Health & Wellness
The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) has called on all physicians to prescribe diets without genetically modified (GM) foods to all patients.[1] They called for a moratorium on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), long-term independent studies, and labeling, stating,
"Several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM food, including infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, insulin regulation, and changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system.
...There is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects. There is causation..."
Former AAEM President Dr. Jennifer Armstrong says,
"Physicians are probably seeing the effects in their patients, but need to know how to ask the right questions."
Renowned biologist Pushpa M. Bhargava also believes that GMOs are a major contributor to the deteriorating health in America.
Up to a third of breast cancer cases in Western countries could be avoided if women ate less and exercised more, researchers at a breast cancer conference said Thursday, renewing debate on a sensitive topic.
While better treatments, early diagnosis and mammogram screenings have dramatically slowed the disease, experts said the focus should now shift to changing behaviors like diet and physical activity. The comments added to a series of findings that lifestyle changes in areas such as smoking, eating, exercise and sun exposure can have a significant effect on all sorts of cancer rates.
"What can be achieved with screening has been achieved. We can't do much more," Carlo La Vecchia, head of epidemiology at the University of Milan, told The Associated Press. "It's time to move onto other things."
Kate Kelland
ReutersWed, 24 Mar 2010 17:12 UTC
© Reuters
A woman meditates.
Stronger and more lasting memories are likely to be formed when a person is relaxed and the memory-related neurons in the brain fire in sync with certain brain waves, scientists said on Wednesday.
Researchers from the United States said their findings could help develop new therapies for people with learning disabilities and some types of dementia.
"This study establishes a direct relationship between events at the circuit level of the brain...and their effects on human behavior," said Ueli Rutishauser of the California Institute of Technology, who worked on the study.
Synchronization in the brain is influenced by "theta waves" which are associated with relaxation, daydreaming and drowsiness, but also with learning and memory formation, the scientists explained in the study in the journal
Nature.
One of the most common complaints among healthy older adults relates to a decline in memory performance. This decline has been linked to an inability to ignore irrelevant information when forming memories. In order to ignore distracting information, the brain should act to suppress its responses to distractions, but it has been shown that in older adults there is in fact an increase in brain activity at those times.
In a new study published in the April 2010 issue of Elsevier's Cortex researchers at the University of California San Francisco have shown that even prior knowledge of an impending distraction does not help to improve the working memory performance of older adults.
Drs. Theodore Zanto and Adam Gazzaley studied 21 adults aged between 60 and 80 years while they performed a working memory task in which they were shown random sequences of pictures containing faces and scenes. From a given sequence, participants were asked to remember either only the faces (ignoring scenes) or only the scenes (ignoring faces). In a second round of testing, the participants were given prior information about which specific pictures in the sequence would be relevant and which to ignore. The participants' brain activity during the tasks was recorded using electroencephalograms (EEGs).
Most of us are familiar with the pain and aggravation that can come from splinters, which are usually small slivers of wood, metal or glass.
Splinters can be difficult to remove and sometimes painful as well. If the splinter is not removed and removed cleanly, infection can result and sometimes the infection can become a serious one.
Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, have found that omega-3 fatty acids have another beneficial effect besides maintaining a healthy heart. Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study found that patients with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids in their blood experienced a slowing of the shortening of their telomeres, indicating that the fatty acids help to slow the aging process.
The study of telomeres and their role in the aging process has been a popular subject in recent years. Scientists have found that telomeres, which act as protective end caps on cells, gradually shorten over time as cells divide and repair themselves, causing a person to age. Researchers, however, have been studying various compounds, including omega-3s, that appear to slow the shortening process and even reverse it.
Ramin Farzaneh-Far, a clinical cardiologist and lead author of the study, evaluated 608 patients who had prior heart problems and coronary-artery blockage. Over a five-year period, those with the highest levels of omega-3s in their blood experienced far less telomere shortening than those with the lowest levels.
A new study just
published in the
Archives of Internal Medicine shows that an alarming number of Americans are dying in the hospital from two infectious diseases: sepsis (also known as systemic inflammatory response syndrome, it causes widespread inflammation and blood clotting and can lead to organ failure and death) and pneumonia. But the victims of these health problems weren't originally hospitalized because of these illnesses. Instead, they were in the hospital for other reasons.
In fact, some were healthy and simply having an elective procedure. Yet they ended up dead.
The reason?
These unfortunate patients became fatally ill from hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) caused primarily by both the rise of antibiotic resistant superbugs and downright sloppy infection control by hospital medical staff.
Researchers with Extending the Cure (a project examining antibiotic resistance based at the Washington, D.C., think-tank Resources for the Future) conducted the largest nationally representative study to date to document the human and economic toll taken by two hospital-acquired infections that should be preventable, sepsis and pneumonia. Both conditions are caused by an array of pathogens, including the dangerous superbug dubbed Methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a bacterial infection that has become highly resistant to many antibiotics. The researchers found that these germs are frequently being spread by sloppy infection control in hospitals.
Beef produced in the United States contains dangerously high levels of natural and synthetic hormones, warns Dr. Samuel S. Epstein of the Cancer Prevention Coalition.
According to Epstein, more than half of all beef cows slaughtered in the United States each year have been treated with either the natural hormones estrogen, progesterone or testosterone, or the synthetic hormones melengesterol, trenbolone or zeranol. Hormone-emitting pellets are implanted under each cow's ear when it enters the feedlot, then again 50 days later. After another 50 days, the cow is slaughtered.
The hormones cause the cows to rapidly put on weight, leading to approximately $80 more profit per animal.
Olga Bonfiglio
Civil EatsWed, 24 Mar 2010 15:09 UTC
Are Americans Willing to Jeopardize their Health with GMO Foods?
Jeffrey Smith, author of
Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You Are Eating (2003), is convinced that they are not, so he started the
Campaign for Healthier Eating in America, which calls for the elimination of GMO foods altogether.
He spoke recently at the annual
Michigan Organic Farm and Food Association conference held at Michigan State University and provided participants with resources and inspiration for joining the movement to eliminate genetically-engineered (GM) foods.
Smith figures that it will take only 15 million Americans or 5 percent of the population, to pressure food companies not to use GMO ingredients or products and thus establish a tipping point for change.
© Getty Images
PART I: Identify the Stress in Your Life
What
is stress? Physiologically, stress could be considered any event that triggers a marked response by the adrenal glands. In basic terms, this response is the release of cortisol. It's the body's natural reaction to any stressor. For occasional stressors, cortisol can provide a burst of benefits like increased energy, heightened reflexes and a higher threshold for pain. However, when stress is chronic, as it often is in modern society, cortisol levels can remain unnaturally high and lead to damaging effects, which include:
- Poor thyroid function
- Hypoglycemia
- Loss of lean body tissue like muscle and bone
- Higher blood pressure
- Susceptibility to illness, infection and disease
- Weight gain, particularly in the abdominal region
Eventually, if the stress is intense or chronic, the adrenal glands struggle to keep up with the many stressors your body encounters. Adrenal fatigue or burnout can result. Lack of energy, poor moods and a decreased ability to handle life's daily stresses are common signs of weak adrenal glands. The health problems caused by adrenal weakness are far reaching and can be serious because without strong adrenal health the body isn't capable of dealing with everyday problems like illness, toxins or emotional stress.
Comment: Another way to reduce stress is to practice Éiriú Eolas Breathing and Meditation Program and can be found
here.
Comment: Another way to reduce stress is to practice Éiriú Eolas Breathing and Meditation Program and can be found here.