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Use Essential Fatty Acids to Reduce Inflammation and Support Your Adrenals

PF Louis
Natural News
Fri, 31 Aug 2012 12:55 UTC
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Essential fatty acids (EFAs) are nutrients that are necessary for biological processes but are not created in our own body. These fatty acids must be obtained from our diet.
EFAs are essential fatty acids, which we need to live but our bodies cannot create. So we need take EFAs from outside sources.

Johanna Budwig, the creator of the Budwig Diet for successfully treating cancer, claimed before she died at age 95 in 2003 that she was given as much grief from the burgeoning heat processed hydrogenated trans-fatty acid cooking and salad oil industry as the cancer industry.

Budwig was a German biochemist whose research pioneered the classifications of fatty acids. She publicly announced often that those trans-fatty oils promoted to 1950s' housewives were worse than unhealthy; they caused disease.
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Bulb

Thinking Outside the Processed Foods Box: Health and Safety Advantages of Organic Food

Mark A. Kastel
The Cornucopia Institute
Tue, 04 Sep 2012 12:29 UTC
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I have enjoyed a virtually exclusive organic diet for the past 30 years. But I was deeply unsettled by a September 4 New York Times article and a similar Associated Press story casting doubt on the value of an organic diet.

In terms of the extra cost and value of eating organically, I have always subscribed to the adage "pay now or pay later." While my personal experience does not provide much in terms of a scientifically legitimate sample size, in the last 30 years, after suffering from pesticide poisoning prompted my shift to an organic diet, I have exceeded my insurance deductible only once, due to an orthopedic injury. And my doctor keeps telling me how remarkable it is that I, at age 57, have no chronic health problems and take no pharmaceuticals.

Unfortunately, the analysis done by Stanford University physicians in the articles noted above did not look "outside the box" as many organic farming and food advocates do.
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Arrow Up

Stem cells bring back feeling for paralysed patients

Andy Coghlan
NewScientist
Mon, 03 Sep 2012 14:38 UTC
Renewed feeling
© Medical Images/Getty Images
Renewed feeling
For the first time, people with broken spines have recovered feeling in previously paralysed areas after receiving injections of neural stem cells.

Three people with paralysis received injections of 20 million neural stem cells directly into the injured region of their spinal cord. The cells, acquired from donated fetal brain tissue, were injected between four and eight months after the injuries happened. The patients also received a temporary course of immunosuppressive drugs to limit rejection of the cells.

None of the three felt any sensation below their nipples before the treatment. Six months after therapy, two of them had sensations of touch and heat between their chest and belly button. The third patient has not seen any change.

"The fact we've seen responses to light touch, heat and electrical impulses so far down in two of the patients is very unexpected," says Stephen Huhn of StemCells, the company in Newark, California, developing and testing the treatment. "They're really close to normal in those areas now in their sensitivity," he adds.
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Bulb

Brainy beverage: Study reveals how green tea boosts brain cell production to aid memory


Wiley
Wed, 05 Sep 2012 16:27 UTC
It has long been believed that drinking green tea is good for the memory. Now researchers have discovered how the chemical properties of China's favorite drink affect the generation of brain cells, providing benefits for memory and spatial learning. The research is published in Molecular Nutrition & Food Research.

"Green tea is a popular beverage across the world," said Professor Yun Bai from the Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China. "There has been plenty of scientific attention on its use in helping prevent cardiovascular diseases, but now there is emerging evidence that its chemical properties may impact cellular mechanisms in the brain."

Professor Bai's team focused on the organic chemical EGCG, (epigallocatechin-3 gallate) a key property of green tea. While EGCG is a known anti-oxidant, the team believed it can also have a beneficial effect against age-related degenerative diseases.

