Covenant Natural Health Care

Health News Roundup

One of the most important things we can do at Covenant Natural Health Care is too make sure you are aware of what's going on in the natural news world and help educate you so that you can make good health-related decisions. Here's this weeks Health News Roundup.

• Why Laughing at Yourself May Be Good for You: First-Ever Study: Laughter, smiling and optimism are linked to better overall health.

• Eating Fat Won't Make You Fat but These 10 Things Will: Eating fat won't make you fat. Too many calories can, but most "low-fat" or "fat-free" foods actually have just as many calories as their full-fat versions. Yahoo Health has collected a list of 20 bad habits that can actually add to your weight.  Here are 10 of them ...

• Amazing food fact: Confectioner's glaze, a common coating on candies and pills, is made from the bodily excretions of an Asian beetle: Confectioner's glaze, also called pharmaceutical glaze, resinous glaze, pure food glaze and natural glaze, is a common ingredient in candies and pills. By any name, it's the same ingredient as shellac, the chemical sold in hardware stores that's used for sealing and varnishing wood floors. Check the ingredients of any over-the-counter drugs you may own, too: It's a common ingredient in children's medicines and even some children's frozen foods.

• Hungary Destroys All Monsanto GMO Corn Fields: In March, Hungary introduced a new regulation that states seeds must be checked for GMO before they are introduced to the market. However, some GMO seeds made it to the farmers without their being aware of it.

• The Bone Destroying Daily Drink Fooling Millions of Americans: Two new North American studies investigated the impact of low-level fluoride consumption on the strength and density of bone.

• 50% of Rats Given this Died -- Why is it On Your Dinner Plate?: The first report was recently issued on ambient levels of glyphosate and its major degradation product, aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), in air and rain. Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the U.S.

• Cancer is curable NOW!: Watch the trailer to this documentary.

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Health News Roundup

• What The World Eats (Shocking Photos): This photographic report exposes the proliferation of processed foods in the western diet and in the diets of many developing countries the world over. Is it any wonder that we are seeing increases in diet & lifestyle related diseases?

• The Truth About Milk: Mark McAfee is owner of Organic Pastures Dairy Co. in Fresno, California. McAfee explains 'raw' milk is milk in its natural state, as it comes from the cow, without heat treatment or pasteurization. Pasteurization is used to extend shelf life and to immobilize certain bacteria, he said, and public health authorities generally appear convinced that this process is highly desirable. But McAfee believes that the pasteurization process is bastardizing the milk.

• Green tea and cocoa epicatechin flavonoids lower diabetes risk and extend lifespan: New research published in the Journal of Nutrition provides evidence that potent epicatechin flavonoids from extracts of green tea and cocoa lower the destructive effects of high blood sugar. This can effectively prevent damage that ravages the major organs and especially the coronary arteries lining the heart muscle.

• Anti-foaming agent found in Chicken McNuggets: Ever wonder what's really found in Chicken McNuggets? Some of the ingredients, it turns out, seem to belong more to an industrial factory of some kind, not a food retailer. According to the McDonald's Corporation, its famous Chicken McNuggets are made with ingredients including autolyzed yeast extract (which contain free glutamate, similar to MSG), sodium phosphates and sodium aluminum phosphate. But that's not the freaky part. According to McDonald's own website, Chicken McNuggets are also made with "hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness" and "Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent."

• Be Aware: These Cell Phones Can Emit 28 Times More Radiation
 

• 'Good Gut Bacteria' May Help Fight Obesity: Daily intake of a specific form of lactic acid bacteria could help prevent obesity and reduce low-level inflammation.

• In partial victory against GMOs, U.S. Congress bans FDA from approving GM salmon: The U.S. House of Representatives passed a law today that would effectively bar the FDA from approving GM salmon. This is a direct result of the rising awareness of the dangers of GMOs among American consumers, along with steady coverage of the issue by the alternative media (including NaturalNews) and the efforts of Jeffrey Smith from ResponsibleTechnology.org

• How to Drink Your Way Out of Fatigue:
 

• Europe Calls This One of the Top 6 Chemical Threats to Humans... : Chemical manufacturers say they will seek approval from the European Union to continue use of di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP), a plastic-softening phthalate that the EU is banning.

Health News Roundup

• Eating Mistakes that Age You: Yahoo Shine notes that eating the wrong foods -- or not eating the right foods -- can result in symptoms that most people tend to assume are due to aging. Here are four tips they've assembled to steer you in the right direction.

