Clipmarks | pokkets's 'health' clips

Moon walkers face dust health hazard

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:25:19 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: They're bound to have trouble with electrostatic particles, because they can't 'earth'

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Irene Klotz

Researchers from the United States have discovered that breathing on the lunar surface could be hazardous to your health.

They have found that the fine-grained dust that covers the moon is sharp-edged, chemically active and ubiquitous.

"The dust is electrostatic - it just sticks to everything," explained University of California San Diego Associate Professor Chantal Darquenne, who is working under a NASA grant to study how moon dust lodges in the lungs.

The first wave of lunar explorers didn't have much to worry about since their forays were relatively short. The longest stay on the moon was a 75-hour visit by Apollo 17 in 1972.

However, lunar astronauts reported irritation and discomfort from exposure to dust, with symptoms ranging from sneezing, watery eyes and a peculiar smell resembling gunpowder, says NASA flight surgeon Jeff Jones.

Shocking tattoo trend

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:15:00 GMT

clipped by: stopsmokingtoday
clipper's remarks: I shudder at the thought of my kids doing this, what an idiotic idea!

Clip Source: health.lifestyle.yahoo.ca

Some young people decorate with homemade tattoos, despite health risks

Ben Pobjoy, left, has a tattoo drawn on his arm by his friend Dave Arnold,

Rose Penny Doiron wanted to do something special for her best friend who was away in England so she decided to have her name, Jennifer, tattooed on her wrist.

"I wanted her to be impressed when she got back," said the 24-year-old. "We did it on the floor of my (vintage clothing) shop, over a bottle of whisky, three hours later."

These non-professional tattoos - known as stick and poke or hand poke tattoos - are done with a sewing needle, thread and India ink.

"The immediate health risk could be an infection and the second risk would be to traumatizing the skin," she said. "Also if you're using an infected needle, you're looking at the risk of hepatitis and HIV."

"It takes one treatment to put this on, it's going to take multiple treatments to remove it," she said.

Tags: amateur, tattoos

What Ideas Will Shape our Future? The 10 Ideas of the 21st Century

Tue, 13 May 2008 19:38:59 GMT

clipped by: urbanlife
clipper's remarks: "More than money, more than politics, ideas are the secret power that this planet runs on."

"The 21st century will overturn many of our basic assumptions about economic life. The 20th century saw the end of European dominance of global politics and economics. The 21st century will see the end of American dominance too, as new powers make their voices heard on the world stage."

"The challenges of sustainable development—protecting the environment, stabilizing the world's population, narrowing the gaps of rich and poor and ending extreme poverty—will render passé the very idea of competing nation-states that scramble for markets, power and resources."

"The defining challenge of the 21st century will be to face the reality that humanity shares a common fate on a crowded planet."

"6.6 billion people living in an interconnected global economy producing an astounding $60 trillion of output each year."

Clip Source: www.time.com

ideas are the secret power that this planet runs on

Clip Source: www.time.com

10. Re-Judaizing Jesus

if you get the [Jewish] context wrong, you will certainly get Jesus wrong

Clip Source: www.time.com

9. Mandatory Health

a crackdown on workers' poor health habits

Clip Source: www.time.com

8. The New Austerity

Americans have kept piling on more and more debt

Clip Source: www.time.com

7. Synthetic Authenticity

the virtualization of life

has led to a deep consumer yearning for the authentic

Clip Source: www.time.com

6. Geoengineering

compensate for an intensified greenhouse effect by reducing the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth

Clip Source: www.time.com

5. Kitchen Chemistry

remaining brave cooks are going a little mad scientist

easier through gadgetry

Clip Source: www.time.com

4. Reverse Radicalism

Why do people leave terrorist groups?

disenchantment

Clip Source: www.time.com

3. The Post-Movie-Star Era

big names no longer mean big grosses

Clip Source: www.time.com

2. The End of Customer Service

the need to interact with human beings is quickly disappearing

Clip Source: www.time.com

1. Common Wealth

ending our misguided view of the world as an enduring struggle of "us" vs. "them"

our fate, our common wealth, is in our hands

to save the world for all

Tags: globalization, economy, religion, movies, planet, common, humanity, culture

Insect genes to make crops drip lube.

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:32:42 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: We've found chemicals for use in industry and health in plants, fungi, and bacteria, but the insects rule the planet, and some of the poisons,venoms,pheromones, antibiotics, and other defensive chemicals, produced by insects, designed through natural selection, over millions of years, are perfect for specific tasks, while we struggle with artificial substitutes.
There are billions of undiscovered insect chemicals, many will give us a greater insight into chemical engineering, materials sciences, and protein construction, Some will be so exotic, that they will cause the creation of new threads, even new scientific fields..
All we have to do is look - before we leap.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Anna Salleh

Australian researchers hope to insert plant and insect genes into crops to 'farm' industrial chemicals including super-lubricants, adhesives, sensors, antibacterials and stretch-Kevlar.

