Food Safety
Publisher’s Platform: Secrecy or Transparency in Public Health?
By Bill Marler
Is there a good reason to keep a company’s name secret when it is linked to a foodborne illness outbreak?I have a great deal of respect for Robert Tauxe, MD, MPH, Deputy Director of the Division of the CDC that…
Letter From The Editor: ‘Slaughterhouse Sue’
By Dan Flynn
Believe it or not, this week I was planning on writing one of those “dog that did not bark” stories about the fact that in no state has re-starting horse slaughter come up as a legislative issue.Sorry, I was the…
Health
Tips to combat daylight saving time fatigue
By Joyce Cohen
For many Americans, the switch to daylight saving time is an annual rite of exhaustion. Gaining that extra hour of daylight at night means losing it in the morning.
The time shift disrupts the body’s natural circadian rhythm, according to sleep scientists. So the alarm clock blares just as your internal sleep-wake cycle orders you to stay snugly in bed.
Selfish kids? Blame it on their (immature) brains
By Linda Thrasybule
MyHealthNewsDaily
The next time your little angel yells, “Mine!” or refuses to share, it might help to know that the reason young children behave selfishly could be that a region of their brains remains immature, a new study suggests.
Researchers studied the behavior and brain scan images of children as they played games that involved sharing a reward with another child.
They found that even though young children understood how sharing benefited the other child, they were unable to resist the temptation to make the “selfish” decision to keep much of the reward for themselves. Brain scans revealed a region that matures along with children’s greater ability to make less selfish decisions.
http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/07/10602433-selfish-kids-blame-it-on-their-immature-brains
New melanoma treatment — a turning point against cancer?
By Robert Bazell
Chief science and medical correspondent
NBC News
A single case reported Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine could indicate a significant change of the course of cancer treatment — perhaps saving or prolonging thousands of lives.
For more than a century, scientists have been attempting to harness the immune system to fight cancer — trying to get the antibodies and cells that protect us from bacteria and viruses to kill diseased cells. Every once in a while, a tantalizing success occurred. But time and again the treatment could not be repeated.
New hope for kids with brittle bone disease
By Rachael Rettner
MyHealthNewsDaily
When Lindsey Elsaesser was 20 weeks pregnant, an ultrasound revealed her unborn baby girl had extremely fragile bones. Doctors suspected the child had a bone disorder, and would not live long after birth.
“They thought she would die from respiratory failure because her bones were so weak,” Elsaesser said.
http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/07/10603989-new-hope-for-kids-with-brittle-bone-disease
1 in 7 with Alzheimer’s or other dementia lives alone, report finds
By Brian Alexander
Iona Knapp’s father died of Alzheimer’s disease and her late mother suffered from dementia. Now, the 65-year-old Lake Monticello, Va., woman has been diagnosed herself with mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, and she fears their fate soon may be her own.
The trouble is, Knapp lives by herself, which would make her one of 5.4 million people in the U.S. living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias — and one of 800,000 Americans doing it alone, according to a new report issued Thursday by the Alzheimer’s Association.
‘Pink slime’ panic grows online: Are we overreacting?
By Jane Weaver, Deputy health editor
Updated March 9: An online petition urging the government to stop the use of “pink slime” — the scrape and waste meat products that are treated with ammonium-hydroxide — in school food has collected almost 20,000 signatures over the last several days.
After reports that school districts around the country were serving kids hamburgers containing up to 15 percent of the processed product known in the meat industry as “Lean Finely Textured Beef’, parents and consumers poured online to express their disgust. As of Friday afternoon “pink slime” became the most searched phrase on Google Trends and Twitter users were expressing their disgust on #pinkslime.
Pink Slime – What is REALLY in your Hamburger – ABCNews.com
Men with heart failure more likely to die than women
By MyHealthNewsDaily Staff
Women with heart failure, a condition in which the heart fails to pump enough blood to meet the body’s demands, may live longer than their male counterparts, a new study says.
The results are based on an analysis of 31 studies involving 28,000 men and 14,000 women with long-term (chronic) heart failure who were followed for three years.
After taking into account patients’ age, men had a 31 percent higher risk of dying over the study compared with women, the researchers said.
