Month: February 2011

Researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) evaluated the effects of mobile phone radiation on the brains of 47 health adults. The team placed active phones on both the left and right ears of participants for 50 minutes, while simultaneously taking PET scans to measure brain activity. They found that in the areas of the brain closest to the phone antennas, glucose metabolism increased by seven percent.

"What we showed is glucose metabolism (a sign of brain activity) increases in the brain in people who were exposed to a cell phone in the area closest to the antenna," said Dr. Nora Volkow of NIH, one of the study authors. "What the study does is show the human brain is sensitive to electromagnetic radiation from cell phone exposures."

The researchers were quick to deny any link between the increased brain activity and the propensity towards cancer, but the findings do show that such radiation does, indeed, affect the brain. Like many other studies of this nature, the team suggests that further research be conducted to verify indicators suggesting long-term damage caused by cell phone use.

A 2007 Finnish study published in the International Journal of Cancer did, however, find a link between cell phone use and cancer. Depending on the rate and duration of use, cell phone radiation was shown to be responsible for an up to 270 percent increase in gliomas, a type of brain tumor

Gout is a painful type of inflammatory arthritis that has become increasingly common in the past few decades, rising in prevalence from 16 cases per 100,000 people in 1977 to 42 cases per 100,000 in 1996. The same time period saw a large increase in soda consumption, the researchers noted.

The researchers studied 78,906 women who had taken part in the Nurses' Health Study between 1984 and 2006 and who had no history of gout at the beginning of the study. They found that over the course of 22 years, women who consumed one serving of soda per day were 74 percent more likely to develop gout than those who had less than one per month. Women who drank two or more servings of soda per day were 240 percent more likely.

A connection between soda consumption and gout is not surprising because fructose, a component of sugar, causes the body to produce more uric acid. Uric acid buildup is the immediate cause of gout.

Sugary beverages are widely reviled by nutritionists as a source of empty calories that raises the risk of obesity and diabetes.

"Data collected from the study of 51,603 nurses in the United States found that women who drank one serving of non-diet soda or fruit punch daily, which was sweetened with either sugar or high-fructose corn syrup, gained more weight, an average of 10.3 pounds, than women who drank less than one per month," writes Gabriel Cousens in his book There Is a Cure for Diabetes.

"In addition, the sugar consumers had an 82 percent increased risk of developing Type-2 diabetes."

A research team from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York collected blood samples from more than 3,100 children and 3,400 adults, and analyzed sensitivity to 17 different allergens. The team measured the production levels of Immunoglobulin E (IgE), the protein made when the immune system reacts to allergens, and compared it to blood serum levels of vitamin D.

While no specific correlation in this particular study was observed between vitamin D and allergens in adults, children and adolescents with low levels of vitamin D were found to be sensitive to an average of 11 of the 17 allergens, which included environmental allergens like ragweed and oak, and food allergens like eggs and peanuts. Children with less than 15 nanograms per milliliter (Ng/mL) of vitamin D in their blood, which was the threshold of deficiency used in the study, were 240 percent more likely to have a peanut allergy than children with 30 Ng/mL of vitamin D or higher, for instance.

The findings confirm those of a 2007 Harvard University study that claimed increased sunlight exposure could reduce the onset of both allergies and asthma in children. That study found a link between vitamin D deficiency and such conditions in adults as well, noting that pregnant women who are vitamin D deficient are more likely to bear children with allergies or asthma than pregnant women with higher levels.

by: Marianne Leigh

(NaturalNews) Everyone fears aging to some extent, even if they age well. But well beyond wrinkles and sagging skin, the most intimidating loss associated with aging is that of memory and cognition. These functions rely heavily on a part of the brain called the hippocampus and have recently been the focus of study by a team of American researchers. The study found that, in a group of adults over 65 years of age, regular aerobic exercise accompanies increases in hippocampal volume, and these gains were related to marked improvements in memory.

IntraMax

This most recent American study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, confirms and expands upon the findings of a previous, more extensive study done in Italy and published in 2008 in the journal Neurology.

