Health & WellnessS


Butterfly

Dreams Deferred: Do We Try to Sleep Longer than We Should?

Roanoke, Virginia -- "Bed is a medicine," instructs an Italian proverb. Increasingly, Americans are inverting that counsel by ingesting sleeping pills to speed their slumber.

With complaints of insomnia mounting, and marketing by drug companies becoming ever more ubiquitous, we are turning in increasing numbers to drugs like Ambien and Lunesta. According to a recent report from the research company IMS Health, pharmacists in the United States filled some 42 million prescriptions for sleeping pills last year, a rise of nearly 60 percent since 2000.

Are we running too quickly to the medicine cabinet? Or is insomnia genuinely reaching epidemic proportions, a consequence perhaps of the frenetic pace of modern life?

Heart

You Will Never Guess the Surprising Cause of Most Heart Attacks

Do you think you know what causes heart attacks?

In this video, Dr. David Holt, the leading U.S. physician in German New Medicine, explains that the conventional explanation for heart attacks may not be accurate at all. Conflicts involving territorial loss -- such as losing a family member, your home, or your financial stability -- cause changes in the coronary arteries of all animals -- including humans.

And as Dr. Holt explains, those changes very often lead to heart attacks -- days or even weeks after your conflict has been resolved.


Comment: With all we learned from studying Pavlov's research, Transmarginal Inhibition, and Naomi Klein's book, the Shock Doctrine (watch video here), plus our own studies and research on psychopathy, it is not hard to imagine how "territorial loss" can be induced on humans - both on personal and societal scales - in order to attack their health, and ultimately, bring their death.


Info

Soaking Potatoes In Water Before Frying Reduces Acrylamide

Good news for chips lovers everywhere -- new research in the journal Science of Food and Agriculture shows that pre-soaking potatoes in water before frying can reduce levels of acrylamide.

Acrylamide is a naturally occurring chemical that occurs when starch rich foods are cooked at high temperatures, such as frying, baking, grilling or roasting.

Info

Your Brain On Krispy Kremes: How Hunger Motivates

What makes you suddenly dart into the bakery when you spy chocolate- frosted donuts in the window, though you certainly hadn't planned on indulging? As you lick the frosting off your fingers, don't blame a lack of self-control.

New research from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine reveals how hunger works in the brain and the way neurons pull your strings to lunge for the sweet fried dough.

donuts
©iStockphoto/Dan Chippendale
What makes you suddenly dart into the bakery when you spy chocolate- frosted donuts in the window, though you certainly hadn't planned on indulging? As you lick the frosting off your fingers, don't blame a lack of self-control.

Cow Skull

Michael Pollan: Don't Eat Anything That Doesn't Rot

Consumers are getting duped by the food industry, paying the price with their health.

Acclaimed author and journalist Michael Pollan argues that what most Americans are consuming today is not food but "edible foodlike substances." His previous book, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, was named one of 2006's ten best books by the New York Times and the Washington Post. His latest book is called In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.

Ambulance

UK: Dead rodent stops operation

London - A patient was told there was no reason why he couldn't have surgery in a hospital, despite the smell caused by a dead rodent trapped in the building's ceiling.

People

Bullying more harmful than sexual harassment on the job, say researchers

Workplace bullying, such as belittling comments, persistent criticism of work and withholding resources, appears to inflict more harm on employees than sexual harassment, say researchers who presented their findings at a conference today.

"As sexual harassment becomes less acceptable in society, organizations may be more attuned to helping victims, who may therefore find it easier to cope," said lead author M. Sandy Hershcovis, PhD, of the University of Manitoba. "In contrast, non-violent forms of workplace aggression such as incivility and bullying are not illegal, leaving victims to fend for themselves."

Bulb

New study reveals profound impact of our unconscious on reaching goals

Whether you are a habitual list maker, or you prefer to keep your tasks in your head, everyone pursues their goals in this ever changing, chaotic environment. We are often aware of our conscious decisions that bring us closer to reaching our goals, however to what extent can we count on our unconscious processes to pilot us toward our destined future?

People can learn rather complex structures of the environment and do so implicitly, or without intention. Could this unconscious learning be better if we really wanted it to?

Stop

MSG, the Secret (Killer) Behind the Savor

In 1968 a Chinese-American physician wrote a rather lighthearted letter to The New England Journal of Medicine. He had experienced numbness, palpitations and weakness after eating in Chinese restaurants in the United States, and wondered whether the monosodium glutamate used by cooks here (and then rarely used by cooks in China) might be to blame.

Comment: For additional information about MSG, Aspartame, and other excitoxins, refer to board certified neurosurgeon Dr Russell Blaylock's book Excitotoxins: The Taste that Kills. Visit Dr Blaylock's website here ( www.russellblaylockmd.com ).


Evil Rays

Flashback Best of the Web: Sexual predators in the religious scene

It is necessary to take the pink colored glasses off and stare reality in the face. It might not be pretty what we see, but it is real and acknowledging and understanding the reality in which we live is the best protection we can have. Ignorance is not bliss despite it appearing to be a dominant feature of Western society.

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