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Cancer mum recovers after using mistletoe instead of chemotherapy

Stephen White
Daily Record
Mon, 28 Dec 2009 18:58 UTC
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A mum is recovering from cancer after she turned down chemotherapy and used mistletoe instead.

Joan van Holsteijn, 53, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma after tumours were discovered in her leg.

But she opted not to have conventional treatment after hearing injections of medicine from the Christmas kiss plant had healing properties.

After 18 months, the tumours have gone and Joan is clear of the disease.

She said: "I owe my life to mistletoe. I feel so grateful and well and healthy.

"I have never had it in the house before but this year I've got a sprig of mistletoe at my front door."
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Target

Nestle Rebuked by the FDA for Misleading Nutritional Labeling

Amina Khan
Los Angeles Times
Fri, 25 Dec 2009 17:25 UTC
The Food and Drug Administration came down on Nestle earlier this month for marketing its childrens' juice boxes as "medical" foods.

In a December 3 letter, the FDA said the company mislabeled its Boost drink, which comes in flavors like chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, "as a medical food for the medical condition of 'failure to thrive' and also for 'pre/post surgery, injury or trauma, chronic illnesses.'" According to federal guidelines, the letter explains, "medical foods must be for the dietary management of a specific disorder, disease, or condition for which there are distinctive nutritional requirements and must be intended to be used under medical supervision."

Not sure "failure to thrive" really counts as a disease.
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Health

Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCg) in Green Tea Confirmed to Prevent Infection by New Type of H1N1 Flu Virus in Vitro


Ito En, Ltd.
Mon, 28 Dec 2009 07:42 UTC
Joint research with University of Shizuoka also suggests efficacy in preventing infections by flu virus subtypes other than H1N1-

Tokyo -- Joint research conducted by the Central Research Institute of ITO EN, Ltd. and Professor Takashi Suzuki of the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Shizuoka, showed that epigallocatechin gallate (EGCg), a kind of catechin contained in green tea, had an inhibitory effect against three types of influenza viruses, including the swine-origin H1N1 virus that caused pandemic flu in 2009, and that its effect did not depend on the type of virus. These findings once again suggest that green tea is effective in preventing flu.

Comment: This research is provided by one of the largest tea distributors in Japan.

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Info

Acute Pharmaceutical Toxicity Killed Brittany Murphy - Could It Be Killing Millions More?

Mike Adams
Natural News
Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:43 UTC
The entire pharmaceutical industry is based on the idea that for whatever's wrong with you, there's a patented chemical pill that can make it better. Feeling some anxiety? There's a pill for that. Have high blood pressure? There's a pill for that, too. Suffering from sleepless nights? There's yet another pill for that, too.

Importantly, modern medicine and the pharmaceutical industry both believe there is no limit to how many prescription medications you can simultaneously take. If you have ten health problems, they've got ten different pills for you. And when those pills cause twenty different dangerous side effects, they're ready for twenty more prescriptions for you to dutifully swallow.

This idea that health is achieved by taking prescription chemicals is ludicrous from the start. And yet it's the foundation of the pharmaceutical industry. Take as many pills as you "need", they insist. Don't worry: They're all FDA approved!
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Microbes Help Mothers Protect Kids from Allergies


Science Daily
Mon, 28 Dec 2009 01:19 UTC
A pregnant woman's exposure to microbes may protect her child from developing allergies later in life. Researchers in Marburg, Germany find that exposure to environmental bacteria triggers a mild inflammatory response in pregnant mice that renders their offspring resistant to allergies.
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Key

Children's Imagination Important for Cognitive Development

Shirley S. Wang
Wall Street Journal
Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:33 UTC
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Is the Tooth Fairy real? How about the garbage man? Those questions may seem trivial, but how young children answer them is an important indicator of cognitive development.

For years, imagination was thought of as a way for children to escape from reality, and once they reached a certain age, it was believed they would push fantasy aside and deal with the real world. But, increasingly, child-development experts are recognizing the importance of imagination and the role it plays in understanding reality. Imagination is necessary for learning about people and events we don't directly experience, such as history or events on the other side of the world. For young kids, it allows them to ponder the future, such as what they want to do when they grow up.

"Whenever you think about the Civil War or the Roman Empire or possibly God, you're using your imagination," says Paul Harris, a development psychologist and professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education who studies imagination. "The imagination is absolutely vital for contemplating reality, not just those things we take to be mere fantasy."
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Bug

Disinfectants May Promote Growth of Superbugs

Laura Udakis
Society for General Microbiology
Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:00 UTC
Using disinfectants could cause bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics as well as the disinfectant itself, according to research published in the January issue of Microbiology. The findings could have important implications for how the spread of infection is managed in hospital settings.

