November 12, 2009

Cutting Meat Out of Diet Improves Mood
Omnivores who cut all meat out of their diets experience mood improvements, according to a poster session presented this week at the annual American Public Health Association conference. Researchers at Arizona State University divided 39 omnivorous participants into three dietary groups: control (made no changes to diet), fish (consumed three to four servings of fish per week and no other meat), and vegetarian (consumed no meat and no eggs). The vegetarian group experienced mood improvements in both tension and confusion categories, while the meat-eating participants and fish eaters showed no significant changes in mood.
Beezhold BL, Johnston CS, Daigle DR. Restriction of flesh foods in omnivores improves mood: a pilot randomized controlled trial. Poster presented at: American Public Health Association's 137th Annual Meeting and Exposition; November 9, 2009: Philadelphia, PA.
Breaking Medical News is a service of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine,

High Fructose Corn Syrup: A Recipe For Hypertension, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Nov. 11, 2009) — A diet high in fructose increases the risk of developing high blood pressure (hypertension), according to a paper being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 42nd Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in San Diego, California. The findings suggest that cutting back on processed foods and beverages that contain high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) may help prevent hypertension.
Over the last 200 years, the rate of fructose intake has directly paralleled the increasing rate of obesity, which has increased sharply in the last 20 years since the introduction of HFCS. Today, Americans consume 30% more fructose than 20 years ago and up to four times more than 100 years ago, when obesity rates were less than 5%. While this increase mirrors the dramatic rise in the prevalence of hypertension, studies have been inconsistent in linking excess fructose in the diet to hypertension.
Diana Jalal, MD (University of Colorado Denver Health Sciences Center), and her colleagues studied the issue in a large representative population of US adults. They examined 4,528 adults 18 years of age or older with no prior history of hypertension. Fructose intake was calculated based on a dietary questionnaire, and foods such as fruit juices, soft drinks, bakery products, and candy were included. Dr. Jalal's team found that people who ate or drank more than 74 grams per day of fructose (2.5 sugary soft drinks per day) increased their risk of developing hypertension. Specifically, a diet of more than 74 grams per day of fructose led to a 28%, 36%, and 87% higher risk for blood pressure levels of 135/85, 140/90, and 160/100 mmHg, respectively. (A normal blood pressure reading is below 120/80 mmHg.)
"These results indicate that high fructose intake in the form of added sugars is significantly and independently associated with higher blood pressure levels in the US adult population with no previous history of hypertension," the authors concluded. Additional studies are needed to see if low fructose diets can normalize blood pressure and prevent the development of hypertension.
Study co-authors include Richard Johnson, MD, Gerard Smits, PhD, and Michel Chonchol, MD (University of Colorado Denver Health Sciences Center). Dr. Richard Johnson reports a conflict of interest as the author of "The Sugar Fix." The authors report no other financial disclosures.
The study abstract, "Increased Fructose Intake is Independently Associated with Elevated Blood Pressure. Findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2003-2006)," (TH-FC037) was presented as part of a Free Communications Session during the American Society of Nephrology's 42nd Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition on Oct. 29 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091029211521.htm

Brief Training In Meditation May Help Manage Pain, Study Shows
ScienceDaily (Nov. 10, 2009) — Living with pain is stressful, but a surprisingly short investment of time in mental training can help you cope.
A new study examining the perception of pain and the effects of various mental training techniques has found that relatively short and simple mindfulness meditation training can have a significant positive effect on pain management.
Though pain research during the past decade has shown that extensive meditation training can have a positive effect in reducing a person's awareness and sensitivity to pain, the effort, time commitment, and financial obligations required has made the treatment not practical for many patients. Now, a new study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte shows that a single hour of training spread out over a three day period can produce the same kind of analgesic effect.
The research appears in an article by UNC Charlotte psychologists Fadel Zeidan, Nakia S. Gordon, Junaid Merchant and Paula Goolkasian, in the current issue ofThe Journal of Pain.
"This study is the first study to demonstrate the efficacy of such a brief intervention on the perception of pain," noted Fadel Zeidan, a doctoral candidate in psychology at UNC Charlotte and the paper's lead author. "Not only did the meditation subjects feel less pain than the control group while meditating but they also experienced less pain sensitivity while not meditating."
Over the course of three experiments employing harmless electrical shocks administered in gradual increments, the researchers measured the effect of brief sessions of mindfulness meditation training on pain awareness measuring responses that were carefully calibrated to insure reporting accuracy. Subjects who received the meditation training were compared to controls and to groups using relaxation and distraction techniques. The researchers measured changes in the subjects' rating of pain at "low" and "high" levels during the different activities, and also changes in their general sensitivity to pain through the process of calibrating responses before the activities.
While the distraction activity -- which used a rigorous math task to distract subjects from the effects of the stimulus -- was effective in reducing the subject's perception of "high" pain, the meditation activity had an even stronger reducing effect on high pain, and reduced the perception of "low" pain levels as well.
Further, the meditation training appeared to have an effect that continued to influence the patients after the activity was concluded, resulting in a general lowering of pain sensitivity in the subjects -- a result that indicated that the effect of the meditation was substantially different from the effect of the distraction activity.
The finding follows earlier research studies that found differences in pain awareness and other mental activities among long-time practitioners of mindfulness meditation techniques.
"We knew already that meditation has significant effects on pain perception in long-term practitioners whose brains seem to have been completely changed -- we didn't know that you could do this in just three days, with just 20 minutes a day," Zeidan said.
In assessing the first experiment, the researchers were not terribly surprised to discover that meditation activity appeared to be affecting the experimental subjects' perception of pain because the researchers assumed that the change was mainly due to distraction, a well-known effect. However, subsequent findings began to indicate that the effect continued outside of the periods of meditation.
" When we re-calibrated their pain thresholds after the training had started and we found that they felt less pain, compared to the control subjects," Zeidan noted. "This was totally surprising because a change in general sensitivity was not part of our hypothesis at all.
"We were so surprised after the first experiment that we did two more. We thought that no one was going to listen to us because no one had done this before… and we got a robust finding across the three experiments."
Zeidan stresses that the effect the researchers measured in the meditation subjects was a lessening of pain but not a lessening of sensation. The calibration results showed little change in the meditation subjects' sensitivity to the sensation of electricity, but a significant change in what level of shock was perceived to be painful.
"The short course of meditation was very effective on pain perception," Zeidan said. "We got a very high effect size for the periods when they were meditating.
"In fact, it was kind of freaky for me. I was ramping at 400-500 milliamps and their arms would be jolting back and forth because the current was stimulating a motor nerve. Yet they would still be asking, 'A 2?' ('2' being the level of electrical shock that designates low pain) It was really surprising," he said.
Zeidan suspects that the mindfulness training lessens the awareness of and sensitivity to pain because it trains subjects' brains to pay attention to sensations at the present moment rather than anticipating future pain or dwelling on the emotions caused by pain, and thus reduces anxiety.
"The mindfulness training taught them that distractions, feelings, emotions are momentary, don't require a label or judgment because the moment is already over," Zeidan noted. "With the meditation training they would acknowledge the pain, they realize what it is, but just let it go. They learn to bring their attention back to the present."
Though the results are in line with past findings regarding mindfulness practitioners, Zeidan says that the findings are important because they show that meditation is much easier to use for pain management than it was previously believed to be because a very short, simple course of training is all that is required in order to achieve a significant effect. Even self-administered training might be effective, according to Zeidan.
"What's neat here is that this is the briefest known way to promote a meditation state and yet it has an effect in pain management. People who want to make use of the technique might not need a meditation facilitator -- they might be able to get the necessary training off the internet, " Zeidan said. "All you have to do is use your mind, change the way you look at the perception of pain and that, ultimately, might help alleviate the feeling of that pain."
The research was funded in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091110065909.htm

Diet Switching Can Activate Brain's Stress System, Lead To 'Withdrawal' Symptoms

ScienceDaily (Nov. 10, 2009) — In research that sheds light on the perils of yo-yo dieting and repeated bouts of sugar-bingeing, researchers from The Scripps Research Institute have shown in animal models that cycling between periods of eating sweet and regular-tasting food can activate the brain's stress system and generate overeating, anxiety, and withdrawal-like symptoms.
"When many people diet, they try to avoid fattening foods that taste good, but ultimately end up going back to their regular eating habits," said senior author Eric Zorrilla, Ph.D., an associate professor and member of the Pearson Center for Alcoholism and Addiction Research and Harold L. Dorris Neurological Research Institute at Scripps Research. "We found that rats cycled in this way between palatable food and less tasty, but otherwise acceptable, food, begin to binge on the sweet food, stop eating their regular food, and show withdrawal-like behaviors often associated with drug addiction. As in addiction to drugs or ethanol, the brain's stress system is involved in each of these changes."
"Our research suggests that this eating pattern leads to a vicious circle," explained Pietro Cottone, Ph.D., who is co-first author of the paper with Valentina Sabino, Ph.D.; both are former postdoctoral fellows at Scripps Research who are now assistant professors and co-directors of the Laboratory of Addictive Disorders at Boston University School of Medicine. "The more you cycle this way, the more likely it is you cycle again. Having a 'free day' in your diet schedule is a risky habit."
The research is being published in an advance, online Early Edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the week of November 9, 2009.
Seeking Pleasure, Avoiding Pain
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about two-thirds of the adult population of the United States is overweight or obese, conditions that cost the country an estimated $117 billion in terms of medical expenses and lost productivity. Understanding the factors that underpin overeating and that undermine attempts at weight loss is important for addressing this major public health concern.
Instead of focusing on the positive motivation derived from eating pleasurable food -- which had previously been the gist of much research in the field -- the Scripps Research team took a new tack and focused on the questions of whether negative reinforcement, which is thought to drive compulsive drug intake, may play a similar role in excessive eating and whether the brain's stress system was involved in this process.
Cottone explained, "For example, I can be motivated to work hard because I get praise from my boss -- that's positive reinforcement. Conversely, I can work hard to avoid being fired -- that's negative reinforcement. Similarly, I can either eat a lot for the pleasure of eating, or I can eat a lot to relieve the stress of not having certain foods. We wanted to know if negative factors were involved."
To examine this question, the researchers divided the rats into two groups. The first group was fed alternating cycles of five days of regular chow and two days of sweet chow. The second group ate only regular-tasting food. The amount of food consumed was not restricted for either group.
When the researchers examined the results, they found that the two groups showed different patterns of behavior. When the diet-cycled rodents were fed regular chow, they put less effort into obtaining the previously acceptable food, ate less, and were more likely to avoid anxiety-provoking situations. When they returned to a diet of sweet food, their anxiety-related behaviors returned to normal, but they ate more than they needed. The control group showed none of these effects.
A Diet that Causes Stress
Next, the researchers looked at the involvement of the brain's stress system -- which had been shown to contribute to patterns of drug and alcohol binging and withdrawal -- in underpinning these behaviors.
To do this, the team measured levels of stress-related corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) mRNA and peptide in an area of the brain known as the central amygdala, which is involved in fear, anxiety, and stress responses. Indeed, the researchers found that the diet-cycled group on normal chow displayed five times the control group's levels of CRF. Only when the diet-cycled group was fed sweet food did CRF levels return to normal.
"CRF is a key stress neuropeptide," said Cottone. "In observing the activation of the amygdaloid CRF system during abstinence from sweet foods, we understood the causes of recurrent dieting failures."
Zorrilla pointed out that the increase in stress was due to the withdrawal state, rather than to outside factors.
"People will often say they are eating bad foods or fail a diet because they 'are stressed,'" he said. "Our findings suggest that intermittently eating sweet food changes the brain's stress system so that you might feel stressed, even though nothing that terrible has happened. In other words, you might be self-medicating stress-like symptoms of abstinence with that piece of pie. Or, the adaptations in your brain stress system might make you more reactive to otherwise minor stressors."
To confirm these results and to see whether blocking CRF could reverse some of the effects of diet cycling, the researchers turned to a compound called R121919 (a small molecule CRF1 receptor antagonist).
When administered to the diet-cycled rats, the compound blunted the bingeing on sweet chow, as well as the lackluster pursuit of regular chow and the anxiety-associated behaviors during this part of the diet cycle. As in similar studies modeling alcoholism, on a molecular level diet-cycled rats showed greater sensitivity to the ability of the CRF1 receptor antagonist to reduce central amygdala synaptic transmission of the neurotransmitter GABA, which plays an important role in regulating neuronal excitability.
"We believe we may have identified part of the neurochemical basis underlying behavioral adaptations that can result from yo-yo dieting," said Zorrilla. "The mechanism corresponds to what is colloquially known as the 'dark side' of addiction to drugs of abuse or ethanol, supporting the idea that the brain shows addiction-like adaptations to intermittent eating of palatable food."
An Unhealthy Cycle
While many questions remain, the study helps explain how a pattern yo-yo dieting can be established and why it is usually ineffective in promoting weight loss. The study also underlines the health risks of such an eating pattern, as activation of the brain's stress system has been linked not only to emotional disorders, but also to conditions such as heart disease.
"The findings suggest that frequent dieting with frequent relapse is worse than dieting by itself," said Cottone.
In addition, the research opens the door to potential development of a drug therapy to assist people escape an unhealthy cycle of eating.
In addition to Zorrilla, Cottone, and Sabino, the paper was authored by Marisa Roberto, Michal Bajo, Lara Pockros, Jennifer B. Frihauf, Eva M. Fekete, Bruno Conti, and George Koob of Scripps Research; Luca Steardo of the University of Roma La Sapienza (Rome, Italy); Kenner C. Rice of the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health (NIH); and Dimitri E. Grigoriadis of Neurocrine Biosciences.
This research was supported by the NIH's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institute on Drug Abuse, and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, as well as the Pearson Center for Alcoholism and Addiction Research at Scripps Research.
Zorrilla et al. CRF system recruitment mediates dark side of compulsive eating. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, November 9, 2009
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091109174345.htm

Powerful Pumpkins, Super Squash

ScienceDaily (Nov. 10, 2009) — Carotenoids, the family of yellow to red pigments responsible for the striking orange hues of pumpkins and the familiar red color of vine-ripe tomatoes, play an important role in human health by acting as sources of provitamin A or as protective antioxidants.
Pumpkins and squash, available in a wide range of white, yellow, and orange colors, are excellent sources of dietary carotenoids, particularly lutein, alpha-carotene, and beta-carotene. The colors of these nutritional vegetables are determined by their genetic makeup -- the concentration and type of carotenoids they contain -- which are influenced by both genetic and environmental factors.
The good news: this wide range of carotenoids in pumpkins and squash provides fertile ground for genetic improvement. When breeders have reliable information about carotenoid types and concentrations, they can work to improve the vegetables' nutritional value and create new varieties of antioxidant-packed offerings for consumers.
But identifying and quantifying carotenoids hasn't been simple; scientists traditionally use a method called "high-performance liquid chromatography," or HPLC. HPLC is highly sensitive and reproducible, but can be expensive and time-consuming. To determine if carotenoid content of pumpkin and squash could be accurately measured using a less-expensive and simpler method, Rachel A. Itle and Eileen A. Kabelka from the University of Florida's Horticultural Sciences Department designed a research study using colorimetric analysis to correlate color space values with carotenoid content in pumpkins and squash. The study appeared in a recent issue of HortScience.
Pumpkins and squash with white, yellow, and orange flesh color were grown at multiple locations for the study. The flesh of each specimen was evaluated using both HPLC and colorimetric analysis. According to the research, "strong correlations between colorimetric values and carotenoid content were identified."
Interestingly, the researchers found a "nine-fold increase in total carotenoids provided within orange-red and yellow-orange colored cultigens versus yellow colored cultigens."
The research determined that colormetric analysis can aid breeders interested in increasing carotenoid content in pumpkins and squash. The method, Kabelka concluded, "will be successful, easy to implement, and inexpensive".
Itle, Rachel A., Kabelka, Eileen A. Correlation Between L*a*b* Color Space Values and Carotenoid Content in Pumpkins and Squash (Cucurbita spp.). HortScience, 2009; 44: 633-637
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091104111733.htm

Emotions Increase Or Decrease Pain, Say Researchers
ScienceDaily (Nov. 10, 2009) — Getting a flu shot this fall? Canadians scientists have found that focusing on a pretty image could alleviate the sting of that vaccine. According to a new Université de Montréal study, published in the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), negative and positive emotions have a direct impact on pain.
"Emotions -- or mood -- can alter how we react to pain since they're interlinked," says lead author Mathieu Roy, who completed the study as a Université de Montréal PhD student and is now a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University. "Our tests revealed when pain is perceived by our brain and how that pain can be amplified when combined with negative emotions."
As part of the study, 13 subjects were recruited to undergo small yet painful electric shocks, which caused knee-jerk reactions controlled by the spine that could be measured. During the fMRI process, subjects were shown a succession of images that were either pleasant (i.e. summer water-skiing), unpleasant (i.e. a vicious bear) or neutral (i.e. a book). Brain reaction was simultaneously measured in participants through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
The fMRI readings allowed the scientists to divide emotion-related brain activity from pain-related reactions. "We found that seeing unpleasant pictures elicited stronger pain in subjects getting shocks than looking at pleasant pictures," says Dr. Roy.
The discovery provides scientific evidence that pain is governed by mood and builds on Dr. Roy's previous studies that showed how pleasant music could decrease aches. "Our findings show that non-pharmaceutical interventions -- mood enhancers such as photography or music -- could be used in the healthcare to help alleviate pain. These interventions would be inexpensive and adaptable to several fields," he stresses.
The study was authored by Mathieu Roy, Piché, Mathieu, Chen, Jen-I, Isabelle Peretz and Pierre Rainville of the Université de Montréal.
Support was provided by the Fonds de recherche en santé du Québec, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Mathieu Roy, Piché, Mathieu, Chen, Jen-I, Isabelle Peretz and Pierre Rainville. Cerebral and spinal modulation of pain by emotions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2009
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091110105357.htm

Pregnant Women Risk Early Delivery From Using Psychiatric Medication
ScienceDaily (Nov. 9, 2009) — The odds triple for premature child delivery pregnant women with a history of depression who used psychiatric medication, according to a new study.
Researchers at the University of Washington, University of Michigan and Michigan State University found that a combination of medication use and depression -- either before or during pregnancy -- was strongly linked to delivery before 35 weeks' gestation.
Amelia Gavin, lead author and UW assistant professor of social work, said the findings highlight the need for carefully planned studies that can clarify associations between depression, psychiatric medications and preterm delivery.
"Women with depression face difficult decisions regarding the benefits and risks of using psychotropic medications in pregnancy," Gavin said. "Therefore, a focus on disentangling medication effects and depression effects on mother and offspring health should be a major clinical priority."
"Medication use may be an indicator of depressive symptom severity, which is a direct or indirect contributing factor to pre-term delivery," added Kristine Siefert, co-author and a Michigan professor of social work.
Most physicians initiated preterm deliveries after the women suffered complications, such as pre-eclampsia, poor fetal growth or acute hemorrhage.
The study examined the associations among maternal depression, psychiatric medication use in pregnancy and preterm delivery among women in five Michigan communities who received prenatal care at one of 52 participating clinics between September 1998 and June 2004These women had to be at least 15 years old, with no history of diabetes, and were 15 to 27 weeks pregnant.
Researchers analyzed responses of nearly 3,020 women who participated in the Michigan-based Pregnancy Outcomes and Community Health Study, which asked about depressive symptoms that occurred within the week of taking the questionnaire. The study also asked about the women's history of depression that required medication, such as tranquilizers or sleeping pills.
Overall, 335 women (11 percent) delivered preterm. Among the women who reported having depression during pregnancy, 75 percent had a history of depression and 62 percent used medication in the first half of pregnancy.
Another finding showed that without medication use, elevated levels of depressive symptoms at midpregnancy and history of depression did not pose an increased risk of preterm delivery.
The study's other researchers include Claudia Holzman, professor of epidemiology at Michigan State, and Yan Tian, a data analyst at Michigan State.
The findings appear in the September/October issue of Women's Health Issues. Funding came from the National Center for Research Resources, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Nursing Research, the March of Dimes Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091029211543.htm

Yoga Boosts Heart Health

ScienceDaily (Nov. 9, 2009) — Heart rate variability, a sign of a healthy heart, has been shown to be higher in yoga practitioners than in non-practitioners, according to research to be published in a forthcoming issue of theInternational Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics.
gineering and Informatics.
The autonomic nervous system regulates the heart rate through two routes - the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. The former causes the heart rate to rise, while, the parasympathetic slows it. When working well together, the two ensure that the heart rate is steady but ready to respond to changes caused by eating, the fight or flight response, or arousal.
The ongoing variation of heart rate is known as heart rate variability (HRV), which refers to the beat-to-beat changes in heart rate. In healthy individuals HRV is high whereas cardiac abnormalities lead to a low HRV.
Now, Ramesh Kumar Sunkaria, Vinod Kumar, and Suresh Chandra Saxena of the Electrical Engineering Department, at the Indian Institute of Technology in Roorkee, in Uttrakhand, India, have evaluated two small groups of men in order to see whether yoga practitioners can improve heart health. Anecdotal evidence would suggest that yoga practice may improve health through breathing exercises, stretching, postures, relaxation, and meditation.
The team analyzed the HRV "spectra" of the electrocardiograms (ECG) of forty two healthy male volunteers who are non-yogic practitioners, and forty two who are experienced practitioners, all volunteers were aged between 18 and 48 years.
The spectral analysis of HRV is, the team says, an important tool in exploring heart health and the mechanisms of heart rate regulation. The power represented by various spectral bands in short-term HRV are indicative of how well the heart responds to changes in the body controlled by the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems.
The team explains that very low frequency (VLF) variations in the spectra are linked to the body's internal temperature control. Low frequency peaks are associated with the sympathetic control and high frequency with parasympathetic control.
The team concludes that in their preliminary study of 84 volunteers, there is strengthening of parasympathetic (vagal) control in subjects who regularly practice yoga, which is indicative of better autonomic control over heart rate and so a healthier heart.
Ramesh Kumar Sunkaria, Vinod Kumar, and Suresh Chandra Saxena. A comparative study on spectral parameters of HRV in yogic and non-yogic practitioners. Int. J. Medical Engineering and Informatics, 2010, 2, 1, 1-14
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091109121216.htm

Eat dark chocolate to avoid sun damage

Times of India  7 November 2009

Dark chocolate can protect the skin against the ageing effects of the sun, says a new research. 