"We proposed that EGCG can improve cognitive function by impacting the generation of neuron cells, a process known as neurogenesis," said Bai. "We focused our research on the hippocampus, the part of the brain which processes information from short-term to long-term memory."
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Info

NFL Players at Higher Risk For Brain Diseases

Emily Sohn
Discovery News
Wed, 05 Sep 2012 14:52 UTC
NFL
© Getty
Alongside the growing realization that football players often suffer numerous concussions that can permanently affect learning and memory, a new study suggests that NFL pros may also have an increased risk of dying from Alzheimer's and other brain diseases.

For the study, researchers looked at the health of nearly 3,500 National Football League players who had competed in at least five seasons between 1959 and 1988. The average age of the players was 57, and about 10 percent had died.

Of those, death certificates showed that NFL players were nearly four times more likely than the general population to die from Alzheimer's disease or Lou Gehrig's disease, also known as ALS.

Seven of the 334 deceased players had Alzheimer's and seven had ALS, the researchers report today in the journal Neurology.
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Attention

West Nile Outbreak Set To Be Worst in US History


Sacramento Bee
Wed, 05 Sep 2012 16:30 UTC
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WNv: Are mosquitoes to blame?
With the West Nile Virus outbreak set to be the worst in U.S. history, the nation's emergency physicians urge the public to take precautions now to protect from being infected.

"Right now, the CDC is seeing cases in practically every state in the country," said Dr. David Seaberg, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians. "This is a problem that affects everyone, everywhere. But simple steps can stand in the way of a person being infected with West Nile."

West Nile Virus, which is a disease spread by mosquitos, causes only mild, flu-like symptoms in 20 percent of cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Most people (about 4 out of 5) who are infected show no symptoms at all. But in rare cases, some will develop severe symptoms that can include high fever, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, vision loss, along with several others. It can cause permanent neurological damage and even death.

So far in 2012, 47 states have reported more than 1,100 cases West Nile cases, including 41 deaths, according to the CDC, with 75 percent of the cases reported in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Dakota and Oklahoma.
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Health

Record 2,118 cases of West Nile virus reported in US

Elizabeth Weise
USA Today
Wed, 05 Sep 2012 16:25 UTC
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© CDC
Health officials report record numbers of West Nile virus this year, 2,118 cases and 92 deaths as of Wednesday, a jump of 25% from last week.

Cases will continue "probably into October," said Lyle Petersen, director of the division of vector-borne infectious diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This is the highest number of cases reported to CDC through the first week in September since West Nile virus was first detected in the United States."

There have been human cases in 44 states. The mosquito-borne disease is hitting Texas hardest, with 1,013 cases and 40 deaths - nine more than last week.

"2012 is now officially our worst year ever for West Nile disease," said David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services. The worst year before this was 2003, when Texas had 439 cases and 40 deaths, he said.
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Magic Wand

Targeting inflammation to treat depression

Kathi Baker
Emory University
Mon, 03 Sep 2012 12:55 UTC
Researchers at Emory University have found that a medication that inhibits inflammation may offer new hope for people with difficult-to-treat depression. The study was published Sept. 3 in the online version of Archives of General Psychiatry.

"Inflammation is the body's natural response to infection or wounding, says Andrew H. Miller, MD, senior author for the study and professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine. "However when prolonged or excessive, inflammation can damage many parts of the body, including the brain."

Prior studies have suggested that depressed people with evidence of high inflammation are less likely to respond to traditional treatments for the disorder, including anti-depressant medications and psychotherapy. This study was designed to see whether blocking inflammation would be a useful treatment for either a wide range of people with difficult-to-treat depression or only those with high levels of inflammation.

Comment: The article fails to mention the obvious connection between inflammation and diet. Instead of inventing new biologic drugs to treat depression, it is better to work on fixing the core problem - a diet high in carbohydrates, gluten, casein, and vegetables.

