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    Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
    12:00 am
    Pesticide Exposure Boosts Parkinson's Risk by 60 Percent

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024891.html

    (NaturalNews) A new study has provided one of the strongest links yet between pesticide use and Parkinson's disease.

    A team of researchers from Duke University, Miami University and the Udall Parkinson's Disease Research Center of Excellence has found that people who were exposed to pesticides were substantially more likely to develop Parkinson's disease than closely related people who did not use so many pesticides, according to a study published in the journal BMC Neurology.

    Parkinson's disease is a degenerative neurological condition resulting from the damage or death of the brain cells that regulate muscular movement. When cells become unable to produce the neurotransmitter dopamine, a wide variety of problems, such as slurred speech, stiffness, tremors, and problems with balance and movement, occur. Approximately one million people in the United States - one in 300 - suffer from the disease. In the United Kingdom, approximately one in 500 people, or 120,000 people, are affected.

    The researchers surveyed 319 people with Parkinson's disease on their pesticide use, and compared that use to more than 200 healthy family members and other unaffected people. The purpose of comparing relatives was to control as much as possible for genetic and non-pesticide environmental factors by looking only at people with similar backgrounds.

    "Previous studies have shown that individuals with Parkinson's disease are over twice as likely to report being exposed to pesticides as unaffected individuals," lead researcher Dana Hancock said, "but few studies have looked at this association in people from the same family or have assessed associations between specific classes of pesticides and Parkinson's disease."

    People who had been exposed to pesticides had 1.6 times the Parkinson's risk of people who had not been exposed, while those exposed for more than 200 days in a year had more than two times the risk. The pesticides with the strongest connection to Parkinson's disease were insecticides and herbicides. Home and garden exposure were more strongly linked to increased risk than occupational use.

    Broken down by sex, men who frequently used pesticides were 2.15 times more likely to develop the disease than men who did not use the chemicals, while women were 2.43 times more likely. The researchers also compared rates of well-water drinking and living or working on a farm between people with and without the disease. They did not find a correlation between Parkinson's disease and any of these behaviors, which are commonly used as surrogate measures of pesticide exposure. Instead, the effect turned up only when they looked directly at chemical exposure.

    Scientists have known for some time that the risk of Parkinson's disease is influenced by genetics, but the gene defects that have been linked to the disease account for only a small fraction of cases. Environmental factors have also been implicated, particularly in light of the fact that the disease was mostly unknown prior to the industrial revolution but has become a common ailment since then.

    Prior studies have found links between pesticide exposure and Parkinson's risk, but they have not been thought conclusive. Kieran Breen, director of research at the Parkinson's Disease Society, cites a study of 10,000 Parkinson's patients that found only 1,000 had been exposed to pesticides over the long-term. The current study, Breen said, "strengthened the fact that pesticides play a key role" in risk of the disease.

    "I think there is very strong evidence now linking [pesticide exposure and Parkinson's risk,]" Hancock said. The next step, Hancock said, is to discover the biological mechanisms by which pesticides increase the risk of the disease.

    The findings of another study on the links between Parkinson's and pesticides, commissioned by the British Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, are expected this summer.
    12:00 am
    "World Wide Web Health Awards" Exposed as Having Ties to Pharmaceutical Industry

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024890.html

    (NaturalNews) According to an article posted on the Consumer Reports WebWatch site, the "World Wide Web Health Awards" are administered by a company with major financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

    "These days, a number of health sites display logos from the World Wide Web Health Awards as if they constitute a quality seal. In fact, on the WWW Health Awards home page, they market themselves as "providing a 'seal of quality' for electronic health information,'" writes WebWatch director Beau Brendler. "We wanted to know more about these awards, since they give out dozens [of awards] twice a year."

    Consumer Reports began with information on the awards' Web site, which listed a related page, HealthPrograms.com. This site consisted mostly of broken links or blank pages "under construction." It did contain, however, logos for the "Consumer Health Publishers Association" and the "Online Health Association."

    The Web sites of these two associations, like that of HealthPrograms.com, were also mostly under construction, but Consumer Reports was able to trace them to the company American Custom Publishing Corporation. A phone call to the company confirmed that American Custom Publishing does, in fact, administer the World Wide Health Awards.

    "What does American Custom Publishing do for a living?" Brendler writes. "Well, they print brochures for the pharmaceutical industry and others. Their client list includes Liberty Medical, Pfizer, CVS, General Electric, Humana, 'and hundreds more!'"

    According to Brendler, it costs only $52 to be considered for an award, and nearly anyone can sign up to be a volunteer judge. But the health awards' Web site does not reveal what process or standards are used to decide upon winners.

    "How valuable are awards handed out by a company that prints brochures for the pharmaceutical industry?" Brendler says. "Are consumers fooled by awards logos into thinking that ... a Web site produced by Takeda Pharmaceuticals to sell its Rozerem sleep drug (a gold medal) ... in the, yes, patient education information category, is an unbiased source of information?"

    "Why give an award to a drug company as a recognition of excellence in patient education?" Brendler added. "Isn't that like giving some sort of public service award to Sepracor for its pretty-blue-butterfly Lunesta commercials on TV?"
    12:00 am
    Role of Hypnosis in Surgical Recovery for Patients with Head and Neck Cancer

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024889.html

    (NaturalNews) Surgery is a very common occurrence in the United States. Surgeries are performed to diagnose and/or treat a condition. The three major concerns with any type of surgery are pain, bleeding, and infection. Taking small steps such as mandating hypnotherapy sessions for patients going through such tough procedures can have beneficial affects on both the patients' physical and mental well-being, along with their finances.

    A study was performed in 1991 involving 36 patients who had head and neck cancer and were undergoing surgery to treat it. An article about the study appeared in the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. The study was conducted to see whether hypnosis played a role in recovery after surgery for patients suffering from 2 particular types of cancers.

    The study consisted of 36 participants who were diagnosed with head and neck cancer and were undergoing surgery. Twenty-one patients served as the control group and received no hypnosis. Fifteen patients received hypnotherapy. The researchers wanted to compare length of hospital stay, surgical complications, and blood loss between the hypnosis group and the control group.

    Results from this study were significant between the two groups. Researchers found that those who received hypnotherapy had a much shorter hospital stay than the control group who received standard care.

    Researchers also found some differences among the group that received hypnosis. Those who were more highly hypnotizable experienced fewer complications after the surgery. Also, the researchers found that those who were more hypnotizable also had less blood loss during the surgery.

    The study concluded that hypnosis can help prevent postoperative complications. A reduction in complications after surgery also reduces the length of hospital stay after the operation. Fewer complications also suggest a quicker recovery time. A shorter hospital stay means lower medical bills.

    Patients going through cancer treatment already experience a high level of stress and anxiety with rehabilitation. Hypnotherapy ensures that the healing time and treatment period is shorter and more easily dealt with. The procedure may not only show physical improvements, but emotional ones as well. By taking such a small step, doctors can now further help improve the lives of their patients. Financial, physical, and emotional strains may be lifted with the help of hypnotherapy.

    Source:

    Rapkin, D.A., Straubing, M. and Holroyd, J.C. (1991). Guided Imagery, Hypnosis and Recovery from Head and Neck Cancer Surgery: An Exploratory Study. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 39(4). 215-226.



    About the author
    Steve G. Jones, M.Ed. has been practicing hypnotherapy since the 1980s. He is the author of 22 books on Hypnotherapy. Steve is a member of the National Guild of Hypnotists, American Board of Hypnotherapy, president of the American Alliance of Hypnotists, on the board of directors of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Lung Association, and director of the Steve G. Jones School of Clinical Hypnotherapy. Steve G. Jones, M.Ed. is a board certified Clinical Hypnotherapist. He has a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Florida (1994), a master's degree in education from Armstrong Atlantic State University (2007), and is currently working on a doctorate in education, Ed.D., at Georgia Southern University. Learn more at: http://www.betterlivingwithhypnosis.com/
    12:00 am
    Urine Recycling Aboard the Space Shuttle (comic)

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024883.html

    NASA's $154 million urine recycling system on the space shuttle has broken down yet again, forcing astronauts to drink fresh water instead of recycled urine and sweat. (Gee, do ya think maybe the astronauts intentionally broke the machine so they could stop drinking recycled pee?)

