July 2011
65 posts
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A 40 year old woman is more likely to have a child... →
Pretty scary.
A 40-year-old mother has approximately a 6% to 8% risk of giving birth to a child with a birth defect. Since the likelihood of most types of birth defects increases with maternal age, a 44-year-old woman could be assumed to have a risk over 8%.
Here’s the comparable stat on incest
having a child with your first cousin raises the risk of a significant birth defect from...
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Gonorrhea Now Resistant to Last Type of... →
by the 1980s the antibiotics penicillin and tetracycline were no longer effective against it. Next, gonorrhea resistant to fluoroquinolone antibiotics emerged, leaving only one class of antibiotic drugs, cephalosporins, left to treat it. Now, it looks like the sophisticated bacteria responsible for gonorrhea are mutating again and developing resistance to this last line of treatment. Although...
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Microwave oven health risk →
In intervals of two to five days, the volunteers in the study received one of the following food variants on an empty stomach: (1) raw milk; (2) the same milk conventionally cooked; (3) pasteurized milk; (4) the same raw milks cooked in a microwave oven; (5) raw vegetables from an organic farm; (6) the same vegetables cooked conventionally; (7) the same vegetables frozen and defrosted in a...
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The Secret Ingredient In Your Orange Juice | Food... →
After the oranges are squeezed, the juice is stored in giant holding tanks and, critically, the oxygen is removed from them. That essentially allows the liquid to keep (for up to a year) without spoiling– but that liquid that we think of as orange juice tastes nothing like the Tropicana OJ that comes out of the carton.
When the juice is stripped of oxygen it is also stripped of flavor...
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33 Percent of Nose Job Patients Have Body... →
33 percent of them show signs of body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD, a chronic mental illness characterized by excessive worry over appearance that interferes with daily life. The condition does not improve after plastic surgery, and oftentimes, symptoms worsen post-surgery.
Symptoms of BDD include extreme self-consciousness, excessive grooming, frequent examination in the mirror or avoiding...
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74 year old female body builder, started at 56,... →
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5 out of 6 of people (or more) may have impaired... →
As Stephan highlights, one study showed that 29% of asymptomatic (read: not celiac) people nonetheless tested positive for anti-gliadin IgA in their stool. Anti-gliadin IgA is an antibody produced by the gut, and it remains there until it’s dispatched to ward off gliadin – a primary component of gluten. Basically, the only reason anti-gliadin IgA ends up in your stool is because your body sensed...
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“Whenever you feel tempted to pop a pimple, control the urge. “Picking can...”
– How to Damage Your Skin
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The Avalanche of New Mercury-Autism Studies |... →
58 empirical reports on autism and heavy metal toxins, 43 suggest some link may be present, while 13 reports found no link
Mercury is a ubiquitous source of danger in fish, drugs, fungicides/herbicides, dental fillings, thermometers, and many other products. Elevated Hg concentrations may remain in the brain from several years to decades following exposure.
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Please follow me on Quora. I answer food & health... →
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Why is high fructose corn syrup worse for me than... →
HFCS has been shown in certain studies to cause more harm than cane sugar. ”Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same. “ [1] “In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to...
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“There is more goat meat eaten in the world than any other meat animal. 65 - 70%...”
– Industry Growth
Interesting stats.
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Do "night owls" wake up slower than "early birds"? →
It really depends on what you mean by “night owl”. There is a condition that is called Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, which is a disorder that changes a person’s general sleep, peak period of alertness, and so on. I assume this is what you’re talking about when you say “night owl”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_syndrome
In contrast, there...
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Intestinal Bacteria Can Influence Brain... →
ohyeahdevelopmentalbiology:
gmdrake:
I know this is from “Science News for Kids,” but it reminded me of a talk I heard recently that included discussion of this research.
For every cell in your brain, bones, organs and blood, there are 10 bacteria. They’re not going anywhere, so you might as well get used to them.
Not new news, but still interesting to think about.
Even more interesting...
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Drinking Diet Soda Actually Causes Weight Gain →
sunshel:
A landmark new study out of Texas confirms this, having found that not only do diet sodas not help with weight loss, but they actually cause both weight gain and health problems. Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHSC) at San Antonio gathered ten years worth of data on 474 participants from a larger, ongoing study called the San Antonio Longitudinal...
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“Unfortunately, only 12% of the population actually uses floss. I hate being the...”
– Twitter / @laurishly: @shelbysalinas Unfortunate …
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Do vegetarians live longer? →
If you don’t control for lifestyle factors, then yes, they do live longer. After controlling for lifestyle factors, they probably don’t live longer. See this study
RESULTS: SMRs for all causes of death were significantly below the reference level of 100 in both studies: 52 (95% confidence interval (CI) 49-56) based on 1,131 deaths in the Oxford Vegetarian Study and 59 (57-61) based...
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Natural deodorant alternatives →
Baking soda and cornstarch: Using baking soda as a deodorant is a simple way to combat body odor without subjecting your pits to a variety of chemicals. Mix an eighth of a teaspoon of baking soda with a little bit of water — don’t dissolve it — and rub it under your arms. You can also create a baking soda and cornstarch mix to fight odor and help prevent wetness. Simply mix one part baking...
