Covenant Natural Health Care

Health News Roundup

• With your help - Free speech in health science may become a reality: The Free Speech about Science (FSAS) Act, HR 1364, would change FDA regulations so that legitimate, peer-reviewed scientific studies can be referenced without changing the food's regulatory category to an unapproved drug. This will protect access to scientific information, and will protect your right to know about the healthy benefits of food and food supplements. The bill amends the appropriate sections of current law to allow the flow of legitimate scientific and educational information while still giving FDA and FTC the right to take action against misleading information and against false and unsubstantiated claims.

• Obesity Surgery Even Worse than Previously Thought: "Researchers concluded that the adjustable gastric band surgery, which is growing in popularity in the United States, 'appears to result in relatively poor long-term outcomes.' The results 'are worse than we expected,' said Dr. Jacques Himpens ... lead author of the new study."

• Oakland officials threaten to shut down urban gardener growing food on her own land: The city of Oakland, Calif., which is marked largely by blight and crime, has decided to go after a backyard gardener for growing and occasionally selling the fruits of her labor. According to a recent report in the San Francisco Chronicle (SFC), Oakland city officials are summoning Novella Carpenter to either pay a costly permit fee and penalties for providing locals with backyard produce items like Swiss chard without government approval, or face city sanctions.

• Want to Burn Away Those Excess Pounds? Heed This Lesson From the Afghans... : The organs of the Canadians, Americans, and Europeans he treated were encased in fat.  Afghan civilians and soldiers had little or no fat or adipose tissue underneath the skin. Patterson has become convinced that the effects of urbanization are making people everywhere in the world both fatter and sicker.

•  The Surprising Benefits of Drinking This 'Unhealthy' Everyday Beverage...:


• Are New 'Healthier' Potato Chips Really Any Better For You?: "Making snacks with natural ingredients doesn't necessarily make them healthy, nutritionists and industry critics caution, even if they are potentially less bad. That includes potato chips."

• Do You Practice These 4 Habits of Some of the World's Healthiest People?:  Eating a "Mediterranean diet" could prevent or even reverse metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors for heart disease and diabetes. Scientists believe that a Mediterranean-style diet has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects on your body.

• Last-minute budget deal narrowly avoids the Big Government shutdown America desperately needs to balance its budget: The difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats want to spend us into oblivion while the Republicans only want to spend us into purgatory. The idea of actually running a balanced budget has never seriously occurred to either party. Government, after all, increases its popularity by confiscating money from some people and redistributing it to other people while keeping at least half of all that money for itself.

• What's Lurking in Your Meat and Poultry? Probably Staph: Researchers were surprised to find that nearly half of samples of beef, pork and poultry tested from popular grocery stores were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) doesn't even monitor in the food source, because it's not known as a common food-borne pathogen.

Health News Roundup

This weeks Health News Roundup is full of great information that I hope you will take time to read:

• Calorie counting has become unhelpful.: Kirchoff and Weight Watchers have eliminated the company's popular "Points" system, which encouraged dieters to lose weight by eating any foods as long as they kept the portions small. The new system tries to encourage dieters to consume more natural, less processed food.

• U.S. dietary guidelines: toss calorie counter: After more than a half century of counting calories, experts are advising dieters to ditch the numbers game and take a more holistic approach to losing weight.

• Cereal box health warning after recycled cardboard study: Breakfast cereal manufacturers are to stop using recycled cardboard in packaging after a study indicated that current boxes could pose a cancer risk.

• Japanese officials admit partial nuclear meltdown now underway at nuke power plants: Contradicting earlier reports that claimed the Fukushima nuclear power plant suffered no reactor core damage, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano today admitted that a "partial core meltdown" is now underway.

• Maine gets break in federal health care overhaul: The federal government Tuesday granted Maine a waiver of a key provision in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, citing the likelihood that enforcement could destabilize the state's market for individual health insurance.

• What NOT to Do Before Your Next Dental Appointment…: many dentists still widely prescribe antibiotics for routine dental procedures, and are simply not following the updated AHA and ADA recommendations.

