Link between social media use and mental healthstronger in girls: study January 6th, 2019
Xinhua - Teenage girls who spend more time on social media have a higher risk of depression, according to a study published in the British journal EClinicalMedicine on Thursday.
Researchers led by Yvonne Kelly from University College London (UCL) in Britain found that almost 40 percent of girls who spend more than five hours a day on social media show symptoms of depression, while the rate is much lower for boys, which is less than 15 percent.
The researchers said the underlying processes of this phenomenon are not well understood.
Simon Wessely, an ex-president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, told the British newspaper The Guardian that the researchers "still cannot definitely say that social media usage causes poor mental health, although the evidence is starting to point in that direction."
Two-fifths of girls studied by UCL researchers have suffered online harassments or online bullying compared to a quarter of boys, while 40% of girls, compared to 28% of boys, have suffered sleep loss because of online habits, according to the study.
Compared with boys, girls are more likely to have low self-esteem and body weight dissatisfaction, and be unhappy with their appearance, said the study.
The research is based on interviews with almost 11,000 14-year-olds who are taking part in the Millennium Cohort Study, a major research project into children's lives.
The researchers claimed that these findings are highly relevant to current policy development on guidelines for the safe use of social media and call on industry to more tightly regulate hours of social media use for young people.
Clean cut: Dutch hospitals ditch US body-part distributors over ethics, disease December 9th, 2018.
Hospitals in the Netherlands are dropping US body-part distributors on ethical grounds after a decade of unregulated trade in dissected human limbs.
In the United States, everything has its price, and as the large scale dead-body market shows, this does not end, after death. In a Reuters exclusive, two Dutch hospitals revealed that they would be cutting off their business ties to American companies that have been profiting off the sale of human body parts, in light of disturbing revelations.
The scrutiny began after Oregon-based MedCure came under suspicion of selling diseased body parts to customers in America and abroad, drawing attention from the FBI. The company has sold tens of thousands of pounds of human parts all over Europe, including numerous severed heads that were purchased by Amsterdam’s Academic Medical Centre (AMC) for training and research.
No evidence of disease was discovered in these particular shipments, but AMC and another Dutch hospital said they would drop the suppliers over their questionable ethics.
The parts the companies sell are often acquired from macabre deals where families are offered discounts on incredibly expensive funeral arrangements (with an average price-tag of $7,000 to $10,000 dollars in the US), in exchange for allowing companies to dismember and sell pieces of their loved ones’ corpses... yet, most don’t even realize that someone is making money from their 'donation'.
According to another Reuters article from 2017, many funeral homes have struck mutually beneficial deals with body-parts distributors – tipping them off on potential donors, in exchange for referral fees – to take advantage of a ‘product’ that can easily be obtained for free.
Whereas Dutch law is fairly strict in regard to the transport, sale and use of human organs, the body-part market is essentially a free-for-all, with the health industry claiming that regulations are not needed as the hospitals themselves are trusted to take precautionary measures.
Freek Dikkers, a nose, ears and throat specialist at AMC whose department had purchased heads from MedCure, called such morbid business strategies “unacceptable.”
Reuters reports that the going rate of a human head on the US market is $500 dollars and an entire body can fetch as much as $10,000... although the hospitals themselves declined to comment on how much they had been paying.
MedCure say they are “an accredited and regulated institution and adhere to the best-in-class industry standards for safety ethics, and transparency,” who sells the parts in order to facilitate scientific and medical research.
MedCure is not the first global medical supply company to draw heavy scrutiny for exploiting an unregulated market. The International Consortium of Independent Journalists published a study, just this year, about American based Medtronic, which made millions selling faulty biometric implants - linked to thousands of deaths.
(Source - RT)
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Alcohol dependence & psychiatric disorders, share genetic links - study November 28th at 1:13am.
Xinhua - An international team of researchers have identified a gene, known to affect the risk for alcohol dependence, and determined many other genes which contribute to the risk, to a lesser degree.
The researchers linked genetic factors associated with alcohol dependence to other psychiatric disorders, such as depression, and showed that genetic factors tied to typical drinking sometimes are different from those linked to alcohol dependence.
The study involved 50,000+ people. It compared genetic variants from nearly 15,000 individuals diagnosed with alcohol dependence to nearly 38,000 people without such a diagnosis.
The one gene that stood out, called ADH1B, regulates how the body converts alcohol to a substance called acetaldehyde. Variants in the gene speed the conversion to acetaldehyde, a compound linked to unpleasant side effects from drinking, and that compound has a protective effect, making people less likely to drink heavily or become alcoholics.
The researchers found that the genetic risk factors related to alcohol dependence, were also linked to risk for other psychiatric disorders, such as depression, schizophrenia, ADHD and the use of cigarettes and marijuana.
A key aspect of the study is that it included genetic data from 46,568 European people and 6,280 people of African ancestry. Although the same ADH1B gene was linked to alcoholism risk, both in people of European ancestry, and African ancestry, the researchers found that different variants in the gene altered risk in the 2 populations.
The researchers also found that the genetic factors related to simply drinking alcohol, were a little different, from the genetic factors that contributed to alcohol dependence.
In other words, at least at the genetic level, there is a difference between simply drinking alcohol, even large amounts of alcohol, and becoming dependent on it.
"People suffering from alcohol dependence generally drink a great deal, but they also experience other problems, related to their drinking, like losing control over when and how much they drink," said senior author Arpana Agrawal, a professor of psychiatry, at Washington University School of Medicine, in St. Louis.
"I think it's likely that, as the sample sizes of our studies increase, we may find new DNA variants related to these problematic aspects of alcohol dependence - but possibly not related to typical drinking" Agrawal said.
"The risk conferred by the ADH1B gene is one of the strongest single-gene effects seen in people with a psychiatric illness, but overall, it explains only a small proportion of the risk," Agrawal said.
"Many additional gene variants are making small contributions to alcoholism risk, but to find them, we'll need to study more people."
The researchers plan to continue investigating those links between genetic susceptibility to alcohol dependence, and the risk for other types of psychiatric illness.
It is estimated that one in eight Americans suffers from alcohol dependence.
The study was published online, on November 26th, in the journal, 'Nature Neuroscience'.
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Toothpaste Can Cause Diabetes, Study Says July 24th, 2018
The titanium dioxide present in toothpaste favours the appearance of diabetes type two, according to research by the University of Texas, USA.
To demonstrate that statement, the authors analyzed small samples of pancreas tissue from eleven volunteers, says an article in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology.
As a result, eight of them suffered from diabetes type two, and titanium dioxide (E171) was found in their parts. No trace of the chemical was found in the remaining three people.
The authors announced they expect to repeat the experiment in a larger group of people.
E171 is widely used in cosmetics and food industries for its ability to provide a whitish colour to products.
Diabetes type two is a metabolic disorder characterized by high blood sugar levels. Its classic symptoms are excessive thirst, frequent urination and constant hunger.
(Source - Prensa Latina)
Huge explosion in numbers waiting to get NHS care by Ceren Sagir Thursday, May 31, 2018
The number of patients waiting over a year for NHS care has seen a sharp 75 per cent rise, according to a new official report.
Figures from NHS Improvement show that 2,647 people said they had waited for over a year for treatment in March, compared to 1,513 the previous year.
Recent figures show that GP closures have forced 1.3 million patients to move surgeries in the last five years.
Shadow health and social care secretary Jonathan Ashworth said it “exposes a real crisis” in primary care after “eight years of grinding Tory austerity.”
“Labour has long called for primary care to be given greater priority and investment,“ he said.
“A key test for Theresa May in the coming weeks will be whether or not she finally delivers the level of investment and support that primary care so obviously needs.”
The report also highlights that NHS providers ended the year with a “challenging level of vacancies” of more than 92,000 posts.
A national survey of GPs has revealed that those who plan to leave the profession in the next five years, is at an all-time high.
More than nine out of 10 GPs reported experiencing considerable or high pressure, from increasing workloads.
Fresh calls have been made on the government through a petition to review immigration policies for overseas doctors who are applying to work in the NHS.
Between December 2017 and March, over 1,500 visa applications from doctors with job offers in Britain were refused as a result of the Home Office’s cap on the number of tier 2 visas it issues to workers from outside the European Economic Area.
(Source - Morning Star)
Depressed parents blamed for childhood friendship breakup - study May 10th 2018 (Source: Xinhua)
A study published on Thursday in the Journal of Family Psychology sheds light on why childhood friendships tend to fall apart, demonstrating that parents are an important source of those breakups.
Looking at data from 1,523 children, among them 766 boys, from grades one to six, researchers from Florida Atlantic University (FAU) and the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland conducted a survival analysis to identify the characteristics of parents that predict the stability of their children's friendships.
The researchers examined mother and father reports of their own depressive symptoms and parenting styles to predict the occurrence and timing of the dissolution of kids' best friendships from the beginning to the end of elementary school (grades one to six).
The researchers assessed three commonly recognized parenting styles: behavioral control such as curfews and monitoring; psychological control such as shaming and guilt; and warmth and affection.
They also assessed parental depression to disentangle the unique contributions of parenting styles from parents' mental health difficulties known to shape parenting.
Lastly, they assessed the children's peer social status or how well-liked they are by other children to separate the effects of parenting from difficulties that children have getting along with peers.
"We already know that peer status plays an important role in friendship outcomes. For example, well-liked children have more long-lasting relationships than do their class- mates," said Brett Laursen, a co-author of the study and a professor and graduate studies coordinator in the Department of Psychology in FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science.
Laursen, who collaborated with lead author Daniel J. Dickson and co-author Melissa Huey, both of whom received their doctorates from FAU's Department of Psychology, and their collaborators in Finland, wanted to determine if negative parenting characteristics such as manipulative and coercive behaviours disrupt children's friendships.
Results from the study found clear support for their hypothesis that negative features of parenting, such as depression and psychological control, increase the risk that best friendships would end.
According to the study, for children with clinically depressed parents, the risk of best friendship dissolution increased by up to 104 percent.
There was a similar, although not quite as dramatic, increase in the risk of best friendship dissolution for children with psychologically controlling parents.
Parent depression and parent psychological control, uniquely predicted subsequent child friendships breaking up, above and beyond the contributions of peer difficulties.
A surprising finding from the study that was contrary to the researchers' expectations, was that they did not find any evidence that positive parenting behaviours like warmth and affection, altered the stability of children's best friendships.
"We were hoping that positive behaviours would help extend the life of friendships and that it would be a buffer or a protective factor," said Laursen. "This wasn't the case. Warmth and affection don't appear to make that much of a difference. It's the negative characteristics of parents that are key in determining if and when these childhood friendships end."
Findings from this study also confirmed that most friendships were transitory. Fewer than 10 percent of first-grade best friendships survived from the first to the sixth grade, with roughly half or 48 percent dissolving within a year of initiation.
"We believe that children with depressed and psychologically controlling parents are not learning healthy strategies for engaging with other people, which could have long-term consequences for their future relationships," said Laursen.
Chronic drinking in adolescence adds risks of liver diseases in adulthood: study Monday, January 22nd, 2018. Xinhua - Swedish researchers confirmed in a study published Sunday, that chronic consumption of alcohol during adolescence can lead to greater risks of developing liver diseases later in life.
The research by the Swedish scientists with Karolinska University Hospital of Sweden showed that young men who drank 20 grams or more of alcohol each day during their adolescence have higher risks of developing liver diseases, including liver cirrhosis or even liver-related deaths, later in their adult life.
The study, published in the Journal of Hepatology, was based - partly - on the retrospective statistics of over 49,000 Swedish young men aged between 18 and 20.
The data were collected in a nationwide survey conducted from 1969 to 1970 on Swedish males conscripted then into military service.
The Swedish researchers examined the link between alcohol consumption early in life and later development of severe liver disease.
After 39 years of follow-up research, the scientists found that 383 men developed severe liver diseases later in their life, such as liver cirrhosis, decompensated liver disease, liver failure, or were killed by liver diseases.
In some countries, recommended cut-off levels suggest that safe alcohol consumption for men to avoid alcoholic liver disease is 30 grams a day, roughly equivalent to 3 drinks.
However, the latest study indicates that the risk is dose- dependent and young men consuming only two drinks, or about 20 grams or more of alcohol every day, would face greater risks of developing liver diseases in adulthood.
It is generally known that alcohol is the leading cause of liver cirrhosis and liver-related deaths, and a 2014 report by the World Health Organization says that alcohol-related cirrhosis leads to 493,300 deaths globally each year.
While alcohol-related disease is theoretically 100 percent preventable,the scientists believe that it is needed to take measures to curb excessive alcohol consumption among young people.
Put the phone down: US health officials warn of cancer & infertility risk 16th of December, 2017
The California Department of Public Health has issued guidelines on cell phone exposure, warning residents to keep their cell phone away from their body to reduce potential cancer and infertility risks.
The release follows a legal battle initiated by UC Berkeley researcher Joel Moskowitz last year after he discovered draft documents on the issue had existed since 2010, without being made available to the public.
The precautionary document, ‘How to reduce exposure to radio f requency energy from cell phones’, states that while the science is still evolving, some studies have suggested a link between long-term mobile phone use and cancer.
Qualifying that these studies have not established a definitive relationship between the two, and that potential health risks from cell phones are still contentious among scientists, the health department states its advisory is for those concerned about the possible risks.
The main piece of advice issued by the authority is to keep the phone away from your body. “Keeping your phone just a few feet away from you, can make a big difference,” it says.
This means using the speakerphone option or a headset instead of holding the phone up to your ear and keeping your mobile device in a backpack or handbag and not in a pocket.
The guidelines also warn against a common habit for those who also use their device as an alarm clock – sleeping next to your cell phone. Unless the phone is off or in airplane mode, keep it at least a few feet away from your bed, the guidelines recommend.
The report highlights that children could be at greater risk as their body is still developing and over their lifetime they will have a lot more exposure.
The release of the CDPH guidelines follows a ruling by the Sacramento Superior Court handed down in March. The state argued in court that the unofficial document would cause unnecessary panic, reported KAZU.
A draft document was initially released but these new guidelines offer a more detailed picture.
In July, the California Brain Tumor Association held a demonstration in Sacramento outside the CDPH building to call for the public release of the cell phone warning document.
CDPH director Dr Karen Smith said they released the guide- lines because of a continued public interest in cell phone- related health risks and the decision had little to do with the court battle.
The latest safety recommendations are similar to those issued by the Connecticut Department of Public Health in May, 2015.
A number of expert agencies including the US Food and Drug Administration, the National Cancer Institute and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have said sufficient evidence has not been presented to show an ''association'' between exposure to radio frequencies from a cell phone & health problems.
The agencies suggest more research is needed. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified radio waves as “possible carcinogens” but note there is limited evidence. The US's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Toxicology Program (NTP), meanwhile, have not formally classified cell phones as to their cancer-causing potential.
A study published earlier this year by University College Cork in the Republic of Ireland, on ''myths'' about cell phones and a cancer risk, found huge disparities between fact and fear.
“The results of our research show that a significant proportion of Irish males incorrectly believe certain cancer myths, for example between 45% to 52% believed that wearing tight underwear, carrying mobile phones in pockets or the extended use of laptop on the lap, increased their risk of testicular cancer,” the team concluded.
UK is fattest country in Western Europe with 63% of adults overweight & obese – OECD study 12th of November, 2017
The UK is the most overweight country in Western Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has stated.
Over 63% of UK adults are overweight, OECD says.
The 2017 Obesity Update report found that the UK is the sixth fattest nation out of 35 OECD member countries, with a 27% adult obesity rate. The US, Mexico, New Zealand, Hungary and Australia fare worse than the UK, though. The countries with the lowest levels of obesity are Japan, Korea, Italy and Switzerland.
Adult obesity rates in the UK have increased by 92 percent since the 1990s, while in the US with an obesity rate of 38%, the increase has been a “mere” 65 percent. A further 36% of the UK population are overweight. When it comes to children, the UK falls slightly below average, with a 24% obesity rate, compared to the average of 25 percent.
Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of more than 30. Overweight people are classed as those with a BMI of between 25 and 30.
While the overall health and life expectancy of Britons are average, obesity rates of 27% far surpass the average OECD rate of 19 percent. According to the study, 40% of Britons will be obese by 2030.
“One could weep over the figures,” Tam Fry, chair of the National Obesity Forum told the Times. “The result of successive governments who have, for 30 years, done next to nothing to tackle obesity.”
Obese people are at risk of cholesterol, diabetes and heart disease. OECD says “more could be done” to fight the issue, while recognising the UK’s efforts to ban super-size chocolate bars from hospitals and the impending sugar tax. The report also pointed a finger at the UK for its teenage drinking, and its shortage of doctors and nurses.
(Source - RT)
Drinking frequently kills new brain cells, especially for women: study 10/11/2017
Xinhua - Frequent alcohol drinking kills new cells in key brain regions, with females being more vulnerable, a new study on mice said Thursday.
Researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston discovered that alcohol killed the stem cells that are responsible for creating new nerve cells and important to maintaining normal cognitive function in adult mouse brains.
And for the first time, the research showed that brain changes due to alcohol exposure are different for females and males.
The findings, published in the journal Stem Cell Reports, may help open a door to combating chronic alcoholism.
For the study, UTMB researchers used a cutting-edge technique to tag brain stem cells in order to observe how they migrate and develop into specialized nerve cells over time.
