All Entries in the "Wellness" Category
Do Our Personalities Pilot the Way We Live Our Lives?
The idea that our inborn predispositions dictate how we live our lives was once seen as antiquated and even reactionary. No more.
One afternoon not long ago, my body mocked my pretensions, toppled my carefully constructed persona, and forced me to rethink who I am.
I was lounging at the dining room table late on a Sunday afternoon, perusing the local newspaper and wearing my favorite home-alone attire — faded linen capris, a baggy yellow T-shirt, and ancient bedroom slippers. I had a cup of ginger tea going; somewhere in the background, NPR’s American Routes played a bluesy riff by John Prine. As far as I was concerned, life didn’t get much better than this.
Just then, I heard slapping footsteps on the stairs leading up to our front porch. The screen door whined open. Voices. Muffled laughter. Youthful. Female. More than one.
Full Story: Do Our Personalities Pilot the Way We Live Our Lives? | Personal Health | AlterNet.
The Limits of Antidepressants: Exploring the Alternatives
In 2008, we learned that the benefits of antidepressants had been greatly overstated. [1] Former FDA psychiatrist Erick H. Turner, M.D. uncovered some startling information about Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), including Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft, the most commonly prescribed antidepressants. In reviewing all the medical literature, he learned that 94 percent of the reports showing the therapeutic benefits of SSRIs were published compared to only 14 percent of the reports showing either no benefits or inconclusive results (of taking SSRIs were published). When he weighed all the literature, Dr. Turner determined that SSRIs were no more effective than a placebo for treating most depressive patients. Those with severe depression were helped, sometimes greatly, but those with mild to moderate depression, the majority of cases, received little relief. British researchers using the Freedom of Information Act uncovered identical findings. [2]
In January 2010, another study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) confirms these findings. The newest study also evaluated another class of antidepressants, tricyclic antidepressants. Again, researchers determined that the typical patient, one with mild to moderate depression, gets the same amount of relief from a placebo as from an antidepressant. [3][4] The first author of the study, Jay C. Fournier, MA, told Medscape, “I think the most surprising part of the findings was how severe depression has to be in order to see this clinically meaningful difference emerge between medication and placebo, and that the majority of depressed patients presenting for treatment do not fall into that very severe category.”
Full Story: Christiane Northrup, MD: The Limits of Antidepressants: Exploring the Alternatives.
The Non-Remembrance of Things Past
It’s pitch-dark. Your eyes have opened, but you cannot see.
Piece by piece, you begin to establish your location: Bed. Yes. Home. Middle of the night. Wednesday. No, Thursday, now. Early. Chilly. Fall.
Even as, half-asleep, you’re reassembling yourself, part of you wakes up to the fact that you’ve just come from a dream: your body—abuzz, refreshed—is still in the feeling-state the dream created. Where you are, though, matters less than where you’ve been. Your body, still half-slumbering, is eager to return to the exotic land you’ve just left, but your mind can’t make out where to go or how . . . . Wait, there’s something. A boat. Your father, rowing . . . . No, not your father; some other male. You were coming from . . . a movie theater?!? Someone was there with you—to your right? Behind you? You can feel the absence of her presence. You turn back to the boat, but the guy is no longer there. Did he disappear in the dream, or did he disappear because you can’t remember the dream? And was that a boat he was in or a pickup truck?
You keep searching, as if inching your way through some unexplored cave—arms, hands, fingers, fingertips outstretched—and whenever you feel you’ve almost got a handle on something—a picture, a notion—damn, it slips away, escaping deeper into the blackness. It was right there, just a minute ago. You were living it; asleep, yes, but your body is still feeling it, yet you can’t connect the feeling to anything in particular, and you’re losing your grip on the few pieces you’ve managed to grab. They’re going. And now—wait . .
Full Story: The Non-Remembrance of Things Past.
Top 5 Suspected Everyday Carcinogens in American Cancer Society’s Scary New Report
Some carcinogens you already know and fear: cigarettes, asbestos, smoked meat.
But what about the ones you’ve never even heard of? That’s the crux of a new report from the American Cancer Society (ACS), which rounds up 20 “suspected carcinogens” the organization would like to see studied more extensively.
Of course, that research, if it happens, will come after the chemicals, ingredients — and even lifestyle choices — are already embedded into the bedrock of our 24/7 economy.
“The objectives of this report are to identify research gaps and needs for 20 agents prioritized for review based on evidence of widespread human exposures and potential carcinogenicity in animals or humans,” Elizabeth Ward, the co-author of the report, said.
So just what are these potential cancer causers lurking in our everyday environs? Surge Desk runs down five (not so awesome) favorites.
Full Story: Top 5 Suspected Everyday Carcinogens in American Cancer Society’s Scary New Report.
Surviving the Great Indoors: The Pros and Cons of Living in an A/C World
There’s no doubt that air-conditioning can save your life, but as heat waves increase in the future, should we all be armed with A/C?
Eddie Slautas turned down his neighbors’ repeated offers to install a window air conditioner in his Chicago apartment. Even when they said they’d help him pay the difference in his utility bill, the 74-year-old demurred. “Why should I make my electric bill higher?” he asked. “The fan is good enough.” Then came a fierce midsummer heat wave. On the night of July 30, 1999, the neighbors found Slautas dead. The fan was running, blowing hot air across his body. He was one of 103 Chicagoans killed by the heat that week.
On the last night of July 2006, a Commonwealth Edison power cable running beneath the city of Chicago failed, putting 3,400 customers in the dark. The next day, as temperatures reached 100 degrees on the fifth day of a blistering heat wave, 1,300 people had to be evacuated from high-rise residential buildings in the area. Their apartments had become saunas, so they took refuge in air-conditioned shelters. Resident Lutricia Somerville, who had resorted to spending much of the night in her parked truck with the air conditioner running, told a reporter, “It’s just like Hurricane Katrina.” Those trapped in the heat must indeed have felt some of the desperation that had hit New Orleans residents 11 months earlier. But the outage was short-lived, and this time no one died or suffered serious medical problems.
Full Story: Surviving the Great Indoors: The Pros and Cons of Living in an A/C World | Environment | AlterNet.
Why Eating a Low-Fat Diet Doesn’t Lead to Weight Loss
Despite the common observation that obesity runs in families, genetic research shows that the habits you inherit from your family are more important than the genes you inherit. Obesity genes account for only five percent of all weight problems. Then, we have to wonder, what causes the other 95 percent of weight problems?
We are seeing an epidemic of obesity in America today. It is the single most important public health issue facing us. If genes do not account for obesity, perhaps it is our high-fat diet that is to blame. That has been the common belief in our society since nutritional low fat guidelines were pushed upon us in the 1970′s. It seems logical that eating fat makes you fat. Fat contains nine calories per gram, so it would seem that eating more fat (and more calories) would make you gain weight. But that’s not what the science reveals.
Full Story: Mark Hyman, MD: Why Eating a Low-Fat Diet Doesn’t Lead to Weight Loss.
Breaking the Spell of Sisyphus: How to Let Go of Negative Patterns
We all have habitual, negative thinking, feeling and doing patterns that sabotage our success, happiness and well-being. They become so ingrained that we think we have no power to change them. They simply become part of our daily life.
Being passionate about Greek mythology and archetypes, I thought of how the myth of Sisyphus might relate to our lives. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the myth, let me tell you about it.
Sisyphus — a crafty and arrogant man — was condemned by Zeus for his bad deeds to roll a rock up a hill, only to have it roll right back down before he could get it to the top. He would have to repeat this task day after day for eternity — a punishment you might not wish on your worst enemy, unless perhaps he was an ex-husband, wife or lover who left you for your best friend.
Full Story: Agapi Stassinopoulos: Breaking the Spell of Sisyphus: How to Let Go of Negative Patterns.
Are You Fighting Against Your Own Upliftment?
As you will know if you have been following these columns, I am of the mind that just about anyone can improve both their life circumstances as well as the quality of how they experience their life. I have taken numerous approaches, attempting to share ideas that I have found useful in my own life and that others seem to have found beneficial as well.
A common theme running through these articles includes the notion that how you frame the problem is the problem coupled with it’s not what happens to you but what you choose to do about it.
The dialogue has been rich, comical, supportive, derogatory and sometimes just downright spiteful. I appreciate the exchanges, even the most vitriolic, because no matter the point of view, at least the commenter is engaged.
Full Story: Russell Bishop: Are You Fighting Against Your Own Upliftment?.
Meatless Monday: The Protein Principle (RECIPES, PHOTOS)
Wow, the numbers are startling. Americans consume an astonishing amount of protein. USDA statistics reveal that U.S. men eat as much as 190% of their recommended daily protein allowance, while women eat as much as 160%, the great majority of which comes from saturated-fat heavy meat and meat products.
Protein is essential to life; it builds and maintains muscles, bones and skin, and regulates metabolism and digestion. But the question remains, whether you look at it from the perspective of personal health, or environmental degradation, or cost savings, or animal rights, or veggie activism, or whatever else floats your boat: do we really need to eat all that meat?
I went to the top, to the nation's most influential nutritionist, Dr. Marion Nestle, professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, to get her take. “All proteins are made up of the same amino acids. ALL. No exceptions,” she reasons. “The difference between animal and vegetable proteins is in the content of certain amino acids. If vegetable proteins are mixed, the differences get made up. Even if they aren't mixed, all you need to do to get the right amount of low amino acids is to eat more of that food. There is no 'need' for animal proteins at all.”
So, when it comes to protein…if we don't need animal protein all the time, what other options do we have? It turns out that beans, legumes, whole grains, greens, nuts and seeds are excellent sources of protein — plus they offer the added benefit of fiber (not found in meat), vitamins and minerals. Here's some examples of protein found in readily available foods:
Full Story: Chris Elam: Meatless Monday: The Protein Principle (RECIPES, PHOTOS).
Nutrients to Unplug and Recharge Your Body and Mind
Stress seems inevitable, and takes its toll on our health and well-being. Do you recognize any of these signs?
Stress Check
• Do you have difficulty relaxing?
• Do you feel irritable?
• Do you have a dry mouth and sweaty palms?
• Do you worry about little events of the day and are unable to shut your mind off?
• Do you take on too much?
• Do you eat quickly?
• Do you have problems sleeping?
A “yes” to any of these is a sign that you are under stress, and at risk for stress-related health problems.
Fight or Flight — The Stress Response
We need a certain amount of stress to keep us motivated, but too much can seriously affect our health. It mobilizes the body's “fight-or-flight response”, which prepares us to cope with emergencies. Triggering the release of stress hormones adrenalin and cortisol from our adrenal glands, it increases our respiration and heart rate, elevates blood pressure, and raises blood sugar levels.
Full Story: Hyla Cass, M.D.: Nutrients to Unplug and Recharge Your Body and Mind.
The-90 Minute Solution: How Building in Periods of Renewal Can Change Your Work and Your Life (POLL) (VIDEO)
The only way to meet rising demand is to work longer hours, more continuously and stay connected 24/7.
Welcome to the crazy credo that many of us now live by, encouraged by the companies that employ us, in a world that’s been wildly accelerated by technology.
It’s also completely contrary to everything we know about what makes it possible for human beings to perform at the highest level.
The human body is hard-wired to pulse. To operate at our best, we need to renew our energy at 90-minute intervals — not just physically, but also mentally and emotionally.
Food Allergies: Fall, Winter Babies More Prone
Writing in the Journal Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, U.S. researchers explain that babies born in the fall or winter have lower rates of food allergies than their spring and summer-born counterparts. They believe this trend is due to the lack of vitamin D, aka the sunshine vitamin, that fall and winter babies are more likely to be deprived of in their early months.
Dr Milo Vassallo of Massachusetts General Hospital, and lead author of the study, explains:
Vitamin D helps the body fight infection and suppresses its allergy cells.
“When the body is faced with a molecule of food it has to decide if it's a friend or a foe. Vitamin D contributes to tolerance but reduced levels of vitamin D triggers intolerance in the body,” he said.
The researchers discovered nearly a 20% higher instance of hospital-necessitating food allergy conditions among fall and winter babies.
Full Story: Food Allergies: Fall, Winter Babies More Prone.
9 Reasons Sex Fantasies Are Good For You
Sex fantasies are a healthy — and essential — part of a satisfying sex life.
