Athletes can be vulnerable to infection .
Probiotic supplements reduce the number and length of infections suffered by long-distance runners, Australian research has found.
Strenuous training can affect the immune system and make athletes vulnerable to coughs and colds.
British Journal of Sports Medicine study found taking probiotics more than halved the days they had symptoms...
Blood tests taken from the athletes found doubled levels of interferon gamma, a chemical involved in the body's immune system, suggesting that the probiotics might somehow be helping the body to protect itself.
The researchers said that the reason behind the study was to find ways to maximise the benefits to athletes getting ready for major events.
"An improvement in resistance to common illnesses constitutes an important benefit to elite athletes undertaking high-level training in preparation for national and international competitions," they wrote.
However, they said that it would be worth investigating the potential of probiotics to help everyone else...
Click Here To Read The Full Article At BBC News...
Saturday, April 12, 2008
BREAST FEEDING REDUCES RISK OF DEVELOPING DIABETES
Breast-fed babies appear to be less likely to develop type 2 diabetes when they reach adolescence, according to findings published in the medical journal Diabetes Care.
"Dramatic increases in childhood obesity and the emergence of type 2 diabetes in youth motivate research to identify lifestyle approaches to primary prevention of both conditions," write Dr. Elizabeth J. Mayer-Davis of the University of South Carolina, Columbia, and colleagues…
The breast-feeding rate was lower in subjects with type 2 diabetes compared with the control subjects, at 20 versus 27 percent in African Americans; 50 versus 84 percent for Hispanics; and 39 percent versus 78 percent for non-Hispanic whites, respectively.
Regardless of ethnic group, further analysis indicated that the protective effect of breast feeding against type 2 diabetes was in large part attributable to its effect in moderating current childhood weight.
Nonetheless, breast-feeding in itself had a protective effect, Mayer-Davis and colleagues found. "Given other well-established reasons for breast-feeding," the researchers conclude, "renewed efforts to encourage breast-feeding in populations at high risk for type 2 diabetes may be useful."
Click Here To Read The Full Article At Reuters...
"Dramatic increases in childhood obesity and the emergence of type 2 diabetes in youth motivate research to identify lifestyle approaches to primary prevention of both conditions," write Dr. Elizabeth J. Mayer-Davis of the University of South Carolina, Columbia, and colleagues…
The breast-feeding rate was lower in subjects with type 2 diabetes compared with the control subjects, at 20 versus 27 percent in African Americans; 50 versus 84 percent for Hispanics; and 39 percent versus 78 percent for non-Hispanic whites, respectively.
Regardless of ethnic group, further analysis indicated that the protective effect of breast feeding against type 2 diabetes was in large part attributable to its effect in moderating current childhood weight.
Nonetheless, breast-feeding in itself had a protective effect, Mayer-Davis and colleagues found. "Given other well-established reasons for breast-feeding," the researchers conclude, "renewed efforts to encourage breast-feeding in populations at high risk for type 2 diabetes may be useful."
Click Here To Read The Full Article At Reuters...
ABNORMAL GUT BACTERIA MIX IN BABIES PREDICTS OBESITY
The mix of bacteria in a baby's gut may predict whether that infant will become overweight or obese later in life, a new study suggests.
Babies with high numbers of bifidobacteria and low numbers of Staphylococcus aureus may be protected from excess weight gain…
The researchers suggested their findings may help explain why breast-fed babies are at lower risk for later obesity, since bifidobacteria are prevalent in the guts of breast-fed babies.
Other studies repeatedly have found that being breast-fed is associated with a reduced risk of excess weight or obesity in childhood, with the risk lowered from 13 percent to 22 percent.
In the new study, researchers evaluated children who had been part of a long-term study to evaluate the effect of probiotics on allergic disease. Probiotics are potentially beneficial bacteria found in foods such as yogurt and in dietary supplements…
When they looked at the fecal samples, the average bacterial counts of bifidobacteria when taken at 6 months and 12 months were twice as high in those who were a healthy weight as in those who got heavy.
Those who stayed at a healthy weight also had lower fecal S. aureus levels at 6 months and 12 months than did those who got heavy…
In other research, gut bacteria in adults have been found to be altered in obese adults who lost weight. Someday, the Finnish researchers speculated, tinkering with gut flora may help prevent or treat obesity…
"The exact role that bacteria in the intestine play in development of obesity is still the subject of much research," she said, "but the benefits of breast-feeding are clear. Breast-feeding provides not only the proper nutrition for your infant, but it provides benefits that may impact long-term health and weight issues as well."..
Click Here To Read The Full Article At The Washington Post...
Babies with high numbers of bifidobacteria and low numbers of Staphylococcus aureus may be protected from excess weight gain…
The researchers suggested their findings may help explain why breast-fed babies are at lower risk for later obesity, since bifidobacteria are prevalent in the guts of breast-fed babies.
Other studies repeatedly have found that being breast-fed is associated with a reduced risk of excess weight or obesity in childhood, with the risk lowered from 13 percent to 22 percent.
In the new study, researchers evaluated children who had been part of a long-term study to evaluate the effect of probiotics on allergic disease. Probiotics are potentially beneficial bacteria found in foods such as yogurt and in dietary supplements…
When they looked at the fecal samples, the average bacterial counts of bifidobacteria when taken at 6 months and 12 months were twice as high in those who were a healthy weight as in those who got heavy.
Those who stayed at a healthy weight also had lower fecal S. aureus levels at 6 months and 12 months than did those who got heavy…
In other research, gut bacteria in adults have been found to be altered in obese adults who lost weight. Someday, the Finnish researchers speculated, tinkering with gut flora may help prevent or treat obesity…
"The exact role that bacteria in the intestine play in development of obesity is still the subject of much research," she said, "but the benefits of breast-feeding are clear. Breast-feeding provides not only the proper nutrition for your infant, but it provides benefits that may impact long-term health and weight issues as well."..
Click Here To Read The Full Article At The Washington Post...
TEENAGERS SKIPPING BREAKFAST LINKED TO OBESITY
Teenagers who skip breakfast are more likely to be obese than those who eat a morning meal, according to a finding that researchers say may be linked to rising obesity among adolescents.
Teens that skipped the meal were five pounds heavier on average, ate less healthy during the day and exercised less frequently than those who ate breakfast, researchers reported in the journal Pediatrics. The study is the largest to follow the breakfast habits of teens over years and track whether they've become obese, researchers said.
The obesity rate for adolescents has tripled over the past 20 years, according to a 2007 report by the U.S. Surgeon General's Office...
“There's been a growing body of scientific evidence that breakfast habits might be related to obesity and other health outcomes,” said Mark Pereira, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and a study author. Skipping the meal may mean “you're more likely to eat the fast food or the vending machine food.”..
Teenagers who came from low-income homes and were nonwhite were more likely to skip breakfast, the study showed. The researchers said some teenagers may have refrained from eating the morning meal to lose weight.
Obesity means a person has too much body fat, while being overweight means a person's weight is more than what is viewed as healthy given his or her height, according to the National Institutes of Health.
The researchers said earlier studies have found 12 to 34 percent of children and teens ages 6 to 19 regularly skip breakfast.
Click Here To Read The Full Article At Bloomberg...
Teens that skipped the meal were five pounds heavier on average, ate less healthy during the day and exercised less frequently than those who ate breakfast, researchers reported in the journal Pediatrics. The study is the largest to follow the breakfast habits of teens over years and track whether they've become obese, researchers said.
The obesity rate for adolescents has tripled over the past 20 years, according to a 2007 report by the U.S. Surgeon General's Office...
“There's been a growing body of scientific evidence that breakfast habits might be related to obesity and other health outcomes,” said Mark Pereira, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and a study author. Skipping the meal may mean “you're more likely to eat the fast food or the vending machine food.”..
Teenagers who came from low-income homes and were nonwhite were more likely to skip breakfast, the study showed. The researchers said some teenagers may have refrained from eating the morning meal to lose weight.
Obesity means a person has too much body fat, while being overweight means a person's weight is more than what is viewed as healthy given his or her height, according to the National Institutes of Health.
The researchers said earlier studies have found 12 to 34 percent of children and teens ages 6 to 19 regularly skip breakfast.
Click Here To Read The Full Article At Bloomberg...
EXPERTS LOBBY GOVERNMENT OVER GM CROP FEARS
It is now legal to plant genetically modified (GM) canola in much of Australia, but a large group of concerned scientists, nutritionists and doctors is trying to convince the Federal Government to stop the seeds from ever being sown.
About 700 people have signed a letter to the Prime Minister, reminding him of Labor's election statement that safe and beneficial standards for GM products must be established beyond reasonable doubt.
They want the Federal Government to override decisions in Victoria and New South Wales allowing GM canola to be grown, and start from scratch, with a complete review of GM safety.
The planting season is only weeks away, but Adelaide businessman Peter Fenwick is hoping his letter to the Federal Government can stop it...
The letter says the previous federal government set up a biased regulatory regime for GM products.
Epidemiologist and biochemist Judy Carman says there was no thorough testing of the safety of GM canola before it was approved...
Dr Carman says no one can say for sure if genetically modified DNA is safe if ingested by humans.
"We don't know, because the safety assessments have not been done properly," she said.
"There have not been any human health studies done on GM crops.
"There have been very few, ultimately, animal studies done on GM crops, and this is one of the problems - our food regulator does not require any animal studies to be done on GM crops."
Click Here To Read the Full Article At ABC News and Listen To The Audio...
Click Here To Download The Letter Submitted To The Government...
Click Here If You Would Like To Email Your Endorsement For This Letter...
About 700 people have signed a letter to the Prime Minister, reminding him of Labor's election statement that safe and beneficial standards for GM products must be established beyond reasonable doubt.
They want the Federal Government to override decisions in Victoria and New South Wales allowing GM canola to be grown, and start from scratch, with a complete review of GM safety.
The planting season is only weeks away, but Adelaide businessman Peter Fenwick is hoping his letter to the Federal Government can stop it...
The letter says the previous federal government set up a biased regulatory regime for GM products.
Epidemiologist and biochemist Judy Carman says there was no thorough testing of the safety of GM canola before it was approved...
Dr Carman says no one can say for sure if genetically modified DNA is safe if ingested by humans.
"We don't know, because the safety assessments have not been done properly," she said.
"There have not been any human health studies done on GM crops.
"There have been very few, ultimately, animal studies done on GM crops, and this is one of the problems - our food regulator does not require any animal studies to be done on GM crops."
Click Here To Read the Full Article At ABC News and Listen To The Audio...
Click Here To Download The Letter Submitted To The Government...
Click Here If You Would Like To Email Your Endorsement For This Letter...