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Camel’s Milk is Going to Be Big →
“Camels are better than cows because they can survive when there is drought, but the cows cannot, so I can make a profit even during dry season
Scientists in India have recently discovered that camel’s milk is beneficial against a number of diseases, including diabetes.
On study showed that consuming 2 cups of camel’s milk per day reduced the need for insulin medication by an average of 30%...
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WatchHomemade Lip Gloss
Aloe vera,coconut,vitamin e oil,scented oils if you want smell,respberry,strawberry juice or beet juice for color,coffee for darker color.
Being a guy, I don’t use lip gloss, but this is damn cool.
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Is your car killing you with benzene? →
Good article. Main point is that your car’s interior surfaces release benzene into the air, so it’s smart to open your windows before turning on the AC if at all possible…
On a sunny day, the temperature in a parked car can be more than 40 degrees (Fahrenheit) higher than the outside air.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has a limit for...
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Vitamin K2 revisited
The big idea with K2 is that it’s important in having your calcium get deposited in the right places (bones/teeth) and not the wrong places (blood vessels etc.) It also helps with other types of mineral deposition.
K2 is found in low concentration in meats and eggs :
FOODVITAMIN K2(MCG/100G) Egg Yolk (United States)15.5(100% MK-4)Ground Beef (Medium Fat)8.1(100% MK-4)Calf Liver5.0(100%...
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Calcium supplements & milk can disturb your...
First, I’ve posted a few times about milk. Skim milk is linked to heart disease, mental health issues, and immune system disorders among other things. For more on that, click here. One of the other problems with dairy in my mind is that it provides the body with too much calcium.
Regardless of dairy, some choose to take calcium supplements. Based on the studies I’ve seen, calcium...
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Heart Disease and Chlorine →
Interesting article on the link between the two.
For me, this is obvious. I avoid municipal water when possible, because it often has chlorine in it. Even for showers, a shower filter can make sense to reduce the amount of chlorine absorbed through your skin.
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“The difference between Arteriosclerosis and Atherosclerosis is: Arteriosclerosis...”
– Heart Disease
Ha, they are easily confused.
Maybe one way to remember might be that calcium has and “i” like “arterio” and cholesterol has an “h” like “athero.” The only letters not present in one word that present in the other are “i”...
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When humans started eating grains and dairy...
The advent of agricultural marked a chaotic period for our bodies to adjust to these foreign foods. The fossil record shows a massive decrease in average height, health, and rapid increase in disease, obesity, and population for cultures that survived the transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a agricultural dependent one. Women on high grain/carbohydrate diets become mature at an...
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How did cavemen keep their teeth clean? →
Dating back 1.8 million years dental grooves have been found on fossil teeth to suggest cavemen picked their teeth. Grass stalks were most likely used. Study concluded early humans were concerned about their dental hygiene and used implements to pick food from their teeth. Source(s): Leslea Hlusko, a palaeontologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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Olive Oil - Manni →
A great extra virgin olive oil has between 100 and 250 mg of polyphenols per litre. The oil from many of our mountain crus can exceed 450 mg.
This is the olive oil Thomas Keller uses, and one can see why. It is said that Keller likes foods that taste like even stronger versions of themselves.
You can also contrast this oil with the post I did on industrial olive oils. Note that...
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Prostate Cancer Warning Added to Proscar,... →
It’s interesting to me that drugs like Propecia - which a lot of people take for hair loss - increase the risk of high-grade prostate cancer.
Propecia inhibits the formation of DHT - a hormone that is linked to hair loss - but that also is part of a delicate balance of other hormones in the body.
At this point, it’s not well understood how disturbing the hormonal balance leads to an...
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Circumcision and Sexual Satisfaction
It’s interesting how academic studies can clash.
There’s this:
The glans of the circumcised penis is less sensitive to fine touch than the glans of the uncircumcised penis. The transitional region from the external to the internal prepuce is the most sensitive region of the uncircumcised penis and more sensitive than the most sensitive region of the circumcised penis. Circumcision...
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Eucalyptus Oil for Long Hair Growth →
A few drops of eucalyptus oil can be applied directly to the scalp and massaged to stimulate blood flow. It can also be mixed with shampoo or conditioner to revitalize dull and lifeless hair, which encourages hair growth.
Interesting idea and interesting use of a natural product :)
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How much liver did cave men eat?
So, a typical cow has about 200 lbs of ground beef and 13 lbs of liver.
One must assume that animals were leaner in paleolithic times, so likely the animal would have less meat.
So that means that for every 15 or maybe even 10 servings of meat, there would be one serving of liver. If one eat a pound of meat per day that means half a pound of liver per week - or two servings - which is...
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Why does cutting an apple with a very sharp knife... →
Fruit browns because various enzymes leak out of cut cells and hasten oxidation. The sharper the knife, the fewer cells get damaged. The goal is to slice through the cell, not push through it and bruise it along with nearby cells.
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How NAC might help with depression, bipolar...
There is actually some decent evidence that NAC does a good job. So how does it work?
