Daylight Savings Time and circadian health - NewsGrabs 28 October 2007
Health Supreme's NewsGrabs are a selection of alternative health and other underprivileged news. Find what you may have missed in your everyday reading - watch out for NewsGrabs every weekend.
In this issue:
Accumulation of sugar in neurons -
Gold eases pain of arthritis -
Sunlight cuts risk of cancers -
Cholesterol NOT The Cause of Heart Disease -
Raw Milk in California -
Daylight savings time disrupts circadian rhythm -
Dying for a diet drink -
Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching -
Prizes, Not Patents, For Drug Discovery -
THE FDA IS MARCHING -
8 More Deaths Linked to Gardasil -
‘Pharm-Free Week’ at Med Schools -
Experts Demand End to Child Drugging -
Guinea Pig Kids and the AIDS Mafia -
Lead's Effect on Violent Crime -
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch -
Regulate Vitamins down to ineffective doses -
Living in CAFO Country
- - -
Accumulation of sugar in neurons may explain origin of neurodegenerative diseases
The breakthroughs on the mechanisms that trigger and block the production of glycogen may be of great use to address the study of other neurodegenerative and neurological diseases. “We have extended the hypothesis of the study to other pathologies in which glycogen has been detected in neurons because our results suggest that this molecule is a part of the problem” comments Guinovart.
How gold eases pain of arthritis
“Now that we have identified at least one of the ways gold can help arthritis sufferers, perhaps we can use that knowledge to build new and safer-acting, gold-based treatments,” says Pisetsky, a senior author of the study.
Sunlight cuts risk of many cancers
The researchers said: "Vitamin D production in the skin seems to decrease the risk of several solid cancers, especially stomach, colo-rectal, liver and gall- bladder, pancreas, lung, female breast, prostate, bladder and kidney cancers." Sunlight plays a vital role in the production of beneficial vitamin D in the body. Although food provides some vitamin D, up to 90 per cent comes from exposure to sunlight.
Most of us are working and see little of the sun, and some of us are living in countries that have extreme winter seasons - they can't see the sun even if they wanted, during the winter months. So it seems quite legitimate, and a bit of an omission by the journalist, to add that much the same effect can be achieved by just popping a pill with the nutrient that our skin produces when we do get into the sun.
Cholesterol Is NOT The Cause of Heart Disease
Importantly, many solid scientific studies have shown a mechanistic, causal effect of elevated insulin and leptin on heart and vascular disease, whereas almost all studies with cholesterol misleadingly only show an association. Association does not imply cause. For instance, something else may be causing lipid abnormalities such as elevated cholesterol and triglycerides, and also causing heart disease. This "something else" is improper insulin and leptin signaling.
No More Raw Milk in California?
Assembly Bill #1735 (AB 1735) was signed by the Governor and becomes law on January 1st 2008. Contained in this law are new standards for raw milk. These new standards require 10 coliform bacteria per ml or less. This standard does not increase the safety of raw milk and it will make the production of organic raw milk in California nearly impossible. Under the old tried and true old standards that have been in existence for forty years or more, coliforms could be 50 or 500. It did not matter. Coliforms are not pathogenic. They do not cause disease. They actually act very effectively to protect raw milk against pathogens...
Daylight savings time disrupts humans' natural circadian rhythm
“While we generally think that the time changes enforced by the DST transitions are ‘only an hour,’ they have far more drastic effects if viewed in the context of the circadian clock’s seasonal changes,” Roenneberg said. “This seemingly small hour translates to a repeat of 10 weeks in the annual progression of the relationship between our sleep-wake cycle and dawn—four weeks in spring and six weeks in autumn. In effect, it’s as if the entire population of Germany, for example, is transported to Morocco in spring and back again in autumn.”Indeed, “after taking the seasonal adjustment into account, our results show that the human circadian clock does not adjust to the DST transition,” Roenneberg said. “This is especially obvious in the late chronotypes in spring when one looks at their daily activity patterns. Essentially, their biological timing stays on standard, winter time, while they have to adjust their social schedules to the advanced clock time throughout the summer.”
Dying for a diet drink
Aspartame is 180 times as sweet as sugar, with fewer calories and it's a 100 per cent certain bet that most New Zealand dieters and diabetics are consuming aspartame in some form with the full approval of their doctors and local diabetic club.Animals and insects have a lot more natural intelligence than human beings when it comes down to food and they all avoid aspartame - cockroaches won't eat it, cats and dogs won't eat it, ants won't eat it and flies won't eat it - but politicians and food regulators worldwide consider it safe enough for us.