Triple organ transplant saves young girl with rare disorder
By Rita Rubin
Valbona Bushi, 28, knew even before the doctors did: Her daughter Angela’s liver was failing, just as Angela’s younger sister’s had.
At first, emergency room doctors dismissed the kindergartener’s flu-like symptoms as nothing serious. But the next day the 6-year-old’s abdomen was slightly swollen. Bushi, whose 18-month-old daughter Alicia had died of liver failure just a few months earlier, rushed Angela back to the hospital near their home in Jacksonville, Fla. After tests revealed the little girl needed a liver transplant and she was referred to Holtz Children’s Hospital, affiliated with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
Daily drink may reduce stroke chance
By MyHealthNewsDaily staff
Drinking alcohol moderately may lower women’s risk of stroke, according to a new 26-year study of 84,000 women.
Women who drank low amounts of alcohol — about half of a glass of wine per day, on average — were 17 percent less likely to have a stroke compared with women who drank no alcohol. Women who drank about a glass a day were 21 percent less likely to have a stroke than abstainers.
Those who drank more alcohol showed no reduction in stroke risk, according to the study.
http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/09/10625521-daily-drink-may-reduce-stroke-chance
Holistic Health
The role of polyunsaturated fatty acids in neurodegeneration
By Andrew Kim,
(NaturalNews) Excitotoxicity, oxidative stress and inflammation are core processes that play leading roles in neurodegenerative diseases. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) methodically contribute to and impair the cells’ defensive mechanisms against these destructive processes, leading to cellular over-excitation and death. Examples of PUFAs include corn oil, safflower oil, soybean oil and some margarines. Fish oils and membrane pumps Cells with respiratory damage produce less energy. When…
http://www.naturalnews.com/035200_polyunsaturated_fatty_acids_neurodegeneration_brain.html
Toxic China: Widespread lead pollution is poisoning children
By Ethan A. Huff,
(NaturalNews) Though set to become the world leader in manufacturing within the next few years, China has one of the worst track records for rampant environmental pollution with industrial materials and chemicals. And a recent report out of the town of Dongtang, which is located in China’s major manufacturing region of Guangdong, has revealed that at least 160 local children there have been poisoned by lead pollution released from local factories. Reuters reports that ongoing investigations in…
http://www.naturalnews.com/035202_lead_pollution_China_children.html
Improve posture while sitting in your chair
By Dr. Daniel Zagst,
(NaturalNews) Like millions of Americans, you’re probably slouched in a computer chair staring at a monitor with a forward-drawn posture. Poor posture is everywhere, yet there is a simple solution to improve it that most people don’t know about, unless they go to a chiropractor or physical therapy. By performing a 30-second stretch every so often, poor seated posture can be a thing of the past. Effects of poor posture Not only is poor posture unattractive, it has serious negative health effects…
http://www.naturalnews.com/035203_posture_chair_desk.html
Correcting erroneous beliefs about calcium bentonite clay
By Perry Arledge,
(NaturalNews) Since the popularity of calcium bentonite clays have increased, misconceptions about how they work have become rampant resulting in many erroneous beliefs. I would like to dismiss some of these common misconceptions. 1. MYTH: It is not safe to brush my teeth with clay each day and pack my gums weekly if I have a variety of dental fillings. FALSE. *Clay is safe for dental hygiene uses and will not affect the dental restorative materials. Because of the diversity of chemicals and…
http://www.naturalnews.com/035210_bentonite_clay_myths_safety.html
ALERT: California’s AB 2109 Would Make Doctors Gatekeepers for Non-Medical Vaccine Exemptions!
By Alan Phillips, J.D.,
(NaturalNews) California’s pending bill, AB 2109,[1] would require parents exercising a non-medical vaccine exemption for their children to get a health care practitioner’s signature on a form signifying that the doctor has given the parent vaccine risk-benefit information, and to provide a separate statement signed by the parent saying that the parent got the risk-benefit information from the doctor. There are practical, financial, ethical and legal problems with this bill. A formal legal memorandum…
http://www.naturalnews.com/035212_AB_2109_vaccine_exemptions_California.html