The Italian study followed a group of subjects aged 65 years and older for four years, using cognitive assessment tests to gauge the health of participants, and correlating the findings to information about participants' exercise habits. The study was significant not only because it found dramatic reductions in development of dementia for those who exercised regularly (a 73% decrease), it also showed that the intensity of exercise had almost no bearing on results: exercises like walking, climbing stairs and gardening were just as effective at staving off dementia as more strenuous activities.

The American study used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess changes in hippocampal volume in a group of participants over age 65, who performed regular aerobic exercise, and in a control group, who did not. Despite the fact that adults of this age lose 1% to 2% of their hippocampal volume per year, this study found an average gain of 2% in hippocampal volume among participants who engaged in regular aerobic walking, and the expected average loss of 1.4% in the control group. The study additionally found that increases in hippocampal volume accompanied increases in memory function.

Studies that look at exercise's effect on the brain during aging are ongoing and very popular, with all signs pointing to the same conclusion: regular moderate exercise, especially aerobic walking, is an excellent way to fight cognitive decline. It is similarly associated with a significant decrease in the development of Alzheimer's, and it has even been shown to slow the progression of the disease in individuals already affected.

So with all this evidence pointing to the inescapable conclusion that aerobic exercise is essential for aging well, there's more reason than ever to do your body this favor. Go take that 30-minute walk today, and then tomorrow, get up and do it again. Your brain will inevitably thank you.

1) The efficacy of Gardasil in preventing cervical cancer has not been demonstrated and the marketing campaign has been misleading. The efficacy of Gardasil remains unsubstantiated since the vaccine hasn't been adequately tested on the primary age group to which it is currently given.

Merck promoted Gardasil primarily as a vaccine against cervical cancer, rather than promoting it as a vaccine against HPV infection or sexually transmitted diseases.

According to recent reports published in two highly respected scientific journals, Nature Biotechnology and Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA):

"Most genital infections are asymptomatic and resolve spontaneously, but the virus can persist and cause precancerous lesions that can become malignant over the subsequent 20-30 years." (Nature Biotechnology, 2007 2)

"So how should a parent, physician, politician, or anyone else decide whether it is a good thing to give young girls a vaccine that partly prevents infection caused by a sexually transmitted disease (HPV infection), an infection that in a few cases will cause cancer 20 to 40 years from now? (JAMA, 2009 3).

The fact is that malignant cervical cancer takes decades to develop and yet the longest clinical trial on Gardasil was only four years in duration. In other words, Gardasil was never shown to prevent cervical cancer [emphasis added]. Furthermore, in all clinical trials conducted by Merck the cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) 2/3 precancerous lesion was used as the efficacy endpoint for evaluating the Gardasil. What is the problem with using the CIN 2/3 lesion as the standard for efficacy? First, if the marketing claim for Gardasil is that the vaccine "protects against cervical cancer" then cervical cancer should have been used as the endpoint for efficacy, not a surrogate marker such as a CIN 2/3 precancerous lesion [emphasis added]. Second, in the natural course of cervical cancer, only a small fraction of the CIN 2 lesions will progress to CIN 3 lesions and only a small fraction of CIN 3 lesions will eventually progress to cervical cancer. Furthermore, even CIN 3 lesions are heterogeneous (there are early small lesions and old advanced lesions and we do not know what proportion of the small lesions, which serve as clinical endpoints in current studies, would persist to become large, advanced CIN3 lesions). Therefore, in any female population (and that includes those who have undergone Gardasil clinical trials) there are many more CIN 2 lesions than a combination of CIN 3 lesions and cervical cancers. As a result, the vast majority of the "CIN 2/3 or worse" cases used for evaluation of efficacy, and listed in Merck's report to FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC Background Document on Gardasil HPV Quadrivalent Vaccine 8), must have been CIN 2 lesions.

In a review of the literature from 1950-1992, it was noted that 60 percent of CIN 1 lesions regressed, 30% persisted, 10 percent progressed to CIN 3, and only 1 percent progressed to invasive cancer. The corresponding approximations for CIN 2 were 40 percent, 40 percent, 20 percent, and 5 percent, respectively. The likelihood of CIN 3 regressing was 33 percent and that of progressing to invasive cancer was greater than 12 percent.

