The CDC has announced that almost half of all pregnant women were vaccinated with the H1N1 or combined influenza vaccination during the "influenza" season of 2009/2010. Women who were told by their physicians to get the flu shot were three times more likely to get it, and women who were specifically told to get the H1N1 vaccination were a staggering 10 times more likely to accept the vaccination.
However, data presented to CDC's Advisory Committee on Children's Vaccines shows the rate of miscarriage attributed to vaccination during the same period rose by 700% compared to both 2007 and 2008 (view complete resources here). The report was presented to the CDC's Advisory Committee on Children's Vaccines by the National Coalition of Organized Women, who corroborated the miscarriage and stillborn rates reported on the CDC's VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) database with an independent review of miscarriages associated with the influenza and H1N1 vaccination during the winter of 2009-2010.
Health & Wellness
In conversation, we often imitate each other's speech style and may even change our accent to fit that of the person we're talking to. A recent study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that imitating someone who speaks with a regional or foreign accent may actually help you understand them better.
"If people are talking to each other, they tend to sort of move their speech toward each other," says Patti Adank, of the University of Manchester, who cowrote the study with Peter Hagoort and Harold Bekkering from Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. People don't only do this with speech, she says. "People have a tendency to imitate each other in body posture, for instance in the way they cross their arms." She and her colleagues devised an experiment to test the effect of imitating and accent on subsequent comprehension of sentences spoken in that accent.
"If people are talking to each other, they tend to sort of move their speech toward each other," says Patti Adank, of the University of Manchester, who cowrote the study with Peter Hagoort and Harold Bekkering from Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. People don't only do this with speech, she says. "People have a tendency to imitate each other in body posture, for instance in the way they cross their arms." She and her colleagues devised an experiment to test the effect of imitating and accent on subsequent comprehension of sentences spoken in that accent.
© Unknown
"There is an ongoing debate amongst researchers as to why muscle and joint pain, such as neck pain, are so common, and why this seems to be more prevalent among women than men," says Anna Grimby-Ekman, postdoctoral student and statistician at the Sahlgrenska Academy's Department of Public Health and Community Medicine. "We know that physical work with heavy lifting or assembly work that involves a lot of arm-raising above shoulder height can lead to neck pain. By looking at a group whose work is less physically demanding, we can more readily identify other factors that could be implicated and perhaps explain the generally high incidence of neck pain."
A questionnaire distributed to university students in Sweden - 627 women and 573 men - showed that neck pain is more common in women than men, and that more women than men developed neck pain during the four years of the study. These results were something of a surprise as the researchers had expected that roughly the same number of women as men would develop neck pain in a young group like this, where the majority had yet to start a family and studying meant that the women and men shared a similar working environment.
© MC2 Ace Rheaume / Navy
Builder 2nd Class Eric Clark, assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 5, is caught in a sandstorm May 4 at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan. A Navy study suggests that dust from Afghanistan contains metals that may cause respiratory problems and brain damage.
Builder 2nd Class Eric Clark, assigned to Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 5, is caught in a sandstorm May 4 at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan. A Navy study suggests that dust from Afghanistan contains metals that may cause respiratory problems and brain damage.
Researchers studying dust in Iraq and Kuwait say tiny particles of potentially hazardous material could be causing a host of problems in humans, from respiratory ailments to heart disease to neurological conditions.
After taking samples, scientists found fungi, bacteria and heavy metals - including uranium - that could all cause long-term health effects.
"You can see the dust," said Dale Griffin, an environmental public health microbiologist with the U.S. Geologic Survey. "It's what we can't see that will get you."
Three recent reports detail the problems, and Griffin said there are more to come.
Capt. Mark Lyles, who chairs the medical sciences and biotechnology department at the Center for Naval Warfare Studies, part of the Naval War College, co-authored with Griffin a report that they presented last year at the International Seminars on Planetary Emergencies in Italy.
The paper summarized their analysis of sand samples taken in 2004 in Iraq and Kuwait, which revealed a "significant biodiversity of bacterial, fungi and viruses of which 25 percent are known pathogens."
Just as troubling, according to the paper, was the presence of 37 elements - including 15 bioactive metals, including uranium, known to cause serious, long-term health effects in humans.
© Gary Porter / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / MCT
Flame retardants were found in a box of butter.
Flame retardants were found in a box of butter.