• Study: Secondhand Smoke Increases Risk of Stillbirth, Birth Defects: A new review paper by University of Nottingham researchers found that secondhand-smoke exposure increased the risk of stillbirth by 23% in nonsmoking pregnant women, compared with women who were not exposed to smoke at work or at home. Passive smoking also increased the risk of congenital birth defects by 13%.

• Multiple studies link autism to mercury, which is still present in most flu vaccines: Despite recommendations made by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1999 that Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative, be removed from vaccines, the toxic chemical is still added to the majority of flu vaccines administered to women, children, and the elderly, according to the Coalition for Mercury-Free Drugs (CoMeD), a Maryland-based non-profit organization. And according to three recent studies, the symptoms of mercury poisoning are nearly identical to those of autism symptoms, which strongly suggests that mercury in vaccines is responsible for causing autism.

• Exercise-induced cell regrowth critical to reducing stress, improving health: For many years, the medical community denied the possibility that adult brain cells could regrow. But researchers now know that neurogenesis, the process of brain cell regeneration, does occur, and it plays a very important role in mitigating stress and improving sexual and reproductive function -- but it all hinges on getting plenty of regular exercise.

• FDA Requires Federal Oversight of J&J Plants After String of Drug Recalls: Federal regulators have put an injunction in place against Johnson &  Johnson’s over-the-counter (OTC) drug division following a seemingly endless string of quality control problems and drug recalls. 

• Watch out for toxic ingredients in sunscreen: The majority of sunscreens are toxic, environmental groups have warned.

• Radiation Exposure: Fast Facts About Thyroid Cancer and Other Health Risks: There's growing alarm worldwide about radiation poisoning, with an explosion Monday morning at the No. 3 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex. A similar blast at the No. 1 reactor in the same complex released radiation into the environment on Saturday, and while officials in Japan and the World Health Organization have since described the public health risk as "quite low," concern about the potential of serious health problems abound.

Health News Roundup

• Parents: You Can Say No to Vaccinations, Right? Maybe Not for Much Longer...: The proposed new law will legally require doctors and nurses to personally sign off on all religious or personal belief exemptions to vaccination filed with the state. Parents seeking non-medical exemptions will be required to include a signature from a vaccine provider on the exemption form stating that they have been given vaccine benefit and risk information. 3 Currently Washington state mandatory vaccination laws 4 only require signatures from medical personnel when medical exemptions are filed.
 

• Another Reason to Skip the Soda: High Blood Pressure: There's plenty of evidence that guzzling sugared drinks like sodas can harm your health. The extra calories can lead to obesity and contribute to heart problems and diabetes. Now researchers say the sweet beverages may boost blood pressure as well.

• 14 Ways to Save Money on Groceries: Learning to be a savvy food shopper is not only about the price tag (looking for freshness and food quality are also important), but, that being said, the more you can keep your grocery bill down, the better.

• Svelte 30 Recall: OTC Diet Pill Contains Undeclared Prescription Drug: Svelte 30 Nutritional Consultants, a diet pill manufacturer with an office in Kissimmee, Fla., is voluntarily recalling its "Svelte 30 orange & gray capsules" after a January test conducted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revealed that the pills contained sibutramine, the FDA-approved prescription diet drug sold as Meridia.

In October 2010, Abbott Laboratories voluntarily pulled Meridia from the shelves, under pressure from the FDA, after data showed that the drug increased the risk of heart attack and stroke.

• Can't Beat Food Cravings? Four Steps to Help You Kick Your Addictions: It's estimated that up to 100 percent of women and 70 percent of men experience food cravings in any given year. Entirely separate from hunger pains, which can be satisfied with a variety of foods, food cravings make you yearn for a taste of something very specific, usually a food rich in sugar, salt or fat.

• And the Nation's Fast-Food Capital Is...: Are you hankering for a Whopper? How about a Gordita Supreme, or a bucket of Extra Crispy? According to numbers crunched by AggData for the Daily Beast, you'd have the best luck in Orlando, Fla., the U.S. city with the highest concentration of Burger King, Taco Bell and KFC restaurants per capita.