    Is it only me, or does NASA seem preoccupied with toilet topics? First, there's the $19 million toilet seat fiasco (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19623499/) followed by the toilet seatbelt humor (every action has an equal and opposite reaction), and now we get to hear that astronauts are drinking their own pee.

    Is that really new? I know some experimental health people who drink their own pee all the time. They say it boosts their immune system function. Maybe they should work at NASA, huh? Skip the $154 million worth of recycling equipment; just be your OWN urine recycler!

    But drinking your own pee in zero gravity might not be as easy as it sounds. That golden shower, folks, is not a meteor shower... Aaargh!

    In the spirit of afterburner NASA toilet humor, I've released this CounterThink cartoon that wonders what happens to all the SOLID waste on board the Space Shuttle. Do they keep it on board and bring it back to Earth? If not, do they jettison it into space, encircling planet Earth with a high-orbit ring of astronaut potty? Do they eventually become rings around Uranus?

    And what happens when all this solid waste falls back to Earth?

    These are serious questions, folks. In no way am I attempting to exploit an uncomfortable situation aboard the space shuttle to create cheap bathroom humor.
    Friday, November 21st, 2008
    12:00 am
    Study Shows Green Tea Reduces Risk of Heart Disease

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024882.html

    (NaturalNews) Drinking green tea may help prevent heart disease and stroke, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Athens Medical School in Greece and published in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention.

    "A couple of cups a day would probably be a good dose for people," researcher Charalambos Vlachopoulos said. "This is the first study to show these effects for green tea."

    Prior research has indicated that black tea can improve cardiovascular health, leading researchers suspect that green tea might even more effective. Many of the beneficial health effects of tea are attributed to its high content of antioxidant polyphenols, especially flavonoids. Most of these polyphenols are destroyed, however, by the fermentation process that makes tea black. This is why green tea has a water-extractable polyphenol content of between 30 and 40 percent, while the content in black tea is only 3 to 10 percent.

    Oolong tea, which is partially fermented, has a polyphenol content between that of green and black tea.

    In the current study, researchers had 14 volunteers drink three different beverages, on three separate occasions: 6 grams of green tea, 125 milligrams of caffeine (the amount found in 6 grams of green tea) and a cup of hot water. They measured the flow-mediated dilation (FMD) of the participants' blood vessels at 30, 90 and 120 minutes after consumption.

    FMD is a widely used measure of blood vessel health.

    The participants' FMD improved by an average of 3.9 percent within 30 minutes of drinking green tea. It did not change at all in those who drank either the caffeine or hot water.

    "Green tea is consumed less in the Western world than black tea, but it could be more beneficial because of the way it seems to improve [circulatory] function," Vlachopoulos said.

    He also noted that a number of studies have linked green tea to various cancer-fighting effects.

    Sources for this story include: www.reuters.com; www.nutraingredients.com.
    12:00 am
    Whole Fruit and Green Leafy Vegetable Decrease Risk of Diabetes

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024881.html

    (NaturalNews) Eating as little as one more serving of green leafy vegetables or three more servings of whole fruit per day can significantly decrease the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, according to a study conducted by researchers from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and published in the journal Diabetes Care.

    Researchers followed 71,346 women who were taking part in the Nurses' Health Study for 18 years. They found that eating just one more serving of green leafy vegetables per day decreased the chance of developing diabetes by 9 percent, while an additional three servings of whole fruit per day cut the risk by 18 percent.

    "It was a modest decrease," researcher Lydia A. Bazzano said. "This is not going to ... prevent it if you have many, many risk factors and you're overweight ... it's a tool in the prevention strategy."

    Surprisingly, the researchers found that it was only whole fruits that decreased the risk of diabetes; fruit juices actually increased it. Just one more serving of fruit juice per day led to an 18 percent increase in the risk of diabetes.

    The study could not determine why fruit juices and whole fruits would cause such different effects. Researchers speculated that the sugars in juice are more quickly absorbed the bloodstream, leading to a spike in blood sugar - and thereby insulin.

    "It's a big sugar load," Bazzano said, "and it comes in a liquid form, which is absorbed rapidly."

    In contrast, the high fiber content of whole fruits might cause the sugar to be digested more slowly.

    The researchers advised that "caution should be observed in replacing some beverages with fruit juices in an effort to provide healthier options. The same caution applies to the recommendation that 100 percent fruit juice be considered a serving of fruit, as it is in the present national dietary guidelines."

    Sources for this story include: www.reuters.com.
    12:00 am
    An Immune System Boosting Smoothie

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024880.html

    (NaturalNews) As winter approaches, it is more important than ever to fill our bodies with nutrients that will boost our immune system so that we can make it through the season feeling balanced and well. A smoothie is a fantastic way to start the day because you can pack in plenty of nourishing ingredients. For some people a smoothie is enough for breakfast, others prefer to have something else on the side. Whatever your preference, you can be sure that by drinking this mixture every morning, you will give your body many vital nutrients to protect itself.

    Here is an Example of a Potent Immune System Boosting Smoothie:

    2 table spoons of linseeds or hulled hempseeds, or a mixture of both, soaked overnight. Handful of goji berries, soaked for 5 minutes 1 banana 4 strawberries Some bee pollen Teaspoon of agave nectar 3 large spinach leaves Enough water to make it your desired consistency some people like their smoothies thick while other like it juicier.

    Blend up the ingredients, it takes no time at all!

    Each of the ingredients in the smoothie offers you important nutrients so that you can defend against nasty colds and flu.

    Linseeds and hempseeds provide essential fatty acids that are necessary for our physical and mental wellbeing. They are particularly important for people who have a tendency toward the winter blues, or SAD.

    Goji berries are fairly new on the market, but can be found in most super markets and health food shops today. They are deeply cherished in Tibet because they provide people with so much energy, and are said to be one of the reasons that the local people live so long and healthy. They are a powerful immune tonic.

    Strawberries are packed with both zinc and vitamin C, which are the most important vitamins for your immune system and for getting you through the winter. Strawberries actually have far more vitamin C than oranges!

    Bananas offer potassium and other essential minerals. They are a delicious base for any smoothie.

    Bee pollen is another potent immune system booster. It also offers a whole range of incredible benefits. It was discovered that the secret to the people in the Caucasus Mountains in the former Soviet Union's incredible longevity and health, even in a cold climate was the bee pollen. This is a true super food that can be found at most local health food shops.

    Agave nectar has been recently made popular as a naturally healthy way to sweeten your food without raising your blood sugar levels. You can find it at most super markets and health food shops.

    You may be thinking that spinach is a strange item to add to a smoothie, but in actual fact it makes perfect sense, especially if you have trouble getting enough greens into your diet. Spinach boosts the immune system, and you won't taste it in this delicious smoothie.



    About the author
    Sheryl is a kinesiologist, nutritionist and holistic practitioner. Her website www.younglivingguide.com provides the latest research on preventing disease, looking naturally gorgeous, and feeling emotionally and physically fabulous. And her latest website www.raiselibido.com offers a vast quantity of information on how to increase sex drive and enjoy a vibrant sex life.

    Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
    12:00 am
    Review: LivingNutz Delivers the Most Exciting Raw Healthy Foods You've Ever Tasted

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024858.html

    (NaturalNews) LivingNutz is one of those small, family-run health food companies you just love to support. If you don't know who they are, I'll be sharing the great news about LivingNutz here in this article, and if you want to sample some of their outrageously savory flavored raw nutz products, they've even been gracious enough to offer a 10% coupon code for NaturalNews readers, which you'll find below. I have no financial stake in this company or its product sales.

    LivingNutz (www.LivingNutz.com) was started almost eight years ago by Seth Leaf and his family members. They set out to create truly delicious health foods that would taste even better than the processed, chemical-laced junk foods that are so popular today. For example: Have you ever eaten a bag of Doritos? Before I learned about the toxic effects of MSG and artificial colors, I ate Doritos all the time. The nacho cheesy flavor was outrageous, right? And I'd even dig into the bag looking for the chips with the most nacho cheese powder on them, oblivious to the truth that I was destroying brain cells by eating MSG.