According to scientists, who carried out the study at European Dermatology London, a private Harley St skin clinic, a daily portion of choco bar might also lower the risk of skin cancer. 

But it only works with dark chocolate that is very high in flavanols, the antioxidants that occur naturally in cocoa beans, reports The Herald Sun. 

In the research, scientists found that participants who ate flavanol-rich chocolate could tolerate more wrinkle-causing UV light on their skin than those who ate a lower-flavanol chocolate. 

The researchers said: "The main mechanism is likely to be the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. But conventional chocolate had no such effect." 
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/health-fitness/diet/Eat-dark-chocolate-to-avoid-sun-damage/articleshow/5206828.cms

Add coconut, cut fat

Times of India  7 November 2009

A diet rich in coconut oil keeps fat away and also protects against insulin resistance, a new study
shows. 

The study also helps explain how people who incorporate medium chain fatty acids found in coconut oil into their diets can lose body fat. Obesity and insulin resistance are major factors leading to the development of Type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance is an impaired ability of cells to respond to insulin. 

Nigel Turner and Jiming Ye from Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research compared fat metabolism and insulin resistance in mice fed coconut oil and lard based diets. 

"The medium chain fatty acids like those found in coconut oil are interesting to us because they behave very differently to the fats normally found in our diets," said study leader Turner. 

"Unlike the long chain fatty acids contained in animal fats, medium chain fatty acids are small enough to enter mitochondria - the cells' energy burning powerhouses - directly where they can then be converted to energy." 

"Unfortunately the downside to eating medium chain fatty acids is that they can lead to fat build up in the liver, an important fact to be taken into consideration by anyone considering using them as a weight loss therapy." 

Fat storage is determined by the balance between how much fat is taken in by cells and how much of this fat is burned for energy. When people eat a high fat diet, their bodies attempt to compensate by increasing their capacity to oxidise fat, said a Garvan release. 

"Obese humans usually eat 40-50 percent of their calories as fat. Our mice were fed 45 percent of their calories as fat," Turner said. 

Their findings are now published online in Diabetes. 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/health-fitness/diet/Add-coconut-cut-fat/articleshow/4989349.cms

Study finds chemotherapy’s link to hearing loss

Times of India  9 November 2009

Canadian researchers have found why a common chemotherapy drug results in hearing loss, which contributes to learning difficulties in some childhood cancer patients . 

British Columbia experts made progress in the development of a simple saliva or blood test that can foretell who is most likely to develop the problem. 

Michael Hayden, director of the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics at the Child & Family Research Institute in Vancouver, discovered two genetic variations that for children who have them, means they will suffer serious hearing loss after taking the generic drug cisplatin. 

“This is personalized genomics. The other challenge is coming up with a test that’s very cheap that can be used at the point of care, the Globe and Mail quoted him as saying. 

Bruce Carleton, co-principal investigator and a senior clinician scientist at the Child and Family Research Institute, said the finding can aid alter treatment for pediatric cancer patients. 

He said: ‘I am really excited about this because for 20 years, I have been trying to figure out this plague in medicine; to dose to toxicity, and then stop. It’s primitive but it’s the best thing we can do ... The idea that we could stop therapy before permanent disability occurs is now a possibility. 

The study was published in the journal Nature Genetics .
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/health-fitness/health/Study-finds-chemotherapys-link-to-hearing-loss/articleshow/5211761.cms

7 reasons to drink coconut water

Times of India   8 November 2009

Coconut water is known to be more nutritious than whole milk because it has no cholesterol and lesser fat. 

It improves circulation and is known to clean your digestive tract. 

Coconut water not only makes your immune system stronger but also helps the body fight different types of viruses. 

If you suffer from kidney stones, include coconut water in your diet. Drinking it regularly will break up the stones and make them easier to push out. 

Have urinary problems? Have a glass of naariyal paani to get quick relief. 

If you’re suffering from a hangover, nothing will help you faster than having some coconut water. 

Tender coconut water is very rich in electrolytes and potassium, among other things. Potassium helps regulating blood pressure and heart function.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/health-fitness/health/7-reasons-to-drink-coconut-water/articleshow/5203391.cms

Obesity causes more than 100,000 types of cancers

Times of India  10 November 2009
Over 100,000 types of cancers are caused by obesity, according to an American study . 

Excess body fat makes a person vulnerable to cancer by increasing the amount of hormones like estrogen circulating in the body and disrupting how the body processes insulin, which is linked to higher risk of cancer. 

It also triggers low-grade inflammation in the body, which is increasingly being found to play a role in cancer. 

Researchers from American Institute for Cancer Research suggest that people should maintain a normal body weight and remain physically active throughout life. 

Weight gain after a cancer diagnosis is also likely to affect the outcome, say researchers. "An increasing number of studies suggest that regular physical activity improves cancer survival, even among survivors who are overweight or obese, the Independent quoted AICR researchers as saying. 

"Public awareness of the link between obesity and cancer risk is alarmingly low," said Alice Bender, MS, RD, Nutrition Communications Manager at AICR. 

"We are working towards a day when obesity is right up there with tobacco in the public eye," Bender added. The AICR estimates show that excess body fat is linked to 49pct of endometrial cancers, 35pct of esophageal cancers 28pct of pancreatic cancers, 24pct of kidney cancers, 21pct of gallbladder cancers, and 17pct of breast cancers and 9pct of colorectal cancers.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/health-fitness/health/Obesity-causes-more-than-100000-types-of-cancers-/articleshow/5211067.cms

Spicy Indian curry could prevent swine flu

Times of India  6 November 2009

Spicy Indian curries could prevent swine flu and common cold just like any prescribed medicine available with the chemists, Russian doctors have said . 

"You can strengthen immunity by consuming spicy foods like curries, as spices like turmeric, ginger and zeera also posses excellent therapeutic effect," an unnamed official of Moscow city sanitary and anti-epidemics committee was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti. 

As panic grips Muscovites over the spread of seasonal influenza and swine flue in the eastern parts of the country and neighbouring Ukraine, authorities are focusing on prevention and have ordered the use of masks at work place. 

Besides the intake of spicy food, people have been advised to consume raw onions and garlic, which also are said to contain good anti-viral properties. 

The mass vaccinations are expected to begin in Russia only from November 9, when the remaining clinical trails would be completed.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/health-fitness/health/Spicy-Indian-curry-could-prevent-swine-flu/articleshow/5202315.cms

Turmeric can treat psoriasis, Alzheimer’s

Times of India  5 November 2009

Curcumin, an ingredient commonly found in yellow curry, is being viewed as a promising disease-fighter . 

Scientists are working on developing nano-sized capsules containing the curry ingredient in an effort to improve its absorption and effectiveness in the body. Curcumin is a potent antioxidant found in the Indian spice called turmeric. 

The research team is developing nano-size capsule that would boost the body’s uptake of curcumin and help fight several diseases. Trials are underway to test its safety and effectiveness in fighting colon cancer, psoriasis, and Alzheimer’s disease. 

The digestive juice in the gastrointestinal tract quickly destroys curcumin so that little actually gets into the blood. It is already known that encapsulating insulin and certain other drugs into structures called liposomes can boost absorption. 

The scientists prepared the liposomes encapsulating curcumin and fed them to laboratory rats. They found that encapsulating more than quadrupled absorption of curcumin, and also boosted antioxidant levels in the blood. 

The researchers said that encapsulating process could be an answer to the problem of increasing curcumin’s absorption in the digestive environment of the gastrointestinal tract. 

The study appears in ACS ‘s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry , a bi-weekly publication.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/health-fitness/health/Turmeric-can-treat-psoriasis-Alzheimers/articleshow/5198919.cms

Cat's Claw Treats Cancer and Many Other Illnesses

Barbi Trejo, NaturalNews.com  November 11, 2009

(NaturalNews) There is much talk about cat's claw and its healing properties used for the treatment of cancer, but cat's claw can be used in the treatment of many illnesses. It is not just for cancer, but it is also used in the treatment of asthma, arthritis, gastritis, hemorrhoids, inflammations of the urinary track, kidney detox, healing deep wounds and bone pain. It is also used since the 1990's for the treatment of cancer, ulcers, chronic inflammations, and viral diseases (such as herpes).

Cat's Claw is a plant of the Amazon rain forest. There are two main species and they are Uncaria tomentosa and Uncaria guianensis. In the US, you see mainly Uncaria tomentosa and in Europe you will see the Uncaria guianensis. The medicine is derived from the bark and the root of the plant. Several of the Mexican species have toxic properties. Cat's foot is not the same thing as cat's claw.

Cat's Claw and Alzheimer's Disease:

There are new studies being done on rats for the use of cat's claw on Alzheimer's Disease. The plant improves the immune system and prevents the deposit of beta-amyloid plagues on the brain. The tests showed that the mixture of cat's claw, rosemary and gotu kola worked better than cat's claw alone. The researchers are hoping to begin trials on humans in the near future, but the results on rats show promise for the prevention of Alzheimer's Disease.

Dosage for Cat's Claw:

Asthma - You must make a cat's claw tonic. Take 1/2 liter of water and 100 grams of cat's claw roots and bring to boil. Drink this water for one month.

Brain tumors - Place 250 ml of water and 1 tsp of cat's claw powder in a pan and bring to boil. Continue to boil for thirty minutes. Strain this mixture and drink the liquid. You must do this for six months before seeing a considerable improvement. This recipe can also be used for other forms of cancer also, except Leukemia which has reports of complications using Cat's Claw.

Note: It should be noted that it is suggested to use this in conjunction with other remedies, such as Nigella Sativa.

Intestinal disorders such as dysentery, ulcers and diverticulosis - Place one cup of water and 1 tablespoon of cat's claw powder and boil for 10-15 minutes. Strain the tea and drink three times a day.

Mumps - You must take 60mg of the extract, divided in three equal doses for ten days.

Osteoarthritis of the knee - You must take 100mg of cat's claw extract daily.

Rheumatoid arthritis - You must take 60mg per day. Divide the dose into three equal doses. If using the dried herbs, then take 100mg in vegetarian capsules. Expect results after 5 months.

Note: Please make sure the extract you are using contains no extra additives such as tetra cyclic oxindole alkaloids. These chemicals work against the natural compounds of cat's claw in the preventing of pain for rheumatoid arthritis.

Recipes Using Cat's Claw:

Tincture: Place 8 ounces of ground cat's claw along with 5 cups of vodka in a sealed jar and place the jar in a warm place. After three weeks, strain the liquor through some cheesecloth. This recipe may be reduced in half. This tincture is good for allergies and arthritis. Use 5 drops of the tincture, three times a day and increase slowly as needed. Never use more than 15 drops at a time.

Ointment: Take one cup of water and 2 teaspoon of the cat's claw powder. Bring it to boil and keep boiling until it turns brown. Strain the liquid and add an equal amount of coconut oil or virgin olive oil (not extra virgin). Place it back on the stove and heat again over medium heat. Boil it until it quits bubbling rapidly and bubbles no longer appear on the oil. Use this as an ointment for Herpes and any type of viral infections. Also good for pain of arthritis or cancer.

Cream: Use the same recipe above except add in some beeswax. For every cup of oil add in 1/2 ounce of beeswax. Heat over the flame and stir until thick and creamy. You could use cocoa butter instead of beeswax. The cream may be used as the ointment, directly on the skin.

http://www.naturalnews.com/027446_cats_claw_cancer_disease.html

Vitamin B12 Deficiency can Look Identical to Alzheimer's Disease

 Kerri Knox, RN, NaturalNews.com  November 11, 2009

(NaturalNews) When is Alzheimer`s Disease NOT Alzheimer`s Disease? When it`s actually caused by undiagnosed Vitamin B12 deficiency. This frequent occurrence is a tragedy in our society where growing numbers of those with Alzheimer`s Disease are diagnosed every year. Despite havingIDENTICAL symptoms in many cases, vitamin B12 deficiency is almost NEVER considered as a possible cause.

Alzheimer`s Disease is a growing personal and family problem as well as a HUGE financial burden for society. And with over 4 million people in the US alone who have been diagnosed with this 'incurable' disease, Alzheimer`s Disease is becoming an ever growing crisis. Governments around the world are attempting to combat this problem by spending millions of dollars every year on research for drugs, stem cell treatment, genetic manipulation and pharmaceuticals- yet nothing has been found to effectively stop or slow its insidious spread. However, doctors in clinical practice are completely overlooking a SIMPLE cause of this problem that could stop the disease in its tracks. The scientific evidence is VERY CLEAR that thesymptoms of Alzheimer`s Disease could be RADICALLY improved in many cases if a trial of high dose vitamin B12 were instituted soon after diagnosis.

"Alzheimer`s associated dementia
and patients with cobalamin deficiency
have identical neuropsychiatric symptoms"
`Dementia Associated With Vitamin B12 Deficiency/

Vitamin B12 deficiency, also called cobalamin deficiency, becomes more and more common as people get older and some researchers estimate that over 800,000 elderly in the US have undiagnosed deficiency. Yet because few clinicians are trained to look for its symptoms, many elderly whoSHOULD be screened for this simple vitamin deficiency are, instead, diagnosed with `incurable` neurologic diseases. These mental changes from vitamin B12 deficiency were first described as far back as 1902, with much research having been done since that time. Many times, these changes are accompanied by lesions and degeneration of the brain and spinal cord on medical imaging that doctors use as evidence of the Irreversiblenature of this disease. Astoundingly, when these degenerative changes are caused by Vitamin B12 Deficiency, they are actually REVERSIBLE if high dose therapy is started soon after diagnosis!

"Fortunately, dementia secondary to B12 deficiency
is eminently reversible if the etiology of the dementia
is recognized early and therapy instituted promptly and vigorously"
`Dementia and vitamin B12 deficiency`

Not only is medical imaging worthless in determining which cases will benefit from Vitamin B12 therapy, but blood testing has little value either. Since the 1950's, several studies have shown that cases of dementia that respond well to vitamin B12 therapy often have completely normal Vitamin B12 blood tests. Yet 50 years later, doctors still rely EXCLUSIVELY on blood testing and medical imaging to determine the need for Vitamin B12 therapy. These studies are clearly showing that a trial regimen of high dose vitamin B12 is absolutely warranted with cases of new onset dementia regardless of the results of medical testing. Yet modern medicine is simply NOT paying attention, and this extraordinarily safe therapy that costs less than $100 is virtually NEVER instituted. As a result, Alzheimer`s patients who COULD have benefited if B12 therapy were instituted soon after diagnosis are left with no memory and no hope.

http://www.naturalnews.com/027456_vitamin_B12_disease_dementia.html

BPA Linked To Erectile Dysfunction And Other Male Sexual Problems

Medical News Today, 11 Nov 2009   

A new study of over 600 workers in China suggests that workplace exposure to Bisphenol-A (BPA), an organic compound used to make plastics and other products in daily use, is linked to increased risk of erectile dysfunction and other male sexual problems such as difficulty ejaculating and sexual desire.

The study, thought to be the first to measure effects of BPA on human male reproduction, was the work of lead author Dr De-Kun Li, a reproductive and perinatal epidemiologist at Kaiser Permanente's Division of Research in Oakland, California, and was published online in the 10 November advance access issue of the journal Human Reproduction.

The authors wrote in their background information that animal studies on mice and rats have already suggested that BPA could interfere with hormones in humans, but evidence from human studies was lacking.

For this 5-year study, which was funded by the US National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Li and colleagues recruited 634 men working in factories near Shanghai in China. 

230 of the men worked in factories where they were exposed to very high levels of BPA, and 404 worked in factories with no BPA present. The researchers matched them by age, education, gender and employment history.

The men exposed to high levels of BPA worked in four factories: one that made BPA and three others that used it to make epoxy resin. They had various jobs such as maintenance workers, packagers, technical supervisors and laboratory technicians.

The researchers wrote that the BPA levels these men were exposed to were 50 times higher than that experienced by the average American male in the US.

The factories with no BPA exposure made construction materials, water supplies, machinery, garments, textiles, and electronic products.

Li and colleagues measured BPA exposure by taking spot air samples, personal air sample monitoring and walk-through evaluations. They also reviewed factory records, interviewed factory leaders, and interviewed workers about personal hygiene, use of protective equipment and exposure to other chemicals.

A subgroup of workers also provided urine samples so the researchers could verify that the men working in factories where they were exposed to BPA had higher levels of BPA in their bodies.

To assess sexual function, the researchers interviewed all the men using questions from a standard inventory that measures four categories of sexual function: erectile function, ejaculation capability, sexual desire, and overall satisfaction with sex life.

After adjusting for age, education, marital status, current smoking status, a history of chronic diseases and exposure to other chemicals, and employment history, the researchers found that:

• BPA-exposed workers had a significantly higher risk of sexual dysfunction compared to the unexposed workers.
• BPA-exposed workers had a nearly four-fold increased risk of reduced sexual desire and overall satisfaction with their sex life.
• They also had a greater than four-fold increased risk of erection difficulty, and more than seven-fold increased risk of ejaculation difficulty.
• There was a dose-response relationship between increased level of cumulative BPA exposure and higher risk of sexual dysfunction.
• Compared to unexposed workers, BPA-exposed workers reported significantly higher frequencies of reduced sexual function within one year of starting work in a BPA-exposed factory.

Li and colleagues concluded that:

"Our findings provide the first evidence that exposure to BPA in the workplace could have an adverse effect on male sexual dysfunction."

Li told the press that:

"Because the BPA levels in this study were very high, more research needs to be done to see how low a level of BPA exposure may have effects on our reproductive system."

"This study raises the question: Is there a safe level for BPA exposure, and what is that level? More studies like this, which examine the effect of BPA on humans, are critically needed to help establish prevention strategies and regulatory policies," said Li.

The researchers explained that BPA is thought to disrupt reproductive hormones in both men and women. This is the first study to provide the evidence that could be lacking as the US Food and Drug Administration and other federal bodies examine this controversial subject.

BPA has been in commercial use for half a century and is used to make polycarbonated plastics and epoxy resins found in baby bottles, plastic containers, the lining of cans used for food and beverages, dental sealants, spectacle lenses, CDs, DVDs, and a range of household electronic goods.

Li suggests their findings also imply that BPA may have effects beyond male sexual dysfunction. Male sexual dysfuntion could be an early indication of diseases that are more difficult to study, such as cancer and metabolic diseases.