The author of the study, Andrew G Ostor, MD, from the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Pathology, University of Melbourne noted:

"It is obvious from the above figures that the probability of an atypical epithelium becoming invasive increases with the severity of the atypia, but does not occur in every case. Even the higher degrees of atypia may regress in a significant proportion of cases. As morphology by itself does not predict which lesion will progress or regress, future efforts should seek factors other than morphological to determine the prognosis in individual patients."

The above remark leads us to a third reason why a surrogate morphological marker is not an adequate endpoint for assessing the efficacy of cervical cancer vaccines:

"CIN 2 is not a true biologic entity but an equivocal diagnosis of pre-cancer, representing an admixture of HPV infection and pre-cancer. The existence of CIN 2 biopsy results as a clinical entity may be the consequence of the inaccuracies of colposcopy and colposcopically directed biopsy, which could result in less than-perfect representation of the underlying disease state."

Furthermore, the same report by the National Cancer Institute (NCI 9) states that:

"That CIN2 is the least reproducible of all histopathologic diagnoses may in part reflect sampling error."

Finally, according to second report by the NCI 10:

"Approximately 40 percent of undiagnosed CIN 2 will regress over two years." (this also precisely corroborates the findings of the study by Ostor)

Gardasil is marketed as the vaccine that prevents cervical cancer. This statement is incorrect. Based on the above NCI findings, we can conclude that the data presented in the VRBPAC Background Document on Gardasil HPV Quadrivalent Vaccine 8 only supports the claim that Gardasil can prevent "an equivocal diagnosis of pre-cancer, representing an admixture of HPV infection and pre-cancer" – about half of which are self-reversing to normal cases and not reflect actual cervical cancer.

There was yet another important oversight in assessing the efficacy of Gardasil. Most cervical cancers are believed to be linked to infection with genital HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18 2 3 11. According to NCI, the only reliable HPV genotyping method is a "PCR system with short target sequences" or alternatively, "'sentinel-base' genotyping by PCR." Ironically, these HPV genotyping methods were never used to determine the HPV type associated with precancerous lesions in the clinical trials for evaluation of the efficacy of Gardasil to prevent type-specific HPV infections.

2) Cervical cancer is a rare disease in developed countries which invalidates the recommendations for universal immunization with any HPV vaccine. The incidence of cervical cancer has dropped substantially since implementation of regular Pap screening procedures. Currently, in the US, the death rate from cervical cancer (2.4/100,000 women) is lower than the rate of reported serious adverse events, including death, from Gardasil (3.34/100,000 doses distributed)

The severity of cervical cancer should not be undermined. Advanced cervical cancer is a deadly disease, especially in areas where the resources and infrastructure to fully implement

Papanicolaou (Pap) smear tests are limited such as Latin America, Africa, India and South Asia. In the past four decades, industrialized countries such as the US, have cut cervical cancer mortality and incidence rates by 74 percent largely through the use of the Pap smear 2.

Thus, as noted by Diane Harper, MD, Professor and Vice Chair, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Community and Family Medicine and Informatics and Personalized Medicine, who conducted the phase 2 and phase 3 trials for Gardasil, authoring their publications, in developed countries such as the US, which have regular Pap screening programs in place, the HPV vaccine will do little to decrease the already very small cancer rate. In fact, Harper noted that if women who are vaccinated stop going for Pap smears, the incidence rate for cervical cancer would increase.

Based on L1-encoded virus-like particles, Gardasil should protect against the HPV genotypes 16 and 18, which are thought to account for 70 percent of cervical cancers. Since Gardasil does not even claim to protect against all cases of cervical cancer but only those "caused by HPV strains 16 & 18", it does not replace the need for a regular pap smear.

More crucially, however, for deciding whether a risk of adverse effects from the HPV vaccine is worth taking, much depends on the perceived benefit from the vaccine relative to that risk. If benefits are indeed substantial, then many individuals would be willing to accept the risk. However, if the benefit of the vaccine has not been demonstrated and is in fact only speculative, and if a majority of those women who are persistently infected with HPV are not likely to develop cancer providing they are adequately screened, then most reasonably they will only be willing to accept very small risk of harm from the vaccine. Data from clinical safety trials argue against small risks from Gardasil vaccination. In a paper published in JAMA, Slade et al. (2009) 11 report that from June 1, 2006, through December 31, 2008, the US Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) received 424 reports of adverse reaction following receipt of Gardasil amongst which, 772 (6.2 percent) were serious, including 32 deaths. Given the overall reporting rate of 53.9 reports per 100, vaccine doses distributed, the estimated rate of reported serious adverse events from Gardasil is 3.34/100 doses distributed. This rate is higher than the death rate from cervical cancer in the US which stands at 2.4/100 women (according to CDC statistics, 15).