Depression - Caused by Inflammation, Thus Like Other Diseases of Civilization

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Health

How LOW Cholesterol Can Harm Your Health

Sayer Ji
GreenMedINfo
Wed, 05 Sep 2012 05:00 UTC
Egg
© GreenMedInfo
You've heard for decades about the dangers of high cholesterol, but did you know that LOW cholesterol can lead to violence towards self and other, and has been linked to premature aging, death and other adverse health effects?

In a world gone mad with anti-cholesterol anxiety, and where gobbling down pharmaceuticals designed to poison the body into no longer synthesizing it is somehow considered sane behavior, it is refreshing to look at some of the research on the health benefits of cholesterol, or conversely, the dangers of low cholesterol.

Benefits of Cholesterol
  • Cholesterol Is Needed To Prevent Aggression: It has been known for almost 30 years that low serum cholesterol levels are associated with habitually violent tendencies of homicidal offenders under the influence of alcohol.[i] Since then, there are at least 8 other studies that have either confirmed or explored the cholesterol-violence link, including both violence towards self and other. One of the possible explanations for this association was discussed in an article published in the British Journal of Psychiatry in 1993: "One of the functions of serotonin in the central nervous system is the suppression of harmful behaviour impulses...Low membrane cholesterol decreases the number of serotonin receptors. Since membrane cholesterol exchanges freely with cholesterol in the surrounding medium, a lowered serum cholesterol concentration may contribute to a decrease in brain serotonin, with poorer suppression of aggressive behaviour".[ii] Not surprisingly, several reports have now surfaced on cholesterol-lowering statin drugs contributing to irritability and/or aggression.
  • Cholesterol Is Needed To Fight Cancer: The inverse relationship between cholesterol levels and the risk for a variety of cancers, and mortality associated with cancer, has been known about since the late 80's.[iii] Since then, the cholesterol-cancer connection has been confirmed over and over again. It is to be expected, therefore, that statin drug use would be linked with increased cancer incidence, which indeed it is.[iv] Even when you take so-called "bad" LDL-cholesterol and administer it to a culture of highly malignant, multi-drug resistant leukemia cells, the cells lose their resistance to chemotherapy. Not exactly what can be characterized as a "bad" substance, now is it? [v]
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Arrow Up

Jeremy Hunt Under Fire for Stance on Homeopathy

Andy Coghlan
NewScientist
Wed, 05 Sep 2012 10:47 UTC
Jeremy Hunt
© Richard Gardner/Rex Features
Could homeopathy eat further into the NHS budget?
The fortunes of the UK's National Health Service (NHS) are about to be transformed with the help of the magical waters of homeopathic medicine. Top marks to The Telegraph's science writer Tom Chivers for quickly picking up on talk that the UK's new health minister, Jeremy Hunt - who replaced Andrew Lansley yesterday in a government reshuffle - thinks that homeopathy works, and should be provided at public expense by the NHS.

Since news of his appointment emerged, senior scientists have spoken up. John Krebs, professor of zoology at the University of Oxford, said: "There is overwhelming evidence that homeopathic medicine is not effective. It would be a real blow for those who want medicine to be science-based if the secretary of state were to promote homeopathy because of his personal beliefs."

Edzard Ernst, former director of complementary medicine at the University of Exeter, UK, added: "To praise the positive contribution of homeopathy to the NHS does not bode well for the new person in charge of UK healthcare. One can only hope that with the reality of the new job, there will be a more rational insight in the actual evidence on this topic."

How did Hunt's views on homeopathy emerge? Firstly, he signed a parliamentary document called an Early Day Motion back in 2007, supporting the provision of homeopathic medicine by the NHS. Such motions are used routinely as barometers of parliamentary interest in issues - in this case, spending public money on treating people with aqueous solutions so diluted that they no longer contain a trace of the supposedly active ingredients they began with.

By signing the motion, along with 205 other MPs, Hunt agreed that parliament "welcomes the positive contribution made to the health of the nation by the NHS homeopathic hospitals", and "calls on the government [then Labour] to support these valuable national assets".
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