"Occupational exposure to bisphenol-A (BPA) and the risk of Self-Reported Male Sexual Dysfunction." D. Li, Z. Zhou, D. Qing, Y. He, T. Wu, M. Miao, J. Wang, X. Weng, J.R. Ferber, L.J. Herrinton, Q. Zhu, E. Gao, H. Checkoway, and W. Yuan. Hum. Reprod. Advance Access published on November 10, 2009.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/170540.php

Vitamin C supplementation associated with reduced fracture risk
Life Extensions, November 09, 2009
A report published in the November, 2009 issue of the journal Osteoporosis International revealed a protective effect for vitamin C intake on hip and nonvertebral fracture risk.
Researchers at Tufts University, Harvard Medical School and Boston University School of Health evaluated data from 929 participants in the Framingham Osteoporosis Study who were part of the original Framingham Study cohort. Dietary questionnaires completed from 1988 to 1989 were analyzed for vitamin C, vitamin D, calcium and other nutrient intake. The participants were followed for 15 to 17 years, during which 100 hip fractures and 180 nonvertebral fractures occurred.
Eighty percent of the hip fractures and 86 percent of nonvertebral fractures occurred in females. Men and women whose vitamin C intake from food and supplements was among the highest one-third of participants at a median of 313 milligrams per day had a 44 percent lower risk of experiencing a fracture than those whose intake was lowest at a median of 94 milligrams. A one third lower risk of nonvertebral osteoporotic fracture was also observed in those with the highest intake. When vitamin C from supplements alone was analyzed, those whose intake was highest at a median of 260 milligrams per day had a 69 percent lower risk of hip fracture than non-supplement users and a less significant reduction in nonvertebral fractures. In their discussion of the findings, the authors explain that vitamin C may protect the bone via its antioxidant action.
“More studies are needed to examine these associates in other populations,” the authors write. “Future studies should also consider the possible need to increase the dietary recommended intakes (DRI) for vitamin C, based on accumulating evidence of protective effects on bone and against other chronic diseases.”
http://www.lef.org/whatshot/2009_11.htm#Vitamin-C-supplementation-associated-with-reduced-fracture-risk 

Higher levels of active form of vitamin B3 could help prevent paralysis following injury
Life Extensions, November 06, 2009
A grant received from the New York State Spinal Cord Injury Research Board will enable scientists atWeill Cornell Medical College to investigate the effects of a compound found in milk and other foods in preventing paralysis following spinal cord injury. Nicotinamide riboside and its derivatives been shown to help protect against cell death and axonal degeneration in cell cultures and spinal cord injury models. The compound is a precursor to the active form of vitamin B3 known as nicotimamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+). NAD+ levels have been found to rapidly decline when cells and tissues undergo extreme trauma. Dr Jaffrey and colleagues plan to test nicotinamide riboside compounds’ ability to increase NAD+ levels in stressed cells that die within three to four hours without treatment.
NAD+ has been shown to activate proteins known as sirtuins, which aid in stressed cells’ survival. "Boosting NAD+ after injury may prevent permanent nerve death," Dr Jaffrey explained. "Our study is aimed at synthesizing a molecule that, when given soon after injury, may augment the body's production of NAD+ and rescue these cells before they are stressed beyond recovery."
"We hope to show that a natural compound that can be produced cheaply and efficiently could be the key to preventing permanent injury," added Weill Cornell Medical College associate professor of pharmacology Dr Anthony Sauve. "We also believe that the compound would be perfectly safe to use in humans, since it is a vitamin that has not been shown to have negative effects on the body when artificially elevated."
Nicotinamide riboside compounds will additionally be tested in mice with spinal injuries by the Burke Rehabilitation Center in Westchester, New York. "If this study is successful in animal testing, we hope to study the compound clinically," Dr Jaffrey stated.
http://www.lef.org/whatshot/2009_11.htm#Vitamin-C-supplementation-associated-with-reduced-fracture-risk

New therapy helps those with heart failure

McClatchy-Tribune Information Services 11-10-09
Heart failure is a scary diagnosis for most people, but it's not a death knell. There's a new technology that can help people with heart failure live longer, more comfortable lives.
Frederick Memorial Hospital has a new system called Aquapheresis therapy that helps patients get rid of the fluid buildup caused by heart failure. It makes patients more comfortable and eases one of the most dangerous side effects of heart failure.
Heart failure was once known as congestive heart failure. While it is still called that in many circles, cardiologists prefer to use the phrase heart failure.
Five million to 6 million Americans have heart failure, and it affects one in 100 Americans over 65.
"The number is growing for three reasons," said Dr. Catherine Fallick, a cardiologist who practices with Cardiovascular Specialists of Frederick .
"People are being saved from heart attacks, they are not dying from cancers the way they used to and the aging of the population," she said.
Survivors of heart attacks may have a weakened heart, said Dr. William Haynos, another member of the practice. The practice is led by Dr. John Vitarello, FMH chief of cardiovascular services, who was instrumental in getting the technology approved and budgeted for at the hospital.
Haynos and Fallick completed fellowships in the field of heart failure, and each specialized in heart failure while working in teaching hospitals.
Heart failure occurs when the heart doesn't pump the amount of blood your body needs.
"When the heart loses its ability to function effectively with a pump, the pressures inside the heart build up, and blood backs up into the lungs," Haynos said.
Heart failure is usually treated with a standard triple drug therapy, using ace inhibitors, beta blockers and diuretics. "When those don't work, we resort to hospital admissions," Fallick said.
Jeff Pearsall, of Frederick , was one of those patients. He had been admitted to the hospital repeatedly to have fluid drained.
Pearsall, 48, didn't have classic heart failure symptoms. He had shortness of breath, and cardiologists learned he had cardiomyopathy. The volume of blood being pumped out of his heart was much lower than it should have been. Pearsall works at Cardiovascular Specialists as a technician, giving him a unique perspective.
Seven weeks ago, he entered FMH to try Aqua therapy, as it is known. Blood is removed, similar to dialysis. Fluid is then removed from the blood, and the blood is replaced in the body. This therapy removed 71u2 liters of fluid from Pearsall's system.
Patients with heart failure often retain large amounts of fluid, which stresses their hearts even more. Their bodies hold onto fluid because their abnormal hearts are causing their hormones to malfunction.
Even small amounts of sodium can cause their bodies to retain fluid. Blood pressure rises, and the volume of blood that should be pumped out of the heart drops.
Pearsall was hospitalized for 48 hours to have the fluid removed using Aqua therapy. He has not had to return since, which his doctors consider a success.
That's the key to the success of Aqua therapy. Patients seem to need to make many fewer hospital visits.
"Heart failure is a huge drain on the health care system," Haynos said. Billions of dollars a year are spent treating heart failure, often with multiple hospital visits. Aqua therapy cuts down on those visits because it prevents the need for repeated flushing.
The medical practitioner controls the rate at which fluid is removed. The device has safety monitors to detect air or blood inside the blood circuit.
Nurses love the new procedure, said Ronna Dixon, a registered nurse and the Intensive Care Unit manager at FMH. "Patients we used to know the first names of we see much less often," she said. "We're excited to see the patients go home. We see how much it changes their lives."
So far, nine patients have used Aqua therapy, and of those, only one has returned needing to be admitted to the hospital for follow-up.
The hospital is working toward accreditation for treating heart failure, said Rachel Mooney. Systems such as Aqua therapy will help the hospital get that certification, she said.
FMH is one of six community hospitals in Maryland with Aqua therapy. It is usually found in teaching hospitals.
Cardiologists are limited as to what they can prescribe to help heart failure patients, and most of that is drug therapy. Aqua therapy gives them another tool, one that can be more effective. "In our patient therapy, we can minimize doses of medicine, but the most important way to determine the outcome is to have a patient who feels well," Fallick said.
http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=8995&Section=Aging

http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=8993&Section=Nutrition

Side Effects a Journal Sentinel Watchdog Report Physicians' Disclosures to UW, Journals Inconsistent At Least 9 Doctors' Links to Industry Did Not Match

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel  11-09-09
Earlier this year, Minesh Mehta, a cancer specialist at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, co- authored a medical article on TomoTherapy, a radiation therapy system developed by researchers at the university.
Any doctor reading the article would have thought Mehta was an unbiased researcher with no conflict of interest or financial stake in TomoTherapy Inc.
After all, the journal article said Mehta reported no potential conflicts of interest.
But documents obtained from the university tell a different story.
Those records show Mehta had told the university he would make more than $20,000 in 2008 working as a TomoTherapy consultant. He also owned stock options in the company.
Mehta was one of at least nine UW physicians whose conflicts listed on financial disclosures to the university did not match what was revealed to the medical world in their published articles. The inconsistencies were found in a spot check conducted by the Journal Sentinel of about 40 UW physicians whose work has been published since 2005.
Disclosing conflicts of interest is a bedrock principle of modern medicine. It alerts doctors and others who read medical journals to potential bias and allows them to weigh the credibility and value of the articles.
In the last two years, a lack of disclosure in several high profile national cases has undermined the integrity of the medical field.
"There has been a consistent pattern of people not disclosing," said Merrill Goozner, editor of a health care newsletter and former director of the Integrity in Science Project of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
The reason for the lack of disclosure can lie with either the researcher or the journal.
Just last month, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine showed orthopedic surgeons routinely failed to disclose financial ties to medical device makers in presentations at the 2008 annual meeting at the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.
The issue is so important that editors of some of the world's leading medical journals last month banded together to demand stricter and more consistent disclosure of conflicts of interest.
However, even with more stringent disclosure demands, the system largely is voluntary and self-policing.
"The investigators are pretty much on the honor system," said Nora Disis, deputy editor of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
She said disclosure is crucial to the integrity of the system.
"When you work in trying to improve human health, it's very important that you share knowledge," she said. "People need to know . . . that you are receiving compensation. That allows the reader to take a much more critical look at the conclusions that are being drawn from the data."
Disclosure is relevant
Mehta's piece on TomoTherapy, published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, involved an assessment of 3,800 treatments using TomoTherapy.
On July 3, 2008, the article was received by the journal. A revised form of the article was received Nov. 6 of that year, and it was accepted for publication a week later.
While two other co-authors from UW revealed their financial ties to the company, no such disclosure was made for Mehta, although his financial relationship with the company should have been fresh on his mind.
Less than two months earlier, on May 21, he told the university that he had begun working as a consultant to TomoTherapy in April and that he was reducing his university time by 10% to accommodate the lucrative new job.
At the time, he said his 2008 compensation from TomoTherapy Inc. would exceed $20,000. He also got stock options valued at the time at less than $10,000.
Ultimately, his consulting income with the company in 2008 would total $75,000, for 20 days' worth of work, according to records he filed with the university in April of this year. By then, the stock options were valued at $10,000 to $20,000.
The article was published in March of this year.
James Cox, editor of the journal, said Mehta's financial ties to TomoTherapy were Mehta's responsibility to disclose.
"Clearly it was very relevant," said Cox, head of radiation oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. "I have to ask myself how many authors out there have done the same thing. I can't go chase them down. There are too many authors."
In Mehta's case, he would not have to look too far. Mehta is a member of the journal's editorial board.
Cox said he likely will bring the matter up with the board of directors of the American Society for Radiation Oncology, which publishes the journal.
A variety of actions are possible, he said, ranging from publishing a notice about the failed disclosure to a censure. Mehta also could be dropped from the editorial board, Cox said.
"We take it very seriously," he said.
Mehta declined to discuss the issue with the Journal Sentinel.
Paid for talks
In 2008, UW doctor Barry Fox co-authored a medical journal article on treating antibiotic-resistant staph infections.
In the section of the article where doctors are supposed to list any potential conflicts of interest, it said "the authors have no financial disclosures to report."
However, documents Fox filed with the university show that he earned tens of thousands of dollars working for several drug companies giving talks to other doctors about antibiotics.
The article appeared in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, a journal published by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. It could be used by doctors to earn required continuing medical education credit.
Such presentations and articles generally require the instructors to disclose their conflicts of interest.
Rod Rohrich, editor-in-chief of the journal, said Fox signed a form saying he had no disclosures to make.
If Fox had revealed his consulting work, the journal would have disclosed it in the article, Rohrich said.
"We are pretty rigid on that," Rohrich said. "The lack of disclosure was not the fault of the journal."
He said Fox may have made an honest mistake in signing the form. Rohrich said he re-read the article, and it did not appear to have commercial bias.
However, Goozner, the former head of the Integrity in Science Project, said every doctor who read that article for credit needs to be notified there was a failure to disclose conflicts of interest.
"It is just misleading the readers," he said.
Fox did not respond to attempts by the Journal Sentinel to reach him.
Narrow definitions
Sometimes the lack of disclosure is the fault of the medical journal.
In October 2008, Perry Pickhardt was among a group of UW researchers who co-authored a study in the journal Radiology on CT colonography, a non-invasive way to look for colon cancer.
Pickhardt has done extensive research in the field. He also has pulled in tens of thousands of dollars from several companies that make products used in CT colonography and owns stock options in one such firm.
However, the article said Pickhardt and the authors had no financial relationships to disclose.
In fact, Pickhardt had revealed many potential conflicts to the journal, which decided not to list them, said Herbert Kressel, editor of the journal and an emeritus professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School.
Kressel said the journal had a narrow definition of what constituted a conflict. He said that definition entailed writing about a specific product rather than a topic that might involve companies that make products in that field.
The journal now is considering a stricter policy, in part because readers are entitled to know about such conflicts, he said.
"Our journal would be better off being more transparent in publishing all of the stated conflicts," he said.
Pickhardt could not be reached for comment. He has disclosed conflicts in articles he co-authored in other journals.
Vague disclosures
The disclosures made in orthopedic surgery journals tend to be vague and incomplete. Often they don't say what the financial relationship is or spell out how much money has been paid. Sometimes the disclosures don't even say which company is paying the author.
There is a reason for that, says Charles Rosen, an orthopedic surgeon and president of the Association for Medical Ethics, an organization concerned with the pervasive influence of drug and device companies.
"People are worried no one will listen to them anymore if they know how much they are being paid by a company," he said. "They are going to discount it."
In 2007, UW orthopedic surgeon Paul Anderson co-authored an article in the journal Spine on the Bryan cervical disc prosthesis made by Medtronic, one of several device-makers for which he has moonlighted.
For years, UW doctors did not have to tell the university how much money they actually made working for drug and device companies. Rather, they merely had to state whether it was in excess of $20,000, the top range, or some other lower range.
From 2003 through 2007, Anderson pulled in undisclosed sums of more than $20,000 a year from Medtronic. In 2008, the first year that UW doctors had to specify their outside income, his Medtronic income was $150,000.
However, based on his article in Spine, it is hard to tell if he received anything from Medtronic.
In part, the disclosure reads:
"One or more of the author(s) has/have received or will receive, benefits for personal or professional use from a commercial party related directly or indirectly to the subject of this manuscript: e.g. honoraria, gifts, consultancies, royalties, stocks, stock options, decision making position."
Rosen said the statement doesn't say anything about Anderson's financial relationship with Medtronic.
"It's gibberish," he said. "It's covering your legal butt."
Anderson, who also serves as an associate on the journal's editorial board, did not respond to the Journal Sentinel's attempts to reach him for comment.
Loretta Pickett, managing editor of Spine, said authors are not asked to disclose details of financial conflicts such as whether it is from speaking or royalties, or how much money they receive. Instead, they are allowed to pick a statement such as the one used in the article.
"We've always gone on the honor system," she said.
The journal now is considering requiring authors to disclose more detailed conflict information, she said.
In 2009, UW orthopedic surgeon Thomas Zdeblick co-authored an article in the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery that involved two other Medtronic products, the LT-Cage, a device used in spinal fusion surgery; and BMP-2 a bioengineered protein that promotes bone growth.
The study concluded that the two products had long-term effectiveness, reduced pain and improved other clinical outcomes.
Zdeblick has a long and lucrative relationship with Medtronic, both as a consultant and as someone who has received at least $19 million in royalties for a variety of devices that he invented and patented with the company.
One of the devices is the Novus LT Cage, for which he received $1.4 million in royalties in 2007, according to a January 2009 letter to UW from U.S. Sen. Charles Grassely (R-Iowa), who has been investigating payments to doctors by medical firms.
However, the journal article does not mention that Zdeblick receives royalty payments from Medtronic, which funded the study.
Instead it states that he and the other authors are consultants to Medtronic and that one or more of them or a family member got payments or other benefits of more than $10,000 from Medtronic in any one year.
Zdeblick, chairman of the department of orthopedics and rehabilitation, had no comment other than to say he followed all appropriate procedures that were in place at the time.
Rosen, a clinical professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of California-Irvine School of Medicine, said there is a huge difference between $10,000 and $19 million.
"I have no objection to people making as much money as they can or inventing something and making a fortune off it," he said.
But the amount of money they make and how they make it should be fully disclosed when they present research, he said.
That is especially true with royalties, he said, because they are closely tied to financial success of the doctor and the company that makes the device that is the subject of the article.
Differing policies
In contrast to the cryptic, legalistic disclosures of Anderson and Zdeblick are the uncommonly detailed disclosures of Robert Lemanske, a UW pediatrician.
In a 2009 article on asthma therapies, he not only spelled out the type of compensation, but how much.
For instance, the disclosure section of the article said he had been paid $29,000 in 2005; $31,000 in 2006 and $15,000 in 2007 for speaking by Merck.
Robert Golden, dean of the UW School of Medicine, said journals have differing policies about what is disclosed.
"We do not control what the journals require, nor how they present disclosures or lack thereof," he said in an e-mail.
Golden said he could not comment on any investigations into a lack of disclosure.
Undetailed conflicts
Minesh Mehta: Didn't disclose his stock options or that he got the equivalent of $3,750 a day to consult for a radiation therapy company.
Barry Fox: Co-authored an article on staph infections that did not disclose his ties to several companies that make antibiotics.
Paul Anderson: Was paid large sums working for the device company Medtronic, which were not detailed in a study.
Thomas Zdeblick: Paid millions of dollars in royalties from Medtronic, but did not disclose the extent of them in a study.
More coverage online To read past stories in the "Side Effects" series, which looks at the conflicts of medical doctors, go to www.jsonline.com/sideeffects
http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=8992&Section=Disease

Doctor visits get longer, but care quality "poor"
Last Updated: 2009-11-10 13:00:48 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - It may come as a surprise to many patients, but a new study shows that primary care visits have actually gotten a little longer since the late 1990s.
This is particularly remarkable, say the researchers, given the increased pressure on primary care doctors to be efficient in the face of rising numbers of patients and declining income.
Nevertheless, based on quality measurements like whether physicians counseled patients on diet and exercise, they found that "overall performance...was poor." Any improvements in care quality will likely require multi-pronged efforts, the researchers say, including paying doctors for spending more time to counsel and screen patients.
Primary care physicians were making about 10 percent less in 2003 than they were in 1995, after taking inflation into account, Dr. Lena M. Chen, who is now with the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor, and her colleagues note in their report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"Given the reimbursement environment and the pressures to improve efficiency," they add, "one might worry that primary care physicians would respond by spending less time with each patient to see more patients, improve their efficiency, and boost their incomes."
To see if this was actually true, and to look at whether the quality of care these docs were providing over time got better or worse, Chen and her team analyzed data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey for 1997 through 2005. The survey, run by the National Center for Health Statistics, samples a nationally representative group of office-based physicians annually.
Over the study period, the number of adult visits to primary care physicians rose from 273 million to 338 million, a 10 percent increase on a per person basis. The average visit lasted 18 minutes in 1997, while visit time had increased to nearly 21 minutes by 2005.
While older patients and new patients had longer visits, non-Hispanic black patients and Hispanic patients had significantly shorter visits than whites, the researchers found. They say they were "surprised" by this finding, which "may explain why patients of minority groups do not always receive care that is comparable to that provided to white patients."
During the study period, the quality of care doctors were providing showed "only modest improvements," Chen and her colleagues say, with patients no more likely to get counseling on diet and exercise in 2005 than they were in 1997, even though there's strong evidence that giving high-risk patients this advice is beneficial.
There were improvements in the likelihood of doctors prescribing medications with proven benefit for patients -- for example beta blockers for coronary artery disease or appropriate medications for heart failure, the researchers found.
They conclude: "Improvements in quality of care will likely require a combination of investments in systems such as electronic health records, greater use of other professionals such as nurse practitioners, and better reimbursement to primary care physicians for the extra time spent."
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, November 9, 2009
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/11/10/eline/links/20091110elin007.html