This allowed the researchers to study the impact of long-term alcohol consumption on the cells. It showed that chronic alcohol drinking killed most brain stem cells and reduced the production and development of new nerve cells.
However, the effects of repeated alcohol consumption differed across brain regions.
The brain region most susceptible to the effects of alcohol was one of two brain regions where new brain cells are created in adults.
The researchers also found that female mice displayed more severe intoxication behaviors and more greatly reduced the pool of stem cells in a brain region called the subventricular zone.
Ping Wu, UTMB professor in the department of neuroscience and cell biology, who led the study, said in a statement that the discovery "provides a new way of approaching the problem of alcohol- related changes in the brain."
"We need to understand how alcohol impacts the brain stem cells at different stages in their growth, in different brain regions and in the brains of both males and females," Wu said.
Pollution Causing More Deaths Worldwide Than War or Smoking: Lancet
Prensa Latina - Environmental pollution, from filthy air to contaminated water, is killing more people every year than all war and violence in the world.
More than smoking, hunger or natural disasters. More than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. One out of every six premature deaths in the world in 2015, about 9 million, could be attributed to disease from toxic exposure, according to a major study released on Thursday October 19th, in the Lancet medical journal.
The financial cost from pollution-related death, sickness and welfare is equally massive, the report says, costing some $4.6 trillion in annual losses, or about 6.2 per cent of the global economy.
The report marks the first attempt to pull together data on disease and death caused by all forms of pollution combined.
Asia and Africa are the regions putting the most people at risk, the study found, while India tops the list of individual countries.
Still, many poorer countries have yet to make pollution control a priority, experts say.
Europe's cancer drugs mostly ineffective: Study Thursday October 5th, at 4:02pm
European regulators approved 39 new cancer drugs between 2009 and 2013, despite having no evidence that they worked better than existing medicines, or at all, researchers said on Thursday.
The number represented more than half of 68 treatments to become available for European cancer patients during this period, they said, "raising serious questions about the current standards of drug regulation."
Apart from dashing patient hopes, allowing unproven medicine onto the market also unnecessarily exposed people to toxicity inherent in all drugs, while inflating state pharmaceutical spending.
Writing in The BMJ medical journal, a team of public health experts expressed concern about the approval of often- pricey new cancer drugs by the EU regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
"This situation has negative implications for patients and public health," they warned.
"When expensive drugs that lack clinically meaningful benefits are approved and paid for within publicly funded healthcare systems, individual patients can be harmed, important societal resources wasted, and the delivery of equitable and affordable care, undermined."
Many drugs were approved on the basis of inconclusive, early test results such as lab experiments, which were unable to predict whether they would actually make a patient feel better or live longer.
Another study, published in 2015, had found that most cancer drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) between 2008 and 2012 similarly came with no evidence that they boosted patient survival or improved the quality of life.
One of the authors of the American study, Vinay Prasad from the Oregon Health & Science University, pointed out that the average cancer drug in the US costs more than $100,000 (85,000 euros) per person per year.
"In the US, this broken system means huge expenditures on cancer drugs with certain toxicity, but uncertain benefit," he wrote in a comment also carried by The BMJ.
"The US Medicare program is legally required to pay for any drug approved by the FDA, without any negotiation on price."
Given the toxicity and expense of cancer drugs, patients should be exposed only "when they can reasonably expect an improvement in survival or quality of life," said Prasad.
The new study found that 11 new drugs approved by the EMA between 2009 and 2013 were not shown to work any better than existing medicines to which they were compared, co- author Courtney Davis of King's College London told AFP.
In the case of 20 drugs, they worked no better than a placebo or "dummy" drug, and another eight were not compared to anything at all, "so we don't know whether they extend or improve life," she said.
Humanity at risk as sperm levels among Western men plummet to a record low July 26th, 2017
Chemicals, diet, stress, and lifestyle choices have caused the sperm levels of Western men to plummet to less than 50 percent of what they were four decades ago, a new study has found.
The research found that sperm in the ejaculate of men from Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand fell by 1.4 percent every year between 1973 2011, leading to an overall drop of just over 52 percent.
“The results are quite shocking,”said study co-author Hagai Levine, an epidemiologist from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, according to Reuters. He called the results an"urgent wake-up call."
Levine added that, while fertility treatments such as IVF can sometimes offer solutions to the procreating problem --- little is being done to address the root of the issue: an overall general decline in men's health.
Poor sperm counts have also been associated with testicular cancer, increased male mortality rates, children born with one or both testicles missing, and the onset of male puberty, according to the researchers.
"Eventually, we may have a problem, and with reproduction in general, and, it may be, the extinction of the human species,” Levine told the BBC.
Environmental influences, heat, lifestyle factors, bad diet, stress, smoking, and obesity --- both prenatally and in adult life --- have all been “plausibly associated” with the decline, states the study.
“Therefore... sperm count may sensitively reflect the impacts of the modern environment on male health throughout the life course,”the paper reads.
In particular, the paper notes, chemical exposures or maternal smoking “during critical windows of male reproductive development, may play a role in prenatal life, while lifestyle changes and exposure to pesticides, may play a role in adult life.”
Published in the medical journal Human Reproduction Update, the “rigorous and comprehensive” research analyzed data from 185 studies. Researchers from Israel, Denmark, the US, Brazil, and Spain, took part in the study.
The trend has not been recorded among men in Africa, Asia, or South America, 'though the authors concede that fewer studies have been made, in those regions.
The study’s authors have called for urgent work to narrow down the causes for the decline in sperm levels among Western men.
“This definitive study shows - for the first time - that this decline is strong & continuing,” said one of the study’s authors, Professor Shanna Swan, of the Icahn School of Medicine, at Mount Sinai.
Recreational cocaine users get addicted much earlier than they think – study May 26th, 2017
Folks who snort lines of cocaine “only recreationally,” to socialize and have fun with friends, are actually much closer to becoming hooked than they think, say researchers, who found that just watching someone using cocaine, can bring on cravings.
Even among non-dependent cocaine users, cues associated with cocaine consumption trigger the release of dopamine, the so called “pleasure chemical,” in an area of the brain believed to promote compulsive use, scientists at McGill University in Canada say.
This means that people that refer to themselves as modest, recreational users, who think they can give up at any time, could be much closer to being addicted than they think.
“The study provides evidence that some of the characteristic brain signals in people who have developed addictions are also present much earlier than most of us would have imagined,”Marco Leyton, an expert on neurobiology drug use and addiction and professor in McGill’s Department of Psychiatry, said in a statement.
Just standing in the corner while quietly watching someone else using cocaine is enough to trigger a dopamine release and lead to cravings, the findings, published in Scientific Reports, say.
As the addiction gets worse, the cue-induced release of dopamine spreads towards the dorsal striatum, a structure deep inside the brain, whose role in determining how we respond to pleasure, has been intensively studied.
“This area of the brain is thought to be particularly important for when people start to lose control of their reward-seeking behaviours,”Professor Leyton said.
“The dorsal part of the striatum is involved in habits – the difference, for example, between getting an ice cream because it will feel good versus being an automatic response that occurs even when it is not enjoyable or leads to consequences that you would rather avoid, such as weight gain or serious health hazards,”he explained.
Scientists used positron emission tomography (PET) scans to see what happens in the dorsal striatum of recreational cocaine users. They filmed participants ingesting cocaine in the laboratory with a friend with whom they had used the drug before. The participants later underwent a PET scan while watching the video of their friend taking cocaine. Exposure to cocaine-related cues proved to increase both craving and dopamine release in the dorsal striatum.
“An accumulation of these brain triggers might bring people closer to the edge than they had realized,”Professor Leyton said, highlighting the “importance of providing help early” to avoid the grave effects of dependency.
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Record Number Of Nurses Quit NHS Monday July 3rd by Felicity Collier
Bargain-basement Britain has lost more than 10,000 nurses and midwives over the last four years, driven out by poverty pay & worsening working conditions.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) said more nurses are leaving than joining the profession, with those from Britain, leaving in the largest numbers.
The latest stats add to mounting pressure on the Tories, to end their hated public-sector pay cap.
Alarmingly, the NMC study shows that workers below retirement age, are leaving at over twice the rate, than in 2012-13.
Overall, the number of leavers - including workers from overseas -- rose from 23,087 in that period, to 34,941 in 2016-17. Those who first registered for the profession in Britain, made up 85% of the entire register.
Staffing levels and workload were top concerns for those aged 21 to 30, while low pay and benefits were also cited, alongside the worsening quality of care for patients.
An increased number of staff left for similar jobs abroad.
Both the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM,) urged the government to scrap the pay cap to alleviate the crisis.
About 1,783 left the profession in 2016-17, but that figure shot up to 3,264 for this year alone.
RCM policy director Jon Skewes said pay freezes and increasing workloads, have left workers “demoralised and disillusioned.”
Unison head of health Sara Gorton said:
“Many organisations, including the NHS pay review body have warned that the pay freeze was not sustainable.
“Nurses and midwives’ pay has been held down for too many years, despite demand for their expertise growing. So it is no surprise, that they are leaving the NHS.
“Ministers must also grant an automatic right to remain for the 30,000 EU workers in the NHS as well as scrap the pay cap --- if they are serious about keeping patients safe.”
NHS Providers policy director Saffron Cordery insisted that a new staff retention programme will assist NHS trusts with the highest leaving rates, though this will help little, in the face of the 1 per cent pay cap.
Environment Secretary Michael Gove has hinted that the government could lift the pay cap for NHS staff — despite the Conservatives recently voting against raising the derisory cap for public-sector workers.
He said:“These pay review bodies have been set up in order to ensure that we can have authoritative advice on what’s required in order to ensure that the public services on which we rely are effectively staffed and the people within them, are effectively supported.”
His comments came amid claims in the Observer that Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt will be calling for a lift of the pay cap for NHS workers, in light of a report by the NHS pay review body -- highlighting “widespread concerns” about recruitment, retention & motivation.
Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth called on the government to give NHS workers a pay rise as it will improve recruitment & staff retention and reduce the need for agencies, saving money in the longer term.
During the election campaign, Prime Minister Theresa May came under fire after she told a nurse who hadn’t had a pay rise for eight years, that there was “no magic money tree.”
(Source - Morning Star)
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Nurses Don’t Deserve This May 17th
Britain’s nurses are on the brink of industrial action for the first time.
The Royal College of Nursing’s consultative ballot shows 78 per cent of nurses are ready to strike — and more than nine in 10 are up for action of other kinds, to resist Conservative plans for an eighth successive year of shrinking wage packets.
The RCN estimates that the below-inflation 1 per cent rises since the Tory-Lib Dem coalition imposed “austerity”, mean nurses’ incomes have shrunk by 14 per cent since we last had a Labour government.
At the same time the catastrophic squeeze on NHS Trust budgets across the country, as a result of chronic underfunding, means that trusts around the country are proving unable to fill nursing vacancies, a task made harder by the removal of bursaries for student nurses by the Tories in their 2015 “spending review.”
There are some 40,000 posts unfilled across England, twice as many vacancies as existed just 4 years ago.
The Royal College of Nursing has not taken strike action once --- in the 101 years of its existence.
Nursing is a vocation, a job taken up by people who devote their lives to looking after others.
It has always been appallingly underpaid, considering the vital role nurses play in caring for the sick and elderly, the highly skilled nature of the work, the grave responsibilities that fall on their shoulders and the huge societal contribution they make by comparison with many more lucrative professions.
Even so, nurses have not walked out for higher wages. Nobody becomes a nurse in order to rake in the big bucks, and they have shown a principled reluctance to do anything that might risk the health of the people in their care.
Far from earning them respect, this fortitude and generosity of spirit has led the government to take them for mugs, forcing their pay down for years and leaving them struggling to cope in understaffed wards.
Confronted on the Andrew Marr show over the scandal of nurses relying on foodbank handouts to survive, PM Theresa May didn’t miss a beat, sneering that there were “many complex reasons” nurses might go to foodbanks.
As the author David Rosenberg retorted, she must be a genius — having pondered it for hours, he could only think of one.
May’s obfuscation is easily explained. The PM knows there are nurses living in poverty.
She doesn’t care — any more than she cares about the millions of other working people who've lost thousands of pounds a year in pay --- thanks to seven years of government of the rich, for the rich and by the rich.
Health Minister Philip Dunne might plead that nurses deserve a pay rise, but that it's unaffordable in these hard economic times.
But this month’s Sunday Times Rich List surely gave the lie to that threadbare excuse. Britain’s billionaires are rolling in it, with the 1,000 richest people adding 14/% to their wealth over the last year — bringing their ill- gotten gains to an eye-watering £658 billion.
Nurses planning a summer of protest deserve our solidarity and support.
(Source - Morning Star)
There's a new petition taking off on Change.org, and we think you might be interested in signing it.
My name is Dave Gale. I have Becker muscular dystrophy, a muscle-wasting condition that severely impacts my mobility.
I need a car to get to my job 30 miles away to provide for my family. I can’t use a regular car because of my condition, but I have a government-funded Motability car that is adapted to my needs.
However, the government is in the process of reassessing all disabled people’s benefits, and when mine were assessed in 2016, they decided to take my car away.
On 11 October, I had to give my Motability vehicle back. I was devastated and lodged an appeal to get it back.
In the meantime I had no choice but to use our family savings to buy a new adapted car in order to keep my job.
An appeal tribunal eventually overturned the original decision– but our savings are gone.
Sadly, mine is not an exceptional story. Since 2013, 50,000 people have lost their Motability vehicles as the government has been moving people from the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to the Personal Independence Payment (PIP). Many get them back on appeal. But before that point, too many of us have seen our savings wrecked or our independence compromised because the Government haven’t conducted their assessment process correctly.
There is a very simple solution: people should be allowed to keep their vehicles until their appeals have been heard.
Penny Mordaunt MP, the Minister for Disabled People, told Parliament last year that she was going to do something to help people in my position. But months later, the minister has said nothing more.
We need to make sure that Penny keeps her promise, and we need your support to make sure that thousands more people don’t face the problems I have faced.
The person (or organisation) who started this petition is not affiliated with Change.org. Change.org did not create this petition and is not responsible for the petition content.
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Happiness in Life Could Be as Easy as a Quick Afternoon Nap 4/4/2017
British researchers have found that power napping can not only help get you through the day, but can actually make a you happier person -- an effect the researchers have dubbed “nappiness.”
More than 1,000 people of various ages participated in an online survey conducted for the Edinburgh International Science Festival. The findings showed that their level of happiness depended somewhat on whether or not, and for how long, they snoozed in the daytime.
Participants were divided into three groups: those who don't nap, short nappers of 30 minutes or less, and long nappers of 30 minutes or more. Having analyzed the participants' responses to a number of psychological questions, the researchers found that 66 percent of short nappers not only increased their productivity but also felt happier, compared with 60 percent of non-nappers, and 56 percent of long nappers.
On the five-point happiness scale, short nappers had an average score of 3.67, as compared to 3.53 for non-nappers, and 3.44 for long nappers.
Almost 15% more participants aged 18-30 took naps, than those over 50.
"Previous research has shown that naps of under 30 minutes make you more focused, productive, and creative, and these new findings suggest the tantalizing possibility: you can also become happier, just by taking a short nap," said psychologist Richard Wiseman, of the University of Hertfordshire, pointing out how firms like Google... install special nap spaces for employees.
Among survey respondents, only 11 percent said they were allowed to take naps at work.
Wiseman stressed that while brief naps, from 20 to 30 minutes, benefit health and boost performance, frequent longer dozing is associated with various health risks.
In another study on sleepy military pilots, the US space agency NASA, found that taking a short nap when the co-pilot was in control, boosted alertness by more than 50 percent.
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Planned Parenthood Director Caught Admitting Babies Born Alive After Abortion are Killed Thursday, 30 March, 2017 at 10pm
A shocking new undercover video exposes a Planned Parenthood medical director admitting that babies born alive after abortion, are sometimes killed. The top Planned Parenthood official is caught on video essentially admitting that it “depends on who is in the room” as to whether or not a baby who is born alive after a failed abortion, is taken to the hospital, or left to die.
The new undercover video shows DeShawn Taylor, former Medical Director of Planned Parenthood of Arizona and longtime abortion practitioner at Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, graphically describing how to deliver intact fetuses in late-term abortions to harvest high-quality body parts, and indicating a possible cover-up of infanticide.
The footage is never-before-released material obtained by The Center for Medical Progress, whose undercover videos recorded top-level Planned Parenthood leaders negotiating the harvesting and sale of the hearts, lungs, livers, and brains of aborted fetuses, for financial benefit.
At a networking reception at a Planned Parenthood conference, CMP investigators posing as buyers from a biotech company, are introduced to Dr. Taylor by Dr. Deborah Nucatola, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s Senior Director of Medical Services.
Taylor explains to the investigators, “In Arizona, if the fetus comes out with any signs of life, we’re supposed to transport it. To the hospital.” When one investigator then asks, “Is there any standard procedure for verifying signs of life?”
Taylor replies, “Well, the thing is, I mean the key is, you need to pay attention to who’s in the room, right?”
Taylor then laughs as she repeats what the Arizona law requires, and says, “It’s a mess. It’s a mess.”
The Planned Parenthood medical director also admits that Planned Parenthood does its best to obtain intact fetal organs to sell — essentially the body parts of aborted babies.
Taylor confirms she does elective abortions on healthy fetuses and pregnant women up to 24 weeks. When the investigators ask her about obtaining intact fetal organs, Dr. Taylor replies, “It’s not a matter of how I feel about it coming out intact, but I gotta worry about my staff and people’s feelings about it coming out looking like a baby.”
