Health & Wellness

Social isolation shortens lifespan

Amanda Mascarelli
Nature News
Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:09 UTC

A lack of social interaction harms health whether or not a person feels lonely.

Scientists have long known that both social isolation and feelings of loneliness can increase risk of illness and death in people. But it has been less clear whether isolation, which can lead to loneliness, undermines health, or whether either factor, acting alone, can harm well-being. Today, researchers report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that limited contact with family, friends and community groups predicts illness and earlier death, regardless of whether it is accompanied by feelings of loneliness¹.

The scientists analysed data from 6,500 people aged 52 and older enrolled in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, which monitors the health, social well-being and longevity of people living in England. The researchers evaluated social isolation on the basis of the amount of contact participants reported having with family, friends and civic organizations, and they assessed loneliness using a questionnaire. They tracked sickness and mortality in study participants from 2004 to 2012.

The researchers found that social isolation was correlated with higher mortality - even after adjusting for pre-existing health conditions and socioeconomic factors - but loneliness was not.

Whoops! Virus vial studied 'for its potential to be used as a weapon by terrorists', goes missing

Erin Mulvaney
Houston Chronicle
Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:40 UTC

© unknown
Logo of the Umbrella Corporation: Bioengineering company that released a deadly virus in the Resident Evil film series

A vial containing a potentially harmful virus has gone missing from a laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch, officials said.

The missing vial, which contains less than a quarter of a teaspoon of an infectious disease, had been stored in a locked freezer designed to handle biological material safely in the Galveston National Laboratory on UTMB's campus, officials said.

During a routine internal inspection last week, UTMB officials realized one vial of a virus called Guanarito was not accounted for at the facility.

Scott Weaver, the laboratory's scientific director, said Guanarito is an emerging disease that has caused deadly outbreaks in Venezuela.

The federal government prioritizes it for research because it has the potential to be used a weapon by terrorists.

On Tuesday, an investigator discovered that only four out of five vials were stored of the virus in the grid system. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was notified immediately.

Reversing blood and freshening it up

Martin Wahlestedt
Lund University
Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:47 UTC

The blood of young and old people differs. In an article published recently in the scientific journal Blood, a research group at Lund University in Sweden explain how they have succeeded in rejuvenating the blood of mice by reversing, or re-programming, the stem cells that produce blood.

Stem cells form the origin of all the cells in the body and can divide an unlimited number of times. When stem cells divide, one cell remains a stem cell and the other matures into the type of cell needed by the body, for example a blood cell.*

"Our ageing process is a consequence of changes in our stem cells over time", explained Martin Wahlestedt, a doctoral student in stem cell biology at the Faculty of Medicine at Lund University, and principal author of the article.

"Some of the changes are irreversible, for example damage to the stem cells' DNA, and some could be gradual changes, known as epigenetic changes, that are not necessarily irreversible, even if they are maintained through multiple cell divisions. When the stem cells are re-programmed, as we have done, the epigenetic changes are cancelled."**

The discovery that forms the basis for the research group's method was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine last year.

The composition of blood is one example of how it ages; blood from a young person contains a certain mix of B- and T-lymphocytes and myeloid cells.***

"In older people, the number of B- and T-lymphocytes falls, while the number of myeloid cells increases", said Martin Wahlestedt.

If you get a heart attack, insist on magnesium!

Ronald Grisanti
Your Medical Detective
Mon, 25 Mar 2013 10:45 UTC

If you end up in the emergency room with a heart attack, make sure you insist on a 2 cc injection of magnesium sulfate.

In double-blind, placebo-controlled scientific study, they looked at 273 patients who were admitted to the hospital for a heart attack. The study published in one of the most prestigious medical journals revealed that after 4 weeks, the people who received the magnesium, only 7% died versus 19% who did not get the magnesium. That means magnesium cut the death rate a walloping 63%.

What was interesting is the fact that the study indicated that the people in the study were give far less than the 2 cc of magnesium recommended above.

Furthermore, the injection of magnesium decreased arrhythmias by 55%. Remember having a heart arrhythmia is one issue doctors are seriously concerned about following a heart attack.

In another study in the same medical journal approximately ten years later revealed that magnesium produced a 24% reduction in the number of deaths in one month after the heart attack.

Besides the proven benefits for victims of a heart attack, another study showed people who were given IV magnesium had a 76% reduction in death from a fatal blood clot. And by the way this same study showed that aspirin made no difference.

Comment: For more information on how to supplement with magnesium, see Magnesium: The Spark of Life

Drugged up America: Exposing Big Pharma

Abby Martin
tv.greenmedinfo.com
Sun, 24 Mar 2013 17:55 UTC

Future flu shots made from dog and insect cells?

Anne Gordon, RN
Greenmedinfo.com
Sun, 24 Mar 2013 17:45 UTC

We are in desperate times and many people are completely oblivious to the fact. Rats that eat GMO food have been shown to grow deadly tumors. Our water is often tainted with plastic leaching BPA, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and other toxins - not to mention the intentional injection of mind-numbing fluoride into our drinking water 'for our teeth.' Barium salts, and aluminum have been documented as aerosols sprayed into the atmosphere for mysterious reasons which range from communication enhancements, to weather control, and, what is often termed "conspiracies.'