Antibiotic overuse threatens modern medicine: experts
Last Updated: 2009-11-10 10:20:07 -0400 (Reuters Health)
LONDON (Reuters) - Overuse of antibiotics in Europe is building widespread resistance and threatening to halt vital medical treatments such as hip replacements, intensive care for premature babies and cancer therapies, health experts say.
Dominique Monnet of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control's (ECDC) scientific advice unit said the "whole span of modern medicine" is under threat because bugs are become resistant to antibiotics, rendering the drugs useless.
"If this wave of antibiotic resistance gets over us, we will not be able to do organ transplants, hip replacements, cancer chemotherapy, intensive care and neonatal care for premature babies," he told reporters at a briefing.
Antibiotics are needed in all these treatments to prevent bacterial infection. But drug-resistant bacteria are a growing problem in hospitals worldwide, marked by the rise of superbugs such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
Such infections kill about 25,000 people a year in Europe and around 19,000 in the United States
On top of the risks to future treatments, Monnet said the costs of antibiotic resistance were already hurting -- and may hit healthcare budgets across the European Union yet harder if the problem is not addressed.
The six most common multi-drug-resistant bacteria -- often referred to as superbugs -- cause around 400,000 infections a year in Europe, killing around 25,000 people and using 2.5 million hospital days a year.
The ECDC, which monitors and advises on disease in EU, calculates that with a hospital day costing an average of 366 euros ($548), superbug infections are already sucking up 900 million euros a year in extra hospital costs, and a further 600 million euros a year in lost productivity.
"Across the European Union the number of patients infected by resistant bacteria is increasing and that antibiotic resistance is a major threat to public health," the ECDC said.
Britain's government was criticized by a parliamentary committee on Tuesday for failing to tackle the majority of hospital-acquired infections by narrowing its focus to two high profile ones -- MRSA and Clostridium difficult.
The ECDC is planning an "antibiotic awareness" campaign on November 18 to urge doctors to stop overprescribing antibiotics.
Patients demanding antibiotics for viral infections often are not aware that they will not work, it said, but doctors are and should stop giving in to pressure.
Sarah Earnshaw of the ECDC's communications unit, pointed to a 2002 survey that showed 60 percent of patients do not know that antibiotics do not work against viruses like flu and colds.
"Patients often demand antibiotics," she said. And doctors often think, she said, that giving in is a quicker way to deal with a demanding patients than persuading them otherwise.
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/11/10/eline/links/20091110elin008.html

To eat less, your body may want you to eat slowly
Last Updated: 2009-11-09 11:15:29 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Your mother's advice to slow down at meal time may have been wise after all: a new study suggests that shoveling down your food blocks the body's natural appetite-control process.
"Most of us have heard that eating fast can lead to food overconsumption and obesity, and in fact some...studies have supported this notion," Dr. Alexander Kokkinos, the lead researcher on the study, said in a written statement.
What has been missing, however, is biological evidence that a leisurely meal is better for appetite control, according to Kokkinos and his colleagues at Athens University Medical School in Greece and the Imperial College London in the UK.
To study the question, the researchers had 17 healthy men eat a generous portion of ice cream under two different conditions: in one, they ate the treat in two servings over 5 minutes; in the other, they ate it in small servings over 30 minutes.
Although the groups' feelings of fullness and hunger did not seem to differ, the researchers found that when the men ate slowly, they showed higher blood levels of two hormones -- peptide YY (PYY) and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) -- for roughly three hours after the meal.
Both PYY and GLP-1 are released from the digestive tract as a "fullness" signal to the brain, curbing appetite and calorie intake.
The findings, to be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, give more weight to the conventional wisdom that people should savor their food.
Some previous research has found that when people take the time to chew their food thoroughly and enjoy a meal, they tend to eat fewer calories than when they have that same meal at an eat-and-run pace.
The reasons for that have been unclear, however.
"Our study provides a possible explanation for the relationship between speed eating and overeating by showing that the rate at which someone eats may impact the release of gut hormones that signal the brain to stop eating," Kokkinos said.
The findings are particularly relevant in a time when many people are relying on fast food and regularly eating on the run, according to Kokkinos. The study suggests that slowing down at meal time could aid appetite control, and ultimately weight control.
They are a possible scientific explanation for "the warning we were given as children that 'wolfing down your food will make you fat,'" Kokkinos said.
SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, January 2010.
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/11/09/eline/links/20091109elin001.html

Do high school sports fuel unhealthy behaviors?
Last Updated: 2009-11-09 10:01:28 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Think that getting high school students involved in team sports will help keep them away from drugs, alcohol and other unhealthy behaviors?
It's not entirely true, according to research presented today at the American Public Health Association's annual meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Team sports participation appears to have both "protective and risk-enhancing" associations for high school students, Dr. Susan M. Connor of the Injury Prevention Center, Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio told Reuters Health.
"There is a lot of rhetoric," she said, "that promotes sports team participation as a complete positive -- something that has no negative effects. Sports participation is kind of almost rhetorically positioned as a panacea for social ills; it will stop crime and alcohol and drug use. But all the bits and pieces of evidence suggest that's not really true."
Connor and her colleagues analyzed survey responses from a representative group of more than 13,000 US high school students who participated in the 2007 Youth Risk Behavioral Survey.
"Our hypothesis was that sports team participation would not be overwhelmingly positive but it would have positive and negative effects, which is just what we found," Connor said.
Roughly 60 percent of the boys surveyed participated in team sports in the past year. For these young men, sports team participation was associated with decreased levels of depression and smoking, but it was also associated with an increased likelihood of fighting, drinking and binge drinking.
Of the high school girls surveyed, 48 percent reported being on one or more sports team in the past year. For girls, the findings differed somewhat by race. For white young women, sports team participation was associated with decreased levels of fighting, depression, cigarette smoking, marijuana use, and unhealthy weight loss practices, Connor and colleagues found.
There was no association between sports team participation and drinking for white female students. However, for black high school girls, sports team participation was associated with increased levels of binge drinking.
"This was unexpected and something that needs follow up," Connor said. "You'd think that sports participation would have no effect or a protective effect on drinking in black female athletes the same as it did for white athletes. I would imagine that it has more to do with socioeconomics than with race," she added.
Another big unknown, Connor added, is which particular sports may have protective or risk-enhancing effects on teen athletes. "I would imagine that the type of sport, the level of competitiveness, the social environment of a community all plays a role," Connor said. "I think when we break it down by sport we will find some explanations for the observations we found."
The Youth Risk Behavioral Survey, Connor noted, "gives us huge numbers and access to a lot of kids in a lot of different places. It's a wealth of information on the one hand, but on the other hand it does not go into a lot of detail so the study almost raised more questions than it answere
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/11/09/eline/links/20091109elin004.html

Watch for kidney stones in kids with abdominal pain
Last Updated: 2009-11-09 16:45:40 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Many children with kidney stones don't have the classical symptoms associated with the condition, such as painful, bloody urination, according to a new study.
Dr. Cesare Polito and co-researchers studied 100 patients, 3 to 18 years old, with recurrent abdominal pain and kidney stones.
They report in the journal Pediatrics that more than half - 53 percent - did not have a history of painful or bloody urination, and only about a third had blood in their urine when they saw their doctors.
Many of the children did not have the flank pain typically associated with kidney stones, instead having general pain in the abdomen.
The take home message: Doctors, and their parents, should consider kidney stones in kids with recurrent abdominal pain, especially those who have a history of such stones in the family, even if painful and blood urination is absent.
SOURCE: Pediatrics, 2009.
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/11/09/eline/links/20091109elin021.html

What kids drink at 5 could affect weight at 15
Last Updated: 2009-11-06 16:10:04 -0400 (Reuters Health)
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Parents may be setting their daughters up for weight problems simply by allowing them to drink two or more sweetened drinks daily while young, study findings hint.
Higher sweetened beverage intake, such as sodas and fruit and sport drinks, at age 5 years was linked to more body fat during the following 10 years, Dr. Laura Fiorito, at The Pennsylvania State University in University Park, told Reuters Health in an email.
Higher body fat during the teen years has been tied to long-term overweight and other health problems such as diabetes and later heart disease, Fiorito and colleagues note in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Fiorito's team looked at what 166 non-Hispanic white girls drank between the ages of 5 and 15. They also measured their weight, height, and body fat.
Body fat and weight did not vary depending on how much milk or juice made from 100 percent fruit the girls drank.
By contrast, after allowing for other factors tied to weight and body fat levels, girls who drank two or more sweetened drinks daily had higher percentages of body fat, weighed more, and were more likely to be overweight than girls who drank lesser amounts of such beverages.
For example, of the 5 and 15 year old girls drinking less than one drink, the researchers found about 16 and 19 percent overweight, respectively. Among those drinking 2 or more sweetened drinks, about 39 percent were overweight at 5 years, while and 32 percent were the same when 15 years old.
Therefore, caregivers of young children should substitute sweetened drinks with reduced-fat milk and water, Fiorito and colleagues conclude.
SOURCE: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, October 2009.
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/11/06/eline/links/20091106elin006.html

Are doctors what ails U.S. healthcare?
Last Updated: 2009-11-06 12:15:03 -0400 (Reuters Health)
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (Reuters) - Nowhere in the United States has more doctors at its beck and call than White Plains, one of the wealthiest cities in the nation.
Doctors have been flocking to the area and surrounding Westchester County since the 1970s, drawn in part by an upper-class clientele who demand top-notch medical care and have the means to pay for it. The county has one of the highest median household incomes in the nation (about $77,000 a year in 2007), and the figures soar above six digits in suburbs like Scarsdale and Chappaqua, which former President Bill Clinton calls home.
Nearly 3,000 miles (4,830 km) away, scaring up a doctor in Bakersfield, situated in California's economically battered Central Valley, is a lot harder. In fact, White Plains has more than twice the number of doctors per capita as Bakersfield, where needy patients until recently had to take a 2-hour bus trip to Fresno to see a diabetes treatment specialist.
Two decades worth of U.S. healthcare data analyzed by Dartmouth Medical School at Reuters' request shows that such regional disparities are increasingly creating a nation of health-care haves and have nots.
The research also suggests that the chasm between places like White Plains and Bakersfield is likely to grow - a point underscored by dozens of interviews with doctors and experts. That's because physicians, the data shows, gravitate toward affluent locales in the United States that already have all the medical help they need.
What's more, the Dartmouth analysis shows, clusters of doctors tend to result in higher health care costs - and, perhaps most surprisingly, outcomes aren't any better in cities with the largest physician populations.
Congressional Democrats in late October unveiled a sweeping healthcare overhaul that would transform the insurance market, extend health insurance to 46 million additional U.S. patients and levy new taxes on the rich.
The House of Representatives could vote as early as Saturday on a bill that would launch the biggest changes to the U.S. healthcare system since the creation of the Medicare health program for the elderly in 1965. But Senate action is unlikely until next year.
President Barack Obama has made reform of the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare industry, which constitutes one-sixth of the economy, his top domestic priority.
Yet, even if Obama gets everything he wants in his bruising fight with Republicans, stunning imbalances will remain in how the fruits of the health care system are distributed.
Access to top doctors, cutting-edge procedures and advanced life-saving technology has less to do with need and more to do with quality of life issues that any professional would consider when deciding where to live - climate, schools, and perhaps most importantly, income.
IRRATIONAL DISTRIBUTION
Consider this fact: The number of primary care physicians per capita varies by a factor of 2.5 across U.S. hospital districts, and specialists by more than three-fold, according to Dartmouth. For every doctor who lives and practices in an underserved area, four others settle in an overserved area, the medical school's data shows.
There's an "irrational distribution" of the most valuable and expensive U.S. health care resources and "physicians simply do not settle in greater numbers where patient needs are greater," said David Goodman, director of health policy research at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.
Neonatologists don't set up practice where the need is greatest, and cardiologists don't flock to cities with high rates of acute myocardial infarction, Goodman said.
Moreover, Dartmouth's examination of two decades of U.S. hospital admission data show that more doctors are not necessarily the solution to what ails the U.S. healthcare system. That's because patients treated in communities with an abundance of doctors are more likely to receive unnecessary tests and procedures, the school found.
To illustrate the point, Dartmouth's Atlas of Medical Care database compares spending on patients covered by Medicare - the U.S. government's program to cover elderly and disabled patients - during the last two years of their life.
At Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla N.Y., near White Plains, Medicare spending was about $87,000 in the last two years of life, and during the last six months of life patients spent an average 24 days in the hospital and were seen by 53 physicians.
Meanwhile, at Mercy Hospital in Bakersfield, Medicare spending was $57,000 in the last two years, and patients spent an average 14 days in the hospital in the last six months and were seen by 40 physicians.
Westchester County hospital executives defend their specialist networks as essential to their patients.
"If you ask me if patients in this area are overserved, my answer is no," said Michael Israel, chief executive of Westchester Medical Center, a highly specialized academic hospital that handles some of the Hudson Valley's most complex treatment cases.
"In many areas of the country people need care that is not available to them," Israel said. "They are not getting it."
TWO CALIFORNIAS
In the San Joaquin Valley, an oil producing center north of Los Angeles, Stephen Schilling struggles to staff his clinics, which mostly serve low-income, Hispanic migrant workers who harvest the valley's endless fields of cotton, almonds, pistachios and other crops.
"This is a tough place to bring professionals," said Schilling, who offers visa assistance for foreign doctors and medical school repayments to entice doctors to practice at his clinic - Clinica Sierra Vista. "I could hire a family practitioner if they walked in here any day of the week."
It's no mystery why doctors avoid Bakersfield.
The summer heat is oppressive, the air quality is poor and the Valley has been pegged by congressional researchers as one of the nation's most depressed regions, on par with the Appalachia region stretching across West Virginia and other coal-mining states.
Most of California's wealth and medical expertise dwells in the dozen or so coastal counties like San Francisco and Los Angeles, where the weather is fine and so is the living, Schilling said. "They're massively overserved," he said. [20091106 130421 GMT]
"There are two Californias," Schilling said. "It's not northern and southern. There's coastal California and then there's the rest."
As for Bakersfield, "We're at the mercy of the medical community and what they are willing to contribute," said Carol Sorrell, chief executive of Kern Health Systems, a state-run health insurance program that caters to the area's needy patients. "We're really at our wit's end."
The need is greatest for specialists like orthopods, urologists and dermatologists, Sorrell said.
Kern Health Systems recently spent $1 million to help the area's "safety net" hospital - Kern Medical Center - open a clinic to care for patients with diabetes, which is more prevalent in Hispanics due to their high-protein diet and other lifestyle factors.
"It's not cheap, but in the long run it's a lot cheaper than amputated feet," Sorrell said, referring to the likely outcome if diabetes is not treated.
Kern Medical Center's emergency room is often the only resort for many of Bakersfield's low-income patients. The hospital spent about $65 million caring for indigent and uninsured patients in 2008.
"This hospital saved my life many times," said Maung Thettin, an uninsured Burmese man who recently came to the hospital seeking relief for joint pain.
IS MORE BETTER?
Outside of Bakersfield and other underserved cities - such as McAllen, Texas, and Tupelo, Mississippi - the case for more doctors is far less clear.
For many U.S. cities, Dartmouth Atlas data shows that more doctors are associated with higher costs of care and more procedures that have dubious benefits for patients.
States like Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota have maintained low costs by relying on primary care doctors to keep patients healthy and out of hospitals, while in high-cost states like New York, patients are more likely to get admitted to hospitals and receive a battery of tests and treatment.
One reason is the "fee-for-service" structure of the U.S. healthcare system, which rewards specialists for performing complex procedures but offers scant rewards for primary care physicians who practice preventive medicine.
Primary care doctors must see about 35 patients a day - which works out to less than 15 minutes per visit - to make $150,000 a year, if they rely on the U.S. government's Medicare system fees.
Meanwhile, a brain or heart specialist can easily make four times that salary for performing complex procedures. "You get paid enough for one case to make a down payment on a car," said Guy Clifton, professor of neurosurgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.
SHOW ME THE MONEY
For government officials looking to pay the bill for health care reform, the Dartmouth data could offer an enticing map for cutting costs.
After all, the U.S. healthcare system wastes between $505 billion and $850 billion every year, according to a report from Robert Kelley, vice president of healthcare analytics at Thomson Reuters .
The United States spends more of its gross domestic product on health care than any other developed nation at 15 percent - versus 11.3 percent in Switzerland, 10 percent in Canada and 8.1 percent in Japan, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
If it's true that about one in three U.S. health care dollars is wasted, then billions of dollars in costs can be eliminated through improved efficiency, rather than through more government spending that would widen the $1.4 trillion U.S. budget deficit.
But some experts say that there could be unexpected consequences in any attempt to reform how health care is distributed.
"This idea that it's all waste and we don't have to invest in more doctors or additional costs to actually cover these people, that's about as seductive as anything you could possibly imagine," said Thomas Rosenthal, chief medical officer at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. "But you'd better be careful."
Allocating funds away from high-cost cities like Los Angeles toward under-served cities could leave urban hospitals struggling to care for the high percentages of uninsured patients they have historically treated, Rosenthal said.
"If you do some of these things willy-nilly, you're going to cause more harm," he said.
For now, the main thrust of health care reform is more about expanding benefits to uninsured patients than cutting costs, Clifton said.
Obama administration officials made a calculated decision to concentrate on access to avoid alienating key industry allies that could have stopped their efforts cold, Clifton said.
One telling fact in the health care debate to date is that public outcry from major health industry associations like the American Medical Association and the pharmaceutical industry has been largely absent. "You've seen no attack ads from any industry group," he said.
If Obama administration officials had "waded into the really nasty politics of pulling a third of the money out of the health care system, they would have lost the support of the industries they needed," he said. "This is the politics of the possible."
Dartmouth's Goodman agreed that insurance reform being pushed in Washington is unlikely to have an impact on the problem of soaring costs and uneven quality of care in the United States.
"Just increasing insurance coverage by itself won't address the dilemma that nearly 50 million people face," Goodman said. "It's not going to lead us to a sustainable healthcare system from a financing standpoint."
But marginal improvements in health care efficiency and quality could yield appreciable results, while large changes could trigger a wave of hospital bankruptcies, Goodman said.
"If the hospitals in White Plains started practicing like the Mayo Clinic tomorrow, they would look like General Motors," he said. "They would go bankrupt."
Still, a deep-rooted system of incentives for health care providers must change, Goodman said. "We should be paying for high-quality care and outcomes and not just for more care," he said.
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2009/11/06/eline/links/20091106elin016.html

Bilberries may prevent artery hardening, boost heart health

Nutraingredients.com, 09-Nov-2009

Extracts from bilberry may prevent the build up of plaques in the arteries, preventing hardening of the blood vessels and boosting overall heart health, says a new study from France.
A fermented bilberry extract out-performed a standard extract, leasing the French researchers to suggest that yeast fermentation produces new bioactive compounds with heart health effects.
Researchers led by Aurelie Mauray from France’s Institut National de la Research Agronomique (INRA - UMR1019, Centre de Recherche de Clermont Ferrand/Theix) used apolipoprotein-E-deficient mice, putting the animals at an increased risk of heart disease. Apolipoprotein-E (Apo-E) is essential for the normal breakdown of triglyceride-rich lipoprotein constituents.
“The yeast-fermented bilberries extract exerts more effective antiatherogenic activity in vivo than the anthocyanin-rich bilberry extract, suggesting that fermentation generates some newcompoundswith improved health-promoting properties as compared to the anthocyaninrich standardized extract,” report the researchers in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
However, being a study in animals the researchers stressed that more studies are necessary to “identify the compounds responsible for these effects and to investigate possible mechanisms underlying such effects”.
Atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, is a major risk factor forcardiovascular disease (CVD), which causes almost 50 per cent of deaths in Europe, and is reported to cost the EU economy about €169bn ($202bn) per year.
Study details
Mauray and her co-workers divided the mice into three groups. All groups were fed the standard control diet, but two groups received one of two bilberry extracts: One rich in anthocyanins extracted from untreated bilberries, and a second one extracted from yeast-fermented bilberries at a level of 0.02 per cent. Such an intake corresponds to about 30 mg of anthocyanidins per day in humans, said the researchers.
At the end of 16 weeks of study, significant inhibition of the development of plaques associated with atherosclerosis was observed in both bilberry groups.
“The lesion area was decreased by 15 per cent in the [untreated bilberry extract] group and by 36 per cent in the yeast-fermented bilberry-extract group compared to the control group,” report the researchers. “Additionally, mice fed the yeast-fermented bilberry-extract supplemented diet showed a 25 per cent higher reduction of the lesion area compared to the [untreated bilberry extract] group,” they added.
Mauray and her co-workers note that the active compounds in the fermented extract have yet to be identified, but suggested they may be anthocyanin-derived polymeric pigments.
Bilberry info
Bilberries are closely related to the North American blueberry but contain a very distinct anthocyanin profile. Bilberry extracts are relatively expensive. Concerns are rife within the industry of lower-price extracts reported to be mixed with mulberry or black bean skins or azo-dyes.
Concerns were raised last year when Australian scientists discovered that azo dyes were used to mimic the colour of bilberries in a commercial product (J. Agric. Food Chem 2006, Vol. 54, Issue 19, pp. 7378 -7382). This has since expanded to reports of mulberry or black bean skins being used to increase the anthocyanin content of the extracts.
The anthocyanins content is used as the standard for bilberry, and UV spectrometry is needed to verify the 25 per cent anthocyanins. However, according to unconfirmed reports, this has led to extracts masquerading as bilberry but actually containing mulberry (22-24 per cent), or black bean skin (20 per cent).
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry “ Atheroprotective Effects of Bilberry Extracts in Apo E-Deficient Mice”Authors: Aurelie Mauray, D. Milenkovic, C. Besson, N. Caccia, C. Morand, F. Michel, A. Mazur, A. Scalbert, C. Felgines
http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/Bilberries-may-prevent-artery-hardening-boost-heart-health

