Autism, ADHD and Food Allergies

Autism, ADHD and Food Allergies

While food suppliers push unhealthy food items, the public naively believes that government regulators protect them.

Huffington Post | Alison Rose Levy | There's an experiment going on right now--but it isn't being conducted by scientists. It's being conducted by parents. In 30 million kitchens across the U.S. that experiment is called "What Can My Child Eat?" In families with children with autism and allergies, the result of that experiment can either be a day of relative calm and comfort, or it can produce anything from brain fog, digestive discomfort, and mood swings, to pain, seizures, skin outbreaks, and severe digestive distress.

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Lowering Cholesterol: Niacin Works, Mercks Zetia Does Not

Lowering Cholesterol: Niacin Works, Mercks Zetia Does Not

A new study confirms Niacin's cholesterol lowering ability and the uselessness of Mercks drug Zetia.

BioScienceTechnology | Marilynn Marchione | A new study raises fresh concerns about Zetia and its cousin, Vytorin — drugs that are still taken by millions of people to lower cholesterol, despite questions raised last year about how well they work.

In the study, Zetia, the brand name for ezetimibe, failed to shrink buildups in artery walls while a rival drug, Niaspan, generically known as niacin, did so significantly. Zetia users also suffered more heart attacks and other problems although the numbers of these events are too small to draw firm conclusions.

Vytorin is a pill that combines Zetia with a statin, simvastatin.

Zetia "has been on the market for about seven years and we still haven't proven that it improves clinical outcomes," said Dr. Roger Blumenthal, preventive cardiology chief at Johns Hopkins University. The new results will be "very influential" in getting more doctors to turn to Niaspan, he said.

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Natural or Organic - Know How to Read the Labels

Natural or Organic - Know How to Read the Labels

Don't be fooled by tricky advertising and headlines plastered on food packaging.

OCA | NBC Today Show | Organic Food and Sewage Sludge on the NBC Today Show. The Today Show recently aired a segment on how to read food labels in the grocery store. It's important to know what you are actually buying and feeding to your family and yourself. Yes, it does take a bit of extra work and time to examine each and every label, but it is worth it. Michael Pollan, in his recent book "Food Rules", points out a couple of things that can make it much easier.

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Grass Fed Cows Actually Help the Planet

Grass Fed Cows Actually Help the Planet

Cows raised not on feedlots but in pastures, helps keep carbon dioxide in the ground.

Time | Lisa Abend | On a farm in coastal Maine, a barn is going up. Right now it's little more than a concrete slab and some wooden beams, but when it's finished, the barn will provide winter shelter for up to six cows and a few head of sheep. None of this would be remarkable if it weren't for the fact that the people building the barn are two of the most highly regarded organic-vegetable farmers in the country: Eliot Coleman wrote the bible of organic farming, The New Organic Grower, and Barbara Damrosch is the Washington Post's gardening columnist. At a time when a growing number of environmental activists are calling for an end to eating meat, this veggie-centric power couple is beginning to raise it. "Why?" asks Coleman, tromping through the mud on his way toward a greenhouse bursting with December turnips. "Because I care about the fate of the planet."

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Stuff, More Stuff and Even Extra More Stuff

Stuff, More Stuff and Even Extra More Stuff

We spend more on shoes and jewelry than higher education; more on ocean cruises than providing drinking water for all - A new book questioning our consumerism lays out the facts.

AlterNet | Annie Leonard | This following is an excerpt from The Story Of Stuff: How Our Obsession With Stuff Is Trashing The Planet, Our Communities, And Our Health – And A Vision For Change by Annie Leonard. Excerpted with permission by Free Press, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Copyright © 2010 by Annie Leonard.

Consumption

So here we are. All sorts of stuff is lining the real or virtual shelves of stores, ready to slip into our shopping carts or be assembled and shipped according to our desires. Enter the consumer. Stage left, stage right, storming stores and online shopping portals, armed with credit cards and freshly cashed paychecks. This stage of the game is What It's All For -- at least that's what we're told. For a moment, as the almighty consumer makes her selection from a long menu of choices, the entire world revolves around her. She experiences a surge of power as she trades her hard-earned money for a piece of stuff and becomes its owner, either meeting a need, indulging a whim, shifting a bad mood -- or maybe all three at once. "When things get tough, the tough go shopping," as the bumper stickers used to say.

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Massive Five Year Vitamin D Study Underway

Massive Five Year Vitamin D Study Underway

There's overwhelming evidence…that increasing your vitamin D intake can make substantial improvement in your overall health and welfare.

NPR | Richard Knox | Dr. Cliff Rosen of Portland, Maine, knows a lot about vitamin D. It's necessary for strong bones, and Rosen is a leading bone specialist. So he was surprised recently when his wife's new physician thought she might be deficient in vitamin D.

"She's a runner. She's in great shape," Rosen says. "She drinks dairy. She gets a lot of sun exposure." Sun exposure is key for Vitamin D, known as the sunshine vitamin. When skin is exposed to sun, it makes vitamin D.

Still, the doctor wanted to run a blood test to see if Rebecca Rosen had adequate vitamin D.

"So my wife said, 'Well, why do I need to have a vitamin D (test)?' And the physician said, 'Well, that's part of our measurement for wellness.' "

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Heroin, Junk Food Both Clinically Addictive

Heroin, Junk Food Both Clinically Addictive

Scientists have found that junk food is as addictive as heroin.