Aspartame, that synthetic, genetically engineered sweetener, is now found in everything from Coke and Pepsi diet drinks, Wrigley's sugarless chewing gum and Weight Watchers products to common drugs and dietary supplements available at your local pharmacy and "health food" shop. Labelled as additive 951 it has been available to the Western diet as a sweetener since 1981 under various brand names - Nutrasweet, Equal, Spoonful, Benevia or Equal Measure.
Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching
There remains room for hope. As Greger states in the Introduction, "[if] changes in human behaviour can cause new plagues, changes in human behaviour may prevent them in the future." A radical change from factory farming to less intensive methods including free-range farming is needed, especially in the poultry industry, in which "humanity must shift toward raising poultry in smaller flocks, under less stressful, less crowded and more hygienic conditions, with outdoor access."
Prizes, Not Patents, For Drug Discovery
Here’s a way to achieve patent reform - blow up the system. And that’s what Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, is proposing in legislation he introduced late last week. The bill, which is, in part, the brainchild of consumer activists who follow patent issues, would eliminate market exclusivity for new drugs, but would give inventors or developers cash rewards from a new “Medical Innovation Prize Fund.” A key requirement - the products have to improve health outcomes.
THE FDA IS MARCHING
We now have a bizarre situation in this country that is considered “law.” Under first amendment protection Big Pharma can actively promote extremely dangerous drugs in glitzy ads in order to turn a new drug into a blockbuster – even though the risks are unknown and often include death. That’s right, deaths from drugs have doubled in the last five years mostly due to new drugs and FDA incompetence in tracking these drugs. On the other hand, dietary supplement companies cannot promote safe alternatives to these dangerous drugs even when backed by legitimate science, violating the first amendment rights of dietary supplement companies and consumers.
8 More Deaths Linked to Gardasil HPV Vaccine
Although the HPV virus is prevalent, it is estimated that only 1% of those infected with HPV will eventually get cervical cancer. However, Merck's aggressively promoted HPV vaccine has already been implicated in 11 deaths since its approval last year. Given the sparse safety data and minimal efficacy data, AHRP is on record in opposition to mandatory HPV vaccination because it is reckless and irresponsible to mandate exposing 11- to 12-year-old girls to the risks of harm of a vaccine whose risk / benefit appears to be negative with each passing month.
At Medical Schools, It’s ‘Pharm-Free Week’
The ‘Pharm Free Policy Toolbox’ offers med students ways to engage administrators and program directors. Among the suggestions - discuss policies about industry-sponsored lunches and ask for alternative lunches to be made available. Make certain that sales reps aren’t allowed in wards and clinics, and that company social events aren’t publicized within the hospital. Urge the hospital and its clinics to stop accepting free samples and promotional materials, and ask that non-biased sources of drug info be available in the school or hospital library, on the wards, and in the clinic.
A good initiative by med students - but shouldn't their professors be the ones to insist on ridding schools, clinics and md surgeries of excessive pharma pressures?
World Experts Demand End to Child Drugging in the US
On October 12, 2007, experts in the field of psychiatry and child development from all over the world arrived in Washington to attend the annual conference of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology. This year's conference focused on one specific goal - to end the mass-prescribing of psychiatric drugs to children.Many of the presentations at the conference focused on the pharmaceutical industry's role in the invention of both TMAP and TeenScreen and the many financial ties between the drug makers, the Bush administration, a group of psychiatrists, and state policy makers largely credited with the creation and promotion of these two programs.
Since the arrival of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors antidepressants (SSRI's) and atypical antipsychotics on the market, countless studies have shown the so-called "wonder drugs" to be ineffective and harmful to children. But for years, drug companies have manipulated data, suppressed negative clinical trials and published only the studies that showed positive results. The truth is that the mass drugging of the entire population in the US with SSRI's has accomplished nothing when it comes to reducing suicidality.
Guinea Pig Kids and the AIDS Mafia
The latest is the BBC being asked to publicly apologize for perceived errors in the documentary Guinea Pig Kids. It's ludicrous, really. Guinea Pig Kids is now being called a "denialist" documentary. But it didn't question the very idea, the construct of "AIDS" in the video. It didn't question the HIV/AIDS equation. It questioned the use of orphans for drug trials. It can hardly be called "denialist".Liam Scheff, the journalist who broke the story, has his letter to The Guardian on his own blog together with links to read up on the background.