•  New Research Shows Factory Farms are NOT the Way to Feed the World: One recently published scientific paper urges a fundamental rethinking of the U.S. agricultural-research system, which it calls "narrowly focused on productivity and efficiency" at the expense of public health and ecological resilience. It also calls for a revamping of the Farm Bill, which it argues uses subsidies to "mask market, social, and environmental factors associated with conventional production systems."

• This Should be Banned: Found in 80% of Supermarket Foods: Monsanto may soon be allowed to conduct its own environmental studies. Currently, the USDA is responsible for assessing environmental impacts of new GMO crops, but the agency plans to at least temporarily hand over environmental impact reporting responsibilities to the biotech companies behind GMO crops.

• Are BPA alternatives potentially just as dangerous as Bisphenol-A?: The Atlantic recently posed the obvious but, as yet, unasked question: What is in the new BPA-free plastics that are now flooding the market, and how do we know they are safe?

• Fructose: what is it, and why is it in everything?: We all know fructose is some type of sweetener, we see it listed on so many food label s: ketchup, soft-drinks, energy drinks, cereals, cookies, breads, crackers, ice creams, canned soups, and more. And most of us think fructose has something to do with fruits. So in some way it's okay; it's just some sweetener thing derived from natural fruit sugar.

But it's not. Well it's half true. Fructose is one of the main sugars from fruits, the others being sucrose and glucose, so that's true. But the fructose found in processed foods is an entirely different story.

• NEW Research Explains 61% of Multiple Sclerosis Cases: New research shows that low levels of sunlight, coupled with glandular fever, could increase your risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS). This could be one reason that MS tends to be more common away from the equator.

• Is it Time to Boycott This 'Anti' Cancer Charity?: The 130-page document linked below explains in detail why the American Cancer Society may be far more interested in accumulating cash than curing any disease. The ACS has close ties to the mammography industry, the cancer drug industry, and the pesticide industry.

• The false claims of GMOs: For years, biotechnology companies have been making lofty, unsubstantiated claims that genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) are the cure for world hunger, and that without them, people will starve to death. But according to many agricultural scientists and researchers, such claims have absolutely no basis in reality, and are nothing more than deceitful marketing. One researcher from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) recently compared the nonsensical industry rhetoric in favor of GMOs to giving cigarettes away free to children -- in other words, claims that GMOs are the answer to world hunger are nothing but a ploy to hook farmers and consumers into taking the deadly bait.

• Home births up 20 percent as more Americans prefer natural child birth: The number of pregnant women who choose to have their babies at home instead of at a hospital has risen by 20 percent over the past four years, according to new statistics released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Though home births had been on the decline between 1990 and 2004, the period between 2004 and 2008, which represent the newest figures available, saw a sharp increase in home births.

Health News Roundup

Reading these articles is a great way to inform yourself with what's going on in both natural and traditional healthcare. The more educated you are about these topics, the better you'll be able to make informed decisions regarding your health and the health of your family.

• Market Lighting Affects Nutrients in Salad Greens, Researchers Find: Many people reach toward the back of the fresh-produce shelf to find the freshest salad greens with the latest expiration dates. But a study led by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists may prompt consumers to instead look for packages that receive the greatest exposure to light--usually those found closest to the front.

• Is This Common Activity Poisoning You?: Widely used fragranced products, including those that claim to be "green", can give off chemicals not listed on the label. Some of these chemicals have been classified as toxic.

• South Korean Study Suggests Rate of Autism May Be Underestimated: In the first large-scale study of its kind, U.S. and South Korean researchers report that the rate of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may be significantly higher than previously thought, affecting as many as 1 in 38 children. The findings suggest that many youngsters may be going undiagnosed and untreated for the developmental disorder.

• Conventional farmers won't eat their own food: In this interview with organic vegetable farmed "Brad," he explains why conventional farmers won't eat their own products. Why? Because "they know what's in them!"
 

• Many types of organic compost are really packaged human sewage: Do you want everything that goes down your drain winding up on your backyard produce? Well that's what happens to those who use organic compost made with municipal sewage.

• New study: Nations requiring the most vaccines tend to have the worst infant mortality rates: For example, the United States requires infants to receive 26 vaccines -- the most in the world -- yet more than six U.S. infants die per every 1000 live births. In contrast, Sweden and Japan administer 12 vaccines to infants, the least amount, and report less than three deaths per 1000 live births.