Additionally, the Planned Parenthood official says she doesn’t like it when people call unborn children babies -- because she considers that “creepy.”
She continues, “We have the people who do our paperwork for the fetal death certificates, they email us calling them ‘babies’. Baby this, baby that, baby so-and-so, and I’m like, that’s creepy!”
(Source: Lifenews.com)
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Revolving doors:- Former Tory government health adviserjoins US firm involved in NHS privatisation 5th of February 2017 Posted by Mike Sivier
The most worrying part of this is that services for which the Conservative government is paying your money to private firms, include contract negotiation.
Is that really a constructive use of our millions?
Wouldn’t that money be better-used helping people to actually, you know, get healthy?
A former Government health adviser has joined a US firm involved in NHS privatisation – in a move campaigners say demonstrates the “wafer-thin partition” between Tory policy makers and the private health industry.
Nick Seddon, who was Cameron’s Special Adviser for Health, became Executive Vice President of Optum, just four months after he left his political role in July last year.
For-profit health management company Optum is part of multinational insurance firm UnitedHealth Group, which made more than $8.4bn (£6.7bn) in 2015.
The head of NHS England, Simon Stevens, is also a former UnitedHealth executive.
Optum already provides 156 NHS organisations, which it calls its “partners”, services such as contract negotiations & medication management.
A policy change made by David Cameron’s government in 2014, meant Mr Seddon’s move to the private sector did not need to be vetted for conflicts of interest by a semi-independent advisory committee, as was previously the case.
Instead his new appointment was approved by the Cabinet Office, which did so on the condition he did not lobby the UK Government on behalf of Optum in his first 2 years in the role or “draw on privileged information available to him, as a Crown servant”.
(Source - Vox Political)
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CALL ON JEREMY HUNT TO ACT – NHS CRISIS
Call on Jeremy Hunt MP to end the NHS Crisis Add your name to the letter demanding action
Rt. Hon Jeremy Hunt MP Secretary of State for Health Department of Health Richmond House 79 Whitehall London SW1A 2NS
Dear Secretary of State
I am writing following events brought to my attention at Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust site in recent weeks. In all of my dealings with Aintree NHS Trust, as a Local Ward Councillor and Member of Parliament, there has never been a time when the sheer number of people raising concerns with me has been so great.
I've been inundated with emails from constituents detailing the problems with waiting times and specifically the accident & emergency dept being overcrowded – particularly during the last week. There have been various social media posts, including images, which have depicted the sad state of affairs.
I care passionately about our NHS, but it is currently engulfed in a winter crisis that has been allowed to ensue on this Government’s watch. The increased pressures have led to an already overstretched system appearing to be at near breaking point.
Whilst we all recognise the fantastic work of our doctors, nurses and other staff who work in our NHS, they need Government support at this difficult juncture – so that their extraordinary efforts are not only recognised, but underpinned with practical help.
Therefore, I would be grateful if you could outline what steps your Department is taking to urgently address the problems hospitals are facing in my constituency and indeed across the country.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely, Signature Steve Rotheram MP
Liverpool Walton
And… We the undersigned, demand Jeremy Hunt MP takes action to end the NHS crisis:
A&Es Forced To Turn The Sick Away by Steve Sweeney Saturday 7th January, 2017
And now even Red Cross is intervening in the crisis as Tories run service into ground
Patients are dying in corridors as a crisis engulfing the NHS has pushed overflowing A&E departments to shut their doors to urgent cases, it was revealed yesterday.
Two deaths at Worcester Royal Hospital A&E last week, highlighted the life threatening pressures being faced by the NHS as rising demand and funding cuts impact health and social care.
A woman died in a resuscitation bay after she had suffered an aneurysm and waited on an emergency trolley in an A&E corridor.
A second patient died from a heart attack while on a trolley for more than 35 hours waiting to be transferred to a ward.
The Worcestershire acute trust was placed in special measures in December 2015 when the Care Quality Commission raised concerns.
Overall, A&E departments in England could not attend patients on 143 occasions in December — an astonishing 63 per cent rise compared to the same period in 2015 — according to figures from NHS England.
The latest statistics revealed a record number of 42 diverts -- when patients are sent to other hospitals as a “last resort” -- in the week including Christmas and new year, compared with an average of 20 over a typical winter week in the NHS.
And 50 out of the 150 NHS trusts in England told the Nuffield Trust they have been struggling to cope with the winter demand. Seven warned that they were not able to deliver even the most basic care to patients.
Nuffield Trust chief executive Nigel Edwards warned that the situation could worsen in the coming weeks. He told Radio 4’s Today programme: “As we know, there are major problems in social care. But also NHS community services. The ability of hospitals to get people out, is still really tricky.
“The real crunch point generally comes in week two or three after the Christmas break. I think there are early signs, that there is a problem.”
The crisis has become so bad that even the UK Red Cross is diverting resources to help. The humanitarian charity, more usually seen at front- line disaster zones, has responded to what it is calling the “humanitarian crisis in our hospital and ambulance services across the country” by deploying its own staff to ease the burden on the NHS, according to the charity’s chief executive Mike Adamson.
Royal College of Emergency Medicine president Dr Taj Hassan blamed chronic underfunding and understaffing as he warned that hospitals are “in an absolute acute state of distress.”
Unison head of health Christina McAnea said: “The NHS is a lifesaver but it’s being starved of cash — and patients are suffering.”
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth:
“The government urgently needs to take action to make sure that our NHS can cope over the busy winter period, and is able to provide the best possible care for patients.”
Sufferers with progressive and mental illnesses have benefits cut by the DWP 15 Dec 2016 - by Mike Sivier
The figures cover a period beginning under David Cameron and ending with Theresa May.
The Department for Work and Pensions’ current system of assessing the sick and disabled for benefits is on a par with medieval tests for witchcraft*.
Back in the day, people accused of being witches were submerged in a nearby river using a ducking stool, on the expectation that their evil powers would allow them to survive. When they died, the conclusion was - they weren’t witches after all. This was, of course, no comfort to the dead suspect or their bereaved family.
Now, people with illnesses that are expected to end their lives in the near future are being deprived of Personal Independence Payments because “they were expected to live beyond six months”.
What if they don’t?
The DWP will conclude that they were terminally ill after all – but you can bet there will be no comfort for the dead claimant or even their bereaved family as the DWP will not even offer a back-payment of benefit.
This is despite the possibility that deprivation of benefit may contribute to the deaths of claimants.
It is a sick, sick system.
This Writer would advise anybody who has lost benefits to start going through the appeal process. If the DWP’s treatment of you affects your mental health in such a way that you consider self-harm, or even suicide – write a letter to them, spelling it out, and give a copy to a near family member or friend. And keep a diary of ways your health is affected because of the DWP’s decision.
The government gets away with this treatment of innocent people because it has been able to deny responsibility for what happens to them. If you make this denial implausible, these people will have to think again – possibly while facing criminal charges.
Thousands of people with progressive diseases and mental illness have lost their disability benefits in a cruel Tory cut.
Charities sounded the alarm tonight over a “devastating” shake-up which has axed or reduced 230,000 people’s Personal Independence Payments (PIP).
Around 110,000 DLA claimants reassessed for the new benefit – 21% of the total – have been rejected since PIP launched in 2013.
Another 121,000 – 23% of those reassessed – were given PIP but at a lower rate than their previous benefit.
Those who lost out include many with progressive diseases – around 450 Parkinson’s sufferers, 3,069 people with multiple sclerosis and 4,450 suffering unspecified ‘malignant diseases’.
Others with progressive conditions who saw benefits axed or reduced were around 294 cystic fibrosis sufferers, 36 people with motor neurone disease and 1,617 people classed as “terminally ill”.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said those in the last group were found to no longer be “terminally ill” because they were expected to live beyond six months.
Mental health charity Mind warned 74,580 former DLA claimants with 4 key psychiatric disorders lost some or all of their benefits – 55% of all those who were reassessed.
PIP was denied or cut back for around 2,525 blind people, 570 people with AIDS, 128 haemophiliacs and 19 double amputees.
Also hit were approx 20,050 people with back pain, 34,545 with arthritis, 8,084 with chronic pain syndromes and 10,725 with learning difficulties.
All figures are approximate because the DWP rounded the total number of claims for each condition to the nearest hundred.
The figures, covering April 2013 to October 2016 and compiled by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), were slipped out without fanfare on the government’s website.
*Don’t congratulate me on the comparison; I’m simply quoting somebody else.
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‘Informed & personal choice’: Danish doctors rise against child circumcision
The doctors association in Denmark calls to ban child circumcision, & the country’s government has made it obligatory to report circumcision to the authorities, starting next year, in a move to tighten restrictions on the currently unregulated practice.
Circumcision must be “an informed, personal choice,” and therefore should be postponed until adulthood, the Danish Medical Association says, in a press release. It believes the current state of affairs deprives boys of the ability to make their own decisions about their bodies and their cultural and religious beliefs.
Norway may ban non-medical circumcision of boys
“Circumcision, should be an informed, personal choice. It is most consistent with an individual’s right to self-determination, that parents not be allowed to make this decision but that it is left up to the individual when he has come of age,” The Local quoted Lise Moller, the chairwoman of the doctors’ association’s ethics board, as saying.
The Danish association does not favor a total ban on circumcision, however, but believes it should be performed, on children, only for medical reasons.
“We have discussed it thoroughly, also in our ethics committee. We came to the conclusion that it's difficult to predict the consequences of a ban – for the involved boys, who could for example face bullying or unauthorized procedures with complications – and for the cultural and religious groups they belong to,” Moller said.
A majority of circumcisions in Denmark, take place outside the public healthcare system --- in religious ceremonies, and in private clinics. Somewhere between 1,000 & 2,000 circumcisions, mainly on Muslim and Jewish boys, take place yearly, according to estimates from the Danish Health and Medicines Authority.
A 2015 study, based on the data of 340,000 Danish boys, links circumcision with autism.
The study argues that autism is related to painful experiences in early childhood. Critics say correlation does not mean causation & more research is needed.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is banned in Denmark, yet male circumcision is legal & almost unregulated. Circumcision 'fans' claim that it is a beautiful tradition, which helps people hold to their ethnic, cultural and religious roots, and that banning it would violate basic human rights.
Circumcision opponents, however, say that keeping their privates intact is also a human right, and while the procedure does not have any confirmed health benefits, it could harm children, both physically and mentally.
Multiple polls and studies indicate that the majority of Danes support banning it on underage boys.
The Danish government, however, has ruled in favor of the pro-circumcision minority.
(source - RT)
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Remember Mark Wood? Tories QUADRUPLE the number of people likely to die like he did (by Mike Sivier, Vox Political)
Mark Wood: He died of starvation several months after his ESA was stopped without warning by the DWP.
Mark Wood starved to death four months after the then-government sickness benefit assessor, Atos, found him fit for work.
His death was never entered in Department for Work and Pensions death statistics, as it did not happen within two weeks of his claim being cut off. So the DWP could deny responsibility, even though he plainly wasn't fit for work when he was assessed.
Now it seems government policies are deliberately sending thousands of people to die the same way – poverty-stricken malnutrition.
Perhaps ministers think they have found a way to make the deaths look coincidental?
Consider: Government policies make people too poor to eat, so they either starve to death at home like Mr Wood, or they become a burden on an already- overworked National Health Service, forcing it further towards collapse.
If they live, they have helped push the NHS further into difficulty, that can be used later to justify a switch to insurance-based private health; if they die, they cease to claim state benefits.
It’s easy to understand that this is how Jeremy Hunt and Damian Green think.
The number of people so malnourished they need hospital treatment has QUADRUPLED in 10 years.
In a shocking indictment of the nation’s food poverty, 16,000+ cases of malnutrition were reported in hospitals in England last year, an average of 45 every day.
Over 900 of these cases were classed as severe; meaning patients were in danger of starving to death.
But these alarming NHS figures are just the extreme tip of an iceberg of misery & deprivation as GPs treat thousands more poverty-stricken patients for malnutrition.
Campaigners blame spiralling food prices, falling wages and ruthless benefits cuts and sanctions.
Heated vegetable oil is so toxic even lard is healthier, says study Vegetable oils produce harmful toxins when they are fried that could lead to cancer and dementia, according to research that contradicts the NHS’s healthy living recommendations.
Unsaturated fats found in corn and sunflower oil have well-documented health benefits when used at room temperature. However, vegetable oils lose these qualities when heated, undergoing “a complex series of chemical reactions which results in the accumulation of large amounts of toxic compounds,” said professor Grootveld of De Montfort University in Leicester, who has carried out research on oils.
He told The Telegraph:
This major problem has received scant or limited attention from the food industry & health research.
The toxic chemicals are called aldehydes, and are formed in sunflower and corn oil at temperatures above 190C (374F). A standard meal of fish and chips fried in vegetable oil produces 100 to 200 times more than the safe aldehyde daily limit set by the World Health Organization.
In the De Montfort University study, butter, olive oil and coconut oil and even lard were all found to release fewer of these toxins, which enter the body through eating or inhalation.
However, the NHS Live Well website says that government guidelines advise using vegetable oil instead of butter when frying food, sticking to the idea that unsaturated fats should always be chosen over saturated fats.
Reports from as early as 2012 warn of the heated vegetable oil and toxicity, although few studies have attracted the media’s attention and the government has continued to support their use – not least because there is still strong support for the use of vegetable oil instead of butter in the medical community. For example, Jeannie Gazzaniga-Moloo, PhD, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, said:
Replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats is still one of the healthiest changes most people can make.
The new study’s conclusion, however, dismisses the plausibility of Gazzaniga-Moloo’s comments, not only highlighting the toxicity of vegetable oils but also questioning the safety of their high levels of omega-6 fatty acids.
Fatty Acids
Omega-6 is an essential fatty acid, like omega-3. The two work together: omega-3 decreases the inflammation that some omega-6 acids cause. Both are “essential” because the body does not produce them naturally.
The problem is that the western diet includes far more omega-6 than omega-3, causing an imbalance that leads to a greater risk of inflammation, which can contribute to cardio- vascular disease, depression and some forms of cancer.
John Stein, Oxford University’s emeritus professor of neuroscience believes the balance of fatty acids is vitally important, and that vegetable oils must be consumed in moderation. He said:
If you eat too much corn oil or sunflower oil, the brain is absorbing too much omega-6, and that effectively forces out omega-3. I believe the lack of omega-3 is a powerful contributory factor to such problems as increasing mental health issues and other problems such as dyslexia.
For now health experts are yet to come to a conclusive opinion on the issue, so it appears that when it comes to maintaining good health, the key to a healthy diet could be moderation.
(from article in The Canary)
Shocking: UK Study Reveals Deadly Dangers of Chemotherapy Cancer Treatment
A startling study by Public Health England and Cancer Research UK has found that cancer treatment itself may be killing up to 50 percent of patients.
Chemotherapy has long been controversial, as the treatment does specifically target cancerous cells, and destroys healthy cells in the process. In a first- of-its-kind study, researchers researched cancer patients who died within 30 days of starting their treatment, indicating that the treatment caused the death, not the cancer.
Across the nation, they found that 8.4 percent of those undergoing treatment for lung cancer, and 2.4% of those being treated for breast cancer, died within a month of beginning treatment.
Results varied greatly based on the hospital however, as an alarming 50.9% of those in Milton Keynes Hospital beginning chemo- therapy treatment for lung cancer died within 30 days.
Researchers note that the total number of patients treated at the hospital was much smaller than the norm, but the numbers remain eye-opening. “The statistics don’t suggest bad practice overall but there are some outliers,” said Professor David Dodwell, Institute of Oncology at St. James Hospital in Leeds, a researcher behind the study. “It could be data problems, and figures skewed because of just a few deaths, but nevertheless it could also be down to problems with clinical practice.”
One particularly important finding in the study revealed that there were significant differences in fatality based on patient age and health.
Researchers now suggest not to opt for chemotherapy if patients are in poor health or are weak, as the invasive treatment can do more harm than good.
“I think it’s important to make patients aware that there are potentially life threatening downsides to chemotherapy. And doctors should be more careful about who they treat with chemotherapy,” Dodwell wrote.
Hospitals with higher-than-average mortality rates were notified, and asked to review their practice.
“The identification of hospitals with significantly higher 30-day mortality rates should promote a review of clinical decision making in these hospitals. Furthermore, our results highlight the importance of collecting routine data beyond clinical trials to better understand the factors placing patients at higher risk of 30-day mortality, and ultimately improve clinical decision making,” the report stated.
NHS BEING DESTROYED - MEDIA BLACKOUT -
If you’re desperate to see a GP, Hunt’s new scheme will make you pay by Jessica Gay (Source The Canary)
A new scheme has been launched which enables people to skip queues in GP surgeries and have an on-demand doctor visit them in their own home. Within 90 minutes. The only catch — it costs £120.
The service
The new ‘private primary care’ service, developed by GP Delivered Quick (GPDQ), has people ‘booking’ a doctor via a smartphone app. They select a date and time for them to visit. Each consultation lasts around 25 minutes and the doctors are on call seven days a week between 8am and 11pm.
But if you’re desperate to see a doctor, it’ll cost you. To book a 25-minute weekday consultation costs £120. For weekend visits, it’s £150. And for a bank holiday, £200!
