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Protests over cloned animals in food chain Aug 6 08:47 AM US/Eastern An animal welfare group on Friday delivered a petition of 7,000 names calling on the government to prevent products from cloned animals entering the food chain. ---The petition, delivered by activists wearing "cloned" masks of Prime Minister David Cameron, was hastily organised after news emerged this week that meat from offspring of a cloned cow had entered the food chain. --Written by Compassion for World Farming, the petition called for more openness about food production and expressed concern about the welfare of cloned animals. --"David Cameron, we believe, is the man to bring forward the aspirations of the British public and ban cloned food," the group's chief executive Philip Lymbery told AFP. --Referring to the use of 40 protestors in Cameron masks to make their point, he added: "We wanted to have a tongue-in-cheek expression of what it means to take away individuality through cloning." ---On Wednesday, it was revealed that a few unwitting members of the public in Britain had eaten meat from two bulls who were among eight cattle conceived using embryos harvested from a cloned cow in the United States. ---"People want honesty, they want to be able to trust their food, yet this cloned food has slipped into our food chain unauthourised, unlabelled and unnoticed, until now," said Lymbery--- In July, the European Parliament voted for a ban on the sale of meat or dairy products derived from cloned animals or their offspring. The welfare group is now pushing for the the European Commission and EU member states to enact the ban ************************************************************************ Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Do Not Cause Coronary Heart Disease By Dr. Paul J. Rosch, M.D., M.A., F.A.C.P. It's not difficult to understand why most people, including physicians, are convinced that high blood cholesterol is the major cause of heart disease and that elevated cholesterol is due to eating saturated fats. ---It's easy to visualize how fatty foods raise blood cholesterol, which, despite being a large inert molecule, somehow precipitates out to infiltrate the inner lining of the coronary arteries, where it forms fatty atheromatous plaques. ---These plaques slow the flow of blood and eventually completely obstruct it to cause the death of myocardial tissue. This sequence of events was similar to the gradual buildup of lime and rust in pipes, and the terms coronary occlusion, myocardial infarction and heart attack are still often used as synonyms. ---What is hard to believe is that there is no evidence much less proof to support this entrenched lipid theory of coronary atherosclerosis. In point of fact, it has been completely refuted by numerous scientific studies. Consider the following half dozen examples: 1. Almost two-dozen studies have reported that coronary heart disease patients ate less or the same amount of saturated fat as healthy controls. The huge World Health Organization project MONICA (Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular Disease) that collected data from 21 countries for over 10 years failed to find any correlation between heart attacks and fat consumption or cholesterol. ----Every single country with the lowest fat consumption had the highest mortality rates from heart disease and those with the most fat consumption had the lowest. The French consumed three times as much saturated fat compared to Azerbaijan but had one-eighth the rate of heart disease. The heart disease death rate in Finland was three times greater than in Switzerland, even though the Swiss ate twice as much fat. 2. No dietary cholesterol lowering trial has ever shown a reduction in lowering coronary disease or total mortality. In the "Prudent Diet" study of 49 to 59 year-old men, one group substituted margarine for butter, cold cereal for eggs, and chicken and fish for beef. Controls ate eggs for breakfast and meat three times a day. ----After ten years, cholesterol levels averaged 30 points lower in the first group, but they had eight deaths from heart disease compared to none for the meat eaters. Ancel Keys also fed middle-aged men a very high cholesterol diet but found that their cholesterol levels were no different than a control group who consumed less than half as much. ---Two decades later, he finally admitted "There's no connection whatsoever between cholesterol in food and cholesterol in blood. And we've known that all along. Cholesterol in the diet doesn't matter at all unless you happen to be a chicken or a rabbit." 3. In the Framingham study, which was responsible for establishing cholesterol, hypertension and cigarette smoking as the three major risk factors for coronary heart disease, a 26-year follow-up report found that 50% of cases occurred in people with below average cholesterol. There was a direct association between falling cholesterol levels over the first 14 years of the study and increased mortality rates over the following 18 years. --- For men above the age of 47, those with low cholesterol had greater mortality rates than those with high cholesterol. Subjects whose cholesterol had decreased spontaneously over 30 years were also at greater risk of dying from heart disease than those whose cholesterol had increased. In addition, the more saturated fat and the more cholesterol people ate, the lower their serum cholesterol was. Those who ate the most saturated fats weighed the least. 4. No association between cholesterol levels and the severity or extent of atherosclerosis has ever been found in postmortem studies of the general population. No clinical or imaging study has found any relation between the degree of cholesterol lowering and improvement. ---In one angiography study, in which blood cholesterol had been reduced by more than 25% in 24 patients, atherosclerosis was increased in 18 and unchanged in eight. Cholesterol rose in 12 other patients but only 4 showed an increase in atherosclerosis. A Mayo Clinic study similarly found that in all patients whose cholesterols had decreased by more than 60, there was a significant increase in coronary atherosclerosis. 5. High cholesterol does not increase risk for heart attacks or other coronary events in people older than 65, women of any age, as well as patients with diabetes or renal failure. Senior citizens with high cholesterols have significantly fewer infections and live longer than low cholesterol controls. In familial hypercholesterolemia, there is no association between the very high cholesterol and LDL levels and a corresponding increased incidence or prevalence of coronary disease. 