BLIND MAN SUDDENLY SEES AGAIN
Doctors aren't quite sure how it happened, but a Dubuque man can see clearly after being blind in one eye for more than a decade.
It happened after a trip to the chiropractor.
Twelve years ago Doug Harkey's left eye suddenly stopped working. "I woke up one day and I didn't have vision in one eye."
And as quickly as he lost sight, he got it back.
Harkey said, "he just did his normal adjustment and, voila! After a routine visit to Chiropractor Tim Stackis, Harkey says a miracle happened.
"My blind eye starting watering after I left there and it watered for 45 minutes straight. It started making my good eye water. I went to wipe my right eye and I could see out my left again."
Doctor Stackis said the bones in the Harkey's neck were out of alignment. Stackis said, "That interferes with the messages and energy the brain sends down to the rest of the body."
Harkey now has the depth perception he'd been missing, just what he needs as he's about to walk down the aisle with his fiancée next month.
Click Here To Read The Full Article At KCRG TV9 News...
It happened after a trip to the chiropractor.
Twelve years ago Doug Harkey's left eye suddenly stopped working. "I woke up one day and I didn't have vision in one eye."
And as quickly as he lost sight, he got it back.
Harkey said, "he just did his normal adjustment and, voila! After a routine visit to Chiropractor Tim Stackis, Harkey says a miracle happened.
"My blind eye starting watering after I left there and it watered for 45 minutes straight. It started making my good eye water. I went to wipe my right eye and I could see out my left again."
Doctor Stackis said the bones in the Harkey's neck were out of alignment. Stackis said, "That interferes with the messages and energy the brain sends down to the rest of the body."
Harkey now has the depth perception he'd been missing, just what he needs as he's about to walk down the aisle with his fiancée next month.
Click Here To Read The Full Article At KCRG TV9 News...
PSYCHOLOGICAL RESPONSE TO SPINAL MANIPULATION
Just in case you think that the last historical feature on chiropractic care and mental ailments is historically interesting, but currently irrelevant - Here's some more recent evidence for the role for chiropractic in mental state... A systematic review of psychological outcomes in randomised controlled trials.
The most important risk factors for back and neck pain are psychosocial. Nevertheless, systematic reviews of spinal manipulation have concentrated on pain and spine related disability, and ignored psychological outcomes.
This review assessed whether spinal manipulation was effective in improving psychological outcome... There was some evidence that spinal manipulation improved psychological outcomes compared with verbal interventions.
Read The Full Abstract At Find Health Articles...
The most important risk factors for back and neck pain are psychosocial. Nevertheless, systematic reviews of spinal manipulation have concentrated on pain and spine related disability, and ignored psychological outcomes.
This review assessed whether spinal manipulation was effective in improving psychological outcome... There was some evidence that spinal manipulation improved psychological outcomes compared with verbal interventions.
Read The Full Abstract At Find Health Articles...
CHIROPRACTIC IN MENTAL AILMENTS
This feature is based on an article originally published in 1957. Few people know that many years ago there was a number of Chiropractic Psychiatric Hospitals which had unprecedented success stories. This topic deserves to be revisited...
There is a considerable accumulation of evidence that chiropractic is effective in the handling of various mental ills, perhaps even more effective in certain instances than the medical battery of treatment which includes psychoanalysis, psychiatry, drugs, various types of shock therapy, and surgery. This evidence has been piling up since the days of DD Palmer himself, who wrote that in the case of insane patients it was usual to find "occlusion of the third, sixth, seventh, eleventh, and twelfth dorsal nerves."
In 1952, a crusading book entitled Obsolete American Mental Health Systems made startling claims that both chiropractic and osteopathy were far superior to so-called "orthodox" procedures in the handling of mental ills. Written by John Stevenson, who was for many years a prominent figure in labor management in the State of Michigan, it made such direct comparisons as these:
"Under our present state mental health programs, seventy-five to ninety-five patients of every one hundred patients who enter state mental hospitals are doomed to an asylum prison for life, depending on which state the patients are confined in…
"Investigation reveals that the private sanitariums of the chiropractic profession show from 60 to 65 per cent satisfactory discharges per annum as against 1 per cent to approximately 25 per cent discharges from state mental hospitals."…
Chiropractors state that clinical experience with many thousands of nervous patients has definitely established a direct connection between the nervous system and these disorders, demonstrating that the latter are not always of purely emotional origin. They also state that the physical alterations they are able to stimulate in the nervous system through spinal adjustment are highly successful in eliminating nervous symptoms, including those of long duration. This was stressed in a recent series of articles in the National Chiropractic Association journal titled "The Connection Between Nerves and Nervousness" and written by Dr. Herman S. Schwartz, President of the National Chiropractic Psychotherapy Council and author of the popular self-help book The Art of Relaxation…
A valuable guide to the subject is a public-information booklet written by Dr. Schwartz with the technical and editorial collaboration of George W. Hartmann, Professor of Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University. It is entitled 350 Nervous and Mental Cases Under Chiropractic Care and was published by The Chiropractic Research Foundation of Webster City, Iowa.
Dr. Schwartz cogently sums up chiropractic's approach to mental illness. He says: "It is logical to ask how chiropractors correct nervous and mental conditions without resorting to psychiatry. The answer is that chiropractic is a neurological approach to these problems, operating on the independent assumption now an established scientific fact-that much emotional illness stems from nerve irritations maintained by distortions in the spinal column. By correcting these subluxations, the chiropractor eliminates intense and persistent pains of obscure origin which mental cases suffer. A person with a cinder in his eye sometimes shows temporary lack of emotional control. So does one who has his corn stepped on heavily. Perpetuate excitation with a less obvious source of trouble and one begins to understand why some of the mentally ill suffer."
Of the 350 patients in the Schwartz survey, 212 or 60.5 per cent were "apparently cured" through chiropractic, 87 or 25 per cent "much improved," 28 or 8 per cent "somewhat improved," 19 or 5.5 per cent revealed "no change," and 4 or 1 per cent were "worse." Thus in 93.5 per cent of these patients improvement was noted ranging from apparent cure to some betterment of the condition.
"The summation here," observed Dr. Schwartz, "is that the chances are about 9 in 10 that `nervous' cases of the sort considered, benefit from whatever the chiropractor does for them. Interestingly enough, every one of the 350 cases studied revealed subluxations of variable magnitude in spinal analysis."
The Schwartz study becomes even more impressive when it is noted that of the patients studied 33 per cent had been in mental institutions and another four per cent were on the verge of being committed at the time chiropractic was first applied to them. More than 55 per cent had received general medical care, 13 per cent had undergone some form of shock therapy, and six per cent had had psychiatric treatment. Of the entire 350, all but five had had at least some degree of medical and psychiatric attention. Under such treatment, 27 or 8 per cent of the entire group had worsened, 33 or 10 per cent had shown some improvement, and 285 or 81 per cent had shown no change either for better or for worse…
One of the best-known chiropractic institutions dealing with the mentally ill is Forest Park Chiropractic Sanitarium in Davenport, Iowa. Its record in mental cases appears far superior than that of many, if not all, orthodox institutions. As far back as 1934, through the efforts of Hon. A. W. Ponath, County Judge of the Probate Court of Richland County, Wahpeton, North Dakota, 10 patients from the State Hospital at James-town, North Dakota, who had all been diagnosed as hopeless and incurable cases of dementia praecox, were sent to Forest Park in a test of what chiropractic could or could not accomplish. All of the 10 were chronic cases, and eight of the ten had been in the North Dakota state mental institution for from five to ten years. The remaining two were acute cases who had been mentally deranged for only a short time.
With these ten mental patients—all of whom had been diagnosed by state-employed medical doctors and psychiatrists as hopelessly incurable—Forest Park appears to have achieved 80 per cent complete recovery. The two acute cases were completely recovered by the end of the second month of treatment. Of the eight chronic cases, six were returned home as free from symptoms within one year.
Judge Ponath subsequently published a report titled Facts—What Chiropractic Has Done for Insanity in which he compared the overall records at Jamestown, N. D., (under medical supervision) and Forest Park (chiropractic). He found that during the years 1922-1934 the state mental hospital achieved 27.18 cures or satisfactory discharges, as compared with 65 per cent of the chiropractic institution over the same period.
Judge Ponath concluded, "And if this record, 65 per cent, can be obtained on cases where the large percentage are classed as incurable and had already spent much time in insane asylums and other sanitariums, how much more chiropractic could do if given the opportunity to handle the patients immediately after being brought to an insane asylum, rather than months or years later when their constitution has been run down by deterioration or prolonged mental disability or both."…
Read The Full Article At Old And Sold Antiques Digest...
There is a considerable accumulation of evidence that chiropractic is effective in the handling of various mental ills, perhaps even more effective in certain instances than the medical battery of treatment which includes psychoanalysis, psychiatry, drugs, various types of shock therapy, and surgery. This evidence has been piling up since the days of DD Palmer himself, who wrote that in the case of insane patients it was usual to find "occlusion of the third, sixth, seventh, eleventh, and twelfth dorsal nerves."
In 1952, a crusading book entitled Obsolete American Mental Health Systems made startling claims that both chiropractic and osteopathy were far superior to so-called "orthodox" procedures in the handling of mental ills. Written by John Stevenson, who was for many years a prominent figure in labor management in the State of Michigan, it made such direct comparisons as these:
"Under our present state mental health programs, seventy-five to ninety-five patients of every one hundred patients who enter state mental hospitals are doomed to an asylum prison for life, depending on which state the patients are confined in…
"Investigation reveals that the private sanitariums of the chiropractic profession show from 60 to 65 per cent satisfactory discharges per annum as against 1 per cent to approximately 25 per cent discharges from state mental hospitals."…
Chiropractors state that clinical experience with many thousands of nervous patients has definitely established a direct connection between the nervous system and these disorders, demonstrating that the latter are not always of purely emotional origin. They also state that the physical alterations they are able to stimulate in the nervous system through spinal adjustment are highly successful in eliminating nervous symptoms, including those of long duration. This was stressed in a recent series of articles in the National Chiropractic Association journal titled "The Connection Between Nerves and Nervousness" and written by Dr. Herman S. Schwartz, President of the National Chiropractic Psychotherapy Council and author of the popular self-help book The Art of Relaxation…
A valuable guide to the subject is a public-information booklet written by Dr. Schwartz with the technical and editorial collaboration of George W. Hartmann, Professor of Psychology, Teachers College, Columbia University. It is entitled 350 Nervous and Mental Cases Under Chiropractic Care and was published by The Chiropractic Research Foundation of Webster City, Iowa.
