment or even a chronic condition. Do you think because you can purchase OTC drugs in pharmacies that they don't cause harm to your body? Well, maybe trusting healthcare consumers need to think twice before picking up another OTC pharmaceutical.

There's a classification of drugs called anticholinergics, which included numerous OTC products such as antihistamines, antidepressants, and even bladder control drugs. Anticholinergics include bronchodilators. They also affect senior citizens, which may not be a well-known side effect:
"In fact, even small increases in so-called anticholinergic burden or load increase the risk of morbidity and mortality in older individuals." [1]

Comment: Cocktail of Popular Drugs May Cloud Brain
The difficulty for patients is that the effect of anticholinergic drugs is cumulative. Doctors are not always aware of all of the medications their patients take, and they do not always think to review the anticholinergic properties of the ones they prescribe. It's a particular problem for older patients, who are more vulnerable to the effects of these drugs and who tend to take more medicines over all.

Of the 36 million Americans 65 and older, at least 20 percent take at least one anticholinergic medication. A study by Dr. Boustani of nearly 4,000 older adults in Indianapolis found that those who had been using three or more possibly anticholinergic drugs consistently for 90 days or longer were nearly three times as likely to receive a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment as those who had not taken anticholinergics.


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Megaphone

France is thumbing it's nose at vaccines

Sarah
thehealthyhomeeconomist.com
Sat, 22 Aug 2015 18:05 UTC
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The French people are no fools. As a culture, France seems to see through clever marketing ploys concocted by abusive corporations intent on perverting the laws of honest capitalism for their own profit. And, the French people seem to catch on long before most other countries raise a collective eyebrow.

In 1992, for example, more than two decades before Americans finally started to turn their backs on fast food, French citizens were protesting in the streets against McDonalds. The activism spilled into violent confrontation as protesters lit a bonfire outside a McDonald's and again in 1999 when José Bové dismantled a McDonald's under construction in South France with the help of a group of fellow farmers.

Comment: Shawn Siegel from the Activist Post stated back in 2013 'Conscious denial of critical information is disinformation.' Read more critical information about the serious concerns regarding vaccines and their alleged safety:

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Health

Probiotics may be beneficial in treating chronic sinusitis

Chris Kresser
ChrisKresser.com
Tue, 18 Aug 2015 00:00 UTC
sinus infection, sinusitis
Almost 40 million Americans suffer from chronic sinusitis. Unfortunately, most conventional treatments are not effective and don't address the underlying cause. Find out why probiotics may represent the future of treating chronic sinus problems.

Chronic sinusitis (also known as chronic rhinosinusitis, or CRS) is one of the most common human diseases, affecting 1 in 7 American adults. And like many other modern, chronic conditions, its prevalence appears to be increasing.

CRS is a debilitating and often intractable disease. Over 20 percent of patients are unresponsive to drug therapy, and up to 40 percent of patients do not respond to surgery.

The conventional viewpoint is that CRS is caused by the presence of certain harmful species of bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis. (1) In other cases, CRS may result from an immunologic reaction to fungi that colonize the sinuses. (2) Fungal species associated with this syndrome include Bipolaris specifera and Aspergillus, Curvularia, and Fusarium.

Comment: See the following for other remedies that might help treat sinus infections:

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