    With LivingNutz, you can recreate the thrilling sensations of a savory cheese snack right in your mouth by ordering their I Love Vegan Cheezy Raw Food Nuts which, not surprisingly, don't contain cheese at all. No MSG either. In fact, the recipe starts with raw, unpasteurized Almonds and continues with honest, simple ingredients you'll immediately recognize: (Certified Organic) Almonds, Pumpkin Seeds, Red Pepper, Olive Oil, Nama Shoyu (raw soy sauce), Lemon, Celtic Sea Salt.

    Want to get some? I know you do. So do I. We both need to go to www.LivingNutz.com and click on the "Order Here" button on the right side of the home page. Use coupon code HealthNutz to get 10% off any flavored raw nutz product they sell.

    Allergic to almonds? Don't fret: LivingNutz has flavors based on other nutz: Walnuts, Pistachios and Pecans.

    Give me my Tahitian Vanilla Bean Coconut Cream!
    Speaking of Walnuts, one of the newest products offered by LivingNutz is their mouth-watering Tahitian Vanilla Bean Coconut Creme. The word on the street is that it's so good, couples are skipping the foreplay and heading right for the Tahitian Vanilla Bean Coconut Cream walnuts! (Order more than one bag, because you'll go crazy if you can't have seconds...)

    What's in it? A little slice of heaven: (Certified Organic): Walnutz, Coconut, Dates, Raw Honey, Agave, Whole Vanilla Beans (organic-not certified), Mesquite, Celtic Sea Salt

    Tastier than any junk food you've ever tried
    Mainstream eaters have commented to me from time to time that they couldn't give up their processed, chemically-laced foods because they taste so good. They couldn't stand eating "boring" diets of raw foods and health foods.

    Are they kidding me? There's nothing in the world of dead, processed, pasteurized foods that even comes close to the flavor mastery you'll find in LivingNutz products. Check it out yourself by ordering their Galactic Onion-Garlic Pistachios, which will wake up your senses with these highly-medicinal superfood ingredients: (All Certified Organic): Pistachio Kernals, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Nama Shoyu (raw soy sauce), Olive Oil, Cayenne Pepper, Celtic Sea Salt.

    Hungry for the taste of gourmet Italian pizza? Don't blow your money (and your diet) on a local pizza joint; just order up the LivingNuz Italian Herb Almonds and feast on an Italian extravaganza of pure tongue-teasing pleasure. This recipe is made with: (All Organic): Almonds, Italian Herbs, Olive Oil, Garlic, Lemon Juice, Celtic Sea Salt.

    You can even take a trip to the Far East without leaving your chair! Pick up a bag of their Far East Curry Almonds and be prepared to adventure into the land of healing, anti-cancer ingredients from India, like (All certified organic): Almonds, Curry Powder, Garlic Powder, Nama Shoyu, olive oil, fresh Lemon Juice, Celtic Sea Salt, Raw Honey, Cayenne Pepper.

    Got a sweet tooth? How about some Bodacious Banana Bread Walnutz!

    Yes, the word "Bodacious" is actually part of the product name. And after one bite, you'll know why. Your senses will melt away in a shower of cinnamon delight as you relish the experience of these ingredients: (Certified Organic): Walnutz, Bananas, Agave, Cinnamon, Celtic Sea Salt.

    Oh yeah, it's THAT good.

    Get some as Christmas gifts!
    There's more at LivingNutz, too. How about Celestial Cina-Pecan Raw Food Nuts or their Super Chili Pistachios. Get yourself a bag of each, or you'll never know what you've been missing.

    And by the way, I can't think of a better food-based Christmas gift to give someone this season. For about the highly-toxic "Yard 'o Beef" and other processed Christmas meats. Give a friend some raw LivingNutz, and you'll be giving them highly medicinal superfoods that taste better than junk food! They even have gift sets to make your job easier. You can find them by going to www.LivingNutz.com and clicking on the "Order Here" button on the right side of the top row of buttons. Use code "HealthyNutz" to claim your 10% discount off any flavored raw nutz products.

    When you give these as gifts, you won't even have to explain that these products are RAW and enzymatically ALIVE. You won't have to teach the recipient about the anti-cancer benefits of garlic, curry or sea salt. All you have to do is let them try one nut from one bag, and they'll beg you for the rest.

    Be sure to keep your own stash well hidden. Family members have been known to steal each other's LivingNutz! (No joke. I'm still trying to figure out who took my Italian Herb Almonds from a year ago...)

    Healing foods that taste like they couldn't possibly be good for you
    Seriously, folks, these Living Nutz products taste so good, you might not believe they're all made with raw, organic ingredients. They're masterfully blended and absolutely delicious to share with anyone.

    Sure, they cost more than the dead, over-salted low-grade nuts sold in common retail stores, but the difference in taste, quality and nutrition is immediately evident when you try LivingNutz products.

    I give LivingNutz my Editor's Choice award for "Best Health Food" product. It's a great product by a company that's passionate about health and health freedom.

    Did I mention that LivingNutz is strongly opposed to the irradiation of raw almonds? They've been fighting to protect the integrity of raw foods, just like we have here at NaturalNews. This is a company that cares about raw foods and cares about the future of the U.S. food supply. Supporting this company with your business is a vote for health freedom.

    Go to www.LivingNutz.com to check them out, and use coupon code HealthyNutz to get 10% off any flavored raw nutz products.

    Enjoy!
    12:00 am
    Women Remain Uninformed about the Hazards of Mammograms

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024857.html

    (NaturalNews) It takes a long wait to get a mammogram these days, sometimes up to a month. The waiting rooms are jammed despite the opening of new mammography centers. It is clear that more women than ever are operating under the delusion that mammograms reduce the risk of death from breast cancer, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that radiation causes all types of cancer including that of the breast. The more radiation a woman receives in her lifetime, whether it is during a dental exam, at an airport, or during her yearly mammogram, the more likely it is that she will develop breast cancer. In fact, the spiraling rates of breast cancer seen in the last 25 years may be directly tied to the increased use of mammography.

    The American Cancer Society (ACS) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) began to encourage the use of mammography in the early 1980's. Mammography fit right in with their financial objectives and even the advertising rhetoric at the time that urged "a checkup and a check". For the past 25 years, women have paid the price for compliance to a cancer industry that failed to have their best interests at heart.

    The harmful effects of radiation and mammograms have been known for decades

    In 1974, while mammography was in its infancy, the National Cancer Institute was warned by Professor Malcolm C. Pike at the University of Southern California School of Medicine that a number of specialists had concluded that "giving a women under age 50 a mammogram on a routine basis was close to unethical". This warning was ignored.

    Also in the 1970's, the Director of Biostatistics at Rosewell Park Memorial Institute for Cancer Research, Dr. Irwin Bross, headed a study involving data from 16 million people. This ground breaking study found that the main cause of the rising rates of leukemia was medical radiation in the form of diagnostic medical X-rays. Applying his findings to the breast cancer screening program, Dr. Bross later elaborated that "women should have been given the information about the hazards of radiation at the same time they were given the sales talk for mammography."

    In the early 1980's as the mammogram began to be rolled out to women across the country in the face of this research, the NCI and ACS jointly urged annual breast X-rays for women under age 50. Doctors assumed there was good evidence supporting the recommendations and became enthusiastically ordered mammograms for all their female patients, even though they should have know better.

    In 1985, the Lancet, one of the five leading medical journals in the world, published an article condemning the mammography recommendations under which "Over 280,000 women were recruited without being told that no benefit of mammography had been shown in a controlled trial for women below 50, and without being warned about the potential risk of induction of breast cancer by the test which was supposed to detect it.

    Dr. John Gofman, Professor Emeritus of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California at Berkeley, in the early 1990's found that three-quarters of the annual incidence of breast cancer in the United States was caused by earlier ionizing radiation, primarily from medical sources. He did not under estimate the role played by pesticides, synthetic hormones, fatty diets and other environmental stressors, stating "There is no inherent conflict or competition between carcinogens," because they multiply each other's carcinogenic effects. Dr. Gofman abhorred the fact that although X-rays and radiotherapy were among the few environmental contaminants known unequivocally to cause many forms of cancer, they were routinely recommended and used with many cancer patients although there was no proven benefit to survival.

