Scientists in the United States think they may have discovered a cure for obesity in a minor DNA tweak that causes the metabolism to burn up excess fat.

While overeating and lack of exercise were long thought to be the main contributors to weight gain, researchers now believe that genetics play a crucial role in whether fat is stored or used up as energy.

Scientists at Harvard and MIT have discovered that the FTO gene, the so-called "obesity gene," activates two other genes that halt thermogenesis, or burning off energy. But researchers used a groundbreaking gene-manipulation technique to reverse that process, allowing energy to be burned off rather than stored as fat.

The study creates hope that a drug or treatment for obesity could one day be developed.

Tetracyclines help treat psychosis as well as tick-borne disorders.

Using darkfield microscopy technique, this photomicrograph, magnified 400x, reveals the presence of spirochaete, or "corkscrew-shaped" bacteria known as Borrelia burgdorferi, which is the pathogen that causes Lyme disease.

A controlled clinical trial was just published in the psychiatric literature, showing that minocycline is effective in treating negative symptoms in early phase schizophrenia. A prior pilot study, published in 2010 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, also showed that minocycline was effective in schizophrenia, helping executive functioning such as working memory. The authors postulate that the mechanism of action of minocycline would include affecting glutamate pathways in the central nervous system, blocking nitric oxide-induced neurotoxicity, or inhibiting microglial activation in the brain, causing inflammation. All of these are reasonable potential mechanisms of action. Neither author discusses the obvious fact however that minocycline is a tetracycline antibiotic and that it may be treating an occult infection. Have infections ever been reported to cause schizophrenia?

Lyme disease causes a wide range of psychiatric manifestations. Published research has shown a higher prevalence of antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi in psychiatric patients than in healthy subjects. There is also a known geographic correlation of schizophrenia with ticks and tick-borne encephalitis, with peer reviewed literature showing an association of Lyme disease with schizophrenia. Other tick-borne infections, such as Bartonella (cat scratch disease) have also been reported to cause neurological and neurocognitive dysfunction, as well as causing agitation, panic disorder and treatment resistant depression. Minocycline, as well as other tetracycline antibiotics like doxycycline, are well known treatments for neurological manifestations of Lyme disease and associated co-infections like Bartonella. It is therefore plausible that a certain number of cases of severe psychiatric presentations are due to underlying infections, especially since Lyme disease is the number one spreading vector borne infection in the world.

I have seen several patients who came to my medical clinic with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, on anti-psychotic medications like Risperdal. Upon further testing, their Western Blots returned positive for exposure to Borrelia burgdorferi, the agent of Lyme disease. They were given doxycycline (a similar tetracycline antibiotic), and their psychotic symptoms and cognition improved significantly. Working with their psychiatrist, we were able to reduce, and in some cases eliminate, all of their antipsychotic medication. They remained clinically stable as long as they remained on antibiotics. Their psychiatric symptoms returned once they were no longer being treated for Lyme and associated tick-borne disorders, as these organisms have been shown to be able to establish a persistent infection in the body.

Every time they drink a glass of tap water, people in the mid-Ohio River Valley of West Virginia and Ohio may be consuming unsafe amounts of an industrial chemical linked to cancer, birth defects, heart disease and other illness. More than a decade after this threat became known, government regulators have failed to set enforceable standards to ensure the water is safe - and now, new science says the danger may be much greater than either residents or regulators thought.

In 2005, DuPont settled a class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of 70,000 mid-Ohio Valley residents for decades of fouling their drinking water with a highly toxic chemical once used to make Teflon. As part of the settlement, DuPont¹ is paying for technology to filter - but not eliminate - the toxin from six area water systems.

Next month, the first of approximately 3,500 personal injury lawsuits² from mid-Ohio Valley residents who got sick from drinking the contaminated water will go to trial. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has spent a decade studying the health hazards of the Teflon chemical, known as PFOA,³ but may take another four to six years before even deciding whether to set a legally enforceable maximum pollution level for drinking water. In 2009, EPA set a non-enforceable Provisional Health Advisory level - a temporary, voluntary standard to help utilities and health officials decide when to take action to reduce peoples' exposure - but the agency didn't follow up with a rule that carries the force of law. That advisory level remains the only federal guidance on how much PFOA is safe in drinking water.

Staggeringly high cyanide levels have been found at the Tianjin blast site, with one spot exceeding the permitted amount by 356 times. It comes as residents demand compensation from the government and express fears of returning home following last week's deadly explosion.

"An excessive level of cyanide was detected in eight locations, with the highest reaching 356 times" the permitted level, Ministry of Environmental Protection official Tian Weiyong said.

"Cyanide pollution is severe inside the warning zone. Outside the zone overall, the amount of cyanide detected is at normal range," he added.

'We can't live here'

It comes just one day after protesters braved the rain during a demonstration in Tianjin, stressing that their homes have been destroyed and health jeopardized. The protesters, many wearing masks, held banners and shouted slogans.