The service, which has been approved by Care Quality Commission (a health regulator which Jeremy Hunt now controls), was launched in London in 2015. It has now recently been rolled out across Birmingham.
The man behind the app
Dr Anshumen Bhagat is the N. London GP behind the app. After working 15 years in the NHS and in private healthcare, Bhagat decided to launch the app to provide greater flexibility for patients.
He said:
This is digitising the home visit – it really is that simple. Patients benefit from speed & flexibility, with the ability to see a doctor when & where it suits them, booking and tracking their GP through their smartphone. Our 25-minute appointments allow for a more in-depth consultation, whilst our two-hour prescription delivery service provides an extra level of convenience.
Regarding how GPs will benefit from the service, Bhagat continued:
It also enables all GPs in the UK to see patients on a private basis, work flexibly, and earn extra income in the process – they’re essentially running a virtual clinic through our state of the art mobile platform.
While the consultation price does include written prescriptions and referrals, the fact that this app prioritises those with money is troubling. £120, for example, is a lot of money. Especially for those on benefits and low incomes, and for children and elderly people.
Also, London and Birmingham (where the service has been rolled out) have some of the highest levels of poverty in the UK. 27% of people in London and 37% of children in Birmingham live in poverty. Given this, it is almost impossible for society’s vulnerable people, to afford this service.
GPs
According to the app’s website, “every GPDQ doctor must meet our high standards of clinical experience and patient care”. As well as this, each doctor “continues to work within the NHS”.
But with Hunt cutting NHS budgets left, right and centre, it questions whether the NHS will even exist in a couple years. The cuts have already forced many local practices to close, much to the delight of private healthcare services (like Virgin Care), which have been snapping them up.
So while the service secures a role for GPs if the NHS goes under, it does little to provide for those who depend on national heath care. The service, which has been approved under Hunt’s watch, gives us another indication of how the Health Secretary envisages future health care.
So far, it involves sucking the NHS dry, over- exerting doctors, and shaking hands with billionaire privateers. Sadly, it’s the same tale. And we’re wondering how he’s still able to get away with it.
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Are you insured?!?
NHS doctors are now being ordered by chiefs -- to ask patients if they have private health insurance and, if so, to ‘gently’ remind them --- to use it.
This unprecedented move, exposes the dire financial predicament the NHS is currently in, and confirms that the ‘universal’ commitment of the health service... is well and truly over.
Labour built the NHS. Now it must fight to save and rebuild it.
If you're interested, go now to:
https://labournhslobby.wordpress.com/about/
From wales:
My late partner was told she couldn't enter the room where her son was then near to death - unless she had an MMR vaccine. I advised her to refuse the vaccine and to insist on seeing her son, anyway... the staff relented. (Her son survived).
Why did I do this? Because a dear friend had had the MMR vaccine & shrank from a fit, 14 stone man -- to a thin, shaking wisp of his former self. His friends were horrified - and when, after a year of watching him suffer, they advised him to sue... he was told it was 'too late.'
From the US:
Parents must be informed From Jon Rappoport: "On July 29, US Congressman Bill Posey made his last stand on the floor of the House. Granted five minutes to speak, he laid bare the lying of the CDC in a now-famous 2004 study, that exonerated the MMR vaccine and claimed it had no connection to autism."
"No connection to autism" was the lie...
"Parents who are, in ignorance, allowing their children to receive the MMR vaccine, must be informed. They must know what is going on. They must know the danger to their children."
"Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, Germany, France, India, China, South Africa…wherever the MMR vaccine is given…parents must be made aware: they’re gambling with their children’s lives."
"Government officials anywhere in the world who make this continuing crime possible are liable."
Determining Factor in Child Autism by Kenji Tsuchiya
The age at which parents have children, shapes their neurophysiological development, and the diagnosis of the autistic spectrum, Japanese expert, Kenji Tsuchiya, explained, at the 18th Conference on Psychophysiology, in Havana.
Starting from his lecture, the 'Neurological Development of Children during the First Years of Life. An analysis of the Child's Development and the Diagnosis of the Autistic Spectrum,' the expert said that his study is based on the information collected from 1,250 children in Japan.
With the data from this research, it is possible to verify how children from parents at an advanced age, meaning 35 years or older, are at higher risk of being autistic and of having slower progress in developing language abilities and physical- motor capacities - characteristics that could appear during the first 24 months of life, Tsuchiya asserted.
Labour's Speech To Deaf And Disabled
Theresa May outside No. 10 with husband Philip.
NINE former health secretaries join forces to condemn the government by Ignacio Amigo Nine former health secretaries have addressed a letter (paywall) to The Times to criticise the inaction of the current government in dealing with mental health. The signatories complain that, despite “promised increases in funding” & “warm words”, people with mental health issues are still being neglected.
Norman Lamb, Liberal Democrat former health minister who arranged the letter, added that:
It is a stain on our country that people with mental ill health are so often treated as second-class citizens. More than 15% of adults in the UK live with mental health problems. Of those, only a quarter receive some kind of treatment.
Neglected
The letter makes the case that mental health problems are not being treated on equal grounds with physical disease. It also points out growing economic difficulties for mental health trusts. It mentions that two in five mental health trusts have had their budgets slashed during the last financial year. Not only that, but more than £100m aimed at children’s services has not materialised.
The former health secretaries also highlight that the situation has worsened for women. They see the “growing mental health crisis among young women” that remains unaddressed. The numbers seem to confirm this. The latest rates of women taking their own lives, from 2014, indicate a slight increase. They also call attention to the fact that 20% of women aged 16-24 have self-harmed. This rate has tripled in seven years.
Another dramatic case is that of children with eating disorders. According to the letter, the institutions are tackling these cases too late, when the children are already too thin and have self-harming tendencies.
The government
In her first speech after becoming Prime Minister in July, Theresa May acknowledged the situation of those with mental health issues. She said that “there’s not enough help at hand” for them. But just three months later, she claimed that the government was investing “an estimated record £11.7 bn” in mental health services.
Current Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, also shares this optimistic view:
We're making progress against our goal to address the difficulties faced by those with mental health problems – spending by clinical commissioning groups has increased by £693m, every area in the country has put together plans to trans- form children’s mental health services, and our suicide prevention strategy is to be refreshed, all backed by added investment.
But some people disagree. Figures obtained by Labour MP Luciana Berger indicate that 57% of the clinical commissioning groups are planning to reduce their mental health budgets. She urged the government to take action:
The government must urgently step in and prevent a dangerous situation developing. Time & time again ministers have promised -- mental health spending would increase. Yet for the third year in a row, this has not happened, with a majority of local areas planning to spend less of their budget on mental health.
The former health secretaries also throw some figures in their letter that are at odds with this optimistic view. Namely, that 5,500 of patients with mental health issues have to travel long distances for treatment because of a lack of beds. And some parts of the country spend just £2 a head on children’s mental health.
The letter asks for a pledge by the chancellor to -- “make good on the promise to achieve genuine equality”. The Autumn Statement, that will be released next week, will be a good opportunity to do it.
Get Involved!
– Support Work Wise UK and call Mind if you need mental health support.
– If you need to talk to someone, call The Samaritans on 116 123.
– Support the People’s Assembly and UK Uncut.
source – The Canary.
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Tory Plot To Sell Our Medical Records
It seems the government is about to resurrect the privatisation of our medical records, but this time without even telling us.
The government review into the care.data scheme recommended that it be scrapped.
But buried in the report is a new scheme to sell our medical records to big corporations.
The government’s review proposes to allow medical records from your family doctor, (possibly including NHS Numbers, diagnoses, referrals, prescriptions - along with postcodes and dates of birth - ) to be uploaded to a giant national database – but this time without telling us or asking for our consent.
One of the schemes to replace care.data is called the “Single GP dataset”. The government’s review into care.data proposes to send all patient records from family GPs to the central database without the express consent of patients. Once in the system, it can be “sold” to any customers of the ‘Health and Social Care Information centre”, including private companies.
The government buried this announcement on the day of the report into the Iraq War. It is hoping no one will notice this new land grab on our medical records.
As is now inevitable with such attempts at skulduggery, the plan is now exposed and there is a petition against it, which you can sign here:
A Sad Day for Carnivores: Meat Eaters Higher Cancer Risk
Eating meat could be linked to cancer, whereas consuming whole grains, fruit and vegetables, may lessen the cancer risk, Danish researchers find.
A research team at the National Food Institute reviewed several studies on meat consumption and cancer risk, after last year's International Agency for Research on Cancer summary, which listed processed meat in the same category of carcinogens as cigarette smoke and asbestos, Food Navigator reports.
In June, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a report indicating that processed meat may be carcinogenic. The WHO report said processed meats like bacon, sausages, salami and canned meat, may all increase the risk of cancer.
Preben Vestergaard Hansen, a doctoral candidate in human nutrition from Metropolitan University College, explained to Danish Radio which three details aroused researchers' suspicion.
"According to new official dietary guidelines, we need to cut down on fatty meat and red meat, and this applies to all meats from four-legged animals, including pork. This concerns both fried and cooked meat," Hansen told Danish Radio.
"Blood in the meat is the first probable culprit, as iron (hemoglobin) takes oxygen around the body and is suspected to influence the development of cancer. Basically, we know that red meat is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer, but the link has never been established with certainty," Hansen explained.
The second hypothesis is that all kinds of fried meat can cause a greater risk of cancer. In this case, so-called nitrosamines from the meat membrane are the apparent culprit. And finally, nitrite salts, which are used in processed meat for preservation, are also associated with a higher risk of cancer.
According to the reports, a daily intake of above 50 grams a day leads to an increased risk of developing cancer. This amounts to roughly 3 slices of bacon or one slice of ham, which is not much, considering that Danes consume up to 100 kg of meat per year.
Despite a lack of conclusive evidence, Danish food authorities are discouraging Danes from eating processed meat --- if possible.
However, there are indications that other life- style-related causes such as lack of activity, alcohol and smoking must be taken into account to understand the whole picture.
Cancer is the leading cause of death, in Denmark.
UK cancer research pensions plan funds invest millions in British American Tobacco
Pension plans for scientists working at Cancer Research UK are among those to have invested in British American Tobacco to the tune of £211 million (US$308 million).
The fund, which caters for university lecturers and staff, is worth just shy of £50 billion. Its biggest investment (£344 million) is in Royal Dutch Shell, and is equally controversial, reports The Guardian.
News that Cancer Research UK money has essentially been used to fight the effects of smoking and to fund the tobacco industry, comes as a shock to many.
A UK Universities' spokesperson, defends the investments choice of the Universities Superannuation Scheme - and insists that financial return takes precedence over any moral dilemmas raised.
“The USS, as part of its investment duties, takes into account wider social, ethical, environmental and governance issues, so long as that ensures that the assets of the scheme are invested in the best financial interests of members and their beneficiaries,” they say.
Earlier this year, the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) called on people & companies to stop investing in tobacco.
“For decades, it has actively sought to mislead the world about harms caused by its products. It has corrupted public officials, been complicit in illicit acts, such as smuggling, and undermined legislation to protect the health of the public,” reads the statement.
EUPHA President Professor Martin McKee added that “it is simply unacceptable that USS should continue to invest in this discredited industry.”
Cancer Research UK Tobacco Policy Manager George Butterworth admitted he was unhappy with the investment situation, but insisted the Tobacco Free Portfolios movement shows that things can change.
“The tobacco industry’s deadly products are responsible for 1 in 4 cancer deaths. Many people would be shocked to learn their pensions are invested in tobacco company shares --- especially those striving to develop cures for diseases caused by this lethal industry,” Butterworth said.
“Cancer Research UK’s own pension funds are tobacco-free, but many of our researchers, are based at institutions where that is not the case,” he added.
“To help make it easier for organisations’ pension schemes to opt out of tobacco shares, we’re now funding the UK arm of Tobacco Free Portfolios to encourage investment funds to divest from tobacco stocks. AXA’s move earlier this week to withdraw billions in investment from the tobacco industry, shows what can be done.”
Surgery should be standard treatment option for diabetes: guidelines
New clinical guidelines endorsed by 45 international diabetes organizations, call for bariatric surgery, involving manipulation of the stomach / intestine, to be considered as a "standard treatment option" for type 2 diabetes.
The guidelines recommend surgery to induce weight-loss for certain categories of people living with type 2 diabetes, including those who are mildly obese and fail to respond to conventional treatment.
The recommendation is based on evidence from 11 clinical trials, that bariatric surgery can improve blood glucose levels more effectively than any lifestyle or pharma- ceutical interventions, in obese people with type 2 diabetes.
Diabetes Care Editor in Chief William Cefalu said in a statement that the new guidelines mark the first time surgery is recommended as a treatment option ------ for diabetes.
"Given the rapid developments in the field, it's important to focus on this topic for those who care for individuals with diabetes," Cefalu said.
"These new Guidelines, based on results of multiple clinical studies, validate that metabolic surgery's indicated for certain people with diabetes ------ and can yield significantly improved outcomes."
Bariatric surgery involves the removal of part of the stomach -- or a reroute of the small intestine.
Although it's as safe as other common operations such as gallbladder surgery --- there are risks of complications and long-term nutritional deficiencies that require rigorous long-term follow-up by expert teams.
The new guidelines emerged from the Second Diabetes Surgery Summit, an international consensus conference held in London in September 2015 -- and jointly organized with the US Diabetes Association, International Diabetes Federation, Diabetes UK, Chinese Diabetes Society, and Diabetes India.
According to the new guidelines, bariatric surgery should be recommended to treat patients with type 2 diabetes who have a BMI of 40 and those with a BMI of 30 who are not able to adequately control their blood glucose levels via other means.
These BMI thresholds should be reduced by 2.5 for Asian patients as they develop type 2 diabetes at lower BMI than other populations.
The BMI is a measure of obesity for adult men and women --- and is calculated by dividing body weight in kilograms, by height, in metres squared.
"Surgery represents a radical departure from conventional diabetes approaches" stated Francesco Rubino, a professor of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery at King's College, London, in Britain, and the first author of the report.
"The new Guidelines effectively introduce, both conceptually and practically, one of the biggest changes for diabetes care in modern times," he added.
‘Global sleep crisis’ caused by social pressures – scientists
A new study, using data collected via a smartphone app worldwide, shows modern-day social pressures are eat- ing into more and more of everyone's bedtime.
The data was compiled by scientists at the University of Michigan --- who were looking to analyze sleeping patterns around the globe.
They used information such as age, gender and even the amount of light that people sleeping are exposed to.
The aim of the study, carried out in 100 countries, was to get a better under- standing of how cultural pressures can have the ability to supersede biological rhythms.
"The effects of society on sleep remain largely unquantified," the study, published on May 6th in the Science Advances journal, states, according to Reuters.
"We find that social pressures weaken and/ or conceal biological drives in the evening, leading individuals to delay their bedtime and shorten their sleep."
A lack of sleep can lead to an increase in the risk of becoming obese or contracting diabetes or heart problems.
The study found that middle-aged men suffer the most from sleep deprivation -- and get less than the recommended eight hours per day -- which can also prove to be a danger to society.
"It's middle-aged men that seem to be getting a remarkably little amount of sleep, and we think that is very significant," the study's lead author, Professor Daniel Forger, of the University of Michigan, told CBC.
"They are behind the wheel driving trucks, driving airplanes, and when they do it with so little sleep, that can pose risks to them- selves --- and also to society."
Around 6,000 people over the age of 15 were asked to send data on their sleeping patterns such as when they went to bed and woke up, and how much light they were exposed to.
The amount a person sleeps is affected by 20,000 nerve cells located behind the eyes. They adjust to how much light they are exposed to, especially natural light --- which can cause a person to wake up earlier.
Wake up! Too much sleep increases risk of dying from heart disease, study says.
"If you've very little sleep, you can perform just as well as when you're drunk, so not getting much sleep, is, indeed, a global crisis right now," Forger says.
The study found that those in Japan and Singapore, received the least sleep, at 7 hrs & 24 mins, and Netherlands subjects got the most, at 8 hours and 12 minutes.
Although this is a difference of less than an hour, even a difference of 30 minutes can impact on a person’s health, & how they are able to function.
"Impaired sleep presents an immediate, pressing threat to human health," the study mentions, according to Reuters.
However, a recent study shows that getting too much sleep may not be good for you, as those sleeping for more than 8 hours, face a higher risk of dying from heart disease.
Although previous studies had shown that a lack of sleep was linked to stress, increased blood pressure & the secretion of adrenaline – all of which are factors of an increased risk of heart disease – the effects of too much sleep on heart disease, came as a surprise.
“We don’t know which mechanism can explain a direct causal link --- between long sleep duration & an increased risk of dying from coronary heart disease,” lead author, Dr. Linn Beate Strand, says, in a statement.
Breastfeeding may reduce mother's heart attack, stroke risk: study June 22nd, 2017.
Breastfeeding is not only healthy for babies, it may also reduce a mother's risk of having a heart attack or stroke later in life, according to a new study of 300,000 Chinese women published today.
Those who breastfed their babies, had about a 10 percent lower risk of developing heart disease or stroke compared to those who did not, and the longer they breastfed, the greater effects they had, according to the study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
"The findings should encourage more widespread breastfeeding for the benefit of the mother, as well as the child," study co- author Zhengming Chen, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Oxford, said in a statement.
"The study provides support for the World Health Organization's recommendation, that mothers should breastfeed their babies exclusively, for their first six months of life," Chen said.