6. The huge and lengthy MRFIT study (Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial) was designed to prove the links between diet, cholesterol, and other Framingham risk factors with heart disease. Cholesterol consumption was cut by 42 percent, and saturated fat consumption by 28 percent and on long-term follow-up, those adhering to this dietary fat restriction had slightly lower coronary heart disease death rates. ----However, this benefit was far outweighed by significantly increased total mortality rates, especially from hemorrhagic stroke, cancer, suicide, accidents and violence. The risk of dying from a cerebral hemorrhage was 500% greater in those with low cholesterol compared to those with high levels. In most other studies, the incidence of stroke was higher in those who ate less saturated fat. Excerpted, with permission, from: Health and Stress, The Newsletter of The American Institute of Stress. ( http://www.stress.org ) Paul J. Rosch, M.D., M.A., F.A.C.P. President of The American Institute of Stress, Clinical Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at New York Medical College, Honorary Vice President of the International Stress Management Association and Chairman of its U.S. branch. ************************************************************************ Poison in the kitchen...How tap water could damage your brain, blind or even kill you As he dipped his hand into the River Wear to quench his thirst, William Sproat could not have known he was about to unleash the horror of cholera on Britain.Sunderland in 1831 was a hectic place. The Industrial Revolution was redefining our cities, while filth and squalor grew with urban populations. A robust boatman, Sproat spent his working life plying the Wear in heavily loaded coal barges. He did not know that a deadly bacteria lurked in its depths.-Within hours of drinking from the river, Sproat was racked by vomiting fits and excruciating stomach cramp.--Most water-borne diseases kill, ironically, by dehydrating their victims. Sproat's wife and two children watched in horror as his pulse faded and his face took on a deathly pallor.--Cholera strikes quickly. Within a day or two, its victims are writhing, immobilised in its terrifying grip.--The parasite that causes the disease comes to life in the warmth of the human gut and depends on its unfortunate host for survival.--Three days later, there was so little blood flowing to Sproat's brain that he fell into a coma. As death moved in, his fingers and legs turned dark blue. Scroll down for more...   Dr Robert Morris says that we should all use water filters in our homes which are properly installed and maintained - they give water that is often safer than bottled water---On the night of October 23, Sproat succumbed to the 'blue death' of cholera.--Within hours, the highly contagious disease also had the boatman's son and granddaughter in its awful grasp.---Asiatic cholera had arrived in Britain; Sproat was its first victim.---Soon, the country was in the grip of an epidemic - but no one knew what caused this disease, or how to cure it.---Desperate relatives tried every potential remedy: emetics to induce vomiting, enemas made with turpentine in gruel, or a poultice of bran wrapped around the legs of the victim.----With winter, cholera receded in the UK, but it continued to ravage warmer climes. By 1846, it had taken hold in the Middle East, killing 12,000 people in Tehran and 30,000 in Baghdad.---In just one night in 1847, 3,000 pilgrims died at Mecca in Saudi Arabia.---In 1848, it returned with a vengeance to British shores. What was causing this virulent disease? The prevailing medical science of the time suggested it must be caused by a miasma, a foul smelling, airborne poison.---A British doctor, John Snow, suspected otherwise. In 1849, he put forward his theory that cholera is spread through microscopic agents in water.---He tracked an outbreak in Soho, central London, to a single public pump.---A total of 623 people died in this outbreak - before Dr Snow removed the handle from the Broad Street pump, stopping people using it and thus halting cholera in its tracks.---This was a medical breakthrough which redefined our understanding of the world.---Initially, Dr Snow was greeted with derision and disbelief, but his work led to a revolution in the way we look at our water supplies.---His early research inspired my investigation into modern-day water and its impact on our health.---Beneath the world's streets, water races through pipes to fill tens of billions of glasses and bottles each day.---This year, the Government has launched a campaign to curb the £2 billion we spend each year on bottled water and opt instead for 'safe' tap water. But how safe is it?-For millions of years, intimate knowledge about the source of water was among the most important pieces of information our ancestors carried. Perhaps they were wiser men than we. Today, that intimacy is lost. We turn on a tap and water flows as if by magic. Most of us have little awareness of its source. We assume it will be there. We assume it will be safe. The road to disaster is paved with assumptions. We assume waterborne disease happens in the developing world, yet the largest outbreak of such a disease in U.S. history happened in 1993, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.---An outbreak of illness caused by cryptosporidium, a micro-organism in water that causes stomach upsets, hit 400,000.---Some 4,000 people were hospitalised, and more than 100 died. Evidence is mounting that our Government has underestimated the risks from cryptosporidium.---A detailed report on an outbreak of the disease in Oxfordshire in 1989 - when 400 people required treatment - criticised Whitehall and the water industry for dragging their feet over research.---The only thing that separates us from more outbreaks is the system we have developed to transport and treat sewage and drinking water.---The operation of our water supplies is, to most of us, invisible. Invisibility encourages complacency. We have come to think of these systems as fail- safe, but the technology for treating most of our drinking water is almost a century old.---Most water purification plants were not originally designed to remove chemical contaminants.---At least some of the water from these ageing plants is treated sewage. Farm run-off and industrial waste also get into treatment tanks.--Studies have shown that some of the bacteria from these sources make their way into drinking water supplies, causing illness.----Between 1993 and 2003, there were 4,000 officially recorded incidents of waterborne disease in Britain. The real figure is likely to be far higher. Around half those cases were caused by cryptosporidium.---These diseases are not as deadly as cholera, but it is possible this may not always hold true.---And the question remains: how can we ensure that our drinking water is clean enough? Should we be drinking treated sewage? Sewage treatment decreases the number of disease-carrying bacteria, called pathogens, in waste water, but it does not eliminate them.--Instead, water companies dangerously assume any pathogens in their supplies will disappear in vast reservoirs or die before they can reach the intake pipe.--The history of drinking water is a story of disaster and response. From cholera to cryptosporidium, disasters have forced change. We now face new risks: emerging diseases, changing climates, poorly understood pollutants, terrorism, decaying infrastructure and 'gender bending' chemicals.---In 2002, U.S. researchers found 82 different pharmaceutical compounds in lakes and rivers. This and other studies have found oestrogen - the female sex hormone - to be one of the most commonly found chemicals.