New mothers quickly learn that babies quiet down when carried and rocked. Now researchers say that this calming response is actually a coordinated set of reactions, involving the nervous, motor and cardiac systems.

Dr. Kumi O. Kuroda, a neurobiologist at the Riken Brain Science Institute in Japan, led a team that used electrocardiogram measurements to monitor the heart rates of babies and mice after they were picked up and carried. Their heart rates slowed almost immediately.

"It's very difficult for adults to relax so quickly," said Dr. Kuroda, whose study appears in the journal Current Biology. "I think it's specific to infant physiology."

In the case of the mouse pups, it took only one second for the heart rate to drop. In human babies, it took about three seconds.

A protein known to be a key player in the development of Parkinson's disease is able to enter and harm cells in the same way that viruses do, according to a Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine study.

The protein is called alpha-synuclein. The study shows how, once inside a neuron, alpha synuclein breaks out of lysosomes, the digestive compartments of the cell. This is similar to how a cold virus enters a cell during infection. The finding eventually could lead to the development of new therapies to delay the onset of Parkinson's disease or halt or slow its progression, researchers said.

The study by virologist Edward Campbell, PhD, and colleagues, was published April 25, 2013 in the journal PLOS ONE. It is available at http://www.plosone.org/.

Alpha-synuclein plays a role in the normal functioning of healthy neurons. But in Parkinson's disease patients, the protein turns bad, aggregating into clumps that lead to the death of neurons in the area of the brain responsible for motor control. Previous studies have shown that these protein aggregates can enter and harm cells. Campbell and colleagues showed how alpha synuclein can bust out of lysosomes, small structures that collectively serve as the cell's digestive system. The rupture of these bubble-like structures, known as vesicles, releases enzymes that are toxic to the rest of the cell.

"The release of lysosomal enzymes is sensed as a 'danger signal' by cells, since similar ruptures are often induced by invading bacteria or viruses," said Chris Wiethoff, a collaborator on the study. "Lysosomes are often described as 'suicide bags' because when they are ruptured by viruses or bacteria, they induce oxidative stress that often leads to the death of the affected cell."

Doctors used to think that if they drained a sick person's blood it would purge the "evil" infection or disease right out of the body, but all that did was make the ill person much weaker, unable to fight off whatever was invading their body, and the patient was then highly likely to lose the battle for life, and in less time.

Research using polls and questionnaires continue to show that 3 of every 4 doctors and scientists would refuse chemotherapy for themselves due to its devastating effects on the entire body and the immune system, and because of its extremely low success rate. On top of that, only 2 to 4% of all cancers even respond to chemotherapy or prove to be "life extending," yet it is prescribed across the board for just about every kind of cancer.

Polls were taken by accomplished scientists at the McGill Cancer Center from 118 doctors who are all experts on cancer. They asked the doctors to imagine they had cancer and to choose from six different "experimental" therapies. These doctors not only denied chemo choices, but they said they wouldn't allow their family members to go through the process either! What does that say about their true opinion of this archaic method?

Last week, ProPublica reported that the Food and Drug Administration allowed dozens of medications to stay on the market, even though the research designed to prove their safety and effectiveness was undermined by "egregious" violations at a major pharmaceutical research laboratory in Houston. New information shows that even after the FDA had cited the lab for falsifying data and other misconduct, the agency issued a brand new approval to a drug tested there.

The FDA has refused to reveal the names of any of the approximately 100 drugs affected by the fraud at the Houston lab of the firm Cetero Research, saying that to do so would reveal confidential commercial information. ProPublica was able to identify five of those drugs, and now we've found a sixth. This one was approved after the agency had already cited the Houston lab for misconduct.

The drug is a generic version of Tussionex, which combines a long-acting narcotic cough suppressant with an anti-allergy medication. Manufactured by TrisPharma, the drug has a tongue-twisting chemical name: hydrocodone polistirex/chlorpheniraminepolistirex.

Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) has developed a type of genetically modified (GM) wheat that may silence human genes, leading to disastrous health consequences.

Last year, University of Canterbury Professor Jack Heinemann released results from genetic research he conducted on the wheat, which showed with "no doubt" that molecules created in the wheat, which are intended to silence wheat genes to change its carbohydrate content, may match human genes and potentially silence them.

University Professor Judy Carman agreed with Heinemann's analysis, stating in Digital Journal:¹

"If this silences the same gene in us that it silences in the wheat -- well, children who are born with this enzyme not working tend to die by the age of about five."

It's not often that a scientific study suggests there are advantages to being overweight.

With obesity at epidemic proportions in the United States -- the Centers for Disease Control estimates 34 percent of adults are too fat for their own good -- most studies sing the praises of exercise, dieting and losing weight.

But a recent study by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute found that chubby men actually stand a better chance of surviving an automobile crash -- provided they are wearing a seatbelt.

Despite this encouraging news, heavy-sey fellows should not expect lower car insurance rates.

Monsanto controls our food, poisons our land, and influences all three branches of government.

Forty percent of the crops grown in the United States contain their genes. They produce the world's top selling herbicide. Several of their factories are now toxic Superfund sites. They spend millions lobbying the government each year. It's time we take a closer look at who's controlling our food, poisoning our land, and influencing all three branches of government. To do that, the watchdog group Food and Water Watch recently published a corporate profile of Monsanto.

Patty Lovera, Food and Water Watch assistant director, says they decided to focus on Monsanto because they felt a need to "put together a piece where people can see all of the aspects of this company."

"It really strikes us when we talk about how clear it is that this is a chemical company that wanted to expand its reach," she says. "A chemical company that started buying up seed companies." She feels it's important "for food activists to understand all of the ties between the seeds and the chemicals."

If you like to express yourself through painting, writing, or any other form of artistic action, scientists now say that you must be suffering from a mental illness of some kind. In a new display of how truly insane the mainstream medical health paradigm has become, mainstream media outlets are now regurgitating the words of 'experts' who say that those who are creative are actually, more often than not, mentally ill.

After all, more than 50% of the United States is, by definition of the psychiatrists of the nation, mentally ill. Even questioning the government is considered a mental disorder. It should come as no surprise to know that upwards of 70% of the psychiatrists who write the conditions are - of course - on the payroll of those who produce the drugs to 'treat' the conditions. It should also therefore come as no surprise to note that the DSM (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is the foundation of the entire diagnosis system) now contains over 900 pages of bogus disorders.

And perhaps creativity may soon be added to the massive textbook, which labels people who are shy, eccentric, or have unconventional romantic lives as mentally ill.

Often in life, our biggest problems are those we brought upon ourselves; the same could be said for medical problems. Many of our modern diseases and ailments are completely preventable and only present because we have somehow deprived our bodies of the ability to heal themselves. In that same vein, one of the biggest concerns of the health world is an infection that cannot be stopped, an issue largely due to the overuse of antibiotics. But there are many potential solutions for this issue - lavender is one of those solutions.

Summer is fast approaching. It is a time when I see fear rampant on the beach in the form of slathering chemicals on our children's skin or covering them from head to toe. We don't want them to get cancer from the sun, do we?? So we do our due diligence and cover ourselves and our children with whatever our conscience allows.

But what if the sun really doesn't cause skin cancer?

Oh, I know we've been told for years that the depletion of the ozone layer decreases our atmosphere's natural protection from the sun's supposedly "harmful" ultraviolet (UV) rays.

We've been told that these rays damage the skin's cellular DNA which then produce genetic mutations that can lead to skin cancer. And of course the US Department of Health and Human Services and the World Health Organization both have identified UV light as a proven human carcinogen. The CDC even tells us a few serious sunburns can increase your child's risk of getting skin cancer. Pretty scary stuff, huh? No wonder we cover ourselves and our children with chemicals or clothing - we'd be a fool not to!