Previous studies have suggested that mothers get short-term health benefits from breastfeeding, such as weight loss and lower cholesterol, blood pressure and glucose levels after pregnancy. However, the long-term effects of breast- feeding on the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases in mothers, were unclear.
In the new study, researchers from the University of Oxford, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking University, studied 300,000 Chinese women aged 30 to 79 years, as part of a large prospective cohort study called the China Kadoorie Biobank, which provided detailed information about their reproductive history and other lifestyle factors.
After eight years of follow-up, there were 16,671 cases of coronary heart disease which includes heart attacks, and 23,983 stroke cases among the 290,000 women who had no previous history of cardiovascular disease, when enrolled in the study.
The researchers found that compared to women who had never breastfed, mothers who breastfed their babies had a nine percent lower risk of heart disease and an eight percent lower risk of stroke.
Among mothers who breastfed each of their babies for two years or more, heart disease risk was 18% lower and stroke risk was 17 percent lower, than among mothers who never breastfed.
Each additional six months of breastfeeding per baby was associated with a four percent lower risk of heart disease and a three percent lower risk of stroke, researchers said.
"Although we cannot establish the causal effects, health benefits to the mother from breastfeeding may be explained by a faster 'reset' of the mother's metabolism, after pregnancy," said study co-author Sanne Peters, research fellow at the University of Oxford.
"Pregnancy changes a woman's metabolism dramatically, as she stores fat to provide the energy necessary for her baby's growth & for breastfeeding once the baby is born. Breastfeeding could eliminate the stored fat faster and more completely," Peters added.
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UNICEF says breastfeeding has lifesaving benefits
Breastfeeding has lifesaving benefits, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), states, reports Xinhua news.
"Investing in breastfeeding has a significant impact on the health of women and children --- and on the economies of both rich and poor countries," says UNICEF Chief of Nutrition Werner Schultink, citing a new series published by the UK weekly medical journal, The Lancet.
"The series provides crucial evidence for the case that breastfeeding is a cornerstone of children's survival, health, growth and development --- and contributes to a more prosperous & sustainable future," he says.
The study found that breastfeeding saves babies lives, reducing the risk of sudden infant deaths and intestinal diseases.
It also highlighted the economic benefits of breastfeeding and called on governments to support mothers with policies --- such as a minimum of 14 weeks maternity leave.
It found that countries lost over 500 billion dollars a year -- through losses in cognitive ability which led to lower earning capacity for people not breastfed as babies.
In China, the study found that breastfeeding decreased by 5% between 2003 & 2008 and that a 10% rise in breastfeeding, could cut the treatment costs of childhood disorders by 30 million dollars, in urban China alone.
UNICEF, which contributed to the Lancet series, says the study shows that breast- feeding can help to achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
These are 17 economic, social and environ- mental goals all UN member states agreed to work towards achieving by 2030.
"Breastfeeding is..... the most natural, cost effective, environmentally sound & readily available way we know, to provide all our children, rich or poor, with the healthiest start in life," stresses Schultink. "It's a win- win for all concerned, to make it a priority."
Recent Italian Court Decisions on Vaccines and Autism
On September 23, 2014, an Italian court in Milan awarded compensation to a boy --- for vaccine- induced autism.
A childhood vaccine against six childhood diseases caused the boy’s permanent autism and brain damage. While the Italian press has devoted considerable attention to this decision & its public health implications, the U.S. press has been silent.
Like the U.S., Italy has a national vaccine injury compensation program to give some financial aid to those people who are injured by compulsory and recommended vaccinations.
The Italian infant plaintiff received three doses of GlaxoSmithKline’s Infanrix Hexa --- a hexavalent vaccine administered in the first year of life. The doses occurred from March to October, 2006.
The vaccine is to protect children from polio, diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis B, pertussis, and Haemophilus influenza type B.
In addition to these antigens, however, the vaccine contained thimerosal, the mercury- containing preservative, and aluminum, an adjuvant, as well as other toxic ingredients.
The child regressed into autism shortly after receiving the three doses. When the parents presented their claim for compensation first to the Ministry of Health, as they were required to do, the Ministry rejected it. So the family sued the Ministry in a general jurisdiction court, an option which does not exist in the same form in the U.S.
Based on expert medical testimony, the court concluded that the child more likely than not suffered autism and brain damage because of the neurotoxic mercury, aluminum and his susceptibility from a genetic mutation.
The Court noted that Infanrix Hexa contains thimerosal, now banned in Italy because of its neurotoxicity, “in concentrations greatly exceeding the maximum recommended levels for infants weighing a few kilograms.”
Presiding Judge Nicola Di Leo considered another piece of damning evidence: a 1271- page confidential GlaxoSmithKline report (now available on the Internet).
This industry document has provided ample evidence of adverse events via the vaccine, including 5 known cases of autism resulting from the vaccine’s administration during its clinical trials.
In many developed countries, government, not industry, compensates families in the event of vaccine injury. So GSK’s apparent lack of concern for the vaccine’s adverse effects is notable & perhaps not surprising.
In the final assessment, the report states: “[t]he benefit/risk profile of Infanrix hexa continues to be favourable,” despite GSK’s acknowledging that the vaccine causes side effects including:
“anaemia haemolytic autoimmune, thrombocytopenia, thrombocytopenic purpura, autoimmune thrombocytopenia, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, haemolytic anemia, cyanosis, injection site nodule, abcess and injection site abscess, Kawasaki’s disease, important neurological events (such as encephalitis and encephalopathy), Henoch-Schonlein purpura, petechiae, purpura, haematochezia, allergic reactions (including anaphylactic & anaphylactoid reactions),” and death.
The Milan decision is sober, informed and well-reasoned. The Ministry of Health has stated, that it has appealed the Court’s decision, but that appeal will likely take several years & its outcome is uncertain.
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US Senate Passes Bill Approving Mandatory Vaccinations for Veterans
Basically..... biological warfare is sneaky. It involves a microbial sucker punch to its intended target, often accomplished in a manner in which the aggressor can claim clean hands, while his victim may suffer or die.
Biological warfare can take a number of forms. The question—how to get a bacteriological or toxic agent on board without the target being alerted– has been asked and answered.....
In addition to using humans and animals as vectors, biological warfare agents can be airborne, waterborne, foodborne, or put into pharmaceuticals.
Substantial concerns have been voiced. Polio vaccines have been found to contain cancer. A Merck rotavirus vaccine was found to be contaminated with a pig virus.
Another Merck product, the Hepatitis B vaccine, was reported to have been laced with the AIDS virus., In addition, a tetanus vaccine distributed in the third world was found to contain human chorionic gonad- otrophin, an anti-fertility agent known to produce spontaneous abortions.
The correlation between the rise in vaccinations of children & autism, has become an urban legend.
A Bill has just passed the US Senate:
Section 101 of Senate Bill 1203, named the 21st Century Veterans Benefits Delivery Act, says the Department of Veterans Affairs will be tasked with the mandate to “ensure that veterans receiving medical services under ch. 17 of title 38, US Code receive each immunization on the recommended adult immunization schedule at the time such immunization is indicated on that schedule.”
The schedule is frankly staggering. Over ninety vaccines are listed.
The issues. First, an entire group of individuals, who at one time were in military service, will lose their inherent right to opt out of receiving what is considered prophylactic treatment.
Anita Stewart, who served in the Air Force, & now hosts Wise Women Media radio show: “This could include experimental vaccines, or vaccines that have not been tested.”
It is believed that those who refuse will, under this Bill, lose their medical benefits.
Second, the numbers of immunizations on the required schedule could be enough to sicken anyone.
Flu vaccines have been known to cause Guillain- Barre syndrome, which is a neurological disorder wherein a person’s own immune system attacks the nerve cells and can cause paralysis.
Gulf War Syndrome, which may manifest with such symptoms as:- rashes, severe fatigue, muscle and joint pain, headache, irritability, depression, gastrointestinal and respiratory disorders and neurological cognitive defects, is thought by some researchers to have been caused by “vaccine overload.”
According to Dr. Mae-Wan Ho and Professor Malcolm Hooper, US Gulf war soldiers had “at least 17 different vaccines, including live vaccines (polio and yellow fever as well as experimental vaccines that had not been approved (anthrax, botulinum toxoid) and were of doubtful efficacy.”
Others attribute Gulf War Syndrome specifically to the anthrax vaccine given to the troops.
In addition, a certain cluster of vaccines has been linked to type one diabetes. The H1N1 vaccine has been linked to miscarriages and stillbirths. According to this report, the H1N1 shot resulted in SIXTY TIMES the rate of miscarriage associated with the seasonal flu vaccine.
H1N1 was also found to be linked to a spike in narcolepsy in children. According to this study, there was a 400 percent increase in the incidence of narcolepsy in those under 20 years, who received swine flu vaccine.
It would literally be possible to go on for pages here. The pattern is clear. Vaccine safety is a realistic concern.
In light of the considerable scientific evidence that vaccines cause illness, one must ask what this piece of legislation hopes to attain. Writes Anita Stewart:
“Forced mandates are nothing more than medical tyranny….Vaccines in most cases do not cure or protect us, but could make some of us sicker and definitely create a huge and continuing revenue stream for Big Pharma.”
There are no studies of the effects of these numbers of vaccines on adults. Equally, there are no studies concerning the “poly- pharmacy” effects of combining them.
Given the increasing scrutiny of civil rights abuses in the US, plus escalating concerns over apparent covert US biological weapons activity in a number of different venues, one might expect that Senate Bill 1203 will result in an upsurge of protest.
Veterans have already served their country. To re-enlist them as lab rats diminishes both the concepts of freedom and democracy --- & those who served to protect these ideals.
‘We’ve never really seen anything like this’: US suicide rates hit 50-year peak November 29th, at 9:42am
The US witnessed the most deaths in a single year, since official records began, in 2017, with suicide and drug overdose deaths soaring among an aging population, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
It marks the third consecutive year life expectancy has dropped in the US, and the longest life expectancy decline trend since the late 1910s, when WWI and the worst flu pandemic in modern history, combined, to kill approximately 675,000 Americans.
All told, the US recorded 2.8 million deaths in 2017, with middle-aged deaths making the biggest impact on life expectancy.
“These sobering statistics are a wake-up call that we are losing too many Americans, too early and too often, to conditions that are preventable,” Dr. Robert Redfield, the CDC’s director, said.
The suicide rate in 2017 was the highest in 50 years, reaching roughly 47,000 cases (up from just below 45,000 the previous year).
“We’ve never really seen anything like this,” said Robert Anderson, who oversees CDC death statistics. Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the US, for the tenth year in a row.
Increases have been prominent among the female population, despite the fact that most people who die by suicide, are still male. The female suicide rate rose by 53 percent between 1999 and 2017, with a 26 percent increase for men, during the same period.
“I really do believe that people are increasingly hopeless, and that that, leads to drug use, it leads potentially to suicide,” said Dr. William Dietz, a disease prevention expert, at George Washington University.
Among the 10 leading causes of death, only cancer deaths fell, while there were increases in suicide, stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, flu/pneumonia, chronic lower respiratory diseases, and unintentional injuries.
The number one cause of death in the US, heart disease, levelled off. Improvements in prevention and treatment of the condition, usually offset increases in other leading causes of death.
Meanwhile, drug overdoses surpassed 70,000 in 2017, solidifying the ongoing crisis as the deadliest such epidemic in US history. Accidental drug overdoses accounted for one third of unintentional injury deaths, while intentional overdoses made up roughly a tenth of suicides, according to the CDC. The CDC’s numbers are subject to change as more data becomes available, however.
The US still ranks as having among the lowest life expectancy rates, for developed nations.
(Source - RT)
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Drug abuse leading cause of injury & deaths in US: Report
Drug abuse in the US is at “epidemic levels” where they are the leading cause of injury-related deaths, surpassing car accidents and gun violence, says a new US government report.
About 46,470 US citizens died of drug overdoses in 2013, the last year which data was available, while 35,369 people died in traffic-related accidents and 33,636 were killed by guns, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says, on November 4th.
"Drug abuse is ending too many lives too soon and destroying families and communities,” DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg says.
"We must reach young people at an even earlier age --- and teach them about its many dangers and horrors."
Drug overdose deaths have risen sharply in the last ten years, up more than 50 percent from 30,711 fatalities in 2004.
"Overdose deaths, particularly from prescription drugs & heroin, have reached epidemic levels," Rosenberg says.
The DEA report also finds that heroin and prescription pain killers, are among the top drug threats in the US.
Heroin use in the US has skyrocketed in recent years and there was a 51 percent increase in users between 2013 and 2014.
According to new findings by researchers, middle-aged white people in the US have suffered a startling rise in death rates since 1999 --- most likely because of problems with legal and illegal drugs, alcohol and suicide.
Womb transplants given UK go-ahead
Doctors have been granted approval to carry out the UK's first 10 womb transplants, following the success of the procedure in Sweden.
The go-ahead has been given by the Health Research Authority as part of a clinical trial - which launches in the spring.
Around one in 7,000 women are born without a womb, while others lose their womb to cancer.
If the trial is successful, the first UK baby could arrive in early 2018.
Over 100 women have already been identified as potential recipients of donor wombs.
Dr Richard Smith, a consultant gynaecologist at the Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in London who has been working on the project for 19 years, will lead the transplant team.
He said childlessness could be a "disaster" for couples, but the technique would offer hope to those whose only other option is surrogacy or adoption.
How would the procedure work?
The operation takes around six hours, with the organ coming from a dead donor, whose heart is kept beating.
The recipient will need to take immuno- suppressant drugs after the transplant and during any pregnancy --- to prevent rejection of the donor organ.
The woman's health is monitored closely for a year and then an embryo implanted in the womb.
This embryo would arise from a combination of the woman's own eggs and the partners' sperm - using an IVF procedure.
If all goes well the baby will be delivered eight months later by caesarean section.
Couples will be given the option of trying for 2 pregnancies before the womb is removed.
Once it is no longer needed, the womb can be taken out by a team of surgeons. This prevents the need for the woman to be on immunosuppressants for the rest of her life.
Dr Smith on BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Over the years I've had quite a lot of crises with this... but when you meet the women who have been born without a uterus, or who have had their uterus removed, for one reason or another, this is really heart-rending stuff and that is what has kept us going.
According to his team at Womb Transplant UK, each procedure costs up to £50,000, but women will not have to pay for this.
The project has so-far been self-funded & supported by public donations which researchers say will allow them to take on two procedures for now.
The women selected for the trial must meet criteria set by Womb Transplant UK, which include being 38 or under, having a long-term partner and being a healthy weight. They will also need to have healthy ovaries that are able to produce their own eggs.
More than 300 women have approached the team, of whom 104 meet the criteria.
In October last year a woman in Sweden became the first in the world to give birth to a baby after having a womb transplant, but from a living donor.
Womb transplants are still very much at an experimental, trial stage.
For years researchers tried to perfect the technique on animals - from mice to monkeys.
A further three babies have since been born in Sweden using transplanted wombs.
There have been concerns that using anti-rejection drugs in pregnancy could harm the foetus.
But researchers argue these medications are likely to be safe at the right dose, building on the success of earlier pregnancies involving anti-rejection drugs for kidney transplants and other conditions.
How many need or want this procedure?
Estimates suggest one in 5,000 women are born with Mayer Rokitansky Küster Hauser syndrome... where they have no vagina, cervix or uterus.
In some cases women may have wombs removed after surgery for, eg, cancer.
But not all these patients will be eligible.
For the first few volunteers there is still a long and cautious road ahead.
Australian Researcher: Phone Radiation is a Hotline to Brain Cancer
A highly respected Australian doctor, currently in remission from brain cancer, is speaking out about his belief that radiation from wifi, cell phones and their towers, is a major factor in increasing brain cancer rates.
Dr. John Tickell is trying to raise awareness and calls for more funding for brain cancer research, as it has become the number one most deadly cancer for young Australians.
According to the Australian government, there are 35 new cases of the cancer discovered each week, with four out of five cases being fatal in the first 5 years.
"Leukaemia was once the leading cause of cancer deaths in Australia for under 40s, but it now has a 5 year survival rate of 80%+.
Breast cancer is about 90% --- compared to brain cancer, which is around 20%," Tickell tells the Herald Sun.
The Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association denies there are any detrimental health effects at all from their radiation, but the World Health Organization has recently upgraded the radiation threat to category B2, meaning "possibly carcinogenic."
"You can say you can't prove it but in my mind it's proven, looking at the studies that are not funded by the industry," he says.
The largest study to take place so far, was conducted among 5,000 cancer patients. The study found no increased risk of cancer overall, but cellphone use was linked to the patients having a 40% increased likelihood of developing Glioma, a common type of brain cancer.
Tickell blasts the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the fact that they have seemingly left all investigative studies, to the telecommunications companies themselves.
"The telco-funded studies say they’re safe but the FCC has not done any tests on radiation from 'phones, in 20 years," Tickell laments.
"There's a million more times radiation in the air today than there was fifty years ago — that is frightening," he says.
Early diagnosis: Revolutionary study says most cancers can now be predicted years in advance
After a 13 year study, US scientists identify a 'specific pattern of change' in the length of a biomarker present in cells which occurs years before patients begin having cancer symptoms.
A joint Harvard and Northwestern team monitored 792 initially cancer-free people for the period, 135 of whom were eventually diagnosed with various forms of cancer. In those years, they constantly monitored their telomeres.