Dr. Schwartz cogently sums up chiropractic's approach to mental illness. He says: "It is logical to ask how chiropractors correct nervous and mental conditions without resorting to psychiatry. The answer is that chiropractic is a neurological approach to these problems, operating on the independent assumption now an established scientific fact-that much emotional illness stems from nerve irritations maintained by distortions in the spinal column. By correcting these subluxations, the chiropractor eliminates intense and persistent pains of obscure origin which mental cases suffer. A person with a cinder in his eye sometimes shows temporary lack of emotional control. So does one who has his corn stepped on heavily. Perpetuate excitation with a less obvious source of trouble and one begins to understand why some of the mentally ill suffer."
Of the 350 patients in the Schwartz survey, 212 or 60.5 per cent were "apparently cured" through chiropractic, 87 or 25 per cent "much improved," 28 or 8 per cent "somewhat improved," 19 or 5.5 per cent revealed "no change," and 4 or 1 per cent were "worse." Thus in 93.5 per cent of these patients improvement was noted ranging from apparent cure to some betterment of the condition.
"The summation here," observed Dr. Schwartz, "is that the chances are about 9 in 10 that `nervous' cases of the sort considered, benefit from whatever the chiropractor does for them. Interestingly enough, every one of the 350 cases studied revealed subluxations of variable magnitude in spinal analysis."
The Schwartz study becomes even more impressive when it is noted that of the patients studied 33 per cent had been in mental institutions and another four per cent were on the verge of being committed at the time chiropractic was first applied to them. More than 55 per cent had received general medical care, 13 per cent had undergone some form of shock therapy, and six per cent had had psychiatric treatment. Of the entire 350, all but five had had at least some degree of medical and psychiatric attention. Under such treatment, 27 or 8 per cent of the entire group had worsened, 33 or 10 per cent had shown some improvement, and 285 or 81 per cent had shown no change either for better or for worse…
One of the best-known chiropractic institutions dealing with the mentally ill is Forest Park Chiropractic Sanitarium in Davenport, Iowa. Its record in mental cases appears far superior than that of many, if not all, orthodox institutions. As far back as 1934, through the efforts of Hon. A. W. Ponath, County Judge of the Probate Court of Richland County, Wahpeton, North Dakota, 10 patients from the State Hospital at James-town, North Dakota, who had all been diagnosed as hopeless and incurable cases of dementia praecox, were sent to Forest Park in a test of what chiropractic could or could not accomplish. All of the 10 were chronic cases, and eight of the ten had been in the North Dakota state mental institution for from five to ten years. The remaining two were acute cases who had been mentally deranged for only a short time.
With these ten mental patients—all of whom had been diagnosed by state-employed medical doctors and psychiatrists as hopelessly incurable—Forest Park appears to have achieved 80 per cent complete recovery. The two acute cases were completely recovered by the end of the second month of treatment. Of the eight chronic cases, six were returned home as free from symptoms within one year.
Judge Ponath subsequently published a report titled Facts—What Chiropractic Has Done for Insanity in which he compared the overall records at Jamestown, N. D., (under medical supervision) and Forest Park (chiropractic). He found that during the years 1922-1934 the state mental hospital achieved 27.18 cures or satisfactory discharges, as compared with 65 per cent of the chiropractic institution over the same period.
Judge Ponath concluded, "And if this record, 65 per cent, can be obtained on cases where the large percentage are classed as incurable and had already spent much time in insane asylums and other sanitariums, how much more chiropractic could do if given the opportunity to handle the patients immediately after being brought to an insane asylum, rather than months or years later when their constitution has been run down by deterioration or prolonged mental disability or both."…
Read The Full Article At Old And Sold Antiques Digest...
DEAR CHIROPRACTOR: HELP ME KICK THE HABIT
Beating addiction may take an extra nudge from the chiropractor.
When Jose Mehlman enrolled in the Exodus addiction treatment center as a study participant, he had hit bottom. Years before, he tried treatments that fell into his lap—anything that might help him. But they were "nowhere near effective." Today, Mehlman is living a viable, drug-free life. Why was his Exodus experience so successful? "I think that chiropractic care was an integral part of my recovery," he says.
But what does the spine have to do with addiction? The connection may be explained by the presence, or absence, of brain chemicals that make us feel good. When the spinal chord and its nerves are in proper order, chemicals known as neurotransmitters are released in a specific sequence, like falling dominoes. The result: A state of well-being. However, subluxations or misalignments of the spine can cause pressure and tension on surrounding tissue, interrupting this feel-good sequence.
Jay Holder, a chiropractor and physician with the Exodus Treatment Center in Miami Beach, wondered how patients would fare on a traditional rehab treatment program supplemented with chiropractic care. Some 98 subjects, including Mehlman, participated in the study, which was published in Molecular Psychiatry. Holder's research found that when an addiction treatment program was supplemented with frequent chiropractic adjustments over a 30-day period, the patients displayed an unprecedented 100 percent program completion rate. In addition, initially rampant depression and anxiety dropped significantly.
In comparison, the study's two other groups—one, a passive group who underwent only standard rehabilitation, and another, a placebo group who received sham chiropractic care—displayed significantly lower retention rates, and were about as likely to finish the program as the average recovering addict in the U.S. (a probability of about 55 percent).
Holder's study used a specific chiropractic technique called the Torque Release Technique, which focuses less on the alignment of the bones and more on what he calls the "neurophysiology of the spine." Certain types of subluxations can interfere with the tissue that extends from the brain stem through the spine and into the coccyx, hampering systems like the limbic system (known as the "seat of emotions") and throwing off neurotransmitters that keep us feeling our best. Holder's research suggests that drug treatment programs prove to be more successful with this type of chiropractic care...
Click Here To Read The Full Article At Psychology Today...
When Jose Mehlman enrolled in the Exodus addiction treatment center as a study participant, he had hit bottom. Years before, he tried treatments that fell into his lap—anything that might help him. But they were "nowhere near effective." Today, Mehlman is living a viable, drug-free life. Why was his Exodus experience so successful? "I think that chiropractic care was an integral part of my recovery," he says.
But what does the spine have to do with addiction? The connection may be explained by the presence, or absence, of brain chemicals that make us feel good. When the spinal chord and its nerves are in proper order, chemicals known as neurotransmitters are released in a specific sequence, like falling dominoes. The result: A state of well-being. However, subluxations or misalignments of the spine can cause pressure and tension on surrounding tissue, interrupting this feel-good sequence.
Jay Holder, a chiropractor and physician with the Exodus Treatment Center in Miami Beach, wondered how patients would fare on a traditional rehab treatment program supplemented with chiropractic care. Some 98 subjects, including Mehlman, participated in the study, which was published in Molecular Psychiatry. Holder's research found that when an addiction treatment program was supplemented with frequent chiropractic adjustments over a 30-day period, the patients displayed an unprecedented 100 percent program completion rate. In addition, initially rampant depression and anxiety dropped significantly.
In comparison, the study's two other groups—one, a passive group who underwent only standard rehabilitation, and another, a placebo group who received sham chiropractic care—displayed significantly lower retention rates, and were about as likely to finish the program as the average recovering addict in the U.S. (a probability of about 55 percent).
Holder's study used a specific chiropractic technique called the Torque Release Technique, which focuses less on the alignment of the bones and more on what he calls the "neurophysiology of the spine." Certain types of subluxations can interfere with the tissue that extends from the brain stem through the spine and into the coccyx, hampering systems like the limbic system (known as the "seat of emotions") and throwing off neurotransmitters that keep us feeling our best. Holder's research suggests that drug treatment programs prove to be more successful with this type of chiropractic care...
Click Here To Read The Full Article At Psychology Today...
IMPROVED HEALTH OUTCOMES CORRELATES WITH RATIO OF CHIROPRACTORS
It would appear that the greater the number of Chiropractors in a community, the healthier that community will be…
In the USA the news that Minnesota ranks first in health and Louisiana last, suggests that their connecting medium, the Mississippi River, or some other north-to-south phenomenon might be a factor. Consequently, correlations were assessed for various outcomes for states along the Mississippi River in an effort to better understand possible mechanisms for the health disparity along the River. Doctor ratios were also correlated with the outcomes.
Each state along the Mississippi River was ranked according to its north-to-south position. The position ranks were correlated with various outcomes in the areas of health, education, and socioeconomics. Doctor (physician [medical and osteopathic] and chiropractor) ratios for these river states were also correlated with these outcomes.
Except for generosity index, the outcomes had a tendency to worsen from north-to-south but tended to improve with increased doctor ratios. Chiropractors had stronger correlations for improved outcomes in 20 of the 25 outcomes compared to physicians, whereas physicians had stronger correlations in four of the 25 outcomes compared to chiropractors.
Decreased health along the Mississippi River, from north-to-south, is likely a multi-factorial phenomenon, i.e., a decrease in income, educational attainment, and quality of health care.
The ratios for both doctor types (physician and chiropractor) were correlated with improved outcomes, especially for chiropractor ratios.
Click Here To Read The Research Abstract At The Journal Of Vertebral Subluxation Research...
In the USA the news that Minnesota ranks first in health and Louisiana last, suggests that their connecting medium, the Mississippi River, or some other north-to-south phenomenon might be a factor. Consequently, correlations were assessed for various outcomes for states along the Mississippi River in an effort to better understand possible mechanisms for the health disparity along the River. Doctor ratios were also correlated with the outcomes.
Each state along the Mississippi River was ranked according to its north-to-south position. The position ranks were correlated with various outcomes in the areas of health, education, and socioeconomics. Doctor (physician [medical and osteopathic] and chiropractor) ratios for these river states were also correlated with these outcomes.
Except for generosity index, the outcomes had a tendency to worsen from north-to-south but tended to improve with increased doctor ratios. Chiropractors had stronger correlations for improved outcomes in 20 of the 25 outcomes compared to physicians, whereas physicians had stronger correlations in four of the 25 outcomes compared to chiropractors.
Decreased health along the Mississippi River, from north-to-south, is likely a multi-factorial phenomenon, i.e., a decrease in income, educational attainment, and quality of health care.
The ratios for both doctor types (physician and chiropractor) were correlated with improved outcomes, especially for chiropractor ratios.
Click Here To Read The Research Abstract At The Journal Of Vertebral Subluxation Research...
IMPROVEMENT IN HEARING AFTER CHIROPRACTIC CARE
The first chiropractic adjustment given in 1895 was reported to have cured deafness. A new research study examined the effects of a single, initial chiropractic visit on the central nervous system by documenting clinical changes of audiometry in patients after chiropractic care.
Fifteen patients were thoroughly assessed with audiometry, before and immediately after the first chiropractic intervention. Several criteria were used to determine hearing impairment. All patients were classified as hearing impaired though greater on the right.
At 40 dB six had hearing restored, seven improved and only two had no change. At 25 dB using the Speech-frequency criteria, none were restored, eleven improved, four had no change and three missed a tone.