The beauty of fantasy is that we can tap this wellspring of creativity at any time, in any place, with no one else privy to our thoughts. ‘‘A major advantage of fantasy as an aid to physical sexual stimulation,’’ wrote Lonnie Barbach, Ph.D., in For Yourself, her 1976 classic about female sexuality, ‘‘is that it requires no equipment and is always available.’’ Temporarily and vicariously, fantasy allows us to sample highly charged sexual scenarios that exist in a world beyond what real life allows. Not surprisingly, women use fantasy most often to increase sexual desire and to facilitate sexual functioning, especially orgasm.
Besides being effective in turning up sexual heat, fantasies also have an amazing ability to help us cope with the emotional stresses of sex. They offer a way to immediately reduce the biggest block to sexual pleasure: anxiety. Looking more closely at how certain fantasies work, we can discover how they soothe our worries or distract us from concerns that would otherwise get in the way of enjoying sex. By focusing on the steamy images and stories in our minds, we can feel less inhibited and more inspired to be sexually open and expressive. Thus, fantasies often work to increase sexual stimulation while simultaneously decreasing emotional anxiety. When women consider when and why they turn to fantasy, they often mention both sexual and emotional issues.
Full Story: 9 Reasons Sex Fantasies Are Good For You | Sex & Relationships | AlterNet.
Mood Elevators: 5 Natural Ways to Uplift Your Mood
Are you letting bad mood ruin your day?
For some people the feeling of gloominess or depression is due to neuro-chemical or hormonal imbalance and for others it’s the daily stress or upsetting events that wear down one’s emotional reserves. Studies show that people who are depressed or melancholic are twice as likely to develop cancer, heart disease and are a lot more susceptible to colds and flu. While psychotropic medications can be helpful for people who suffer from mood disorders, many patients are finding help from natural solutions. Here are some suggestions to lift your mood, your spirit, and your health.
Full Story: Dr. Maoshing Ni: Mood Elevators: 5 Natural Ways to Uplift Your Mood.
This Sweetener Is Far Worse Than High Fructose Corn Syrup
Many people interested in staying healthy have switched to agave as a safer “natural” sweetener. They want to avoid well documented dangerous sweeteners like HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) but are unaware that most agave is actually WORSE than HFCS.
This expose will offend many hard core natural health advocates because they have been convinced of the agave hype by companies that are promoting it.
Some have even criticized me for having “ulterior” motives. But nothing could be further from the truth. Although I do offer natural health products for sale on this site, I sell no competing products to agave.
Full Story: Dr. Joseph Mercola: This Sweetener Is Far Worse Than High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Want Increased Longevity? Spring Into Shape With Smart Exercise
With the recent LA Marathon just over, you may have become inspired to put on your running shoes and get out for a run. And now that spring is here, it is a good time to get off the couch and get back on track with your exercise routine. How you approach your workout can determine the benefits and enjoyment that you’ll get from it while preventing unnecessary injuries.
Activate Your Health In my 25 years of clinical practice and research on centenarians, I have never met a healthy person or centenarian that lived a physically inactive life. Exercise brings with it numerous benefits, from boosting your energy and reducing stress hormones to lowering your risk for heart disease, stroke, cancer depression, and diabetes.
Exercise also helps burn off excess blood sugar, preventing it from getting stored as body fat – good news for your waistline. Moderate load-bearing exercises are essential for bone density and muscle strength, and this is especially important as we age. Cardiovascular exercises increase heart rate and provide stimulation for the heart muscles, helping maintain proper endurance. Every way you look at it, exercise will make you happier, sexier, and more vivacious!
Full Story: Dr. Maoshing Ni: Want Increased Longevity? Spring Into Shape With Smart Exercise.
Glutathione: The Mother of All Antioxidants
It’s the most important molecule you need to stay healthy and prevent disease — yet you’ve probably never heard of it. It’s the secret to prevent aging, cancer, heart disease, dementia and more, and necessary to treat everything from autism to Alzheimer’s disease. There are more than 89,000 medical articles about it — but your doctor doesn’t know how address the epidemic deficiency of this critical life-giving molecule …
What is it? I’m talking about the mother of all antioxidants, the master detoxifier and maestro of the immune system: GLUTATHIONE (pronounced “gloota-thigh-own”).
The good news is that your body produces its own glutathione. The bad news is that poor diet, pollution, toxins, medications, stress, trauma, aging, infections and radiation all deplete your glutathione.
This leaves you susceptible to unrestrained cell disintegration from oxidative stress, free radicals, infections and cancer. And your liver gets overloaded and damaged, making it unable to do its job of detoxification.
Full Story: Mark Hyman, MD: Glutathione: The Mother of All Antioxidants.
How TV Superchef Jamie Oliver’s ‘Food Revolution’ Flunked Out
You’ve never seen a school lunch like this one, made with hydroponic vegetables and free-range chicken by a brash British superchef. Not that the elementary schoolchildren care. Most sing-song “Pizza!” when given a choice between the gourmet grub and the reheated factory-made frozen pizza. At the end of the lunch period, a mound of chicken sits untouched, and even more is dumped into the trash after a few wary nibbles.
That much we do know from watching Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution” reality TV series now airing on ABC. But we’re not supposed to know that Jamie is substituting high-end foodstuffs that normally grace three-star restaurants for the cheap, institutional fare dished out in public schools like West Virginia’s Central City Elementary School, the setting for the first two episodes.
At the end of one episode, we hear Rhonda McCoy, director of food services for the local county, tell Jamie that he’s over budget and did not meet the fat content and calorie guidelines, but she’s going to let him continue with the “revolution” as long as he addresses these issues. What is not revealed is that the “meal cost at Central City Elementary during television production more than doubled with ABC Productions paying the excess expense,” according to a document obtained by AlterNet from the West Virginia Department of Education.
Full Story: How TV Superchef Jamie Oliver’s ‘Food Revolution’ Flunked Out | Food | AlterNet.
A Better Route to Migraine Relief
Dr. Andrew Weil:
Migraines are severe, disabling headaches that affect up to 17 percent of women and six percent of men. The disorder has many variants, often making diagnosis difficult. Migraines can be excruciating for patients, incapacitating them for hours or days at a time. They are also frustrating for doctors, who often find that the condition resists their best efforts at treatment.
Fortunately, conventional management of migraines has improved dramatically over the past 10 years. An integrative approach – combining the best of these conventional techniques with evidence-based natural approaches — can make a tremendous difference in reducing frequency and severity of attacks.
What are the symptoms of migraine headaches?
The classic, “textbook” migraine is a one-sided severe, throbbing headache, which can be preceded by some sort of “aura” (visual disturbances), and accompanied by nausea and vomiting, along with sensitivity to light and sound. Headache pain worsens with physical activity and usually interferes with normal functioning. Frequency can vary from several times a month to once a year; intensity varies as well. If left untreated, a migraine can last from a couple of hours to several days.
Full Story: Dr. Andrew Weil: A Better Route to Migraine Relief.
If You Are Likely To Get A Life-Altering Disease, Would You Want To Know?
Anne Wojcicki Of 23AndMe Discusses Consumer Genomics At TED MED 2009 (VIDEO)
It’s an age-old question: If you could know you were likely to acquire a life-altering disease like Alzheimer’s or breast cancer, would you want to know?
The mere thought is enough to terrify some. Yet this is precisely the question Anne Wojcicki’s innovative start-up, 23andMe, is interested in. Utilizing the latest genetic mapping technologies, Wojcicki and her team of scientists have created the one of the first successful Consumer Genome companies in history.
Sound impressive? There’s more: In the last two years, 23andMe has been able to create one of the largest databases of genetic information in the world — with “over 30,000 active genomes of people who are participating.” The process is simple: Consumers sign up for a $400 genetic self-test kit, provide a saliva sample and — boom — they receive a full breakdown of their genetic history, including their disease risk factors.
Full Story: TED Talks: Anne Wojcicki Of 23AndMe Discusses Consumer Genomics At TED MED 2009 (VIDEO).
How to Lick Bad Breath Fast — as Easy as 1, 2, 3…
The bothersome combination of dry mouth and bad breath, also known as xerostomia, can be chalked up as yet 
another common problem caused by prescription drug use.
Xerostomia is not to be confused with halitosis, or bad breath, which is typically caused by systemic diseases, gastrointestinal and/or upper respiratory tract disorders, and microbial metabolism from your tongue, saliva or dental plaque.
Common Causes of Dry Mouth and Bad Breath (Xerostomia)
First of all, it’
s important to realize that xerostomia is NOT a disease in and of itself. Rather it is a common side effect of prescription- and OTC drugs.
Full Story: Dr. Joseph Mercola: How to Lick Bad Breath Fast — as Easy as 1, 2, 3….
Study: A small dose of chocolate could cut heart attack or stroke risk by almost 40 percent
The Easter Bunny might lower your chances of having a heart problem. According to a new study, small doses of chocolate every day could decrease your risk of having a heart attack or stroke by nearly 40 percent.
German researchers followed nearly 20,000 people over eight years, sending them several questionnaires about their diet and exercise habits.
They found people who had an average of six grams of chocolate per day — or about one square of a chocolate bar — had a 39 percent lower risk of either a heart attack or stroke. The study is scheduled to be published Wednesday in the European Heart Journal.
Full Story: Study: A small dose of chocolate could cut heart attack or stroke risk by almost 40 percent.
Kombucha and Kefirs: Hype or Healthy?
With so many “functional” beverages out there today, one should wonder if they provide actual health benefits or are just good tasting and look cool. When it comes to fermented beverages like kombucha and kefirs, the good news is that many of them actually live up to their popularity and hype.
These popular beverages today may have New Age-sounding names but in reality both kombucha and kefirs, and similarly fermentation — the process used to make them all — have long, strong histories of consumption around the world. What’s new: these bottled beverages come in numerous flavors, are made from different bases, and have different health benefits (kombucha is even “on tap” at some Whole Foods stores).
Full Story: Ashley Koff: Kombucha and Kefirs: Hype or Healthy?.
The Nutritional Superiority of Pasture Raised Animals
You are what you eat – and the same goes for the animals whose meat, milk and eggs you put in your mouth. We should not only be concerned about what we eat, but what our food eats as well.
Generally speaking, our food animals are not eating what they were naturally meant to eat. As more animals are raised by the thousands and packed into concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), their natural diets of roots and grasses, grubs and bugs has been replaced by a standard factory farm fare of grains, soybeans, King Corn and a sundry array of advanced pharmaceutical products.
But sound science has emerged to demonstrate that eating meat, milk and eggs from grass-fed and pastured animals will provide your body with more health-enhancing, disease fighting materials than industrial-grade CAFO-raised protein.
Full Story: David Kirby: The Nutritional Superiority of Pasture Raised Animals.
Jamie Oliver Shows Kids What Goes Into A Chicken Nugget — Will They Still Eat It?
Jamie Oliver Food Revolution Premiere (VIDEO)
Jamie Oliver’s much anticipated show, ‘Food Revolution’ premiered on Friday, where he attempts to transform the eating habits of the residents of Huntington, West Virginia, the most unhealthy city in America. In this clip, Jamie shows kids how chicken nuggets are actually made with the goal of turning them away from processed foods. Watch their shocking reaction.
Full Story: Jamie Oliver Food Revolution Premiere (VIDEO).
Poop Is the Most Important Indicator of Your Health
Like it or not, our bowels are the ID cards of our bodies, charting our recent histories with terrifying accuracy. So, how do we ensure a healthy gut?
According to a lawsuit filed this month, Ron and Sarah Bowers bought their son a Subway sandwich in Lombard, Illinois on February 27. After eating it, he had agonizing cramps and diarrhea. According to the suit, what the couple really bought was a shit sandwich.
It had been contaminated with Shigella sonnei, a bacteria transmitted via the fecal-oral route and can cause vomiting, dysentery and death. Over 100 people claim to have been sickened at Lombard’s Subway, according to attorney Drew Falkenstein, whose firm has filed suit on behalf of Ron and Sarah Bowers and two other customers.
We don’t want to think about excrement. We don’t want to see it, smell it or touch it. We definitely don’t want to eat it with chicken teriyaki, on toast. Yet intestinal goings-on are in our faces everywhere these days, whether the news is about probiotics and prebiotics appearing in new food products or yet another outbreak of norovirus — the painful gastroenteritis that is spread via fecally contaminated food, water and surfaces and has sickened thousands of cruise-ship passengers in eight unprecedentedly massive outbreaks so far this year.