Flame retardant chemicals that are known to be harmful to health have been found in a package of butter sampled in a Dallas grocery story, according to a study published Tuesday. This is the first reported case of food contamination that is thought to have resulted from the chemicals used in the food packaging.
The chemicals are polybrominated diphenyl ethers -- or PBDEs. The chemicals are commonly found in electronic devices, fabrics and insulation. PBDEs are known to be harmful to animals and are suspected of disrupting human thyroid hormones. U.S. manufacturers have agreed to phase out a particularly harmful type of chemical called deca-BDE.
Ten samples of butter were purchased in Dallas grocery stores as part of a routine investigation intended to help scientists improve estimates for the amounts of PBDEs people consume in food. The contaminated sample of butter contained PBDEs that were 135 times the average amount found in the other nine samples and was particularly high in the dangerous deca-BDE. The butter's paper wrapper had levels more than 16 times greater than in the butter itself.
© Civileats
"Canned tuna, especially white, tends to be high in mercury, and younger women and children should limit how much they eat. As a precaution, pregnant women should avoid tuna entirely," said Dr. Urvashi Rangan, Director of Technical Policy, at Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advise that women of childbearing age and young children may eat up to 12 ounces a week of light tuna or other "low in mercury" seafood, including, within that limit, up to 6 ounces per week of white tuna.
© healthyfellow.com
The reality is that therapeutic massage provides very real and quantifiable health effects that help us live happier and healthier lives. In addition, it can offer a viable alternative or synergistic support to conventional treatments. The issue of cost can also be managed by strategically using your health insurance and/or engaging in home based, amateur massage with a trusted partner.
© bananastock/Thinkstock
Members receive a lively and informative quarterly journal and email updates on current issues and events.Visit their website at westonaprice.org.
Are you still shunning butter from your diet? You can stop today because butter can be a very healthy part of your diet.
Get Gillian McKeith on the phone!
The coalition government is ditching the requirement to seek scientific advice before setting drugs policy.
As part of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 government must take, or at least listen to, advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. That committee needed to have at least six scientists on it.
But police reform legislation introduced last week will remove the requirement to listen to annoying scientists before setting policy.
Ex-Lib Dem MP Evan Harris, told the Guardian: "The government is ill-advised to hack away at science advisory structures.
The coalition government is ditching the requirement to seek scientific advice before setting drugs policy.
As part of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 government must take, or at least listen to, advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. That committee needed to have at least six scientists on it.
But police reform legislation introduced last week will remove the requirement to listen to annoying scientists before setting policy.
Ex-Lib Dem MP Evan Harris, told the Guardian: "The government is ill-advised to hack away at science advisory structures.
Studies on genetically engineered mice show that social stress activates the immune system and accelerates the development of atherosclerosis. Commonly used drugs to reduce blood pressure, however, may stop this process. This is the conclusion of a thesis presented at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Comment: There is far more effective, cheap, and beneficial way to reduce your stress and bring much needed relief. Just breathe!
Several large studies have clearly shown that there is a correlation between psychosocial stress and the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. However, little is known about why this is the case.
Comment: Perhaps because there is a limit to what normal human's heart can endure while living in pathological and soul-killing environment?
"The aim of my thesis was to study the underlying mechanisms by which stress leads to atherosclerosis and subsequent cardiovascular disease", explains Evelina Bernberg, researcher at the Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, at the Sahlgrenska Academy.
The study has been conducted using mice that have been genetically modified to spontaneously develop atherosclerosis. Using mice as experimental animals allows the scientists to study cause and effect relationships in a controlled situation.
Comment: There is far more effective, cheap, and beneficial way to reduce your stress and bring much needed relief. Just breathe!
Several large studies have clearly shown that there is a correlation between psychosocial stress and the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. However, little is known about why this is the case.
Comment: Perhaps because there is a limit to what normal human's heart can endure while living in pathological and soul-killing environment?
"The aim of my thesis was to study the underlying mechanisms by which stress leads to atherosclerosis and subsequent cardiovascular disease", explains Evelina Bernberg, researcher at the Department of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, at the Sahlgrenska Academy.
The study has been conducted using mice that have been genetically modified to spontaneously develop atherosclerosis. Using mice as experimental animals allows the scientists to study cause and effect relationships in a controlled situation.
Comment: Since stress is such a prevalent problem among women (due to their increased sensitivity to the environment), they would greatly benefit from the vagus nerve activation (that wanders throughout the body, including the neck area) to reduce their neck pain and stress.