A significant percentage of patients presenting to the chiropractor have a mild to moderate hearing loss, most notably in the right ear. The clinical progress documented in this report suggests that manipulation delivered to the neuromusculoskeletal system may create central plastic changes in the auditory system leading to improvement in their hearing.
Click Here To Read The Research Abstract At PubMed...
Fifteen patients were thoroughly assessed with audiometry, before and immediately after the first chiropractic intervention. Several criteria were used to determine hearing impairment. All patients were classified as hearing impaired though greater on the right.
At 40 dB six had hearing restored, seven improved and only two had no change. At 25 dB using the Speech-frequency criteria, none were restored, eleven improved, four had no change and three missed a tone.
A significant percentage of patients presenting to the chiropractor have a mild to moderate hearing loss, most notably in the right ear. The clinical progress documented in this report suggests that manipulation delivered to the neuromusculoskeletal system may create central plastic changes in the auditory system leading to improvement in their hearing.
Click Here To Read The Research Abstract At PubMed...
IMPROVEMENT IN AUTISM FOLLOWING CHIROPRACTIC CARE
Improvement in a 3½-year-old Autistic Child Following Chiropractic Intervention to Reduce Vertebral Subluxation.
This case study describes, discusses and tracks the subjective and objective changes of a 3½ year old autistic girl following chiropractic adjustments over a 10 week period.
The female child with reduced social interaction and language skills and learning difficulties had been diagnosed with autism 1 year earlier.
The child received full spine adjustments where indicated to reduce vertebral subluxation, using the Torque Release Technique protocol and Integrator instrument. Strong verbal and physical apprehension to initial care was observed, however no signs of this were present after 5 visits, along with further improvements in social interactions, language skills and increased symmetry in surface EMG and thermal scanning over the 10 weeks of care.
The subjective and objective improvements observed by both practitioner and parents following chiropractic care indicate a link between subluxation and autistic behavioral patterns...
Click Here To Read The Research Abstract At The Journal Of Vertebral Subluxation Research...
This case study describes, discusses and tracks the subjective and objective changes of a 3½ year old autistic girl following chiropractic adjustments over a 10 week period.
The female child with reduced social interaction and language skills and learning difficulties had been diagnosed with autism 1 year earlier.
The child received full spine adjustments where indicated to reduce vertebral subluxation, using the Torque Release Technique protocol and Integrator instrument. Strong verbal and physical apprehension to initial care was observed, however no signs of this were present after 5 visits, along with further improvements in social interactions, language skills and increased symmetry in surface EMG and thermal scanning over the 10 weeks of care.
The subjective and objective improvements observed by both practitioner and parents following chiropractic care indicate a link between subluxation and autistic behavioral patterns...
Click Here To Read The Research Abstract At The Journal Of Vertebral Subluxation Research...
Friday, April 11, 2008
COULD A NECK ADJUSTMENT LOWER YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE?
A New Study Implies a Link Between Hypertension and Spinal Alignment
Though doctors are unsure of what causes blood pressure to increase, a new study suggests that a specific type of neck adjustment may reduce hypertension for some of the 65 million Americans battling it.
The University of Chicago study, published in the Journal of Human Hypertension this month, looked at the possibility of a connection between a spinal realignment and a decrease in blood pressure.
We set up a double-blind study to really look and see if in fact this procedure was affecting high blood pressure," said University of Chicago Medical Center hypertension specialist George Bakris.The results were intriguing.
The patients who received the chiropractic adjustments saw their blood pressure drop an average of 17 points -- a dip that usually takes two blood pressure medications to achieve...
Click Here To Read The Story At ABC News...
Click Here To Watch The Good Morning America Feature at YouTube...
Though doctors are unsure of what causes blood pressure to increase, a new study suggests that a specific type of neck adjustment may reduce hypertension for some of the 65 million Americans battling it.
The University of Chicago study, published in the Journal of Human Hypertension this month, looked at the possibility of a connection between a spinal realignment and a decrease in blood pressure.
We set up a double-blind study to really look and see if in fact this procedure was affecting high blood pressure," said University of Chicago Medical Center hypertension specialist George Bakris.The results were intriguing.
The patients who received the chiropractic adjustments saw their blood pressure drop an average of 17 points -- a dip that usually takes two blood pressure medications to achieve...
Click Here To Read The Story At ABC News...
Click Here To Watch The Good Morning America Feature at YouTube...
Thursday, March 13, 2008
CHIROPRACTORS DON'T CAUSE STROKE
A Canadian study indicates there is no increased risk related to chiropractic treatment in the heated debate about whether neck adjustments can trigger a rare type of stroke.
Researchers say patients are no more likely to suffer a stroke following a visit to a chiropractor than they would after stepping into their family doctor's office.
The findings, published in the journal Spine, help shed light on earlier studies that had cast a cloud on the chiropractic profession and suggested that their actions resulted in some patients suffering a stroke after treatment.
“We didn't see any increased association between chiropractic care and usual family physician care, and the stroke,” said Frank Silver, one of the researchers and also a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and director of the University Health Network stroke program.
“The association occurs because patients tend to seek care when they're having neck pain or headache, and sometimes they go to a chiropractor, sometimes they go to a physician. But we didn't see an increased likelihood of them having this type of stroke after seeing a chiropractor.”
Click here to read the full article at the Globe and Mail...
Researchers say patients are no more likely to suffer a stroke following a visit to a chiropractor than they would after stepping into their family doctor's office.
The findings, published in the journal Spine, help shed light on earlier studies that had cast a cloud on the chiropractic profession and suggested that their actions resulted in some patients suffering a stroke after treatment.
“We didn't see any increased association between chiropractic care and usual family physician care, and the stroke,” said Frank Silver, one of the researchers and also a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and director of the University Health Network stroke program.
“The association occurs because patients tend to seek care when they're having neck pain or headache, and sometimes they go to a chiropractor, sometimes they go to a physician. But we didn't see an increased likelihood of them having this type of stroke after seeing a chiropractor.”
Click here to read the full article at the Globe and Mail...
HOW DRINKING COLA AFFECTS YOUR BODY
What Happens To Your Body Within An Hour Of Drinking A Coke?
Don’t drink cola if you want to be healthy. Consuming soft drinks is bad for so many reasons that science cannot even state all the consequences. But one thing we know for sure is that drinking Coke, as a representative of soft drinks, wreaks havoc on the human organism. What happens? Writer Wade Meredith has shown the quick progression of Coke’s assault.
The main problem is sugar. It’s an evil that the processed food industry and sugar growers don’t want people to know about. Even dietitians, financially supported by sugar growers and sugary product manufacturers, are loathe to tell us the truth.
When somebody drinks a Coke watch what happens…
10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.
20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)
40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.
45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.
>60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.
>60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.
>60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, urinated away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.
So there you have it, an avalanche of destruction in a single can. Imagine drinking this day after day, week after week. Stick to water, real juice from fresh squeezed fruit, and tea without sweetener.
Click here to read the full article at the Nutrition Research Center...
Don’t drink cola if you want to be healthy. Consuming soft drinks is bad for so many reasons that science cannot even state all the consequences. But one thing we know for sure is that drinking Coke, as a representative of soft drinks, wreaks havoc on the human organism. What happens? Writer Wade Meredith has shown the quick progression of Coke’s assault.
The main problem is sugar. It’s an evil that the processed food industry and sugar growers don’t want people to know about. Even dietitians, financially supported by sugar growers and sugary product manufacturers, are loathe to tell us the truth.
When somebody drinks a Coke watch what happens…
10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.
20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)
40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.
45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.
>60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.
>60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.
>60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, urinated away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.
So there you have it, an avalanche of destruction in a single can. Imagine drinking this day after day, week after week. Stick to water, real juice from fresh squeezed fruit, and tea without sweetener.
Click here to read the full article at the Nutrition Research Center...
OMEGA-3 OILS HELPING TO PREVENT ALZHEIMER'S
UCLA researchers find anti-Alzheimer's mechanism in omega-3 fatty acids.
It's good news that we are living longer, but bad news that the longer we live, the better our odds of developing late-onset Alzheimer's disease.
Many Alzheimer's researchers have long touted fish oil, by pill or diet, as an accessible and inexpensive "weapon" that may delay or prevent this debilitating disease. Now, UCLA scientists have confirmed that fish oil is indeed a deterrent against Alzheimer's, and they have identified the reasons why.
Reporting in a recent issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, Greg Cole, professor of medicine and neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and associate director of UCLA's Alzheimer Disease Research Center, and his colleagues report that the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) found in fish oil increases the production of LR11, a protein that is found at reduced levels in Alzheimer's patients and which is known to destroy the protein that forms the "plaques" associated with the disease.
The plaques are deposits of a protein called beta amyloid that is thought to be toxic to neurons in the brain, leading to Alzheimer's. Since having high levels of LR11 prevents the toxic plaques from being made, low levels in patients are believed to be a factor in causing the disease.
Click here to read the full article at Eureka Alert...
It's good news that we are living longer, but bad news that the longer we live, the better our odds of developing late-onset Alzheimer's disease.
Many Alzheimer's researchers have long touted fish oil, by pill or diet, as an accessible and inexpensive "weapon" that may delay or prevent this debilitating disease. Now, UCLA scientists have confirmed that fish oil is indeed a deterrent against Alzheimer's, and they have identified the reasons why.
Reporting in a recent issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, Greg Cole, professor of medicine and neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and associate director of UCLA's Alzheimer Disease Research Center, and his colleagues report that the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) found in fish oil increases the production of LR11, a protein that is found at reduced levels in Alzheimer's patients and which is known to destroy the protein that forms the "plaques" associated with the disease.
The plaques are deposits of a protein called beta amyloid that is thought to be toxic to neurons in the brain, leading to Alzheimer's. Since having high levels of LR11 prevents the toxic plaques from being made, low levels in patients are believed to be a factor in causing the disease.
Click here to read the full article at Eureka Alert...
DEODORANTS MAY INCREASE RISK OF BREAST CANCER
A link has been found between aluminium in deodorants and cancer, according to British scientists.
Tests found that women who used deodorants had deposits of aluminium in their outer breasts. The samples were taken from women who had undergone a mastectomy for breast cancer.
Aluminium is not normally found in the human body and scientists are reasonably convinced the presence of the metal means it is being absorbed from anti-perspirant sprays or roll ons. Most deodorants contain aluminium salts, because the metal is effective at stopping skin sweating.
Dr Chris Exley, from Keele University, who carried out the tests, has already raised concern about the aluminium content of sun creams, fearing it could put users at increased risk of developing skin cancer and Alzheimer's.