    The media and the government health officials stayed silent regarding the mounting evidence that mammograms caused cancer, and the ACS and the NCI continued to recommend mammograms. In 1992 Samuel Epstein, professor at the University of Illinois Medical Center along with 64 other distinguished cancer authorities opposed this status quo thinking and warned the public about what the ACS and NCI were up to.

    The next month, the Washington Post broke the story into the mainstream media, exposing what the ACS and the NCI had done to countless women for several years. In this article Dr. Epstein was quoted, "The high sensitivity of the breast, especially in young women, to radiation induced cancer was known by 1970. . . the establishment ignores safe and effective alternatives to mammography." He saw this as a conscious, chosen, politically expedient act by a small group of people for the sake of their own power, prestige and financial gain, resulting in suffering and death for millions of women. He regarded them as committing "crimes against humanity".

    In December, 1992, the New York Times published facts about mammography and concluded that women were not being told the truth.

    In 1995, the Lancet again blasted the ACS and NCI mammography scam by concluding: "The benefit is marginal, the harm caused is substantial, and the costs incurred are enormous."

    Meanwhile, women's health advocate Susan Weed began to publish her findings. In Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way, she reports that "scientists agree that there is no safe dose of radiation. Cellular DNA in the breast is more easily damaged by very small doses of radiation than thyroid tissue or bone marrow; in fact, breast cells are second only to fetal tissues in sensitivity to radiation. As an added risk, one percent of American women carry a hard-to-detect oncogene which is triggered by radiation: a single mammogram increases their risk of breast cancer by a factor of 4-6 times."

    Sister Rosalie Bertell, a highly respected world authority on the dangers of radiation wrote that one rad of radiation increased breast cancer risk one percent and is the equivalent of one year's natural aging. "If a woman has yearly mammograms from age 55 to 75, she will receive a minimum of 20 rads of radiation. Women surviving the blast in Hiroshima absorbed 35 rads.

    As a result of all this pressure, Dr. Charles B. Simone, a former clinical associate in immunology and pharmacology at the National Cancer Institute finally came out and said "Mammograms increase the risk for developing breast cancer and raise the risk of spreading or metastasizing an existing growth. The annual mammographic screening of 10,000 women aged 50-70 will extend the lives of, at best, 26 of them; and the annual screening of 10,000 women in their 40s will extend the lives of only 12 women per year."

    Radiation is not the only danger posed to women by mammograms

    Although mammography is widely used for early cancer detection screening, remarkably little attention has been paid to the techniques of breast compression used in the mammography procedure, according to William Campbell Douglass, Jr., writing for the Weston A. Price Foundation. He saw that although the principal of handling cancer very gently so as not to spread it is widely accepted by the medical profession, it doesn't apply to breast screening. During mammography the techniques used are designed for maximum detection of abnormalities without regard to the possible consequences of the action. Douglass notes a survey that found mammographers used as much compression as the patient could tolerate and had no idea how much compression they were using. In fact, the guidelines for mammography state that "adequacy of the compression device is crucial to good quality mammography." That force is 300 newtons, the equivalent of placing a 50 pound weight on the breast.

    Cambell reports one animal study that found that the number of metastases will increase by 80 percent if the tumor is manipulated. A human study reported in the British Medical Journal found that death rates were increase by 29 percent in women whose breasts were squeezed during mammography. This is likely to be the result of the rupture of small blood vessels in or around small yet undetected breast cancers. This squeezing into the blood stream of malignant cells is why many women with breast cancer have cancer cells in their lymph nodes.

    Mistaken false positive diagnoses are common in pre-menopausal women and post-menopausal women on estrogen replacement therapy because the breast tissue of these women is dense and glandular in nature. These mistakes result in needless anxiety, more mammograms, and highly dangerous biopsies that will cause cancer cells to metastasize if indeed there is a cancer. For the group of women with multiple high-risk factors, such as a strong family history, prolonged use of contraceptives, early menarche, and no history of breast feeding, the cumulative risk of false positives increases to as high as 100 percent over a decade of screening due to this being the group most strongly urged to participate in multiple screenings.

    Over diagnosis and subsequent over treatment are major risks of mammography. The unchallenged use of screening has resulted in a huge increase in the diagnosis of ductal carcinoma-insitu (DCIS), a pre-invasive form of cancer which has about 40,000 diagnoses annually. DCIS is composed of micro-calcifications and treated by lumpectomy plus radiation or even mastectomy and chemotherapy. However, over 80 percent of DCIS do not become invasive if left untreated. The mortality rate from DCIS is the same as for women diagnosed and treated early and for those diagnosed later, following the development of invasive cancer.

    The Lancet reported that, since mammographic screening was first introduced, the incidence of DCIS, which represents 12% of all breast cancer cases, has increased by 328% for all women, and 200% of this increase is due to the use of mammography. The increase in incidence for women under the age of 40 has gone up over 3000%. Without any screening and intervention, many DCIS situations are able to be positively resolved by the body, leaving women in blissful ignorance of their situation.

    Mammograms fail to reduce breast cancer mortality

    Despite all evidence to the contrary, the mantra remains that routine mammography screening allows early detection and treatment of breast cancer and reduces mortality. In reality, the vast majority of breast cancers are unaffected by early detection, either because they are aggressive or because they are not. The aggressive cancers will continue to kill women no matter how much surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy they have, unless the source of their cancer is addressed. The cancers that are not aggressive suggest a well functioning immune system that would be compromised by traditional treatments. Cancerous tumors should serve as a wake up call.

    Mammograms divert women's attention from addressing the real issues

    The mammogram industry has made women passive participant in their own health. If the result of the mammogram is positive, the woman moves on to the next phase in the cancer machine. She has even more mammograms followed by biopsies. If a cancer is found she enters the belly of the machine where she undergoes surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. She is prescribed a regime of debilitating drugs to carry her through the rest of her life, and she is spit out the other end of the machine completely ignorant of what caused her to have cancer in the first place and what she can do to try to regain her health.

    If the result is negative, she breathes a sigh of relief, schedules another mammogram for next year, and goes about her business as usual. Again, she is given no information with which to empower herself about how to avoid cancer.

    In a world where women were well treated, these actions of the cancer industry would be abhorrent. In this kind of world, a woman would be allowed to discover breast irregularities on her own and come to treatment center where a physician would help her examine her physical situation, personal history and psychology, and lifestyle. A treatment protocol would be designed specifically for her based on her situation. This protocol would address how best to restore balance and health to all aspects of her body, mind and spirit.

    Sources:

    Samuel S. Epstein, Rosalie Bertell, and Barbara Seaman, "Dangers and Unreliability of Mammography," International Journal of Health Services.

    William Campbell Douglass, Jr. "Mammography Madness," The Weston A. Price Foundation.

    Chris Gupta, "The Depths of Deceit Mammography," Share the Wealth.

    Rcik Ensminger, "Alert - Mammograms Cause Cancer," Rense.com.

    James Howenstine MD, "Do Mammograms Cause Breast Cancer?" newswithviews.com.



    About the author
    Barbara is a school psychologist, a published author in the area of personal finance, a breast cancer survivor using "alternative" treatments, a born existentialist, and a student of nature and all things natural.
    12:00 am
    U.S. Army Shoots Live Pigs for Target Practice

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024856.html

    (NaturalNews) People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has exposed a U.S. Army practice of shooting live pigs so that soldiers can treat their gunshot wounds.

    "Shooting and maiming pigs is as outdated as Civil War rifles," said Kathy Guillermo, director of PETA's Laboratory Investigations Department.

    The Army says that it needs to maintain the practice in order to train soldiers to treat battlefield wounds in conditions where access to doctors or medical facilities is limited.

    "It's to teach Army personnel how to manage critically injured patients within the first few hours of their injury," said Maj. Derrick Cheng, spokesperson for the 25th Infantry Division of the 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, stationed at Schofield Barracks in Honolulu, Hawaii.

    The practice was revealed when a soldier from the 25th Infantry became upset over plans to shoot live pigs with M16 rifles and M4 carbines, and tipped PETA off.

    "There's absolutely no reason why they have to shoot live pigs," said PETA spokesperson Holly Beal.

