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Inhaled diesel exhaust triggers a stress response in the brain. This could have damaging long-term effects on brain function in people living in areas with high traffic pollution.

Small particles of soot, or nanoparticles, can travel up the nose and lodge in the brain. It is conceivable that this could interfere with normal brain function and information processing.

10 male volunteers, aged 18 to 39, were placed in a room filled with exhaust from a diesel engine for one hour. After about 30 minutes, EEG brain wave patterns displayed a stress response, suggesting changes in information processing in the brain cortex.

Sources:

• Reuters March 10, 2008

• Particle and Fibre Toxicology March 11, 2008; 5:4 (Full-Length Article PDF)

Conventional agriculture, which depends on heavy applications of chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides and irrigation, may inhibit plants’ natural production of cancer-fighting flavonoids, while organic agriculture, which does not use synthetic pesticides or chemical fertilizers, may actually promote the production of flavonoids.

Flavonoids are plant by-products believed to protect the plant from insects, bacterial and fungal infection and photo-oxidation. These plant chemicals are also thought to be useful in preventing cancer and heart disease and combating age-related neurological dysfunctions.

Flavonoids work by protecting the cell against damage caused by active oxygen radicals. Oxygen radicals can cause cancer and are also associated with cardiovascular disease and age-related nerve cell damage.

In studies comparing conventional farming with organic and sustainable (environmentally sound) farming of berries and corn, organic and sustainable produce was significantly higher in flavonoids than conventional produce.

Although previous studies did not evaluate flavonoids, results indicated that conventionally produced foods had higher levels of nitrates and synthetic pesticides and fewer total solids than organic foods.

The natural compounds showed various functions in the cell, including the potential to kill cancer cells or prevent them from spreading. Using plant chemicals in the treatment of cancer could enhance cure rates if combined with standard treatment methods, according to researchers.

Other studies have shown that flavonoids have protective effects against cardiovascular disease and cancer, although separate studies have found that the compounds have no effect, and a few have suggested they could have harmful effects.

Plant chemicals may also be useful in combating age-related neurological dysfunctions such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, which are associated with long-term oxidative stress.

There is substantial evidence to suggest that flavonoids, which are more plentiful in organic than conventional foods, are effective in the fight against cancer, heart disease and age-related neurological dysfunction. Additionally, increasing evidence indicates that organic farming gives high yields and is more beneficial to the environment than conventional farming.

According to researchers, supporters of genetically modified foods often deny or ignore this large body of evidence.

Journal Agricultural Food Chemistry February 26, 2003;51(5):1237-41

Strokes have recently tripled among middle-aged women, a trend that doctors are calling “alarming.”

While only about 0.5 percent of women aged 35 to 54 had a stroke from 1988 to 1994, a federal health survey found that had increased to nearly 2 percent between 1999 and 2004.

Physicians say that the obesity epidemic is to blame for the startling rise in strokes. Women’s waists have grown by nearly two inches in the last 10 years, and women’s average body mass index rose from 27 to 29. Blood sugar levels have also increased.

The increase in strokes came despite the fact that more women are taking drugs to lower their cholesterol and blood pressure, which are both things that should lower stroke risk.

While women’s stroke risk skyrocketed, stroke risk among middle-aged men stayed the same. Researchers say the gender difference could be due to belly fat, a known risk factor for stroke.

Abdominal obesity in women rose from 47 percent to 59 percent, while the change in men was smaller.

Sources:

• USA Today February 21, 2008

• International Stroke Conference, New Orleans, LA, February 20-22, 2008

Twelve-year-old middle school student Jasmine Roberts’ project won the science fair at her school. 

Her results were not what she expected, and have serious implications for everyone.

Her project compared the ice used in the drinks at five fast food restaurants with the water from toilet bowls in the same establishments. Seventy percent of the time, the ice had more bacteria than the toilet water.

In four of the five restaurants, ice from the self-serve machines had more bacteria than toilet water, as did three out of five cups of ice from drive-through windows. Sixty percent of the restaurant ice also tested positive for E. coli, which comes from the feces of animals and can cause serious illness.