Nano curcumin could boost spice’s health benefits

Nutraingredients.com, 09-Nov-2009

Nano-sized curcumin capsules may boost the body’s uptake of the ingredient, and enhance its potential to prevent colon cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, suggests a new study from Japan.
Using liposomes, little microcapsules made from phospholipids, can encapsulatecurcumin and lead to a quadrupling in the compound’s absorption, according to findings published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
“These liposomal formulations can enable enhanced curcumin food functionalization,” wrote the researchers, led by Dr Koji Wada from the University of the Ryukyus.
Curcumin is a natural pigment that gives the spice turmeric its yellow colour. Recent studies have investigated its potential to lower cholesterol levels, improve cardiovascular health, reduce the risk of Alzheimer's and diabetes as well as cancer-fighting properties.
Despite the potential health benefits of curcumin, Wada and co-workers say that digestive juice in the gastrointestinal tract quickly destroys most curcumin, leading to only a little actually getting into the blood.
The new study used commercially available lecithins to prepare liposomes for the encapsulation of curcumin. Using 2.5 per cent curcumin, the researchers obtained an encapsulation efficiency of 68 per cent, with average particle sizes of abour 263 nanometres.
The formulations were then fed to Sprague-Dawley rats at a curcumin dose of 100 milligrams for every kilogram of rat body weight.
Results showed that the nano-encapsulated curcumin led to blood levels up to 320 micrograms per litre, compared to 65 micrograms per litre for non-encapsulated curcumin.
“These results indicated that curcumin enhanced the gastrointestinal absorption by liposomes encapsulation,” said the researchers.
This enhancement could be due to the particle size, they said, with other studies showing that liposomes of around 200 nanometres are efficienty taken up in the intestine, and therefore avoid metabolism in the liver.
Incorporation in liposomes may also lead to the curcumin being included in phospholipid membranes in the body
“Encapsulation also allows for prolonged contact with the intestinal wall due to the adhesive property that liposomes exhibit toward the epithelial mucosal surface of the small intestine,” wrote Wada and his co-workers. “Accordingly, it seems that encapsulation of curcumin is highly advantageous for optimizing food functionality,” they added.
An increase in plasma antioxidant activity was also observed following ingestion of the curcumin liposomes, with activity three-fold that of the non-encapsulated curcumin-fed animals.
“The available information strongly suggests that liposome encapsulation of ingredients such as curcumin may be used as a novel nutrient delivery system,”concluded the researchers.
Source: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry Volume 57, Pages 9141–9146, "Evaluation of an Oral Carrier System in Rats: Bioavailability and Antioxidant Properties of Liposome-Encapsulated Curcumin" Authors: M. Takahashi, S. Uechi, K. Takara, Y. Asikin, K. Wada
http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/Nano-curcumin-could-boost-spice-s-health-benefits

Carotenoid-rich broccoli could lead to better extracts

Nutraingredients.com, 06-Nov-2009

Careful conventional breeding of broccoli may boost the levels of antioxidants in the vegetable, especially lutein – a carotenoid linked to improved eye health.
Preliminary research by Mark Farnham from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (USDA ARS) and Dean Kopsell from the University of Tennessee confirmed that broccoli heads contain abundant levels of lutein, an antioxidant commonly thought to provide nutritional support to eyes and skin.
Other carotenoids like beta-carotene, violaxanthin, neoxanthin, and antheraxanthin were also found in broccoli heads, but lutein was clearly the most significant, accounting for about half of all carotenoids measured, report the researchers in the journal HortScience.
The lutein levels are dictated by plant’s genetics, they report, noting that environment in which the vegetables were grown had little effect on carotenoid production.
“To our knowledge, this study is the first to present a detailed examination of carotenoids in field-grown broccoli and the relative importance of genotype in influencing levels of specific carotenoid compounds,” they report.
Being in its early stages, it is not known if such broccoli could lead to lutein-enriched extracts, or an alternative source of lutein. Currently, most natural lutein on the market is derived from marigolds, like Kemin’s FloraGlo and Cognis’ XanGold.
The study found that lutein was the most abundant carotenoid in broccoli heads, and was found to be present up to a level of 139.6 micrograms per gram of dry mass, according to data in HortScience.
“Results indicated that most carotenoids measured were positively and significantly correlated with one another, indicating that higher levels of one carotenoid were typically associated with higher levels of others,” wrote Farnham and Kopsell.
“This study emphasizes the relative importance of lutein in broccoli heads and the key role that genotype plays with this compound, ultimately indicating that breeding cultivars with increased levels of this particular carotenoid may be feasible,” they added.
Broccoli’s benefits
A significant body of research supports the beneficial effects of broccoli and its extracts. The majority of the science has looked at the vegetable’s anti-cancer benefits, linked to the high levels of the active plant chemicals glucosinolates. These are metabolised by the body into isothiocyanates, which are known to be powerful anti-carcinogens. The main isothiocyanate from broccoli is sulphoraphane.
Source: HortScience  Volume 44, Pages 1248-1253 “Importance of Genotype on Carotenoid and Chlorophyll Levels in Broccoli Heads” Authors: M.W. Farnham, D.A. Kopsell
http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/Carotenoid-rich-broccoli-could-lead-to-better-extracts

Green tea extracts may protect against oral cancer: Study

Nutraingredients.com, 06-Nov-2009

Extracts from green tea may prevent the formation of mouth cancers in people with risk signs of the disease, according to a new study from Texas.
Over 50 per cent of participants in the University of Texas M. D. AndersonCancer Center study experienced a clinical response to the green tea extracts, according to findings published in Cancer Prevention Research.
“While still very early, and not definitive proof that green tea is an effective preventive agent, these results certainly encourage more study for patients at highest risk for oral cancer,” lead researcher Vassiliki Papadimitrakopoulou, MD.
“The extract's lack of toxicity is attractive - in prevention trials, it's very important to remember that these are otherwise healthy individuals and we need to ensure that agents studied produce no harm,” he added.
The study was funded by Ito En and using the company’s green tea extract.
Green tea contains between 30 and 40 per cent of water-extractable polyphenols, while black tea (green tea that has been oxidized by fermentation) contains between 3 and 10 per cent. Oolong tea is semi-fermented tea and is somewhere between green and black tea.
The four primary polyphenols found in fresh tealeaves are epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), epigallocatechin (EGC), epicatechin gallate (ECG), and epicatechin (EC).
Phase II stats
The study, a phase II dose-finding trial, followed 41 people with oral leukoplakia, a condition is a sign of oral cancer risk. The participants were assigned to receive either placebo or green tea extract at one of three doses, including 500 milligrams per metre squared of body mass (mg/m2), 750 mg/m2, or 1,000 mg/m2 three times a day.
The researchers collected oral tissue biopsies, which they say was “essential in that it allowed us to learn that not only did the green tea extract appear to have benefit for some patients, but we pointed to anti-angiogenic effects as a potential mechanism of action,” explained co-researcher Anne Tsao, MD.
Almost 60 per cent of people taking the two highest doses of the green tea extracts had a clinical response. Just over 36 per cent of people in the lowest extract dose group had a clinical response, compared to 18 per cent in the placebo group, said the researchers.
At an extended follow-up with a mean of 27.5 months, 15 participants had developed oral cancer, with a median time to disease development of 46.4 months.
Commenting on the safety, the researchers noted that side effects such as insomnia and nervousness were mostly only recorded in the high-dose group. None of these produced no significant toxicity, they added.
“While these are encouraging findings, much more research must be done before we can conclude that green tea may prevent oral or any other type of cancer. It's also important to remind people that this trial enrolled very few participants who, at the highest dose levels took the equivalent of eight cups of green tea three times a day,” cautioned Papadimitrakopoulo.
“We need to further understand if green tea offers longer-term prevention effects for patients,” he added.
Next stage of study
Future studies with such high-risk people investigate the effects of longer supplementation periods, said the researchers.
According to the American Cancer Society, more than 35,720 are expected to be diagnosed with oral and/or pharynx cancer and the five year survival rate is less than 50 per cent.
Source: Cancer Prevention Research Volume 2, 931, "Phase II Randomized, Placebo-controlled Trial of Green Tea Extract in Patients with High-risk Oral Premalignant Lesions" Authors: A.S. Tsao, D. Liu, J. Martin, X. Tang, et al.
http://www.nutraingredients.com/Research/Green-tea-extracts-may-protect-against-oral-cancer-Study

Fructose sweeteners may promote Syndrome X

Foodnavigator-usa.com, 09-Nov-2009

 ‘Moderate’ consumption of fructose-containing sweeteners may produce ‘modest but significant changes’ that may contribute to the development of metabolic syndrome, says a new rat study.
Researchers from the University of Washington report that while no changes were observed in the body weight of their test animals after 10 weeks, the changes in liver and lipid metabolism may lead to the onset of metabolic syndrome, or syndrome X.
Writing in Physiology & Behavior, the researchers compared the effects of agave syrup (90 per cent fructose), fructose, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), HFCS plus the appetite suppressor Hoodia, or the non-caloric sweetener Stevia.
Animals were given water or one of the sweetened beverages as their only source of liquid at night for three nights per week for 10 weeks. All of the sweeteners were added to drinking water at a level of 12.5 per cent.
At the end of the study, Dianne Figlewicz and her co-workers report that, despite still falling in the normal range, cholesterol levels were higher in the rats fed fructose and HFCS, and triglyceride levels had increases significantly in rats feeding on agave, HFCS, and HFCS plus Hoodia, compared to animals drinking water.
“We demonstrated that moderate consumption of sweeteners in drinking water leads to marked changes of drinking behaviour and that fructose consumption leads to modest but significant changes in markers of liver and lipid metabolism,” wrote Figlewicz and her co-workers.
Liver health
No changes in markers of inflammation were recorded between the groups, and normal liver histology was recorded in all the groups. Significant increases in levels of the liver enzyme alanine aminotransferase were observed in serum from animals fed fructose and HFCS, however. Increased levels of this enzyme are indicative of liver damage or disease.
“Although we did not observe excessive weight gain in all tested sweetener groups, the lipid and liver metabolism changes indicate that even moderate fructose consumption might contribute to the onset or development of the Metabolic Syndrome, which might be exacerbated by consumption of a Westernized high-fat diet, and needs to be investigated in future studies,” they added.
Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a condition characterised by central obesity, hypertension, and disturbed glucose and insulin metabolism. The syndrome has been linked to increased risks of both type 2 diabetes and CVD.
Fifteen per cent of adult Europeans are estimated to be affected by MetS, while the US statistic is estimated to be a whopping 32 per cent. Obesity is established to be the main risk factor for MetS.
Caveats
Commenting on the limitations of their study, the researchers notes that they used only one concentration of the sweeteners. “This design was chosen because the final concentrations were both isocaloric and preferred by the rats,”they explained. Furthermore, they also said that the limiting of access to the sweetened beverages to only three nights per week was because they “aimed to mimic a more realistic scenario of moderate sweetened beverage intake than providing the rats with more than 50 per cent sugar as total calorie intake”.
They also recognize the omission of a glucose or sucrose group, which was intentional since they “felt that the effects of fructose vs. glucose and sucrose have already been studied extensively”.
Source: Physiology & Behavior  “Effect of moderate intake of sweeteners on metabolic health in the rat” Authors: D.P. Figlewicz, G. Ioannou, J. Bennett Jay, S. Kittleson, C. Savard, C.L. Roth
http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Science-Nutrition/Fructose-sweeteners-may-promote-Syndrome-X

Move away from Western diet to reduce disease risk, says study

Foodnavigator-usa.com, 04-Nov-2009

Compounds produced by frying, grilling, or pasteurizing may be driving inflammation and ageing, according to a new study from the US.
But reducing intakes of compounds called advanced glycation end products (AGEs) may reduce inflammation and help boost the body’s natural defences, according to results of a dietary intervention published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
AGEs are toxic substances reportedly produced in abundance in the Western diets, as a result of heating, pasteurisation, drying, smoking, frying or grilling. The compounds are said to promote oxidation and inflammation, which may ultimately increase the risk of chronic diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease.
The study adds to previous studies on that point the finger at the highly processed foods and meats consumed in the Western diet in relation to a range of conditions, from obesity to colorectal cancer.
Researchers from the US National Institute on Aging and Mount Sinai School of Medicine report that a simple dietary intervention that reduces intakes of AGEs may promote weight loss and improve overall health. The improvements occurred without changing caloric or nutrient intake, said the researchers.
“What is noteworthy about our findings is that reduced AGE consumption proved to be effective in all study participants, including healthy persons and persons who have a chronic condition such as kidney disease,” said study author Professor Helen Vlassara from Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
The new study involved 40 healthy people aged between 18 and 45, or older than 60, and another 9 people with kidney disease. The subjects were randomly assigned to one of two diets: One group continued to consume their own regular Western diet, while the second group consumed a diet with the same calorie and nutrient content, but with 50 per cent less AGEs.
Participants in the AGE-less intervention were advised poach, stew, or steam their meals.
After four months of intervention, blood AGE levels, lipid peroxides, inflammatory markers, and biomarkers of blood vessel health declined by as much as 60 per cent in healthy participants, said the researchers. Similar improvements were also observed in the kidney patients on the AGE-less diet, they added.
Worryingly, Vlassara and her co-workers believe that daily AGE intakes in the standard Western diet may be at least three times higher than the safety limit for these oxidants.
“Even though the AGEs pose a more immediate health threat to older adults, they are a similar danger for younger people, including pregnant women and children, and this needs to be addressed,” said Vlassara.
“AGEs are ubiquitous and addictive, since they provide flavour to foods. But they can be controlled through simple methods of cooking, such as keeping the heat down and the water content up in food and by avoiding pre-packaged and fast foods when possible. Doing so reduces AGE levels in the blood and helps the body restore its own defences,” she added.
The Western dietary pattern has also been blamed by some for the obesity epidemic, particularly in children. Indeed, in August 2007 US paediatrician Robert Lustig, MD, from the University of California, San Francisco said that the "toxic environment" of Western diets causes hormonal imbalances that encourage overeating.
Source: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism   “Protection against Loss of Innate Defenses in Adulthood by Low Advanced Glycation End Products (AGE) Intake: Role of the Antiinflammatory AGE Receptor-1” Authors: H. Vlassara, W. Cai, S. Goodman, R. Pyzik, et al.
http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Science-Nutrition/Move-away-from-Western-diet-to-reduce-disease-risk-says-study

Conflicts of interest? Dr. Mehmet Oz owns 150,000 option shares in vaccine technology company
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews.com  November 10. 2009 

(NaturalNews) Dr. Mehmet Oz is a huge promoter of vaccines. He's been on television reinforcing fear about H1N1 swine flu and telling everyone to get vaccinated. But what he didn't tell his viewing audience is that he holds 150,000 option shares in a vaccine company that could earn him millions of dollars in profits as the stock price rises. It is in Dr. Oz's own financial interest, in other words, to hype up vaccines and get more people taking them so that his own financial investments rise in value.

Evidence describing these facts was delivered to NaturalNews by a private investigator named Joseph Culligan (http://www.josephculligan.com). That evidence includes an SEC document detailing how Dr. Oz. bought options on stocks for SIGA Technologies in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009. SIGA Technologies (stock symbol SIGA) is a vaccine technology company with many advanced developments whose success depends on the widespread adoption of vaccines. According to SEC documents, Dr. Mehmet Oz. currently holds 150,000 option shares on SIGA Technologies, purchased for as little as $1.35 back in 2005.

At the time of this writing, SIGA Technologies is trading at $7.10, making those options bought in 2005 worth $5.75 in profits today. If all the 150,000 options purchased by Dr. Oz. were exercised today, they would be worth roughly $180,000 in profits (they were bought at different prices, not all at $1.35). This is all revealed in what the SEC website calls an "insider transaction" document (link below).

These options won't expire until the years 2015 - 2019, and the higher the stock price of SIGA gets before then, the more profit can be realized when these options are cashed out. You can see the 2019 expiration date in this "insider transaction" form: http://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/...

If the stock price of SIGA Technologies could be pumped up even more -- say, from someone hyping up vaccines in front of a national audience -- these options could mathematically be worth millions of dollars.

Dr. Oz. isn't merely a holder of SIGA stock options, by the way: He's on the Board of Directors! As SIGA's own website explains, Dr. Oz has served on the board since 2001 and continues his role there today. This brings up the obvious question:

Is it right for someone talking about whether vaccines are safe on television to also be carrying stock options and serving on the board of directors of a vaccine company at the same time?

Just to make things a little more interesting, SIGA Technologies recently received a $3 million grant in taxpayer dollars from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The purpose of the grant money? To fund the study of a chemical adjunct named ST-246 to be used in future vaccines. So taxpayer money is now being used to fund a vaccine technology company whose stock price increases will financially benefit the very celebrity doctor who is hyping up vaccines to a national audience.

Something sounds fishy here...
Conflict of interest?
To my knowledge, Dr. Oz. has never disclosed to his viewing audience the fact that he owns 150,000 option shares of SIGA Technologies. And yet, with an audience of millions, Dr. Oz has continued to beat the drum of the vaccine industry, urging people to get vaccinated while implying that vaccines protect people from swine flu (even though there is absolutely no scientific evidence to back up that claim).

Here's a link to the SEC document detailing Dr. Oz's ownership of these 150,000 option shares:
http://sec.gov/cgi-bin/own-disp?act...

The current value of SIGA shares can be verified here:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=SIGA

Information about SIGA Technologies and their vaccine technology can be found on their website:
http://www.siga.com/index.php?ID=2

The press release announcing SIGA's receipt of $3 million from the NIH is available here:
http://www.siga.com/?ID=120
The RealAge Big Pharma front group
In addition to holding stock options in a vaccine technology company, Dr. Oz. is also a front man for the RealAge website, a sort of "health front group" for the pharmaceutical industry that uses information provided by RealAge members to solicit consumers with pro-pharma marketing message targeted by age or health condition.

Corporate sponsors of RealAge include most of the major drug companies and their most profitable pharmaceutical products such as Adderall, Ambien and Celebrex. The companies sponsoring RealAge include GlaxoSmithKline, Genentech, Wyeth and many others. RealAge is essentially a marketing platform for Big Pharma, disguised to look like a consumer health information service.

The New York Times calls RealAge "a window for drug makers" (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/t...) and explains, "The test has received widespread publicity because of its affiliation with Dr. Mehmet Oz."

This NY Times article goes on to explain how the RealAge scheme operates:

People come to the site, then provide an e-mail address to take [the RealAge test]. They are asked throughout the test if they would like a free RealAge membership. If people answer yes to any of the prompts, they become RealAge members, and their test results go into a marketing database.

RealAge allows drug companies to send e-mail messages based on those test results. It acts as a clearinghouse for drug companies, including Pfizer, Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline, allowing them to use almost any combination of answers from the test to find people to market to, including whether someone is taking antidepressants, how sexually active they are and even if their marriage is happy.

RealAge sends the selected recipients a series of e-mail messages about a condition they might have, usually sponsored by a drug company that sells a medication for that condition.

The RealAge ads seen all over the internet do not openly disclose that taking the RealAge test gets you signed up to be solicited by Big Pharma for medication advertisements. Dr. Oz's continued promotion of this service has exposed tens of millions of health consumers to this deceptive marketing front for Big Pharma. 

How much has Dr. Oz earned from his affiliation with RealAge? He isn't saying.
Front man for Big Pharma?
In my view, Dr. Mehmet Oz. is a front man for Big Pharma and the vaccine industry. He's pushing vaccines for his own personal financial gain while championing one of the largest internet Big Pharma marketing scams yet concocted.