    PETA has called on the Army to stop using animals and its medical training, "as the overwhelming majority of North American medical schools have already done." Modern alternatives such as high-tech human simulators are easily available, the group said. But the Army has insisted that there is no substitute for "live-tissue training."

    "What we're doing is unique to what the soldiers are going to actually experience," Cheng said.

    In addition to objecting to the suffering and death undergone by the pigs themselves, PETA has noted that many of the soldiers being trained might also find the experience distressing, because the associate the pigs in their minds with their own pets.

    The group has called on its members to call an e-mail the Army in objection to live- tissue training.

    "We are not going to let it drop," Guillermo said. "We'll continue to press both Schofield and the Department of Defense for a ban on these trauma training exercises."

    Sources for this story include: ap.google.com.
    12:00 am
    Fluoride in Drinking Water may Negatively Affect Health of Fetuses and Infants

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024855.html

    (NaturalNews) Did you know that fluoride in our water supplies is the only chemical added for a specific medical purpose, i.e. to prevent tooth decay? All other chemicals are added for treatment purposes, to improve the quality and safety of tap water. And an expert has voiced his concerns over the potential negative impact of fluoride in drinking water on the health of fetuses and infants.

    Dr Vyvyan Howard is a medical pathologist and toxicologist, and also President of the International Society of Doctors for the Environment. In a short video clip put together by the Fluoride Action Network, he expressed his concern over the use of fluoride in our water supplies.

    About Dr Howard

    Over the last two to three decades, Dr Howard's research has centered on the effects of toxic substances on the development of fetuses and infants. This, of course, is a period of life whereby one is particularly vulnerable to certain external effects.

    So, how was Dr Howard's attention first drawn to fluoride? According to him, it was the "very very low levels" of the chemical found in human breast milk. This, he said, is due to a mechanism developed in the course of evolution, specifically for keeping the substance away from developing infants.

    "Nature has devised a system for keeping fluoride away from the infant, and we are circumventing that by putting fluoride into drinking water, and I think there are consequences," he said.

    What consequences? According to Dr Howard, fluoride is a developmental toxin. More specifically, it is a neurotoxin, and it may also affect the intelligence of the child. While the evidence may not yet be clear-cut, there do seem to be strong indications.

    Further, Dr Howard said that other studies have shown the possible ability of fluoride to affect hormonal systems and endocrine systems. In particular, it can influence thyroid levels, and that can have an impact on the IQ in children who are in the development phase.

    When thyroid levels are measured in the mother, being at the upper limit of the normal range of thyroid and being at the lower limit of the normal range brings about a difference in intelligence in the offspring. Where thyroid levels are concerned, we are thus "tinkering with quite a sensitive system".

    About Water Fluoridation

    Should fluoride be added to our water supplies? Dr Howard was quite clear about what he felt.

    "So, the evidence is out there for us to have to say that we got to be very careful. And my opinion is that there isn't a satisfactory one dose fits all solution through treating our population via tap water. There are going to be some members of that population which will be more disadvantaged than others, and they will obviously include the fetus and the infant, but at the other end of life, people who have got marginal kidney function will be more susceptible. And therefore, I don't think, on a precautionary basis, that we should be continuing the fluoridation of drinking water supplies," he said.

    And he had some strong words regarding the authorities who continue adding fluoride to water supplies, too.

    "If governments don't have ways of making sure that people in the areas that are fluoridated who are susceptible, like bottled fed babies, are actually stopped from being exposed in that way, then they have no right, really, to be using a mass medication like this," he added.

    According to the video clip, Dr Howard is one of over 1,750 professionals from various communities - medical, scientific, and environmental - to sign a statement "calling for an end to water fluoridation worldwide".

    Worried about the Teeth?

    There may be some of us who are worried about how removing fluoride from our drinking water might affect our teeth. But we may not need to be.

    An increasing number of studies have cast doubts on the benefits which water fluoridation can bring to the teeth. According to statistics from the World Health Organization, the tooth decay rates of countries which do not fluoridate their water supplies are just as low, or even lower, than those countries which do.

    Further, several studies published since 2000 have reported that there has been no increase in tooth decay rates noted in communities which ended water fluoridation.

    And we should also note that, in November 2006, the American Dental Association actually advised parents to avoid giving fluoridated water to babies.

    Babies who are exposed to fluoride have a higher risk of getting dental fluorosis, which is a permanent tooth defect arising when fluoride damages the cells which form the teeth.

    Fluoride's benefits result from topical contact with the teeth, and swallowing or ingesting it brings minimal benefit. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fluoride's "predominant effect is posteruptive and topical". Posteruptive means "occurring or forming after eruption (as of the teeth)".

    Removing Fluoride from Our Water

    In fact, ingesting fluoride comes with many health risks. Besides affecting the brain and the thyroid gland, the bones and kidneys can also be negatively impacted.

    For those of us who are genuinely concerned about our health, and especially the health of our little ones, removing fluoride from our drinking water is imperative.

    Unfortunately, unlike for chlorine, boiling does not do the trick. An installation of a reverse osmosis filter, or carrying out of water distillation, may thus be necessary.

    Main Sources

    Fluoride Action Network video clip and website

    About the author
    Reuben Chow has a keen interest in the area of natural health and healing and carries out regular research on the topic. His website, All 4 Natural Health, offers a basic guide on natural health information. It details simple, effective and natural ways, such as the use of nutrition, various herbs, herb remedies, supplements and other natural remedies, to deal with various health conditions as well as to attain good health.
    Monday, November 17th, 2008
    12:00 am
    Young Children Now Being Targeted For Statin Drug Use

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024840.html

    (NaturalNews) In an immediately controversial document, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has recommended that children as young as eight be treated with cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

    The AAP's Committee on Nutrition released the guidelines as part of a clinical report on childhood cardiovascular health, published in the journal Pediatrics. It emphasized reducing the risk of lifetime cardiovascular disease by means of lifestyle interventions and cholesterol screening starting from a young age.

    Currently, young children are only given statins if they suffer from genetic disorders such as familial hypercholesterolemia. But the report recommends that children as young as eight should be considered for treatment with cholesterol drugs if they have LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels of 190 milligrams per decaliter or higher. It also recommends that children who have a family history or more than two other cardiovascular risk factors should be considered for treatment if their levels are 160 milligrams per decaliter or higher, as should diabetic children with LDL levels of 130 milligrams per decaliter and up.

    "We know that in adults, decreasing cholesterol and giving some of those drugs decreases risk of heart disease or death," said AAP panel member Dr Nicolas Stettler, of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "So there's really no reason to think that would be any different in children."

    But critics have questioned this logic, saying that there is not enough data to know if statins are safe or effective in children.

    The same drug often acts very differently among different age groups.

    "The guidelines are based on expert opinion, and they don't have the level of evidence to support them that I would like to see," said Thomas B. Newman, of the University of California, San Francisco. "We don't know at what level of cholesterol and what age the benefits of medication exceed the risks and costs. We don't know what it means to be on these medications for decades, and we don't know whether there's an advantage to starting this young versus starting as an adult."

    Sources for this story include: www.foodnavigator-usa.com; www.ama-assn.org.
    12:00 am
    Vitamin D Deficiency Associated With Bone Disease

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024839.html

    (NaturalNews) Deficiency of vitamin D has once again been linked with bone disease, in a study on patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) conducted by researchers from the University of Manitoba, Canada.

    Osteoporosis is a well-known potential side effect of IBD, and vitamin D has previously been established as of risk factor for osteoporosis. The vitamin plays a crucial role in calcium absorption, which is essential for the development and maintenance of healthy bones and teeth.

    Researchers measured the vitamin D blood levels and bone mineral density of 101 people who had recently been diagnosed with IBD. They found that 22 percent of participants had optimal levels of vitamin D, 35 percent had marginal levels, 38 percent had insufficient levels and 6 percent were vitamin deficient.

    There was a direct correlation between blood vitamin D levels and bone density: Those with the most vitamin D had the strongest bones. After two years, those with higher vitamin D levels were more likely to have had increases in bone mineral density.

    "Early optimization of vitamin D may help to prevent bone disease in IBD," researcher William D. Leslie said.

