Health & WellnessS


Bell

Study Says Vitamin D Deficiency Has Increased Alarmingly

Reuben Chow
Natural News
Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:00 UTC
Vitamin D is a critically important nutrient. However, with most people spending an increasing amount of time indoors, and wearing long-sleeved tops or slapping on sunscreen lotions when they do go under the sun, levels of vitamin D in our bodies are falling to dangerously low levels. And a recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine has suggested that the state of widespread deficiency in the United States population may be even more staggering than most of us realize.

Details of Study

The study team had compared data on serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES III, which had been collected from 1988 to 1994, with NHANES data which had been collected from 2001 to 2004. In total, complete data on 18,883 persons in the former survey and 13,369 persons in the latter survey was used. Data on 5,362 African Americans was used in the first exercise, while data on 3,149 of them was used in the second one.
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Gear

How Easily is Your Memory Manipulated?

John M. Grohol
Psych Central
Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:00 UTC
Baby Hand
© Unknown
You may be surprised to learn that it's easier to manipulate your memory than you might have imagined. Or so says new research recently published that summarizes the findings of "false memories" and something found easy to manipulate - our feelings about food.

In the article, researchers Bernstein and Loftus (2009) examine a half dozen studies that have been conducted examining whether researchers could place false memories - memories that are specifically not true - into ordinary people. The particular false memories implanted had to do with food preferences - such as a liking for asparagus that the person never had, or getting sick from eating egg salad (when that had never actually happened to the person).

The researchers also conducted a number of studies to examine this phenomenon. In one experiment, subjects completed a series of questionnaires, including a personality inventory and a Food History Inventory. A week later, they were brought back into the laboratory and told their responses had been entered into a computer that generated a profile of their early childhood experiences with food.
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Family

Buckwheat: Gluten-Free Grain Substitute Offers Complete Vegetarian Protein

Barbara Minton
Natural News
Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:40 UTC
Most health conscious people don't think of waffles and pancakes when they think of breakfast, but it turns out that both foods are highly nutritious and health promoting if the right ingredients are used. A recent study from a team of researchers in Madrid, Spain has highlighted the healthy aspects of hearty buckwheat and the flour made from it. Indulging in a stack of buckwheat pancakes or waffles will provide vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and prebiotics that create health and happiness.

Buckwheat increases immune boosting friendly bacteria in the gut

Researchers at the University of Madrid fed rats a buckwheat rich diet for ten days. An additional group of ten rats were fed the same diet, but without buckwheat. At the end of the trial period, the intestines of the rats were analyzed and compared. The researchers found that rats receiving buckwheat had a significantly greater amount of friendly bacteria in their digestive tracts than did those in the control group. They also had three additional types of beneficial bacteria that were not present in the controls.
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Heart

Human body regenerates heart cells: Study


Press TV
Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:44 UTC
A study using Carbon-14 dating method has shown that human body can regenerate heart cells at a rate of about one percent a year.

Conducted by Sweden's Karolinska Institute researchers, the study has raised hopes for the artificial stimulation of the renewal process and reducing the need for transplants in future.

"It would be a way to try and help the heart to some self-help rather than transplanting new cells," Jonas Frisen of Sweden's Karolinska Institute said in a telephone interview.

"Taking advantage of the heart's own capacity to generate new cells either using pharmaceutical compounds or, if it is possible, by exercise or any other environmental factor."
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Health

Dengue fever outbreak in Brazil kills 30 - Health Ministry


RIA Novosti
Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:19 UTC
dengue fever
© Unknown
The number of deaths from a dengue fever outbreak in northeastern Brazil has reached 30, according to statistics from the country's Health Ministry.

The latest reported death was that of a 5-year-old boy being cared for in the hospital in the city of Itabuna in Brazil's Atlantic coast state of Bahia.

According to health ministry statistics released on Thursday, 32,000 people in Bahia, around 65% of the state's population, have been registered with dengue fever. This is a 305% increase from last year.
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Pills

Shoplifters can be cured with a pill!


The Telegraph
Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:55 UTC
A drug commonly used to treat alcohol and drug addiction may help curb the urge to steal among prolific shoplifters, scientists have said.

They found the drug naltrexone helped take away the "thrill" that drives some kleptomaniacs to steal.

"It gets rid of that rush and desire," said Dr Jon Grant, of the University of Minnesota in America, who led the study.
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Chalkboard

How eating chocolate can help improve your maths

Kate Devlin
The Telegraph
Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:25 UTC
hot cocoa drink
© Philip Hollis Mental arithmetic became easier after volunteers had been given large amounts of compounds found in chocolate in a hot cocoa drink
Eating chocolate could improve the brain's ability to do maths, a new study suggests.

Mental arithmetic became easier after volunteers had been given large amounts of compounds found in chocolate, called flavanols, in a hot cocoa drink.

They were also less likely to feel tired or mentally drained, the findings, presented at the British Psychological Society annual conference in Brighton show.

Prof David Kennedy, director of the brain, performance and nutrition research centre at Northumbria University, and a co-author of the study, said that chocolate could be beneficial for mentally challenging tasks.
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Heart

Having a sister makes you happier and more optimistic, say psychologists

Kate Devlin
The Telegraph
Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:04 UTC
Having a sister makes you happier and more optimistic, a new study shows, but the same is not true for having a brother.

Growing up with at least one girl in the family also makes people more able to cope with their problems, according to the study.

Daughters tie loved ones closer together and encourage them to communicate their emotions more effectively, the researchers believe.
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Attention

Killer strains of tuberculosis may 'spiral out of control,' U.N. says

Tim Johnson
KansasCity.com
Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:42 UTC
The world is on the cusp of an explosion of drug-resistant tuberculosis cases that could deluge hospitals and leave physicians fighting a nearly untreatable malady with little help from modern drugs, global experts said Wednesday.

"The situation is already alarming, and poised to grow much worse very quickly," said Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization.

With Bill Gates at her side, Chan urged health officials from 27 countries at a three-day forum on drug-resistant TB to recognize the warning signs of what looms ahead, saying that traditional drugs are useless against some strains of tuberculosis and health care costs for treating those strains can be 100 to 200 times more than for regular tuberculosis.
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Pills

Unhappy teens to be effectively lobotomized: Govt panel wants universal screening for 'depression'


Associated Press
Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:26 UTC
Image
© Unknown
An influential government-appointed medical panel is urging doctors to routinely screen all American teens for depression - a bold step that acknowledges that nearly 2 million teens are affected by this debilitating condition.

Most are undiagnosed and untreated, said the panel, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which sets guidelines for doctors on a host of health issues.

The task force recommendations appear in April's issue of the journal Pediatrics. And they go farther than the American Academy of Pediatrics' own guidance for teen depression screening.

Comment: See also: The Myths of Modern Pharmaceutical Medicine Parallel Greek Mythology

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