Dr. Oz. stands to profit millions of dollars from helping creating demand for vaccines, and yet he does not disclose to his audience this huge, blatant conflict of interest. Sadly, by catapulting his career from her own show, Oprah has inadvertently unleashed a vaccine pusher onto the general public and given him influence over millions of people who may now be corralled into services like RealAge that seek to sell more drugs to unsuspecting consumers.

I respect Oprah. She's an amazing achiever. But I don't respect all the wannabe celebrity leeches who use her to launch their own careers and then exploit their newfound popularity for financial gain at the expense of the public.

Shame on Dr. Oz. for his financial conflicts of interest and his strong affiliation with the deadly pharmaceutical industry. Through his actions, Dr. Oz. has aligned himself with precisely the evil corporations that are destroying health in America today. Does the man have no shame?

He may not have any shame, but he does have 150,000 stock options that could be worth millions in the years ahead.
http://www.naturalnews.com/027451_Dr_Mehmet_Oz_vaccines.html

Apigenin Phytonutrient Cuts Ovarian Cancer Risk
David Gutierrez, NaturalNews.com  November 10. 2009 

(NaturalNews) High intake of foods containing the natural plant compound apigenin might decrease a woman's risk of ovarian cancer, researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School have found.

Apigenin is a class of flavonoid, a phytonutrient (plant compound) family known for its high antioxidant activity. Antioxidants are renowned for removing cell-damaging free radicals from the body, thereby reducing the symptoms of aging and the risk of chronic disease such as cancer and heart disease. 

Foods high in apigenin include celery, parsley, tomato sauce and red wine. The compound is widely believed to be safe when consumed in plantfoods, with no toxic or mutagenic effects.

In a study funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health, and published in the International Journal of Cancer, researchers gave questionnaires to 1,141 ovarian cancer patients and 1,183 women of similar age to assess the content of their diets over the course of one week. The average participant age was 51. Women with ovarian cancer were more likely to be heavier and have a higher daily calorie intake, with a less healthy diet than the healthy women.

The researchers used the questionnaires to calculate the participants' intake of five different, common flavonoids: apigenin, kaempferol, luteolin, myricetin and quercetin. The bulk of these antioxidants in the women's diets came from tea, red wine, apples, blueberries, celery, kale, lettuce, oranges and tomato sauce.

Higher intake of certain rich-rich foods such as cauliflower, raisins and tomato sauce was associated with a decreased risk of ovarian cancer, though this correlation was not statistically significant. There was no correlation between total flavonoid consumption and cancer risk after adjusting for known cancer risk factors such as age, physical activity, use of oral contraceptives, and history of childbirth, breastfeeding and tubal ligation. There was also no correlation between cancer risk and any of the flavonoids except for apigenin.

Women with the highest apigenin intake, however, had a "borderline significant" 28 percent lower risk of ovarian cancer than women with the lowest intake, after adjusting for other risk factors and intake of the other four flavonoids.

Ovarian cancer is among the most lethal forms of cancer in women. There are 20,000 new cases in the United States each year, leading to 15,000 deaths per year. According to the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance, the disease affects one in 69 women and kills one in 95.

This study is not the first to indicate a connection between apigenin and decreased cancer risk. Previous research has found that apigenin decreases the structural stability and inhibits the expression of a protein that is involved in the migration of ovarian cancer cells to other parts of the body. It has also been more directly observed to interfere with the movement of ovarian cancer cells. Apigenin has also been shown to inhibit the expression in ovarian cancer cells of a protein linked to the development of blood vessels in tumors, as well as overall tumor growth.

Other studies have found that apigenin inhibits the growth of some breast cancers and may induce programmed cell death. Higher intake of other flavonoids has also been shown to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer.

The researchers in the current study speculated that flavonoids may also help reduce ovarian cancer risk simply by functioning as antioxidants, eliminating free radicals that have been linked to DNA damage. More specifically, apigenin and other flavonoids might inhibit the effect of estrogen in the body either by reducing circulating levels or by blocking estrogen receptors.

"These mechanisms could be important in inhibiting ovarian carcinogenesis, due to the estrogen-rich environment within the ovaries and the proliferative effect of estrogen on ovarian epithelial cells," the researchers wrote.
http://www.naturalnews.com/027449_cancer_ovarian_flavonoids.html

Oily Fish Consumption Halts Eye Disease
David Gutierrez, NaturalNews.com  November 9, 2009 

(NaturalNews) Eating two servings of oily fish per week may halt the progression of a major cause of blindness in the elderly, according to a study conducted by researchers from Tufts University and published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

Previous research has suggested that a diet high in the essential omega-3 fatty acids that are abundant in oily fish may decrease a person's risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) by one-third. In the current study, researchers sought to determine whether a diet rich in omega-3s could also benefit those who already have the disease.

The researchers found that study participants with early AMD who ate a diet rich in omega-3s were 25 percent less likely to have their disease progress to the advanced form. 

Among those with advanced AMD who ate a diet high in omega-3s, had a diet with a low glycemic index and took supplemental antioxidant vitamins and minerals, the risk of progression to a more advanced form was decreased by 50 percent. These risk reductions were the same in both "wet" and "dry" forms of the disease.

Low glycemic foods are those that release sugar slowly, in contrast to high glycemic foods such as sugar and simple starches.

Based on their findings, the researchers recommended a consumption of two to three servings of fatty fish per week in both those without AMD and those in the early stages of the disease. They hypothesized that a meal high in omega-3s might alter blood fat levels in such a way as to make them less damaging to the eye.

The researchers did not recommend taking antioxidants vitamins and minerals, however. The study also found that participants with early AMD who took antioxidant vitamins and zinc and also had a high intake of beta-carotene were actually 50 percent more likely to have their disease progress to an advanced stage than those who did not take the vitamins.
http://www.naturalnews.com/027442_oily_fish_consumption_disease.html

Genes Have "No Clinical Relevance" in Predicting Disease, Scientists Admit
David Gutierrez, NaturalNews.com  November 9, 2009

(NaturalNews) Genetic analysis is essentially useless in predicting a person's risk of cancer, heart attack or other common diseases, according to a set of commentaries published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The decoding of the human genome in 2003 led to a flood of research into the contributions that genetic variation might make to the risk of various chronic diseases that tend to develop late in life, such as diabetes, heart disease or cancer. Since then, a number of for-profit companies have begun offering genetic screenings and disease risk assessments.

"With only a few exceptions, what the genomics companies are doing right now is recreational genomics," said David B. Goldstein of Duke University, author of one of the commentaries. "The information has little or in many cases no clinical relevance."

A few diseases, such as sickle cell anemia or Tay Sachs disease, can be caused by a mutation on a single gene. Most diseases, however, are much more complex, and develop due to an interaction between environmental factors and the contributions of a variety of genes.

In order to calculate the genetic contribution to these diseases, geneticists developed the technique known as genomewide association study, in which the genomes of groups of healthy people are compared with the genomes of those with a certain disease. The hope among researchers has been that this analysis could point out genetic differences between the groups that might be linked to disease risk.

While genomewide analysis has successfully identified some differences between the genetic codes of healthy and diseased patients, these differences provide little information about disease risk. Researchers expected to find a small number of common genetic variations that were responsible for each disease. Instead, common gene variants appear to contribute to disease risk only very marginally.

Goldstein suggests that the genetic component of chronic disease risk might arise from a large number of rare genetic variants, making genetic screening far less helpful in predicting risk. If only a small number of variants are involved, they might provide information on the biological pathways that lead to the development of the disease. If many different variations are implicated, however, this would tell researchers nothing except that an error in the functioning of nearly any bodily system can contribute to disease risk.

"In pointing at everything," Goldstein wrote, "genetics would point at nothing."

Based on the failure of more than 100 genomewide studies -- carried out on thousands of patients in a number of different countries -- to deliver useful results, Goldstein suggests that the approach should be abandoned as a waste of resources. Genomewide analysis is only effective at uncovering common variations with large effects, Goldstein says. Discovering rare variants with smaller effects is "beyond the grasp of the genomewide association studies."

A single genomewide analysis study costs several million dollars to carry out.

In addition, as more such studies are carried out, each one will deliver less new information on gene-related disease risk -- a problem of diminishing returns.

Also writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers Peter Kraft and David J. Hunter of the Harvard School of Public Health disagree with Goldstein that the studies are incapable of providing useful data. They agree, however, that they have provided no clinically useful information to date.

Kraft and Hunter warned that any risk estimate based on genetic analysis is likely either too low or too high, because researchers simply do not have enough information on genetic contribution to disease. Risks that are calculated as lower than they actually are will likely never be reported to patients. This means that any genetic risk a patient actually gets told about is probably an overestimate, and only likely to cause unnecessary alarm.
http://www.naturalnews.com/027438_disease_genes_health.html

Sleeping in a dark room may prevent depression
S. L. Baker, NaturalNews.com  November 9, 2009

(NaturalNews) Do you fall asleep while reading, with a lamp still turned on? Doze off with the glow of a television in your bedroom? Perhaps you turn off the lights when you go to bed. But think about it: is your room really totally dark? Maybe there's a light from a clock radio or night light or perhaps street lights peek through the bedroom blinds. This not-completely-dark room might not keep you awake but it could lead to symptoms of depression. That's the conclusion of a new study presented recently in Chicago at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and slated for publication in the December 28, 2009, issue of the journal Behavioural Brain Research.

The Ohio State University research involved 24 male laboratory mice. Half were housed in light for 16 hours a day and darkness for 8 hours, while the others lived in a lighted area 24 hours a day. Half of each group of lab animals had opaque tubes in their cages where they could escape the light at any time. The other half had tubes that were clear and did not offer any respite from the light.

After three weeks, the researchers used a series of tests to measure depression and anxiety in the rodents (including several tests used by drug companies to test anti-depressive and anti-anxiety drugs on animals before they are tried on people). For example, mice usually like to drink sugar-laced water. But if they have symptoms of depression, they don't drink as much. Researchers assume this is because they don't get the pleasure they would normally get from the sweet water due to depressive symptoms. In all the tests, the mice who had to live and sleep in constant light with no chance of spending time in darkness showed more depressive-like symptoms than the animals with normal light-dark cycles.

"The ability to escape light seemed to quell the depressive effects," Laura Fonken, lead author of the study and a graduate student in psychology at Ohio State University, said in a statement to the media. "But constant light with no chance of escape increased depressive symptoms." 

The scientists concluded that the use of artificial light at night may have harmful effects on human health. "This is important for people who work night shifts, and for children and others who watch TV late into the night, disrupting their usual light-dark cycle," Fonken said. 

The researchers also added that the implications could impact healthcare, too. Bright lights are kept on all night long in most intensive care units (ICUs) and that could increase health problems of these patients. NaturalNews previously reported on research showing that artificial light may disrupt premature infants' biological clocks and result in depression in later life(http://www.naturalnews.com/020070_h...).

Editor's note: NaturalNews is opposed to the use of animals in medical experiments that expose them to harm. We present these findings in protest of the way in which they were acquired.
http://www.naturalnews.com/027436_symptoms_health.html

Cilantro helps detox heavy metals
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews.com  November 6, 2009

(NaturalNews) Heavy metals are extremely toxic to human neurology. Mercury, lead and cadmium all contribute aggressively to the deterioration of neurological function. Fortunately, there's a simple, natural way to detox your body and remove these toxic substances from your tissues.

The solution is cilantro. It's that magical-tasting herb often used in Mexican food recipes. As it turns out, cilantro not only taste great, it also binds to heavy metals and helps remove them from your body.

Below, we're collected some important research on this remarkable ability of the cilantro herb. Read them all to learn more, then whip up your own delicious recipes using raw cilantro in your own kitchen!

Food, after all, is really potent medicine. You can also purchase cilantro liquid extracts from places like Baseline Nutritionals (their product is called "Metal Magic") or other vendors of quality superfood supplements.
Cilantro removes heavy metals
Supplements helpful in the detoxification process include: cilantro, Vitamin C, selenium, garlic and others. Eating a clean diet, free of pesticides and hormones, is a must for a detoxification program. I encourage my patients to eat whole foods, with adequate amounts of protein. Eliminating the "whites"-- refined sugar, refined flour, and refined salt will help any health condition and help any detoxification program. The glycemic index of carbohydrates can be a helpful guide on which carbohydrates to eat and which to avoid.
- The Miracle of Natural Hormones by David Brownstein

Add cilantro to meals; it can help remove heavy metals. Add dark green leafy vegetables, which contain chlorophyll, a helpful detoxifier. Get curcuminoids from spices such as turmeric. Try herbal detoxification teas containing mixtures of burdock root, dandelion root, ginger root, licorice root, sarsaparilla root, cardamom seed, cinnamon bark, and other herbs. 
- Ultraprevention : The 6-Week Plan That Will Make You Healthy for Life by Mark Hyman, M.D.

There are several natural chelation products that use only the cilantro and chlorella to extremely positive effect supporting the basic premises being put forth here. The addition of ALA brings in the leading work of Dr. Andrew Hall Cutler, who is one of the world's leading experts on mercurydetoxification. His extensive and successful use of ALA has won him a large devoted audience. 
- Transdermal Magnesium Therapy by Mark Sircus

Metal Magic is made from two simple herbs: cilantro and chlorella. Alone, each of these has the ability to bind with heavy metals, and together they make a very powerful metal detoxification substance that can literally pull mercury, lead, cadmium, and other heavy metals right out of your body, thereby sparing your body the damage that would normally be caused by those heavy metals. This is potentially a life-saving product, and it can certainly save the health of a fetus, if you happen to be pregnant or you plan to have a pregnancy in the near future.
- Natural Health Solutions by Mike Adams

Eat more foods that contain Vitamin C, such as the supergrain Chia, or red-colored fruits and vegetables, for about ten days. Use cilantro leaves and green leafy vegetables in every main meal to help clear mercury and other metal deposits from the body. Drinking several cups of Pau d'Arco (Lapacho) tea per day, or taking four capsules of its extract three times daily for two weeks may greatly assist you in the detoxification of theblood, liver and kidneys.
- Timeless Secrets of Health & Rejuvenation: Unleash The Natural Healing Power That Lies Dormant Within You by Andreas Moritz

Since 1 couldn't afford $9,000 for those treatments, I intensified my detoxification program by taking in more wheatgrass, the sea vegetable chlorella and cilantro, reputed to be a good heavy metal chelator. Fasting is also effective at reducing the body's toxic burden. Third, make sure you get enough sleep. Studies show that people who don't sleep enough have intensified appetites due to a lack of the hormone leptin. I have also found coconut oil or butter to be extremely helpful in burning fat. Coconut oil contains medium chain fatty acids, or triglycerides (MCTs).
- The Live Food Factor: The Comprehensive Guide to the Ultimate Diet for Body, Mind, Spirit & Planet by Susan E. Schenck

As you can see from the following recipes, I adore cilantro! It is said to be a good heavy metal chelator to aid in detoxification. I put an entire bunch of it in almost anything that is not a dessert. Feel free to reduce the amount. You could also use parsley or your own favorite herb as a substitute. When I first started preparing raw dishes, I omitted many of the fresh herbs because I didn't want to pay two dollars for some fresh organic herbs when the recipes called for so little of them.
- The Live Food Factor: The Comprehensive Guide to the Ultimate Diet for Body, Mind, Spirit & Planet by Susan E. Schenck

We helped him detoxify from this mercury poisoning with foods such as kale, watercress, and cilantro; herbs such as milk thistle; nutrients such as selenium and zinc; and chelating medications that helped him overcome his genetic difficulties getting rid of toxins. We lowered his cholesterol with diet, herbs, and exercise. We lowered his homocysteine with high doses of folate, B12, and B6 to overcome his weak MTHFR gene. And we added an extra, special form of folate called methyl folate, the active form that bypasses the ineffective gene.
- The Live Food Factor: The Comprehensive Guide to the Ultimate Diet for Body, Mind, Spirit & Planet by Susan E. Schenck

Initial studies indicate that fresh cilantro may be extremely effective in helping flush heavy metals out of the blood. Taking 400 mg of cilantro a day can pretty much clean heavy metals out of the body in just 2 weeks. Dr. David Williams has a great recipe for cilantro pesto in his June '98 Alternatives newsletter. Process one cup packed fresh cilantro and six tablespoons of olive oil in a blender until the cilantro is chopped. Add one clove garlic; a half cup almonds, cashews, or other nuts, and two tablespoons lemon juice. Blend to a lumpy paste. (Add a little hot water if necessary.)
- Whole-Body Dentistry: Discover The Missing Piece To Better Health by Robert C. Atkins MD

Cilantro stimulates the body's release of mercury and other heavy metals from the brain and CNS into other tissue. Cilantro's postulated mechanism of action is to act as a reducing agent changing the charge on the intracellular mercury to a neutral state allowing mercury to diffuse down its concentration gradient into connective tissue.
- Transdermal Magnesium Therapy by Mark Sircus

The amount of cilantro varied by individual because some subjects did not like either cooked or raw cilantro, but the researchers found that cilantro worked synergistically with antibiotic drugs and rapidly reduced symptoms and infection. They also found that cilantro accelerated the elimination of mercury, lead, and aluminum through the urine. They hypothesized that certain infectious organisms somehow use mercury or lead to protect themselves from antibiotics or that deposits of heavy metals somehow make antibiotics ineffective.
- Disease Prevention and Treatment by The Life Extension Editorial Staff

Organic foods decrease the toxic burden that pesticides cause. Cilantro, parsley, dark leafy greens help to bind up toxins, such as heavy metals, for excretion. Goat milk, yogurt and cheese are more readily digested than cow dairy products. Rice and soya milk are alternatives to goat or cow milk. Cottage cheese and plain cow milk yogurt are acceptable. Oatmeal, buckwheat, quinoa and brown rice are healthy grains that do not containgluten. Sometimes oatmeal is cross-contaminated with wheat, which contains gluten. If you are a celiac, be careful with oats. 
- Your Drug-Free Guide to Digestive Health by Heather Caruso

Oral chelators such as zeolite, cilantro, chlorella, the sulfur amino acids - methionine, cysteine and cystine - plus all sulfur containing foods, are preferred from a strictly natural health point of view. Exercise that produces perspiration, saunas, and steam baths in combination with the foods indicated above, are also helpful in eliminating heavy metals. Synthetic chemicals and their combinations pose a serious threat to health. It is reported that 80,000 chemicals are in use today, and that this number increases yearly.
- Conscious Health: A Complete Guide to Wellness Through Natural Means by Ron Garner

The essential oils of cilantro are considered to have antifungal and antibacterial properties (Omura et al. 1995; 1996). In studies at the Heart Disease Foundation (New York), Omura et al. (1995; 1996) found that antibiotics used to treat infection were not effective in the presence of heavy metals such as mercury and lead. These metals appeared to coexist with infections such as Chlamydia trachomatis and Herpes simplex, as well as with cytomegalovirus and other microorganisms, including viruses responsible for cancer.
- Disease Prevention and Treatment by The Life Extension Editorial Staff
http://www.naturalnews.com/027434_cilantro_detox_health.html

Green tea reduces risk of blood cancers by 42 percent
Paul Louis, NaturalNews.com  November 9, 2009

(Natural News) A Japanese green tea study has determined impressive results regarding the reduction of blood and lymph cancers. Tohoku University researchers found a 42 percent reduction for blood cancers and 48 percent reduction for lymph cancers with high green tea consumption.

To arrive at these results, they analyzed the age, gender, lifestyle and health of 40,000 Japanese over a ten-year period. The epidemiological studies (statistical observations over time) of Japan have been bolstered with western clinical application and lab studies that revealed interesting observations.

For example, the Mayo Clinic of Minnesota fed leukemia patients large doses of GTE's (green tea extracts) and discovered immediate benefits in their patients. However, the doctors consider GTE's a helpful adjunct to orthodox cancer treatments. They declined the notion of using GTE's exclusively or in conjunction with other natural cancer treatments.

Researchers in Spain and England isolated the mechanics of green tea's inhibition of cancer cells. Their research was published back in the March 2005 issue of Cancer Research. They found that ECGC, an extremely abundant catechin in green teas inhibits the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase(DHFR). 

Catechins are active polyphenolic antioxidant metabolites in green tea. The DHFR enzymes they inhibit are needed by cancer cells to proliferate. Upon closer scrutiny of green tea ECGC, they determined that its molecular structure closely resembles that of the cancer drug methotrexate used in chemotherapy.