The findings were published in the November issue of the Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry.
Dr Exley said: "We found there was a wide variation in concentrations of aluminium. Some patients had low concentrations while others had quite high concentrations. "What we found among all the women is that they all had higher concentrations in the breast tissue closest to the underarm compared to more central tissue, for example below the nipple.
Dr Exley added: "Aluminium is known to cause cancer in animal models. We need to make sure aluminium in antiperspirants isn't contributing to breast cancer."
He said: "There are some non-aluminium- based antiperspirants but they don't work as well. Myth and legend tells us aluminium is safe but reality shows us not that it isn't safe but that we don't know. Not knowing is not a reason for assuming safety."
Click here to read the full article at the Daily Mail...
Tests found that women who used deodorants had deposits of aluminium in their outer breasts. The samples were taken from women who had undergone a mastectomy for breast cancer.
Aluminium is not normally found in the human body and scientists are reasonably convinced the presence of the metal means it is being absorbed from anti-perspirant sprays or roll ons. Most deodorants contain aluminium salts, because the metal is effective at stopping skin sweating.
Dr Chris Exley, from Keele University, who carried out the tests, has already raised concern about the aluminium content of sun creams, fearing it could put users at increased risk of developing skin cancer and Alzheimer's.
The findings were published in the November issue of the Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry.
Dr Exley said: "We found there was a wide variation in concentrations of aluminium. Some patients had low concentrations while others had quite high concentrations. "What we found among all the women is that they all had higher concentrations in the breast tissue closest to the underarm compared to more central tissue, for example below the nipple.
Dr Exley added: "Aluminium is known to cause cancer in animal models. We need to make sure aluminium in antiperspirants isn't contributing to breast cancer."
He said: "There are some non-aluminium- based antiperspirants but they don't work as well. Myth and legend tells us aluminium is safe but reality shows us not that it isn't safe but that we don't know. Not knowing is not a reason for assuming safety."
Click here to read the full article at the Daily Mail...
Sunday, February 10, 2008
HEATH LEDGER – THE MAN WHO FELL ON HIS TABLETS AND DIED?
“Accidental Death” – that’s an intriguing choice of words to describe how the life of another highly talented, hugely successful, and overtly admired, rich and famous person ended. The words I would choose are “negligent death”
Either Heath was negligent for taking such an obviously dangerous mix of strong medications without any knowledge of the possible interactions and outcome; OR, negligent on the part of his health care providers for being responsible, or irresponsible, for him being in possession of such a lethal mix of drugs. This man should not be dead yet.
Let’s take a look at what this guy put into his mouth: In simple terms he took a mix of painkillers, sleeping pills, and anti-anxiety medications…
1) Oxycodone (OxyContin) – Narcotic pain killer – Usually prescribed for moderate to severe pain. Should not be combined with alcohol, other narcotic pain medications, sedatives, tranquilizers, muscle relaxers, or other medicines that can make you sleepy or slow your breathing.
2) Hydrocodone (eg Vicodin) – Narcotic pain killer – Has an analgesic potency similar to or greater than that of oral morphine. Hydrocodone may increase the effects of other drugs that cause drowsiness, including alcohol, antihistamines, pain relievers, and anxiety medicines: Dangerous sedation, dizziness, or drowsiness may occur if hydrocodone is taken with any of these medications.
3) Diazepam (Valium) – Anti-anxiety pill – In a group of drugs called benzodiazepines. Diazepam is used to treat anxiety disorders, alcohol withdrawal symptoms, or muscle spasms. Before taking diazepam, tell your doctor if you take any other seizure medications, or if you are using any of the following drugs: narcotic medications such as hydrocodone, oxycodone.
4) Alprazolam – Anti-anxiety pill - Alprazolam is used to treat anxiety and panic disorders. It belongs to a class of medications called benzodiazepines. Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you take drugs that cause drowsiness such as: medicine for sleep, narcotic pain relievers, antihistamines.
5) Temazepam (Xanax) – Sleeping tablet – Is in a group of drugs called benzodiazepines: Used to treat insomnia symptoms, such as trouble falling or staying asleep.
6) Doxylamine – Sleeping tablet – Doxylamine is an antihistamine: Used for treating occasional sleeplessness and difficulty falling asleep.
Now if we summarise – that’s two types of narcotic pain killers (similar to morphine), three benzodiazepines, and one antihistamine – none of which should be mixed with the other!
These aren’t just over the counter Paracetamol and St John’s Wort tablets we are talking about – Each one individually cold take someone’s life if taken in the wrong amounts.
I’ll be honest – I’m perplexed as to how bad Heath must have told his MDs that he was feeling for them to be swayed to prescribe some if not all of these meds? “Hey doc I’m having trouble sleeping and my mind is racing.” “Well, how about I give you some Hydrocodone – it’s as strong as Morphine.” What the…?
"Accidental death": What happened - did he walk into his bedroom, trip over and land on the bottles which knocked them down his throat? Let's be brutally honest, this guy sat with a glass of water (and hopefuly not a glass of scotch which would make the mix even more lethal) and swallowed at least six heavy duty tablets in a short space of time.
So what happens that these celebrities seem to have much more leathal tablets in their bathroom cabinet than the rest of us?
Either Heath was negligent for taking such an obviously dangerous mix of strong medications without any knowledge of the possible interactions and outcome; OR, negligent on the part of his health care providers for being responsible, or irresponsible, for him being in possession of such a lethal mix of drugs. This man should not be dead yet.
Let’s take a look at what this guy put into his mouth: In simple terms he took a mix of painkillers, sleeping pills, and anti-anxiety medications…
1) Oxycodone (OxyContin) – Narcotic pain killer – Usually prescribed for moderate to severe pain. Should not be combined with alcohol, other narcotic pain medications, sedatives, tranquilizers, muscle relaxers, or other medicines that can make you sleepy or slow your breathing.
2) Hydrocodone (eg Vicodin) – Narcotic pain killer – Has an analgesic potency similar to or greater than that of oral morphine. Hydrocodone may increase the effects of other drugs that cause drowsiness, including alcohol, antihistamines, pain relievers, and anxiety medicines: Dangerous sedation, dizziness, or drowsiness may occur if hydrocodone is taken with any of these medications.
3) Diazepam (Valium) – Anti-anxiety pill – In a group of drugs called benzodiazepines. Diazepam is used to treat anxiety disorders, alcohol withdrawal symptoms, or muscle spasms. Before taking diazepam, tell your doctor if you take any other seizure medications, or if you are using any of the following drugs: narcotic medications such as hydrocodone, oxycodone.
4) Alprazolam – Anti-anxiety pill - Alprazolam is used to treat anxiety and panic disorders. It belongs to a class of medications called benzodiazepines. Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you take drugs that cause drowsiness such as: medicine for sleep, narcotic pain relievers, antihistamines.
5) Temazepam (Xanax) – Sleeping tablet – Is in a group of drugs called benzodiazepines: Used to treat insomnia symptoms, such as trouble falling or staying asleep.
6) Doxylamine – Sleeping tablet – Doxylamine is an antihistamine: Used for treating occasional sleeplessness and difficulty falling asleep.
Now if we summarise – that’s two types of narcotic pain killers (similar to morphine), three benzodiazepines, and one antihistamine – none of which should be mixed with the other!
These aren’t just over the counter Paracetamol and St John’s Wort tablets we are talking about – Each one individually cold take someone’s life if taken in the wrong amounts.
I’ll be honest – I’m perplexed as to how bad Heath must have told his MDs that he was feeling for them to be swayed to prescribe some if not all of these meds? “Hey doc I’m having trouble sleeping and my mind is racing.” “Well, how about I give you some Hydrocodone – it’s as strong as Morphine.” What the…?
"Accidental death": What happened - did he walk into his bedroom, trip over and land on the bottles which knocked them down his throat? Let's be brutally honest, this guy sat with a glass of water (and hopefuly not a glass of scotch which would make the mix even more lethal) and swallowed at least six heavy duty tablets in a short space of time.
So what happens that these celebrities seem to have much more leathal tablets in their bathroom cabinet than the rest of us?
- Do they get given stronger pills because they are more important than the rest of us? "I'm a very important person, I've gotta be filming on the set tommorrow - you'd better give me the best pills you've got". Do MDs bow to this kind of customer pressure and prescribe stronger than normal meds?
- Do MDs get "star struck" and give "wonder drugs" that they would not normally prescribe. "I'd better give this famous person the best stuff, then they might think I'm the best doc in town - and I might become the "doctor of the stars"."
- Do the pills not work very well, so the patient "doctor shops", getting a stonger and more potent med each time, while collecting the half-empty bottles, which in a moment of weakness, suffering or pain - the patient decides "maybe if I take one of each - one of them's gotta do the job".
- Do we have a well-concealed celebrity pack of prescription drug addicts (until they blow up in car parks, A-list parties or are found dead in their bedroom)? Five of the six drugs above are well-known addictive substances, often used by pill abusers, and often combined for maximum relief.
- Do we have a medical system that lacks fail-safe precautions? These are dangerous drugs - how hard would it be to have an online prescription registry where a patient gets listed when prescribed this strength of med? Then if a person visits another MD they can cross-check the history before signing off on yet another bottle.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
THE FILM ABOUT VACCINES THAT YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO SEE
This stunning censored interview was cut from the TV program The Health Century due to its huge liability - the admission that the Merck drug company has been injecting cancer viruses into people worldwide.
If you find the content shocking, consider watching the second video, the entire movie, “In Lies We Trust: The CIA, Hollywood & Bioterrorism”.
This film is produced and freely distributed by consumer protector and public health expert, Dr. Leonard Horowitz, and features the world's leading vaccine expert, Dr. Maurice Hilleman, explaining why Merck's vaccines have spread AIDS, leukemia, and other horrific plagues worldwide.
Watch the video/s at Mercola...
If you find the content shocking, consider watching the second video, the entire movie, “In Lies We Trust: The CIA, Hollywood & Bioterrorism”.
This film is produced and freely distributed by consumer protector and public health expert, Dr. Leonard Horowitz, and features the world's leading vaccine expert, Dr. Maurice Hilleman, explaining why Merck's vaccines have spread AIDS, leukemia, and other horrific plagues worldwide.
Watch the video/s at Mercola...
AIDS VACCINE THAT CAUSES AIDS
Merck tells AIDS vaccine volunteers who got jab
Thousands of people who volunteered to test an experimental AIDS vaccine that may have actually raised the risk of infection will be told if they got the actual shot, researchers said on Tuesday.
Merck & Co. Inc. and academic researchers said they would "unblind" the study, meaning everyone would find out who got the active shot and who got a dummy injection.
Two international trials of the experimental vaccine were stopped in September after it became clear the vaccine did not prevent infection with the AIDS virus.