    The researchers next plan "to see whether poor vitamin D status or the degree of activity in a patient's inflammatory bowel disease lead to progressive loss in bone density."

    IBD refers to any disease in which the large or small intestines becomes inflamed, such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease. Symptoms of these diseases include abdominal pain and cramping, bloody stool, diarrhea, loss of weight and appetite, and ulcers of the bowel lining. Approximately 67 out of every 100,000 people in the United States develop Crohn's disease, and 10 to 12 of every 100,000 develops ulcerative colitis.

    The diseases tend to affect those in their teens and 20s, or those in their 50s up to their 70s, but rarely people of other ages. Women are more likely to be affected than men.

    Sources for this story include: www.reuters.com.
    12:00 am
    Drug to Protect Surgery Patients Causes Strokes

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024838.html

    (NaturalNews) Beta-blockers, also called beta-adrenergic blocking agents, comprise a class of drugs used to treat high blood pressure, heart rhythm disorders and migraines. By blocking the effects of the hormone adrenaline in the body, they slow the heart beat and lower blood pressure. So doctors have routinely prescribed these medications to people undergoing non-cardiac surgeries, reasoning the drugs would protect the cardiovascular system during the stress of an operation. But new research published in the Lancet medical journal and available on-line (http://press.thelancet.com/bblockersfinal.pdf) concludes using beta-blockers in this way isn't a great health-protecting strategy for surgery patients. In fact, the opposite may be true: the study shows they are associated with an increased risk of stroke and other potentially serious medical problems.

    Dr Sripal Bangalore of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and Professor Franz Messerli of St Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, headed a meta-analysis of 33 beta-blocker studies involving 12,306 surgical patients. They found the drugs were not associated with any significant reduction in the risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, or heart failure. In a statement released to the media, the researchers pointed out that beta-blockers did reduce the risk of non-fatal heart attack by 35% and reduced the risk of less serious heart blood vessel blockage by 64%. However, the significance of these reductions pale when faced with the fact the drugs doubled the risk for stroke.

    The study found one out of every 293 patients given beta -blockers suffered a non-fatal stroke. What's more, one in 22 patients developed such a slow heart rate (bradycardia) medical treatment was needed. Likewise, one in 17 suffered from blood pressure so low that medical treatment was called for. "The beneficial effects [of beta-blockers] were driven mainly by trials with a high risk of bias," the researchers said in the press statement. "Beta-blockers should not be routinely used for perioperative treatment of patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery unless patients are already taking them for clinically indicated reasons."

    The scientists have called on the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association guideline committee to change their stance recommending beta-blockers during surgery (a practice known as perioperative beta-blocker blockade) unless and until researchers can find definitive evidence this is a benefit to patients.

    Some of the most widely prescribed beta-blockers include atenolol (Tenormin), metoprolol (Lopressor, Toprol-XL) and propranolol (Inderal, Inderal LA) . Even when prescribed properly, the drugs can cause a host of side effects in some people including fatigue, cold hands, dizziness, weakness, shortness of breath, insomnia, loss of sex drive and slow heartbeat. Beta blockers can also affect blood fat levels, causing triglycerides to rise and high-density lipoprotein, known as the "good" cholesterol, to decrease. No one taking beta-blockers should stop taking them " cold turkey -- abruptly stopping these drugs in known to increase the risk of heart attack and other heart problems.

    About the author
    Sherry Baker is a widely published writer whose work has appeared in Newsweek, Health, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Yoga Journal, Optometry, Atlanta, Arthritis Today, Natural Healing Newsletter, OMNI, UCLA's "Healthy Years" newsletter, Mount Sinai School of Medicine's "Focus on Health Aging" newsletter, the Cleveland Clinic's "Men's Health Advisor" newsletter and many others.
    12:00 am
    Study Shows Red Yeast Rice and Fish Oil Reduce Cholesterol

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024830.html

    (NaturalNews) A combination of fish oil, red yeast rice and lifestyle changes can produce as great a decrease in cholesterol levels as prescription drugs, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania Health System and published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

    "These results are intriguing and show a potential benefit of an alternative, or naturopathic, approach to a common medical condition," researcher David Becker said.

    Researchers gave 74 people with high cholesterol a daily dose of either 40 milligrams of simvastatin (a generic cholesterol drug also marketed as Zocor) or a combination of fish oil, red yeast rice and a number of cardiovascular positive lifestyle changes. The fish oil contained 2,106 milligrams of EPA and 1,680 milligrams of DHA, while the red yeast rice contained 5.3 milligrams of monacolin, including 2.53 milligrams of monacolin K.

    Monacolin K, also known as lovastatin, is the naturally occurring fungal compound from which the statin drugs were first derived.

    After 12 weeks, levels of LDL ("bad") cholesterol decreased significantly in both groups. There was no significant difference between the groups, indicating that the yeast and fish oil combination was just as effective as the pharmaceutical drugs. In addition, the fish oil and red yeast rice decreased triglyceride levels by 29 percent, while the statins did not lead to any significant decrease.

    "Lifestyle changes combined with ingestion of red yeast rice and fish oil reduced LDL-C in proportions similar to standard therapy with simvastatin," the researchers wrote. "Pending confirmation in larger trials, this multifactorial, alternative approach to lipid lowering has promise for a subset of patients unwilling or unable to take statins."

    The researchers noted that due to the small size and short duration of the current study, it was not possible to determine if red yeast rice and fish oil can actually decrease rates of illness and death, "which is clearly the most important outcome." They called for larger, long-term studies to make sure.

    Sources for this story include: foodnavigator-usa.com.
    12:00 am
    Substance in Black Pepper Increases Nutrient Absorption up to Two Thousand Percent

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024829.html

    (NaturalNews) Putting black pepper on your food may be one of the easiest, most economical ways to boost your overall health status. Piperine, the main alkaloid from black pepper has been shown to substantially increase the bioavailability of the nutrients in foods and supplements. As the quality of food declines and the costs of food and supplements continue to skyrocket, it is increasingly important to your health that the nutrients you consume are able to be used to maximum efficiency by your body.

    What is piperine?

    Piperine is a pungent compound found in the fruit of the plants in the Piperaceae family, the most famous member of which is Piper nigrum, black pepper. It has a long history of use in Ayurvedic medicine as a restorative and treatment.

    Piperine is able to increase bioavilability of many substances through a number of mechanisms. It inhibits several enzymes responsible for metabolizing nutritional substances, stimulates amino-acid transporters in the intestinal lining, inhibits removal of substances from cells so they continue to be available for use, and decreases the intestinal activity allowing more of the substances to enter the body in active form. The results of these actions are that substances reach, enter and remain within their target cells for longer periods of time than would normally be the case.

    Piperine can turn a marginally effective therapeutic substance into a highly effective one by increasing its bioavailability and intracellular residency time. As an example, piperine can increase the bioavailability of the cancer, inflammation and infection fighter, curcumin, by twenty-fold.

    Piperine favorably simulates the digestive enzymes of the pancreas, enhances digestive capacity and significantly reduces gastrointestinal food transit time. Black pepper or piperine treatment has also been evidenced to lower lipid peroxidation in vivo and beneficially influence the cellular status of organic sulfur compounds, antioxidant molecules, and antioxidant enzymes in a number of experimental situations of oxidative stress.

    In addition to its effects on bioavilability, piperine has many other actions in the body that include increasing beta-endorphins in the brain, acting as an anti-depressant, increasing serotonin production, boosting brain functioning, stimulating adrenal production, relieving pain and asthma symptoms, stimulating melanin production, decreasing ulcerations of the stomach, reducing stomach acid production, and coordinating digestive tract contractions. It is highly effective against colon cancer.

    New research is documenting the many health benefits of piperine

    The journal Biometals reports a study involving cadmium, a well known environmental carcinogen and immuno-toxicant that is characterized by marked atrophy of the thymus and spleen enlargement. Cadmium induces death in lymphocytes and alters immune functions. Researchers tested the ameliorative effects to cadmium damage using piperine, picroliv-glycosides, and curcumin polyphenols. They found that of the three herbals, piperine displayed maximum efficacy. All the examined doses of piperine increased cell viability in a dose dependent manner. Restoration of cell damage such as cytotoxicity, oxidative stress and phosphatidylserine externalization was potentiated with piperine. T and B cell phenotypes and cytokine release were also mitigated best with piperine, rendering piperine the compound of choice under immuno-compromised conditions.