While a certain amount of bacteria in water is considered harmless, no amount of E. coli is acceptable, however small.

Sources:

• TBO.com February 13, 2006

In the largest meat recall in U.S. history, 143 million pounds of beef have been recalled by the U .S. Department of Agriculture. The beef represents the past two years of production for California-based Westland Meat, and was recalled because the company did not prevent sick animals from entering the U.S. food supply.

Westland’s partner company, Hallmark Meat Packing, was involved in “egregious violations” of federal animal care regulations. The company did not consistently bring in federal veterinarians to examine cattle that were too weak or sick to stand on their own, and sent them to be slaughtered anyway.

Government regulations prohibit slaughtering cattle that cannot stand or walk on their own for food.

Federal officials have noted that most of the recalled beef was likely eaten long ago, and, despite the recall, likely poses little or no hazard to consumers.

About 37 million pounds of the meat went to school lunch programs and other public nutrition programs.

Sources:

• Washington Post February 18, 2008

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Morton Grove Pharmaceuticals, the makers of an insecticide-based treatment for head lice, have stopped promoting their product after a sharply worded warning from the FDA. The FDA’s warning follows years of controversy regarding shampoo and lotion treatments that contain the insecticide lindane. Lindane-based live treatments have been banned in California.The FDA expressed concern advertising by the company which stated that treating head lice effectively requires two applications, several days apart. The FDA found that “extremely alarming given that retreatment with Lindane Shampoo can lead to increased exposure and possibly death.”

More than 166,000 prescriptions for lindane treatments — almost 10 percent of all prescriptions for head lice and scabies — were written from January to November 2007.

Sources:

• USA Today January 31, 2008

Consider these statistics Some 77,000 chemicals are produced in North America. Over 3,000 chemicals are added to our food supply. More than 10,000 chemical solvents, emulsifiers and preservatives are used in food processing. 1,000 new chemicals are introduced each year.

Where do all of these chemicals end up? They are absorbed into our groundwater, rivers, lakes and oceans, spewed into our air, and added, quite intentionally, to our food supply.

How can we get these toxic chemicals out of our bodies? There are many Detox programs that will do the job but most involve a degree of discomfort and frequent trips to the toilet.

The easiest way to maintain a normal schedule and avoid the discomfort is to use Detox Foot Pads. These little marvels will pull the toxins out of your body while you sleep. No discomfort, no frequent trips to the toilet and no more toxins.

The Detox foot Pads are applied to the bottom of your feet at bedtime and removed in the morning.

I have tried every form of Cleansing and Detoxifying program available and I am convinced that this is the way to go.

You can watch several short videos about Detox Foot Pads Here.

U.S. girls are reaching puberty at younger ages than ever before. In the 1990s, breast development — the first sign of puberty in girls — at age 8 was considered an abnormal event that should be investigated by an endocrinologist.

However, by 1999, following a 1997 study that found almost half of African Americans and 15 percent of whites had begun breast development by age 8, the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society suggested changing what is viewed as “normal.”

They suggested changing puberty at age 8 from abnormal to normal, and lowering the abnormal puberty age to 7 for white girls and 6 for African American girls.

But while some experts believe the shift is nothing to worry about, others, including parents, are alarmed.

Early puberty, which exposes girls to estrogen for more of their lives, is linked to breast cancer and other health risks, but scientists are at a loss of how to study the potential causes for early puberty, which include:

• Hormones in food
• Pesticides in produce
• Phthalates in plastics and cosmetics
• Obesity, which exposes girls to more estrogen
• Stress from living in a fatherless household
• Sexually suggestive TV shows

Conducting a study to test these factors is next to impossible because there are so many estrogen-like chemicals in the environment that there are no control populations to balance out the study.

And while scientists grapple with how to figure out what’s causing girls to develop at younger and younger ages, parents are forced to have adult conversations with their children much sooner than expected.

Sources:

• Los Angeles Times January 21, 2008

• The Falling Age of Puberty in U.S. Girls August 2007