Full Story: Poop Is the Most Important Indicator of Your Health | Food | AlterNet.
Chicago Public School Students Stand up for Healthy Eating, Become Role Models for Adult Activism
The collective giggle-fest over Vice President Joe Biden’s true but censorable comment at the president’s signing of healthcare reform struck me as pretty sophomoric. But then again, that’s not very fair to sophomores.
Meanwhile, right in my own backyard, real sophomores (and other high schoolers) have successfully organized to change the way more than 400,000 individual stomachs are treated each day.
Thanks to the actions of student protesters at a Chicago Public School (CPS) Board meeting this week, “a major nutritional overhaul of menus” is planned, according to the Chicago Tribune. The students who are forced to feed themselves from these “menus” were quoted as calling the current food available “sickening.”
Now, I’m glad to see the Chicago Tribune covering education whenever it deems the subject worthy enough. But their article published today is replete with the egotistical trumpet sounds of undeserved accolades. Just take a look (emphasis mine):
Full Story: Chicago Public School Students Stand up for Healthy Eating, Become Role Models for Adult Activism | BuzzFlash.org.
Lessons Learned from a Vegan Diet
Like just about everyone in America, I was hankering to go on a slimming detox diet after New Year’s. But based on previous experiences with just about every form of cleanse, I knew I wanted a food-based diet. Eliminating everything but organic, natural foods seemed like the clear choice. Mission: Eat exclusively vegan for a month.
This diet wasn’t all that new to me. I was raised vegan—yes, really—and have followed some version of a vegetarian diet for most of my life. But I had been a happy fish-and-poultry eater for a few years and just felt like I needed a break. I yearned for a “cleaner” diet; something that made me feel good rather than too-full after each meal.
The initial motivation of an internal cleanse quickly turned into a mission to experience responsible eating at its finest. Even though I’ve always been a conscious consumer—organic, free-range, pasteurized only, thanks, and NO, don’t you dare put it in a plastic bag!—as I researched vegan cuisine, I was reminded of the personal and political reasons why so many choose to eat this way all the time. Then I watched this “Oprah,” read these books and watched this movie. The mission was so go for launch.
Full Story: Lessons Learned from a Vegan Diet | Sirens Magazine.
Calorie Count Disclosure And The Health Care Bill: Will This Lead To A Food Revolution?
One aspect of the health care bill that is taking effect immediately is that chain restaurants will be required to prominently display nutrition information. This could be a significant step in changing the food landscape in America.
The AP Reports:
More than 200,000 fast food and other chain restaurants will have to include calorie counts on menus, menu boards and even drive-throughs.
The new law, which applies to any restaurant with 20 or more locations, directs the Food and Drug Administration to create a new national standard for menu labeling, superseding a growing number of state and city laws. President Barack Obama signed the health care legislation Tuesday.
The idea is to make sure that customers process the calorie information as they are ordering. Many restaurants currently post nutritional information in a hallway, on a hamburger wrapper or on their Web site. The new law will make calories immediately available for most items.
Full Story: Calorie Count Disclosure And The Health Care Bill: Will This Lead To A Food Revolution?.
NPA Welcomes Senate Deal on S.3002
Officials at the Natural Products Association (NPA), the leading U.S. trade organization for manufacturers, retailers and distributors of natural products, are “pleased” with the recent agreement between industry proponents Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Byron Dorgan (D- ND) regarding McCain and Dorgan’s recently co-sponsored Dietary Safety Supplement Act (S.3002).
“The NPA is pleased that industry champions Hatch and Harkin have reached an agreement with McCain and Dorgan on reasonable measures to strengthen the regulation of dietary supplements without opening up DSHEA,” said John Gay, NPA’s CEO and executive director. “The original McCain-Dorgan bill would have radically altered the existing regulatory framework [in the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act], and threatened an entire industry in an ineffective attempt to combat a relatively few bad actors.”
Full Story: Natural Products Association – NPA Welcomes Senate Deal on S.3002.
Baldness ‘could be good for your health’ say scientists
A receding hairline can be a good thing, according to US scientists, who say men who go bald by 30 appear to be less likely to develop prostate cancer.
Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine studied 2,000 men aged between 40 and 47.
They were able to link high levels of the male hormone testosterone in those who lose their hair earlier with a lower risk of tumours.
The findings are published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology.
Half of the men in this study had suffered prostate cancer.
Researchers compared the rate of tumours in those who said their hair had thinned by the age of 30 with those who did not suffer hair loss.
Full Story: BBC News – Baldness ‘could be good for your health’ say scientists.
OPS: Life’s full of trade-offs and compromise
How to Give Yourself a Metabolic Tune-Up
Are you tired and worn out?
Do you have sore muscles, fatigue, and brain fog?
If so, you might have metabolic burnout!
Imagine if you could find a way to tune up your metabolism, increase your energy levels, think clearly, and feel less achy.
Imagine if you could prevent diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia.
Imagine if you could heal fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Imagine if you could get to the roots of aging, slow the whole process, and eliminate most age-related diseases.
These aren’t just fantasies.
All these things are possible–if you give yourself a metabolic tune-up.
Full Story: Mark Hyman, MD: How to Give Yourself a Metabolic Tune-Up.
Two Women a Day Die Giving Birth in America — and Many of These Deaths Can Be Prevented
While anti-choicers focus only on preventing access to a single procedure, women across the country are dying pointless deaths due to lack of access to proper care.
A damning new report from Amnesty International castigates the U.S. for dismal maternal mortality rates and a double standard of care that leaves racial minorities and lower-income women out in the cold. The report notes that nearly two women a day die from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth–and many of these deaths could be prevented.
“Mothers die not because the United States can’t provide good care, but because it lacks the political will to make sure good care is available to all women,” Amnesty International America’s Executive Director Larry Cox said when the report’s findings were released. Somehow this miserable trend hasn’t gotten much attention from the anti-choicers who claim to only care about the preciousness of human life.
Pro-Life Only Until Birth
In the United States, where supposedly “pro-life” people make up around half the population, we’re not very good at securing either end of the spectrum–looking out for women seeking family planning or those women about to start a family. And the political allies of the folks exhorting women to “choose life” have been fighting tooth and nail against health reform that would improve access to insurance and care for pregnant women and young children.
How to Rid Your Body of Mercury and Other Heavy Metals: A 3-Step Plan to Recover Your Health
After my recent blog on mercury, I’m sure many of you are depressed and discouraged about mercury and its toxic effects. The bad news is today I am going to review more of mercury’s toxic effects and expand on what I learned at the medical conference on mercury I mentioned in my last blog …
But the good news is I will provide you with a clear, three-step plan to help your body detoxify from mercury and other heavy metals and recover your health. I have used this same plan successfully and safely with hundreds and hundreds of patients over the last 10 years — and it’s the same process I used myself to overcome mercury toxicity!
But first, let’s look at the data presented at “The Impact of Mercury on Human Health and the Environment” conference.
Full Story: Mark Hyman, MD: How to Rid Your Body of Mercury and Other Heavy Metals: A 3-Step Plan to Recover Your Health.
Scope of salmonella-tainted flavouring recall will continue to grow, CFIA warns
It could take months for some food companies to figure out whether a popular flavouring ingredient contaminated with salmonella found its way into their products, industry experts say.
In the past five days, a batch of the flavour enhancer hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) that was found last month to be contaminated with salmonella has already resulted in the recall of 94 items in the U.S. and nine in Canada, with another five items added to the list late Monday.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency warned people Monday not to consume Quaker Crispy Minis rice cakes in tomato and basil, Family’s Best smokey bacon potato chips, Compliments onion soup mix, and two No Name brands of soup mix — onion recipe and cream of leek.
And the CFIA warns there will be more. The Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. says the contaminated HVP, manufactured by Nevada company Basic Food Flavors Inc., could balloon into one of the largest-ever food recalls in North America.
Full Story: Scope of salmonella-tainted flavouring recall will continue to grow, CFIA warns.
Study: Happiness Is Experiences, Not Stuff
If you’re trying to buy happiness, you’d be better off putting your money toward a tropical island get-away than a new computer, a new study suggests. The results show that people’s satisfaction with their life-experience purchases — anything from seeing a movie to going on a vacation — tends to start out high and go up over time. On the other hand, although they might be initially happy with that shiny new iPhone or the latest in fashion, their satisfaction with these items wanes with time. The findings, based on eight separate studies, agree with previous research showing that experience-related buys lead to more happiness for the consumer. But the current work provides some insight into why.
Among the reasons:
- * * People are more likely to mull over their material purchases than they are experiential ones, second-guessing themselves about whether they really made the best choice.
- * * We tend to think of experiences more on their own terms, rather than in comparison with other things.
- * * It’s easier for us to decide on an experiential purchase than a material one.
- * * We’re more upset if we learn that someone else got a better deal, or that a better option exists, for a material purchase than for an experience-related one.
Satisfaction with a purchase could also come down to mindset. When participants in one study thought of material purchases, such as a music CD, as an experience (many hours of enjoyable listening), they were more satisfied than those who viewed the purchase as just a material item.
Full Story: Make A History.
5 Easy Ways to Stay Inspired (Video)
Inspiration comes and goes when it pleases. It’s independent of our desires, doesn't respond well to force, and refuses to be controlled. Inspiration is a force not to be wrestled with. You can try but it will slip under the cracks every time. So how do we maintain access to inspiration so we can continue to direct our efforts in a useful productive manner with as much ease and efficiency as possible? Seems only reasonable to make a deal with inspiration and give in.
5 Ways to Stay Inspired.
Full Story: Tara Stiles: 5 Easy Ways to Stay Inspired (Video).
Homeopathic Medicine: Europe’s #1 Alternative for Doctors
Numerous surveys over the past 150 plus years have confirmed that people who seek homeopathic treatment tend to be considerably more educated than those who don’t (1). What is not as well known is the fact that homeopathic medicine is the leading “alternative” treatment used by physicians in Europe…and growing numbers of the citizenry.
And despite homeopathy’s impressive popularity in Europe, it is actually even more popular in India where over 100 million people depend solely on this form of medical care (2). Further, according to an A.C. Neilsen survey in India, 62 percent of current homeopathy users have never tried conventional medicines and 82 percent of homeopathy users would not switch to conventional treatments (3).
Full Story: Dana Ullman: Homeopathic Medicine: Europe’s #1 Alternative for Doctors.
10 surprisingly unhealthy kids’ foods, and their healthier alternatives
Few parents set out to feed their kids the unhealthy foods that may contribute to childhood obesity. But experts say many of the deceptively healthy foods parents toss in their carts should be left on the grocery store shelves.
So WalletPop sat down with registered dietician Susan Burke March, MS, RD, LD/N, CDE, author of Making Weight Control Second Nature: Living Thin Naturally to find out what so-called “healthy” foods parents should be wary of buying for their children.
Kid’s yogurt
March says this is the equivalent of sprinkling lots of sugar and candy on top of a cup of steamed broccoli. “All the sugar that’s in many brands turns something that’s full of calcium, protein, vitamin D, and magnesium into dessert.” The biggest offenders: yogurt “fun foods.”
Full Story: 10 surprisingly unhealthy kids’ foods, and their healthier alternatives.
Can Thin Mountain Air Make You Slim?
Looking for a new weight loss plan? Try living on top of a mountain. Twenty obese men spent a week near the top of Germany’s highest peak and saw their metabolism speed up, their appetite diminish, and more pounds melt off than they likely would have had they stayed at home, a new study reports. However, the study lacked a control group, so firm conclusions are tough to draw, other researchers say.
Mountain air contains less oxygen than air at lower altitudes, so breathing it causes the heart to beat faster and the body to burn more energy. A handful of studies have found that athletes training at high altitudes tend to lose weight. Gastroenterologist Florian Lippl of the University Hospital of Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich in Germany wondered how the mountain air would affect obese individuals if they weren’t doing any more physical activity than usual. “We know from our outpatient unit that it’s hard to motivate our obese patients” to exercise, says Lippl. “We thought if we bring them up there, the higher metabolic rate will do most of the work for them.”