---Many of these chemicals have also been found in water supplies across the UK, while scientists have shown that oestrogen in water supplies alters the sex of fish in rivers.-Many other chemicals widely present in waste water have been shown to mimic the effects of oestrogen.---All of these chemicals can - and do - reach water treatment plants, most of which were not designed to remove them.---Whether these chemicals are present in drinking water at concentrations high enough to affect human health remains a controversial subject - but the risk is there.---Another danger is toxoplasmosis, a chlorine-resistant bacteria which causes flu-like symptoms initially, but can spread and cause devastating damage to the delicate neurological network in the brain.---It causes blindness, mental retardation and even death.---Then there is the issue of 'chlorination' itself, the process designed to disinfect water.---A mainstay of water treatment, adding chlorine to our supply appears to create chemicals that cause cancer and may injure developing human embryos.---There is evidence it may lead to miscarriage and even birth defects.---A recent study suggesting the cancer risk may arise from inhalation of fumes, rather than ingestion, makes this even more daunting.---At the same time, chlorine resistant pathogens are developing.----Then there is the problem of chemical pollution of our water. Modern industry produces and releases tens of thousands of different chemicals into our water supplies.--Regulators focus on single chemicals as they evaluate risk and set standards. Logistics and costs tend to limit their scope to the carcinogenic offenders. As a consequence, we make the implicit assumption that unexamined risks do not exist.---Terrorism is the newest threat to our water. In February 2002, four terrorists were seized in a Rome apartment with sealed containers holding four kilos of a cyanide compound.---Beside it lay a map of the city's water distribution system, and the location of the U.S. embassy.--A raid by the Italian anti-terrorist squad thwarted this attack, but it highlighted a new and dangerous risk to our water supplies.---So what can be done to make our water safer?---Bottled water is not the answer. The production of all that plastic has a hefty environmental impact, causing more water pollution.---The water inside may not offer the benefits we imagine. Despite costing almost 1,000 times more than tap water, there is no guarantee that bottled water is safer.---It is less closely regulated than tap water, and is not required to meet stricter standards for purity.---Instead, we should be relying on a safe, local supply of water. Improvements to our system need to include a vigorous effort to develop and implement alternatives to chlorination, such as treatment with ozone, a blue gas which is a powerful and less toxic disinfectant. We should all use water filters in our homes[U3]. Properly installed and maintained, they provide an extra measure of protection and give water that is often safer than bottled water, with far less environmental impact.----They can eliminate pathogens that our treatment plants fail to remove and protect us from chemicals and the by-products of chlorination.---Every waterborne outbreak I have studied could have been prevented by the universal use of home filters.---We also need to be more demanding of our water companies. There is better technology available than we are using at the moment, including filter systems that squeeze water through tiny hollow fibres and out through holes 200 times smaller than cryptosporidium.---But it is expensive, and few water firms worldwide invest in the equipment. Why should they when we seem content to drink what they give us?---We also need to develop realistic plans for sustainable water supplies or we will find a planet at war over water.---Think when you next turn on the tap. Water is the ultimate resource. The world has it in abundance, but accessible, safe water is scarce, and we would be wise to protect it.---Instead, we have forgotten the lessons of history and expect our water supply to work as we focus on other problems.---We do so at our peril.--- ************************************************************************ The Impact of Science on Society--START ************************************************************************ Supplements: The dirty dozen Working with experts from the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database, an independent research group, we identified a group of ingredients (out of nearly 1,100 in the database) linked to serious adverse events by clinical research or case reports. To come up with our dozen finalists, we also considered factors such as whether the ingredients were effective for their purported uses and how readily available they were to consumers. We then shopped for them online and in stores near our Yonkers, N.Y., headquarters and easily found all of them for sale in June 2010. ---[U4]The dozen are aconite, bitter orange, chaparral, colloidal silver, coltsfoot, comfrey, country mallow, germanium, greater celandine, kava, lobelia, and yohimbe. The FDA has warned about at least eight of them, some as long ago as 1993. ---Why are they still for sale? Two national retailers we contacted about specific supplements said they carried them because the FDA has not banned them. The agency has "the authority to immediately remove them from the market, and we would follow the FDA recommendation," said a spokeswoman for the Vitamin Shoppe chain. ---Most of the products we bought had warning labels, but not all did. A bottle of silver we purchased was labeled "perfectly safe," with an asterisked note that said the FDA had not evaluated the claim. In fact, the FDA issued a consumer advisory about silver (including colloidal silver) in 2009, with good reason: Sold for its supposed immune system "support," it can permanently turn skin bluish-gray. ---Janis Dowd, 56, of Bartlesville, Okla., says she started taking colloidal silver in 2000 after reading online that it would keep her Lyme disease from returning. She says her skin changed color so gradually that she didn't notice, but others did. "They kept saying, 'You look a little blue.'" ---Laser treatments have erased almost all the discoloration from Dowd's face and neck, but she said it's not feasible to treat the rest of her body. ---Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), it is difficult for the FDA to put together strong enough evidence to order products off the market. To date, it has banned only one ingredient, ephedrine alkaloids. That effort dragged on for a decade, during which ephedra weight-loss products were implicated in thousands of adverse events, including deaths. [U5]Instead of attempting any more outright bans, the agency issued warnings, detained imported products, and asked companies to recall products it considered unsafe. ************************************************************************ TOP C [U1]I find very little cofort that the FDA says anything is safe there track record is anything but excellent ---when it comes to big business