The trials were conducted in the United States, Peru, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Australia and South Africa.
Earlier this month, researchers said they saw some worrying indications that the vaccine somehow raised the risk of infection, although they stressed the vaccine could not itself cause HIV infection.
They had already begun counseling volunteers that they could be at higher risk of HIV, a fatal and incurable virus that causes AIDS...
Read The Full Article At Reuters...
Thousands of people who volunteered to test an experimental AIDS vaccine that may have actually raised the risk of infection will be told if they got the actual shot, researchers said on Tuesday.
Merck & Co. Inc. and academic researchers said they would "unblind" the study, meaning everyone would find out who got the active shot and who got a dummy injection.
Two international trials of the experimental vaccine were stopped in September after it became clear the vaccine did not prevent infection with the AIDS virus.
The trials were conducted in the United States, Peru, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Australia and South Africa.
Earlier this month, researchers said they saw some worrying indications that the vaccine somehow raised the risk of infection, although they stressed the vaccine could not itself cause HIV infection.
They had already begun counseling volunteers that they could be at higher risk of HIV, a fatal and incurable virus that causes AIDS...
Read The Full Article At Reuters...
DANGEROUS CHEMICALS IN COMMON BABY PRODUCTS
The Environmental Working Group surveyed 3,300 parents asking what products they use and compared the ingredients to lists of chemicals known to cause allergies, hormone disruption, damage to the nervous system, and cancer.
Dr. Rebecca Sutton, an environmental scientist conducted the study. “What we found is every day through the use of personal care, kids are exposed to 27 chemical ingredients that have never been assessed for safety... not by industry, or by the government.”
Juanita Forster, a San Mateo mother with three little girls is shocked.
“You think if it’s sold on the shelves and there is a beautiful baby on it, it's safe for babies," said Forster. "To hear that it’s not is amazing to me”...
...The study found 89% of products labeled "recommended by a doctor" actually contain what Dr. Sutton considers dangerous chemicals...
Click Here To Read The Full Article At The Environmental Working Group's Web Site...
Dr. Rebecca Sutton, an environmental scientist conducted the study. “What we found is every day through the use of personal care, kids are exposed to 27 chemical ingredients that have never been assessed for safety... not by industry, or by the government.”
Juanita Forster, a San Mateo mother with three little girls is shocked.
“You think if it’s sold on the shelves and there is a beautiful baby on it, it's safe for babies," said Forster. "To hear that it’s not is amazing to me”...
...The study found 89% of products labeled "recommended by a doctor" actually contain what Dr. Sutton considers dangerous chemicals...
Click Here To Read The Full Article At The Environmental Working Group's Web Site...
SLEEP DRUGS NOT VERY EFFECTIVE - BUT VERY POPULAR
Rozerem, a sleeping pill, costs about $3.50 a pill; gets you to sleep 7 to 16 minutes faster than a placebo, or fake pill; and increases total sleep time 11 to 19 minutes, according to an analysis last year.
If those numbers send you out to buy another brand instead, consider this: Sleeping pills in general do not greatly improve sleep for the average person.
American consumers spend $4.5 billion a year for sleep medications. Their popularity may lie in a mystery that confounds researchers. Many people who take them think they work far better than laboratory measurements show they do…
Dr. Karl Doghramji, a sleep expert at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, agreed. “Sleeping pills do not increase sleep time dramatically, nor do they decrease wake time dramatically,” he said. “Despite those facts, we do find patients who, when they take them, have a high level of satisfaction.” Dr. Doghramji has disclosed in the past that he is a consultant to pharmaceutical companies.
Most sleeping pills work on the same brain receptors as drugs to treat anxiety. By reducing anxiety, the pills may make people worry less about not going to sleep. So they feel better.
Another theory about the discrepancy between measured sleep and perceived sleep involves a condition called anterograde amnesia. While under the influence of most sleep medications, people have trouble forming memories. When they wake up, they may simply forget they had trouble sleeping.
“If you forget how long you lay in bed tossing and turning, in some ways that’s just as good as sleeping,” said Dr. Gary S. Richardson, a sleep disorders specialist at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit who is a consultant and speaker for pharmaceutical companies and has conducted industry-sponsored research.
Sleep, after all, causes a natural state similar to amnesia, one reason toddlers often forget their violent nightmares by the next morning. If you stay in bed, as most people taking sleeping pills do, amnesia is not a bad thing.
Even some people who sleepwalked while taking Ambien, which was implicated in cases of odd, sometimes dangerous behavior while sleeping, believed they were having a good night’s sleep. Rosemary Eckley, a graphic artist said she thought she was sleeping well on Ambien but woke to find her wrist broken, apparently in a fall while sleepwalking, she wrote in an e-mail exchange.
Click Here To Read The Full Article At The New York Times...
If those numbers send you out to buy another brand instead, consider this: Sleeping pills in general do not greatly improve sleep for the average person.
American consumers spend $4.5 billion a year for sleep medications. Their popularity may lie in a mystery that confounds researchers. Many people who take them think they work far better than laboratory measurements show they do…
Dr. Karl Doghramji, a sleep expert at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, agreed. “Sleeping pills do not increase sleep time dramatically, nor do they decrease wake time dramatically,” he said. “Despite those facts, we do find patients who, when they take them, have a high level of satisfaction.” Dr. Doghramji has disclosed in the past that he is a consultant to pharmaceutical companies.
Most sleeping pills work on the same brain receptors as drugs to treat anxiety. By reducing anxiety, the pills may make people worry less about not going to sleep. So they feel better.
Another theory about the discrepancy between measured sleep and perceived sleep involves a condition called anterograde amnesia. While under the influence of most sleep medications, people have trouble forming memories. When they wake up, they may simply forget they had trouble sleeping.
“If you forget how long you lay in bed tossing and turning, in some ways that’s just as good as sleeping,” said Dr. Gary S. Richardson, a sleep disorders specialist at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit who is a consultant and speaker for pharmaceutical companies and has conducted industry-sponsored research.
Sleep, after all, causes a natural state similar to amnesia, one reason toddlers often forget their violent nightmares by the next morning. If you stay in bed, as most people taking sleeping pills do, amnesia is not a bad thing.
Even some people who sleepwalked while taking Ambien, which was implicated in cases of odd, sometimes dangerous behavior while sleeping, believed they were having a good night’s sleep. Rosemary Eckley, a graphic artist said she thought she was sleeping well on Ambien but woke to find her wrist broken, apparently in a fall while sleepwalking, she wrote in an e-mail exchange.
Click Here To Read The Full Article At The New York Times...
Sunday, January 27, 2008
MDs OFTEN DISMISS PATIENT SIDE EFFECTS CONCERNS
When patients feel they might be having an adverse drug effect, doctors will very often dismiss their concerns, a new study shows.
In a survey of 650 patients, taking cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins, who reported having adverse drug reactions, many said their physicians denied that the drug could be connected to their symptoms, Dr Beatrice Golomb of the University of California at San Diego and her colleagues found.
"Physicians seem to commonly dismiss the possibility of a connection," Golomb told Reuters Health. "This seems to occur even for the best-supported adverse effects of the most widely prescribed class of drugs... Clearly there is a need for better physician education about adverse effects, and there is a strong need for patient involvement in adverse event reporting.
"The best-known side effects of statins, which include widely prescribed drugs such as Lipitor and Zocor, are liver damage and muscle problems, although statins have also been tied to changes in memory, concentration and mood, among other problems.
Physician reaction to a potential side effect is crucial because the muscle problems can progress to a rare but potentially fatal condition called rhabdomyolysis if the drug isn't discontinued.
The researchers investigated the response of doctors to statin patients who believed they were having adverse drug reactions. In the great majority of cases, the patient, not the doctor, initiated the discussion...
The investigators were "surprised" at how frequently patients reported that their doctors dismissed their concerns, Golomb said. While her study wasn't designed to find out why, the researcher notes that while the pharmaceutical industry is sure to get the word out about a drug's benefits, there is "really no corresponding interest group to make sure that physicians learn about adverse effects."
Read The Full Article At Reuters...
In a survey of 650 patients, taking cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins, who reported having adverse drug reactions, many said their physicians denied that the drug could be connected to their symptoms, Dr Beatrice Golomb of the University of California at San Diego and her colleagues found.
"Physicians seem to commonly dismiss the possibility of a connection," Golomb told Reuters Health. "This seems to occur even for the best-supported adverse effects of the most widely prescribed class of drugs... Clearly there is a need for better physician education about adverse effects, and there is a strong need for patient involvement in adverse event reporting.
"The best-known side effects of statins, which include widely prescribed drugs such as Lipitor and Zocor, are liver damage and muscle problems, although statins have also been tied to changes in memory, concentration and mood, among other problems.
Physician reaction to a potential side effect is crucial because the muscle problems can progress to a rare but potentially fatal condition called rhabdomyolysis if the drug isn't discontinued.
The researchers investigated the response of doctors to statin patients who believed they were having adverse drug reactions. In the great majority of cases, the patient, not the doctor, initiated the discussion...
The investigators were "surprised" at how frequently patients reported that their doctors dismissed their concerns, Golomb said. While her study wasn't designed to find out why, the researcher notes that while the pharmaceutical industry is sure to get the word out about a drug's benefits, there is "really no corresponding interest group to make sure that physicians learn about adverse effects."
Read The Full Article At Reuters...
HERBS MORE HELPFUL THAN DRUGS FOR MENSTRUAL PAIN
A study involving nearly 3,500 women in several countries suggests that Chinese herbs might be more effective in relieving menstrual cramps than drugs, acupuncture or heat compression.
Australia-based researchers said herbs not only relieved pain, but reduced the recurrence of the condition over three months, according to the Cochrane Library journal.
"All available measures of effectiveness confirmed the overall superiority of Chinese herbal medicine to placebo, no treatment, NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), OCPs (oral contraceptive pill), acupuncture and heat compression," said lead author Xiaoshu Zhu from the Centre for Complementary Medicine Research at the University of Western Sydney.
Click Here To Read The Full Article At Reuters...
Australia-based researchers said herbs not only relieved pain, but reduced the recurrence of the condition over three months, according to the Cochrane Library journal.
"All available measures of effectiveness confirmed the overall superiority of Chinese herbal medicine to placebo, no treatment, NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), OCPs (oral contraceptive pill), acupuncture and heat compression," said lead author Xiaoshu Zhu from the Centre for Complementary Medicine Research at the University of Western Sydney.
Click Here To Read The Full Article At Reuters...
OVERWEIGHT WOMEN STRUGGLING TO BECOME PREGNANT
Obesity decreases the chances that a woman will get pregnant, and the more obese she is, the worse her prospects of conception, Dutch researchers said.