Lippl and his colleagues invited 20 obese men to an environmental research station about 300 meters below the summit of Zugspitze, a mountain near the Austrian border. This was no hiking expedition. The subjects reached the outpost at 2650 meters altitude almost effortlessly, by cog railway and cable car, and once there could only take the same number of steps each day that they were accustomed to taking at home, as monitored with a pedometer. They were allowed to eat as much as they liked. The men also gave blood so that researchers could test for hormones linked to appetite and obesity, such as leptin and ghrelin.
Full Story: Can Thin Mountain Air Make You Slim? – ScienceNOW.
7 Reasons Why You Should Grow Your Own Food
Not that being part of a trend is ever a good reason to start or learn something new, but if it helps you move forward by being part of the “in” crowd, then you really need to plant your own edible garden this year.
That’s right, having your own vegetable garden is now trendy. In fact according to the 2009 Edibles Gardening Trends Research Report conducted by the Garden Writer’s Association (GWA) Foundation, over 41 million U.S. households, or 38 percent planted a vegetable garden in 2009. And, more than 19.5 million households (18 percent) grew an herb garden and 16.5 million households (15 percent) grew fruits during the same period.
The study found that there was a growth in edible gardening from both experienced gardeners and from an influx of new gardeners: 92 percent of respondents had previous experience and 7 percent (7.7 million households) were new edible gardeners.
Full Story: 7 Reasons Why You Should Grow Your Own Food : Planet Green.
7 Cheap and Easy Vegetarian Meals
Many of us lead pretty busy lives these days and, especially those of us with families, are always trying to get dinner on the table as quickly and easily as possible. Occasionally we fall back on using prepackaged meals from the grocery store or calling for takeout. Those meals have more fat, salt and sugar than we need in our diet, they produce a lot of garbage from the packaging and they are more expensive than cooking from scratch.
In these uncertain economic times we really need to look at our food costs and start to spend more wisely. Here are seven recipes that will cover your dinners for a week, with some leftovers for your lunch. They are as quick as takeout, as easy as many processed dinners, and more economical and nutritious than both.
Chickpea Curry
My son eats a lot of tofu and I'm always encouraging him to add more legumes to his diet, so I decided on something with chickpeas. I had in my mind a recipe from Julie Sahni's cookbook Classic Indian Cooking as a starting point and we made up our own version. I had some dried Mexican chilies that Hugh had brought from his store. I've always rehydrated chilies, but Hugh put them in the bottom of a dry pan until they were fragrant, chopped them finely added a bit of olive oil and then crushed them with a mortar and pestle until they made a paste. We had some leftover rice and carrots from the night before and tossed them in as well. You could add vegetables such as zucchini or cauliflower as well. Get the full Chickpea Curry recipe at Planet Green.
Full Story: 7 Cheap and Easy Vegetarian Meals : TreeHugger.
Eating Disorders: Colleges Highlight Quiet Problem
Eating disorders are the silent scourge of college campuses. They affect men and women. They cause people to overeat, undereat and/or follow strictly moderated diets. They can cause osteoporosis, heart problems and death. And they are largely misunderstood.
Schools across the country are dedicating time to this sensitive issue in honor of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week and shedding light on the causes and facets of the afflictions.
According to a column in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Daily Cardinal:
EDs are sometimes viewed as conditions perpetuated by vanity; however, the prevalent feelings of self-disgust and the low self-confidence exhibited by sufferers of EDs clearly demonstrate the incredible error of this notion. Eating disorders are true manifestations of mental health difficulties and should be treated as such: with kindness, support and proper counseling.
The Daily Free Press, at Boston University, reports on a newer eating disorder, orthorexia, in which sufferers eat as healthfully as possible out of a desire for bodily purity. While not officially recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, orthorexia is characterized by the same symptoms as anorexia and bulimia.
As BU and Fitness Center nutritionist Sarah Butler told the paper:
Full Story: Eating Disorders: Colleges Highlight Quiet Problem.
Are School Lunches Setting Kids Up for Obesity and Poor Nutrition?
The Obamas are taking on childhood obesity by tackling problems with the National School Lunch Program. But will their fixes be enough?
Michelle Obama launched her “Let’s Move” campaign to fight obesity with a flood of media attention and a Presidential Memorandum, signed by her husband, establishing a new Task Force on Childhood Obesity. But how does the rhetoric of the Let’s Move campaign stack up against what President Obama’s administration is actually doing to address childhood obesity? While many of the president’s priorities have lost steam in Congress, tackling childhood obesity is thankfully not one of them. But are the administration’s efforts on the right track?
While the First Lady has been a champion for healthy, sustainable food since the creation of her historic garden in her first days in the White House, the title of her campaign, Let’s Move, rings of food industry influence.
Full Story: Are School Lunches Setting Kids Up for Obesity and Poor Nutrition? | Food | AlterNet.
Are Priobiotics Really the Secret to Good Health (Or Just the Latest Crackpot Supplement Fad?)
Proponents claim probiotics can prevent asthma and cure irritable bowel syndrome, colic, yeast infections, acne — even autism. Have the claims of benefit gone too far?
For some Americans, the world’s happiest headline is “You may be entitled to cash.” Luckily for them, that sentence crowns a press release that went out this week which also includes the phrase “You could receive up to $100,” and describes “a $35,000,000 fund,” then boosts its cred with: “A federal court authorized this notice.”
And all because a California woman ate yogurt thinking it would regulate her digestion, but — according to the lawsuit she filed — it didn’t.
A statement released February 16 by the San Diego, California-based law firm Blood, Hurst & O’Reardon announced that the claim period has just opened in a class-action lawsuit against Dannon. Two years in the making, the suit claims the yogurt company “falsely advertised the health benefits of its Activia and DanActive branded products.”
Dannon, which promoted these yogurts as being probiotic and digestion-friendly, has pledged to refund every eligible claimant professing to have bought Activia or DanActive since these products were first introduced in 2006 and 2007. If so many forms are filed as to exhaust the initially-agreed-upon $35 million, the fund goes up another $10 million.
Full Story: Are Priobiotics Really the Secret to Good Health (Or Just the Latest Crackpot Supplement Fad?) | Food | AlterNet.
Red wine, chocolate among foods that fight cancer
CABERNET and chocolate are potent medicine for killing cancer, according to new research.
Red grapes and dark chocolate join blueberries, garlic, soy, and teas as ingredients that starve cancer while feeding bodies, Angiogenesis Foundation head William Li said at the Technology Entertainment Design Conference in Long Beach, California.
“We are rating foods based on their cancer-fighting qualities,” Li said. “What we eat is really our chemotherapy three times a day.”
The Massachusetts-based foundation is identifying foods containing chemicals that evidently
Full Story: Red wine, chocolate among foods that fight cancer | The Australian.
OPS: you have to make sure that your chocolate isn’t laced with High Fructose Corn Syrup
We Can All Fight Cancer Better
At age 31, my life took a sudden turn. I was an ambitious physician and neuroscience researcher who reveled in discovery and glittering science projects. Then, slipping into a brain scanner one evening in place of a subject who hadn’t shown up, I was suddenly stripped of my white-coat status and thrown into the gray world of patients: That evening, I discovered that I had brain cancer.
Being a physician and scientist is no protection from getting cancer. But it allowed me to dig deeply into the medical and scientific literature to find out everything I could do to help my body resist the disease most efficiently and try to beat the median survival of a few years.
The first thing I learned is that we all carry cancer cells in us. But I also learned we all have natural defenses that generally prevent these cells from turning into an aggressive disease. These include our immune system, the part of our biology that controls and reduces inflammation, and the foods that reduce the growth of new blood vessels needed by developing tumors.
Full Story: David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., Ph.D.: We Can All Fight Cancer Better.
Mercury: How To Get This Lethal Poison Out Of Your Body
If you are heavy, it could be making you sick and tired and age prematurely. And I don’t mean heavy with fat …
I mean heavy with heavy metals — like mercury!
Unfortunately, toxic mercury problems are common. Along with polar bears, beluga whales, ducks, otters, panthers, and all river fish as well as most large ocean fish, we humans are poisoning ourselves with mercury at ever increasing rates.
There’s no doubt about it, mercury is the most alarming, disease-causing source of environmental toxicity that I see daily in my practice. Many of patients have toxic levels of mercury — and they’re not alone. I personally suffered from mercury toxicity and chronic fatigue syndrome –which I cured myself from, in part by getting rid of the mercury in my body. So I know about this first hand.
Full Story Mark Hyman, MD: Mercury: How To Get This Lethal Poison Out Of Your Body.
Michael Pollan: Forget Nutrition Charts, Eat What Grandma Said Is Good for You
The author of ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’ says science has supplanted cultural wisdom as a guide in telling us what to eat.
This excerpt originally appeared in Political Awakenings: Conversations with History, published by The New Press. Reprinted here with permission. Copyright © 2010 by Harry Kreisler.
Harry Kreisler: Where were you born and raised?
Michael Pollan: I was born on Long Island in the town of Hempstead and grew up the first five years in Farmingdale, on the South Shore, and then in a town called Woodbury on the North Shore.
HK: And looking back, how do you think your parents shaped your thinking about the world?
MP: Oh, in many ways, my parents and my grandparents. I got very serious about gardening as a young boy. I had a grandfather who had been in the produce business, and he was a passionate gardener–this is the late ’60s–and he was very kind of reactionary, and there was not too much we connected on except plants.
I put in a garden at our house, too, in imitation of his garden, but I didn’t call it a garden. I called it a farm stand, and every time I could get six strawberries together in a Dixie cup, I’d sell them to my mother. She was the only customer.
Full Story Michael Pollan: Forget Nutrition Charts, Eat What Grandma Said Is Good for You | Food | AlterNet.
Putting the Science of Happiness Into Practice
Countries around the world are beginning to apply the science of well-being to the decisions they make. News from the 5th International Conference on Gross National Happiness.
The study of happiness is experiencing a boom. Its practitioners include economists who believe that gross domestic product (GDP) is too limited a tool to measure the success of societies, psychologists and sociologists who feel that their disciplines have focused too much on neuroses and social problems and not enough on determining what kind of activities and policies actually contribute to happier societies, and political leaders who want to know how to make use of their findings.
During the 5th International Gross National Happiness Conference, held last week in Brazil, happiness proponents from around the world were able to come together and compare notes about the practical application of “happiness science.”
The Science of Happiness
Not surprisingly, that science has found that beyond a certain minimum level of income, greater happiness comes from strong and plentiful human connections, a sense of control over one’s life and employment, meaningful work, good health, basic economic security, trust in others and in government, and other factors less directly connected with monetary remuneration.
Full Story John de Graaf :: News from the 5th International Conference on Gross National Happiness.
Five Ways to Improve Your Sex Life
I won’t lie: Sex has saved me. From myself especially. From going so deep into the spirals of my own brain which could drive me crazy. But when everything is perfect, there is no mind in sex. There is just feeling; just the body, moving, stretching, pulling, reaching, opening, pulsing, listening, taking, giving; just sensation.
Sex Saves
And that’s precisely what I need on days where my mind is racing and I’ve spent one or two or eight too many hours in front of the computer screen, the only sensations being my ass going numb, my eyes getting tired and sticky with lack of lubricant, and my fingertips tip-tapping away at these little lettered keys. I live in my mind. Don’t most of us, these days? Most of us, anyway, who would be readers of a sexy intelligent site like this one.
Sex has saved me from that inward spinning. Palming the responsibility of someone else’s bruises jolts me up and out of my brain and reminds me that I am connecting; I am pounding out ripples with everything that I touch.
But it hasn’t always been this way. I struggled for too long to figure out what I wanted. I knew the sex I was having wasn’t enough, but what would be enough? How to paint myself a cobblestone path from here to there?
Full Story Five Ways to Improve Your Sex Life « Sex positivity « Society.
Big Ag Takes on Yellowtail Wine
Spittin’ mad. That’s the only way to put it.
The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) makes conventional U.S. livestock farmers downright, wet-hen, cat-in-a-blender, spittin’ mad. When HSUS manages to alter state constitutions to ban battery cages and gestation crates, well, you better start bringing guns to your knife fights, vegans.