Researchers from the National University of Ireland in Galway found that by adding increasing amounts of disinfectant to laboratory cultures of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the bacteria could adapt to survive not only the disinfectant but also ciprofloxacin - a commonly-prescribed antibiotic - even without being exposed to it. The researchers showed that the bacteria had adapted to more efficiently pump out antimicrobial agents (disinfectant and antibiotic) from the bacterial cell. The adapted bacteria also had a mutation in their DNA that allowed them to resist ciprofloxacin-type antibiotics specifically.

P. aeruginosa is an opportunistic bacterium that can cause a wide range of infections in people with weak immune systems and those with diseases such as cystic fibrosis (CF) and diabetes. P. aeruginosa is an important cause of hospital-acquired infections. Disinfectants are used to kill bacteria on surfaces to prevent their spread. If the bacteria manage to survive and go on to infect patients, antibiotics are used to treat them. Bacteria that can resist both these control points may be a serious threat to hospital patients.
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New Clues Emerge for Understanding Morphine Addiction


ScienceDaily
Sun, 27 Dec 2009 06:00 UTC
Scientists are adding additional brush strokes to the revolutionary new image now emerging for star-shaped cells called astrocytes in the brain and spinal cord. Their report, which suggests a key role for astrocytes in morphine's ability to relieve pain and cause addiction, appears online in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research, a monthly publication.

In the study, Piotr Suder and colleagues point out that nearly everyone viewed astrocytes -- the most abundant cells in the brain -- as supporting actors in the drama of brain activity. Scientists thought astrocytes simply propped up neurons, nerve cells that transmit signals, and kept them in proper position. Studies during the last several years, however, suggest that these cells are just as their Greek name suggests -- stars.

The scientists added morphine to a group of astrocytes in cell culture for several days. They found that the morphine-exposed cells showed increased levels of nine proteins that appear to play a role in maintaining the normal function of nerve cells.
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Synesthetic Experiences, Such as Seeing a Certain Color Associated with a Number, Are Real and Automatic


ScienceDaily
Sun, 27 Dec 2009 06:00 UTC
Image
© iStockphoto
A synaesthete for whom the number 2 is red will find it more difficult to name the ink colour of a green 2 than if the number is presented in red ink and will take longer to name the color.
For as many as 1 in 20 people, everyday experiences can elicit extra-ordinary associated sensations. The condition is known as synaesthesia and the most common form involves "seeing" colours when reading words and numbers. Many previous studies have shown that the brains of people who experience this phenomenon are different from those who do not and, in a new study reported in the February 2010 issue of Cortex, researchers from the University of Padova, Italy, have discovered that learning may also play an important role in synaesthesia and can lead to synaesthetic behaviour even when the person is not consciously aware of the experience.

Dr Ilaria Berteletti and colleagues tested an Italian synaesthete using a classic test, in which the participant was shown a series of numbers presented in different ink colours and asked to name those colours. A synaesthete for whom the number 2 is red will find it more difficult to name the ink colour of a green 2 than if the number is presented in red ink and will take longer to respond. This slowing of response is generally taken as evidence that synaesthetic experiences are real and automatic.

As predicted, the participant in this study was slower to name the colours of the presented Arabic digits when they did not match the colours that he had reported "seeing." Strikingly, the same slowing was observed when the numbers were presented as dots, such as dice patterns, even though the participant denied seeing any colours for these types of stimuli. The results suggest that the mere concept of a number, regardless of how it was presented visually (as an Arabic digit or pattern of dots), was enough to produce the marker of synaesthetic behaviour, even when the participant was not conscious of experiencing synaesthesia.
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Health

Sugar-free satisfaction?

Douglas Fox
New Scientist
Sun, 27 Dec 2009 16:51 UTC
Image
© Patrick Norman/Fancy/Plainpicture
The calorie-free version fails to activate a reward area of the brain
Contains zero calories! Countless soft drinks are emblazoned with that slogan as a come-on for those of us locked in a never-ending battle to rein in a spreading waistline. Calorie-free sweeteners certainly have a lot to offer. Food and drink manufacturers have become so good at blending sugar substitutes into their products that it can be almost impossible to tell them apart from the real thing - sucrose - in taste tests.

But while artificial sweeteners may be able to confuse our taste buds, the suspicion is growing that our brain is not so easily fooled. Could it be that our cravings for sugary foods run deeper than a liking for sweetness? If so, a whole bunch of weight-loss strategies may need rethinking.

Non-sugar sweeteners have come a long way. One of the first, and perhaps the worst, was lead. Romans boiled grapes in lead pots, leaching the sweet-tasting metal into their food. The practice outlived the Roman empire by many centuries, and is thought to have led to the deaths of a number of notables, including Pope Clement II, who perished in 1047. Indigenous peoples in South America use a herb called stevia, which contains chemicals that taste sweet but aren't metabolised in the human gut. These early experimenters weren't worried about shedding the kilos - just searching for a way to sweeten food in a world where refined sugar was scarce.
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