Telomeres serve as a protective cap on the ends of chromosomes. As people age, and their cells replicate more and more times, telomeres grow shorter, until eventually the cell can't multiply again, and simply dies. They can be both an indicator of ageing -- a sort of internal body clock -- and a cause of it, as cells with worn- down telomeres can malfunction, causing a range of age-related diseases.
Those eventually diagnosed with cancer saw their telomeres deplete alarmingly many years before cancer actually developed – with some future patients having telomeres typical for a person 15 years older.
Some of this catastrophic shortening could be predicted and diagnosed externally: eg, simply by looking at patients who are already suffering from inflammations, oxidative stress and other conditions that age their cells at a rapid rate. But in other people, who appeared to have few external risk factors for cancer, measuring this rate could produce a revelatory diagnosis.
But this is not the most surprising part of the study.
Suddenly, three to four years before the diagnosis, the shortening would stop, and stabilize – but this was not good news.
“We found cancer had hijacked the telomere shortening, in order to flourish in the body,” says Dr. Lifang Hou, a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and the lead author of the study, published in EBioMedicine magazine.
Normally, a cell with a shortening telomere might be “aged,” but would self-destruct, to prevent any of the cell abnormalities being allowed to spread through the body. But in future cancer patients, the cells multiplied, as if with the help of the enzyme telomerase, eventually, likely, contributing to the cancer.
The study's authors say previous “snapshot” studies failed to understand the long-term complex interaction between telomeres and cancer, but that the relationship is clear & consistent.
“Understanding this pattern of telomere growth may mean it can be a predictive biomarker for cancer. Because we saw a strong relationship in the pattern across a wide variety of cancers - with the right testing, these procedures could be used to eventually diagnose a wide variety of cancers,” says Hou.
To go beyond merely early testing, scientists now face two separate medical battles.
One is to slow down the telomere shortening, or whatever underlying conditions may cause it. The other, according to Hou, is to develop a potential cancer treatment that will force the afflicted cells to self-destruct instead of making copies, but which won't merely age, and kill off swathes of healthy cells.
Chemotherapy causes irreversible brain changes
Post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment, also called 'chemo brain' has long been suspected, but no research could confirm it.
Now research shows cognitive impairment does result from chemotherapy treatment.
The research was conducted by scientists from the University of British Colombia's Departments of Psychology and Physical Therapy.
Chemotherapy treatment, they conclude, can generate 'mind wandering' and an inability to concentrate.
Patients recovering after breast cancer therapy, were asked to complete tasks. The results showed their brains stayed in a 'disengaged' state.
Todd Handy, a professor of psychology at UBC:- "A healthy brain spends some time wandering & some time engaged. We found that a 'chemo brain' is a chronically wandering brain -- they are essentially stuck in a 'shut out' mode."
Even as women were trying to focus on a subject, measurements showed that the major part of their brain was turned off. They couldn't concentrate. They were focused on their 'inner world', instead.
'Physicians now recognize that the effects of cancer treatment persist long after its over, and these effects can really impact a person's life,' says Kristin Campbell, an associate professor in the Department of Physical Therapy & research team leader.
It was also evidenced that, in a relaxed state, the brain was excessively active.
This 'forgetfulness', as patients have to deal with it, brings major challenges at work, and in social situations.
E-cigarettes more addictive than tobacco
59% of e-cigarette smokers are less likely to give up smoking & 49% are less likely to cut down on their usage of cigarettes.
These are the results of a new study by the University of California's San Diego School of Medicine.
Previous major research on the success of e-cigarettes devices is refuted by the new report.
Wael Al-Delaimy, MD, PhD, professor, and head of the Division of Global Public Health in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, concludes:
"We need further studies to answer why they can't quit. One hypothesis, is that smokers are receiving an increase in nicotine doses, by using e-cigarettes."
In addition to vapour, smokers inhale heavy metals and particles of aero- solized nicotine.
The US Food and Drug Administration is still misinforming American citizens with its guidelines on e-cigarettes appeal and safety, ignoring the new study's results.
Contraceptive pills ‘shrink’ part of brain influencing emotions
California scientists say contraceptive pills may change the structure of users’ brains - eventually leading to anxiety & depression.
The new find adds to those previously known side effects, which include: headaches, mood swings, nausea, blood clots, breast, liver and cervical cancer.
Specifically, synthetic hormones in the pill shrink 2 principal regions of women's brains --- changing their structure and function... Also, the same ingredients are believed to suppress women's natural hormones.
Neuroscientists at the University of California Los Angeles, studied the brains of 90 women, 44 of whom took contraceptive pills.
The researchers found that the lateral orbito- frontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex, were much thinner in the women on the Pill.
The lateral orbitofrontal cortex regulates both emotions and responses to rewards, while the posterior cingulate cortex governs the ‘internal state’: inward-aimed thoughts, the processing of emotions and finding memories.
Taking the Pill can lead to increased anxiety and depression and other alarming symptoms such as decreased attraction to their partner.
“Some women experience negative emotional side effects from taking oral contraceptive pills, although scientific findings have been mixed. So it's possible that this change in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex may be related to emotional changes that some women experience when using birth control pills,” Nicole Petersen, the research’s lead author, tells media.
The scientists say they aren’t certain if the effects last after a woman stops taking the contraceptive pill.
Further, all risks associated with the Pill rise if a woman smokes, has thrombosis, is overweight, diabetic, has high blood pressure, or high cholesterol levels.
The study was published in the Human Brain Mapping journal.
Caesareans should only be performed when medically necessary: WHO
25% give birth by Caesarean section now, in the UK.
The World Health Organization calls for more careful use of caesareans, and states they should only be per- formed when 'medically necessary'.
Caesarean section is one of the most common world surgeries. Rates keep rising mostly in high & middle-income countries.
WHO says 'though caesarean section can save lives, it is often performed with no medical need, & puts women and babies at risk of short and long- term health problems.
According to WHO, the world's health community since 1985, has thought an "ideal rate" for caesareans, to be between 10% to 15%.
But new studies show when they are 10% of births or under, mother & new -born deaths fall --- yet when the rate goes above 10%, there is no evidence that death rates improve...
The UN's WHO makes several points:
1) Bad effects like stillbirths, or deaths by birth asphyxia, need to be made clear.
2) More research on their impact on women's psychological and social well-being, is needed.
3) High rates of unnecessary caesarean sections can pull resources from other needs in overloaded and weak health- care systems.
4) WHO proposes Robson classification as an internationally applicable caesarean section classification system, as there is no standard world system in place.
5) The variation in Europe is far too high - 25% give birth by Caesarean section in the UK. In Cyprus it's 52%; Sweden, 17%.
The UK's Royal College of Midwives:
'We need a review of policies, guidelines and further research - to ensure that UK clinical practice is based on evidence', says Professor Alison Macfarlane, of City University, London.
Its study says Caesarean section rates in most EU states show "a continuous rise", 'though in a few countries there are signs that they are flattening out'.
There are several possible explanations for the rise "including a fear of litigation, financial incentives, women's requests for Caesarean section, and the common perception that Caesarean section is a safe procedure".
The study says there are consequences to this -- including potential raised risks for mothers and babies -- such as more still-births in future pregnancies.
The countries with the highest rates for Caesareans planned even before labour starts, are Cyprus (38.8%) & Italy (25%).
The lowest rates are in Finland (6.6%), the Netherlands (7.7) & Norway (6.6).
Prof Alison Macfarlane:- "Given that people are supposed to be practising according to the evidence, it's surprising there are such wide variations between countries.
She stresses the importance of mothers' and children's health being prioritised... more than at present.
Gail Johnson, professional advisor for education and research at the Royal College of Midwives, affirms that the percentage of UK women giving birth by Caesarean section is 'a bit too high'.
"A Caesarean is an emergency procedure done if normal birth is not going to work. It's not a lifestyle choice, and although it's a safe operation, it does carry more risks than a vaginal birth."
Go NUTS! --- For Heart Health
A recent study published in 'Amazing' finds that people from different ethnic and socio- economic backgrounds who consume nuts and peanuts (considered a legume) tend to have a lower risk of death from cardio- vascular disease --- and live longer too!
"We found consistent evidence that high nut/ peanut consumption, is associated with a reduced risk of total mortality and of CVD mortality," the authors of the study state.
"This inverse association was observed among both men and women and across each racial/ethnic group, and was independent of metabolic conditions, smoking, alcohol consumption and BMI.
Vanderbilt University's School of Medicine research team, headed by Dr. Xiao-Ou Shu, gathered data from 71,764 black and white men and women from the southeastern US, and 134,265 Chinese men and women from Shanghai, China.
Researchers were able to assess nut and peanut consumption equally in participants from the US; but only peanut consumption was analyzed in participants from China.
Men in both groups consumed more peanuts than women.
Nut and peanut consumption led to a reduced risk for overall mortality due to cardiovascular disease and ischemic heart disease, across gender, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups.
Risks for overall mortality were reduced by 21% among participants from the US, and by 17% among participants from China, who ate the most peanuts.
Although peanuts are often included as nuts in data, they are classified as legumes, with a nutrient content similar to tree nuts.
Nuts aren't only a healthy source of protein, fibre, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, but are also high in mono-unsaturated fats, which are emphasized as part of the heart- healthy 'Mediterranean' diet.
The American Heart Association recommends eating four servings of unsalted, unoiled nuts a week - a 'serving size' being a small handful, one and a half ounces of whole nuts, or two tablespoons of nut butter.
50% of all children to be autistic in 10 years - Mass. Institute of Technology
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, state that half the children in the world, will be suffering with autism, by 2025.
Senior Researcher, Stephanie Seneff, says the drastic rise is largely thanks to Monsanto and the use of its own brand of glyphosate (a pesticide), known as Roundup Ready.
Monsanto is a world leader in herbal bio- technology. It sells genetically modified corn seeds, soybeans and cotton, plus the world's most widely used herbicide.
According to researchers, the substance created when glyphosate is metabolized by plants and animals, is highly toxic.
Its cytogenetic toxicity is 1,000 times higher than the parent compound, say the scientists.
Glyphosate is used to suppress annual and perennial weeds. It's recommended for use in vineyards and orchards, and in tea and citrus plantations.
Unfortunately, Roundup contributes to the destruction of beneficial intestinal bacteria required for the proper functioning of the human immune system.
Another study in 2014, showed Roundup as 125 times more toxic than glyphosate.
Roundup use is linked to inflammation, cellular damage, and an increased risk of developing multiple cancers. It has been associated with a higher risk of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.
Autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social inter- action, impaired verbal and non-verbal communication, restricted or repetitive behavior, typically developes gradually --- although some individuals hit their childhood development milestones at a normal pace, and then regress.
Repetitive stacking or lining up of objects, is sometimes displayed.
India Celebrates Declaration of International Day of Yoga
Indian state and private institutions specializing in Yoga, practitioners, social institutions and the media, celebrate the United Nations’ decision to declare June 21 as 'International Day of Yoga'.
"I have no words to describe my joy", PM Narendra Modi, promoter of the initiative, writes on Twitter.
In a message on passage of the resolution, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says:
"Yoga can contribute to resilience against non-communicable diseases and can bring communities together in an inclusive manner that generates respect. Yoga is a sport that can contribute to development and peace and can even help people in emergency situations to find relief from stress."
In suggesting June 21 as International the Day of Yoga, Modi said that it is the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere, and has special significance in many parts of the world.
Estimates suggest that about 250 million people practice Yoga worldwide.
Russia will ban methadone - a narcotic drug used to treat of drug addiction - in Crimea, Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) chief, Viktor Ivanov, says (on Wed, March 26).
Methadone has become a criminal business in Ukraine, says Ivanov, and although its efficacy is not clinically proven, there are hard statistics showing that deaths from its use in the US and UK, have risen considerably, as addiction to methadone is much stronger than with heroin.
“Methadone is not a cure. Practically all methadone supplies in Ukraine are circulating on the secondary market as a narcotic drug in the absence of control.
"As a result, it has spread to the black market and trades there at much higher prices. It has become a source of criminal income,” Ivanov says & adds that 200 million US dollars are spent in Ukraine on methadone therapy.
Russian specialists and their colleagues in other countries, including the US, do not recognise it as a means of efficient treatment, he states.
There are twice as many drug addicts in Crimea as in Russia, Ivanov says. He describes the drug situation on the peninsula as “difficult”; blaming unemployment, the available means of making poppy straw, its closeness to Turkey (a transit country for Afghan heroin), and the trading of methadone, in Ukraine.
Mortality from Respiratory Causes Linked to Noise Pollution Experts have shown - for the first time - a close relationship between deaths from respiratory diseases, with environmental noise levels in a city.
To establish this link, the experts analyzed daily mortality from respiratory causes data, registered from 2003 to 2005, in Madrid.
The European Respiratory Society publishes that these results may be extrapolated to any town registering noise levels similar to those existing in the aforementioned city.
According to the authors of the article, the cause of an increase in deaths from respiratory problems can be linked to the rise of cortisone levels in the blood, a hormone released in stress situations, including noise.
The study affirms the effect of noise on mortality is 6.2% for every decibel of increase in noise levels.
It also states that the most vulnerable individuals are those over 65 years old.
PREGNANT MUM? - GET OUT IN THE SUN!
New research indicates that higher levels of vitamin D in mothers during pregnancy help babies have stronger muscles in later life.
The study conducted by the scientists at the University of Southampton shows the impact of vitamins on baby during mother’s pregnancy.
The study on 678 children unveiled that women with high levels of vitamin D in the late stages of pregnancy are more likely to have children with greater muscle strength.
When the children were four years old, their grip strength and muscle mass were measured, researchers show in the study report published in the journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
"There's some evidence that 'fast' muscle fibres go down in vitamin D deficiency, and you get more fat in muscle," says the lead scientist Dr Nicholas Harvey, from the Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit (MRC LEU), at the University of Southampton.
“These associations between maternal vitamin D and offspring muscle strength may well have consequences for later health; muscle strength peaks in young adulthood before declining in older age & low grip strength in adulthood has been associated with poor health outcomes including diabetes, falls & fractures," he adds.
An earlier study by Australian researchers shows that women with low blood levels of vitamin D during pregnancy are more likely to have babies with language problems.
Their study, published in Pediatrics journal in 2012, highlighted the role that vitamin D levels play especially during the second and third trimesters in the development of certain brain regions involved in language learning.
10 to 15 minutes of sunshine, 3 times a week, is highly recommended.
Many experts recommend a daily 10 microgram vitamin D supplement for pregnant mums.
Vitamin D may also be obtained with a well- balanced diet, including various types of fish, soymilk, broccoli, egg, liver, cheese, butter and fortified milk and cereals.
____________________________________
Each year, of those diagnosed with AIDs, 80% are between 15 and 19 years old.
8 out of 10 are men, and 9 out of 10 are men who have sex with other men.
The use of a condom is advised.
Perhaps better still, continence.
GRANDAD KNOWS BEST
Leading an active lifestyle through the practice of healthy hobbies - such as gardening -may reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes, affirms a specialized source.
According to a recent edition of the British Journal of Sports Medicine, daily activities like gardening are as effective as physical exercise in helping elderly people to lower their risk of suffering from these diseases.
The study monitored the heart health and activities of almost 4 000 people aged 60 or older in Stockholm, Sweden, for 12 and a half years.
Over the course of the study, the highest level of physical activity, regardless of the amount of formal exercise, was linked to a 27% cut in heart attack or stroke risk and a 30% lower risk of death from all causes.
Previous studies affirmed that a healthy diet, keeping to a proper weight, and exercise, are some of the main factors that help prevent these types of illness.
The UK government is being criticizised over the lack of nutrition information for toddler’s milk, as new research shows the milk has less than the recommended daily intake of calcium and over twice the amount of sugar compared to natural cow’s milk.
Consumer group Which? says parents could be wasting hundreds of pounds on “unnecessary" toddler milks that can contain more sugar and less calcium than cows' milk. In their survey they found 46% of mothers use toddler’s milk.
“Ministers should make their advice much clearer and introduce guidance on the ingredients of toddler milks, including the level of sugar and calcium,” says Richard Lloyd, the executive director at Which? .
Baby and toddler dairy products companies that distribute across the UK such as Aptamil and Hipp, and the UK-based Cow & Gate, mix additives such as vanilla extract, which attracts the child to that type of milk and builds a preference for sweetened food.
Conventional milk has 4.7g of sugar in 100ml compared to 7.9g of sugar per 100ml in toddler’s milk. In 100ml of toddler milk from Aptamil and Cow & Gate there is 86mg of calcium, which means children drinking that milk get half of the 122mg of calcium in conventional milk.
The toddler milk is more expensive than cow’s milk. The annual cost of toddler milk has been shown to be almost 10 times more expensive than cow’s milk, at £62 per year for cow’s milk compared to £593 for ready- to-feed toddler milk.
“At a time when so many household budgets are severely squeezed, parents could be saving hundreds of pounds on toddler milks that the government says are unnecessary”, says Lloyd.
Up to one-third of children in the UK have either attempted or considered taking their own lives, according to a new report which sheds light on the ‘shocking statistics’ of suicide in the UK.
The latest study for the mental health charity MindFull, a sister of the BeatBullying charity, reveals that 29% of UK youngsters have deliberately harmed themselves, 32 % have considered suicide, and over 12% have felt they were failures on an almost daily basis, before they reached the age of 16. Almost 75% of the 850,000 UK youngsters with diagnosable mental health problems, get no treatment at all, due to a huge lack of support for those seeking help, says the report.