Fields of safflower could one day pump out industrial chemicals

"We're expressing chemicals in plants that aren't normally there that could be extracted to provide something very valuable," says Dr Mike O'Shea of CSIRO Molecular and Health Technologies in Clayton.

O'Shea, who thinks this research is the first of its kind, and colleagues present their progress this week at the World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing in Chicago.

O'Shea says the genes would eventually be inserted into an oilseed crop like safflower to mass-produce new industrial chemicals that are currently only available in experimental quantities.

The new chemicals include fatty acids that can be polymerised to produce ultra-slippery lubricants, he says.

No, Not Fat-Free, BPA-Free

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:53:12 GMT

clipped by: Allison Van Dusen
clipper's remarks: It's been a day since the US Department of Health and Human Services National Toxicology Program released a draft evaluation of bisphenol A, acknowledging that the chemical may pose a health threat to infants and children. And as the NY Times reported yesterday, the Canadian government is likely about to declare the chemical, commonly used in plastic baby bottles and cans (food and soda), toxic. Not surprisingly, I'm already getting pitches about BPA-free products, which are sure to see a boost in sales in the coming months.
As a new mom and a health reporter, I became aware about many researchers' concerns about BPA last year while working on a story. I have to admit that it frightened me. Whatever the truth is about how big a threat BPA poses, I'm guessing few parents want to risk their babies' health while waiting for further study results. These days, a BPA-free label means a whole lot more to me than most nutrition labels.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Canada Likely to Label Plastic Ingredient ‘Toxic’

OTTAWA — The Canadian government is said to be ready to declare as toxic a chemical widely used in plastics for baby bottles, beverage and food containers as well as linings in food cans.

A person with knowledge of the government’s chemical review program spoke on the condition he not be named because of a confidentiality agreement. He said the staff work to list the compound, called bisphenol-a, or B.P.A., as a toxic chemical was complete and was recently endorsed by a panel of outside scientists.

A public announcement by Health Canada may come as early as Wednesday but could be delayed until the end of May. Canada would be the first country to make a health finding against B.P.A., which has been shown to disrupt the hormonal systems of animals. The department’s decision was first reported in The Globe and Mail, a Toronto newspaper, on Tuesday.

Oestrogen may help treat shizophrenia

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:21:22 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: I wonder sometimes if there are more than a few conditions with similar symptoms all tagged bipolar or schizophrenia. There are symptoms observed by the treating doctor, which can be qualified by an interview with the patient who is generally not in a state to give an objective description. Often the questions can be suggestive, and the answers can depend on whether the patient is prepared to co-operate, or be contrary. This study does point to an imbalance that can occur as a matter of course, and may show that many cases of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, are not necessarily unusual, hereditary or chronic but can strike due to something as simple as an unbalanced diet, sleep deprivation, or a hormone deficiency. An unbalanced lifestyle can throw our minds off balance. It's all part of the same unit. Mind Body and soul

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Dani Cooper

Oestrogen patches have been used in an Australian trial to reduce the symptoms of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in women.

Lead researcher Professor Jayashri Kulkarni, of the Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre at Monash University, says women with schizophrenia who were given the oestrogen patches showed a dramatic reduction in auditory hallucinations.

Kulkarni says the results, if replicated, could lead to new treatments for severe mental illness.

Her research, which is supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Stanley Medical Research Institute in Washington, is presented today at the International Congress on Women's Mental Health in Melbourne.

Kulkarni says the connection between hormones and mental health has been recognised for more than a century.

But it is only in the past 20 years that scientific evidence has emerged to show oestrogen has a protective role in the onset of severe mental illness.

DEET messes with mosquito 'nose'

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:00:21 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Known as an insect repellent, Scientists were not sure how it worked until now. DEET does not so much repel mosquitoes and ticks which are attracted to carbon dioxide, and other human odors which give a signal that there is a blood supply somewhere, It masks these signals so the mosquitoes go and look for their blood supply somewhere else.
DEET has been available to the to the public,for over 50 years and is an active ingredient in many insect repellents, but adverse health effects have been noted such as rashes and seizures, is toxic to some marine species. The risk of DEET side effects are generally rare and must be matched with the risk of mosquito borne disease. Advice is given to avoid using on broken skin, and to wash off if no longer needed.
The standard warning on an insect repellent can. I've always found that any itch or sting from an insect repellent is better than the itch of a mosquito bite.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Will Dunham

The insect repellent DEET works by making mosquitoes and their brethren unable to smell the sweet aroma of human sweat that alerts them that a meal of blood is nearby, scientists say.