• Plastics chemical in packaged foods linked to asthma in babies: BPA, also known as bisphenol-A, is a chemical compound often used in the production of a large variety of plastics. The widespread use of BPA has come under public scrutiny due to known connection to a host of health problems, including heart complications, cancer, neurological issues, diabetes and fertility and sexual issues.

• My New Warning: Avoid THESE Medical Treatments Whenever Possible: Americans' overall (declining) health and their access to state-of-the-art medical facilities factor into these exorbitant yearly health care expenditures. But a majority of these costs, when put under the microscope, clearly have more to do with promoting ever increasing corporate profits than with making Americans healthier. From government agencies like the FDA to the insurance empire, to health care providers and big pharma, the new primary goal of health care industry in the US has transformed into making money off of sick people.

• If You Can Never Seem to Get Truly Well, This Could Be Why...: This environmental medicine expert uncovers a frequent underlying cause of many persistent AND serious health issues - not only allergies, but cancer, diabetes, and thyroid disease, too. Know what symptoms to watch out for in you or a family member, how to detect the presence of this insidious culprit in your home, and what you must do to save your health - and possibly your life.
 

Read last weeks Health News Roundup here.

Health News Roundup

• The Exercise Mistake Proven to Damage Your Heart: Not long ago, researchers studied the heart health of a group of very fit older athletes -- men who had been part of a national or Olympic team in distance running or rowing, and runners who had completed at least a hundred marathons. The results were unsettling -- half of these lifelong athletes showed evidence of heart muscle scarring.

• A Shoppers Guide To Pesticides: The Shopper's Guide to Pesticides is a key resource for consumers looking for healthier low toxin diets. Since many shoppers can't always find or afford organic produce, they can use the Shopper's Guide to avoid those conventional fruits and vegetables found to be highest in pesticides – the Dirty Dozen – and, instead, choose items from the Clean Fifteen list. The health benefits of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables outweigh the risks of pesticide exposure.

•  The Hidden Diabetes Link No One is Telling You About...: Coronary heart disease is a leading cause of death in the United States, killing one in five adults, and doctors are very quick to prescribe statins. In fact, statin drug sales rank in the billions each year globally.

• More than 2,000 vaccinated babies died: The cost of doing business: Earlier this month (March 2011), Japanese authorities ordered doctors to stop using pneumococcal and Hib vaccines because four children died after receiving the shots. However, the real news was never reported: more than 2,000 babies died in the United States after receiving vaccines for these very same diseases, yet authorities refuse to warn parents and halt production. A safety review is vital to determine whether a recall of the dangerous shots may be necessary to protect additional American babies from disability and death.

• Mercury-Containing Medicines: Harmful to Children: Dr. Joachim Mutter, author of one of the newest mercury studies, found evidence confirming that mercury in vaccines and other medical products could trigger autism. Another recent study observed that organic mercury is added to vaccines without sufficient safety testing, and warned that the use of mercury-containing Thimerosal is "potentially damaging the health of children."

• Pecans promote heart health, lower cholesterol levels: The health benefits offered by pecans are greater than previously believed, according to a new study published in The Journal of Nutrition. Researchers from Loma Linda University (LLU) in California have identified a host of beneficial antioxidants found in pecans that benefit the heart, lower bad cholesterol levels, and protect against disease-causing inflammation.

• Health-Washing: Is 'Healthy' Fast Food for Real?: McDonald's Fruit & Maple Oatmeal is a supposedly "healthy" breakfast item that actually contains more sugar than a Snickers bar. Fast-food joints routinely offer healthy-sounding options that aren't really health food.

• India says Monsanto covertly, illegally conducted GM corn trials without approval: Recent reports out of India say that multinational biotechnology giant Monsanto has once against skirted the law by clandestinely planting its genetically-modified (GM) corn without receiving approval to do so. Nitish Kumar, chief minister of the Indian state of Bihar, recently wrote a letter to India's environment minister Jairam Ramesh explaining the situation. Just days earlier, Ramesh had denied Monsanto permission to plant the crops at all.

• Does Food Dye Make Kids Hyper? An FDA Panel Will Investigate: Many kids think cheese is naturally orange and strawberry juice a bright red — thanks to a collection of widely used artificial food dyes that a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel (FDA) will now re-examine for safety. Color additives like quinoline yellow and ponceau 4R have long been deemed safe, but some recent British studies have associated the dyes with hyperactivity in children, prompting the FDA to convene a two-day meeting to discuss the science.