Our air, food, and water appear to be tainted with poisons putting public health at risk. But, this is getting creepier every minute. Today with the accelerating exponential growth in technology, so called experts, are experimenting with Frankenstein-like potions to be sold to an uninformed public. New vaccines combining technology with genetic engineering are being designed and approved today, for quicker-greater yield. Such is the case with the soon to be flu shots, for example.

New Study: Roundup more toxic than officially declared

CRIIGEN PRESS RELEASE
GM Watch
Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:52 UTC

The most widely used herbicide in the world contains compounds more toxic than declared - new research shows

In a new research⁽¹⁾ published in the highly ranked scientific journal Toxicology, Robin Mesnage, Benoit Bernay and Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini, from the University of Caen, France, have proven (from a study of nine Roundup-like herbicides) that the most toxic compound is not glyphosate, which is the substance the most assessed by regulatory authorities, but a compound that is not always listed on the label, called POE-15. Modern methods were applied at the cellular level (on three human cell lines), and mass spectrometry (studies on the nature of molecules). This allowed the researchers to identify and analyse the effects of these compounds.

Comment: Read the following articles to learn more about Roundup's "Cocktail effect"

Research: Roundup Diluted by 450-Fold is Still Toxic to DNA
Death by Multiple Poisoning, Glyphosate and Roundup
Monsanto's Roundup is Causing DNA and Cellular Damage
Scientists Reveal Negative Impact of Roundup Ready GM Crops
Scientist Finding Many Negative Impacts of Roundup Ready GM Crops
Monsanto™ Roundup Ready Crops Leading to Mental Illness, Obesity
Roundup weed killer kills human cells. Study intensifies debate over 'inert' ingredients
Roundup Birth Defects: Regulators Knew World's Best-Selling Herbicide Caused Problems, New Report Finds

Cosmic fallout? State of emergency declared in Chelyabinsk over rabies outbreak among animals

The Moscow Times
Sun, 24 Mar 2013 16:02 UTC

© Reuters
A fireball blazed across the horizon, leaving a long white trail in its wake which could be seen as far as 200km away in Yekaterinburg, about two weeks ago.

A state of emergency has been declared in the Chelyabinsk region due to an outbreak of rabies among animals, the regional administration said in a statement.

In a decree posted on the administration's website, Ivan Feklin, the deputy governor of the region and head of the emergency response team for coordinating preventative measures for rabies, is tasked with confirming a complex set of measures to stabilize the region's rabies outbreak for the duration of the emergency regime.

The regional budget has allocated 2.44 million rubles ($78,000) for the purpose.

According to the regional administration of the Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Monitoring Service, the region has been hit by a complicated epizootic situation with rabies in animals, Interfax reported.

Currently, there have been 106 instances of rabies recorded in 93 towns and villages throughout 17 municipal districts and in 9 cities of the Chelyabinsk region, including 4 in the city of Chelyabinsk.

Comment: Could this outbreak be a direct result of the recent fireball in Chelyabinsk? Fireball explodes over Russian city: Widespread panic and structural damage, Thousand people injured

Update: We since found an article in Russian dated 18th of January, 2013, that mentions 18 confirmed cases in the region since the beginning of the year. The Chelyabinsk meteorite event happened on 15th of February. It is possible the event contributed in some way to the spread of the disease or perhaps it could just be coincidental?

Flies, maggots, rats, and lots of poop: What Big Ag doesn't want you to see

Tom Philpott
Mother Jones
Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:29 UTC

What's it like inside a factory farm? If the livestock and meat industries have their way, what little view we have inside the walls of these animal-reviewing facilities may soon be obscured. For the second year in a row, the industry is backing bills in various statehouses that would criminalize undercover investigations of livestock farms. The Humane Society of the US, one of the animal-welfare groups most adept at conducting such hidden-camera operations, counts active "ag gag" bills in no fewer than nine states. Many of them are based on a model conjured by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a corporate-funded group that generates industry-friendly legislation language for state legislatures, Associated Press reports.

To understand the stakes of this battle, consider this 2010 Food and Drug Administration report on conditions in several vast egg-producing facilities in Iowa owned by a man named Jack Decoster. I teased out some highlights at the time of its release; in short, it involves flies, maggots, rats, wild birds, tainted feed, workers ignoring sanitary rules, and lots and lots of chickenshit. The report portrays the facilities as a kind of fecal nightmare, with manure mounding up in eight-foot piles - providing perches for escaped hens to peck feed from teeming cages - overflowing in pits, and seeping through concrete foundations.

It was, in short, a blunt and damning portrayal, an example of a federal watchdog agency training the public gaze on the misdeeds of a powerful industry. The investigation led the FDA to ban the offending operations from selling fresh eggs for several months.

Comment: As the author states at the end of the article: "who will serve as the public's eyes on the factory farm floor? Answer: essentially, no one. Reporting animal abuse on Factory Farms can lead to prosecution as a terrorist! Unbelievable?! Read the following articles carried on SOTT.net:

Why You Can Be Branded a Terrorist for Fighting Animal Abuse
FBI Says Activists Who Investigate Factory Farms Can Be Prosecuted as Terrorists
Shocking: Reporting factory farm abuses to be considered "Act of Terrorism" if new laws pass