Harper poses an important question 14:

"Would a parent accept such a rate of serious adverse events if the same cancer prevention can occur with continued Pap screening? Is there any acceptable level of risk of serious adverse events, including death, to prevent genital warts?" [emphasis added]

The later claim was in reference to one of the vaccine's other claimed benefits.

3) Most HPV infections are benign and resolve spontaneously without causing cervical cancer

According to Harper 16:

"70 percent of all HPV infections resolve themselves without treatment within a year. Within two years, the number climbs to 90 percent. Of the remaining 10 percent of HPV infections, only half will develop into cervical cancer."
These numbers are consistent with those above quoted from Nature Biotechnology:

"Most genital infections are asymptomatic and resolve spontaneously, but the virus can persist and cause precancerous lesions that can become malignant over the subsequent 20-30 years."

In addition, in a recent JAMA editorial, Charlotte Haug, MD, PhD, emphasized:

"The virus does not appear to be very harmful because almost all HPV infections are cleared by the immune system. In a few women, the HPV infection persists, and some women may develop precancerous cervical lesions and eventually cancer. It is currently impossible to predict in which women this will occur and why. Likewise, it is impossible to predict exactly what effect vaccination of young girls and women will have on the incidence of cervical cancer 20 to 40 years from now."

Thus, again, there appears to be little rationale in support of universal immunization with any HPV vaccine.

(Note from SaneVax: Are the benefits of Gardasil vaccination worth the risks? Take a good look at the following in-depth study, then decide for yourself.)

Relaxing therapies like massage, yoga and reiki have enjoyed an increased popularity over these past few years as people struggle to cope with a range of burdens. Massage therapy, which used to primarily be used by women, has experienced a huge surge in male patronage. Massage has a variety of benefits that extend beyond the relaxation of the session itself.

Regular massage can improve your circulation, reduce chronic anxiety, promote natural bodily healing processes, relieve muscle tension, and lower blood pressure. Regular massage is usually characterized as once or twice per month. Reasonable packages can now be found in several massage service chains, as well as locally owned businesses.

Yoga is another excellent stress relieving practice that can also tone the body and provide excellent fitness benefits. Yoga is particularly helpful in managing stress even after your regular sessions because it helps you to master deep breathing. It helps you to control your respiration during stressful times, which eases the impact of anxiety on the heart and other body functions.

Yoga has also been associated with lower blood pressure, improved mood, better immunity and improved gastrointestinal health. Often times stress is associated with digestive and gastrointestinal discomfort, high blood pressure and poor immune function. For many people, yoga really helps with curbing stress and a lot of its related physical manifestations.

Exercise, in general, is an excellent antidote to anxiety. Multiple studies have shown that regular aerobic exercise reduces the levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, circulating in the blood stream. Exercise also elevates our levels of feel good hormones such as serotonin. Serotonin, one of the main neurochemicals responsible for elevated mood, can be greatly reduced by periods of anxiety.

Increasing the circulation of these natural chemicals in the body greatly increases our ability to deal with distressing or frustrating situations. The simple act of intense aerobic activity also can help you vent your frustrations and distract you from ruminating about a particular problem.

Reiki is another practice that has gained in popularity the past few years. Reiki originated in Japan. It is a healing and relaxing therapy; whereby, the practitioner transfers his or her healing power to the patient via light touch on affected body parts. It is primarily used to help heal physical ailments, but also has been used as a relaxation and meditation therapy.

If you are looking for a natural supplement that can help reduce anxiety, there are a few that seem to be helpful for a majority of people that take them. The first is St. John's Wort, which is used as both a natural antidepressant and anxiety remedy.