This knowledge may help guide the creation of new repellents based on the same principle but without possible health worries, they say.

US scientists report their research today online in the journal Science.

Government scientists first produced DEET or N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide in 1946 after the tropical warfare of World War II emphasised the need to prevent bites from mosquitoes and other insects.

It has been available to the public since 1957 and is the world's most widely-used topical agent against mosquitoes and other blood-eating insects.

Until now scientists have not grasped exactly how it works.

In experiments on mosquitoes and fruit flies, her team determined that DEET serves as a sort of chemical cloak, masking certain human odours.

"You become invisible to them," Vosshall says.

Why flu virus loves the cold

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 02:41:53 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Another reason the wrong kinds of fat are bad for you. They say it's something like butter (But never tell a cow that)

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Maggie Fox

Influenza viruses coat themselves in fatty material that hardens and protects them in colder temperatures, a finding that could explain why winter is the flu season, US researchers report.

We might be able to fight the flu virus by designing drugs that weaken its outer fatty coating, according to researchers who say this layer is critical to the way it infects cells

This butter-like coating melts in the respiratory tract, allowing the virus to infect cells, the team at the National Institutes of Health found.

"The protective covering melts when it enters the respiratory tract," says Dr Joshua Zimmerberg of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), who led the study.

"It's only in this liquid phase that the virus is capable of entering a cell to infect it."

Researchers have long pondered why flu and other respiratory viruses spread more in winter.

"The study results open new avenues of research for thwarting winter flu outbreaks," he says.

Stingray beats burgers any day

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:46:25 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: I know what they mean. Remember home cook food? No? Anything made at home beats takeaway hands down. For a start you know exactly what goes into it. Second you can choose your own ingredients, and cook what you feel like. People forget how when the Australian Aboriginals lived off the land there was an almost limitless variety of foods, that could be gathered in different seasons, They managed to survive this way for around 80,000 years. of course many of their traditional sources have become limited or endangered, and the advent of 'civilization' has meant much of this traditional knowledge is being lost. There is a man named Major (retired Army)Les Hiddins, also known as the 'Bush Tucker Man' who has written several books about Australian Native foods still in the bush. They are big books, with hundreds of examples and have photographs and locations, but as Australia is becoming more and more mined, fished and cultivated more and more sources are disappearing.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Dani Cooper

Aboriginal teenagers are turning community perceptions on their head by saying traditional tucker such as stingray and bush plums are their favourite foods, an Australian study says.

Dr Julie Brimblecombe, at the Darwin-based Menzies School of Health Research, says the finding is part of a larger study into food choices in remote communities.

The attachment of young Yolngu to traditional foods surprised even senior members of the remote community in northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.

"A lot of senior people in the community were saying young people had lost the taste for traditional foods and just wanted to buy takeaway food," she says.

But the nutritionist and public health expert says the teenage school children in northeast Arnhem Land not only liked traditional food, but preferred it to western-style food.

"It's not only that they like the taste of the food," she says, "it was also about who they are; they have a totemic relationship to the food."

Airport noise lifts blood pressure as you sleep

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:06:32 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: I heard once that in some places they solved two problems at once by building an airport in a relatively remote area. They reduced the noise over populated areas, and a transport industry developed between the airport, and the city. (as if the city isn't loud enough anyway)
I live under a flight path, and the planes don't bother me. I remember a line in the Blues Brothers, When Jake (John Belushi) said to Elroy(Dan Akroyd) regarding the nearby railway line "There seem to be a lot of trains going by, don't they bother you?" Elroy "So many you won't even notice"- or something like that

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Michael Kahn

Aircraft noise can boost your blood pressure while you're asleep, say researchers who show that living near an airport isn't just irritating, it can also be unhealthy.

The finding that aircraft noise can increase your blood pressure as you sleep should be a warning to authorities about the potential effect of expanding large international airports

The louder the noise, the higher a person's blood pressure went, a finding that suggests people who live near airports may have a greater risk of health problems, says Dr Lars Jarup, who led the study.

High blood pressure can lead to stroke, heart failure, heart attack and kidney failure. It affects more than a billion adults worldwide.

"Living near airports where you have exposure to night-time aircraft noise is a major issue," says Jarup, an environmental health researcher at Imperial College London.

The European Commission-funded study is published online in the European Heart Journal.