demands and safety for the citizens the FDA = Business---the only time they get involved is to remove whatever is healthy and competes with the new introduced poison that the globalist wish to introduce [U2]Any credible study in the past took 20 years to see the full impact of the new tech or science—as per usual the supporters are always there to move the people in a direction and then later within 1-5 years the fallout begins and initially Doctors are mistreating there patients due to the lack of real information tied to the drugs or food that have been treated with something or manipulated [U3]This gives a false sense of security at best---reason being a lot of these so called water filters accumalate bacteria and allow chemicals to pass through again allowing for potential worse infection due to the accumalation of these chemicals and pathogens may in fact be more concentrated---best to have a filteration system like an RO system or distilled water and then add eitheriodine or GSE or Peroxide to the water or all 3 [U4]None of these are any more dangerous and even less so then the pharmaceutical drugs that are sold over the counter---I find this ironic that aspirin has not been banned or turned into a prescription drug being hat it has killed more then any other drug in amercia or canada [U5]The Only reason ephedra was banned was the excuse of sports contamination and the fact they were making some kind of escatsy---all BS reason---the other end of the coin is that it really worked in the reduction of body mass and allowed asthmatics to breathe easier as well and was a good respiratory aid and allowed for better brain ALERTNESS Now if anyone died from this it was a direct or indirect result of abusing this---the Gov’t had to no real reason to ban this other ten the fact the drug companies did not want the competition ******************************************************************************************************** TOP D HOME   Show of the Week August 13 2010   Tattooing Linked to Higher Risk of Hepatitis C Flying and Radiation Risk Experienced Pilots May Be At Risk Of DNA Damage From Ionizing Radiation Cosmic Radiation Associated With Risk Of Cataract In Airline Pilots The uses and properties of almond oil Pancreatic Cancers Use Fructose, Common in the Western Diet, to Fuel Their Growth ************************************************************************ Tattooing Linked to Higher Risk of Hepatitis C ScienceDaily (Aug. 7, 2010) — Youth, prison inmates and individuals with multiple tattoos that cover large parts of their bodies are at higher risk of contracting hepatitis C and other blood-borne diseases, according to a University of British Columbia study.---The researchers reviewed and analysed 124 studies from 30 countries, including Canada, Iran, Italy, Brazil and the United States, and found the incidence of hepatitis C after tattooing is directly linked with the number of tattoos an individual receives. The findings are published in the current issue of the International Journal of Infectious Diseases.---Tattoos have become increasingly popular in recent years. In the U.S., an estimated 36 per cent of people under 30 have tattoos. In Canada, approximately eight per cent of high school students have at least one tattoo and 21 per cent of those who don't have one want one. During tattooing, the skin is punctured 80 to 150 times a second in order to inject color pigments.----"Since tattoo instruments come in contact with blood and bodily fluids, infections may be transmitted if instruments are used on more than one person without being sterilized or without proper hygiene techniques," says lead author Dr. Siavash Jafari, a Community Medicine Resident in the UBC School of Population and Public Health (SPPH).---"Furthermore, tattoo dyes are not kept in sterile containers and may play a carrier role in transmitting infections," says Jafari. "Clients and the general public need to be educated on the risks associated with tattooing, and tattoo artists need to discuss harms with clients."---Other risks of tattooing identified by the study include allergic reactions, HIV, hepatitis B, bacterial or fungal infections, and other risks associated with tattoo removal.---The researchers are calling for infection-control guidelines for tattoo artists and clients, and enforcement of these guidelines through inspections, reporting of adverse events and record-keeping. They also recommend prevention programs that focus on youth -- the population who are most likely to get tattoos -- and prisoners -- who face a higher prevalence of hepatitis C -- to lower the spread of hepatitis infection. In Canada, 12 to 25 per cent of hepatitis C infections among prisoners are associated with tattooed individuals, compared to six per cent of the general population.--The chemical ingredients in tattoo dyes can include house paint, ink from computer printers, or industrial carbon. Toxic contents of some tattoo inks may be entering the kidney, lungs and lympth nodes through the circulatory system. The study also revealed a new trend among youth to get tattooed with glow-in-the-dark ink, the risks of which are not yet known.----Co-authors of the study include Assoc. Prof. Jane Buxton from SPPH and the BC Centre for Disease Control; Mahyar Etminan, a scientist with the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation at Vancouver General Hospital and the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute; Dr. Ray Copes, clinical professor at SPPH and Dr. Souzan Baharlou with the Department of Urology at BC Children's Hospital.---Story Source--The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of British Columbia.---Journal Reference---Siavash Jafari, Ray Copes, Souzan Baharlou, Mahyar Etminan, Jane Buxton. Tattooing and the risk of transmission of hepatitis C: a systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Infectious Diseases, 2010; DOI: 10.1016/j.ijid.2010.03.019 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Flying and Radiation Risk Physicist Calls for Airline Industry to Educate Workers about Radiation Levels September 1, 2005 — At the high altitudes and latitudes commercial airlines fly, crews are subjected to higher-than-normal radiation levels from the sun and cosmic rays. Physicist Robert Barish believes airline crew members are exposing themselves to more radiation than almost any other occupation and is calling for the airline industry to better educate workers about radiation. ---NEW YORK--Most careers have an occupational hazard, but frequent fliers may be exposed to cosmic radiation and not even know it. ---We all know the risks when we fly, but one risk we don't know about comes from what's in the sky. Captain Joyce May, a commercial airline pilot, says, "By the time you're at normal jet cruising altitude of, say, 39,000 feet, the total radiation is about 64 times greater than what it is at sea level." --May fears fellow crewmembers and frequent business fliers don't know the risk of cosmic radiation from solar flares. She says, "Aircrew members, by-and-large, are unaware of this issue." ---Robert Barish, physicist and author of "The Invisible Passenger: Radiation Risks For People Who Fly," says, "The sun is really a big thermo-nuclear device." Barish believes airline crewmembers are exposing themselves to more radiation than almost any other occupation. He says, "People who work in the nuclear power industry on an average basis are getting 1.6. There are people who fly in airplanes who are getting 2 or 3 or 4 milliSieverts per year. So they are truly radiation workers." ---Everyone is exposed to some radiation every day. The sun constantly emits charged particles that intensify during solar flares. Normally, the earth's atmosphere absorbs much of this, but at the high altitudes and latitudes airliners fly, crews are subjected to higher radiation levels and possibly are at higher risk for developing cancer. In Europe, it is mandatory flight crews be educated about cosmic radiation, but that's not the case in the United States. ---The risk is not the same for everyone. Casual fliers have nothing to worry about. Only people who fly at least once or twice a week.