The good news is that the binding properties of ECGC is not as intense as the drug methotrexate. Therefore, the side effects of green tea are minimal. But there is one situation where green tea's ECGC binding to DHFR can be detrimental: ECGC binding to DHFR can inhibit the folic acid needed by women pregnant in their first trimester. This situation has been shown to increase the risk of her child being born with spina bifida or other fetal neurological disorders.

Because of this, it is recommended that women curb their green tea consumption just prior to pregnancy and during the first trimester.
http://www.naturalnews.com/027432_green_tea_cancer_cancers.html

New research: resveratrol improves diabetes by affecting the brain
S. L. Baker, NaturalNews.com  November 6, 2009

(NaturalNews) Think of a treatment for diabetes, and you probably think of a drug or natural therapy that targets the pancreas to help normalize blood sugar levels. Resveratrol, a phytochemical found in red grapes, has been shown to have a host of health benefits -- including improving diabetes in animal studies. But, it turns out, that's not necessarily because it benefits the pancreas. Instead, scientists have made an unexpected discovery: resveratrol's anti-diabetic properties appear to be mediated through the brain.

That's the conclusion of a new study conducted by scientists at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, that was just published in Endocrinology, a journal of The Endocrine Society. The researchers focused on sirtuins, a class of proteins activated by resveratrolthat are thought to underlie many of the potential beneficial effects of calorie restriction, including promoting longevity and slowing down the aging process.

Early studies in mice have produced important evidence showing that when resveratrol activates sirtuins, diabetes is improved. While sirtuins are expressed virtually all over the body, until now researchers have remained in the dark about what tissues could be mediating resveratrol's beneficial effects on the disease. 

"We know that sirtuins are expressed in parts of the brain known to govern glucose metabolism, so we hypothesized that the brain could be mediating resveratrol's anti-diabetic actions," said Roberto Coppari, PhD, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and co-author of the study, in a statement to the media. "To test the hypothesis, we assessed the metabolic consequences of delivering resveratrol directly into the brain of diabetic mice. We found that resveratrol did activate sirtuins in the brain of these mice which resulted in improving their high levels of blood sugar and insulin. These findings may lead to new strategies in the fight against type 2 diabetes."

Dr. Coppari and his research team found that long-term infusion of resveratrol into the brains of diet-induced obese and diabetic mice normalized the animals' hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) and greatly improved the rodents' hyperinsulinemia (excess levels of circulating insulin in the blood). The scientists noted in their research paper that these beneficial effects were independent of changes in the lab animals' body weight, food intake, and circulating levels of leptin (a hormone that helps regulate appetite and metabolism). 

As NaturalNews reporters have covered extensively, resveratrol -- which is found in red wine, red grapes and grape juice -- has been found to promote health in a remarkable number of ways. In addition to preventing heart disease, it can help maintain a healthy weight, keep cholesterol in balance and even support increased longevity (http://www.naturalnews.com/026830_r...). It may also prevent and reverse fatty liver disease (http://www.naturalnews.com/026274_r...).

Editor's note: NaturalNews is opposed to the use of animals in medical experiments that expose them to harm. We present the Endocrinology study findings in protest of the way in which they were acquired.
http://www.naturalnews.com/027420_resveratrol_diabetes.html

What's really in that burger? E.coli and chicken feces both allowed by USDA
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews.com  November 6, 2009

(NaturalNews) There are 14 billion hamburgers consumed each year in the United States alone. The people who eat those burgers, though, have little knowledge of what's actually in them. Current USDA regulations, for example, openly allow beef contaminated with E. coli to be repackaged, cooked and sold as ready-to-eat hamburgers.

This simple fact would shock most consumers if they knew about it. People assume that beef found to be contaminated with E. coli must be thrown out or destroyed (or even recalled), but in reality, it's often just pressed into hamburger patties, cooked, and sold to consumers. This practice is openly endorsed by the USDA.

But E. coli may not be the worst thing in your burger: USDA regulations also allow chicken feces to be used as feed for cows, meaning your hamburger beef may be made of second-hand chicken poop, recycled through the stomachs of cows.
Chicken poop in your burgers?
I remember writing about this two years ago. People sent accusatory hate mails to NaturalNews, saying things like, "Stop making things up and scaring people!" Few people believed that chicken feces was being widely used as cattle feed.

According to the FDA, farmers feed their cattle anywhere from 1 million to 2 million tons of chicken feces each year. This cross-species crap-as-food practice worries critics who are concerned it may lead to increased risk of mad cow disease contaminating beef products. So they want to ban the practice and disallow the feeding of chicken litter to cows.

Believe it or not, McDonald's has joined the fight seeking to ban the practice, saying "We do not condone the feeding of poultry litter to cattle." Apparently, even they don't want their customers looking at a Big Mac and thinking, "Wow, this is made out of second-hand chicken crap."

CSPI and the Consumers Union have also joined the fight, petitioning the FDA to ban the practice.

Now, you might wonder how chicken feces could pose a mad cow infection risk to cows. And if you're not already grossed out by what you've read so far, you will be when you read the answer to this question: It's because chickens are fed ground up parts of other animals such as cows, sheep and other animals. Some of that chicken feed spills out and gets swept up as chicken litter, then fed to cows.

So now we have a bizarre experiment in animal feed where dead cows, sheep and other animals are fed to chickens, and then chicken feed spills onto the floor where, combined with chicken poop, it gets swept up and fed to cows. Some of those cows, in turn, may eventually be ground up and fed back to the chickens.

Do you see how this might be a problem?
Do not feed animals to each other
First off, in the real world cows are vegetarians. They don't eat other cows, or chickens, or poop from any creature. Chickens don't eat cows in the real world, either. If given free range, they live primarily on a diet of bugs and weeds.

But through the magic of horrific factory food production practices in the USA, dead cows are fed to chickens, and chicken poop is fed to cows. This is precisely how mad cow disease could contaminate this unnatural food cycle and end up contaminating U.S. cattle with mad cow prions.

Some say this has already happened, and it's only a matter of time before mad cow disease starts appearing in the U.S. population. It takes approximately 5 - 7 years after eating an infected burger for mad cow disease to destroy the brain of a consumer, and cooking a burger does not destroy the mad cow disease prions. That means even burgers that are fully cooked and handled according to federal safety standards can infect consumers with mad cow disease, causing their brains to turn to mush within 7 years.

The beef industry doesn't see a problem with any of this. And that's why this industry deserves what's coming: A massive culling of cattle and a complete economic wipeout of cattle ranchers one day after mad cow disease is revealed in U.S. cattle herds. Rather than trying to protect the integrity of their cows, the U.S. beef industry chooses to pretend that there's nothing wrong with practice of feeding corpses to chickens, and feces to cows. Is there anything too gross, inhumane or horrific for the beef industry to stomach? Seems not.

Remember, too, that the USDA has banned farmers from testing their own cattle for mad cow disease. So instead of allowing cattle ranchers to protect the safety of their herds, the USDA has a policy of covering their eyes and pretending not to see the very real risks that exist. When it comes to infectious disease, this is a sure recipe for disaster.
The perfect storm for mass infections
It all adds up to a "perfect storm" for the mass infection of the beef-eating population with mad cow disease. And remember: Cooking meat does not destroy prions, so if the beef supply becomes contaminated with mad cow disease, it's only a matter of time before humans start to be stricken with the disease.

That takes 5-7 years, as I mentioned previously. It's important to note because it means there could be a five-year gap between the time mad cow disease is present in the beef supply and the time health authorities start to notice a problem. But by that time, most of the population will have already eaten infected beef, and it will be too late to stop the mass human deaths sure to follow.

Dying from mad cow disease isn't pretty, painless or quick. It's ugly. Your brain cells start to turn to mush, slowly shutting down cognitive function little by little like some strange, aggressive form of Alzheimer's disease. First you lose concentration ability, then your speech goes, and eventually all brain function stops altogether. It's a horrifying way to waste away.

Is the risk of that really worth eating burgers?

Remember: Right now, the practice of feeding chicken feces to cow herds continues. So there is a risk of mad cow disease infection in U.S. beef right now. Very little testing is currently being conducted for mad cow disease, meaning an infection could very easily go undetected for years. Meanwhile, the average hamburger contains beef parts from as many as 1,000 different cows.

Do the math. Unless cattle feeding practices are significantly reformed, eating beef products of any kind -- hot dogs, hamburgers, steaks -- is like playing Russian Roulette with your brain cells.
http://www.naturalnews.com/027414_disease_cows_mad_cow.html

Pomegranate Extracts Treat Diseases of Inflammation
David Gutierrez, NaturalNews.com  November 6, 2009

(NaturalNews) Emerging research continues to strengthen the evidence that pomegranate extracts can be used to treat chronic inflammation, and the diseases that go along with it.

Short-term inflammation is a normal immune response, but chronic inflammation has been linked to a number of diseases including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, dementia and autoimmune disorders. Scientists are increasingly coming to believe that pomegranate helps combat inflammation, in part due to its exceptionally high content of antioxidants, particularly those in the ellagitannin family, such as punicalagins and punicalins.

Prior research has already suggested that pomegranate may help prevent a number of inflammation-linked diseases. It has been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer, to slow or even stop the formation of prostate tumors in mice, to increase the amount of oxygen available to the heart and to fight the onset of heart disease by preventing LDL ("bad") cholesterol from oxidizing. Long-term consumption of pomegranate juice has also been linked to improvement in the symptoms of erectile dysfunction.

A research team from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland was the first to demonstrate that pomegranate extract can act directly to combat inflammation. In a 2005 study, they showed that when injected into human cells, pomegranate extract lowered inflammation and levels of enzymes that can cause cartilage to break down, as in arthritis.

The researchers followed this up with a study, published fall of 2008 in the Journal of Inflammation, in which they fed 175 milliliters of pomegranate extract to four rabbits, then compared them with two rabbits who had been given only water. All the rabbits were experiencing chronic inflammation.

The researchers found that the levels of antioxidant markers significantly increased and the levels of inflammation markers significantly decreased in the rabbits after they were given pomegranate extract. 

Compared with the rabbits that had been given only water, the animals in the pomegranate extract group had 7 and 26 percent lower levels of the inflammation markers COX-1 and COX-2, respectively.

In addition, the levels of inflammatory compounds produced by cartilage cells also decreased.

"Consumption of pomegranate fruit extract may be of value in inhibiting inflammatory stimuli-induced cartilage breakdown and production of inflammatory mediators in arthritis," the researchers wrote.

The study was particularly significant because it demonstrated that pomegranate extract can reduce inflammation even if digested, and not just when injected directly into cells.

Most recently, researchers from Case Western Reserve University teamed up with researchers from the University of South Carolina to carry out the first study on whether the same effects could be observed in human cells. This study was also published in the Journal of Inflammation.

"No studies have been undertaken to investigate whether a polyphenol-rich pomegranate fruit extract (POMx) inhibits the inflammatory activity of activated human mast cells and basophils," the researchers wrote. "The aim of this study was to examine whether POMx modulates inflammatory reactions using human basophilic cell line KU812."

Mast cells play a role in immune function and in healing the body from injury.

The researchers first stimulated these cells with a chemical known as PMACI in order to produce an inflammatory response. Then they dosed them with pomegranate extract.

They found that after receiving pomegranate extract, the cells began producing significantly lower levels of the inflammation-linked cytokines IL-6 and IL-8. 

"POMx or POMx-derived compounds may be of value for the treatment of inflammatory diseases in which mast cells play an active role," the researchers wrote.

Pomegranate extract also appeared to inhibit activation of a gene complex known as nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB).

NF-kB plays a role in regulating healthy immune responses, and malfunction of the complex has been linked to autoimmune disease, improper immune development and viral infection.
http://www.naturalnews.com/027411_pomegranate_inflammation_disease.html

Protect the Prostate with Pomegranates
Frank Mangano, NaturalNews.com  November 6, 2009

(NaturalNews) How do you keep the prostate healthy? Well, if you watch a lot of TV commercials, you probably think it's best accomplished by popping a pill. But for men looking to prevent prostate cancer through nutrition, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more prostate-protective food than the yummy pomegranate.

The health benefits of pomegranates are well-established. Past studies indicate pomegranates are positively boiling over with antioxidants, as UCLA researchers found that pomegranate juice has more free-radical fighting antioxidants than any other juice. In another study (also from UCLA), findings indicated that pomegranates were loaded with anti-cancer benefits, as "the seeded apple" (i.e., the nickname for the seed/aril-ladenpomegranate) helped to minimize the progression of cancerous tumors in lab rats.

And with the most recent finding that pomegranate juice helps protect the prostate, it's a bit more grist to add to an already full mill.

The in-vitro experiment mixed the pomegranate's elligitannins, the antioxidant that's believed to be effective in fighting various diseases, with an enzyme that's often present under cancerous conditions. The enzyme is most commonly referred to as CYP1B1.

By the study's conclusion, the University of Mississippi researchers found that, indeed, the elligitannins were effective in minimizing the enzyme's activity, writing in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that "systemically available metabolites of pomegranate juice are effective inhibitors of CYP1B1 activity/expression and could lower the incidence of prostate cancer initiation and sustenance."

The researchers went on to write that pomegranate juice has chemoprevention-like properties, making it an ideal juice both for prostate cancerprevention and prostate cancer treatment.

This finding couldn't have come at a better time for cancer patients, as a recent study published in the British Journal of Cancer found that as many as two-thirds of patients in the UK that received chemotherapy for prostate cancer receive it unnecessarily.

Prostate cancer, a cancer found exclusively among men, kills an estimated 200,000 men worldwide (about 28,000 in the U.S. alone) annually. Another 500,000 men worldwide are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year.

Prostate cancer is second only to skin cancer in cancer diagnoses among men and second to lung cancer in cancer deaths among men.

There are many risk factors to take into consideration when evaluating risk for prostate cancer (e.g., age, ethnicity, family history), and the American Cancer Society reports that diet is certainly one of them. Several studies suggest that diets high in red meat, but low in fresh produce is one such risk factor.
http://www.naturalnews.com/027435_cancer_Prostate_pomegranate.html

Watching TV Before Going to Bed Causes Chronic Health Problems
David Gutierrez, NaturalNews.com  November 6, 2009

(NaturalNews) Television viewing before bed is a significant contributor to chronic health problems, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and presented at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

Although most adults need at least seven to eight hours of sleep per night, as many as 40 percent of U.S. adults fail to get this much. Lack of sleep is a major contributor to chronic health problems, including obesity, heart disease and depression.

In an attempt to find easy ways for people to get more sleep, researchers surveyed 21,475 people over the age of 15 on their activities in the two hours immediately before going to sleep and the two hours immediately after waking up. They found that most people went to work within two hours of waking up, while nearly 70 percent spent at least part of the two hours before bed watching television. 

On average, people in the United States spend one of their last two waking hours in front of the television set. While the researchers expected this result, they were surprised to find that people were significantly more likely to set their bedtime based on TV schedules rather than sleepiness or a need to get up at a certain hour.

"They just wait till the show ends" before going to sleep, researcher Mathias Basner said.

"Given the relationship of short sleep duration to health risks, there is concern that many Americans are chronically under-sleeping due to lifestyle choices," researcher David Dinges said.

The researchers also found that people living in the Mountain or Central time zones, where most TV shows play an hour earlier, tend to get more sleep than those living in the Pacific or Eastern zones.

"According to our results, watching less television in the evening and postponing work start time in the morning appear to be the candidate behavioral changes for achieving additional sleep and reducing chronic sleep debt," Basner said.

"While the timing of work may not be flexible, giving up some TV viewing in the evening should be possible to promote adequate sleep."
http://www.naturalnews.com/027406_health_television_problems.html

Synthetic DHA and ARA in Baby Formula is Causing Infant Illness
Ethan Huff, NaturalNews.com  November 5, 2009

(NaturalNews) For years, baby formula manufacturers have been fortifying and reformulating their blends in an effort to poise their products as equal or superior to natural breast milk. Beginning in 2002, many producers began supplementing their mixtures with synthetic forms of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (ARA), the long-chain fatty acids naturally present in breast milk. Evidence is now showing that the synthetic versions are detrimental to the health of children, despite their continued usage in almost every available brand of infant formula.

The idea behind fortifying infant formula with DHA/ARA was substantiated based upon the fact that a mother's breast milk naturally contains these polyunsaturated omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. They are vital components to human eye and brain development, particularly in the formative infant years. The primary distinction is that the form of DHA/ARA being used in infant formula is structurally incompatible with the form found in human milk.

Martek Biosciences Corporation, the company who produces synthetic DHA/ARA, extracts the oils from laboratory-grown fermented algae and fungus using hexane, a demonstrated neurotoxic chemical. Identified as a hazardous air pollutant by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), hexane resides in the same category as other serious toxins that are linked to causing cancer and other serious health problems.

Developed primarily as a marketing tool, Martek's 1996 DHA/ARA investment promotional material states that even if the additive had no demonstrable benefit, it would nevertheless allow manufacturers to market their formulas as being the "closest to human milk". Formula manufacturers quickly jumped on the bandwagon despite definitive evidence proving the additive's safety.

Recently implicated in causing severe reactions in some babies, including breathing problems, gastrointestinal upset, and other illnesses, synthetic DHA/ARA is on the hot seat. Parents and professionals alike are questioning why the additive is still being used in almost every available brand of infant formula and why the companies using the additive are being allowed to claim that their product is superior to human breast milk, despite the hundreds of mounting FDA adverse event reports indicating its dangers.

Whether the culprit is the DHA/ARA itself, the hexane extraction residue, or both, it is anyone's guess since no formidable scientific safety studies were conducted prior to the additive's introduction into the formula market. Prior to hitting the market, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expressed concern to Martek about the safety of the new additive, indicating that the agency desired to convene a formal meeting to address the issue. Martek denied this request and, shortly thereafter, the FDA reversed its previous stance and approved the additive's use despite the lack of any independent scientific safety review.

Since that time, Freedom of Information Act requests have revealed hundreds of FDA adverse event reports that have gone unnoticed by the FDA who has failed to act in conducting an investigation. Typically, a few well-documented adverse event reports are reason enough to conduct a product investigation; several hundred would indicate an immediate need for scrutiny.

Many empirical reports indicate that sick babies who were taken off formula containing synthetic DHA/ARA almost immediately recover from any ailments induced since starting the formula. This indicates a practical connection that deserves further investigation by the agency appointed to perform such analysis, the FDA.

Not only is Martek's DHA/ARA supplement being used in baby formulas, it is now being added to a whole host of foods and nutritional supplements for adults, lauded as a great vegetarian alternative to animal-based oils of the same variety. Since the extraction method involves a known chemical neurotoxin, it is best to avoid this additive anyway.

With or without synthetic additives, no baby formula can replace the amazing nourishing properties of a mother's breast milk. It is the perfect, natural blend of immune-building, brain-developing goodness that cannot be matched or replicated. While some natural formulas may seem to come close, breast-feeding continues to be the superior method of nourishing a baby and should be utilized whenever possible.
http://www.naturalnews.com/027437_DHA_baby_formula_Martek.html

Learn the Truths and Myths of Morgellons
Zephyr Faegen, NaturalNews.com  November 6, 2009

(NaturalNews) The Mystery of Morgellons disease has been debated for years by medical professionals and lay persons who have dedicated their time to studying this cryptic and debilitating condition. Because of significant public pressure, Morgellons disease has gained significant recognition in the last 8 years and has lead to the formation of independent research groups, and the Morgellons Research Foundation. This all began because of one woman's love for her child, combined with the complete abandonment of the mainstream medical community's ability to provide any real medical diagnosis or treatment within their known paradigm.

In 2001 Mary Leitao, a biologist and former Medical lab technician, found that her two-year-old son was developing sores under his lips. The child soon complained of bug-crawling sensations under his skin. Hearing this, she examined the wounds on his lips and took samples. She examined the tissue taken from her son under a rudimentary home microscope and found that there were red, blue, white and black fibers imbedded within the taken tissue samples. Being a concerned mother, she proceeded to take her son to the doctor. This lead to multiple tests on the child and eight more doctors that failed to find any diagnosis within the known medical paradigm. Eventually, Leitao took her son to Dr. Fred Heldrich, a Johns Hopkins pediatrician with a reputation for solving mystery cases. The end result was Heldrich's suggestion that "Leitao would benefit from a psychiatric evaluation and support".