The Winter Health Threat

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:16:19 GMT

clipped by: Allison Van Dusen
clipper's remarks: The studies on the importance of vitamin D - the sunshine vitamin - just keep coming.
This Seattle Times article highlights, among others, a recent study of 1,700 Boston-area residents, which showed that the rates of heart attack, stroke and heart failure were about 50 percent higher in those with low levels of vitamin D.
But are you convinced that it's time to start taking a vitamin D supplement?

Clip Source: seattletimes.nwsource.com

Does our lack of sun put your health in danger?

The Northwest's dreary winters are infamous for inducing depression. But being starved for sunlight can do more than kick you into a psychic hole.

A growing body of evidence suggests it can raise your risk of cancer, increase susceptibility to heart attack, diabetes and other disorders, and at least partly account for the region's sky-high rates of multiple sclerosis.

The reason is vitamin D, an essential nutrient produced in abundance by skin exposed to the sun's rays. Long dismissed as being important mainly for strong bones, the so-called sunshine vitamin is now recognized as a key player throughout the body, including the immune system.

Finding a ‘Medical Home’ for $2 a Month

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:01:07 GMT

clipped by: Willow Street

Clip Source: blogs.wsj.com

Good primary care is cheap, country doctor Benjamin Brewer declares in his latest WSJ.com column.

It’s almost become cliché to speak of “soaring health-care costs,” so it’s rather jarring to see the words “cheap” and “care” in the same sentence. But Brewer says good quality primary care is “cheaper than your cellphone bill. Cheaper than a tank of gas. Cheaper than dinner and a movie.”

Brewer’s practice is taking part in an Illinois Medicaid program that aims to address both problems by placing patients in “medical homes.” No, not a physical home. Instead the plan, like some others being tried, would match people with doctors’ offices that would play an active role in coordinating the patients’ care.

Brewer adds that patients who don’t have a medical home incur higher health costs and report more illness.

Black Death 'discriminated' between victims

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:21:29 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: While many apparently healthy people died, the black death was more likely to kill people people in poor health, poor nutrition, or with compromised immune systems. While this sounds obvious there seems to have been the allusion that the black death killed whoever it crossed. No doubt there were people in good health who had an immune system that was capable with dealing with it

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Will Dunham

The Black Death that decimated populations in Europe and elsewhere during the middle of the 14th century may not have been a blindly indiscriminate killer as previously believed.

An analysis of 490 skeletons from a London cemetery for Black Death victims shows the infection did not affect everyone equally, researchers say.

Anthropologists Dr Sharon DeWitte, of the University at Albany in New York and Pennsylvania State University's Professor James Wood say many perfectly healthy people were killed by the plague.

However, writing in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they say those already in poor health before the pandemic were more likely to have perished.

The most likely reason for frail victims' deaths was that poor nutrition weakened their immune response, the authors say.

Scientists think the plague was caused by Yersinia pestis, a bacterial disease spread by fleas from rats. It still kills between 100 and 200 people a year.

War Veterans Opportunity to treat PTSD

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:16:25 GMT

clipped by: thetappingman
clipper's remarks: The Emotional Freedom Techniques is a powerful way to treat emotional issues such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. EFT Founder Gary Craig is offering help.

Clip Source: eftcommunity.emofree.com

This message from Gary Craig in today's EFT Insights Newsletter might be of interest to some of those in this forum....

An important opportunity for war Veterans with PTSD: We are planning a special event wherein several EFT experts and myself will apply EFT on behalf of 15 vets for 5 days. So, if you are a Veteran with challenging PTSD, please email me ASAP at this special address vets@emofree.com Please include your phone number and I will get back to you soon with the details. The event is free and all expenses will be paid by EFT.

Tags: eft, alternative health, acupressure, emotional freedom technique, health, ptsd, post traumatic stress disorder, war veterans

Doctors without borders

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 06:57:28 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres they take health care where it is needed, anywhere in the world.
Politics is not an issue.
They provide medical care, and health services to people who are victims of war, starvation and disease, who otherwise would have had no hope.

Clip Source: www.doctorswithoutborders.org

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an independent international medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural or man-made disasters, or exclusion from health care in more than 70 countries.

Each year, MSF doctors, nurses, logisticians, water-and-sanitation experts, administrators, and other medical and non-medical professionals depart on more than 4,700 aid assignments. They work alongside more than 25,800 locally hired staff to provide medical care.

In emergencies and their aftermath, MSF provides essential health care, rehabilitates and runs hospitals and clinics, performs surgery, battles epidemics, carries out vaccination campaigns, operates feeding centers for malnourished children, and offers mental health care. When needed, MSF also constructs wells and dispenses clean drinking water, and provides shelter materials like blankets and plastic sheeting.

MSF was founded in 1971