To wit: Yellowtail Wine of Australia decided to pony up $100,000 for HSUS this week, and the pushback has been conducted at lightning speed. From Big Beef’s Drovers Magazine:
Yesterday we reported about Yellow Tail wine’s new promotion (http://tinyurl.com/yderv3g) to contribute $100,000 to the Humane Society of the United States“to support us and our programs to help animals, including our Spay Day Online Pet Photo Contest,” according to HSUS. Though it’s not known to what extent, Yellow Tail admits its customers are taking issue with this collaboration.
Full Story Big Ag Takes on Yellowtail Wine | Fair Food Fight.
The Case FOR Homeopathic Medicine
The Historical and Scientific Evidence -
A lot of people today are confused about what homeopathy is (and isn’t), and this situation is not helped by the skeptics of homeopathy who go to incredible extents to exaggerate and misconstrue what homeopathic medicine is and who commonly provide misinformation about it. It is more than a tad ironic that these “skeptics” who hold themselves out as “defenders of medical science” have exhibited an embarrassingly poor scientific attitude when evaluating what homeopathy is and what the scientific evidence does and doesn’t say about it.
Because many skeptics of homeopathy today indulge in spreading misinformation about homeopathy, this blog is addressed at setting the record straight and is packed with references to confirm the veracity of what is being asserted here.
First, to clarify, advocating for or using homeopathic medicines does not preclude appreciation for or use of selective conventional medical treatment. Advocates of homeopathy simply honor the Hippocratic tradition of “First, do no harm” and therefore seek to explore and utilize safer methods before resorting to more risky treatments. This perspective has historical and international roots, and it is thus no surprise that American health care which has been so resistant to homeopathic and natural therapies in its mainstream institutions is presently ranked 37th in the world in the performance of its health care system.(1) In comparison, the number one ranked country in the world is France, a country in which around 40 percent of the population uses homeopathic medicines and around 30 percent of its family physicians prescribe them (2).
Full Story Dana Ullman: The Case FOR Homeopathic Medicine: The Historical and Scientific Evidence.
Study Links Children’s Sweet Tooth to Alcoholism, Depression
A new study finds that children are more likely to have an intense sweet tooth if they have a family history of alcoholism, or if they’ve suffered from depression themselves.
The research was conducted by scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, and published online in the journal Addiction.
Sugary foods and alcohol trigger many of the same reward circuits in the brain, so scientists in this case decided to test the sweet tooth of children with a family history of alcohol dependence. They also hypothesized that children who suffer from depression might be more likely to crave sweets, because they make them feel better.
Full Story Study Links Children’s Sweet Tooth to Alcoholism, Depression – AOL News.
7 Fun and Easy Ways to Lower Your Meat Consumption
Call it flexitarianism, conscious meat consumption, or low meat eating, lots of people are saving the flesh for special occasions and adopting a veg-centric diet. If you’ve been thinking about going vegetarian or vegan for the planet, but you really like meat and think you’ll miss it, or you’re worried that your nutrition will suffer, or you don’t want to subject your entire family to an extreme change, I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be black and white.
On a personal note, I’ve been eating about 85% veg for a few years now and it works for me…my body, my budget, and my beliefs.
Conventional livestock production uses tons of grain, water, and petroleum. It’s extremely inefficient, has huge environmental impacts, and is cruel to animals. For a detailed picture, read this now classic piece on The Meat Guzzler by Mark Bittman of the New York Times.
Full Story 7 Fun and Easy Ways to Lower Your Meat Consumption | EcoSalon.
How To Eliminate Migraines And Headaches In Less Than A Week
More than 10 million Americans have migraines creating a burden of mostly unnecessary suffering.(i) These severe, nearly disabling headaches can occur from once a year to three to four times a week. They can last from hours to days. They are often associated with an aura, light sensitivity, nausea, vomiting, and severe throbbing pain on one or both sides of the head. Migraines are even associated with stroke-like symptoms or paralysis in some cases …
The cost to society is also enormous. Migraine headaches add $13 billion to $17 billion to our healthcare costs each year. These costs include medications, emergency room visits, hospitalization, physician services (primary care and specialty), laboratory and diagnostic services, and managing the side effects of treatment.
Migraines have indirect costs too. A headache is the most frequent pain-related complaint among workers. Focusing specifically on migraines, one study found that the annual cost to employers exceeded $14.5 billion, of which $7.9 billion was due to absenteeism and $5.4 billion to diminished productivity.(ii)
Full Story Mark Hyman, MD: How To Eliminate Migraines And Headaches In Less Than A Week.
20 New Anticancer Rules
Michael Pollan’s recent little gem of a book Food Rules inspired me to compile my own “rules” about what I’d like every person to know about how they can help avoid cancer – or slow it down if they have it. Here’s my best attempt at the exercise…
FOOD RULES
1. Eat like the war never happened: Make your main course what it was like before WW II: 80 percent vegetables, 20 percent animal protein at each meal. Choose the opposite of the quarter pounder tagged with a — let’s say leaf of iceberg lettuce and an anemic slice of tomato. Meat should be used as a condiment for taste, as in the old days when it was scarce, not the core of the dish.
2. Mix your vegetables: vary the vegetables you eat from one meal to the next, or mix them together — broccoli is a powerful anticancer food, but much more powerful yet in the company of tomato sauce, onions or garlic. Get in the habit of adding onions, garlic or leeks to all the dishes you cook (caution: do not try this with dessert)
Full Story David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., Ph.D.: 20 New Anticancer Rules.
10 Things Science Says Will Make You Happy
Scientists can tell us how to be happy. Really. Here are 10 ways, with the research to prove it.
In the last few years, psychologists and researchers have been digging up hard data on a question previously left to philosophers: What makes us happy? Researchers like the father-son team Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener, Stanford psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, and ethicist Stephen Post have studied people all over the world to find out how things like money, attitude, culture, memory, health, altruism, and our day-to-day habits affect our well-being. The emerging field of positive psychology is bursting with new findings that suggest your actions can have a significant effect on your happiness and satisfaction with life. Here are 10 scientifically proven strategies for getting happy.
Full Story 10 Things Science Says Will Make You Happy by Jen Angel — YES! Magazine.
Defending the G-Spot
Yes, Virginia, It Does Exist
By Dr. SUSAN BLOCK -
I’m not surprised when politicians, religious leaders, military chiefs, mafia bosses, corporate CEOs or media pundits make ignorant, misleading statements with great and somber certainty. But when people who call themselves “scientists” spout toxic stupidities with similar conviction, it is rather more unnerving. One current case in point: a team of British “scientists” at King’s College London claims to have determined “fairly conclusively” that the G-spot does not exist.
Even before I finished reading about Dr. Andrea Virginia Burri (I’m not kidding; that’s her given middle name) and Dr. Tim Spector’s “G-Spot: Fiction or Friction” study, my personal Malarkey Meter was careening off the charts. Burri and Spector’s study is ill-conceived, poorly analyzed, illogically interpreted and—dare I say—just plain wrong.
Nonetheless, that “scientist” label must have gotten to me because, the first chance I had, there I was, licking my middle finger and hooking it about an inch or so into my vagina in the “come here” gesture, pressing that sensitive, spongy, bean-shaped area on the anterior wall, just to make sure it hadn’t somehow vanished overnight. Then, before I could say “bogus findings,” I was enjoying a nice, pulsating G-spot orgasm. Well, at least there are some silver linings in this black cloud of bad science. Could we say that Burri and Spector’s anti-G-spot report stimulated my G-spot orgasm that day? Regardless, it was a case of friction, not fiction.
Full Story Dr. Susan Block: Defending the G-Spot.
The tiny, squiggly dividing line between safe and unsafe food
For those who want to know what the big deal is about raw milk, in two words it’s good bacteria, killed off by pasteurization. People drink raw milk because they seek good bacteria. (Raw milk dairies are tested for diseases so this issue should not be confused with diseases.)
For those who are curious about raw milk, you might find this video delightful, and a good place to begin dispelling false assumptions. http://www.moojesus.com/
While people have been taught to believe bacteria is dangerous and so drinking milk with live bacteria in it would be risky, they are not distinguishing between good and bad bacteria and most importantly, not understanding that their own life depends on bacteria which make up 70-80% of their immune system.
Yet many continue to erroneously believe that route to safe food is through sterilizing it.
Full Story The tiny, squiggly dividing line between safe and unsafe food « Food Freedom.
How Do I Avoid The Sneakiest Sources Of BPA?
My daughter opened up my pantry the other day and said that all the canned soups I eat every day for lunch have the chemical BPA in them. Is this true? What else has BPA in it that I don’t know about? -Eve
For those concerned about serious health conditions (breast and prostate cancer, sexual development abnormalities, and now heart disease) linked to packaging additive bisphenol A (BPA), there's promising news: Earlier this month, the FDA reversed its stance on the chemical, saying it is now “taking reasonable steps to reduce human exposure to BPA in the food supply.” It's a monumental first step, as is the move by cities and states around the country to ban the suspected endocrine disruptor from baby products like formula cans and sippy cups. It could still be years, though, before we see BPA removed from thousands of other products on the market — including those canned soups that you enjoy every day for lunch (more on that later).
What has upset me most about the BPA issue is that we consumers haven't been granted the knowledge to decide for ourselves whether or not we want to buy products that are packaged with it. As with genetically modified foods, it's a consumer guessing game: To date, there are still no labeling requirements for thousands of industrial chemicals like BPA that turn up in our food stuffs and packaging. Of course, there's calorie, fat, and sodium information clearly printed on the package of every last Keebler cookie, but say you want to know if there's a toxic chemical in your can of bean soup that could to lead to breast cancer? Forget it folks, you're on your own.
Well, not any longer. Stick to these tips, and eliminate even the sneakiest sources of BPA from your diet.
Full Story Jennifer Grayson: Eco Etiquette: How Do I Avoid The Sneakiest Sources Of BPA?.
Sitting Deemed Dangerous for Your Health: What’s Next?
The AP is reporting about a new study that concludes that sitting, yep, just sitting, is deadly. WTF?
I’m guessing there are a lot of occupations that are dangerous — professional sports, vocations involving heavy machinery, toxic chemicals, grueling labor conditions, precarious heights. I know there are some jobs I simply could never do — repairing bridges, laying asphalt, wrestling ferocious animals to the ground .. and there’s probably a few others.
But I always thought that my job as a writer, which involves sitting in front of a computer all day, was a pretty good gig when compared to so many other people — the folks picking crops in pesticide dusted fields with little water and poor sanitation probably about 100 or so miles from my home, for starters.
Sure, I get some neck and back pain, but not to worry right? Well, apparently not. Now the AP is reporting about a new study that concludes that sitting, yep, just sitting, is deadly.
Full Story Sitting Deemed Dangerous for Your Health: What’s Next? | PEEK | AlterNet.
Animal Fats in Food
When you became a vegetarian, you quickly learned it wasn’t just about skipping pepperoni on that pizza. You had to start scanning labels for ingredients like capric acid, tallow, rennet, glycerin, whey, suet, stereate and emulsifiers – because eating animal fat by any other name would be just as carnivorous. What you may not know is that plenty of common foods widely considered to be veg-friendly (or perhaps we should say veg-adjacent) actually contain animal fat, not just dairy fat. That means flesh. Read on to learn more.
Ice Cream
Ice cream is the one comfort food that temporarily heals all wounds. Unfortunately, you may be noshing on Bessie under all that chocolate sauce. Many brands of ice cream contain capric acid, a fatty acid that’s obtained from animal fats. Check the label!
Chocolate
I hate to break it to you – I really do – but that chocolate sauce your pour over your sundaes may not be any better than the ice cream underneath it. Emulsifiers are present in chocolate, which may or may not be derived from animal fat. The problem is that most labels don’t specify the difference, so you’re better off sticking to ones that do.
Full Story Animal Fats in Food | EcoSalon.
Sleep Rituals: Training The Body And The Mind
Does this sound familiar:
The kids are finally down, and you look at the clock. Hmmm… just about 2 hours before I am supposed to get in bed. What can I get done before total exhaustion hits?
Sleep is a very strange behavior. Many people think of it as a battery re-charge, some as a vacation, and still others as a waste of time. Which one are you? How do you value your sleep? When it is not on your list of priorities that can increase your health, energy, and well being, why would you bother with it? Many people value sleep, but they have such a hard time getting it, they just give up and accept that they will be sleep deprived forever.