Out of frustration and feeling abandoned by the mainstream medical society, Leitao began researching any known literature describing her son'ssymptoms. During her research she found the work of two men from the 1600`s, Sir Thomas Browne and Dr. Michel Ettmuller. Both men observed, wrote and illustrated what they described as hair-like structures protruding from wounds on the backs of patients combined with convulsions and coughing. They named this condition The Morgellons. Though not a perfect match to what her son was suffering from, it was the closest thing she found in any known medical material. Using Morgellons as a temporary label for her son's condition, Leitao began to seek out others with like symptoms. She started a website called the Morgellons Research Foundation (MRF) in 2002 (http://www.morgellons.org/index.html). The object of the site is to give people suffering from this strange condition an outlet to be heard and to find emotional and medical support.

Since 2002 the MRF has registered over 14,000 households who suffer from symptoms like Leitao's son. The foundation has created such a following and has put so much political pressure on government officials that the Center for Disease Control (CDC), with the help of Kaiser Permanente Northern California and the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, has been forced to begin a comprehensive study of self-diagnosed Morgellons sufferers, the majority of which reside in California where the study is being focused.

The biggest question of all about Morgellons is where does it come from? As we move forward in today's society we are finding that the foods we eat and the air we breathe are becoming more and more dangerous to our health. These factors are being looked at very seriously as contributing factors of Morgellons. Currently there are three main theories that pose a spectrum of possibilities.

The first theory is that Morgellons is caused by genetically modified organisms (GMO's), and through bug bites from insects that have been modified through their interaction with GMO plant material. This theory is supported by the fact that the use of a genetically modified plant bacteria called Agrobacterium tumefaciens is used to infect and modify the DNA of plants with a pesticide in order to create stronger and more bug-resistant plant crops. In a study from 2001 by Dr. Vitaly Citovsky at the State University of New York Stony Brook, it was found that when introduced to Human DNA, genetically modified material containing this bacterium successfully invaded, modified and corrupted human DNA. Though this was done under laboratory conditions Dr. Citovsky himself stated that it may be prudent to be careful or at least aware that presently, it appears that Agrobacterium is the only example of trans-kingdom DNA transfer.

The second theory is that Morgellons symptoms are caused by the introduction of the controversial chemtrail programs that have appeared across the United States. These vaporous trails, produced in a grid pattern by jet airplanes, have had a lot of media coverage over the last few years, but they have yet to be officially recognized by the United States government except for a bill proposed by representative Dennis Kucinich in 2001 (H.R. 2977). The bill was rejected and quickly rewritten by Kucinich's office to have no mention of chemtrails at all. Though there have not been any official studies done on the connection of chemtrails to Morgellons, there has been a significant contribution of material from the private scientificcommunity. The current theory is that components of the chemtrails are being inhaled by individuals in affected areas and are interacting with the body in two ways. First is that inhalation of the chemtrail material compromises the person's immune system. Secondly, by compromising the immune system the person is then open to infection by bacterial, fungal, viral, or even nano-technological components that are in the chemtrail vapors.

The third theory is that Morgellons is an infection of nanotechnology. Several independent studies on Morgellons fibers taken from patients have shown that the fibers consist of both inorganic and unidentifiable materials. One group of fibers was sent to a forensic scientist at the Tulsa Police Crime Lab in Oklahoma for analysis. After analyzing and cross-referencing the morgellons fiber with the FBI`s national database, it was found that it did not match any known fiber within the database. Other studies claim that fibers can withstand temperatures of up to 1400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Whatever Morgellons disease is, it should be treated with great concern, care and the best professional insight and research possible. For more information on Morgellons please look through the links below.
http://www.naturalnews.com/027419_Morgellons_fiber_chemtrails.html

9 Signs of America in Decline
US News,  October 26, 2009
The sky isn't falling, exactly. America isn't on a fast track to irrelevance. Even in a state of total neglect, we could probably shamble along as a disheveled superpower for a few more decades.
But all empires end, and the warning signs of American decline seem to be blinking more consistently. In the latest annual "prosperity index" published by the Legatum Institute, a London-based research firm, the United States ranks as the ninth most prosperous country in the world. That's five notches lower than last year, when America ranked No. 4. The drop might seem inconsequential, especially in the midst of a grueling recession—except that most of the world has endured the same recession, and other countries are bouncing back faster.
China and India have recovered smartly from the recession, for example. Brazil seems to be barreling ahead. Australia is growing faster than expected, prompting worry among government officials who fear they may have overstimulated the economy. The United States, meanwhile, is muddling through a weak, jobless recovery, and we have a lot of problems that could make prosperity feel elusive for a long time.
Real household income in America has flat-lined, for instance, which means many middle-class families are barely keeping up with inflation. The exploding federal deficit hamstrings the government's ability to help. Healthcare is too expensive, America's manufacturing base is eroding, and two open-ended foreign wars are draining the national treasury. This is not a recipe for building national wealth.
There are still millions of diligent, innovative Americans who could help the nation dig out of its hole. But overall, the American population is falling behind, by a variety of measures. Here are some of them:
Jobs. The International Monetary Fund predicts that the U.S. unemployment rate will be 9.3 percent for all of 2010. That's lower than in some European nations, but it's higher than in Canada and a lot worse than most countries in Scandinavia and Asia. Overall, the U.S. unemployment rate is about average for advanced economies and likely to stay that way. It could be worse, but middling job creation isn't a sign of global leadership.

Economic growth. The IMF also predicts that the U.S. economy will grow 1.9 percent in 2010. That's a tad better than the average for all advanced economies, but at least 10 developed nations will grow faster. Woo-hoo. Three cheers for mediocrity.
Poverty. The U.S. poverty rate, about 17 percent, is third worst among the advanced nations tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In that sample, only Turkey and Mexico are worse.
Education. American 15-year-olds score below the average for advanced nations on math and science literacy. But don't worry, our nation's future leaders are still ahead of their peers in Mexico, Turkey, Greece, and a few other places.

Competitiveness. In the latest global competitiveness report from the World Economic Forum, the United States fell from No. 1 to No. 2. Sure, let's console ourselves that the No. 1 country, Switzerland, is a tiny outlier nation and that getting bumped from the top spot doesn't really mean anything. Add an asterisk, and we're still No. 1.
Prosperity. The most prosperous nations, according to the Legatum report, are Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. These fairly homogenous European countries are the teachers' pets of global rankings, often appearing near the top because of right-sized economies and a relatively small underclass. For a huge economy like America's, a No. 9 ranking is still respectable. And part of the drop from last year's No. 4 spot is a change in methodology that puts more emphasis on the health and safety of citizens. Still, in the index's subrankings, the United States isn't even in the top 10 for economic fundamentals, safety and security, or governance. We should do better.

Health. In the Legatum study, the United States ranks 27th for the health of its citizens. Life expectancy in America is below the average for 30 advanced countries measured by the OECD, and the obesity rate in America is the worst among those 30 countries, by far. And, of course, we spend far more on healthcare per person than anybody else—but get no bang for the extra buck.
Well-being. In the United Nations' Human Development Index, which attempts to measure the overall well-being of citizens throughout the world, the United States ranks 13th, one notch lower than in the prior set of rankings. Norway, Australia, Iceland, and Canada are at the top.
Happiness. The United States ranks 11th in the OECD's measure of "life satisfaction"—behind Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and other usual suspects. That's not bad, but the United States is one of only five countries where life satisfaction is going down, not up. The other downer nations are Portugal, Hungary, Canada, and Japan. Plus, the research behind these rankings predates the recession, so it's likely that Americans are a lot less satisfied these days.
The overall portrait of America isn't exclusively gloomy, and in some areas we still seem to have an important edge. The Legatum prosperity index, for example, ranks America first for entrepreneurship and innovation. And in a GfK Roper survey of how nations rate as global "brands," America rocketed from No. 7 in 2008 to No. 1 in 2009, largely because the world cheered the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president. But a brand-name leader can't just strong-arm his nation back to greatness. He needs a lot of help from educated, healthy, and employed citizens determined to spread the wealth.
http://www.usnews.com/money/blogs/flowchart/2009/10/26/9-signs-of-america-in-decline.html

How the Government Is Swallowing the Economy
US News,  November 9, 2009
You know about the bailouts, the stimulus plan, cash for clunkers, and moola for mansions. But for all the anxiety they've caused, those government giveaways are just a tiny part of a mushrooming problem.
By one measure, the government already plays an outsize role in our so-called free-market economy—and it has little to do with the recession. Economist Gary Shilling has calculated that 58 percent of the population is dependent on the government for "major parts of their income," including teachers, soldiers, bureaucrats, and other government employees; welfare and Social Security recipients; government pensioners; public housing beneficiaries; and people who work for government contractors. By 2018, Shilling estimates, an astounding 67 percent of Americans could be dependent on the government for their livelihood. The implications aren't comforting.

Tea-party ranters might cite this as evidence of liberal policies run amok, but the growing-government phenomenon transcends party politics. In 1950, the starting point for Shilling's analysis, just 29 percent of the nation depended on government for its income. By 1980, that had risen to 61 percent—higher than it is today—thanks to demographic factors and the needs of a changing nation. The military got larger and defense spending grew as America took up its role as a superpower. Baby boomer kids required many more schoolteachers. The number of Americans receiving payouts from Social Security, enacted in 1935, increased 10-fold. Food stamps and other safety-net programs of the 1960s and '70s began to reach millions of Americans.
From 1980 to 2000, Americans became less dependent on government. California and other states cut their budgets and reduced spending. The military got smaller after the Cold War ended. Welfare reform in the 1990s kicked many people off the dole. And the private sector boomed during those two decades, accounting for a larger share of the labor force. By 2000, the portion of the population dependent on government had drifted down to 54 percent.
But it reversed course after that, and it seems poised to keep going up. The size of government has generally held steady since 2000, but globalization, technology, and other factors have led to weak private-sector job creation over the past decade. And that was before the recession destroyed more than 8 million jobs. So the government has employed an increased share of Americans. The other big change since 2000 has been a near tripling of food-stamp recipients, as low earners got left out of the housing and stock-market booms and then suffered worse during the recession.
The next big shift will come as baby boomers begin to retire, boosting the number of Social Security recipients 27 percent by 2018 and threatening the solvency of the program. Shilling has another dire prediction: Economic growth will be so weak for the next several years that without government support, the unemployment rate will rise to 23 percent in 2018. Since that's politically intolerable, government will continue to spend money to create jobs, he predicts, with nearly 25 million additional Americans employed as a direct outcome of government spending by 2018.

If that happens, more than two thirds of the nation will owe their livelihood to the government, which is unsustainable for a number of reasons. It will require federal deficits far larger than the $1.4 trillion bogy we've got now, which is already alarmingly high. If irate voters don't rein in America's debt binge, market forces will, perhaps because foreigners will stop lending us the money or the rates they demand will rise and effectively bankrupt the country. Higher taxes would help solve the problem—and are probably inevitable—but enacting them on rich people alone won't be enough. At some point not too far off, the U.S. government will have to close the vast gap between its income and its spending, and the pain will be widespread.
Some economists are more optimistic than Shilling, with stronger projections for economic growth that might eliminate the government's need to create 25 million new jobs. But rosier scenarios are taking their time to materialize. The unemployment rate has soared to 10.2 percent, a 26-year high, with no indication that companies will start hiring again anytime soon. So instead of restraint by government, Congress and President Obama have extended housing subsidies and unemployment insurance, cut taxes on struggling companies, and even made plans to send a $250 check to every senior citizen, just as a nice gesture. Americans who can get in on this bonanza should get theirs while they can. Sooner or later, the door is going to slam shut.
http://www.usnews.com/money/blogs/flowchart/2009/11/09/how-the-government-is-swallowing-the-economy.html

Industry pushes chocolate milk in schools
Associated Press, November 9. 2009

MILWAUKEE — The creators of the "Got Milk?" campaign are getting ready to make a big push to keep chocolate milk on kids' minds and on school lunch menus, a plan that has some educators and obesity activists none too pleased.
The new ad campaign from the dairy industry, set to launch Monday, emphasizes that sugary flavorings are ways to get kids to drink milk. Without them, some youngsters won't drink regular milk and won't get its nutrients, the ads say.
The "Raise your hand for chocolate milk" campaign starts Monday with an ad in USA Today featuring chocolatey brown colors and the launch of a Web site that asks people to sign a petition declaring their support for chocolate milk in school.
But some educators and obesity experts say kids get enough calcium — essential for bone growth — and will drink white milk if it's the only milk offered. They say kids get too much sugar, which is heightening America's obesity problem, and schools shouldn't serve chocolate milk at all.
The idea behind the campaign is to draw a distinction between chocolate milk and the soda and candy that have come under attack in schools, said Vivien Godfrey, CEO of the Milk Processor Education Program, the industry marketing group that developed the campaign with the National Dairy Council. Godfrey said the effort will cost between $500,000 and $1 million.
She said most kids choose chocolate milk, but without it they drink juice, soda or water, which don't have the same nutrients. The facts — that chocolate milk does have nutrients — are getting lost in the debate over school lunches, she said.
"If there's even a chance chocolate milk might get taken out of schools, that really can do more harm than good," she said.
It's not clear how many schools have chocolate milk or are pulling it. But parents and school districts are becoming increasingly concerned and asking for more information, said Margie Saidel, a vice president with Chartwells School Dining Services, which manages food programs in 600 districts and supports chocolate milk.
But experts like Marlene Schwartz, deputy directory of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, want chocolate milk tossed. She said kids have too much sugar already and chocolate milk has no place in schools.
Dairy products are a common source of added sugar in children's diets, so that's why parents and educators consider removing them, she said. But the research does not point to any calcium shortages when chocolate milk is removed in schools.
"I don't believe children are going to go on a thirst strike and refuse to drink anything," she said.
Kids happily drink white milk — now the only offering at the Boulder Valley School District in Boulder, Colo., said Ann Cooper, the school's director of nutrition services, who calls herself the "renegade lunch lady" for her efforts to promote more nutrition in school lunches.
She estimates that the extra calories from chocolate milk — as much as 40 or 60 calories on top of a typical 110 calorie 8-ounce serving of white milk — could add up to 5 pounds of weight gain over the 180-day school year. That's why the district no longer offers chocolate milk.
Chocolate milk does have its defenders, even among nutritionists.
"It's better to get the milk in with a little bit of sugary flavoring than have them pick almost any alternative," said Connie Weaver, head of the department of Food and Nutrition at Purdue University and a spokeswoman for the American Society for Nutrition. She has received research funding over the years from the dairy industry, but not on chocolate milk, she said.
A student petition got a Barrington, Ill., distrcit to compromise on its chocolate milk ban.
A soon-to-be fifth-grader, 10-year-old Haley Morris drafted her own petition in support of flavored milk and got about 70 signatures.
Superintendent Tom Leonard decided on a compromise: "Flavored milk Fridays" where the district offers chocolate or strawberry milk one day a week. The district is testing the program through January to see if kids drink more milk the days flavors are offered.
"All of my friends and I, we just wanted chocolate milk back to drink because we like chocolate milk better than white," Morris said.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iErv-vbJDPfy-cYyP9NrEiX3SLMwD9BRQ4803

Outrage as Doctors' Group Allows Coca-Cola to Sponsor Health Advice
Associated Press, November 05, 2009
Advice about soft drinks and health from one of the nation's largest doctors groups will soon be brought to you by Coke.
The American Academy of Family Physicians has prompted outcry and lost members over its new six-figure alliance with the Coca-Cola Co. The deal will fund educational materials about soft drinks for the academy's consumer health and wellness Web site, www.FamilyDoctor.org.
Academy CEO Dr. Douglas Henley said Wednesday that the deal won't influence the group's public health messages, and that the company will have no control over editorial content. He said the new online information will include research linking soft drinks with obesity and will focus on sugar-free alternatives.
But critics say the Coke deal will water down the advice.
"Coca-Cola, like other sodas, causes enormous suffering and premature death by increasing the risks of obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, gout, and cavities," Harvard University nutrition expert Dr. Walter Willett said in an e-mail.
He said the academy "should be a loud critic of these products and practices, but by signing with Coke their voice has almost surely been muzzled."
Dr. Henry Blackburn, a University of Minnesota public health specialist, said the deal "will inevitably have a chilling effect on the focus of their message in regards to sweet drinks."
Coca-Cola spokeswoman Diana Garza Ciarlante said that kind of criticism "misses the point of the partnership which is to provide education based on sound science."
Dr. William Walker, public health officer for Contra Costa County near San Francisco, likened the alliance with ads decades ago in which physicians said mild cigarettes are safe.
Walker has been a member of the academy for 25 years but quit last week. He said 20 other doctors who work with his local medical practice also quit because of the Coke deal.
In an announcement last month, the academy, based in Kansas, said the new Coca-Cola-funded educational material will be posted online in January.
The idea is "to develop educational materials to help consumers make informed decisions so they can include the products they love in a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle," the academy's president-elect, Dr. Lori Heim, said at the time.
The American Academy of Pediatrics received similar criticism seven years ago when it allowed an infant formula maker's logo to appear on copies of that group's breast-feeding guide.
And the American Medical Association faced harsh reaction more than a decade ago with a plan to endorse Sunbeam appliances without testing them. Criticism forced the AMA to abandon that deal.
The Coke deal is not the only corporate alliance for the family physicians group. In 2005 it received funding from McDonalds for a fitness program. And its consumer Web site includes advertising for a variety of products, including deli meats and air freshener.
Henley said the Coke deal is worth six figures but he and a Coca-Cola spokeswoman declined to elaborate.
In a protest letter to Henley, 22 health specialists and activists questioned the safety of artificial sweeteners and urged the academy to abandon the deal and speak out against sugary drinks "in the strongest language."
Henley said the academy regrets the resignations and hopes other members will not "rush to judgment" before seeing the new content.
Coca-Cola is among several corporate contributors to the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation, a separate philanthropic group. These contributors include many drug companies, McDonalds, PepsiCo and a beef industry group. Henley said the academy is in talks with other foundation contributors to fund other materials for the group, but he declined to say which ones.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,571930,00.html

Acetaminophen may be linked to asthma in children and adults
Amercian College of Chest Physicians, November 5, 2009
New research shows that the widely used pain reliever acetaminophen may be associated with an increased risk of asthma and wheezing in both children and adults exposed to the drug. Researchers from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, conducted a systematic review and metaanalysis of 19 clinical studies (total subjects=425,140) that compared the risk of asthma or wheezing with acetaminophen exposure.
The analysis showed that the pooled odds ratio (odds ratio for all studies combined) for asthma among users of acetaminophen was 1.63. The risk of asthma in children who used acetaminophen in the year prior to asthma diagnosis or in the first year of life was elevated to 1.60 and 1.47, respectively.
Furthermore, results showed a slight increase in the risk of asthma and wheezing with prenatal use of acetaminophen by mothers. Researchers speculate that acetaminophen's lack of inhibition of cyclooxygenase, the key enzyme involved in the inflammatory response of asthma, may be one explanation for the potential link between acetaminophen use and asthma.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-11/acoc-amb110409.php

Dutch pull Pfizer vaccine batch after infants die
110,000 doses of anti-infection drug Prevenar quarantined after deaths

Reuters , Nov . 5, 2009
AMSTERDAM - Dutch authorities say they have banned use of a batch of Pfizer's Prevenar, or Prevnar, after three infants died within two weeks of receiving the anti-infection vaccination.
"On average about 5 to 10 deaths are reported annually after babies get vaccines," said a spokeswoman for the Dutch health institute RIVM.
"We now have three cases in a short period, that is unusual and the reason for suspending the batch."
She said RIVM was investigating the cause of the infants' deaths. Other batches of Prevenar, known as Prevnar in the United States, will continue to be used.
Pfizer spokeswoman Gwen Fisher said preliminary investigations by the company and health authorities had found no link between the vaccinations and the deaths.
110,000 doses of anti-infection drug
She said the company initiated the "quarantine" of the batch which she said contained 110,000 doses of Prevenar, used to prevent pneumonia and related infections.
Fisher said the three infants also received two unrelated other vaccines as part of routine immunizations.
No other Prevenar batches were suspended and infants in the Netherlands will continue to be vaccinated with it as part of routine immunization, she added.
A spokesman for the European Medicines Agency in London said its officials were working with the Dutch authorities to find out if there were any safety issues with the vaccine batch.
The vaccine is one of the most widely used in the world and generated sales for U.S. drugmaker Wyeth of $2.7 billion in 2008.
Wyeth, which has just been acquired by U.S. rival Pfizer, had asked for the suspension of batch D66977 of Prevenar, RIVM said in a statement.
Officials at Pfizer in New York could not immediately be reached for comment.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33671008/ns/health-infectious_diseases/