    In a study reported in the September edition of the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology the effect of various doses of piperine was determined. Results showed that piperine at all dosage ranges used in the study possessed anti-depression like activity and cognitive enhancing effects at all treatment durations. Researchers determined that piperine is a functional food that improves brain functioning.

    The medicinal properties of various compounds such as curcumin cannot be well utilized because of poor bioavailability due to its rapid metabolism in the liver and intestinal wall. In an older study reported in Planta Medica, the effect of combining piperine, a known inhibitor of hepatic and intestinal glucuronidation, was evaluated to determine the bioavailability of curcumin in rats and healthy human volunteers. When curcumin was given alone to the rats, moderate serum concentrations were achieved over a period of 4 hours. When piperine was added with the curcumin, the serum concentration of curcumin increased for a 1-2 hour period. Time to maximum concentration was significantly increased while elimination half life and clearance significantly decreased. The bioavailability was increased by 154%. When curcumin was given alone to humans, serum levels were either undetectable or very low. Addition of piperine produced much higher concentrations from 0.25 to 1 hour following administration. The bioavailability of curcumin when taken with piperine increased 2000%.

    A study reported in the September issue of Phychopharmacology was designed to investigate the involvement of monoaminergic systems in the antidepressant activity of curcumin and the effect of piperine as a bioenhancer to the biological effects of curcumin. The researchers found that the enhanced curcumin dose dependently inhibited the immobility period, increased serotonin, and inhibited the monoamine oxidase enzymes. The compound also enhanced the anti-immobility effect of sub-threshold doses of various antidepressant drugs like fluoxetine, venlafaxine, or bupropion. The combination of sub-threshold dose of enhanced curcumin and various antidepressant drugs resulted in synergistic increase in serotonin levels. The co-administration of piperine with curcumin resulted in potentiation of pharmacological, biochemical, and neurochemical activities. They concluded that the curcumin, piperine combination proved to be a useful and potent natural antidepressant.

    The summer issue of Clinical Laboratory Science reports a study to determine if resveratrol from red grapes, cinnamaldehyde from cinnamon, and piperine from black pepper have anti-proliferative effects on colon cancer. Quantitative effects of each phytochemical on concentration responses and time courses of proliferation of cultured human colon cancer cells were assessed. The results showed the phytochemicals each displayed anti-proliferative effects. Piperine displayed a trend toward anti-proliferation at 24 hours and statistically significant inhibition at 48 and 72 hours. Researchers concluded that all three compounds offer significant anti-proliferative effects on human colon cancer cells and provide protective effects against colon cancer.

    Using piperine

    Piperine is generally consumed as a component of black pepper. Adding black pepper to cooked foods, raw foods, and fresh juices is a good way to increase nutrient absorption. Black pepper spices up almost all foods, even snacks like popcorn. It can be added to the Budwig protocol used as a preventative and cure for cancer. It is natural that the foods and the compound that makes their nutrients so highly available go so well together.

    For those with an aversion to black pepper, piperine can be bought as a supplement called Bioperine. Source Naturals Bioperine is available at Lucky Vitamin. Swanson Vitamin sells a house brand of Bioperine. There are multi-vitamins on the market that contain Bioperine as well as Curcumin supplements with Bioperine added. Supplemental piperine should be taken along with meals and supplements for maximum benefit.

    Additional sources:

    "Piperine Report", Cochran Foundation of Medical Research.

    Russell Mills, "Piperine Multiplies the Strength of Many Supplements and Drugs", The Delano Report.



    About the author
    Barbara is a school psychologist, a published author in the area of personal finance, a breast cancer survivor using "alternative" treatments, a born existentialist, and a student of nature and all things natural.
    12:00 am
    Cancer Drugs Make Tumors Grow

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024828.html

    (NaturalNews) Drugs like Avastin that are used to treat some cancers are supposed to work by blocking a vessel growth-promoting protein called vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF. With VEGF held in check, researchers have assumed tumors wouldn't generate blood vessels and that should keep malignancies from growing. In a sense, the cancerous growths would be "starved". But new research just published in the journal Nature shows this isn't true. Instead of weakening blood vessels so they won't "feed" malignant tumors, these cancer treatments, known as anti-angiogenesis drugs, actually normalize and strengthen blood vessels -- and that means they can spur tumors to grow larger.

    For their study, researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in La Jolla, replicated the action of anti-angiogenesis drugs by genetically decreasing VEGF levels in mouse tumors and inflammatory cells in several types of cancers, including pancreatic cancer. The research team, headed by David Cheresh, Ph.D., professor and vice chair of pathology at UCSD, also used drugs to inhibit VEGF receptor activity. The results? In every single instance, blood vessels were not weakened but, instead, were made normal again. And in some cases, tumors increased in size..

    In a prepared statement for the press, Dr. Cherish said: "We've discovered that when anti-angiogenesis drugs are used to lower the level of VEGF within a tumor, it's not so much a reduction in the endothelial cells and losing blood vessels as it is an activation of the tumor blood vessels supporting cells. It appears that the drugs, in shutting down VEGF activity, are actively maturing blood vessels, causing them to become stable and more normal, as opposed to reducing blood vessels."

    Although the findings of this study might sound like a death knell for drugs like Avastin, Dr. Cheresh claims the fact anti-angiogenesis drugs can increase tumor size and give them stronger blood vessels could be a good thing. According to his press statement, he suggests chemotherapy drugs may be able to get to cancer tumors more directly through the stronger blood vessels created by the anti-angiogenesis drugs. "We have to test available regimens and perhaps restructure the way that we give drugs," he said. "We may be giving the right drugs, but we may not be giving them in the right order. We're just beginning to understand how it works."

    That could be seen a huge understatement. After all, Dr. Cheresh's own research shows the supposedly cancer fighting anti-angiogenesis drugs appear to do exactly the opposite of what scientists thought they did.

    Dr. Cheresh also points out in his media statement that the results of the Nature study demonstrate how a specific host's response to cancer is critical in terms of susceptibility to therapy. "It's not just about the therapy, but also what the host does in response to the cancer that makes a difference whether a tumor lives or dies, and if it's susceptible to a drug or not. We can change the host response to the cancer," he stated.

    While Dr. Cheresh is talking about using drugs to influence how the host responds to cancer, natural health advocates have pointed out for decades that strengthening the body's own defense system and avoiding cancer-promoting and potentially health-weakening toxins, foods and behaviors can help keep cancer at bay. Mainstream medicine appears to be recognizing the efficacy of this strategy more and more, too.

    For example, a new review sponsored by the American Cancer Society just published in CA: Cancer Journal for Clinicians studied potential pharmaceutical, dietary, surgical, and other approaches to reducing the risk of breast cancer . The conclusions show that risk reduction strategies should focus primarily on lifestyle factors -- specifically, eating a healthy diet, drinking alcohol moderately or not at all, and maintaining a healthy weight. In other words, natural, common sense healthy living that strengthen the "host" appear to be the best ways to prevent cancer in the first place.

    About the author
    Sherry Baker is a widely published writer whose work has appeared in Newsweek, Health, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Yoga Journal, Optometry, Atlanta, Arthritis Today, Natural Healing Newsletter, OMNI, UCLA's "Healthy Years" newsletter, Mount Sinai School of Medicine's "Focus on Health Aging" newsletter, the Cleveland Clinic's "Men's Health Advisor" newsletter and many others.
    Sunday, November 16th, 2008
    12:00 am
    Study Shows Lutein and Zeaxanthin Protect Against Age-Related Macular Degeneration

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024820.html

    (NaturalNews) Researchers from Ohio State University may have discovered a mechanism by which proteins known as xanthophylls help prevent against age-related vision loss, they reported in a study published in the Journal of Lipid Research.

    "Our research to understand this mechanism might provide a greater appreciation for how one could intervene to possibly slow macular degeneration," said senior study author Earl Harrison.

    Age-related macular degeneration is one of the most common causes of age-related vision loss and affects approximately 10 million people in the United States. The deterioration of the macula, a tissue located in the center of the retina, causes vision in the center of the eye to blur, which lead to functional blindness. The condition cannot be reversed once it develops; it can only be slowed.