I would argue that great sleep starts with a reasonable attitude toward sleep. How much do you think you need, and how do you think you may be able to get it? Some nights you will get more, and some less. There are many mysteries to sleep but here are a few things that are known that we can all use to our advantage to get better rest:
Full Story Dr. Michael J. Breus: Sleep Rituals: Training The Body And The Mind.
Is the Fermented Tea Kombucha Really the Healing Wonder Drink It’s Cracked Up to Be?
They say it cures cancer. They—and by “they” I mean the nameless, faceless but seemingly unlimited horde of strangers on the Internet—also say it cures diabetes, migraines, asthma, acne, AIDS, hangovers, psoriasis, insomnia, fatigue, bronchitis, arteriosclerosis, bad eyesight, cold sores and erectile dysfunction. They say it reverses the aging process, smoothing out wrinkles, growing hair on formerly bald scalps and transforming gray heads back into brown, black, red and blonde. They say it soothes menstrual cramps, smoothes cellulite and cures cancer. They’re talking about kombucha, a fermented tea drink containing probiotics, polyphenols, amino acids, enzymes, minerals and more. It tastes pickled, sparkly and faintly alive. Sometimes it contains small, slimy lumps that slither down your throat. But, hey.
I’m a hypochondriac. Not the cartoon kind who haunts doctors offices demanding daily MRIs and colonoscopies for nonexistent heart murmurs and rare tropical parasites. My hypochondria is more selective, more refined. I fear only one ailment: cancer. The moment I detect the slightest spot or twitch, I am convinced it can mean only one thing, and that it’s terminal. My mind arrives at this conclusion automatically and instantly. I’ve never had cancer, nor have any known relatives. I’m physically fit, a vegetarian for 20 years, and have never smoked or worked in hazardous industries. Yet by the time I even start to marshal a rational thought, it’s too late and I’m having a panic attack. I’m working on this issue now, addressing fear as an addiction, but all my life I have been its slave, quivering on its spike.
Full Story Is the Fermented Tea Kombucha Really the Healing Wonder Drink It’s Cracked Up to Be? | Food | AlterNet.
Is Laughter the Best Medicine?
“I believe that if people can get more laughter in their lives, they are a lot better off,” says Steve Wilson, MA, CSP, a psychologist and laugh therapist. “They might be healthier too.”
Yet researchers aren't sure if it's actually the act of laughing that makes people feel better. A good sense of humor, a positive attitude, and the support of friends and family might play a role, too.
Full Story Is Laughter the Best Medicine? by R. Morgan Griffin — YES! Magazine.
Michael Pollan’s New ‘Food Rules’: 64 Easy Steps to Better Health
Pollan’s new book is a set of straightforward, memorable, everyday rules for eating that aim to nudge people onto a healthier and happier path.
The idea for this book came from a doctor–a couple of them, as a matter of fact. They had read my last book, “In Defense of Food”, which ended with a handful of tips for eating well: simple ways to navigate the treacherous landscape of modern food and the often-confusing science of nutrition. “What I would love is a pamphlet I could hand to my patients with some rules for eating wisely,” they would say. “I don’t have time for the big nutrition lecture and, anyway, they really don’t need to know what an antioxidant is in order to eat wisely.” Another doctor, a transplant cardiologist, wrote to say “you can’t imagine what I see on the insides of people these days wrecked by eating food products instead of food.” So rather than leaving his heart patients with yet another prescription or lecture on cholesterol, he gives them a simple recipe for roasting a chicken, and getting three wholesome meals out of it — a very different way of thinking about health.
Make no mistake: our health care crisis is in large part a crisis of the American diet — roughly three quarters of the two-trillion plus we spend on health care in this country goes to treat chronic diseases, most of which can be prevented by a change in lifestyle, especially diet. And a healthy diet is a whole lot simpler than the food industry and many nutritional scientists — what I call the Nutritional Industrial Complex — would have us believe. After spending several years trying to answer the supposedly incredibly complicated question of how we should eat in order to be maximally healthy, I discovered the answer was shockingly simple: eat real food, not too much of it, and more plants than meat. Or, put another way, get off the modern western diet, with its abundance of processed food, refined grains and sugars, and its sore lack of vegetables, whole grains and fruit.
Full Story Michael Pollan’s New ‘Food Rules’: 64 Easy Steps to Better Health | Health and Wellness | AlterNet.
Creative Exercises to Burn off the Holiday Excess
The holidays are behind us, and that means one thing – dreams of sugarplums dancing in our heads have turned to nightmares of cellulite chasing our posteriors. Because even the best eater is going to sample a homemade white chocolate chip mocha cookie when it’s offered piping hot from the stove, right? (This is me, raising my hand.) And the best eater might even have another cookie – or six. Who’s to say?
And besides all the awesome baked goods we may or may not have consumed over the holidays, there are also the quick dinners we might have grabbed between shopping and wrapping and generally trying not to go insane. And maybe, just maybe, this food arrived to you through a drive through window with grease seeping through its paper bag – a paper bag you later threw away in an anonymous dumpster on the side of the road. Perhaps?
But not to worry! We’ve got a quick guide to a quick way to burn off the bad stuff. Every wonder how many crunches it takes to burn off a Big Mac from McDonald’s? Or how many miles you have to run to burn off a large French fries from Wendy’s?
Full Story Creative Exercises to Burn off the Holiday Excess | EcoSalon.
Fat and Kids: How to keep your kid from getting fat
If you’re like me, you considered it your duty, as a good father, to eat more than your share of rich fatty sugar-laden foods over the holidays, as a way of protecting your family from obesity. The instinct to protect one’s offspring is hardwired throughout the animal kingdom and a noble calling, so if you’ve gained 10-15 pounds since Thanksgiving, you are to be commended.
Now, Pork-Boy, it’s time to take your New Years’ resolutions seriously and lose a few pounds, particularly if part of your stay-at-home dad’s duties is to buy and prepare foods for your family. Odds are, you’re not the only one in your family who gained weight, or needs to shed it, including your kids.
I won’t bother you with a lot of statistics about the ongoing obesity epidemic (two thirds of adults and about forty percent of all children in this country are overweight) or what the health costs are (diabetes, hypertension, chronic heart disease etc) — if you don’t know this stuff already, you’ve been in a coma for the last ten years.
Kidding aside, it’s important. Bad eating habits are learned young – rarely do fat kids come from thin parents. If you really want to protect your kids, implement the following changes:
Full Story Fat and Kids: How to keep your kid from getting fat | Stay-at-Home Dads.
Juicy and Tender, Seitan Is Quite Possibly the Best Fake Meat — But There Is a Downside
What if the next big thing to revolutionize the lives of vegans and vegetarians was waiting in the wings? What if this next big thing was amazingly high in protein, amazingly low in fat and carbs, relatively low in sodium, and cholesterol-free, yet with a taste and texture more like real meat than those of any other analogue ever devised? What if the next big thing was chewy and exuded meaty juices and sometimes even required a knife to cut?
Imagine, then, its power as a secret weapon to convert carnivores and to solace those guilt-ridden vegans and vegetarians who still dream of bacon, brisket, sloppy joes, beef Stroganoff, souvlaki, pepperoni, pigs-in-blankets, corned-beef hash and chicken drumsticks: things that tofu cannot replicate, not even with the best imagination in the world.
Tofu is not God’s gift to herbivores, though this feels blasphemous to say. It’s slippery. It rushes down the throat so bland and unobtrusive as to be the gastronomical equivalent of an apology. It’s also made of soybeans. And while at least one recent Journal of the American Medical Association report credits soy foods with reducing the risk of death and recurrence among breast-cancer patients, soy still hasn’t emerged unscathed from the wave of bad press that has blamed it, these last few years, for hormone imbalances and health problems ranging from thyroid dysfunction to Alzheimer’s disease to gynecomastia, aka man-boobs. My doctor, an anti-big-pharma, pro-nutrition kind of guy, always rails against tofu because it’s a processed food. And seriously: How much of whatever is essential about the soybean really reaches you once it has been soaked for sixteen-plus hours, ground, boiled repeatedly to make it into milk, mixed with coagulants, curdled and drained? The preferred coagulant among major tofu manufacturers is calcium sulfate, aka gypsum, which is the main ingredient in plaster-of-Paris.
Gluten: What You Don’t Know Might Kill You
Something you’re eating may be killing you, and you probably don’t even know it!
If you eat cheeseburgers or French fries all the time or drink six sodas a day, you likely know you are shortening your life. But eating a nice dark, crunchy slice of whole wheat bread–how could that be bad for you?
Well, bread contains gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, spelt, kamut, and oats. It is hidden in pizza, pasta, bread, wraps, rolls, and most processed foods. Clearly, gluten is a staple of the American diet.
What most people don’t know is that gluten can cause serious health complications for many. You may be at risk even if you don’t have full blown celiac disease.
In today’s blog I want to reveal the truth about gluten, explain the dangers, and provide you with a simple system that will help you determine whether or not gluten is a problem for you.
Full Story Mark Hyman, MD: Gluten: What You Don’t Know Might Kill You.
15 Best Foods to Boost Your Metabolism and Lose Weight
Remember the days when your metabolism was like a caffeinated mouse in a wheel? Yeah, me neither. If you aren’t one of those lucky gals who can eat whatever she wants and burn it off thanks to an annoyingly fast metabolism, look to these helpful foods for a metabolic boost. (And check out this post on additional tips to speed up a sluggish metabolism.)
Grapefruit
This diet super fruit lowers the insulin levels in your body that trigger your system to store fat. Plus, it is rich in fiber, and your body must burn extra calories in order to break it down.
Green Tea
Green tea is the main source of epigallocatechin gallate, known better as EGCG. This healthy catechin speeds up your brain and nervous system, causing your body to burn more calories.
Full Story 15 Best Foods to Boost Your Metabolism and Lose Weight | EcoSalon.
15 Reasons Never to Let Anyone You Love Near a McDonald’s
Reasons and Ways to Avoid McDonalds and Other Fast Food
The Golden Arches: the ultimate American icon. Super Size Me taught us that fast food culture brings obesity, heart disease, hypertension and a whole slew of other problems. How bad do you really want that Big Mac? Here are 15 reasons you’ll never let anyone you love get near those Golden Arches.
Real food is perishable. With time, it begins to decay. It’s a natural process, it just happens. Beef will rot, bread will mold. But what about a McDonald’s burger? Karen Hanrahan saved a McDonald’s burger from 1996 and, oddly enough, it looks just as “appetizing” and “fresh” as a burger you might buy today. Is this real food?
You would have to walk 7 hours straight to burn off a Super Sized Coke, fries and Big Mac. Even indulging in fast food as an occasional treat is a recipe for weight gain…unless you’re planning to hit each treadmill in the treadmill bay afterwards.
Full Story Reasons and Ways to Avoid McDonalds and Other Fast Food | EcoSalon.
Top 10 Healing Foods Of The Decade
Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. — Hippocrates, father of medicine, 431 B.C.
Eat Food. Not Too much. Mostly Plants. — Michael Pollan, renowned food expert and journalist, 2007 A.D.
The healing properties of food have been reported by cultures worldwide throughout history. However, the past decade has presented an explosion of clinical research to show specifically what health benefits individual foods can offer, identifying the various nutrients and phytochemicals associated with these benefits.
Many fruits, vegetables, and unprocessed whole foods have properties that can benefit our health. Studies in the past decade have taken nutritional research beyond protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals. Chemicals in the plants called phytochemicals have been a specific focus in the past decade, offering benefits such as cancer prevention, cholesterol reduction, and hormone regulation, to name a few.
There is truly a cornucopia of nutritional benefits that have been discovered. Here are a few “superfoods” that have received a lot of press in the past decade for their research-supported health benefits:
Full Story Dr. Patricia Fitzgerald: Let Food Be Thy Medicine: Top 10 Healing Foods Of The Decade.
7 Surprising Truths About What Makes Us Happy
In my new book The Happiness Project I describe the year I spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, the current scientific studies, and the lessons from popular culture about how to be happier — from Aristotle to Thoreau to Seligman to Oprah. Here on the Huffington Post, I’ve recounted some of my adventures and conclusions in pursuit of happiness.
I’m describing my happiness project, but of course, the point of The Happiness Project is to encourage you to start your own happiness project. I’ve heard from many readers who have tried my suggestions themselves — such as keeping a daily one-sentence journal, making their bed, or joining a group — to happy effect.