---BACKGROUND: Airline pilots and flight crews may be exposed to higher radiation levels and therefore greater risk of developing cancer.---WHAT ARE SOLAR FLARES: Deep inside, the sun produces energy by joining atoms of hydrogen, and these nuclear reactions produce the heat and light from the sun. The earth's magnetic field protects us from most of the sun's radiation, and so does our atmosphere. The sun's surface also has magnetic fields, stronger in some places than others, and occasionally the magnetic fields can become twisted. A solar flare is a tremendous explosion on the sun that occurs when energy stored in a "twisted" magnetic field is suddenly released. This produces a burst of radiation across the entire spectrum, from radio waves to X-rays and gamma rays.---HOW RADIATION AFFECTS CELLS: Most of us are aware that the sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation can damage surface skin cells, even leading to skin cancers, but at high energies it can become ionizing radiation. Ions are electrically charged atoms, a byproduct of a high-energy light ray (X-rays or gamma rays) knocking electrons off of atoms. The resulting free electrons then collide with other atoms to create even more ions. This is dangerous because an ion's electrical charge can lead to unnatural chemical reactions inside cells. It can break DNA chains, causing the cell to either die or develop a mutation and become cancerous, which can then spread. And if the mutation occurs in a sperm or egg, the result can be birth defects, which is why pregnant women should never be subjected to X-rays.---HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH: Not all of the radiation from a solar flare reaches the earth at the level where we live, but commercial aircraft fly at much higher altitudes where the earth's magnetic field is weaker. So higher levels of radiation may be present. Still, the levels of radiation aren't all that dangerous: on a par with an X-ray or CT scan. This could still be harmful to pregnant women, however, and pilots and flight crew fly so frequently that over time, they receive much larger doses of radiation. Although most studies to date have shown no ill effects from this exposure, the effect can add up over long periods of time.   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Experienced Pilots May Be At Risk Of DNA Damage From Ionizing Radiation ScienceDaily (Dec. 16, 2008) — Airline pilots who have flown for many years may be at risk of DNA damage from prolonged exposure to cosmic ionising radiation, suggests a study published ahead of print in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.--The research team compared the rate of chromosomal (DNA) abnormalities in blood samples taken from 83 airline pilots and 50 university faculty members from the same US city. The two groups were matched for age (35 to 56), sex (male), and smoking habit (light or non-smokers). Age and smoking are known risk factors for cumulative DNA damage. Fifty eight of the pilots (70%) had served in the military, and they had undertaken significantly more personal air travel than the university staff. Both these factors would have exposed them to more ionising radiation.-The researchers were looking in particular for the number of times pairs of chromosomes had changed places (translocations), expressed as a score per 100 cell equivalents (CE).-Chromosome translocations are a reliable indicator of cumulative DNA damage associated with radiation exposure as they are not rapidly eliminated from the blood like other forms of chromosomal abnormality.--The average frequency of chromosome translocation was higher among the pilots than the faculty staff (0.39 compared with 0.32/100 CE), but after adjusting for age and other influential factors, there was no difference.--But when the analysis focused on how long pilots had been flying, differences emerged.--The chromosome translocation frequency of those who had flown the most was more than twice that of those who had flown the least, after taking age into account.--Adjusting for the impact of cigarette smoking, personal air travel, and diagnostic x-ray procedures did not affect these findings.--Chromosomal abnormalities have been associated with an increased risk of cancer. And the authors conclude that their results suggest that highly experienced flight pilots may be exposed to "biologically significant doses of ionising radiation."Story Source -The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by BMJ-British Medical Journal, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cosmic Radiation Associated With Risk Of Cataract In Airline Pilots ScienceDaily (Aug. 9, 2005) — CHICAGO -- Airline pilots have an increased risk of nuclear cataracts [common type of cataract, associated with aging] compared with non-pilots, and that risk is associated with cumulative exposure to cosmic radiation, according to a study in the August issue of Archives of Ophthalmology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. ---Commercial airline pilots are reported to be at an increased risk for some cancers, but studies on the biological effects of their exposure to cosmic radiation have been limited, according to background information in the article. Previous studies have shown that cataracts can be caused by exposure to radiation, including a recent study of astronauts showing an association of incidence of cataracts with space radiation at exposure levels comparable to those of commercial airline pilots. ---Vilhjalmur Rafnsson, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Iceland, Reykjavik, and colleagues conducted a case control study involved 445 men to determine whether employment as a pilot is associated with lens opacification. The cases included 71 men with nuclear cataract, and the controls (n = 374) were those men with different types of lens opacification or without lens opacification. Among the 445 men, 79 were commercial pilots and 366 had never been pilots. All participants in the study were 50 years or older and other factors that contribute to cataract risk, including smoking, age and sunbathing, were controlled for in the statistical analysis. Exposure to cosmic radiation was assessed based on employment time as pilots, annual number of hours flown on each aircraft type, time tables, flight profiles and individual cumulative radiation doses calculated by computer. ---Among the 71 cases with nuclear cataract, 15 were employed as commercial pilots, whereas among the 374 controls (without nuclear cataract), 64 were employed as pilots. "The odds ratio for nuclear cataract risk among cases and controls was 3.02 for pilots compared with nonpilots, adjusted for age, smoking status, and sunbathing habits," the researchers report. The researchers found an association between the estimated cumulative radiation dose and the risk of nuclear cataract. --"The association between the cosmic radiation exposure of pilots and the risk of nuclear cataracts, adjusted for age, smoking status, and sunbathing habits, indicates that cosmic radiation may be a causative factor in nuclear cataracts among commercial airline pilots," the authors conclude. (Arch Ophthalmol. 