“Too many children who try to speak out about the way they are feeling are being let down or simply ignored,” says Emma-Jane Cross, founder and chief executive of MindFull.
“It’s unacceptable that so many are having to resort to harming themselves on purpose in order to cope, or worse still are thinking about ending their own lives.”
The ‘Alone with my thoughts’ research was based on the first-hand experiences of over 2,000 UK youngsters between 16 and 25 years of age. “We are at risk of failing a generation of young people,” the report warns, calling for a “transformation in the way we address young people’s mental health.” "Children and young people are growing up in a toxic climate, that they exist in a 24/7 online world where they never switch off, where cyberbullying, consumerism and pornography, sexting and the pressure to have the perfect body bombard them daily, where any exam grade below a C means failure and employment prospects are bleak,” the director of YoungMinds policy Lucie Russell says, at Mindfull's launch. “These shocking statistics highlight what YoungMinds has been saying for many years - that children and young people’s mental health is a vital issue that must be prioritized,” she adds.
According to the UK’s Office for National Statistics, there were 6,045 suicides in people aged 15 and over in the UK in 2011 - an increase of 437 people from the year before. Over 4,000 children under the age of 14 attempted to take their own lives in 2007, according to NHS figures. The figures show a 50% increase in student suicides between 2007 and 2011.
Among the key factors for childhood depression appears to be a growing fear of the future, a permanent lack of confidence, and constant pressure from schoolwork.
Mindfull, which has the support of Labour leader Ed Milliband and clinical psychologist Professor Tanya Byron, is offering free professional online help to 11-17 year olds who feel they cannot overcome life's ups and downs alone.
The organization offers to work with schools across the UK, to teach youngsters how to manage anxiety and stress.
LINK BETWEEN CELL PHONES AND BRAIN TUMOURS
The Italian Supreme Court has ruled that there is a causal link between mobile phone use & brain tumours. The ruling sets a legal precedent that could potentially trigger a deluge of lawsuits.
Innocente Marcolini, a 60-year-old retired businessperson argued that excessive use of his mobile phone for around six hours every day for 12 years caused a benign brain tumour that left his face partially paralyzed.
The Italian court ruled in the businessperson’s favour, conceding that there is a “causal link” between phone use and the development of the tumour. "This is significant for very many people. I wanted this problem to become public because many people still do not know the risks,” said Marcolini to Corriere della Sera. “I was always on the phone for at least five or six hours a day. Always with a mobile pressed to my ear.”
Marcolini’s tumour was on the trigeminal nerve, close to where his cellphone touched his head. Although the tumour was non-cancerous, it endangered his life, as it could have spread to the carotid artery and blocked one of the main blood vessels to the brain.
He argued that the electromagnetic radiation emitted by cellphones can damage cells, making tumours more likely to occur.
Oncologist and professor of environmental mutagenesis Angelo Gino Levis, who gave evidence during the court hearing, says the ruling is “extremely important.” “Finally a correlation has been officially recognized between electromagnetic waves and the development of tumours, in spite of the anti-alarmist propaganda and research financed by mobile phone manufacturers,”
Levis told the Corriere. He stressed that after working on several case studies the relationship between the use of mobile phones and the increased risk of brain tumours, is proven. "It'll open, not a road, but a motorway to legal actions by victims. We're considering a class action,” Levis told UK newspaper The Sun.
Currently the World Health Organization classifies mobile phones as “carcinogens” and places them in the same category as pesticides.
Silicon-rich mineral water prevents cognitive decline in those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, a study by UK researchers at Keele University shows.
UK researchers suggest that drinking silicon-rich mineral water can reduce the levels of neurotoxin aluminium in the body, which is linked to dementia.
Their study reveals that the majority of patients who consumed at least one litre of mineral water every day for 13 weeks showed no further signs of cognitive decline; an improved mental health condition was also noted in some patients.
Aluminium levels have long been linked with Alzheimer’s-related mental damage, but the relationship has never been conclusively proven scientifically.
“When you drink silicon-rich mineral water, aluminium
throughout the body is gathered up into the blood and
then excreted through the urine,” says Professor
Christopher Exley, Keele University, research leader.
“The most interesting thing was that we did see this
potential relationship between the removal of aluminium
and the positive improvement in cognitive function.”
Aluminium levels were reduced by as much as 70% in
some patients, which gives hope to those struggling
with the devastating disease.
HEADING FOOTBALL CAUSES BRAIN DAMAGE
Heading footballs frequently, may cause brain damage leading to subtle but serious declines in thinking & coordination, a new study suggests.
Researchers used an advanced MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) technique to analyse changes in the brain's white matter of 32 adult amateur soccer players who head balls 436 times a year, on average, and found that players who head footballs frequently - 1,000 or more a year - show abnormalities similar to traumatic brain injuries suffered in car accidents.
"This is the first study to look at the effects of heading on the brain using sophisticated diffusion tensor imaging," says Dr. Michael Lipton, a leading researcher and associate director of the Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.
"We found the real implication for players isn't from hitting headers once in a while, but repetitively, which can lead to degeneration of brain cells," he adds.
The researchers compared neurological images of study participants, whose average age was 31, and found those with the highest volume of headers had abnormalities in five areas of the brain, responsible for attention, memory, physical mobility & high-level visual functions.
The findings come in the wake of mixed reports on the so-called "cognitive" consequences of frequently heading soccer balls at practice.
Dr. Chris Koutures, a pediatrician and sports medicine specialist in Anaheim Hills, California, says the imaging study is fascinating, but needs more data to effectively determine safe header limits, especially for younger players.
Dr. Lipton agrees that neuropsychological damage from headers is hard for a coach or physician to notice, as cognitive problems develop gradually, & even players might not be aware of memory loss.
"We can't tell an individual today not to head a ball, but caution is a good thing," Lipton says. "We need more research for definitive answers, and we have the advanced imaging tools to do it."
SO YOU'RE A STOCK TRADER? CRAZY!
Der Spiegel reports that two researchers at the University of St Gallen in Switzerland, in comparing profiles for 28 successful stock market traders, with an equal number of diagnosed psychopaths, found that the brokers easily “outperformed” all crazies -- in terms of “reckless manipulation”.
Even at the risk of hurting their own profit margins, according to Dr Thomas Noll, a prison administrator, “they spent a lot of energy trying to damage their opponents.”
WHITE FRUIT FLESH LOWERS STROKE RISK
Daily consumption of white-fleshed fruits and vegetables - such as apples and pears - can significantly cut the risk of developing a stroke.
During a 10 year study and follow up of 20,069 healthy adults aged between 20 and 65, Dutch researchers analyzed the effects of the daily eating of fruits and vegetables of various colours in lowering the risk of developing a stroke.
Results show that the risk of a stroke is 52% lower for people who ate a lot of white-fleshed fruits and vegetables.
Every 25 grams per day of white fruits and vegetables such as apples, pears, bananas, cauliflower, chicory, cucumber & mushrooms, led to a 9% decrease in the risk of stroke, say Wageningen University scientists.
According to the report published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, the colour of the edible portions of fruits & vegetables shows the presence of beneficial phytochemicals (plant compounds), such as carotenoids and flavonoids.
“Green, orange/yellow & red/purple fruits and vegetables weren't related to stroke. Yet the risk of stroke incidence was 52% lower for people with a high intake of white fruits and vegetables, compared to people with a low intake,” says lead author Linda M. Oude Greip.
“To prevent strokes, it may be useful to consume considerable amounts of white fruits and vegetables,” she adds, saying “an apple a day, which weighs approximately 120 grams, is an easy way to raise white fruit & vegetable intake.”
"However, other fruit & vegetable colour groups may protect against other chronic diseases. Therefore, it remains of importance to consume a LOT of fruit and vegetables."
A=PLUS FOR CHILDREN
Giving vitamin A supplements to children under the age of five can save the lives of 600,000 in low and middle-income countries every year!
A review of 43 trials shows that vitamin A supplements reduced child mortality by 24% in developing countries by preventing many deadly infections in children.
A team of researchers from the UK and Pakistan studied over 200,000 children aged 6 months to 5 years, and found that taking vitamin A can also reduce disabilities such as severe visual impairment, blindness and complications caused by severe infections.
According to the World Health organization (WHO), vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is the leading cause of preventable blindness in children, and increases the risk of disease and death from severe infections such as diarrhea and measles.
About 190 million children under the age of five might have vitamin A deficiency, especially in Africa and South-East Asia, a condition that hits young children and pregnant women in many low-income countries.
Supplements are already distributed twice a year in at least 60 countries, but about 20% of the target population is not covered.
"I've never really seen something that works so clearly," says author of the study, Evan Mayo- Wilson. "From the 1970s through to today, the picture hasn't changed. It's striking because the evidence of a really big reduction in mortality is very consistent."
"Until other sources are available, supplements should be given to all children who are at risk of vitamin A deficiency,” he recommends.
Researchers from the University of Oxford and Aga Khan University, emphasize that the findings are so compelling and clear that further trials of vitamin A with placebos would be unethical.
USING UK LEGAL DRUGS "LIKE TOSSING A COIN"
The UK pharmaceutical industry is in “crisis,” and UK scientists are finally raising their worries about the growing number of ineffective medicines with their adverse drug reactions, named as "side effects" by the industry's chiefs.
The clinicians express their worries in a letter to PM David Cameron & Health Sec Andrew Lansley, urging a rethink of the way new medicines are tested.
The signatories say in The Lancet that currently “epidemic proportions” of drugs cause adverse reactions, while patients have to pay increasing sums of money for their prescriptions.
Figures show that some 197,000 citizens of the EU die of an adverse reaction to drugs every year.
The letter calls for a change of approach to drugs testing, as testing on animals produces results that are not the same for humans.
"Our reliance on animals to establish safety results in the exposure of clinical volunteers and patients to many treatments, are at best ineffective and at worst dangerous," their letter says.
Tony Dexter, one of the signatories, and head of a research lab in Cheshire, describes trying drugs on animals and assuming they are safe for humans as; “really the toss of a coin."
"A fundamental problem is that a rat is not a human. They are different sizes, have different metabolisms and have different diets; so using animals to predict effects on humans is difficult.
"50% of compounds that prove to be safe in rats prove not to be safe in humans, so it really is the toss of a coin," Dexter tells Sky News.
The signatories of the letter urge new procedures in favour of testing medicines on human cells, before issuing certificates for any new drugs.
They also voice concerns about the soaring costs of most new drugs, that make them unsustainable, as high prices are “creating an ever-increasing burden on the National Health Service”.
A lack of adequate treatment for diseases like Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, many cancers, and strokes, is another source of concern for the scientists and clinicians.
"The UK pharmaceutical industry is in crisis. Likewise, health care is in a web of crises, many of which are intimately linked to the pharmaceutical industry's major problems," the scientists' letter cautions.
READ AND SHARE, PLEASE !!
Blood Clots/Stroke - They Now Have a 4th Indicator, the Tongue. STROKE: Remember the 1st 3 Letters;- S. T. R.
STROKE IDENTIFICATION:
During a BBQ, a woman stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics). She said she'd just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes.
They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken up, Jane enjoyed herself for the rest of the evening.
Jane's husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6pm Jane passed away.) She'd suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Jane would be with us today. Some don't die. They end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead. It only takes a minute to read this.
A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke ....totally. He says the trick is getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.
RECOGNIZING A STROKE
Thank God for the sense to remember the '3' steps, STR. Read and Learn!
Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage, when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.
Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions: S *Ask the individual to SMILE.
T *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (i.e. It is sunny out today.)
R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call the emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
New Sign of a Stroke --- Stick out Your Tongue
NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other, that's also an indication of a stroke.
A cardiologist says if everyone who reads this passes it on by email to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved.
I have done my part. Will you?
TO SEE - VITAMIN D !
The University at Cardiff, Wales, headlined research last year that vitamin D is a major health boost.
Now new research indicates that taking vitamin D can ward off vision loss from age-related macular degeneration (AMD), in women younger than 75, according to media reports today.
In the research, women under 75 who consumed sufficient vitamin D, cut their risk of developing early age-related AMD, a leading cause of vision loss and blindness, by 59%, when compared to women with vitamin D-poor diets. Researchers found that vitamin D levels among patients in the study were most affected by the amount of vitamin D they consumed, through certain fish, dairy, eggs, and leafy greens, NOT by the amount of outdoor exposure they had.
Considering that many in the West are deficient in vitamin D, this study may offer one more reason for women to include vitamin D-rich foods in the diet, says the lead author on the study, Amy Millen of the University of Buffalo.
TAKE IN VITAMIN D - OR DIE !!!
A fresh study at the University of Eastern Finland shows that vitamin D deficiencies can increase a person's risk of death, Finnish media report.
Researchers studied the effects of vitamin D on over 1,000 people aged from 53 to 73 who didn't suffer from cancer or vascular diseases, but 65% of the subjects were found to have low levels of vitamin D. The subjects were monitored for an average of nine years. A total of 87 of the participants died in the course of the study.
The study confirms that a lack of vitamin D increases the risk of chronic diseases. Individuals with low levels of vitamin D are about twice as likely to die early compared to those with higher levels.
During the summer months in Finland, people are able to obtain vitamin D from exposure to the sun. However, persons living in Finland must rely on vitamin D from food or supplements during the darker months of the year.
Oily fish & eggs are major sources of vitamin D. As, of course, is sunlight. The Cardiff study highlighted exposure for "at least" half an hour per day as vital for health and wellbeing.
MEDITATE ON THIS...
Meditation has REAL pain relieving effects, a study in the Journal of Neuroscience says now.
In the study, researchers mildly burned 15 men and women in a lab on two separate occasions, before and after the volunteers attended four 20-minute meditation training sessions in 4 days.
The second time, after the participants were instructed to meditate, they rated the same pain stimulus - 120-degree heat on their calves - as being 57% less unpleasant & 40% less intense. "This is the first study to show that only a little over an hour of meditation training can dramatically reduce both the experience of pain and pain-related brain activation,"
says Fadel Zeidan, lead author of the study and a post-doctoral research fellow at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Centre, in North Carolina.
The reduction in pain ratings was substantially greater than those seen in similar studies involving placebo pills, hypnosis, and even morphine and other painkilling drugs, he adds.
Past research has found that Buddhist-style meditation - known as mindfulness meditation - can help people cope with pain, anxiety, and a number of other physical and mental health problems. But in most cases the training takes weeks, not days (as in this study).
Eight weeks of meditation can trigger measurable changes in the brain, contributing to increases in the amount of grey matter in areas associated with learning and awareness.
A study of 16 volunteers who took the eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program, shows that meditation can actually alter the brain's structure, report scientists from Mass. General Hospital, & Giessen University, Germany.
A comparison between the brain MRI scan of meditators and non-meditators, two weeks prior to the study, and 8 weeks after the meditation program, shows that the practice can increase grey-matter density in the hippocampus, the part of the brain related to learning and memory, and in brain areas associated with self-awareness.
The program included weekly meetings to practice mindfulness meditation and audio recordings for guided meditation practice. The participants were asked to keep track of the time they spent practicing each day.
The meditation group spent an average of 27 mins per day doing mindfulness meditation exercises which focused on nonjudgmental awareness of one's feelings, sensations and state of mind.
According to the study published in Psychiatry Research: "Neuro-imaging", participants reported reduced stress after 8 weeks of meditation.
"It is fascinating to see the brain's plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain, and can increase our well-being and quality of life," says the main author, Britta Holzel.
While previous studies have found structural differences between meditators and other non- meditating individuals, they couldn't prove that meditation had caused this effect.
"Other studies in different patient populations have shown that meditation can make significant improvements in a variety of symptoms, and we are now investigating the underlying mechanisms in the brain that facilitate this change," she adds.
JUST FOR A LAUGH They say laughter is the best medicine, so perhaps this news item will make you smile!
Neuroscientists are examining whether political allegiances are hard-wired into people, after finding evidence that the brains of Tories are a different shape to those of left-wingers.
Scans of 90 students' brains at University College London (UCL) uncovered a "strong correlation" between the thickness of two particular areas of grey matter and an individual's views, reports The Independent.
Self-proclaimed right-wingers had a more pronounced amygdala - a primitive part of the brain associated with emotion - while their political opponents from the opposite end of the spectrum had thicker anterior cingulates.
The research was carried out by Geraint Rees, director of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, who says he is "very surprised" by the finding, which is being peer reviewed before publication this year.
It was commissioned as a light-hearted experiment by actor Colin Firth as part of his turn guest editing BBC Radio 4's Today program, but has now developed into a serious effort to discover if we're programmed with a particular political view.
Professor Rees says that, although it's not precise enough to be able to predict someone's stance simply from a scan, there is “a strong correlation that reaches all our scientific tests of significance.”
STOP FOLLOWING THE US NIGHTMARE!!!
Even Santa wasn't feeling too good last year, as Lady Gaga decapitated him in public!
It seems the US culture of slaughter is reaching out to our children from a US dream gone wrong.
The received wisdom is that whatever happens in the US, the UK will soon do too. Time, perhaps, for our physical and mental health, to change and stop following the US to fat and ruin now?
Take a look at US "Health"... if you live there. Most of the beef you eat, has been exposed to excrement during processing. Your poultry is infected with salmonella. Your stock animals and poultry are overdosed with hormones and antibiotics.
In most countries, governments try to protect their citizens against all this, but in the US the government's increasingly bribed by companies to avoid regulations and proper inspections.
