Reuters is reporting a study from the UK which suggests that looking after our cardiovascular system - through exercise and good diet - can also protect from some forms of dementia. Whilst it cannot ward of Alzheimers' disease it can help prevent so-called vascular dementia, another common form of mental impairment in the elderly.
For those of us battling middle-age spread, this is another incentive to get fit and eat healty.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
Four times as many children prescribed antidepressants
From The Guardian 23 July 2007:
My own answer to this would be to say 'follow the money'. The pharmaceutical corporations have a vested interest in keeping us popping pills. Also, knowing how our own kids have reacted to various food chemicals, I would suspect that diet is one of the reasons for problems like depression and ADHD. But again, the big corporations don't want us to think that and will throw a lot of money to keep us from thinking that.
The number of prescriptions for antidepressants and other mind-altering drugs given to children under 16 has more than quadrupled in the last decade, according to official figures released today.The article goes on to quote David Laws MP questioning why so many prescriptions are given instead of searching for the root causes of the various problems.There were more than 631,000 such prescriptions recorded in the last financial year, according to government figures, compared to 146,000 in 1996-97.
The prescriptions, for drugs including antidepressants and treatments for mental health problems as well as for conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were dispensed outside hospitals in England. Figures from 2000 include prescriptions made out by dispensing GPs.
My own answer to this would be to say 'follow the money'. The pharmaceutical corporations have a vested interest in keeping us popping pills. Also, knowing how our own kids have reacted to various food chemicals, I would suspect that diet is one of the reasons for problems like depression and ADHD. But again, the big corporations don't want us to think that and will throw a lot of money to keep us from thinking that.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Women absorb up to 5lb of chemicals per year from beauty products
Various blogs have quoted a story in Britain's Daily Mail (June 2007) reporting that women absorb up to 5lb (that's about 2.3kg) of chemicals through their skin by using cosmetics and skin-care products. The article quotes a biochemist, Richard Bence, who says that the effects of absorbing these chemicals is much more dangerous than swallowing them. “If your lipstick gets into your mouth, it is broken down by the enzymes in saliva and in the stomach. But if the chemicals get straight into your bloodstream, there is no protection.” The chemical cocktail commonly found in these products includes known irritants and chemicals linked to cancer. The irritants, and industrial-strength cleaners (sodium laurel sulphate and related surfactants) strip the skin of its natural defences making it even more susceptible to letting chemicals through.
Although the kidneys do their best to flush these chemicals out (it helps to drink lots of water) it seems that we are absorbing toxins faster than they can be removed - the net effect is a gradual build-up in the body.
Although the kidneys do their best to flush these chemicals out (it helps to drink lots of water) it seems that we are absorbing toxins faster than they can be removed - the net effect is a gradual build-up in the body.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Cause of the obesity epidemic discovered?
There is an obesity epidemic in the Western world, and it starts in childhood. Strangely, it isn't directly linked to affluence with children from poorer backgrounds more likely to be obese than children from wealthy families.
Now a Professor of Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of California claims that a major cause is the widespread use of fructose in processed food. In an interview on ABC's Radio National he explained why. Fructose is metabolised in a different way to glucose, triggering high levels of insulin which result in sugar being taken out of the blood stream and converted to fat. The result: we feel hungry again (low blood sugar) and get fatter.
Fructose is being poured into a huge range of processed foods. In fact our fructose consumption has gone from less than half a pound per year in 1970 to 56 pounds per year in 2003. Want a fast-food burger? That bun is full of fructose. We were never designed to eat fructose in this processed form. Fructose is OK in fruit, when it is accompanied by lots of fibre.
One result of all this fructose is that we keep feeling hungry and so we buy more. Good news for the food companies.
The big question is - do the food companies know about this? And if so, what are they going to do about it?
Now a Professor of Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of California claims that a major cause is the widespread use of fructose in processed food. In an interview on ABC's Radio National he explained why. Fructose is metabolised in a different way to glucose, triggering high levels of insulin which result in sugar being taken out of the blood stream and converted to fat. The result: we feel hungry again (low blood sugar) and get fatter.
Fructose is being poured into a huge range of processed foods. In fact our fructose consumption has gone from less than half a pound per year in 1970 to 56 pounds per year in 2003. Want a fast-food burger? That bun is full of fructose. We were never designed to eat fructose in this processed form. Fructose is OK in fruit, when it is accompanied by lots of fibre.
One result of all this fructose is that we keep feeling hungry and so we buy more. Good news for the food companies.
The big question is - do the food companies know about this? And if so, what are they going to do about it?
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