Researchers at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam looked at how obesity affects women who are still ovulating but having trouble with conception.
The study, published in the journal Human Reproduction, included more than 3,000 couples between 2002 and 2004 in 24 hospitals in the Netherlands.
Dr Jan Willem van der Steeg and colleagues looked at the relationship between fertility in these women and their body mass index, a ratio of weight to height. Women with a BMI of 30 or higher are considered obese...
The researchers found that women with a BMI of 30 or higher had significantly lower probability of becoming pregnant naturally, compared with normal weight women who had BMIs of between 21 and 29.
"In the case of a woman with a BMI of 35, the probability of spontaneous pregnancy was 26 percent lower, and in the case of a woman with a BMI of 40, it was 43 percent lower," van der Steeg said in a statement...
"It is possible that obese women may have disturbed hormone levels, which decrease the chances of successful fertilization and implantation," he said.
Click Here To Read The Full Article At Reuters...
Researchers at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam looked at how obesity affects women who are still ovulating but having trouble with conception.
The study, published in the journal Human Reproduction, included more than 3,000 couples between 2002 and 2004 in 24 hospitals in the Netherlands.
Dr Jan Willem van der Steeg and colleagues looked at the relationship between fertility in these women and their body mass index, a ratio of weight to height. Women with a BMI of 30 or higher are considered obese...
The researchers found that women with a BMI of 30 or higher had significantly lower probability of becoming pregnant naturally, compared with normal weight women who had BMIs of between 21 and 29.
"In the case of a woman with a BMI of 35, the probability of spontaneous pregnancy was 26 percent lower, and in the case of a woman with a BMI of 40, it was 43 percent lower," van der Steeg said in a statement...
"It is possible that obese women may have disturbed hormone levels, which decrease the chances of successful fertilization and implantation," he said.
Click Here To Read The Full Article At Reuters...
CAESARIAN BIRTHS INCREASE DEATH RISKS
Women who are 'too posh to push' could be four times more likely to die in childbirth by opting for a caesarean section instead of natural birth, research has revealed.
A major study of more than 94,000 births found that women who had a planned caesarean section, favoured by celebrities... were putting themselves and their babies at increased risk of serious complications.
The research, published in the British Medical Journal online, found that the risk of maternal death was three to five times higher compared with natural deliveries. The risk of requiring a hysterectomy after a caesarean section was four times higher than for a natural birth and twice as high for being admitted to intensive care and needing a hospital stay of more than seven days.
For babies in a breech position, a caesarean section was safer but for those in a normal head-first position the risk of the baby dying or suffering serious problems was raised by one and a half times.
Experts said the study was a "reality check" that caesarean sections carry risks and are not 'just another delivery option'...
Click Here To Read The Full Article At The Telegraph...
A major study of more than 94,000 births found that women who had a planned caesarean section, favoured by celebrities... were putting themselves and their babies at increased risk of serious complications.
The research, published in the British Medical Journal online, found that the risk of maternal death was three to five times higher compared with natural deliveries. The risk of requiring a hysterectomy after a caesarean section was four times higher than for a natural birth and twice as high for being admitted to intensive care and needing a hospital stay of more than seven days.
For babies in a breech position, a caesarean section was safer but for those in a normal head-first position the risk of the baby dying or suffering serious problems was raised by one and a half times.
Experts said the study was a "reality check" that caesarean sections carry risks and are not 'just another delivery option'...
Click Here To Read The Full Article At The Telegraph...
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
SEEDS OF DECEPTION - LIES ABOUT THE SAFETY OF GM FOODS
GM foods are coming to a store near you... Australian State Government departments are bowing to the market pressure to get these crops into the ground, and as silently and invisibly as possible onto the store shelves. Time to get informed?
In Seeds of Deception you will read internal memos by the US Food and Drug Administration scientists warning of toxins, allergies, and new diseases — all ignored by their superiors, including a former attorney for Monsanto. You will discover how industry studies are designed to avoid finding problems. And you will learn why the FDA withheld information from Congress after a genetically modified supplement killed nearly a hundred people and disabled thousands.
Seeds of Deception tells readers what the biotech industry doesn’t want them to know. After reading this book, everyone will understand that eating genetically modified food is gambling with their health.
THE AUTHOR: Jeffrey M. Smith has been involved with genetically modified foods for nearly a decade. He worked for non-profit and political groups on the issue and, in 1998, ran for the US Congress to raise public awareness of the health and environmental impacts of these products. Later, he was vice president of marketing for a GMO detection laboratory. Smith has a master’s degree in business administration, and lives with his wife in Iowa.
Click Here To See This Book At Amazon...
In Seeds of Deception you will read internal memos by the US Food and Drug Administration scientists warning of toxins, allergies, and new diseases — all ignored by their superiors, including a former attorney for Monsanto. You will discover how industry studies are designed to avoid finding problems. And you will learn why the FDA withheld information from Congress after a genetically modified supplement killed nearly a hundred people and disabled thousands.
Seeds of Deception tells readers what the biotech industry doesn’t want them to know. After reading this book, everyone will understand that eating genetically modified food is gambling with their health.
THE AUTHOR: Jeffrey M. Smith has been involved with genetically modified foods for nearly a decade. He worked for non-profit and political groups on the issue and, in 1998, ran for the US Congress to raise public awareness of the health and environmental impacts of these products. Later, he was vice president of marketing for a GMO detection laboratory. Smith has a master’s degree in business administration, and lives with his wife in Iowa.
Click Here To See This Book At Amazon...
Monday, January 21, 2008
LINK BETWEEN PSYCHOACTIVE MEDICATIONS AND VIOLENCE
Mind altering drugs may be the cause of violence among school children, according to some doctors and other experts. Millions of children are legally taking drugs similar to cocaine in schools every day.
The drugs are Ritalin, Prozac, and others.
Other shootings and violent acts at schools across the nation have been committed by children receiving psychiatric care, counseling, and drugs such as Ritalin, according to several groups.
At least two organizations claim that over-use of Ritalin is to blame for the escalating incidents of children committing acts of violence on other children.
Watch the documentary at YouTube...
The drugs are Ritalin, Prozac, and others.
Other shootings and violent acts at schools across the nation have been committed by children receiving psychiatric care, counseling, and drugs such as Ritalin, according to several groups.
At least two organizations claim that over-use of Ritalin is to blame for the escalating incidents of children committing acts of violence on other children.
Watch the documentary at YouTube...
LONG TERM USE OF CELL PHONES INCREASES BRAIN TUMOR RISK
This study evaluated brain tumour risk among long-term users of cellular telephones.
An association with acoustic neuroma was found in four studies in the group with at least 10 years’ use of a mobile phone. No risk was found in one study, but the tumour size was significantly larger among users. Six studies gave results for malignant brain tumours in that latency group. All gave increased odd ratios especially for ipsilateral exposure.
Results from present studies on use of mobile phones for 10 years give a consistent pattern of increased risk for acoustic neuroma and glioma. The risk is highest for ipsilateral exposure.
Read The Research At Occupational and Environmental Medicine...
An association with acoustic neuroma was found in four studies in the group with at least 10 years’ use of a mobile phone. No risk was found in one study, but the tumour size was significantly larger among users. Six studies gave results for malignant brain tumours in that latency group. All gave increased odd ratios especially for ipsilateral exposure.
Results from present studies on use of mobile phones for 10 years give a consistent pattern of increased risk for acoustic neuroma and glioma. The risk is highest for ipsilateral exposure.
Read The Research At Occupational and Environmental Medicine...
APPENDIX NOT AS USELESS AS ONCE THOUGHT
The human vermiform (“worm-like”) appendix is a 5–10 cm long and 0.5–1 cm wide pouch that extends from the cecum of the large bowel. The architecture of the human appendix is unique among mammals, and few mammals other than humans have an appendix at all. The function of the human appendix has long been a matter of debate, with the structure often considered to be a vestige of evolutionary development despite evidence to the contrary based on comparative primate anatomy.
The appendix is thought to have some immune function based on its association with substantial lymphatic tissue, although the specific nature of that putative function is unknown.
Based on...
In other words, the apendix is a storage house for the vital normal flora of the intestine. These stores can be called on in times of need to replace and replenish these necessary symbiotic microrganisms. Bad luck if some MD already chopped your appendix out on the basis that "you didn't need it anyway"?
Read The Research At Science Direct...
The appendix is thought to have some immune function based on its association with substantial lymphatic tissue, although the specific nature of that putative function is unknown.
Based on...
- Recently acquired understanding of immune-mediated biofilm formation by commensal bacteria in the mammalian gut,
- Biofilm distribution in the large bowel,
- Association of lymphoid tissue with the appendix,
- Potential for biofilms to protect and support colonization by commensal bacteria, and
- Architecture of the human bowel,
In other words, the apendix is a storage house for the vital normal flora of the intestine. These stores can be called on in times of need to replace and replenish these necessary symbiotic microrganisms. Bad luck if some MD already chopped your appendix out on the basis that "you didn't need it anyway"?
Read The Research At Science Direct...
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
IT'S OFFICIAL: ORGANIC FOOD REALLY IS BETTER
THE biggest study into organic food has found that it is more nutritious than ordinary produce and may help to lengthen people's lives.
The evidence from the £12m four-year project will end years of debate and is likely to overturn government advice that eating organic food is no more than a lifestyle choice
The study found that organic fruit and vegetables contained as much as 40% more antioxidants, which scientists believe can cut the risk of cancer and heart disease, Britain’s biggest killers. They also had higher levels of beneficial minerals such as iron and zinc.
Professor Carlo Leifert, the co-ordinator of the European Union-funded project, said the differences were so marked that organic produce would help to increase the nutrient intake of people not eating the recommended five portions a day of fruit and vegetables. “If you have just 20% more antioxidants and you can’t get your kids to do five a day, then you might just be okay with four a day,” he said.
This weekend the Food Standards Agency confirmed that it was reviewing the evidence before deciding whether to change its advice. Ministers and the agency have said there are no significant differences between organic and ordinary produce.
Researchers grew fruit and vegetables and reared cattle on adjacent organic and nonorganic sites on a 725-acre farm attached to Newcastle University, and at other sites in Europe. They found that levels of antioxidants in milk from organic herds were up to 90% higher than in milk from conventional herds.
As well as finding up to 40% more antioxidants in organic vegetables, they also found that organic tomatoes from Greece had significantly higher levels of antioxidants, including flavo-noids thought to reduce coronary heart disease.
Leifert said the government was wrong about there being no difference between organic and conventional produce. “There is enough evidence now that the level of good things is higher in organics,” he said.
Click Here To Read More At The Times Online...