2005; 123:1102-1105. Available pre-embargo to the media at --www.jamamedia.org.) ---Editor's Note: This study was supported by a grant from the University of Iceland Research Fund, and the Helga Jonsdottir and Sigurlidi Kristjansson Memorial Fund, Reykjavik, Iceland. All of the authors have frequently traveled on Icelandair and other airline companies. They have no financial connections with the airline company or the pilots' union. Story Source--The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by JAMA and Archives Journals. ************************************************************************ The uses and properties of almond oil. Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2010 Feb;16(1):10-2--Authors: Ahmad Z Almond oil [Oleum amygdalae] has long been used in complementary medicine circles for its numerous health benefits. Although no conclusive scientific data exists currently, almonds and almond oil have many properties including anti-inflammatory, immunity-boosting and anti-hepatotoxicity effects. Further, associations between almond oil and improved bowel transit have been made, which consequently reduces irritable bowel syndrome symptoms. Further, some studies show a reduced incidence of colonic cancer. Moreover, cardiovascular benefits have also been identified with almond oil elevating the levels of so-called 'good cholesterol', high-density lipoproteins (HDL), whilst it reduces low-density lipoproteins (LDL). Historically, almond oil had been used in Ancient Chinese, Ayurvedic and Greco-Persian schools of Medicine to treat dry skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema. Further, it is through anecdotal evidence and clinical experiences that almond oil seemingly reduces hypertrophic scarring post-operatively, smoothes and rejuvenates skin. Almond oil has emollient and sclerosant properties and, therefore, has been used to improve complexion and skin tone. Further studies looking into the use of almond oil post-operatively for the reduction of scarring are suggested. PMID: 20129403 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] ************************************************************************ Pancreatic Cancers Use Fructose, Common in the Western Diet, to Fuel Their Growth ScienceDaily (Aug. 5, 2010) — Pancreatic cancers use the sugar fructose, very common in the Western diet, to activate a key cellular pathway that drives cell division, helping the cancer to grow more quickly, a study by researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has found.--Although it's widely known that cancers use glucose, a simple sugar, to fuel their growth, this is the first time a link has been shown between fructose and cancer proliferation, said Dr. Anthony Heaney, an associate professor of medicine and neurosurgery, a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher and senior author of the study. ---"The bottom line is the modern diet contains a lot of refined sugar including fructose and it's a hidden danger implicated in a lot of modern diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and fatty liver," said Heaney, who also serves as director of the Pituitary Tumor and Neuroendocrine Program at UCLA. "In this study, we show that cancers can use fructose just as readily as glucose to fuel their growth."---The study appeared in the Aug. 1 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Cancer Research.---Sources of fructose in the Western diet include cane sugar (sucrose) and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a corn-based sweetener that has been on the market since about 1970. HFCS accounts for more than 40 percent of the caloric sweeteners added to foods and beverages, and it is the sole sweetener used in American soft drinks.Between 1970 and 1990, the consumption of HFCS in the U.S. has increased over 1,000 percent, according to an article in the April 2004 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Food companies use HFCS -- a mixture of fructose and glucose -- because it's inexpensive, easy to transport and keeps foods moist. And because it is so sweet, it's cost effective for companies to use small quantities of HCFS in place of more expensive sweeteners or flavorings. In his study, Heaney and his team took pancreatic tumors from patients and cultured and grew the malignant cells in petri dishes. They then added glucose to one set of cells and fructose to another. Using mass spectrometry, they were able to follow the carbon-labeled sugars in the cells to determine what exactly they were being used for and how.---Heaney found that the pancreatic cancer cells could easily distinguish between glucose and fructose even though they are very similar structurally, and contrary to conventional wisdom, the cancer cells metabolized the sugars in very different ways. In the case of fructose, the pancreatic cancer cells used the sugar in the transketolase-driven non-oxidative pentose phosphate pathway to generate nucleic acids, the building blocks of RNA and DNA, which the cancer cells need to divide and proliferate.---"Traditionally, glucose and fructose have been considered as interchangeable monosaccharide substrates that are similarly metabolized, and little attention has been given to sugars other than glucose," the study states. "However, fructose intake has increased dramatically in recent decades and cellular uptake of glucose and fructose uses distinct transporters ... these findings show that cancer cells can readily metabolize fructose to increase proliferation. They have major significance for cancer patients, given dietary refined fructose consumption."---As in anti-smoking campaigns, a federal effort should be launched to reduce refined fructose intake, Heaney said.---"I think this paper has a lot of public health implications," Heaney said. "Hopefully, at the federal level there will be some effort to step back on the amount of HFCS in our diets."---Heaney said that while this study was done in pancreatic cancer, these finding may not be unique to that cancer type.--Going forward, Heaney and his team are exploring whether it's possible to block the uptake of fructose in the cancer cells with a small molecule, taking away one of the fuels they need to grow. The work is being done in cell lines and in mice, Heaney said.