To take just one small example, I’ve written about my idea of the abstainer/moderator split: when it comes to resisting temptation, some people find it much easier to abstain altogether, while others do better exercising moderation. (Here’s a quiz to tell you which camp you’re in.) Abstainers and moderators judge each other harshly; abstainers think moderators constantly cheat, and moderators think abstainers have a rigid, unhealthy attitude.
Full Story Gretchen Rubin: A Year In The Pursuit Of Happiness: 7 Surprising Truths About What Makes Us Happy.
Tylenol Arthritis Caplet Voluntary Recall Expanded
J&J expands voluntary recall of Tylenol Arthritis Caplets, cites nausea from moldy smell
Johnson & Johnson is expanding a voluntary recall of Tylenol Arthritis Caplets due to consumer reports of a moldy smell associated with nausea and stomach pain.
The New Brunswick, N.J., company says it is now recalling all product lots of the Arthritis Pain Caplet 100 count bottles with the red EZ-Open Cap.
Full Story Tylenol Arthritis Caplet Voluntary Recall Expanded – ABC News.
High Fructose Corn Syrup Proven to Cause Human Obesity
You’ve heard it before: a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. If people are fat, it’s their own fault for eating too much.
These words are usually spouted by PR hacks for the corn refiner’s association – or the dietitians paid by them. They may not, as it turns out, be true.
We finally have the smoking corn cob, as it were: the study processed-food foes have been waiting for, indicating that high fructose corn syrup may be the cause of the huge upswing in childhood obesity and diabetes.
American consumption of all sugars is much higher than it should be for our health, but high fructose corn syrup has become a larger share of our sugar consumption due to the fact that much of our ingestion of this super cheap, highly processed sugar is involuntary. That’s because it’s not just used as a sweetener in cookies and sodas but as a food additive in things like bread, ketchup and other condiments, pasta sauce and coatings for frozen fried foods.
Full Story High Fructose Corn Syrup Proven to Cause Human Obesity | EcoSalon.
Acetaminophen For Mental Health Relief
A provocative new research study investigates the possibility that over-the-counter pain relief drugs may be helpful for treatment of depression and anxiety.
Use of OTC medications for physical aches and pain has been commonplace for decades.
A research team led by psychologist C. Nathan DeWall of the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences Department of Psychology has uncovered evidence indicating that acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol) may blunt social pain.
Full Story Acetaminophen For Mental Health Relief | Psych Central News.
Putting the Science of Happiness Into Practice
Countries around the world are beginning to apply the science of well-being to the decisions they make. News from the 5th International Conference on Gross National Happiness.
The study of happiness is experiencing a boom. Its practitioners include economists who believe that gross domestic product (GDP) is too limited a tool to measure the success of societies, psychologists and sociologists who feel that their disciplines have focused too much on neuroses and social problems and not enough on determining what kind of activities and policies actually contribute to happier societies, and political leaders who want to know how to make use of their findings.
During the 5th International Gross National Happiness Conference, held last week in Brazil, happiness proponents from around the world were able to come together and compare notes about the practical application of “happiness science.”
The Science of Happiness
Not surprisingly, that science has found that beyond a certain minimum level of income, greater happiness comes from strong and plentiful human connections, a sense of control over one’s life and employment, meaningful work, good health, basic economic security, trust in others and in government, and other factors less directly connected with monetary remuneration.
Full Story John de Graaf :: News from the 5th International Conference on Gross National Happiness.
Smoking marijuana will not cure diabetes or obesity but endocanabinoids might
Researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and at Kyushu
University in Japan reported that endocanabinoids are a major regulator of physiochemical response to “sweet” tastes.
Endocanabinoids are a naturally produced human body chemicals that are very closely related to THC, the active substance in marijuana.
A basic rule of Chemistry is “structure determines function.”
Sweet taste receptors, like those in the tongue, are also located in the intestine and pancreas.
Two types of receptors located in the same cell are necessary to experience the sweet taste.
Full Story Smoking marijuana will not cure diabetes or obesity but endocanabinoids might.
Welcome To The Era Of Personalized Medicine
There are certain ideas that hover in the ether, hinting at some perfect future where our cars will fly and robots will fetch our slippers. Personalized medicine is one of these – an idea that someday, somehow, we will all enjoy customized medical care that keeps us healthier and enables us to live better and longer. In the meantime, though, we’re stuck with the healthcare we have now: an inefficient system with cookie-cutter predictions and trial-and-error treatments.
Part of the problem, so far, is that personalized medicine has often been understood as mostly about drugs – specifically, the idea that one day pharmaceuticals will be tailored to us, individually. This has been slow to happen. Aside from a few cancer drugs like Gleevec and Tamoxifen, the science of pharmacogenomics (the term for matching drugs to specific genetic traits) has been largely a disappointment. And until more personalized drugs emerge from the pharmaceutical pipeline, the thinking goes, personalized medicine will remain a pipedream.
But personalized medicine isn’t just about drugs. It’s also about data – our personal data, the stuff in our medical records, as well as less clinical information like how much sleep we get or how often we exercise. All this data can personalize our healthcare right now, today – it can be worked back into the equation of how we care for our health, improving decisions like what we eat, how to reduce our risk factors for disease, and what we get tested for (and when). When you start thinking about our healthcare this way, it starts to look like a series of choices, opportunities we have to make better decisions to affect and improve our health. Line all these choices up in sequence from prevention to diagnosis to treatment, and it takes the form of a Decision Tree – which is what I’ve called my forthcoming book.
Full Story Thomas Goetz: Welcome To The Era Of Personalized Medicine.
Maine to consider cell phone brain cancer warning
A Maine legislator wants to make the state the first to require cell phones to carry warnings that they can cause brain cancer, although there is no consensus among scientists that they do and industry leaders dispute the claim.
The now-ubiquitous devices carry such warnings in some countries, though no U.S. states require them, according to the National Conference of State Legislators. A similar effort is afoot in San Francisco, where Mayor Gavin Newsom wants his city to be the nation’s first to require the warnings.
Maine Rep. Andrea Boland, D-Sanford, said numerous studies point to the cancer risk, and she has persuaded legislative leaders to allow her proposal to come up for discussion during the 2010 session that begins in January, a session usually reserved for emergency and governors’ bills.
Full Story Maine to consider cell phone brain cancer warning | Raw Story.
Quitting Meat Is at the Heart of 2009′s Health Zeitgeist, And Author Kathy Freston Is Leading the Debate
Author Kathy Freston promotes a body/mind/spirit approach to health and happiness that includes a concentration on healthy diet, emotional introspection, spiritual practice, and loving relationships. Over a dozen of her most popular articles for AlterNet this year concern the health benefits of a meat-free or vegan diet. Freston is a New York Times best-selling author, and her latest book is The Quantum Wellness Cleanse: A 21 Day Essential Guide to Healing Your Body, Mind and Spirit. You can find more of her work at kathyfreston.com.
Each of Freston’s essays were read by tens of thousands of people on AlterNet. Here are 10 of her most popular from 2009:
Guess What? Casual Sex Won’t Make You Go Insane
Many cling to the notion that casual sex must be damaging. Recent research — and a little historical perspective and common sense — shows otherwise.
Casual sex: even the phrase sounds a little suspect. And its connections to STDs, unplanned pregnancy, depression, and even alcoholism? Well, those are just a given, discussed endlessly by pundits, and in books with titles like, Hooking Up: Sex, Dating and Relationships on Campus, Hooked: New Science on How Casual Sex is Affecting Our Children, and even, Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love and Lose at Both. Add to this the unrelentingly dire warnings about “premarital” sex given by abstinence programs and many religious groups, and it can be hard to make a case for any kind of non-monogamous-non-matrimonial-non-procreative intimacy. But what if the links between casual sex (an ill-defined term, which seems to refer to anything from a one-night stand to sex between committed domestic partners) and the troubles of the world aren’t as straightforward as people would have you believe?
Some recent research makes this seem pretty likely. Last week, for example, researchers from the University of Minnesota announced the findings of a study looking at the effect of casual sex on young adults. After studying 1,311 sexually active 18- to 24-year-olds, researchers were somewhat surprised to discover that, “young adults engaging in casual sexual encounters do not appear to be at increased risk for harmful psychological outcomes as compared to sexually active young adults in more committed relationships.” And back in 2007, another study at the same institution found that despite what many people believe, non-marital sex doesn’t negatively affect a teen’s mental health or make a young person more prone to depression.
Full Story Guess What? Casual Sex Won’t Make You Go Insane | Sex and Relationships | AlterNet.
Does Aspartame Cause Tumors and Pose Cancer Risks? The Jury Is Still Out
“Sweet taste is a quality of some chemical substances that the human race has always associated with pleasure,” wrote George E. Inglett in the 1984 book Aspartame: Physiology and Biology, about the controversial artificial sweetener marketed in powder form under popular brands like NutraSweet and Equal. Initially approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1974, aspartame is now “consumed by over 200 million people in more than 6,000 products,” according to the Calorie Control Council’s dedicated site Aspartame.org. “As a result, high value has been placed on materials exhibiting sweetness,” Inglett wrote.
Not just high value, but high risk, according to scientists who have watched the hyperconsumptive human race incorporate sugar, and its replacements, more inextricably into their diet than ever before. The jury is already in when it comes to the ravages of sugar, especially in sodas. The escalating use of sugar has engendered diabetes and obesity epidemics worldwide. But after years of intrigue touching on everything from its approval process to its possible carcinogenicity, the jury is out on the still-controversial aspartame. It could be responsible for increases in various cancers and even Gulf War Syndrome, or, it could not. And that uncertainty is fueling both aspartame’s increasing consumption, and possibly its mounting menace.
“Because of a 1970s-era study that suggested that it caused brain tumors in rats, and because it causes headaches or dizziness in a small number of people, a cloud of doubt has long hung over aspartame,” explained Dr. Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington DC.
Full Story Does Aspartame Cause Tumors and Pose Cancer Risks? The Jury Is Still Out | Health and Wellness | AlterNet.
Natural Organic Aphrodisiac Foods for Great Healthy Sex
If you’ve got sex on the brain but your body’s feeling unsexy, put away the blue pill! You don’t need Viagra, you need food. (Just not potato chips.) Sexual health and energy is synonymous with a healthy, energized you. An active lifestyle, balanced diet and self-confidence are the best ways to get the sexual charge you need – but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few foods out there that can give you that extra…boost you’re looking for.
Full Story Natural Organic Aphrodisiac Foods for Great Healthy Sex | EcoSalon.
Too Fat to Serve: How Our Unhealthy Food System Is Undermining the Military
Americans have become so overweight that a large percentage of young people no longer qualify for military service. How did we get here?
Michael Pollan coined the term “vegetable-industrial complex” to describe our corporate-driven food system decades after President Eisenhower warned us of the “military-industrial complex.” For much of that time, one served the other. President Truman created the National School Lunch Program in 1948 to ensure that young men were healthy enough for military service and as a subsidy to agribusiness. Feeding hungry children was not reason enough to justify the creation of the program.
Mark Winne, author of Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty says, “That so many young men had such substandard diets that they were unfit for military service [during World War II] was a matter of national chagrin and a threat to national security. This was the impetus for the creation of the national meal program to feed malnourished children and thus to ensure the nation’s future soldiers were fit to fight its battles.”
America has come a long way since then. Nowadays, diet-related diseases are due to eating too much food, not too little. As such, the vegetable-industrial complex and the military-industrial complex have collided head on. Many of today’s would-be recruits are too fat to serve, according to a new report by the non-profit Mission: Readiness. The report found that 75 percent of young people ages 17 to 24 are unable to enlist in the United States military. Over one-third of those unable to serve are unfit because they are overweight. The military turns away 15,000 potential recruits every year because they are too heavy. The U.S. spends more on defense than the entire rest of the world combined, and while much of our military largesse consists of machinery and contractors, the military still relies on a steady stream of recruits. This is particularly true now, as troops cycle through Iraq and Afghanistan again and again until many are no longer physically or mentally capable of returning for another tour of duty.
Full Story Too Fat to Serve: How Our Unhealthy Food System Is Undermining the Military | Health and Wellness | AlterNet.
OPS: So, Fast Food becomes a matter of National Security?