In a few years, the majority of all the produce for sale in the US will be from genetically modified crops, thanks to the cozy relationship between Monsanto Corp and the US government.
Worse, due to vast quantities of high-fructose syrup US people consume, fully one-third of US children born today, will be diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes at some point in their lives.
And it's not just the food that's killing you, it's the drugs. If you show any sign of life when you're young, they'll put you on Ritalin.
Then, when you get old enough to take a good look around, you'll get depressed, so they'll give you Prozac. If you're a man, this will render you chemically impotent, so you'll need Viagra to get it up. Meanwhile, your steady diet of trans-fat-laden food is guaranteed to give you high cholesterol, so you'll be given Lipitor.
Finally, at the end of the day, you'll lay awake at night worrying about losing your health plan, so you'll need Lunesta to go to sleep...
Is this the way you want for you & your children? And it all started in the good ole US, where ten years ago they started diagnosing lively children with little respect for authority as "sick"....
"Hyperactivity" and "Attention Deficit Disorder" are now being misdiagnosed to control OUR kids, yet they ARE exposed to extreme violence on TV, in their US created video games, and can watch a so-called superstar publically decapitate Santa.
Good Health !?!
There is, surely, a better, brighter way.
NO MORE PAIN FOR UK DIABETICS?
Urtica dioica, a herbaceous perennial flowering plant also known as stinging nettles, has long been known for its numerous medical properties. The herb is reported to be effective in treating prostate disorders, respiratory problems, stomach Catarrh and anemia.
The high content of secretin in the plant makes Urtica dioica an effective herb for treating several gastrointestinal-related conditions.
Now scientists have succeeded in producing the world's first oral vaccine from stinging nettles to fight diabetes and high blood sugar levels.
Its "discoverer" says that a peptide cycle found in Urtica dioica improves the entrance of blood sugar into the cells, a process believed to be impaired in diabetic patients.
Shabani Domala, the researcher, says the drug has successfully finished its trials and is expected to enter the market by next year. He says the best benefit is that the new oral drug, unlike injecting insulin, is completely pain free.
“I started the project 15 years ago in Tehran University of Medical Sciences for my diabetic nephew, who was forced to inject insulin on a daily basis,” the lead researcher, says.
So perhaps we in Wales won't get any benefit from this at all... since we're slaves to the UK's pharmaceutical monopolies, and "our" UK coalition, for its own reasons, doesn't want "its" subjects to be friends with Iran.
Mind, if Wales got off its ***e and produced its own biotechnology, that would be true liberation.
An economy for Wales - is good for yewer health!!!
CHANGE OR DIE: IT REALLY IS NECESSARY!
A new study suggests that cancer was extremely rare in antiquity and is therefore a modern, manmade disease caused by environmental factors.
Researchers at Manchester's KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology Cancer studied mummified remains and literary evidence from ancient Egypt, literary evidence from ancient Greece, & medical studies of human and animal remains from earlier periods, going back to the age of the dinosaurs.
According to the study published in Nature Reviews Cancer, cancer is the result of diet and pollution in the modern age. Only one case of cancer was found among hundreds of Egyptian mummies, with few written references to it.
One unnamed mummy was diagnosed with rectal cancer by Professor Michael Zimmerman, a visiting Professor at the KNH Centre, PhysOrg reports.
The rate of cancer, especially childhood cancer, has exploded since the Industrial Revolution, showing that old age is not the main reason behind cancer, scientists say.
“In industrialized societies, cancer is second only to cardiovascular disease as a cause of death. But in ancient times, it was extremely rare,” says Professor Rosalie David, of the Faculty of Life Sciences.
“There is nothing in the natural environment that can cause cancer. So it has to be a man- made disease, down to pollution and changes to our diet and lifestyle.”
Scientists believe that the short life span of ancients, precluded the development of cancer, but people of ancient Egypt and Greece did live long enough to develop cancer, having diseases such as atherosclerosis, Paget's & osteoporosis.
The team found the first descriptions of cancer operations in the 17th century, and the first reports in scientific literature of distinctive tumors, within the past 200 years.
YOU CAN CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY!!!
In a new study, Australian behavioral scientists explode the theory that happiness is linked solely to genetics, in a study viewed as a breakthrough in psychological research.
The results of a 25-year study on 60,000 Germans show very strongly that long-term happiness IS determined by lifestyle decisions;- including partner choice, love for others, work & religion.
The study discovers that people who put their relationship with their partner & children first are happier than those interested in careers or material success, as are those who help others through social or political activities.
Working less hours doesn't necessarily lead to happiness, but working a lot more or less than they want, makes people VERY unhappy.
"Other things that matter are social activities, getting involved in social and community things with friends in an active kind of way," Professor Headey, team leader, says.
He adds that a link between religion and happiness is also quite evident.
"Religion seems to work for people - people who regularly attend church or mosque are a bit happier on average, than people who are non- religious or non-attenders...
"So having some kind of belief system that gives you a sense of meaning or purpose is important for happiness."
"People who select or happen to be selected by partners with relatively benign personalities, with low levels of neuroticism, and who are reasonably extroverted and outgoing, tend to be happier than average, and happier than they would be, just on the basis of their own personality traits," adds Professor Headey.
Professor Headey says these findings are the first of their kind on such a large scale.
"It is, I think, something of a breakthrough," Professor Headey says.
"People want to be happy, they want to know what they can do to make a difference, and this gives some indication of the kinds of choices that matter.
"So we don't have to be stuck with the idea that happiness is set, like disease or height or genes."
Study leader and Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne, Australia, Bruce Headey, says the study turns the idea of happiness being linked to personality, firmly on its head.
"Happiness isn't just a matter of heredity; it isn't just in the genes," he says.
"Genes might be about 50% of the story, but the rest depends on lifestyle choices: choices relating to your partner, and also relating to your work life."
The study is being published in the official journal of the US National Academy of Sciences, & based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, conducted by scientists partly from Australia.
It analyzed responses from a representative sample of people aged 16 & over, who answered questions every single year from 1984 to 2008.
PLASTIC KETTLES KILL!
Plastic dishes or packaging were very rare in the Soviet Union. Soviet food stores did not use polyethylene film and fresh groceries would be wrapped in fresh clean packing paper.
Now it's considered normal to have foodstuffs packed in various plastic containers, bags, with fizzy reactive drinks in plastic bottles and even plastic kettles are used to boil water !
Disposable plastic kitchenware appeared first in the USA at the beginning of the 20th century. Mass production started at the end of the 1950s, and paper was gradually replaced with plastic.
Yet plastic kitchen utensils can be dangerous, because as they're heated in a microwave oven or filled with hot water, they discharge toxins into both food and drinks.
Drinks in plastic bottles can be very dangerous for children. When such bottles are heated, they emit bisphenol A. This substance can trigger the development of various cancers, heart ailments, obesity, diabetes, etc. Bisphenol A is dangerous, and especially for boys: it can often affect the reproductive system of male embryos in the womb.
Baby bottles containing bisphenol are banned in the US. US companies now manufacture plastic bottles without the chemical. Nothing has been changed for other countries, though.
Phthalate is another extremely toxic substance used in the production of plastic kitchenware. Phthalates are used as plasticizers - they make plastic materials flexible and soft. They are contained in polyethylene films that are used for packing meat, sausages and other foodstuffs. Phthalates can most easily penetrate into fats.
Therefore, specialists recommend that people keep food in glass, metal or ceramic containers. It's best to use plastic just for cold food & drinks.
Dmitry Zykov, a food technologies specialist:
"For hot food and water, you should only use materials that have been exposed to a process of being burnt in a furnace. Surfaces become inert as a result of this process, and no toxins can penetrate from such dishes or containers into your food. Tableware made of glass or stainless steel doesn't react chemically with hot food.
If you have a plastic electric kettle at home, I would recommend that you replace it with a metal one. It's more expensive, but it's a lot better for your health."
EAT WHOLEMEAL BREAD & GREEN VEG TO AVOID DIABETES
For the Welsh, cursed with a high incidence of diabetes, here's some welcome research...
Following a diet rich in whole grains, which are high in magnesium, lowers the risk of developing diabetes in the long run, AND mitigates further complications for diabetics, a new study finds.
Previous studies have reported that adopting a healthy diet rich in vegetables and fruits lowers the risk of developing diabetes, coronary heart disease, strokes, and some cancers.
According to a study published in Diabetes Care, individuals who receive about 200 milligrams of magnesium from foods and vitamin supplements for every 1,000 calories they consume, are at a 47% lower risk of developing diabetes over the next 20 years.
The higher magnesium an individual receives, the lower would be the blood levels of several markers of inflammation. High blood levels of magnesium are linked to low insulin resistance.
"Increasing magnesium intake may be important for improving insulin sensitivity, reducing systemic inflammation, and decreasing diabetes risk," says lead researcher Ka He, at the University of North Carolina.
Magnesium is needed for the proper functioning of several enzymes responsible for the precise process of glucose in the body, the study finds.
Scientists therefore are urging both diabetics & individuals at risk of developing the condition to follow a healthy diet rich in magnesium in order to lower the risk of developing diabetes and avoiding wosening its complications.
THE HEALTH-ENHANCING POWER OF FAITH & LOVE
IMAGINE YOU'RE TOLD YOUR BABY IS DEAD !
A mother saved her premature baby's life recently, after being told by doctors "Sorry, we couldn't save him". Read what happened next here...
Following a low-carbohydrate diet in which plants, rather than animals, are the main source of fat and protein, can lower the overall risk of death.
Previous studies all report that low-carbohydrate diets can promote weight loss and improve blood cholesterol levels. According to a new study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, adopting a higher-vegetable low-carbohydrate diet, can lead to a 20% lower risk of death.
A low-carbohydrate diet rich in meat? - this increases mortality rates by 23%.
A diet rich in meat is linked with a higher risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases. It also increases the risk of a cancer-related death, albeit not "significantly".
Following the "Eco-Atkins" diet, which is rich in vegetable-derived fats and proteins, lowers the overall risk of death and the heart disease- related mortality rate, by about 20%.
Lack of unsaturated fats, dietary fibre, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals in meat-based diets may be responsible for the high death rate in individuals following a meat-rich diet.
"These results suggest that the health effects of a low-carbohydrate diet may depend on the type of protein and fat, and a diet that includes mostly vegetable sources of protein & fat is preferable to a diet with mostly animal sources of protein and fat," says lead researcher, Frank B. Hu.
FOLLOWING THE US HEALTH WAY?
As we now see Health insurance company salesmen on our streets, pretending to be "legal advisors", and watch helplessly as the UK's health "industry" is touted to more and more "experts" - by bribing GPs to front the smashing of the UK's once world- famous National Health Service; take a good look at the US way... and see the dark abyss loom!
1 - Even as the rest of the US economy deeply struggles, US health insurance companies increased their profits by 56 percent in 2009.
2 - According to a report by Health Care for America Now, the US's five biggest for-profit health insurers ended 2009 with a combined profit of $12.2 billion.
3 - The top executives at the five largest for- profit health insurance companies in the US received $200 million in "compensation" in 2009.
4 - According to an article on the Mother Jones website, health insurance premiums for small US employers increased 180% between 1999 and 2009.
5 - Health insurance premium increases are getting totally out of control. For example, the 39% increase in health insurance premiums Anthem Blue Cross imposed on some California customers last year, made national headlines.
6 - Since 2003, health insurance companies have given $42 million in state election contributions.
7 - More than two dozen pharmaceutical companies made over a billion dollars in profits in 2008.
8 - Each year, tens of billions of dollars is spent on pharmaceutical marketing in the US alone.
9 - Nearly half of all US citizens now use prescription drugs on a regular basis, according to a CDC report that was just released.
According to the report, approximately one-third of all US citizens use 2 or more pharmaceutical drugs, and more than ten% of all US citizens use 5 or more prescription drugs, regularly.
10 - According to the CDC, approximately three quarters of a million people a year are rushed to emergency rooms in the US because of adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs.
11 - According to a very surprising new study, 85% of new pharmaceutical drugs are "lemons" and pose serious health risks to their users.
12 - The Food and Drug Administration reported 1,742 prescription drug recalls in 2009, which was an increase from 426 drug recalls in 2008.
13 - Shocking new research has found that expectant mothers taking antidepressants have an astounding 68% increase in the overall risk of miscarriage. Yet pharmaceutical companies are doing nothing to stop this.
14 - The use of psychiatric medications among 18 to 34 yr old members of the US military & their wives, increased by 42% between 2005 and 2009.
15 - There are new medical studies that suggest that many of the most popular anti-depressant drugs are no more effective than a placebo.
16 - Pharmaceutical companies continue to rake in billions of dollars from selling vaccines and are encouraging even pregnant women to take them, even though there is mounting evidence that taking vaccines while pregnant, dramatically increases the rate of miscarriage.
17 - One woman in New Hampshire is seeking more than $24 million in damages from the manufacturer of a prescription drug that she took for shoulder pain. It turns out that as a result of taking the drug, she is now blind and has been left scarred by internal and external burns.
18 - According to a study, the medical liability system in the US added approximately $55.6 billion to the cost of health care in 2008.
19 - Pharmaceutical companies have become so greedy that now they are even attempting to patent our genes. It is being reported that over three million gene patent applications have been filed with the US government so far.
Tens of thousands of gene patents have already been granted at this point. It is estimated that companies hold approximately 40,000 patents on sections of the human genome right now. Those patents cover approximately 20% of our genes.
20 - According to a recent report, US citizens spend about twice as much as residents of other developed countries on health care, but get much lower quality and far less efficiency in return.
GHOULS OF UK's BODY PARTS There was a massive campaign in Wales to make people have to carry an "I don't want my organs donated" card, in order to be able to opt out from having body parts taken at death...
and in 2015, Welsh AMs capitulated to the lobbyists... but beware!
Now that system -- of only donor card carriers having organs removed automatically - is gone, the ghouls have carte blanche to steal organ parts --- when they were stealing them from UK people illegally already... !!!
An inquiry has found that organs and bones from the bodies of dead UK nuclear industry Sellafield workers, were illegally harvested without their consent for over 30 years.
The inquiry's findings reveal that relatives of 64 staff discovered that their loved ones had been stripped of livers, tongues and even legs, decades after they were buried, the Belfast Telegraph reported.
The findings also proved the existence of an “old boys' club” among pathologists, coroners & scientists around Sellafield, prior to 1992, which prioritized the needs of the nuclear industry, above grieving family members.
The workers representatives told the inquiry's Chair, Michael Redfern QC, that they felt as if bodies had been “mutilated” and treated as “commodities” to assist in research on behalf of the industry to try to disprove the link between cancers and radiation at Sellafield & elsewhere.
Some missing bones had been replaced with broomsticks for deceased workers' funerals. Redfern says families have been “wronged”.
“In most cases considered by the inquiry, relatives were let down at a time when they were most vulnerable, by those in whom they were entitled to place absolute trust," he says.
In the Commons, Energy Secretary Chris Huhne apologized to the families, and stated that the practice has now "been stopped".
The 650-page report, following a three-year inquiry, which also examined 3 other studies involving the nuclear industry, in which 6,500 bodies, including children, were used, says the removal of organs & tissue was “unnecessary & inappropriate” in a majority of Sellafield cases.
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DID YOU KNOW... that microwaves were originally developed as a weapon of war to destroy human flesh?
that ALL microwave cookers were banned in Russia - until the collapse of the USSR?
that research shows that microwave cooking mutates molecules and is probably responsible for stomach cancers, Russian research shows?
BINGE DRINKERS HAVE BRAIN DAMAGE: AND DON'T KNOW IT! Meyerhoff, group leader of new research, says that the alcohol consumption among the heavy drinkers his team studied, was only 60% of that typically found among alcoholics in clinics...
These are the ONLY group normally ever studied. But his team studied - for the first time - heavy drinkers living among the general population.
Even in these "binge" drinkers, they found that frontal white matter NAA was much lower in heavy drinkers than light drinkers, and was associated with lower executive & working memory functions.
In other words, binge drinkers are brain-damaged!
"Although the men and women who drank heavily for many years demonstrated fewer changes in brain metabolites than do alcoholics in treatment," Meyerhoff says, "the abnormalities we found, are nonetheless associated with lower brain function."
Lower cognitive functioning, he says, can affect daily living routines in not-so-obvious ways – the changes may be too gradual or too weak to be noticeable – but they may still interfere with basic cognitive processes, such as: decision making; planning; regulation of emotion and motivation; memory; and motor control.
"These deficits may have an affect on a heavy drinkers' ability to judge his/her drinking, as adversely affecting his/her life," he adds, "and can also interfere with the drinker's decision to seek treatment or reduce drinking, thus perpetuating drinking behaviour."
Meyerhoff says some behaviours associated with these metabolite changes, include the inability to apply consequences from past actions; difficulties with abstract concepts of time & money; difficulties with storing and retrieving information; and frequently needing external motivators.
Both Martin & Meyerhoff say the study's findings of chemical abnormalities in the brains of heavy social drinkers provide evidence of brain damage, even if the drinkers cannot see it themselves.
"Our major aim was to detect the early adverse effects of alcohol drinking on brain function, and to provide useful information to the heavy alcohol drinker, family practitioners, and society," says Meyerhoff. "Our message is: 'Drink in moderation! Heavy drinking damages your brain ever so slightly, reducing your cognitive functioning in ways that may not be readily noticeable. To be safe... don't overdue it.'"