Please do write to The Guardian at editor@mediaguardian.co.uk if you feel you can and should contribute to this particular discussion. My own letter:
Dear Editor,I believe that with the article "'Serious concern' at BBC over flawed HIV film" both The Guardian and the BBC are sending a signal in the wrong direction.
It is not the BBC's film (Guinea Pig Kids) that is lurid but the actions that the film documented - of using defenseless minors under the guardianship of the state in a cruel and largely senseless experiment where the kids were given - most of them against their will and some of them with implanted direct stomach feeding tubes - highly toxic anti-retroviral drugs that have killed thousands of adults.
If you or the BBC want AIDS finally to be conquered, you must investigate and tell of the inconsistencies and the abuses that are part of the paradigm. Backpedaling in the face of opposition from the proponents of such lurid and cruel experiments will not get you there.
AIDS is crying out for proper investigation and reporting, but all the press seems capable of doing - with only few notable exceptions - is toe the line set down by pharmaceutical interests and so-called AIDS activists. Wish the press were less dependent on vested interests - both political and financial.
Criminal Element: Lead's Effect on Behavior - and Violent Crime
Reyes started looking into the effects of lead poisoning. She learned that even low levels of lead can cause brain damage that makes children less intelligent and, in some cases, more impulsive and aggressive. She also discovered that the main source of lead in the air and water had not been paint but rather leaded gasoline - until it was phased out in the 1970s and '80s by the Clean Air Act, which took blood levels of lead for all Americans down to a fraction of what they had been. "Putting the two together," she says, "it seemed that this big change in people's exposure to lead might have led to some big changes in behavior."Reyes found that the rise and fall of lead-exposure rates seemed to match the arc of violent crime, but with a 20-year lag - just long enough for children exposed to the highest levels of lead in 1973 to reach their most violence-prone years in the early '90s, when crime rates hit their peak.
Come see our giant toxic stew!
A patch of garbage, 1,500 miles wide, floating in the Pacific, made of all your plastic crap. Bring the kids!
It's called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (or Pacific Trash Vortex, among other awesome nicknames) and it's a staggering phenomenon indeed and after reading up on it, I fully believe we must now revise our master list. Because surely this thing must be one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, the grand sociocultural melting pot of our time. Except for the fact that it's, you know, revolting.
Big Farm and the population control people get together to regulate Vitamins down to ineffective doses.
This is a departure from the politics I usually write about, but I have some real concerns about our freedom to choose what we want to put into our body. It should be everyones right to practice medicine on themselves if they wish without having to go to a Medical Doctor (quack quack) to get a prescription. I am speaking about the over-regulation of food suppliments and Vitamins by big brother government.
Living in CAFO Country
Once in operation, the reality of the CAFOs hits. The most obvious are the putrid smells on some summer evenings. Plumes of air from these sites holding several thousand hogs and their accumulated wastes for the past year fan out across the countryside. The other consequences of CAFOs may be more insidious. You no longer know who your neighbor is -- there is no one to ask about electrical outages, to consult about fencelines, to ask to a community meeting. You no longer have a legal system to turn to when problems arise ... So enjoy your CAFO pork while numerous unwilling neighbors are consigned to permanent second-class citizenry. These neighbors are prone to dropping out of all civic activities as none of those have ever helped them. I do not call this a democracy worth forcing on the rest of the planet.
More information out there...Of course there is much I cannot cover but other sources for this kind of information exist and are active.
...
The Alternative Medicine Yahoo Group is another great place to get information on what is happening in the world of nutrition and other natural health options.
For the influence of electromagnetic waves from radio, mobile phones and other radio emitting devices, check out the emfrefugee group on Yahoo.
If you are interested in a different take on the news that isn't health centered but is certainly fun, check out Robin Good TV News.
Some more sites to keep up to date with the other side of world affairs, the stuff you won't find on tv:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com
http://www.commondreams.org
http://www.stratfor.com/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
http://rawstory.com/
http://www.truthout.org/
And remember ..."The individual is supreme and finds its way through intuition."
posted by Sepp Hasslberger on Sunday October 28 2007
updated on Wednesday August 15 2012URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2007/10/28/daylight_savings_time_and_circadian_health_newsgrabs_28_october_2007.htm