NAC is N-acetyl cysteine. If your brain gets stressed out, cysteine gets depleted which causes multiple problems. NAC can give your brain the cysteine it may need. Cysteine can also help reduce glutamate levels. Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter, whose levels may be too high in bipolar disorder &...
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How Tyrosine might help when you are stressed out... →
Catecholamines are a group of chemical compounds responsible for physiological responses to stressful conditions, and as such are dubbed “fight or flight” hormones. These hormones produced and released by the adrenal glands enter the circulatory system and act on the nervous system. However, the adrenal glands are not capable of synthesizing catecholamines without L-tyrosine. First, L-tyrosine...
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What are some good nutrition tips to keep a... →
Very few foods actually boost neurogenesis (the production of new brain cells).
brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) … plays a key role in creating new neurons. … The gene that turns on BDNF is activated by a variety of factors including physical exercise, caloric restriction, curcumin and the omega-3 fat, DHA.
http://drzarkov.com/blog/tag/curcumin/
Here are some specific...
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Is there anything wrong with sleeping on a... →
There are several reasons why having a mattress on the floor may be worse for your health. 1) Dust gathers on the floor and it tends to get swept around by drafts. The consequence is that you will likely breathe in more dust by sleeping very near the floor. This link seems to second that dust concern: http://www.ehow.com/about_5541058_mattress-floor-vs-frame.html 2) Another issue is bed bugs....
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Salt water pools are healthier, easier to... →
Salt is healthier: One of the most important advantages of salt water swimming pools is that they are much friendlier to the skin and general health. Salt is much softer on the skin and doesn’t cause any medical problems. Chlorine on the other hand, has the tendency to irritate eyes or even discolor hair. Salt swimming pools are much safer to those who make use of their pools frequently, since...
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“A three-year prospective study of 9-15 year old girls found a 20% increase in...”
– Preventing acne with diet : Disease Proof
I view this as more evidence that milk causes more problems than we realize. This goes in line with an earlier post I did about milk that mentioned how milk impairs the immune system.
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Statins Actually Harm Heart Function →
this study in Clinical Cardiology found that heart muscle function was “significantly better” in the control group than in those taking statin drugs
it’s widely known that statins lower your CoQ10 levels by blocking the pathway involved in cholesterol production — the same pathway by which Q10 is produced. Statins also reduce the blood cholesterol that transports CoQ10...
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A deadly new reason to avoid deer ticks →
babesiosis
Move over, Lyme disease: Another tick-borne illness is on the rise in various parts of the country, and this one can kill.
many people with babesiosis have no symptoms and never know they’re harboring the parasite. For others, symptoms can include high fever, severe headache, fatigue, chills, and muscle aches and pains. It is treated with antimicrobial drugs, such as...
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What's in your navel? Hundreds and hundreds of... →
Scientists for the Belly Button Biodiversity project have done a little navel-gazing, studying the belly buttons of 95 volunteers and counting. So far they have turned up 1,400 different bacterial strains, 662 of which appear to be new to science. “We’re probably the only ones studying human belly buttons on such a large scale,”
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Alkaline Diet for healthier bones and to lose... →
Our hunter-gatherer ancestors consumed a diet very different from what’s typical today.
Grains were introduced into the diet after the appearance of stone tools. Refined grains were available after the invention of automated rolling and sifting devices.
Milk, cheese and other milk products were introduced with the domestication of livestock.
Salt consumption rose when technology to...
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Full-Calorie Beer Has a Link to Psoriasis via... →
Beer is usually made from barley, and the starch used to ferment it contains glutens
More evidence of the connection between grains and autoimmune disorders.
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Pistachio diet improves erectile function in... →
Nuts improve cardiovascular health. This is additional evidence, as I see it.
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Why does orange juice taste bad right after I... →
As this says, ingredients like SLS (detergents/surfactants) in toothpaste temporarily blunt out the sweet taste, so you’re left with sour (orange is a mixture of sweet and sour). It’s actually a very strong sour.
And then, SLS or similar ingredients sweet away phospholipids temporarily, which does this…
Phospholipids play a very strong role in nervous signal management. They...
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Megapost : First Gluten was identified. Now comes...
I continue to be interested in paleolithic diet theory. We’ve only been eating milk and grains for 10,000 years, and it takes considerably longer than that to adapt to new food groups. So it is therefore likely that we do not have the right biological structures in place to deal with those foods. As time goes by research increasingly supports this conclusion. We know that certain proteins in...
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An acceptable sunscreen - in terms of non-toxic... →
Badger SPF 30 Sunscreen - Organic & Natural UV & Sun Protection
Active Sunscreen Ingredient: Non-Nano, Uncoated Zinc Oxide 18.75% Inactive Sunscreen Ingredients: *Olea Europaea (Extra Virgin Olive) Oil, *Cera Alba (Beeswax), *Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Oil, *Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Butter, *Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Essential Oil of *Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender),...
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“Animals treated with blueberries exhibited an 83 percent improvement on tests of...”
– Blueberries as Brain Food
More evidence on how blueberries improve brain function. As far as I know, there are only a handful of foods that can do this. 