Telegraph | A diet of burgers, chips, sausages and cake will programme your brain into craving even more foods that are high in sugar, salt and fat, according to new research.

Over the years these junk foods can become a substitute for happiness and will lead bingers to become addicted.

Dr Paul Kenny, a neuroscientist, carried out the research which shows how dangerous high fat and high sugar foods can be to our health .

“You lose control. It’s the hallmark of addiction,” he said.

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Mystery Substance and Flouride

Mystery Substance and Flouride

Amesbury Water Department pulled fluoride from its system amid concerns about its supply from China.

The “investigative” team at WCVB TV in Boston ran a story yesterday about an unknown substance in fluoride imported from China. “Team 5 Investigates found the Amesbury Water Department pulled fluoride from its system amid concerns about its supply from China,” the news station reported. “Department of Public Works Director Rob Desmarais said after he mixes the white powder with water, 40 percent of it will not dissolve.” Desmarais said the residue clogs his machines and makes it difficult to get a consistent level of fluoride in the town’s water.

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Top Five Sleep Supplements

Top Five Sleep Supplements

A ranking of the five most popular supplements taken to aid sleep, based on sales volume and popularity.

1. VALERIAN
Most experts recommended this herb to reduce the amount of time it takes to nod off. According to the NIH, no single compound in valerian has been identified as the active agent. However, the NIH reports that valerian seems to have sedative properties, and it may increase the amount of GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), a compound in the brain that prevents the transmission of nerve impulses. Valerian seems to be especially effective when combined with hops, according to a 2007 study. Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of the American Botanical Council, recommends using Enzymatic Therapy’s Alluna product. (View all Valerian products.)

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Livestock drug, banned in 160 nations, still legal and widely used in USA

Livestock drug, banned in 160 nations, still legal and widely used in USA

You are most likely ingesting a livestock drug Not Safe for Human Consumption if you eat beef or pork or poultry.

AlterNet | Martha Rosenberg | While researchers and scientists investigate the cause of our diabetes, obesity, asthma and ADHD epidemics, they should ask why the FDA approved a livestock drug banned in 160 nations and responsible for hyperactivity, muscle breakdown and 10 percent mortality in pigs, according to angry farmers who phoned the manufacturer.

The beta agonist ractopamine, a repartitioning agent that increases protein synthesis, was recruited for livestock use when researchers found the drug, used in asthma, made mice more muscular says Beef magazine.

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Decreased Strengh and Fat in Young People Linked to Low Vitamin D

Decreased Strengh and Fat in Young People Linked to Low Vitamin D

An astonishing 59 per cent of study subjects had too little Vitamin D in their blood. Nearly a quarter of the group had serious deficiencies (less than 20 ng/ml) of this important vitamin.

ScienceDaily | A ground-breaking study published in the March 2010 Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found an astonishing 59 per cent of study subjects had too little Vitamin D in their blood. Nearly a quarter of the group had serious deficiencies (less than 20 ng/ml) of this important vitamin. Since Vitamin D insufficiency is linked to increased body fat, decreased muscle strength and a range of disorders, this is a serious health issue.

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Weed Killer Atrazine Chemically Castrates

Weed Killer Atrazine Chemically Castrates

New research suggests the herbicide may be a cause of amphibian declines around the globe.

CNN | Azadeh Ansari | Atrazine, a weed killer widely used in the Midwestern United States and other agricultural areas of the world, can chemically "castrate" male frogs and turn some into females, according to a new study.

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Urban Gardening

Urban Gardening

A front-yard veg-ornamental garden that neighbors actually like.

Sustainable Garden Blog | Susan Harris's | Ever feel like you were playing checkers and the other guy was playing chess?

Simone Fary lives just 3 blocks from the newly-bustling downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, with its shops, night life and subway station to greater DC. So, a great location. Plus plenty of sun, y'all! But like every other front yard in the neighborhood, hers was devoted to the care and feeding of turfgrass and some foundation shrubs. That bit of conformity ended when Simone got the urge to grow some food, dammit, but to grow it in a gorgeous, gardeny way. No need to go whole-farm and get the neighbors all nervous about property values. No need to deny herself a beautiful garden. The gardener with sun can have everything!

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Pig Business is Big Business

Pig Business is Big Business

You are what you eat... and who owns your food, owns you.

Grist | Kurt Michael Friese | Ever feel like you were playing checkers and the other guy was playing chess?

That’s the impression I get when watching many of the recent spate of food documentaries. Activists announce that this or that is wrong with the food system; on the rare occasion when something appears to be getting done about it, the folks who are doing things badly simply change their tactics, not their strategy.

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Bayer Banned

Bayer Banned

A federal judge banned the sale of a Bayer CropScience pesticide that environmental groups and commercial beekeepers say is potentially toxic to the nation's threatened honeybee population.

Both Bayer CropScience, a North Carolina subsidiary of Bayer AG, and the Environmental Protection Agency have 60 days to appeal the decision of Manhattan U.S. District Judge Denise Cote.

The ban would make the sale of spirotetramat, known by the trade names Movento and Ultor, illegal in the United States after Jan. 15.

Cote's decision does not explicitly address the inconclusive impact the pesticide might have on honeybees. Instead, she faulted the EPA for ignoring steps required in any pesticide approval process, including failing to take public comment and failing to publish Bayer's application and the agency's approval in the Federal Register.

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