---The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Hirschberg Foundation and the Jonsson Cancer Center.--Story Source---The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.---Journal Reference--Haibo Liu, Danshan Huang, David L. Mcarthur, Laszlo G. Boros, Nicholas Nissen, and Anthony P. Heaney. Fructose Induces Transketolase Flux to Promote Pancreatic Cancer Growth. Cancer Research, August 1, 2010 70:6368-6376; Published OnlineFirst July 20, 2010 DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-09-4615 TOP D   ******************************************************************************************************* TOP E HOME   Show of the Week August 16 2010   WHO chief says H1N1 flu pandemic is over ED supplement causes 'worrisome' heartbeat changes Vitamin B3 as a Novel Approach to Treat Fungal Infections Russia Burns (Radiation Alert) Radioprotective Health Supporting foods and Herbs and supplements Subcategories-- Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) baths -- Cysteine hydrochloride -- Radioprotective Herbs -- Alkalinizers to Remove Uranium and other Radioisotopes -- Herbs and Supplements For Anti-Radiation - Evaluation of silymarin as a promising radioprotector- Formulations and Recipes -- Plant Antioxidant May Protect Against Radiation Exposure -- The antiradiation properties of the ecdysteroid-containing compounds-- Naringin, a citrus flavonone, protects against radiation-induced chromosome damage in mouse bone marrow-- The grapefruit flavanone naringin protects against the radiation-induced genomic instability in the mice bone marrow -- Enhancement of antiradiation potential of some aminothiols by beta-carotene -- Caffeine protects mice against whole-body lethal dose of gamma-irradiation -- Radioprotective potential of Rosemarinus officinalis against lethal effects of gamma radiation-- Radioprotective effects of Aloe vera leaf extract on Swiss albino mice against whole-body gamma irradiation. -- Radioprotective influence of Mentha piperita (Linn) against gamma irradiation in mice: Antioxidant and radical scavenging activity ************************************************************************************************************************ WHO chief says H1N1 flu pandemic is over GENEVA (Reuters) - The H1N1 pandemic is over and the global outbreak turned out to be much less severe than was feared just over a year ago, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on [U1]Tuesday.---WHO director-general Margaret Chan once again rebutted criticism that the United Nations agency had hyped the first pandemic in more than 40 years[U2], whose mildness left some Western governments holding huge stockpiles of unused vaccines.---The Hong Kong public health expert said the world had been lucky the H1N1 virus had not mutated into a more deadly form and that a safe vaccine developed in record time remained effective against it.---"We are now moving into the post-pandemic period. The new H1N1 virus has largely run its course," Chan said.---"That was the right call," she said, defending the decision taken in June last year to declare a pandemic.---The swine flu virus will continue to circulate as part of seasonal influenza for years to come, requiring health authorities to remain vigilant, she told a news conference.---[U3]It still threatens high-risk groups including pregnant women who would benefit from vaccination, she said.---Stockpiled H1N1 vaccines remain effective against the strain and so far the virus has not developed widespread resistance to the antiviral oseltamivir, the best treatment, she said.[U4]--The WHO's downgrading of the H1N1 outbreak to "post-pandemic" was based on recommendations by external influenza experts who conducted a review earlier in the day.---"I think even if we see severe outbreaks occurring in some countries -- which is still definitely possible -- that the global threat is really much lower and much different than a year ago," Keiji Fukuda, WHO's top flu expert, told reporters.--[U5]---CONTINUED VIGILANCE---In June 2009, the WHO said a new swine flu virus, H1N1, that emerged in the United States and Mexico and spread around the world in six weeks, was the first pandemic since 1968. A full pandemic corresponds to phase 6 on the WHO's six-point scale.---"We need to continue to maintain our vigilance and not be complacent," Chan said, noting that outbreaks continued in countries including India and New Zealand.---[U6]The behavior of influenza viruses is notoriously difficult to predict and no two pandemics are alike, flu experts say."I am very pleased that European member states prepared for something worse. I'd rather have it go that way than their planning for less or not being prepared at all," Angus Nicoll, influenza program coordinator at the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, told Reuters Tuesday.---The WHO has also rejected allegations that it acted under the influence of drug companies in declaring a pandemic.---[U7]Chan said that three viruses were now circulating as part of a "mixed virus pattern" in many countries, typically seen during seasonal epidemics. These were H1N1 and H3N2 -- both type 'A' influenza -- as well as type 'B'.---Either H1N1 vaccine or a trivalent (triple shot) vaccine against the three strains should be used to inoculate those at risk, depending on their availability, she said.---"Pandemic and seasonal vaccine in both hemispheres confer the same protection (against H1N1)," Fukuda said.An estimated 350 million people worldwide have been vaccinated against H1N1, he said.---Dozens of companies make influenza vaccines, including Sanofi-Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, AstraZeneca and CSL. Roche makes the frontline antiviral oseltamivir, marketed as Tamiflu.---The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the WHO pronouncement will not alter U.S. plans for the upcoming flu season. The CDC recommends that everyone over 6 months of age be vaccinated against seasonal flu this year, the most universal recommendation yet for flu vaccines.--[U8]The CDC said vaccine manufacturers are predicting an ample supply of U.S. flu vaccine, which will protect against the 2009 H1N1 swine flu virus, plus the most common strains of the H3N2 and the influenza B virus.---The CDC last month said manufacturers have forecast they will have 170 million doses of flu vaccine for the 2010-2011 U.S. flu season.--Some 18,450 people worldwide are confirmed to have died from H1N1 infections, including many pregnant women and young people. But WHO says that it will take at least a year after the pandemic ends to determine the true death toll, which is likely to be much higher.--Seasonal flu kills an estimated 500,000 people a year, 90 percent of them frail elderly people, according to the WHO. [U9]The 1957 and 1968 pandemics killed about 2 million and 1 million people, respectively, it says.--(Additional reporting by Laura MacInnis and Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Louise Ireland and Cynthia Osterman.