Health & WellnessS


Attention

"Sugar-free" chewing gum weight loss warning

Too much "sugar-free" chewing gum can lead to severe weight loss and diarrhoea, doctors warn.

The cause is sorbitol, a widely used sweetener in chewing gum and sweets, which acts as a laxative.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, experts gave the example of two patients who had become ill after chewing around 20 sticks of gum a day.

Pills

The First Amendment Gone Wild: Big Pharma's 'Right' to Find Out What Doctors Are Prescribing

The world has obviously changed in the last 200-plus years, and Jefferson could not have envisioned even the existence of the modern pharmaceutical industry. But he did understand the threat that corporations posed to a working democracy.

"I hope that we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country," he wrote.

Document

Best of the Web: Ponerology: The Study of Evil - Interview with Marian Wasilewski

What is this evil? If we recognize it to be the root of all suffering, then even the Buddha dealt with it in his own way, yet it keeps harassing us. While living in the USA, I had the privilege of meeting Andrzej Lobaczewski, a clinical psychologist who coined the term ponerology from the Greek word for evil. He used this term to describe the results of his many years of research, which can be said to supplement ethics from the psychiatric point of view. Unfortunately he was not always able to get his message through, and the better part of his work was never published as far as I know. Closer contact with Andrzej Lobaczewski encouraged me to familiarize myself with other problematics on similar topics smuggled out of the Soviet Union and Hungary. Since I gave a series of interviews at that time (namely 1984) in connection with the publication of my work The Psychological Roots of Communism, I decided to devote an additional radio interview to this very subject. The statements made therein had been jointly formulated beforehand with Andrzej Lobaczewski, who didn't disclose his name at that time. Although this was all quite a long time ago, I believe the topic deserves wider renown.

Comment: According to the National Institute of Mental Health:
9.5 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older suffer from Mood Disorder

6.7 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older suffer from Major Depressive Disorder

1.5 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older suffer from Dysthymic Disorder

2.6 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older suffer from Bi-polar disorder

1.1 percent of the population age 18 and older suffer from Schizophrenia

18.1 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have an anxiety disorder.

2.7 percent of people age 18 and older suffer from panic disorder

1.0 percent of people age 18 and older suffer from Obsessive-compulsive disorder

3.5 percent of people age 18 and older suffer from Post Traumatic Stress disorder

3.1 percent of people age 18 and over suffer from Generalized Anxiety Disorder

6.8 percent of people age 18 and older suffer from Social Phobia

0.8 percent of people age 18 and older suffer from Agoraphobia

8.7 percent of people age 18 and older suffer from marked and persistent fear and avoidance of a specific object or situation

0.5 percent to 3.7 percent of females suffer from anorexia

1.1 percent to 4.2 percent suffer from bulimia (The mortality rate among people with anorexia has been estimated at 0.56 percent per year, or approximately 5.6 percent per decade, which is about 12 times higher than the annual death rate due to all causes of death among females ages 15-24 in the general population.)

4.1 percent of adults, ages 18-44 suffer from ADHD
Accounting for comorbidity, "An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older - about one in four adults - suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year." Notice that psychopathy and personality disorders such as narcissism and borderline personality disorder, are not even included in this list. Either mental illness is on the rise, or different criteria were used to come up with the figures cited by Wasilewski.


Pills

Brazilian berry destroys cancer cells in lab, UF study shows

A Brazilian berry popular in health food contains antioxidants that destroyed cultured human cancer cells in a recent University of Florida study, one of the first to investigate the fruit's purported benefits.

Evil Rays

Hypnosis study reveals brain's 'amnesia centers'

Brain scans of hypnotized people that are taken as they forget and are triggered to remember have revealed neural circuitry that is key to the memory suppression and recall process. The researchers who conducted the study said their insights into the memory suppression and recall process may yield insight into the mechanisms underlying amnesia.

Life Preserver

Cranberries: True Miracle Cure for Women

Research reveals two glasses a day keep bladder infections, ulcers, cavities, and viruses away

Cranberry juice, long dissed as a mere folk remedy for relieving urinary tract infections in women, is finally getting some respect. Thanks to Prof. Itzhak Ofek, a researcher at Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine, the world now knows that science supports the folklore.

Pills

Methadone Linked to Sudden Cardiac Deaths

A new study by Oregon Health & Science University researchers suggests that methadone is a possible cause of sudden cardiac death even when taken at therapeutic levels for the relief of chronic pain or drug addiction withdrawal and not as a result of overdose.

Evil Rays

RFID Implants Found to Cause Cancer Tumors

Small electronic chips approved by the FDA for implanting beneath human skin have been linked to cancer in laboratory animals, according to a research review conducted by the Associated Press.


Health

Parkinsonism linked to trichloroethylene

Lexinton, Kentucky. - Workers exposed to trichloroethylene may face a greater risk for parkinsonism, a group of symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease, a U.S. study found.

Cow

Cloned Milk and Meat: What's the Beef?

Milk and meat from cloned cows could hit grocery shelves in a few years if the FDA approves the process soon, as is expected.

But would the products be safe? Scientists and consumer advocates disagree on the answer.