"You know when these chemical facilities blow up, all these harmful objects get buried in the surrounding areas, so we don't dare to live there, it's going to have an impact on our health, our family's health and especially our children's health,"36-year-old homeowner Mr. Zhang told Reuters.

Long considered impossible to accomplish, new research reveals how a simple spice might contribute to the regeneration of the damaged brain.

Turmeric is hands down one of the, if not the, most versatile healing spice in the world with over 600 experimentally confirmed health benefits, and an ancient history filled with deep reverence for its seemingly compassionate power to alleviate human suffering.

But, most of the focus over the past decade has been centered on only one of its many hundreds of phytocompounds: namely, the primary polyphenol in turmeric known as curcumin which gives the spice its richly golden hue. This curcumin-centric focus has lead to the development of some very good products, such as phospholipid bound curcumin concentrate (e.g. Meriva, BCM-95) which greatly helps to increase the absorption and bio-activity of curcumin. But, curcumin isolates are only capable of conferring a part of turmeric's therapeutic power - and therein lies the limitation and hubris of the dominant 'isolate the active ingredient' model.

Public officials are in the process of eliminating Naegleria Fowleri, a brain-eating amoeba that thrives in warm water, from another drinking water supply in Louisiana.

Naegleria Fowleri was detected during routine tests on Aug. 5 at a utility district in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, roughly 80 miles from New Orleans. A press release was issued on Monday, Aug. 17.

According to the local fire department, the Schriever Water System serves approximately 97,000 residents in the Houma area.

Two other systems in the area were tested with negative results, according to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH).

While officials say the water is safe for drinking, residents are urged to use caution with the water, not letting it get into their nose. Humans are infected when water containing the amoeba travels through the nose and migrates to the brain, destroying the tissue.

Lice populations in at least 25 US states have developed resistance to traditional treatments commonly used by doctors, parents and schools, scientists warn. They say the threat of the itch-inducing pests is looming.

"What we found was that 104 out of the 109 lice populations we tested had high levels of gene mutations, which have been linked to resistance to pyrethroids," Dr. Kyong Yoon of Southern Illinois University said, adding that his team is the first to collect lice samples from a large number of populations across the US.

Pyrethroids are a family of synthetic chemicals with insect repellent properties. Permethrin, which also belongs to pyrethroids, is an active ingredient in some of the most common lice treatments, such as lotions and sprays, sold at drug stores. The bugs are spread by head-to-head contact and are notoriously common among primary school kids.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a pill designed to increase a woman's sexual desires, despite its potential side effects such as a possible sudden loss of consciousness or harmful interactions with alcohol.

The new solution for women lacking their libido, or sexual desire, is called flibanserin and will now be administered under the strictest of guidelines.

Created by Sprout Pharmaceuticals under the brand name Addyi, the drug received FDA approval with certain limitations. The healthcare watchdog is now requiring trained doctors and pharmacists to keep track of any problems associated with the daily use of the "female Viagra."

"This is the biggest breakthrough in women's sexual health since the advent of 'the Pill'" for contraception, The National Consumers League said in a statement. "It validates (and) legitimizes female sexuality as an important component of health."

New evidence from Fukushima shows that as many as 2,000 people have died from necessary evacuations, writes Ian Fairlie, while another 5,000 will die from cancer. Future assessments of fatalities from nuclear disasters must include deaths from displacement-induced ill-heath and suicide in addition to those from direct radiation impacts.

"The Fukushima accident is still not over and its ill-effects will linger for a long time into the future ... 2,000 Japanese people have already died from the evacuations and another 5,000 are expected to die from future cancers."

Official data from Fukushima

Official data from Fukushima show that nearly 2,000 people died from the effects of evacuations necessary to avoid high radiation exposures from the disaster.

The uprooting to unfamiliar areas, cutting of family ties, loss of social support networks, disruption, exhaustion, poor physical conditions and disorientation can and do result in many people, in particular older people, dying.

Increased suicide has occurred among younger and older people following the Fukushima evacuations, but the trends are unclear.

The EU Commission is refusing to let independent researchers anywhere near a recent glyphosate risk assessment. Of course, it makes people wonder all the more when the Commission says there should be no overriding "public interest" and acts as though revealing the results were a matter of national security.

Unlike propagandists acting as scientism skeptics, who pretend it's safe to drink glyphosate (the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide) - many other studies and observations prove that human exposure is hazardous. Sometimes it's finding out that glyphosate can lead to breast cancer in parts per trillion, that it hijacks hormones and is found in breast milk and in rain samples. Sometimes it's a farmer waking up to discover that his piglets are deformed and dying - so he sends them off to a lab. Sometimes you find out that the so-called experts who tell us to "trust science" as they pretend to drink glyphosate are actually getting funds from Monsanto.