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   ED supplement causes 'worrisome' heartbeat changes NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Enzyte, a popular dietary supplement marketed for "male enhancement," causes electrical abnormalities in the heart that could be potentially fatal in some people, new research suggests.---Doctors should tell their patients not to use the product until more safety information is available[U10], Dr. Brian F. McBride of Loyola University Chicago in Maywood, Illinois, and his colleagues conclude. Vianda, the Cincinnati-based company that makes Enzyte, did not respond to calls or emails seeking comment.--According to Vianda's Web site, Enzyte promotes "firmer, stronger, fuller-feeling erections." The company also states that "over 5 million men worldwide" use the supplement.---Because Enzyte is regulated as a dietary supplement, the company is not required to provide data to back up claims of its effectiveness.---Under U.S. law, dietary supplements are also "'presumed safe unless proven to be otherwise,'" Dr. Paul Shekelle of RAND Health in Santa Monica, California, notes in an editorial accompanying the study, which is published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.---After being given the supplement, men in the study showed a prolongation of a section of the heart's electrical cycle known as the QT interval. For people with a condition called long QT syndrome, which may occur in as many as one in 2,000 people, further prolongation like that seen in the current study could lead to severe heart arrhythmia and sudden death[U11].----"Enzyte appears to have some of the properties of some of the most powerful heart controlling medications that we give by prescription," McBride told Reuters Health.--McBride and his team had nine healthy young men take either a placebo, the equivalent of half a tablet of Enzyte, a whole tablet, or two tablets, and then performed an EKG one, three, and five hours later.----With the single-tablet dose, the researchers found, the men's QT intervals increased by an average of about 8 percent, or 32 milliseconds, three hours after they took the drug; at five hours, it had increased by 11 percent, or 37 milliseconds. No patients developed abnormal heart rhythms or prolonged erections, but four developed skin flushing.----Reports of sudden death in users of cisapride (the ulcer drug Propulsid) and terfenadine (the antihistamine Seldane), which prolonged QT intervals by an average of 13 and 17 milliseconds, respectively, prompted the Food and Drug Administration to pull these products off the market, the researchers point out.[U12]----Determining the risks of dietary supplements can be extremely difficult, notes McBride, especially those that are marketed for an "embarrassing" condition like impotence. Many men using these supplements don't want to tell their doctor, he added, so adverse effects may go unreported.---"This creates a relatively anonymous patient population at an elevated risk for drug-induced sudden death," he and his colleagues write. [U13]Enzyte's ingredients include niacin, copper, zinc, ginseng, Ginkgo biloba, "horny goat weed standardized extract," and several other herbal components, according to the company's Web site. While the flushing seen in some of the men could be related to niacin, McBride and his colleagues write, it's impossible to say which substances might be responsible for prolonging QT intervals[U14].---Another concern, the researchers note, is the fact that men taking the supplement in the real world are likely to be older and sicker than the young men in the study, which means they may already be at higher risk for heart arrhythmias. In his editorial, Shekelle calls the findings "worrisome," but notes that the researchers did not look at actual adverse outcomes in patients, just EKG changes that may or may not lead to "serious health outcomes."---Nevertheless, he adds, "their conclusion that clinicians should advise their patients to avoid this dietary supplement until more evidence is available seems justified and prudent."[U15] ************************************************************************************************************************ Vitamin B3 as a Novel Approach to Treat Fungal Infections A team of scientists from the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer of the University of Montreal have identified vitamin B3 as a potential antifungal treatment.)---ScienceDaily (Aug. 10, 2010) — A team of scientists from the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) of the University of Montreal have identified vitamin B3 as a potential antifungal treatment.---Led by IRIC Principal Investigators Martine Raymond, Alain Verreault and Pierre Thibault, in collaboration with Alaka Mullick, from the Biotechnology Research Institute of the National Research Council Canada, the study is the subject of a recent article in Nature Medicine. Infections by the yeast Candida albicans represent a significant public health problem and a common complication in immunodeficient individuals such as AIDS patients, cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and recipients of organ transplants. While some treatments are available, their efficacy can be compromised by the emergence of drug-resistant strains.---The current study shows that a C. albicans enzyme, known as Hst3, is essential to the growth and survival of the yeast. Researchers found that genetic or pharmacological inhibition of Hst3 with nicotinamide, a form of vitamin B3, strongly reduced C. albicans virulence in a mouse model. Both normal and drug-resistant strains of C. albicans were susceptible to nicotinamide. In addition, nicotinamide prevented the growth of other pathogenic Candida species and Aspergillus fumigatus (another human pathogen), thus demonstrating the broad antifungal properties of nicotinamide.----"There is an urgent need to develop new therapies to kill C. albicans because it is one of the leading causes of hospital-acquired infections and is associated with high mortality rates," explains Martine Raymond, who is also a professor at the University of Montreal Department of Biochemistry. "Although many issues remain to be investigated, the results of our study are very exciting and they constitute an important first step in the development of new therapeutic agents to treat fungal infections without major side effects for patients."-Martine Raymond is Principal Investigator in the Yeast Molecular Biology Laboratory. Alain Verreault is Principal Investigator in the Chromosome Biogenesis Laboratory. Pierre Thibault is Principal Investigator in the Proteomics and Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Laboratory. The research received funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.---Story Source:---The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of Montreal, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.---Journal Reference---Hugo Wurtele, Sarah Tsao, Guylaine Lépine, Alaka Mullick, Jessy Tremblay, Paul Drogaris, Eun-Hye Lee, Pierre Thibault, Alain Verreault, Martine Raymond. Modulation of histone H3 lysine 56 acetylation as an antifungal therapeutic strategy. Nature Medicine, 2010; 16 (7): 774 DOI: 10.1038/nm.2175