Passion flower is used for relaxation and easing of tension associated with chronic stress. Kava is another herbal remedy that is used to help combat anxiety and calm nerves. Kava is also very useful as a natural sleep aid.

Digestive enzymes are understood by many to some extent, solely for digestive purposes. But how they relate to the important function of allowing pancreatic metabolic enzymes to work on cells in all other areas of the body is a not so well known. Not having enough metabolic enzymes often leads to cancer.

Explaining Enzymes

You might remember from some vaguely distant chemistry class how catalysts were explained. They initiate a chemical process but don`t become part of it. Enzymes are the body`s catalysts for digesting nutrients and metabolizing within cells.

The pancreas creates enzymes for many purposes. But we also need to bring in enzymes externally to digest nutrients from food. Ideally, these enzymes come along with the food we consume. But that ideal is often not realized.

Even if your diet is not so SAD (standard American diet), cooking destroys most enzymes in the best of organic plant foods. Some raw plant food should be consumed for the enzymes those plants provide. Eating salads with greens, carrots, cucumbers, and other assorted raw vegetables daily is vital.

Drinking slow speed juiced organic vegetables is like taking digestive enzyme tonics. Slow speed juicing is important to preserve the enzymes being juiced. The more raw plant food you consume, the more external enzymes you take in. Of course, there are enzyme supplements as well.

Why You Should Assist Your Pancreas with Raw Food and Supplemental Enzymes

But if the pancreas creates enzymes, what`s the big deal with needing external enzymes? Here`s how Dr. Edward Howell put it: "If the human organism must devote a large portion of its enzyme potential to making digestive enzymes, it spells trouble for the whole body because there is a strain on the production of metabolic enzymes and there may not be enough enzyme potential to go around."

Dr. Howell further explained, "If humans take in more exogenous (outside) digestive enzymes, as nature ordained, the enzyme potential will not have to waste so much of its heritage digesting food. It can distribute more of this precious commodity to metabolic enzymes where it rightfully belongs."

So if you depend too much upon and lessen or deplete your pancreas of its enzyme producing capacity, you cells will become enzyme starved. Cellular metabolism decreases. That cellular metabolism includes respiration with oxygen. If that sputters, cells try to survive by sucking up glucose and fermenting it instead of using oxygen for energy metabolism. Then it`s cancer time.

Mega-dose metabolic enzymes have been and continue to be used for successfully treating cancer. These enzymes are strong enough to break down tough cancer cell walls. Dr. Nicholas Gonzalez in New York has taken up the torch from Texas dentist Dr. William Donald Kelley`s ground breaking cancer curing work with mega-dose metabolic therapy during the 1960s. (Natural News, "The Dentist Who Cured Cancer", Source below)

There are usually some cancer cells free wheeling about in most of us. We depend on our immune system to keep them from forming full blown cancerous conditions. A large part of that immunity is derived from metabolic enzymes. In addition to improving your digestion, it is wise to free up your pancreas produced metabolic enzymes by consuming external digestive enzymes.

Parents had been asked to complete questionnaires detailing the foods and drink that their children consumed, among other things. From this, it was evident that three dietary patterns had emerged. One was very health conscious and included salads, fruit, vegetables, pasta and rice. The second included a traditional meat and vegetable diet, and the final dietary pattern was high in fats, processed foods and sugars.

The children`s IQ was again measured at age eight, and it was discovered that there was a significant difference between those who consumed the diet of processed and junk foods to those who consumed the salads, fruit and vegetables. Those consuming the diet of processed foods scored an average of 101 IQ points; whereas, those consuming the healthier diet scored an average of 106 IQ points. IQ point scoring fell by 1.67 for each increase on the chart that reflected the amount of processed fat they consumed.

A healthy and balanced diet seems to be just as important to raising your child`s IQ levels as it is to keeping them healthy in other areas as well. It`s therefore important to ensure that your child eats a wide variety of fresh, whole foods and avoids the junk food, especially during the developmental years, as it does affect them later in life. Damage is done by the consumption of these junk and processed foods during the early years. A lower IQ makes them less able to cope with school, peer pressure and many other areas in life.

From a young age, children should be encouraged to consume raw, whole foods and avoid junk foods completely.