High Insulin May Boost Odds of Breast Cancer December 30, 2008
Posted by healthandsurvival in Diseases, aging, health.Tags: breast cancer, health, insulin, medicine, news, Wellness
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Tuesday, December 30, 2008; 12:00 AM
TUESDAY, Dec. 30 (HealthDay News) — Women with high levels of insulin in their blood appear to be more likely to develop breast cancer than those with lower insulin levels.
And that might be the link between obesity and breast cancer, say researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. High insulin levels have already been associated with obesity.
The researchers compared insulin levels in 835 women who developed breast cancer and 816 women who did not. All women were participating in the Women’s Health Initiative study. Those whose fasting insulin levels were the highest had a 1.5 times greater risk of breast cancer than did women with the lowest fasting insulin levels, the study found.
The risk was even greater among women who were not taking hormone therapy. The study found that those women were 2.4 times more likely to have developed breast cancer if their insulin levels were high than if they were low. …read more here…
Thiamine (Vitamin B1)’reverses kidney damage’ December 28, 2008
Posted by healthandsurvival in Diet and Nutrition, Wellness, vitamins.Tags: b complex, diabetes, family, health, kidneys, news, renal, thaimine, vitamin b1, Wellness
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Doses of vitamin B1 (thiamine) can reverse early kidney disease in people with type 2 diabetes, research shows.
The team from Warwick University tested the effect of vitamin B1, which is found in meat, yeast and grain, on 40 patients from Pakistan.
The treatment stopped the loss of a key protein in the urine, the journal Diabetologia reports.
Charity Diabetes UK called the results “very promising” – but said it was too early for any firm conclusions.
The latest findings build on earlier work by the Warwick University team, showing that many diabetes patients have a deficiency of thiamine.
According to the researchers, this cheap and readily available supplement could benefit most people with diabetes – both type 1 and type 2 – as between 70% and 90% of people with diabetes are thiamine deficient.…read more of story here.
Hairspray causes Birth Defects in in Babies? December 25, 2008
Posted by healthandsurvival in Children's Health, Society, environment.add a comment
(NaturalNews) In a groundbreaking study, research recently published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives has revealed that pregnant women who are exposed to hairspray while at work have more than double the risk of giving birth to a son with hypospadias, a common genital birth defect.
About Hypospadias
Hypospadias, a condition whereby there is displacement of the urinary opening to the underside of the penis, is one of the most common birth defects to affect the male genitals. It is estimated that, in the United States and the United Kingdom, hypospadias hits about 1 in every 250 boys.
Typically, the condition can be treated using surgery after the child turns one, although serious cases of the disease can cause problems with urination, sex and fertility. As of now, the causes of hypospadias are not well understood.
Details of Study
In the said study, which was jointly conducted by the Imperial College in London, University College Cork and the Centre for Research in Environment Epidemiology in Barcelona, researchers conducted detailed interviews via telephone with 471 mothers across London whose sons had hypospadias. For the control group, interviews were also carried out with 490 mothers whose sons were not affected by the condition. A range of dietary and lifestyle factors were looked at, including occupation, family history of the condition, type of diet, smoking, intake of folate supplements as well as possible exposure to chemicals.
Liposuction Doctor Used Fat from Patients to Power His Car December 25, 2008
Posted by healthandsurvival in Alternative, Politics and Medicine, Society.Tags: health, diet, weight loss, fat, Life, news, oil, energy, car, liposuction, beverly hills, grease
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by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, December 24, 2008
Key concepts: Liposuction, Biodiesel and Body fat
It sounds like a great idea, actually: Take the excess body fat from liposuction patients and use it to power your car. That’s what a Beverly Hills doctor figured, and he even bragged about it on his website LipoDiesel.com (now shut down). It even sounds like a California trend: Get thin and reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil all at the same time!
But sometimes the “cutting edge” of green goes too far, and California’s state medical authorities were not amused to learn of Dr. Bittner’s eco-friendly body fat recycling program. It is apparently illegal in the United States to use human body parts (even the parts people are throwing away) as fuel to power automobiles. I’d like to see somebody quote me any law that actually says that, by the way. Personally, I don’t believe such a law exists.
So now Dr. Alan Bittner’s clinic is closed, and liposuction patients have to get their fat sucked out somewhere else. So where, exactly, does all that excess body fat go from liposuction clinics? If you saw Fight Club, you might recall the main characters rendering the body fat into high explosives. I like the Lipodiesel idea better, because it puts the excess body fuel towards a more productive use.
Instead of shutting down this operation, the state of California should embrace it. Why not do a joint venture with McDonalds? “Eat a Big Mac. You’ll get a smile, and your car goes another mile!”……read more here….
FDA Urges a New Diet Coke Label December 25, 2008
Posted by healthandsurvival in health.Tags: coke, fda, health, news, soda
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FDA Urges a New Diet Coke Label
By BETSY MCKAY
The Food and Drug Administration called on Coca-Cola Co. to revise the label on a version of its Diet Coke brand containing vitamins and minerals, warning the beverage giant that it makes inappropriate nutritional claims, according to a warning later posted on the agency’s Web site Tuesday.
The FDA said the soft drink, Diet Coke Plus, doesn’t contain enough nutrients to qualify for use of the word “plus.” Foods may use that name only if they contain at least 10% more of the reference daily intake or daily reference value of a nutrient than a similar product. The FDA also invoked a longstanding rule under which it “does not consider it appropriate” to fortify snack foods such as carbonated beverages.
[Regulators say Diet Coke Plus lacks enough nutrients to justify the word plus.] The Coca-Cola Company
Regulators say Diet Coke Plus lacks enough nutrients to justify the word “plus.”
The warning letter, sent to Coke Dec. 10, comes as a growing number of nutrient-enhanced beverages, from energy drinks to enhanced waters, have appeared on store shelves, putting pressure on the FDA to police more aggressively the claims many of the products make about the benefits they can deliver.
Coke isn’t the only company to add nutrients to a soft drink. Cadbury PLC marketed a fortified version of 7UP with calcium, fruit juice and Vitamin C four years ago, and PepsiCo Inc. currently sells Diet Pepsi Max, a diet soda with ginseng.
The FDA called on Coke to “take prompt action to correct these violations” and asked the company to respond within 15 days of receipt of the letter.
A Coke spokesman, Scott Williamson, said the company will respond to the FDA in early January, but that it has no plans to change the label.
“We take seriously the issues raised by the FDA in its letter,” he said. “This does not involve any health or safety issues, and we believe the label on Diet Coke Plus complies with FDA’s policies and regulations.”
Coke launched Diet Coke Plus in March 2007 as a calorie-free soft drink and “a good source of vitamins B3, B6, and B12, and the minerals zinc and magnesium,” according to a press release. The drink hasn’t been a huge hit, however, selling the equivalent of 10.2 million 8-ounce cases in 2007, compared with 990 million 8-ounce cases of Diet Coke that year, according to Beverage Digest, an industry publication and data service.
Write to Betsy McKay at betsy.mckay@wsj.com
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123008190500032001.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