Long-term physical activity has an anti-aging effect at the cellular level
Intensive exercise prevented shortening of telomeres, a protective effect against aging of the cardiovascular system, according to research reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Researchers measured the length of telomeres — the DNA that bookends the chromosomes and protects the ends from damage — in blood samples from two groups of professional athletes and two groups who were healthy nonsmokers, but not regular exercisers.
The telomere shortening mechanism limits cells to a fixed number of divisions and can be regarded as a “biological clock.” Gradual shortening of telomeres through cell divisions leads to aging on the cellular level and may limit lifetimes. When the telomeres become critically short the cell undergoes death. The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to researchers who discovered the nature of telomeres and how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase.
“The most significant finding of this study is that physical exercise of the professional athletes leads to activation of the important enzyme telomerase and stabilizes the telomere,” said Ulrich Laufs, M.D., the study’s lead author and professor of clinical and experimental medicine in the department of internal medicine at Saarland University in Homburg, Germany
Full Story Long-term physical activity has an anti-aging effect at the cellular level.
Diagnosis and Treatment of Vitamin D Deficiency Seminar
Vitamin D Action – Seminar – November 2009
Implicit evidence that 10,000 IU/day of vitamin D is safe, because it matches the potential effect of UV light exposure.
Introduction to Vitamin D
by Reinhold Vieth Ph.D.
What’s a Vitamin D Deficiency?
by Robert P. Heaney, M.D.
Viewing Breast Cancer as a Deficiency Disease
by Cedric F. Garland, Dr.P.H.
MOre……
Full Story GrassrootsHealth | Vitamin D Action – Seminar – November 2009.
Coffee May Lower Risk of Aggressive Prostate Cancer
Drinking regular or decaffeinated coffee is associated with a reduced risk of advanced prostate cancer, new research suggests.
“Coffee has effects on insulin and glucose metabolism as well as sex hormone levels, all of which play a role in prostate cancer,” said Kathryn M. Wilson, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the Channing Laboratory in Boston.
She and her colleagues found that men who drank the most coffee had a 59% decreased risk of either lethal or advanced prostate cancer compared with men who drank no coffee. The magnitude of risk reduction was more pronounced in men who never smoked; in this group, the biggest coffee consumers had an 89% decreased risk compared with men who did not drink coffee.
Dr. Wilson, who presented study findings at the American Association for Cancer Research Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference in Houston, said caffeine is not the key factor in this association.
Full Story Coffee May Lower Risk of Aggressive Prostate Cancer – Renal and Urology News.
11 Toxic Cosmetic Ingredients You Must Avoid
The greener we become, the more we have to scrutinize. I for one have cleaned up my home, my diet, my cleaning products and ““ of utmost importance ““ the products I put on my skin. I’m an avid ingredient reader and do the research ““ after all, my skin is the largest organ in my body! Here’s a list of some common skin and hair care chemicals we all need to avoid.
Coal Tar: Coal tar is used to treat eczema, psoriasis and other skin disorders and can be found in anti-itch creams and scalp treatments. It’s also a known carcinogen.
Diethanolamine (DEA): A lathering agent in soaps and shampoos, DEA isn’t carcinogenic by itself, but can react with other chemicals in products to create a carcinogen readily absorbed into the skin. Look for DEA in many forms, such as Cocamide DEA, Oleamide DEA and Lauramide DEA.
Formaldehyde: A frighteningly common ingredient in a variety of beauty products. Formaldehyde can irritate your eyes, nose and throat, dry out and irritate your skin and even cause asthma and cancer with repeated exposure.
more……….
Full Story 11 Toxic Cosmetic Ingredients You Must Avoid | EcoSalon.
Go Go Hamsters pose potential health risk, says US watchdog
Consumer testing lab finds high levels of toxic chemical on top Christmas toy, as manufacturer insists product is safe
Parents desperate to treat their children to this year’s must-have Christmas present – a lifesize, robotic hamster – have been warned that the toy may contain excessive levels of a toxic chemical.
The Mr Squiggle Go Go Hamster contains potentially dangerous levels of a toxic chemical which has been linked to cancer, according to a US safety watchdog.
But British distributors and US manufacturers both rejected allegations that the popular toy, which is being rationed by retailers, could be dangerous to children.
Full Story Go Go Hamsters pose potential health risk, says US watchdog | Life and style | guardian.co.uk.
The 6 Weirdest, Scariest Processed Foods
Once upon a time, some brave scientists had a noble dream of ridding our food of the plague of nutrients.
Today, at the start of the 21st century, the miracle of food processing has brought that dream closer to reality than ever before. From vitamin-free “blueberry bits” to spray-can cheese to avocado-free guacamole, food scientists have worked tirelessly to bring us new and exciting foods that contain as little nutrition as possible. Even apparently “healthy” foods such as soups have been ingeniously overloaded with so much salt you feel as if you’re eating French fries.
In this article, we’ll provide a handy guide to six uniquely unnatural processed foods that will hopefully serve as a blueprint for humanity’s eventual triumph over the tyrannical fist of Mother Nature.
Full Story The 6 Weirdest, Scariest Processed Foods | Health and Wellness | AlterNet.
The Recession Is Taking a Bite Out of Meat Consumption
More than half of Americans have cut back on meat. Martha Stewart broadcasts a meatless Thanksgiving show. What gives?
The recession is having one positive effect. The national cholesterol is going down.
More than half of Americans have cut back on meat, many becoming “recession-bred flexitarians,” says Gourmet magazine–people who use meat as a condiment not as a meal anchor.
Even the doyenne of taste and nutrition, Martha Stewart, broadcast a vegetarian Thanksgiving show last week.
A small drop in meat exerts big consequences on your health says Katherine Tallmadge of the American Dietetic Association because red meat is the “primary source of saturated fat, which can boost levels of bad LDL cholesterol and inflammation.”
Full Story The Recession Is Taking a Bite Out of Meat Consumption | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet.
7 Ways to Prevent Heartburn
When Sandy Bush, 35, of Canyon Country, California, went to see his doctor complaining of extreme heartburn, it seemed like the least of his problems. His wife had just left him for another man, and he was trying to help their two young children through the messy divorce.
Yet heartburn, while not as catastrophic as the dissolution of a family, can be pretty miserable. It hurts like crazy, robs you of sleep, and can be terrifying when mistaken for a heart attack. And it’s exacerbated by stress (as in, divorce). One version, gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD–the result of chronic, untreated heartburn–has even been linked to cancer.
This irksome condition has become epidemic: Half of all Americans experience the occasional bout, and 15 percent–that’s 43 million people–get it frequently enough to consult a doctor. In fact, heartburn is so common that the leading medications, Prilosec and other proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), are among the world’s most frequently prescribed drugs. The New York Times reported that last year, Prilosec (a.k.a. “the purple pill”) racked up U.S. sales of $4.6 billion–more than the profits for McDonald’s, Wendy’s, KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut combined.
Full Story 7 Ways to Prevent Heartburn | Healthy and Green Living.
10 Signs Vegetarianism Is Catching On
Martha Stewart promotes a vegetarian Thanksgiving? Recently, much attention has been lavished on the horrors of factory farming and the advantages of a meatless diet.
On Thanksgiving, I spent some time taking stock of my life and the world around me and, as we’re supposed to do over the holiday, giving thanks for all the joys — little and big — in my life. One of the larger joys for which I am giving thanks is all of the recent attention that has been lavished on a topic that is near and dear to my heart — the cruelty and environmental harm involved in raising animals for food.
I struggled to cohesively construct an article about some of the many recent and important developments on this topic, but there is just too much. Instead, I decided on a top ten list (a tip of the hat to David Letterman) — the 10 most interesting articles on the farmed animal welfare front.
So without further ado:
1. World Bank scientists conclude that eating meat causes more than half of global warming (conservatively).
Full Story 10 Signs Vegetarianism Is Catching On | Health and Wellness | AlterNet.
The Culture of Food: A Radio Documentary on the Healthy Food Crisis
On this Thanksgiving Day, many families are sitting down to a dinner made with fresh foods from a local grocery store. Yet there are many communities where there is no local grocery. And you don’t have to look far. These places exist in cities all over the country. Even in our nation’s capital, there are huge sections of the city where fresh, nutrient-rich food is hard to find.
In this documentary, ten youth explore the culture of eating in a city where some of the most iconic foods are the half-smoke: an extra large sausage split down the middle and usually topped with chili, and something called mambo sauce, which looks like ketchup but more gelatinous. They also looked at the challenges of some communities’ access to healthy, affordable food in their neighborhood. Their search took them from the local carry-out, to their schools vending machines to the soil in their own backyards.
Click below to listen to the documentary which will be Aired on Free Speech Radio News and the Pacific Radio Network.
Full Story The Culture of Food: A Radio Documentary on the Healthy Food Crisis.
47,000 Women Could Die As a Result of the New Mammogram Guidelines
By George Lakoff –
Cost-benefit analysis can kill. Scaling back on mammograms, as a government task force suggested, could result in 47,000 unnecessary deaths.
Cost-benefit analysis can kill. The failure to distinguish statistics from arithmetic can kill. In the current debate over mammograms, the number of women projected to be at risk of death due to cost-benefit analysis is about 47,000.
That is the approximate number projected to die by the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), if its recommendations on scaling back mammograms had been accepted. It is the task force’s number, if you do the arithmetic, which it apparently did not.
USPSTF statistics say that the life of “only” one woman in 1,900 will be saved if mammograms start at age 40 instead of age 50. In other words, a 40-year-old woman’s “risk” of dying from breast cancer in the next 10 years is only 1 in 1,900. That seems like no risk at all. 1 divided by 1,900 equals .000526. About half a woman per 1,000. Minuscule, right?
Now, how many women in America would be affected?
5 Bad Things That Immediately Happen to Your Body When You Eat Sugary Junk
Sugary food tastes great going down, but the effects it has on our insides are far less appetizing.
At this point, most people understand the basic effects of subsisting on junk food. We’d be hard pressed to find someone who thinks eating a bowl of broccoli is the same as eating a bowl of candy (though doing either will undoubtedly wreak havoc on the human digestive system). But simply knowing that junk food is bad — or even knowing how it’s bad — doesn’t make it any less tempting. Humans have a natural predilection for high-fat, high-sugar foods, and if those ingredients are combined into one magical dish, resistance is practically futile.
Even the healthiest among us have to give in to a cake craving every now and then; it’s normal and won’t do much damage in moderation. The only problem is when we take the craving too far (i.e., eat too much) and end up feeling less than optimal. What happens within our bodies when we eat an excess of sugar that causes such extreme reactions?
This Is Your Body on Cake
When it comes to celebrating, nothing completes the occasion like a rich, perfectly sweet slice of cake. Each bite tastes great going down, but the effects it has on our insides are far less appetizing.
Full Story 5 Bad Things That Immediately Happen to Your Body When You Eat Sugary Junk | | AlterNet.
Meditation Halves Risk of Heart Attack
and works as well as drugs
Meditation can cut the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death by almost 50% in patients with existing coronary heart disease, according to a new clinical trial. The findings indicate that relaxation and mental focusing can be as effective as powerful new drugs in treating heart disease.
Over the past 4 decades, scientists have found many hints that transcendental meditation–the most widely used meditation technique–can confer a variety of health benefits. The technique, which was invented by an Indian guru named Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and grew to popularity after the Beatles practiced it in the 1960s, requires the practitioner to focus on repetitions of a single sound or mantra, such as a phrase from Hindu scripture. Transcendental meditation has been shown to decrease blood pressure, reduce stress, and improve mental focus in college students. It's unclear, however, whether any of these benefits translate to overall health.
In the first study to test the effect of transcendental meditation on the risk of heart attack, preventive medicine specialist Robert Schneider of the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, collaborated with endocrinologist Theodore Kotchen of the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. They enlisted 201 patients with narrowed coronary arteries–a risk factor for heart attack and stroke. All volunteers were African American, a high-risk group for heart disease.
The patients were randomly assigned to two groups, both of which were given a standard treatment of prescription drugs for high blood pressure and atherosclerosis, as well as an educational course in cardiovascular health. The team asked one of the groups to also practice transcendental meditation for 15 to 20 minutes a day, following instructions from meditation experts.
Full Story Meditation Halves Risk of Heart Attack — Wang 2009 (1116): 1 — ScienceNOW.