The evidence from the £12m four-year project will end years of debate and is likely to overturn government advice that eating organic food is no more than a lifestyle choice
The study found that organic fruit and vegetables contained as much as 40% more antioxidants, which scientists believe can cut the risk of cancer and heart disease, Britain’s biggest killers. They also had higher levels of beneficial minerals such as iron and zinc.
Professor Carlo Leifert, the co-ordinator of the European Union-funded project, said the differences were so marked that organic produce would help to increase the nutrient intake of people not eating the recommended five portions a day of fruit and vegetables. “If you have just 20% more antioxidants and you can’t get your kids to do five a day, then you might just be okay with four a day,” he said.
This weekend the Food Standards Agency confirmed that it was reviewing the evidence before deciding whether to change its advice. Ministers and the agency have said there are no significant differences between organic and ordinary produce.
Researchers grew fruit and vegetables and reared cattle on adjacent organic and nonorganic sites on a 725-acre farm attached to Newcastle University, and at other sites in Europe. They found that levels of antioxidants in milk from organic herds were up to 90% higher than in milk from conventional herds.
As well as finding up to 40% more antioxidants in organic vegetables, they also found that organic tomatoes from Greece had significantly higher levels of antioxidants, including flavo-noids thought to reduce coronary heart disease.
Leifert said the government was wrong about there being no difference between organic and conventional produce. “There is enough evidence now that the level of good things is higher in organics,” he said.
Click Here To Read More At The Times Online...
THE SAFETY OF CHIROPRACTIC MANIPULATION OF THE NECK
There have been attempts by some chiropractic skeptics and some so-called expert advisory panels that suggest that chirorpactuc adjustment of the neck carries some unacceptable risks. These all faik to quote legitimate research. So here's some real reasearch to clarify the risks...
The objective of this study was to estimate the risk of serious and relatively minor adverse events following chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine...
They studied treatment outcomes obtained from 19,722 patients. Serious adverse events were defined as "referred to Hospital Accident and Emergency and/or severe onset/worsening of symptoms immediately after treatment and/or resulted in persistent or significant disability/incapacity"; and minor adverse events were defined as a “worsening of presenting symptoms or onset of new symptoms”.
Data were obtained from 28,807 treatment consultations and 50,276 cervical spine manipulations. There were no reports of serious adverse events...
Minor side effects with a possible neurologic involvement were more common. The highest risk immediately after treatment was fainting, dizziness or light-headedness. Up to 7 days after treatment, these risks were headache, numbness/tingling in upper limbs and fainting/dizziness/light-headedness.
Click Here To Read The Research Abstract At Spine Journal...
The objective of this study was to estimate the risk of serious and relatively minor adverse events following chiropractic manipulation of the cervical spine...
They studied treatment outcomes obtained from 19,722 patients. Serious adverse events were defined as "referred to Hospital Accident and Emergency and/or severe onset/worsening of symptoms immediately after treatment and/or resulted in persistent or significant disability/incapacity"; and minor adverse events were defined as a “worsening of presenting symptoms or onset of new symptoms”.
Data were obtained from 28,807 treatment consultations and 50,276 cervical spine manipulations. There were no reports of serious adverse events...
Minor side effects with a possible neurologic involvement were more common. The highest risk immediately after treatment was fainting, dizziness or light-headedness. Up to 7 days after treatment, these risks were headache, numbness/tingling in upper limbs and fainting/dizziness/light-headedness.
Click Here To Read The Research Abstract At Spine Journal...
WOMEN'S HEALTH LIBERATION
Being a woman has become a medical procedure. I have a theory that because health care has largely been dominated by the male species, the female experience has become an issue of control.
Female infants receive more vaccines than their male counterparts despite the unknown long-term effects of the new cocktails being injected directly into the depths of the immune system, and in spite of the fact that some of them are irrelevant until the sexually active era - some 16 to 20 years later.
Pharmaceutical and cosmetics interests push the use of synthetic coatings, colorings and fragrances - all aimed to make the girl and then woman look and smell better than how they perceive themselves to currently be, a perception which is bolstered by the advertising and media imagery of the same interests.
The sooner a young woman can be placed on the contraceptive pill, the better – after all, it creates an easy contraceptive option for men, and despite known long-term vascular and tumor enhancing complications, is accepted as a medical attempt to control inconvenient menstrual symptoms, irritations and irregularities.
Conception is increasingly a controlled and artificially-assisted procedure, in spite of the fact that decreased fertility rates can be linked to the excessive exposure to zeno-estrogens - which have been released into the environment by man’s many chemical adventures. Pregnancy and birth are medical "pathologies" which require the cold, clinical and even surgical intervention of blokes in white coats at every possible juncture.
Depression relieving medications are too often prescribed to relieve the isolation and rejection inflicted on the feminine psyche by the male ego. Menopause is an unnecessary and unwelcome disease requiring a range of medications which increase the chances of the next stage of life being filled with even more debilitating struggles with cancer and stroke. And, when a woman receives the final insult of a cancerous diagnosis, she is once again confronted with a bunch of blokes hard-selling heroic, radical and often new but unproven experimental chemotherapeutic and immune destroying tinctures.
So, I ask the question: what will it take for the female movement to demand liberation from a masculine health care model? Is the time approaching when white coats will be burned instead of bras? But more essential in the quest for female health liberation will be the demand for personal choice and empowerment - you have the vote; you have (supposedly) equal opportunity in the workplace; you have numerous social and personal freedoms that would once have been shunned; now is the time to start to exercise your consumer rights in the health and wellness arenas.
Here are some guidelines for how this liberation might begin...
Click Here To Read The Full Article At Sight Magazine...
This Is An Excerpt From My Super Healthy Manual: Click Here To Find Out More...
Female infants receive more vaccines than their male counterparts despite the unknown long-term effects of the new cocktails being injected directly into the depths of the immune system, and in spite of the fact that some of them are irrelevant until the sexually active era - some 16 to 20 years later.
Pharmaceutical and cosmetics interests push the use of synthetic coatings, colorings and fragrances - all aimed to make the girl and then woman look and smell better than how they perceive themselves to currently be, a perception which is bolstered by the advertising and media imagery of the same interests.
The sooner a young woman can be placed on the contraceptive pill, the better – after all, it creates an easy contraceptive option for men, and despite known long-term vascular and tumor enhancing complications, is accepted as a medical attempt to control inconvenient menstrual symptoms, irritations and irregularities.
Conception is increasingly a controlled and artificially-assisted procedure, in spite of the fact that decreased fertility rates can be linked to the excessive exposure to zeno-estrogens - which have been released into the environment by man’s many chemical adventures. Pregnancy and birth are medical "pathologies" which require the cold, clinical and even surgical intervention of blokes in white coats at every possible juncture.
Depression relieving medications are too often prescribed to relieve the isolation and rejection inflicted on the feminine psyche by the male ego. Menopause is an unnecessary and unwelcome disease requiring a range of medications which increase the chances of the next stage of life being filled with even more debilitating struggles with cancer and stroke. And, when a woman receives the final insult of a cancerous diagnosis, she is once again confronted with a bunch of blokes hard-selling heroic, radical and often new but unproven experimental chemotherapeutic and immune destroying tinctures.
So, I ask the question: what will it take for the female movement to demand liberation from a masculine health care model? Is the time approaching when white coats will be burned instead of bras? But more essential in the quest for female health liberation will be the demand for personal choice and empowerment - you have the vote; you have (supposedly) equal opportunity in the workplace; you have numerous social and personal freedoms that would once have been shunned; now is the time to start to exercise your consumer rights in the health and wellness arenas.
Here are some guidelines for how this liberation might begin...
Click Here To Read The Full Article At Sight Magazine...
This Is An Excerpt From My Super Healthy Manual: Click Here To Find Out More...
CHILD DRUGS LINKED TO HEART ATTACK
Children as young as five have suffered strokes, heart attacks, hallucinations and convulsions after taking drugs to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Documents obtained by The Australian reveal that almost 400 serious adverse reactions have been reported to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, some involving children as young as three.
Cases include the sudden death of a seven-year-old, and a five-year-old who suffered a stroke after taking Ritalin. Children also experienced heart palpitations and shortness of breath after taking Dexamphetamine.
Others taking Ritalin or Dexamphetamine – the two most commonly used ADHD drugs – experienced hair loss, muscle spasms, severe abdominal pain, tremors, insomnia, severe weight loss, depression and paranoia.
Almost 60 of the adverse-reaction reports dating back to 1980, obtained under Freedom of Information laws, involved children under the age of 10…
The US Food and Drug Administration is reviewing 90 studies to determine whether ADHD drugs were linked to the deaths of 25 people, including 19 children, between 1999 and 2003.
The drugs were also associated with 54 cases of cardiovascular episodes, including heart attacks, strokes and serious heartbeat disturbances…
Others warned that the number of adverse reactions may be much higher because the TGA excludes reports where the cause of side effects is "unclear". Shelley Wilkins, executive director of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which lobbies against the use of psychiatric medication on children, said many side effects were not reported.
"There is no mandatory reporting in Australia for adverse side-effects for psychiatric drugs," she said. "This needs to be rectified immediately so we can see the true extent of the damage being done."
Click Here To Read The Full Article at The Australian...
To Learn About My DVD Program Which Gives You Many Natural Strategies For Managing ADHD Click Here...
Documents obtained by The Australian reveal that almost 400 serious adverse reactions have been reported to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, some involving children as young as three.
Cases include the sudden death of a seven-year-old, and a five-year-old who suffered a stroke after taking Ritalin. Children also experienced heart palpitations and shortness of breath after taking Dexamphetamine.
Others taking Ritalin or Dexamphetamine – the two most commonly used ADHD drugs – experienced hair loss, muscle spasms, severe abdominal pain, tremors, insomnia, severe weight loss, depression and paranoia.
Almost 60 of the adverse-reaction reports dating back to 1980, obtained under Freedom of Information laws, involved children under the age of 10…
The US Food and Drug Administration is reviewing 90 studies to determine whether ADHD drugs were linked to the deaths of 25 people, including 19 children, between 1999 and 2003.
The drugs were also associated with 54 cases of cardiovascular episodes, including heart attacks, strokes and serious heartbeat disturbances…
Others warned that the number of adverse reactions may be much higher because the TGA excludes reports where the cause of side effects is "unclear". Shelley Wilkins, executive director of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which lobbies against the use of psychiatric medication on children, said many side effects were not reported.
"There is no mandatory reporting in Australia for adverse side-effects for psychiatric drugs," she said. "This needs to be rectified immediately so we can see the true extent of the damage being done."
Click Here To Read The Full Article at The Australian...
To Learn About My DVD Program Which Gives You Many Natural Strategies For Managing ADHD Click Here...
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