    Prior research has suggested that the xanthophyll proteins lutein and zeaxanthin may protect against the eight-related macular degeneration by filtering out potentially harmful light from the blue end of the spectrum and also protecting the eye against damage from oxidation. The two proteins have been observed to concentrate in the macula, forming a yellow spot.

    In the current study, researchers tested the hypothesis that the xanthophylls are transported to the macula by proteins known as scavenger receptor class B, type 1 (SR-B1). They treated pigment cells from the lining of the human retina with lutein, zeaxanthin and the related compounds beta-carotene, finding that the cells absorbed more xanthophylls than they did beta-carotene.

    The researchers then blocked the action of SR-B1 by one of two methods. Both of the methods led to a decrease in xanthophyll of distortion of 41 to 87 percent.

    Lutein and zeaxanthin cannot be synthesized by the body, but must be consumed in foods such as green, leafy vegetables, peas, summer squash, or yellow and orange fruits and vegetables (including carrots, papaya and peaches).

    Sources for this story include: www.sciencedaily.com.
    12:00 am
    Watermelon Found to Function as Natural Viagra

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024819.html

    (NaturalNews) New research suggests that watermelon may produce effects in the body similar to that of Viagra, perhaps pointing the way to a natural remedy for men suffering from erectile dysfunction, says Bhimu Patil of Texas A&M University.

    Research conducted by Patil and others has recently revealed that the flesh of watermelon contains higher levels of the amino acid citrulline than researchers had thought. Until then, most of the citrulline was believed to reside in the inedible rind of the fruit.

    "We have known that watermelon has citrulline," Patil said, "[but] watermelon has more citrulline in the edible part than previously believed."

    This is significant because the body converts citrulline into arginine, another amino acid that functions as a precursor to nitric oxide. Nitric oxide, in turn, plays a critical role in the dilation of blood vessels and the process of penile erection.

    The drug Viagra functions primarily by targeting the nitric oxide signaling pathway in the penis.

    Patil hopes that other researchers will begin to directly study watermelon's effects on erection. But some are skeptical.

    Just because nitric oxide is required for an erection, "that doesn't mean eating something that is rich in citrulline will make enough arginine that it will lead to better penile erections," said Irwin Goldstein, editor-in-chief of The Journal of Sexual Medicine and a former consultant for companies that make erectile dysfunction drugs.

    "The vast majority of Americans produce enough arginine," he said. "Men with erectile dysfunction are not deficient in arginine."

    Patil acknowledges that he doesn't know how much watermelon a man would need to eat to have an effect. Knowing that a four-ounce serving of watermelon contains approximately 150 milligrams of citrulline does not tell researchers what effects that much citrulline will have in the body, he said.

    He did note that in a 2007 study, participants were able to increase their arginine levels 11 percent in three weeks by drinking three eight-ounce glasses of watermelon juice per day.

    Sources for this story include: www.cbsnews.com.
    12:00 am
    Learning and Living Organic Lifestyle with WWOOF

    http://www.NaturalNews.com/024818.html

    (NaturalNews) Since 1971, people are living and learning sustainable lifestyles thanks in part to WWOOF - World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Founded by Sue Croppard, WWOOF was created with the goal of giving city dwellers a weekend opportunity to re-connect with nature and support organic agriculture.

    WWOOF organizations publish listings of organic farms and gardens that host volunteers - providing food, housing, and in-field education in exchange for help from the volunteers. WWOOF has now become an international movement across six continents and more than fifty countries with programs ranging from weekends to seasonal and year-long stays.

    Sue Croppard, founder of WWOOF, intends that through WWOOF people can get first hand experience of organic farming, give assistance to organic farmers, get into the countryside, strengthen the organic movement, form links between city and rural dwellers, and "facilitate inter-cultural understanding between people of different nationalities".

    WWOOF is used by many to live sustainable lifestyles; living on a self-sufficient farm allows someone to live without driving and paying for food that was shipped from hundreds if not thousands of miles a way.

    Wwoofing is also a method for low-cost traveling - since it is a volunteer arrangement, a person does not need a visa to work in a foreign country. Staying at hotels and hostels can be very expensive especially for long periods of time.

    Also, those who wish to work in environmental advocacy may have trouble finding adequate work that pays enough for city-life. Through work-stay programs individuals do not have to concern themselves with rent, food, and may even improve their health through the hours of exercise under the sun.

    What does Wwoofing look like?

    There are over seven hundred farms affiliated with WWOOF in the USA alone and hundreds more in the world. The WWOOF listing contains wide diversity in location and farm type. If one wants to make sure they get the food they want, it is good to work at the farm that grows it.

    There are farms that demand strict vegetarianism and grow nearly all their own food and there are also farms that focus on raising cattle or sheep for meat and purchase and trade for the rest of their diet with other local farmers.

    Charan Springs Farm in Cambria, California grows lettuce, broccoli, brussel sprouts, mushrooms, watercress, tangelos, blood-oranges, chard, and five varieties of avocados. Charan Springs also offers medicinal hot springs. There are typically around a dozen people staying at Charan Springs.

    Some farms in the tropical regions such as Hawaii and Costa Rica offer housing and organic food in exchange for as little as sixteen hours per week of work. Wwoofers are not paid for their time, but the cost might be profitable to some to eat a purely organic diet and live on a fifty acre ranch a stone`s throw from the Pacific Ocean.

    Rebekah, a "wwoofer" at One Love Gardens, a farm on the Big Island of Hawaii said:

    "The simplicity of life at `One Love` was brilliant: bathing in the fresh mountain stream and eating almost only what we grew, turns me on to a blessed and sacred way of being. To know that this way of life is still possible and is happening, in our crazy 21st century world opened the doors of my mind."

    However, not all organic farms sound like vacations and expectations of the exchange are made clear before a person comes to volunteer. While wwoofers may work a four day sixteen hour work week on the Big Island... at a bio-dynamic farm near Grass Valley, California wwoofers are expected to wake before dawn to work fifty hours a week.

    Another farm called Heaven and Earth Farm in Nevada County, California offers organic food, housing which consists of a trailer or tent, and a $50 a week stipend in exchange for forty hours of work per week. The specifics are made clear in the WWOOF guide.

    What can people learn with WWOOF?

    Educational opportunities vary from farm to farm and depend on season and length of stay. If one comes to a farm during harvest time the work might be limited to picking fruit or preparing vegetables to take to market. However there are many different activities that go on at any given farm.

    Food preserving, planting, marketing, community living, green construction, alternative energy, animal husbandry, and permaculture are just some of the skills wwoofers can learn.

    Heated in Aprovecho

    "A great experience, but it can get dirty," said Elizabeth M. of Dayton Ohio, having wwoofed throughout California and Oregon. "It can be like any other co-housing situation with conflicts and house meetings, sometimes things got pretty heated in Aprovecho". Aprovecho, in Cottage Grove, Oregon, practices sustainable forestry and researches furnace design.

    For some, wwoofing creates space for meditation and work on personal growth; much of the farm-work such as weeding by hand can be done by a single individual, so the farmer may instruct the wwoofer where to work and leave to work somewhere else at the same time.

    "These are the survival skills of pioneers"

    Says Verona Bass of her UK wwoofing experience: "Some of the most satisfying moments are when I can do lateral thinking to solve practical problems, to use 'logistics'. Sometimes the right tool is lacking, or a wheelbarrow can't go over the terrain but some sort of dragging device will work better. I think these are the survival skills of pioneers, and we may yet need to become more inventive to re-use what we have available but in altered ways."

    Bass continues, "Wwoofing slows me down. I engage with the moment in a way not easily achieved anywhere else. When I've been working with my head down, and I straighten up for a while, looking over a long quiet view of hills, fields, a loch, or an estuary, I breathe in and feel privileged."

    For more information visit WWOOF.ORG.

    About the author
    David Hestrin forages for anywhere from all to half of his diet. He loves learning about how people lived thousands of years ago and how to live today and into infinity. He also enjoys speaking in third person and realizing that our bodies are all secondary characters in others life stories so we can let go of self importance and realize greater glories. :)
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