• Is It Time to Make Health Freedom a Constitutional Right?: A core principle of what we call Health Medicine is a patient's right to freedom of choice and their right to know. Whom are we kidding when, because of monopolistic medical practices, patients are not informed of all the treatments known from evidence to benefit their condition -- especially alternative-medicine and natural healing treatments? What's the point of extending insurance to all Americans if they're blocked from making choices outside today's allopathic "sick-care" paradigm?

• Local and organic food, farming: Here's the gold standard: More and more consumers and corporations are touting the benefits of "local" foods, often described as "sustainable," "healthy," or "natural." According to the trade publication, Sustainable Food News, "local" as a marketing claim, has grown by 15 percent from 2009 to 2010, and it's likely that number will increase in the coming year. (1) Even supermarket giant and junk food purveyor Wal-Mart, with total sales in 2009 of $405 billion, has jumped on the bandwagon. It has pledged to reduce food miles and increase its purchase of "local" fruits and vegetables to include 9 percent of its produce by 2015.

• Shoppers Wary of GM Foods Find They're Everywhere: You may not want to eat genetically engineered foods. Chances are, you are eating them anyway.

Health News Roundup

• House Republicans Set Health-Care Repeal Vote: Countless Republicans made the repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act the centerpiece of their campaigns this fall, and now the incoming GOP majority is planning to deliver on that promise. The No. 2 House Republican, Eric Cantor of Virginia, announced Monday that the repeal vote would be held Jan. 12, just a week into the 112th Congress.

• Caution: Do This and You'll Likely Gain 15 Pounds Next Year: As it turns out, the fructose content of the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) used in many popular soda brands has been sorely underestimated.

• Sugar May Be Bad, But This Sweetener is Far More Deadly: Scientists have proved for the first time that fructose, a cheap form of sugar used in thousands of food products and soft drinks, can damage human metabolism and is fueling the obesity crisis.

• This Supermarket "Health Food" Killed These Baby Rats in Three Weeks: Within just 10 days [of being fed genetically modified foods], the animals developed potentially pre-cancerous cell growth, smaller brains, livers, and testicles, partially atrophied livers, and damaged immune systems. Moreover, the cause was almost certainly side effects from the process of genetic engineering itself. In other words, the GM foods on the market, which are created from the same process, might have similar affects on humans.

• Why did the Russians Ban an Appliance Found in 90% of American Homes?: Smart food preparation starts with high quality foods and food preparation and that means saying sayonara to your microwave oven. Need to sterilize a dishcloth? Use your microwave. But zapping your casserole is a BAD idea if you are interested in preparing healthy food.

• The Chicken Which Should be Banned: Do you put dimethylpolysiloxane, an anti-foaming agent made of silicone, in your chicken dishes? How about tertiary butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), a chemical preservative so deadly that just five grams can kill you? These are just two of the ingredients in a McDonalds Chicken McNugget. Only 50 percent of a McNugget is actually chicken. The other 50 percent includes corn derivatives, sugars, leavening agents and completely synthetic ingredients.

• Beth Israel erred in 3 spinal operations: Surgeons at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center operated on the wrong location on three patients who underwent spine surgery since September, despite taking recommended steps to prevent such errors, prompting federal and state health inspectors to cite the hospital for problems in its surgical service.

• Americans just won't eat their vegetables: The CDC found that the average US resident eats only half the recommended daily fruit and vegetable intake of five or more servings per day. Only 26 percent of US adults eat three or more servings a day. These figures are almost identical to data collected in 2000.

• Councilman to introduce legislation to stop fluoridation of New York City water supply: The momentum to remove fluoride from America's water supplies is picking up steam, thanks to mounting evidence that the toxic chemical byproduct of the aluminum and phosphate fertilizer industries causes brain damage, thyroid problems and cancer. Councilman Peter Vallone (D-Queens) recently told those attending a city council meeting that he plans to introduce legislation to remove fluoride from the nation's most populous city.

• Health Ranger's predictions for 2011 - 2012; an era of self reliance and human awakening: What's ahead for 2011 - 2012? This time in human history promises to bring forth more changes than any other similar duration of time known to our civilization. I believe the changes that will occur in the next two years will rock the foundations of our economies, governments and belief systems. In the end, after considerable turmoil, I see a great expansion of human consciousness and a maturing of the human race. Here are the details...

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